A Standalone Auction to be held in London on 5 October
2018, Curated by Francesco Bonami
LONDON
– 17 SEPTEMBER 2018 – As part of Frieze Week Phillips will celebrate modern and
contemporary ceramics with an innovative exhibition and sale – Shape & Space: New Ceramic Presence.
This curated selection of works showcases a specific realm that has often been
overlooked, by focusing on artists who use clay as one of the many languages to
express their vision. Curated by internationally renowned writer, critic and
curator Francesco Bonami, Shape &
Space will include works by Hans Coper, Lucio Fontana, Roy Lichtenstein, Ron
Nagle, George Ohr, Pablo Picasso, Lucie Rie, Peter Voulkos, and Ai Weiwei, among
others. Producing a platform upon which ceramists are put in dialogue with
post-war and contemporary artists, Shape
& Space is born out of the desire to address the ever-increasing
central place of clay and ceramic in contemporary art. Shape & Space will be on view at 30 Berkeley Square from 28 September
to 5 October, when it will be sold at auction ahead of the 20th Century &
Contemporary Art Evening Sale.
Francesco Bonami, Curator, said: “The artists’ use of
ceramics reflects their wish to convey to the viewer a more direct relationship
with the material and the shaping of forms and content. I believe ceramics are
one of the last links between art, craft, visual art, design and contemporary
art. Our upcoming exhibition and sale, Shape
& Space, will foster and reinforce the dialogue amongst them.”
A
leading highlight of the sale is a selection of ceramics by George Ohr. Known as ‘The Mad Potter of Biloxi’, Ohr
rarely sold his best works and confessed that he thought of these vases as his
‘clay babies’. Amongst the Ohr works in this sale is Tall red two-handled vase. This
bright red vase illustrates Ohr’s search for the perfect red glaze, transitioning
from vivid to dark whilst clouds of blue and other colours break through. The
top and bottom halves are composed of two vessels joined together by matched
handles which marry the two shapes and give the pot a visual unity. Ohr added
handles when he was trying to bring balance to his more complex forms. This
reveals how considered his process of constructing pots was. In Mottled two-sided two-handled vase, Ohr also
combines two vases into one. On the left the handle does not melt into the pot,
the glaze is dark and mottled, tense and compressed. In contrast the right side
is optimistically yellow and the handle easily flows from the pot. This pot’s
rim is the sculptural focus: the lip has been bifurcated and folded, a sexual
metaphor. The result is a new liberated form.
Alexander Payne, Worldwide Head of Design and Deputy
Chairman, Europe, said: “While conceived as an autonomous sale, Shape & Space will also be installed
as a compelling exhibition. This takes place at a critical moment in the art
market, with demand increasing for ceramic works by blue-chip contemporary
artists who are garnering enormous international attention, yet prices are
still accessible enough to appeal to a wide and hugely varied demographic of
collectors. We want to capitalise on the current momentum and create a unique
moment in the market, presenting ceramic and clay works as masterpieces in
their own right, promoted alongside the highest quality contemporary art and
sculpture by the leading 20th century and contemporary artists.”
Included
in the sale is Lucio Fontana’s Cavallo.
This dynamic clay horse is an example of Fontana’s crucial ceramic
contributions to art history. The principles for which the artist is most
celebrated – space, dimensionality and the gestural intervention of the
artist’s hand – are central to this work. Cavallo
is rendered in a form that is suggestive of the figurative animal yet
simultaneously a visceral and abstract register of the artist’s process,
displaying the creative potency and material density of Fontana’s ceramic
artistry.
Works
from contemporary artists include Ai Weiwei’s Hie Xie, a porcelain installation
made up of approximately 2,300 parts Directly translated as ‘crab’, and more
faintly as both ‘harmonious’ and ‘censorship’, Hie Xie demonstrates Ai Weiwei’s power of political satire through
ceramics. His island of ceramic crabs references the many layers
of Chinese society, from food to mass and handmade production to politics. In
performing a pretend displacement of marine life, Ai Weiwei thus brings forth
issues of privacy and human rights at large. An influential
artist and ceramist, Ai Weiwei’s work represents the ability of ceramics to
inform and surprise the viewer through varied mediums and forms.
The sale also champions emerging
artists including Roberto Lugo’s satirical and populist Obama and Me. Somewhat in sync with
Weiwei, Lugo’s art encapsulates the larger scope of his activist philosophy. A
poet, rapper, graffiti-artist, ceramic professor, and self-described ‘ghetto-potter,’
Lugo’s ceramic work serves as a first-person narrative to illustrate the
history of inequality, racism, and Puerto Rican culture. Lugo juxtaposes
different styles and cultures within his hand-painted pottery to outline and
reframe historical ideas of ceramic patterns and motifs, which, when exhibited
alongside earlier works in this sale, presents an interesting dialogue.
Infusing elements of politics, graffiti, and hip-hop culture within his
pottery, Lugo bends the conversation of his work to incorporate his vision of
himself as a channel to link people from underrepresented communities to be in
the conversation of the arts. In approaching the history of ceramics to
illustrate his belief that art can ‘find unity in the world within which we exist’,
Lugo’s work branches into global-minded activism. His studio work includes
graffiti, pottery, and large detailed ceramics, which have garnered him a
powerful voice, platform, and aesthetic within the sphere of contemporary art.
Auction: Friday,
5 October 2018, 4pm
Auction viewing: 28 September - 5 October
Location: 30
Berkeley Square, London
Click
here
for more information.
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*Estimates
do not include buyer’s premium; prices achieved include the hammer price plus
buyer’s premium.
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