Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
“I think people like to overcomplicate the idea of Fine Art and trivialise the existence of pop culture – as if it [pop culture] isn’t freely borrowing from a multitude of intellectual cultural histories to keep itself sustained. For instance, the inclusion of gold leaf, gold paint, and glitter in some of my recent work can be seen to refer to renaissance fine art paintings but in the same vein, I float between them representing that and representing the gold costume jewellery I’ve worn for years.”
—Michaela Yearwood-DanBursts of swirling colour, interspersed with botanical motifs and textual references to popular culture are typical of London-based artist Michaela Yearwood-Dan. In works like The Summit of Beauty and Love, paint billows across canvases as she uses broad, gestural strokes to create expressive compositions that are full of vital energy. Graduating from her BFA at the University of Brighton in 2016, Yearwood-Dan decided to move away from figurative work to immerse herself in the world of textural and abstract art. Surrounded by a creative family that pursued carpentry, jewellery making, textiles and botany, Yearwood-Dan expands her fine arts practice to incorporate non-traditional subject matter as inspiration.i
As a black, queer woman, she seeks to imbue her works with an intersectional approach to identity, sex-positivity, and feminism in non-literal sense: ‘I’m not giving you any more body – more figurative body – to make comments on. Instead, I will hone my mind, my humour, and my intellect. People can take it or leave it. And people have been taking it, which is quite nice!’.ii
[Left] François Boucher, The Triumph of Venus, 1740, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Image: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum
[Right] Detail of the present workThe Summit of Beauty and Love was executed in 2020 for a group show exhibition at Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh. Titled Ancient Deities, the show aimed to highlight the relevance of gods, goddesses and demons in contemporary art and culture. The present work is inspired by Venus, Roman goddess of love, sex, beauty and fertility – who Yearwood-Dan describes on her Instagram as ‘totes my kinda lady’.iii This colloquial interaction with her work is what makes Yearwood-Dan such a refreshing voice in the contemporary art scene. She engages with classical academic subject matter in a manner that ‘pokes fun at the elitism within the artworld’.vi Indeed, the title of the work is a lyric taken from the song Venus, first released by Shocking Blue in 1969 and made famous by Bananarama in 1986.
Bananarama, Venus, 1986
The classical influence of Yearwood-Dan’s formal artistic training is still visible in her work. The Summit of Beauty and Love is a voracious fusion of blues, pinks, purples and golds, in rolling plumes that envelope the canvas. These warm washes of colour are reminiscent of Rococo works by French artists such as Jean Honoré Fragonard and François Boucher. In Boucher’s The Triumph of Venus, for example, we see Venus honoured in a composition filled with sumptuous dynamism – the frothy sea, curved nude bodies and swell of striped fabric – executed in a similar pastel palette.
Yearwood-Dan is not afraid to incorporate popular culture within her works. Textural inscriptions are commonplace in her canvases and can reference anything from Dizzee Rascall and internet memes to film and literary quotes.v In the present work we see the inscription ‘it isn’t soft like the poets say it has teeth which bite and the wounds never close’ – a reference about love from The Body by Stephen King. Whilst the visual appearances of her canvases sing with colourful exultation, her inscriptions engender more nuanced meanings. In the case of The Summit of Beauty and Love we are reminded that love does not always feel like a scene from a Fragonard painting, it can be difficult and painful.
From Bananarama to Stephen King, The Summit of Beauty and Love is packed with references to goddesses, love and beauty. Whilst celebrating divine femininity, Yearwood-Dan is keen to remind us that women are frequently perceived based on their beauty and sexual appeal. The present work represents an investigation into the position of Venus in the contemporary world – how her legacy is now interpreted – and stands as a wonderful example of the artist’s non-figurative investigations of feminism and identity. In the artist’s own, characteristically straightforward terms: ‘Everything is feminine. The world exists because of the feminine. Stop insulting women for being who they are. We deal with enough.’vi
Collector’s Digest
-
Michaela Yearwood-Dan has experienced remarkable success since finishing her BFA in 2016. She has held solo exhibitions in London and New York, as well as in group exhibitions at The Royal Academy of Arts, London; Gagosian, London; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art; and Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden, Morocco.
-
She has completed several residencies, including at The Lee Alexander McQueen Foundation in 2019 and as a featured artist in the third annual Great Women Artists Residency at Palazzo Monti in 2021.
-
Yearwood-Dan’s works are held in the permanent collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, and Columbus Museum of Art.
i Laura Franchetti and Fred Shan, ‘in Conversation with Michaela Yearwood-Dan’, Immediations, no. 18, 2021, online.
ii Michaela Yearwood-Dan, quoted in Laura Franchetti and Fred Shan, ‘in Conversation with Michaela Yearwood-Dan’, Immediations, no. 18, 2021, online.
iii Michaela Yearwood-Dan, Instagram, 28 August, 2020, online.
iv Michaela Yearwood-Dan, quoted in Laura Franchetti and Fred Shan, ‘in Conversation with Michaela Yearwood-Dan’, Immediations, no. 18, 2021, online.
v Vanessa murrell, ‘Michaela Yearwood-Dan’, Dateagle Art, 24 August, 2018, online.
vi Michaela Yearwood-Dan, quoted in Eloise Hendy, 'Artist Michaela Yearwood-Dan on finding joy through art and reclaiming beauty', The Glossary, 9 March, 2023, online.
