Jadé Fadojutimi - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale New York Wednesday, November 17, 2021 | Phillips

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    "The easiest way to talk about myself and my life is
    through color."
    —Jadé Fadojutimi

     

     

    Painted in 2018, Jadé Fadojutimi’s My Umbrella Has A Nourishing Disguise is a stunning example of the young artist’s vibrant, free-flowing canvases. Typical of her best works, loose sweeping brushstrokes overtake the composition in a cacophony of dark reds, oranges, violets, and blues. Fadojutimi has displayed her mastery in marrying the figurative with the abstract. At first glance, the composition is anchored by a glowing orb—as the viewer becomes immersed in the awe-inspiring scale of the work, the scene becomes more abstract, transitioning into a lush foreground flanked by vertical, grass-like brushstrokes of intertwining brown, violet, and orange. Discussing the cross-section of abstraction and figuration in her paintings, the artist expressed, “My paintings derive their shapes, colors and patterns from clothing, anime, video games, soundtracks, childhood obsessions, memories, drawings, traumas, experiences and objects I have collected along the way. They are woven together into emotive environments that breed characters and forms.”i  

     

     


    Jadé Fadojutimi, I Present Your Royal Highness, 2018. Tate, London, Image: © Tate, London / Art Resource, NY, Artwork: © Jadé Fadojutimi

     

     

    "I think of my art as a diary of my life, and my studio as a diary of my childhood."
    —Jadé Fadojutimi

     

     

    Inspired by a back catalogue of visual, aural, and memorable experiences, Fadojutimi not only orchestrates technically stimulating compositions, but creations that are deeply personal. Working late into the night at her London studio, the artist’s painting sessions are often accompanied by the intense soundtracks of Japanese anime shows. Incorporating rhythmic gestures into her work, Fadojutimi’s practice captures the performative act of painting, drawing inspiration from the dramatic, swinging canvases of her predecessor, Lee Krasner. Speaking of her subjective state during the process of creation, the artist explained, “That’s when my mind and energy are at their highest. It’s also when I’m most contemplative. Working when I am most energized translates materially into my canvases. I found my painting language by listening to and embracing who I am, so understanding the excitement of working at night is a part of that conversation with myself.”ii  

     

     


    [left] Lee Krasner, The Guardian, 1960. Whitney Museum of American Art, Image: © Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala / Art Resource, NY, Artwork: © 2021 Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York [right] Joan Mitchell, Tilleul, 1978. Musée d'Arts, Nantes, France (on deposit from the Centre Pompidou), Image: © CNAC/MNAM, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY, Artwork: © Estate of Joan Mitchell

     

     

    "When I’m making a painting, unexplained emotions come out. Language acts as a barrier between the work and the person viewing it. Even if I tried to describe the paintings, I wouldn’t be able to do them justice. They do so much on their own."
    —Jadé Fadojutimi

     

     

     
    Jadé Fadojutimi with the present work, 2018. Image: Instragam, © Jadé Fadojutimi

     

     

    Collector’s Digest

     

    •    A graduate of the Slade School and Royal College of Art, London, Fadojutimi’s work is included in major institutional collections around the globe including Tate, London, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Walker Art Centre, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Recently, the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris acquired a work by the artist for the museum’s permanent collection.


    •    Increasingly gaining critical international traction, Fadojutimi is slated for multiple upcoming exhibitions, including her American institutional debut at the Miami Institute for Contemporary Art this November, followed by shows at the Hepworth Wakefield and the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin in 2022.


    •    Recently in October 2021, Phillips set the world auction record for the artist with Myths of Pleasure, which soared above 14 times the work’s low estimate.

  • Myths of Pleasure, 2017 Achieved £1,172,000.

    Myths of Pleasure, 2017
    Achieved £1,172,000.
  • i Jadé Fadojutimi, quoted in David Trigg, “‘I bathe in the conversations between colour, texture, line, form, composition, rhythm, marks and disturbances,’” Studio International, April 26, 2021, online.
    ii Ibid. 

    • Provenance

      Gisela Capitain, Cologne
      Private Collection, Europe
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

    • Artist Biography

      Jadé Fadojutimi

      Jadé Fadojutimi is a British contemporary artist who lives and works in London. A recent graduate of the Royal College of Art, Fadojutimi has seen a precipitous ascent to success: she is the youngest artist represented in the collection of the Tate, London, and has upcoming exhibitions planned for the Hepworth Wakefield and the Liverpool Biennial. Fadojutimi’s work is immersive and all-encompassing, featuring tightly woven lattices of ecstatic pigment and electric line. The raw but bubbly energy of her paintings reflects aspects of the artist’s own interiority, as she treats each canvas as an opportunity to explore undiscovered or under-interrogated aspects of her individuality. Fadojutimi believes that color and personality mingle and encourage one another; the matrices of line and color resemble the psychedelic spindles of neural networks, actualizing the artist’s investigative efforts as visual translations of the artist’s explorations of identity and fluidity.

      Fadojutimi brings a frenetic energy to painting, as many of her works are completed in late-night bursts of creativity; what may start the night as a blank canvas often emerges in the morning as a finished work. Describing her practice in environmental terms, Fadojutimi strives to incorporate the ineffable associations of memory absorbed from the warm moments and special objects of life; taken against the societal backdrop of their creation, Fadojutimi’s paintings shine out as optimistic beacons for dark times.

       
      View More Works

Property from an Important New York Collection

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My Umbrella Has A Nourishing Disguise

signed, signed with the artist’s initials and dated "Jadé Fadojutimi JF September '18" on the reverse
oil on canvas
79 1/4 x 63 1/4 in. (201.3 x 160.7 cm)
Painted in 2018.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$150,000 - 200,000 

Sold for $877,000

Contact Specialist

Amanda Lo Iacono
New York Head of Department & Head of Auctions
+1 212 940 1278
aloiacono@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

New York Auction 17 November 2021