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"I wanted to make my paintings look old from the start, which is important because they are about memory."
—Luc TuymansPainted in 2014, Luc Tuymans’ Wallpaper is a striking example of the Belgian artist’s distinctive painterly practice that explores the relationship between representation and historical memory. Towering over eight feet in height, the present work depicts the edge of a serene wooden landscape with a large obelisk seen on a hill in the distance. Engendering a gentle backlight aesthetic synonymous with the artist’s practice, the soft monochromatic palette casts the subject matter in an eerie light, as if historically frozen in time or a recollection of a fading memory. Among the artist’s largest-scaled works to arrive at auction, the present work was a highlight in the highly acclaimed Luc Tuymans: The Shore exhibition at David Zwirner, London in 2015.
The present work installed at Luc Tuymans: The Shore, David Zwirner,
January 30 – April 2, 2015. Artwork: © 2021 Luc TuymansAs suggested by its title, the present work was directly influenced by Tuymans’ visit to the luxurious Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh, where the artist took photographs of the decadent wallpaper embellishing its afternoon tearoom, the Palm Court. An elegant, domed space guarded with ceiling-high palm trees, the walls are adorned by bespoke, hand-painted de Gournay wallpaper depicting the city’s exquisite landscape across the interior paneling. Here, Tuymans silos and enlarges the design of one panel, isolating the scene from its locality and challenging the apparent value of ascribing meaning in language, medium, and form by endowing the painting with the very name of its original source.
The Palm Court at The Balmoral HotelBy displacing the image from its glamorous environs, the artist transforms the decorative into the painterly, reality into abstracted representation. In a tour of his David Zwirner show, the artist recalled, “All the paintings sort of stick together in a way, they are then juxtaposed with things where I actually stayed, having been there [Edinburgh] twice, we stayed in the hotel Balmoral, and when they make the tea, in an enormous space – they have this wallpaper!”i Frequently based on secondary imagery stemming from sources including magazines, the Internet, Polaroids, and his iPhone camera, his works recall Gerhard Richter’s practice of employing photographs to render hazy figurations. “I work from a reaction upon images that are already represented,” he recently explained, “because I believe nothing is really original. But then I have to make my take on it—and figuration in that sense becomes rather abstract, because everybody can have different connotations.”ii
Gerhard Richter, Bühler Höhe, 1991. Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, Artwork: © 2021 Gerhard Richter (0224)"[Wallpaper] of course is the epitome of the idyllic state of the gardens and the obelisk, the idea of classicism is
in there."
—Luc TuymansTuymans has famously dubbed his paintings “authentic falsifications” since his early career in the 1990s, the oxymoron referring to the role of reproduction in his practice as an essential device. “When I started out,” Tuymans recalled, “I liked to make paintings that looked as if they were done 40 years ago, to create a different sense of time.”iii The artist appears to return to this painterly sensibility in Wallpaper by transposing the source image through a muted palette, conjuring a captivating surreal atmosphere reminiscent of those seen in historic engravings. In doing so, Tuymans creates a distance between the painting and the perceived image before the viewer that engenders the alluring oscillation between representation and reality, history and memory, past and present, memory and imagination.
Sands, Hadley Highstone, near Barnet, 1805. Image: HIP / Art Resource, NYi Luc Tuymans, quoted in “Luc Tuymans Explores Domesticity, Re-photography, And Scottish Enlightenment,” Artlyst, January 31, 2015.
ii Luc Tuymans, quoted in Jameson Fitzpatrick, “As Far as Luc Tuymans Is Concerned, Nothing Is Original,” The New York Times, October 20, 2020, online.
iii Luc Tuymans, quoted in Jurriaan Benschop, “Painting Mute,” DAMN°, no. 49, March 2015.
