Rebecca Brodskis - 20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Day Sale Hong Kong Tuesday, June 21, 2022 | Phillips

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  • "I am just obsessed with human figures. To me they are infinite landscapes. There's just so much to it. It's endless. I always love to stare at people. I find faces incredible. The weirder they are the more I adore them. I find beauty in distortion. I admire asymmetrical figures, bended bodies, misshaped profiles. This is what I want to paint and what gives me eternal inspiration.” 
    — Rebecca Brodskis
    Amour Propre, painted in 2020, is a stunning portrait that marks Marseille-based artist Rebecca Brodskis’ international auction debut. French for “self-respect” and “a sense of one’s own worth”, Amour Propre is characteristic of Brodskis’ oeuvre, presenting the viewer with a chromatically brilliant portrayal of two figures held in an embrace. After studying painting at both the prestigious Ateliers des Beaux Arts de la Ville Paris and Central St. Martins in London, Brodskis; furthered her education by achieving a Master’s Degree in Sociology in 2015, where she based her postgraduate research on issues of vulnerabilities and social crisis. Thematically, this focus certainly carries into the artist’s work as she conceptually explores notions of identity, relationships, and the impact of the social on the individual.  

     

     


    The present work exhibited at London, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Rebecca Brodskis: Arrêt sur image, 21 January – 20 February 2021

     

    Brodksis is captivated by fleeting moments of life that surround her, by unfamiliar faces that flicker in and out of her sight as she moves through her day. The artist grew up travelling between France and Morocco and has lived and worked in New York and throughout Europe. Influenced by her life experiences, her paintings are heavily informed by a range of cultures and contexts. Questioning the foundations on which interpersonal ties and individual identities are built, Brodskis’ characters represent the contemporary individual, entangled in ever-evolving social environments, endlessly pursuing understanding and validation. 


    Coming from a family of filmmakers, cinema aesthetics—particularly that of the 1920s and 1930s—are a major influence on Brodskis’ unique painterly style. As such, her characters are poised and elegant, often appearing to have stepped out of a black-and-white film with their ashen skin, sharp silhouettes, and refined features, posing pointedly with blank stares. Adding to the spectral, otherworldly quality of the work are the glossy, block-coloured backgrounds that further bring to mind Swiss-born artist Nicolas Party’s saturated portraits, as he too, sets his subjects in abstract, indeterminate spaces. With their circumstances left ambiguous, Brodskis’ portraits seem disconnected from reality, inviting viewers to spin our own narratives in a similar way as we imagine the lives of people we observe in passing.
     

     


    Lot 16, Nicolas Party, Two Portraits, 2016
    Phillips Hong Kong Evening Sale, 22 June 2022
    EstimateHK$ 6,000,000 - 8,000,000 / US$ 769,000 - 1,030,000

     

     The present work was displayed at Brodski’s solo show, Arrêt sur image, with Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery in London in 2021, alongside a series of arresting portraits that seem to oscillate between conscious and unconscious spaces. Permeated with an air of mystery that heightens their surrealism, her works exist as though they are suspended in time, a haunting silence amidst the hustle and bustle of city life, providing viewers with a moment of stillness and an opportunity for deep contemplation.

     

    Brodskis’ portraits have been widely exhibited. In 2021, she held three solo shows with Septieme Gallery in Paris; Galeria Anna Marra in  Rome; and Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery in London. She has two upcoming solo exhibitions this year, with Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery in London and Fabienne Levy Gallery, Lausanne.
     

     

     

    The artist discussing her 2021 solo exhibition at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery in London, of which the present work was included
    Video Courtesy of Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery


     

     

    • Provenance

      Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

    • Exhibited

      London, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Rebecca Brodskis: Arrêt sur image, 21 January – 20 February 2021

Property from an Important Collector

272

Amour Propre (Self-Respect)

signed, titled and dated '"Amour Propre" Rebecca Brodskis Brodskis 2020' on the reverse
oil on linen, in artist's frame
117 x 90 cm. (46 1/8 x 35 3/8 in.)
Painted in 2020.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
HK$60,000 - 80,000 
€7,300-9,700
$7,700-10,300

Sold for HK$239,400

Contact Specialist

Danielle So
Specialist, Head of Day Sale
+852 2318 2027
danielleso@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Day Sale

Hong Kong Auction 21 June 2022