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"Art history helped me to realize that painting is a visual language where everything in the painting is meaningful, is important. It's coded."
—Titus Kaphar
Marie Guillemine-Benoist, Portrait of a Black Woman (Portrait of Madeleine), 1800. Musée du Louvre, Paris, Image: © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY Looking directly to perhaps the most recognized Black female sitter in the Western canon of art, Titus Kaphar’s Untitled III is a striking example of the artist’s portraits of historically marginalized figures rendered in tar. Painted in 2015, the present work reimagines Marie Guillemine-Benoist’s Portrait of a Black Woman, 1800, in the permanent collection of the Louvre Museum, Paris. Cropping the composition to ostensibly hone in on the intimacy of the sitter’s gaze, Kaphar subverts his otherwise faithful representation, concealing her visage under viscous swaths of tar. This meticulous eradication of her features stands in striking contrast to the refined painterly handling of her pearl-colored headscarf and elegant drapery.
"I have this love for representational painting and this love for post-modernist gestures, these actions that disrupt the history of art marking."
—Titus KapharKaphar imbues the interpretive meaning in his works through their very materiality. As the artist has astutely observed on the historical tradition of painting, Black figures “are often pushed to the corners of the compositions. They’re hidden. They’re in the shadows.”i His thick, impasto layers of tar denote the absence of Black figures in the historical narrative. The series is most widely recognized with his reimaginings of Thomas Jefferson’s slaves as emancipated figures sitting for portraits. In the unique case of Untitled III, the artist tars the countenance of one of the most “visible” Black figures in the art historical canon, ultimately revealing an alternative reading of the famous 19th century portrait.
Édouard Manet, Olympia (renamed Laure), 1863. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, Image: © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY Exhibited at the Salon of 1800, Benoist’s portrait was met with contention for its jarring subject matter—the meticulously rendered, half-nude Black female sitter garbed in the colors of the French Revolution’s tricolore. Embodying an archetype reinforced through the work’s ambiguous title, Benoist’s unnamed figure became a symbol in art history of the abolition of slavery and women’s emancipation in France.
"By and large, the representation of black people and the history of Western painting is enslaved, in servitude or impoverished...And so what we have are these representations of black people that don't reflect their humanity."
—Titus KapharIn Untitled III, Kaphar encapsulates Kerry James Marshall’s argument on the overt absence of the Black figure in the history of Western art, as exhibited in the figure’s very facture: “At the same time that I’m talking about visibility and invisibility and that I am using the concepts of blackness, the figure seems to stay the same. The figure remains essentially black in every circumstance that you see it.”ii In the present work, Kaphar’s erasure of the sitter conversely reveals the artifice of her historical visibility, guiding our awareness to her objectification as a 19th century sociopolitical archetype. Meanwhile, he shifts our gaze towards a more intimate human subjectivity—the figure’s identity masked by her Blackness.
[left] Detail of the present lot. [right] Detail of Marie Guillemine-Benoist, Portrait of a Black Woman (Portrait of Madeleine), 1800. Musée du Louvre, Paris, Image: © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY In the years after Kaphar took up the subject, Benoist’s sitter has been identified as Madeleine, an emancipated slave from Guadeloupe who came to France as the servant of Benoist’s brother-in-law. Becoming exponentially visible after featuring in a 2018 music video by Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Madeleine, along with other iconic Black female models in the art historical canon, was identified in the groundbreaking show Black Models: From Géricault to Matisse at the Musée d’Orsay in 2019.
i Titus Kaphar, quoted in “Titus Kaphar: How Can We Address Centuries of Racism in Art?,” National Public Radio: TED Radio Hour, November 10, 2017, online.
ii Kerry James Marshall, quoted in Victoria L. Valentine, “‘The Figure Remains Essentially Black in Every Circumstance’: Kerry James Marshall Previews His Master Paintings at MCA Chicago,” Culture Type, May 2, 2016, online.Provenance
Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2016Artist Biography
Titus Kaphar
Titus Kaphar’s work questions the nature of history and its representations in the past and today. By altering the materiality of his paintings, sculptures, and installations, Kaphar subverts conventional understandings of historical representations and exposes the uncomfortable and troubling realities of the racism in America’s past. Kaphar’s examinations of historical representations and the omissions of such representations encourage viewers to question their own relationships to history and understandings of the past. He strives to dislodge history from the past and to promote its relevance in the world today.
