Provenance
Perry Rubenstein Gallery, Los Angeles
Exhibited
Dance/Draw, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 7 October 2011 - 16 January 2012
Catalogue Essay
“From an early age I was really taken by drawing. I loved the idea of expressing an idea, expressing a thought through mark making.” - Robin Rhode

South-African artist Robin Rhode has deftly created a style that draws inspiration from the early movement studies of Eadweard Muybridge in the 19th century as much as from the graffiti tagging of Keith Haring in the 1980s. His photographs are invariably presented in a grid format that presents a continuous sense of movement and evolution, propelling the viewers to proactively engage with the grid as they connect the succession of motions. The emphasis on movement is a critical factor in Rhode’s work. “I was raised in a very gestural society,” he has said. “Society that was very much engaged in the notion of play and playfulness and re-enactment and just pure gesture.”

The current lot, Ballad to Ballet, depicts an engaging departure in Rhode’s work, which typically depicts a full-scale of the artist (or a stand-in) against a tagged wall. Across the series of nine images, a handprint is stenciled in various positions, as if waving, and a compass is seemingly used to measure and draw. Over the top two rows, the hand appears immobile whereas the compass appears to magically dance around it. Rhode later explained that he had been drawing in his studio with a compass when he discovered that the compass moving around his hand made “a beautiful ballet.” Indeed, Ballad to Ballet was made while Rhode was working on a project for Lincoln Center in collaboration with the renowned pianist Leif Ove Andsnes on a Modest Mussorgsky composition that was meant to incorporate performance, sculpture and photography. The reanimation of the compass creates a whimsical, almost child-like charm to the work. In the bottom row, however, the roles reverse, and the hand appears to be in control of the compass, bending it at the joints and spinning it around. Indeed, the interplay between the two begets associations with performance art, and more specifically, with dance. In some ways, Rhode’s Ballad to Ballet is also in dialogue with an earlier generation of artists who focused on the hand as the sole protagonist of a performance, from Helena Almeida to Lucas Samaras, Dennis Oppenheim and Bruce Nauman. Like those before him, Rhode relies on the camera to document a performance, successfully articulating action, emotion and energy.

Robin Rhode’s work has been exhibited at the 51st Venice Biennale; the Museum of Modern Art; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Studio Museum in Harlem; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, among many others.

26

Robin Rhode

Ballad to Ballet

2008
Nine pigment prints.
Each 19 1/2 x 19 3/8 in. (49.5 x 49.2 cm)
Printed title, date, number 5/6 and sequential number '1-9' on a gallery label affixed to the reverse of each backing board. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity.

Estimate
$40,000 - 60,000

Contact Specialist
Vanessa Kramer Hallett
Worldwide Head, Photographs

Shlomi Rabi
Head of Sale, New York

General Enquiries:
+1 212 940 1245

Photographs Evening Sale

New York 1 April 2015 6pm

1
Lewis Wickes Hine
Team Work, Empire State Building, New York City
Estimate $15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $16,250
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2
Tina Modotti
Sugar Cane
Estimate $70,000 - 90,000
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3
Alfred Stieglitz
The Steerage
Estimate $180,000 - 220,000
Sold for $197,000
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4
Richard Avedon
The Family
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $233,000
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5
Richard Avedon
Robert Frank, photographer, Mabou Mines, Nova Scotia, July 17
Estimate $30,000 - 40,000
Sold for $52,500
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6
Irving Penn
Frozen Foods, New York
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $106,250
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7
Irving Penn
Black and White Fashion with Handbag (Jean Patchett) (C), New York
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $106,250
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8
Helmut Newton
Walking Women, Paris
Estimate $700,000 - 900,000
Sold for $905,000
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9
František Drtikol
Nude
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $106,250
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10
Man Ray
Reclining Nude with Satin Sheet
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $329,000
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11
Irving Penn
Picasso (B), Cannes
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $100,000
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12
Sharon Core
Candy Counter 1969
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $52,500
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13
John Baldessari
Green Sunset (with Trouble)
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $365,000
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14
Cindy Sherman
Untitled #103
Estimate $90,000 - 120,000
Sold for $118,750
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15
Thomas Ruff
Sterne 23h 39m/-55°
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $112,500
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16
Thomas Struth
Paradise 26 (Bougainville), Palpa, Peru
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $112,500
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17
Adam Fuss
Untitled
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $43,750
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18
Hiroshi Sugimoto
Lake Superior, Cascade River
Estimate $350,000 - 550,000
Sold for $305,000
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19
Desirée Dolron
Xteriors XII
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $125,000
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20
Diane Arbus
A widow in her bedroom on 55th St., NYC
Estimate $200,000 - 250,000
Sold for $233,000
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21
Katy Grannan
Anonymous, Los Angeles
Estimate $15,000 - 25,000
Sold for $22,500
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22
Nobuyoshi Araki
A/FILM 6 X 7
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
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23
Pierre et Gilles
Les amoureaux/ Johan et Léo
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $50,000
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24
Robert Mapplethorpe
Flag
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $87,500
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25
Wolfgang Tillmans
Torino Installation
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $43,750
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26
Robin Rhode
Ballad to Ballet
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
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27
Zhang Huan
Family Tree
Estimate $180,000 - 220,000
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Photographs Evening Sale

New York 1 April 2015 6pm

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Provenance

Exhibited

Catalogue Essay

26

Robin Rhode

Ballad to Ballet

Photographs Evening Sale

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