-
Provenance
Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh
Acquired from the above by the present ownerExhibited
Edinburgh, Arusha Gallery, Ancient Deities, 10 September – 18 October 2020
Literature
Emily Tobin, ‘Artist Michaela Yearwood-Dan in her studio’, House & Garden, 18 November 2020 (illustrated in the artist’s studio; online)
Andrea Sacal, ‘Ten minutes with artist Michaela Yearwood-Dan, as she launches her first US solo exhibition, ‘Be Gentle with Me’’, 10 Magazine, 27 August 2021 (illustrated; online)
Property of an Important Private Collection
9
The Summit of Beauty and Love
signed and dated ''The Summit of Beauty and Love' Michaela Yearwood-Dan 2020' on the reverse
oil on canvas
170 x 120 cm (66 7/8 x 47 1/4 in.)
Painted in 2020.
Estimate
£60,000 - 80,000 ‡♠
Sold for £228,600
Rosanna Widén
Senior Specialist, Head of Evening Sale
+44 20 7318 4060
rwiden@phillips.com
Olivia Thornton
Head of 20th Century & Contemporary Art, Europe
+44 20 7318 4099
othornton@phillips.com
20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale
London Auction 13 October 2023
1
Mohammed Sami
Childhood
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡♠
Sold for £228,600
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
2
Stefanie Heinze
Median (Fin Fatale)
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡♠
Sold for £165,100
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
3
Emma Webster
Baptism
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡♠
Sold for £228,600
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
4
Christopher Hartmann
Still Looking
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000 ‡♠
Sold for £38,100
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
5
Marina Perez Simão
Untitled
Estimate £70,000 - 100,000 ‡
Sold for £95,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
6
Francesca Mollett
Two Thistles
Estimate £25,000 - 35,000 ♠
Sold for £254,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
7
Pam Evelyn
Night Fog
Estimate £30,000 - 50,000 ‡♠
Sold for £44,450
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
8
Christina Quarles
Lil' Dapple Do Ya
Estimate £450,000 - 550,000 ‡
Sold for £508,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
9
Michaela Yearwood-Dan
The Summit of Beauty and Love
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡♠
Sold for £228,600
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
10
Jadé Fadojutimi
Beneath the Petticoat
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ♠
Sold for £177,800
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
11
This lot is no longer available.
12
Luc Tuymans
Rome
Estimate £1,200,000 - 1,800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £1,500,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
13
Beatriz Milhazes
Mares do Sul
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £698,500
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
14
Josef Albers
Homage to the Square
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £609,600
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
15
Alex Katz
Ariel
Estimate £650,000 - 850,000 ‡
Sold for £698,500
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
16
This lot is no longer available.
17
Anish Kapoor
Untitled
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £825,500
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
18
On Kawara
OCT.20,1992
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡
Sold for £342,900
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
19
Günther Uecker
Ohne Titel
Estimate £180,000 - 250,000 ‡♠
Sold for £241,300
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
20
Anselm Kiefer
Das einzige Licht
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £698,500
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
21
Simon Hantaï
Tabula
Estimate £450,000 - 650,000 ‡♠
Sold for £508,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
22
This lot is no longer available.
23
This lot is no longer available.
24
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled (Colored Boy Piano Player)
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000
Sold for £203,200
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
25
Cy Twombly
Untitled
Estimate £800,000 - 1,200,000 ‡
Sold for £914,400
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
26
Henri Matisse
Grand Nu accroupi (Olga)
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £660,400
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
27
Balthus
Étude pour ‘Le Peintre et son modèle’
Estimate £280,000 - 400,000 ‡♠
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
28
This lot is no longer available.
29
This lot is no longer available.
30
Cy Twombly
Untitled
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ‡
Sold for £190,500
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
31
Rick Lowe
Black Wall Street Journey #11
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡
Sold for £114,300
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
32
Banksy
Forgive Us Our Trespassing
Estimate £2,200,000 - 2,800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £2,710,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
33
Daniel Richter
Schakal Reloaded
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ‡♠
Sold for £508,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
34
Dana Schutz
Gravity Fanatic
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡
Sold for £495,300
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
35
George Condo
Seated Harlequin
Estimate £750,000 - 950,000 ‡
Sold for £889,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
36
Sarah Lucas
Jubilee
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡♠
Sold for £101,600
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
37
Damien Hirst
Five Antique Torsos
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ‡♠
Sold for £317,500
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
38
Caroline Walker
Fragranced
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡♠
Sold for £565,150
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
39
Louise Giovanelli
An Ex
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡♠
Sold for £76,200
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
40
Issy Wood
Cries Real Tears!
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡♠
Sold for £215,900
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
41
Maria Lassnig
Competition III
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡♠
Sold for £482,600
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
42
Alina Szapocznikow
Autoportret II
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡♠
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
43
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate £550,000 - 750,000 ‡♠
Sold for £660,400
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
44
John Chamberlain
Druid’s Cluster (Swish)
Estimate £350,000 - 450,000 ‡
Sold for £330,200
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
45
Damien Hirst
Fear
Estimate £300,000 - 400,000 ‡♠
Sold for £349,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
46
Raghav Babbar
The Bath in Holy River
Estimate £30,000 - 50,000 ♠
Sold for £457,200
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.