Tom Sachs - Contemporary Art Evening Sale New York Friday, March 4, 2011 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris / Salzburg; Private collection, France; Sale: Phillips de Pury & Company, New York, Contemporary Art: Part II, November 14, 2008, lot 108; Private collection, Belgium (acquired from the above)

  • Exhibited

    New York, Thomas Healy Gallery, Tom Sachs: Creativity is the Enemy, May 8 - June 6, 1998; Paris, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Tom Sachs: Creativity is the Enemy, January 16 - February 27, 1999

  • Literature

    G. O'Brien, Tom Sachs: Creativity Is the Enemy, Paris, 1999, p. 26; J. Szabo, "Tom Sachs", Elle Decor, October 1999, pp. 92-98

  • Catalogue Essay

    RICKY JAY: Do you design these sculptures to reveal additional information of either beauty or crudeness when seen from a closer vantage point?
    TOM SACHS: Definitely. That’s a great question. I didn’t ever really think about that I do that, but these are the instinctive things that I reproduce. To put a urinal on a pedestal helps you see it as a sculpture, and if you look at industrial ceramics, like toilets and urinals, you’ll see that, like other sculptures, some of them are beautiful and some of them are ugly, some of them are crude, some are elegant-it takes all kinds. I always gravitate toward things that are either extremely elegant or extremely crude, but in one way or another aren’t compromised. I’m not interested in representing objects of mediocrity, only objects of excellence.
    (R. Jay, "The Wizard Makes The Artist Tom Sachs Talk Like A Philosopher," Interview, May 2008, pp. 102-107)

21

Chanel Fountain

1998
Foamcore, cut shopping bags and thermal adhesive.
12 3/4 x 20 x 12 1/2 in. (32.4 x 50.8 x 31.8 cm).
Signed and dated “Tom Sachs 1998” on the reverse.

Estimate
$50,000 - 70,000 

Sold for $62,500

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

4 March 2011
New York