Tim Noble and Sue Webster - Contemporary Art Part I New York Thursday, November 15, 2007 | Phillips

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  • Provenance


    Modern Art, London

  • Exhibited

    London, Modern Art, Tim Noble & Sue Webster British Wildlife, September 9 - October 22, 2000

  • Catalogue Essay

    The present lot, Tim Noble & Sue Webster’s Untitled based on theextraordinary sculpture British Wildlife from 2000 is on par with thesculpture in its efforts at displaying the same vivid attention to detail,combined with a seemingly all-too-real fantastical anatomy, that hasled the artistic duo to critical acclaim.With the death of Tim Noble’s father in 2000, the artist inherited manyof the possessions in his father’s estate, among which was an incrediblecollection of taxidermied specimens from the local museum inGloucestershire where he lived. All together, his father amassed animpressive collection of British wildlife, a veritable survey of the fauna andfowl of the English countryside.In the spirit of celebrating his extraordinary collection of specimens, andalso to commemorate the life of his father, Noble &Webster’s sculpture isan assemblage of forty-six birds including a golden eagle, game, kingfisher,a whole swan, green woodpecker, crows, forty animals including rodents,two foxes, and two stuffed fish, mounted on a rock-like base. The work is atribute both to the artist’s father and also to the British tradition of birdwatchingand hunting.Unlike the sculpture, which was intended to be displayed in the dark to casta shadow silhouetting classical busts of Tim and Sue in a grief-strickenpose, suggesting a literal funeral pyre dedicated to his father, the paintinghighlights in full detail and light the absolute, varied, incredible assortmentof specimens displayed. Painting from a dead-center perspective,with one of the red foxes staring straight out at you, the canvas recalls moretraditional Italian Mannerist techniques, in which an obsession withanatomy and pursuit of scientific exploration, combined with spiritualityand fantasy, makes for one dizzying and exceptional spectacle.

32

Untitled

2000
Acrylic on canvas.
48 x 48 1/8 in. (121.9 x 122.2 cm).
Signed and dated “Sue Webster 2000 Tim Noble” on the reverse.

Estimate
$80,000 - 120,000 

Sold for $73,000

Contemporary Art Part I

15 Nov 2007, 7pm
New York