Kaphar’s work has received considerable acclaim, and his paintings have graced two covers of Time magazine. He is the recipient of a 2018 MacArthur Fellowship and his work is represented in such institutions as the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, and the Perez Art Museum Miami. He lives and works in New Haven, Connecticut.
19
Untitled III
oil and tar on canvas, mounted on panel
60 x 48 in. (152.4 x 121.9 cm)
Executed in 2015.
Estimate
$300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $1,058,500
Amanda Lo Iacono
Head of Auctions
New York
+1 212 940 1278
20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale
New York Auction 23 June 2021
1
Cinga Samson
Two piece 1
Estimate $25,000 - 35,000
Sold for $378,000
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2
Jadé Fadojutimi
Untitled
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $390,600
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3
Salman Toor
Fort Greene
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $478,800
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4
Avery Singer
Untitled
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $4,144,000
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5
Matthew Wong
The Reader
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $2,329,000
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6
Winston Churchill
The Moat, Breccles
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,845,000
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7
Matthew Wong
Field in a Dream
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $2,934,000
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8
Jean Dubuffet
L'homme à la toque
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,571,000
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9
Emily Mae Smith
Waiting Room
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $756,000
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10
Nicole Eisenman
Whatever Guy
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $840,700
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11
Norman Lewis
Abstract City
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,119,000
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12
Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol
Bananas
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $4,300,000
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13
David Hockney
A Neat Lawn
Estimate $9,500,000 - 10,500,000
Sold for $11,000,000
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14
Vija Celmins
Untitled (Ocean)
Estimate $5,500,000 - 6,500,000
Sold for $7,748,000
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15
Carmen Herrera
Green and Orange
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,200,000
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16
This lot is no longer available.
17
Brice Marden
Elements III
Estimate $3,200,000 - 3,800,000
Sold for $5,233,000
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18
Amoako Boafo
Untitled
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $655,200
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19
Titus Kaphar
Untitled III
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $1,058,500
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20
Amy Sherald
It Made Sense...Mostly In Her Mind
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $3,539,000
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21
Wayne Thiebaud
Winding River
Estimate $6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for $9,809,000
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22
Mark Rothko
Untitled
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $3,700,000
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23
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Batman
Estimate $1,600,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,800,000
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24
Keith Haring
Untitled (For John Sex)
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $899,000
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25
Takashi Murakami
Red Demon and Blue Demon with 48 Arhats
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $6,080,000
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26
Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild (940-2)
Estimate $4,500,000 - 5,500,000
Sold for $5,112,000
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27
Joan Mitchell
Untitled
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $3,902,000
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28
Willem de Kooning
East Hampton V
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $3,055,000
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29
Amy Sillman
Flower Giver
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $598,500
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30
Alexander Calder
Fourteen Black Leaves
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,300,000
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31
This lot is no longer available.
32
Julie Curtiss
Three Widows
Estimate $110,000 - 150,000
Sold for $466,200
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33
Norman Rockwell
My Mother (Soldier with French Woman)
Estimate $350,000 - 500,000
Sold for $504,000
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34
Richard Prince
Nurses Dormitory #3
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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35
Mickalene Thomas
Portrait of Jessica
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $1,542,500
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36
Andy Warhol
Mao
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $3,000,000
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37
Georg Baselitz
Drei Herzen (Three Hearts)
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $2,450,000
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38
Carl Andre
36 Copper Square
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $2,692,000
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39
Robert Rauschenberg
Untitled (Elemental Sculpture)
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $315,000
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40
Bruce Nauman
Musical Chair
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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41
David Hammons
It’s Not Necessary
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $5,475,000
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42
Andy Warhol
Shadow (Double)
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $877,000
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43
Toyin Ojih Odutola
Quality Control
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $340,200
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44
Robert Colescott
Gift of the Sea
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $504,000
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45
Dana Schutz
Swiss Family Traveling
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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46
Banksy
Love Is In The Air
Estimate $1,000,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,179,500
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47
Keith Haring
Untitled
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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48
Louise Bourgeois
Labyrinthine Tower
Estimate $550,000 - 750,000
Sold for $756,000
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49
Paul McCarthy
White Snow Dwarf (Doc)
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $403,200
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50No Reserve
Jeff Koons
Gazing Ball (Demeter)
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000 •
Sold for $998,000
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