Provenance
David Zwirner, New York
Acquired from the above by the present ownerExhibited
London, David Zwirner, Luc Tuymans: The Shore, January 30 – April 2, 2015
Literature
Luc Tuymans: Birds of a Feather, exh. cat., Talbot Rice Gallery, The University of Edinburgh, Antwerp, 2015, p. 108 (illustrated, p. 57)
Jackie Wullschlager, “Luc Tuymans: Dark Visions and Enlightenment,” Financial Times, January 2, 2015
Natalia Rachlin, “Luc Tuymans Unveils New Paintings at a London Show,” Architectural Digest, January 30, 2015, online (illustrated)
Emily Spicer, “Luc Tuymans: The Shore,” Studio International, February 21, 2015, online (illustrated)
Jurriaan Benschop, “Painting Mute,” Damn Magazine, March 6, 2015, online (illustrated)
Belinda Seppings, “Luc Tuymans: The Shore,” This is Tomorrow, March 11, 2015, online
Eva Meyer-Hermann, ed., Luc Tuymans: Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Volume 3: 2007-2018, New York, 2019, no. LTP 504, pp. 250, 402 (illustrated, p. 251)
17
Wallpaper
signed and erroneously dated "L Tuymans 015" on the reverse
oil on canvas
99 5/8 x 70 in. (253 x 177.8 cm)
Painted in 2014.
Estimate
$1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,250,000
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
1
Shara Hughes
Inside Outside
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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2
Jadé Fadojutimi
My Umbrella Has A Nourishing Disguise
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $877,000
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3
Ewa Juszkiewicz
Girl in Blue
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $730,800
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4
Kwesi Botchway
Green Sofa
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $214,200
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5
Titus Kaphar
Fade With Time
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $816,500
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6
David Hammons
Puzzling Times
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $877,000
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7
Raymond Pettibon
No Title (Let him come...)
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $3,418,000
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8
Joan Mitchell
Untitled
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $11,870,000
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9
Georgia O'Keeffe
Crab’s Claw Ginger Hawaii
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $7,748,000
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10
Alexander Calder
White Moon
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $4,628,000
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11
Cecily Brown
Untitled
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $6,140,500
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12
Willem de Kooning
Composition
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
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13
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate $1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $2,692,000
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14
This lot is no longer available.
15
Amy Sherald
Welfare Queen
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $3,902,000
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16
Francis Bacon
'Pope with Owls'
Estimate $35,000,000 - 45,000,000
Sold for $33,000,000
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17
Luc Tuymans
Wallpaper
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,250,000
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18
Pierre Bonnard
Panier de fruit
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $4,991,000
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19
Honor Titus
Linden Blvd Jazz Radio
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $163,800
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20
Matthew Wong
Time After Time
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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21
Avery Singer
European Ego Ideal
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $4,023,000
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22
Mark Tansey
Garden
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $2,934,000
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23
KAWS
THE WAY HE KNOWS
Estimate $850,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $1,542,500
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24
Wassily Kandinsky
Fliessend
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
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25
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled (from Famous Negro Athlete Series)
Estimate $750,000 - 1,100,000
Sold for $2,450,000
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26
Peter Saul
Ice Box #3
Estimate $350,000 - 450,000
Sold for $441,000
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27
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled (The Door)
Estimate $6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for $8,549,500
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28
Emily Mae Smith
Feast and Famine
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $1,361,000
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29
Gerhard Richter
Weiß (White)
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $5,717,000
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30
Robert Ryman
Series #25 (White)
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,421,500
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31
Frank Stella
Double Concentric Square
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $1,845,000
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32
Carmen Herrera
Amarillo y Negro
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $630,000
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33
Andy Warhol
The Last Supper/Be a Somebody with a Body
Estimate $6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for $6,806,000
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34
Christopher Wool
Blue Fool
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,179,500
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35
This lot is no longer available.
36
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
Six PM, Malaga
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $567,000
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37
Mickalene Thomas
Portrait of Qusuquzah #5
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $504,000
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38
Mike Kelley
Memory Ware Flat #3
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,179,500
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39
George Condo
Collision Course
Estimate $1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $2,450,000
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40
Bruce Nauman
Untitled (from Fifteen Pairs of Hands)
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $983,000
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41
David Hammons
Untitled
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $3,660,000
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42
Nicolas Party
Houses
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $1,724,000
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43
Hurvin Anderson
Country Club—Mixed Doubles
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $604,800
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44
Max Ernst
Ohne Titel (les hommes ne le sauront jamais)
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $504,000
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45
Max Ernst
Kachina, le chien de Peggy Guggenheim
Estimate $280,000 - 350,000
Sold for $277,200
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46
Cy Twombly
Untitled
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $786,250
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47
Reggie Burrows Hodges
On the Verge: Green
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $567,000
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48
Max Ernst
Portrait de Ernst Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $176,400
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