Vik Muniz - Photographs New York Thursday, October 7, 2021 | Phillips

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  • "After starting off with sugar and chocolate, I could not help trying everything else I found in the kitchen . . . It’s only natural to be tempted by things that were close at hand . . . that translated that sense of paint – spaghetti sauce, and peanut butter, for example."
    —Vik Muniz, Reflex, A Vik Muniz Primer
    As the self-proclaimed master of creating the ‘worst possible illusion,’ Vik Muniz has used everything from chocolate, diamonds, magazines, and puzzle pieces as media (for examples in this auction: lots 64, 208, 240, 241, 255, 287). In the present lot, the humble medium of spaghetti and sauce is transformed into the masterpiece of Medusa. Measuring 14 x 14 inches in overall diameter, the print mirrors the size of a dinner plate charger, wittily completing the alchemical conversion of Marinara into Medusa, or perhaps Medusa into Marinara.

     

    The source image for this work is Caravaggio’s Medusa, 1597, which is in the permanent collection of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.

     

    • Provenance

      Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York

    • Literature

      Capivara, Vik Muniz: Catalogue Raisonné, 1987-2015: Everything so Far, Vol. II, p. 738
      Capivara, Vik Muniz: Obra Completa, 1987-2009, p. 674
      Ollman, Vik Muniz, back cover
      Aperture, A Vik Muniz Primer, p. 81, there dated 1998
      Celant, Vik Muniz: Ernesto Neto, n.p.

    • Catalogue Essay

      ‘After starting off with sugar and chocolate, I could not help trying everything else I found in the kitchen . . . It’s only natural to be tempted by things that were close at hand . . . that translated that sense of paint – spaghetti sauce, and peanut butter, for example.’ – Vik Muniz, Reflex, A Vik Muniz Primer

      As the self-proclaimed master of creating the ‘worst possible illusion,’ Vik Muniz has used everything from chocolate, diamonds, magazines, and puzzle pieces as media (for examples in this auction: lots 64, 208, 240, 241, 255, 287). In the present lot, the humble medium of spaghetti and sauce is transformed into the masterpiece of Medusa. Measuring 14 x 14 inches in overall diameter, the print mirrors the size of a dinner plate charger, wittily completing the alchemical conversion of Marinara into Medusa, or perhaps Medusa into Marinara.

      The source image for this work is Caravaggio’s Medusa, 1597, which is in the permanent collection of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.

288

Medusa Marinara

1997
Dye destruction print.
12 3/8 x 12 3/8 in. (31.4 x 31.4 cm) in diameter.
Overall 14 x 14 in. (35.6 x 35.6 cm) in diameter.

Signed, dated and numbered AP 2 in ink on the verso. One from an edition 10 of plus 5 artist's proofs.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$20,000 - 30,000 

Sold for $18,900

Contact Specialist

Sarah Krueger
Head of Department
+1 212 940 1225
skrueger@phillips.com

 

Vanessa Hallett
Deputy Chairwoman, Americas and Worldwide Head of Photographs
+1 212 940 1243
vhallett@phillips.com

Photographs

New York Auction 7 October 2021