Provenance
Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2001
Exhibited
Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art, 54th Carnegie International, 9 October 2004 - 20 March 2005, p. 225
Catalogue Essay
The present work, Overgrown, is indicative of Kathy Butterly’s quirky, but elegant style. Butterly developed her art by taking cues from George Ohr’s twisted and pinched shapes, the Funk aesthetic of 1960s San Francisco, and the revolutionary California Clay Movement surrounding the likes of Ron Nagle and Ken Price, which saw ceramists destroy the boundaries between art and craft. Butterly started out by making curvaceous wheel-thrown vessels that evoked the female body, but since the 1990s she has been working with cast forms. Much of this work still echoes her earlier experiments focusing on human anatomy. Each object has a unique physiology and anthropomorphic vitality.

To create Overgrown, Butterly began with a cylinder of wet clay, which she folded, poked, collapsed, and twisted until a semblance of bodily presence was achieved. Next, she introduced a sculpted plinth and feet as well as other ornamental appendages. A bulbous aquamarine-coloured body is topped with two leafy bushes whilst an orange line seductively curls from an opening on the object’s side. All of this appears to precariously teeter above a small table whose surface is glazed to resemble a cartoonish woodgrain. Plush vegetation grows from underneath the table top, as if pushing the alien thing above it off kilter – perhaps a visual joke evoking the piece’s title. As is characteristic of Butterly’s work, Overgrown uses vague references that float somewhere between abstraction and reified form to create enigmatic associations, like a sculptural liaison between Eileen Agar’s hat and a Chinese scholar’s rock (a Gongshi).

Each object taking up to nine months to create, Butterly’s sculptures require time, patience, and multiple firings to achieve their range of colours and complex configurations. Everything appears in movement, as if the work could bend, unfurl, or metamorphosise at any moment. Overgrown communicates directly with its viewer to elicit emotional responses that can range from affection for its two green pompoms that rise like the ears of a teddy bear to derision or sympathy toward its awkward, wriggling body. Butterly has explained that her work represents the diversity of humanity and the way each of us chooses to maneuver our way through life. Armed with whimsical humour and paradoxical grace, Overgrown analyses and communicates the existential questions we often ask ourselves: who or what am I and what will others think of me?

-Margaret J. Schmitz

Property from a Private New York Collection

51

Kathy Butterly

Overgrown

incised with the artist's name and date 'Kathy/ Butterly/ 2000'; further titled and dated in pen 'OVERGROWN/ 2001' on the underside
glazed earthenware, glazed porcelain
height 19.1 cm (7 1/2 in.)
Executed in 2001.

Estimate
£12,000 - 16,000 ‡

Sold for £16,250

Contact Specialist
Meaghan Roddy
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Shape & Space: A New Ceramic Presence

London Auction 5 October 2018

51
Kathy Butterly
Overgrown
Estimate £12,000 - 16,000 ‡
Sold for £16,250
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52
This lot is no longer available.
53
George Ohr
Tall two-handled vase
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡
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54
George Ohr
Mottled two-sided, two-handled vase
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡
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55
Ken Price
Edo
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ‡
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56
Yoshitomo Nara
Untitled
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡
Sold for £125,000
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57
This lot is no longer available.
58
Claudi Casanovas
Lluna Nova (Juno, La Daurada, Mercè, Nigra sum, Nuria), from the 'Lunar Cycle' series
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ♠†
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59
Lucio Fontana
Testa di Medusa
Estimate £15,000 - 20,000 ♠
Sold for £37,500
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60
Ai Weiwei
He Xie
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡
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61
Lucie Rie
Footed bowl
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ♠
Sold for £50,000
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62
Lucio Fontana
Cavallo
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡♠
Sold for £549,000
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63
Fausto Melotti
Female figure
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ♠
Sold for £56,250
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64
Simone Leigh
Untitled
Estimate £10,000 - 15,000 ‡
Sold for £27,500
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65
Sarah Lucas
Toilet Elevation
Estimate £70,000 - 90,000 ♠†
Sold for £87,500
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66
Roy Lichtenstein
Ceramic Sculpture #10
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡
Sold for £309,000
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67
Peter Voulkos
Untitled vase
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ‡
Sold for £40,000
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68
Andrew Lord
The Italian set in intense light. Angled. Black.
Estimate £15,000 - 20,000 ‡♠
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69
Betty Woodman
Balustrade Relief Vase 07-4
Estimate £15,000 - 20,000
Sold for £47,500
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70
Hans Coper
Spade form
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000 ♠
Sold for £62,500
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71
Hans Coper
Cycladic arrow form
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ♠
Sold for £102,500
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72
Hans Coper
Cycladic arrow form
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ♠
Sold for £156,250
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73
Roberto Lugo
Obama and Me
Estimate £15,000 - 20,000 ‡
Sold for £35,000
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74
Pablo Picasso
Hibou
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000 ♠
Sold for £93,750
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75
Ron Nagle
Tail Dragger
Estimate £12,000 - 16,000 ‡
Sold for £12,500
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76
Ron Nagle
Schtub
Estimate £12,000 - 16,000 ‡
Sold for £13,750
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77
Ken Price
Flat Back
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 †
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78
Ewen Henderson
Form from the ‘Complex Series’
Estimate £10,000 - 15,000 ♠
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79
This lot is no longer available.
80
Sterling Ruby
The Fed Mortar (Rainbow)
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000
Sold for £50,000
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81
Otani Workshop
Netherworld Resident
Estimate £7,000 - 9,000 ‡
Sold for £6,250
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82
Otani Workshop
Lion Head
Estimate £7,000 - 9,000 ‡
Sold for £6,250
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Shape & Space: A New Ceramic Presence

London Auction 5 October 2018

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Provenance

Exhibited

Catalogue Essay

51

Kathy Butterly

Overgrown

Shape & Space: A New Ceramic Presence

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