Vanessa German - 20th Century & Contemporary Art: Online Auction New York Monday, July 17, 2023 | Phillips

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  • Vanessa German’s Flight, 2019, a work of painting and collage on a pair of two Wilson “Flight” tennis rackets, interrogates inherited notions of Black femininity and strength in face of cultural adversity. The two tennis rackets of Flight appear like handheld mirrors at first glance, as the viewer catches the partial gaze of two grisaille portraits of Black women in the center of each racket. The women’s features are obscured in a collage of found objects, each of which evokes strong symbolic links. Their mouths are replaced by cowrie shells, for instance; an inversion and reclamation, perhaps, of early 20th century racist depictions of Black people. A curtain of red beads hangs from the right racket, recalling minute African beadwork, and patchworked sections of a vintage quilt remind the viewer of the rich, vital work of African American woman quiltmakers, whose textiles were a source of pride and familial remembrance. Their work was even lifesaving, as quilts were used to communicate secret messages on the Underground Railroad, the informal network through which enslaved people fled the American South. German calls on each of these textured legacies through her choice of materials in Flight.

     

    Image: Courtesy Gavlak Gallery

    Per the press release for her 2019 exhibition at Gavlak Los Angeles, $LANG: Short Language in the Soul, German’s selection of tennis rackets recalls trailblazing tennis player, Althea Gibson, who was the first African American woman to win a Grand Slam in 1956, followed by back-to-back victories at Wimbledon and the US Nationals (precursor to the US Open) in both 1957 and 1958. 21st century tennis superstars, Venus and Serena Williams, also come to mind. The women in German’s tennis rackets, linked by a twist of hair, are successors and icons at once, representing a legacy of strength, ferocity, and precarity in Black womanhood.

    • Provenance

      Gavlak, Los Angeles
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

    • Exhibited

      Los Angeles, Gavlak, Vanessa German "$lang: Short Language in Soul", March 22–May 25, 2019 (installation view illustrated online)

24

Flight

acrylic and mixed media assemblage, in 2 parts
each 27 1/4 x 9 1/4 x 1 1/4 in. (69.2 x 23.5 x 3.2 cm)
overall 30 x 30 x 2 1/4 in. (76.2 x 76.2 x 5.7 cm)
installation dimensions variable

Executed in 2019.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$10,000 - 15,000 

Sold for $21,590

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20th Century & Contemporary Art: Online Auction

17 - 26 July 2023