NEW YORK, NY.- Phillips de Pury & Company announce highlights from the forthcoming Under the Influence auction. Timed to capture the audience of the
Armory Arts Week in New York, the highly anticipated sale will present a selection of 288 works including contemporary art, photographs and design.
AUCTION HIGHLIGHTS
Portrait 5, Stephen(s), 2009 - 2010, a noted work of portraiture attributed to Stephen Colbert, enhanced by the artistic contributions of Shepard Fairey who spray-painted it, Andres Serrano, who Sharpie’d it, and Franke Stella who glanced at it, will be offered as the first lot in the sale. The work debuted on the December 8, 2010 episode of “The Colbert Report” as part of an interview with Steve Martin to discuss the release of his new book An Object of Beauty. The portrait is being sold to benefit school arts projects through DonorsChose.org, an online charity designed to connect donors with classrooms in need.
Kehinde Wiley’s Fall, 2009, estimated at $50,000 - $70,000, demonstrates the artist’s distinct and coherent stylized portraits of African American men in modern culture with references to Old Master painting. The figurative painting, ornate framing and illuminated adornments powerfully connect Fall to the contemporary portraiture canon.
Rules of Six, 2007, by the design duo Benjamin Aranda and Chris Lasch, estimated at $50,000 - $70,000, was commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art for the 2008 exhibition “Design and the Elastic Mind,” engaging designers and scientists in a dialogue addressing their relationship to each other and their role in contemporary culture, and exploring the development of scientific and technological advances. Rules of Six is described as an exploration of the molecular processes of self-assembly and modularity, which directly relates to the “rule of six,” an algorithm based on the symmetry of the six-sided snowflake in which no two are alike. Aranda\Lasch used this algorithm to duplicate this natural process of growth of scale and information which is manifest in this monumental wall installation.
Sterling Ruby’s Prime Mover #2, 2005, estimated at $25,000 - $35,000, creates beauty from biomorphic structures and underscores the complexities of cultural and personal autonomy. Prime Mover epitomizes the collage essence of the artist’s technique, shown here in a large-scale work on paper.
Subodh Gupta’s Feast for Hundred and Eight Gods 1, 2005 estimated at $60,000 -$80,000, a sculpture of stainless steel utensils, beautifully embraces universal issues of religion, identity, and home. When discussing this work to ArtReview in 2007, Gupta stated, “I am the idol thief. I steal from the drama of Hindu life. And from the kitchen – these pots, they are like stolen gods, smuggled out of the country. Hindu kitchens are as important as prayer rooms. These pots are like something sacred, part of important rituals, and I buy them in a market. They think I have a shop, and I let them think it. I get them wholesale.”
Giselle’s Grave, 2000, an installation by Karen Kilimnik, estimated at $10,000 - $15,000 pursues the tragedy of the artist’s mystery-romance persona via the grave of the ballet heroine Giselle, who goes mad and dies of grief when she discovers her lover is a fake.
