Urs Fischer - Contemporary Art Evening Sale London Monday, June 28, 2010 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich

  • Exhibited

    New York, New Museum, Urs Fischer. Shovel in a Hole, 28 October, 2009 - 24 January, 2010 

  • Literature

    Urs Fisher. Shovel in a Hole, exh. cat., New Museum, New York, 2009, p. 279 (illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    Urs Fischer's art is broad-based, far-reaching, sharply focused, raw, clever and disarming. He resists easy categorization, working across a wide range of media including photography, drawing, painting, sculpture and installation. His fundamental interest, however, lies in the everyday objects that surround us, objects which he often depicts in a state of decay or metaphysical transformation. Fischer's practice traces the production process, revealing its organic and experimental nature; he is constantly dealing, both literally and metaphorically, with the contrasting themes of construction and deconstruction. Untitled (Nürnberg) is a characteristic example of this approach, featuring a period black-and-white photograph of a wall in Nuremberg demolished during World War II. The image is mounted on wooden panels, and to the top of this sparse composition, Fischer has added a reproduction of glowing fluorescent light tubes, which seem to both light and expose the rubble below. It is a quintessential Fischer creation, its seemingly disparate imagery combining to form an ambiguous work layered deeply with meaning.
    "There are no limits to Fischer's perceptions and psychological penetration of our contemporary soul. His delight in acquiring knowledge via the senses can only be described as Baroque, focusing on reality throughout the 360 degrees of its compass. Large numbers of vanitas symbols, candles really burning and vegetables actually rotting, combine with horror and trash symbolism inspired by heavy metal and references to the work of Martin Kippenberger to address the widespread cultural phenomenon of pleasure in angst, the secret delight in terror. In the morass of adolescent taste Fischer discovers possibilities for expanding art's frame of reference, recognizing a rich and vital vein of imaginative potential. The imagination is the agent of Fischer's realism symbolism." (Bice Curiger, ‘Spaces Generated by Vision or Basements Save Windows', in Massimiliano Gioni, ed., Urs Fischer, Shovel in a Hole, New York, 2009, p. 16)

2

Untitled (Nurnberg)

2006
Wood, ACM panels, Epson ultrachrome inkjet print on Somerset velvet fine art paper, primer, oil paint, acrylic paint, paper cement, paint marker, varnish.
305.5 x 245 x 8 cm (120 1/4 x 96 1/2 x 3 1/8 in).
This work is unique and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.

Estimate
£150,000 - 200,000 

Sold for £133,250

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

29 June 2010
London