Provenance
Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo
Catalogue Essay
“It’s interesting to see how beauty is represented and how diferent takes on beauty can be so dichotomous and diferent. I like to think about art as being similar to poetry: it can’t be proven.” - Sterling Ruby

Sterling Ruby’s works are visually charged indicators and allegories for the burdens that afflict contemporary existence, serving as a visual expression of his interest in psychology, industry, urban culture and American society. A range of experiences—including time spent working in construction, a brief career as a professional skateboarder and a stint as a teaching assistant for Mike Kelley—all serve to inform his multifaceted output. Indeed, his background is as diverse and unique as his artistic style is today. The artist’s oeuvre channels the conflicts prevalent throughout contemporary society but also more specifically focuses on the gap between individual impulse and the restrictions that abound due to mechanisms of social control. His multidimensional practice exploits limitations of form, scale and materials, a process which allows for the manipulation of abject or marginalized subject matter.

Alabaster SR10-2, 2011, superbly communicates the artist’s concern with such contrasts. A patent rejection of the rigidity of minimal art, Alabaster is a quintessential example of Ruby’s attempt to breach the confines of societal structure. Frequently working in a form that simultaneously refutes and redefines the manifestoes which established the high schools of Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism, Ruby here flagrantly repudiates Minimalism’s repressive and rigid line. Ruby’s drips of acrylic paint that drenchingly stain the blank canvas reflect a similar blemish on society—a plague of normalized repression, conformity and aggression. With paint applied in an expressionistic fervor, the piece visually articulates Ruby’s struggle with the minimalist aim to represent objects with no personification, while simultaneously revealing a tension between decoration and defacement. As the artist himself states, "Everything I do holds a kind of gesture in it. For me, it’s this kind of dramatic gesture. A truncated gesture. It’s like an expression that was at one point very fervent and then it just gets kind of stopped." (Sterling Ruby, in an interview with Hans-Maarten in Utopia Parkway, 10 December 2009.)

20

Sterling Ruby

Alabaster SR10-2

2010
acrylic, in artist's frame
69 1/2 x 69 1/2 in. (176.5 x 176.5 cm.)

Estimate
$100,000 - 150,000

Sold for $293,000

Contact Specialist
Zach Miner, Contemporary
Head of Sale zminer@phillips.com
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Alex Heminway, Design
aheminway@phillips.com
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Contemporary Art & Design Evening Sale

New York Evening Sale 6 March 2014 7pm

1
Edmund de Waal
Rescript
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $43,750
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2
Rob Pruitt
Untitled
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $37,500
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3
KAWS
Untitled
Estimate $180,000 - 250,000
Sold for $257,000
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4
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled (Traminer Alter)
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $461,000
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5
Mark Flood
Wedding Night
Estimate $30,000 - 40,000
Sold for $93,750
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6
Cady Noland
Untitled
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $269,000
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7
Ugo Rondinone
ZWEITERAUGUSTZWEITAUSENDUNDELF (August 20, 2011)
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $173,000
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8
Marc Newson
Micarta Table
Estimate $70,000 - 90,000
Sold for $62,500
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9
Nate Lowman
Mint
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $413,000
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10
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $989,000
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11
Allen Jones
Refrigerator
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $425,000
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12
Andy Warhol
Marilyn Monroe
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $1,805,000
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13
Ken Price
Pink Egg
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $509,000
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14
Wade Guyton
Untitled
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $185,000
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15
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $118,750
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16
Adam McEwen
Bomber Harris
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
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17
Richard Prince
My boyfriend married a girl
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $293,000
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18
This lot is no longer available.
19
Olafur Eliasson
Timezone Lamp
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $118,750
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20
Sterling Ruby
Alabaster SR10-2
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $293,000
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21
Jacob Kassay
Untitled
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $125,000
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22
Sam Moyer
Fault Line
Estimate $15,000 - 25,000
Sold for $43,750
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23
This lot is no longer available.
24
Jeroen Verhoeven
Cinderella Table
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $137,000
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25
Sergej Jensen
Untitled
Estimate $70,000 - 90,000
Sold for $87,500
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26
Allora & Calzadilla
Intermission (Halloween Iraq 1)
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $81,250
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27
Ned Vena
Untitled
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
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28
Joe Bradley
Untitled (Human Form)
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $137,000
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29
Keith Haring
Untitled (Figure on a Baby)
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $167,000
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30
Martin Kippenberger
Untitled (Mushrooms)
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $185,000
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31
Yu Youhan
Mao Voting
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $269,000
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32
Os Gêmeos
I Don't Care
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $149,000
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33
Oscar Murillo
Untitled (Chicken and Chips)
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $317,000
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Contemporary Art & Design Evening Sale

New York Evening Sale 6 March 2014 7pm

Create your first list.

Provenance

Catalogue Essay

20

Sterling Ruby

Alabaster SR10-2

Contemporary Art & Design Evening Sale

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