Vik Muniz - Photographs New York Thursday, October 8, 2015 | Phillips

Photographs

New York Auction 8 October 2015

  • Provenance

    Galerie XIPPAS, Paris

  • Literature

    Capivara, Vik Muniz: Obra Completa 1987-2009, p. 584

  • Catalogue Essay

    “I don’t want people to simply see a representation of something. I want them to feel how it happens. The moment of that embodiment is what I consider a spiritual experience.” -Vik Muniz

    Brazilian born artist Vik Muniz’ work has garnered a reputation for being interdisciplinary in nature and broad in scope. His range of technique, inspiration and utilization of materials is diverse, as well as unconventional, with his pictures constructed from diamonds, chocolate, dust, spaghetti, and, in the case of the present lot, pigment, among others. In using these materials, Muniz creates sculptural, photographic “illusions” that range from playful images created from children’s toys to subjects and scenes drawing from historically significant works of art.

    In the present lot, Muniz uses pigment to recreate Pablo Picasso’s iconic portrait of photographer and his muse, Dora Maar. In doing so, Muniz reverts to the source material used to give paint its color, powdered pigment, reconstructing a widely recognizable image and thus giving it a new context. Muniz is not only exploring theories and contemporary discourse regarding appropriation and authorship, but is also reworking a well-recognized image through a unique process. The result is an homage to a great masterpiece, offering the viewer a photograph that is very tactile, textural, and thus inviting in composition.

105

Vik Muniz

Dora Maar Seated, after Picasso from Pictures of Pigment

2007
Chromogenic print.
101 1/8 x 70 1/4 in. (256.9 x 178.4 cm)
Signed, dated in ink, printed title, date and number 'AP' 2/4 on a label affixed to the reverse of the flush-mount. One from an edition of 6 plus 4 artist's proofs.

Estimate
$70,000 - 90,000 

Sold for $87,500

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Vanessa Hallett
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Photographs

New York Auction 8 October 2015