11 Rudolf Stingel Untitled 2000 styrofoam, 4 panels each panel 48 x 96 x 4 in. (120 x 240 x 10 cm) overall 96 x 192 x 4 in. ( 240 x 480 x 10 cm) Initialed and annotated "RS-156-PTG" on the reverse of each panel.
Provenance Paula Cooper Gallery, New York Exhibited New York, Paula Cooper Gallery, Rudolf Stingel New Styrofoam Works, April 22 - June 9, 2000 New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated): Art from 1951 to the Present, March 5 - May 19, 2004 Literature Rudolf Stingel New Styrofoam Works, exh. cat., Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, 2000, n.p. (illustrated) Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated): Art from 1951 to the Present, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2004, p. 156 (illustrated) F. Giraud & P. Ségalot, The Impossible Collection: The 100 Most Coveted Artworks of the Modern Era, Assouline: New York, 2009, no. 100 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay Since the late 1980s, Rudolf Stingel has questioned the limits of his practice with relentless imagination. His work continually re-examines the genres in which it participates, yielding renewed definitions and expanded possibilities. His is a practice in which deconstruction and decoration collide, and in which the role of the artist is subject to perpetual re-examination. In 1989, Stingel published Instructions. A provocative handbook, it set out a series of guidelines by which to replicate the artist’s painting style. As Amanda Coulson notes, the work “immediately encapsulates the artist’s tongue-in-cheek attitude toward his work, dissociating himself from the mythology of the artist–genius and assimilating the viewer into his theoretical and practical approach.” (Amanda Coulson, Rudolf Stingel Galleria Massimo de Carlo, Frieze Magazine, Issue 86, October 2004) Indeed Stingel is an artist whose playfulness continually borders on iconoclasm. His pieces redirect the painterly gaze, often making use of floors and carpets. As Jean-Pierre Criqui notes, the latter “first appeared in Stingel’s work in the form of a bright orange plush carpet that could cover either a floor (at the Daniel Newburg Gallery, New York, 1991) or a wall (at the Venice Biennale 1993)” (Jean Pierre Criqui, “Rudolf Stingel. Captions”, Rudolf Stingel Palazzo Grassi 2013, Milan: Mondadori, 2013, p.12). Since then, floors have become an enduring concern, recurrent in much of his work. The present lot Untitled of 2000 shares this interest. To create the work, Stingel walked across four Styrofoam panels in lacquer thinner-coated boots, effectively melting the white material below. As Criqui notes, the piece “inevitably [evokes] expanses of snow which people have walked across” (Jean Pierre Criqui, “Rudolf Stingel. Captions”, Rudolf Stingel Palazzo Grassi 2013, Milan: Mondadori, 2013, p.14). Yet despite the intimation of tundra, the piece somehow exists beyond any specific locale. It put forth an abstracted landscape that recalls the work of Gerhard Richter not least in that it draws attention to the artist’s mark. The present lot is a document of process; the prints which decorate the surface are traces of action that direct the viewer’s attention to the moment of creation. Yet this moment remains fundamentally evasive; far from self-evident, it requires reconstruction on behalf of the viewer. Whilst the shoeprints on the left hand panels reveal the artist’s path, the overlaid imprints on the right hand side obscure any kind of linear route. The left hand panels bespeak remoteness, suggesting an isolated individual trailing across an empty landscape. By contrast, the right hand panels abound with activity and teem with disorder. The frenzy of shoeprints suggests multitudes, recursion, and crossing paths. They imagine a landscape of coming-and-going, a palimpsest of half-remembered movement. Discussing his practice, Stingel opines “I walk on my paintings because I want to hurt them.” (Rudolf Stingel “Shit, How Are You Going to Do This One?”, Flash Art, Issue 291, July - September). The present lot, and its eroded surface, makes manifest this desire to inflict damage. The violent gesture, however, is not one of nihilistic anger; in Stingel’s hands, it becomes its own form of creation.
11 Rudolf Stingel Untitled 2000 styrofoam, 4 panels each panel 48 x 96 x 4 in. (120 x 240 x 10 cm) overall 96 x 192 x 4 in. ( 240 x 480 x 10 cm) Initialed and annotated "RS-156-PTG" on the reverse of each panel.
Provenance Paula Cooper Gallery, New York Exhibited New York, Paula Cooper Gallery, Rudolf Stingel New Styrofoam Works, April 22 - June 9, 2000 New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated): Art from 1951 to the Present, March 5 - May 19, 2004 Literature Rudolf Stingel New Styrofoam Works, exh. cat., Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, 2000, n.p. (illustrated) Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated): Art from 1951 to the Present, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2004, p. 156 (illustrated) F. Giraud & P. Ségalot, The Impossible Collection: The 100 Most Coveted Artworks of the Modern Era, Assouline: New York, 2009, no. 100 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay Since the late 1980s, Rudolf Stingel has questioned the limits of his practice with relentless imagination. His work continually re-examines the genres in which it participates, yielding renewed definitions and expanded possibilities. His is a practice in which deconstruction and decoration collide, and in which the role of the artist is subject to perpetual re-examination. In 1989, Stingel published Instructions. A provocative handbook, it set out a series of guidelines by which to replicate the artist’s painting style. As Amanda Coulson notes, the work “immediately encapsulates the artist’s tongue-in-cheek attitude toward his work, dissociating himself from the mythology of the artist–genius and assimilating the viewer into his theoretical and practical approach.” (Amanda Coulson, Rudolf Stingel Galleria Massimo de Carlo, Frieze Magazine, Issue 86, October 2004) Indeed Stingel is an artist whose playfulness continually borders on iconoclasm. His pieces redirect the painterly gaze, often making use of floors and carpets. As Jean-Pierre Criqui notes, the latter “first appeared in Stingel’s work in the form of a bright orange plush carpet that could cover either a floor (at the Daniel Newburg Gallery, New York, 1991) or a wall (at the Venice Biennale 1993)” (Jean Pierre Criqui, “Rudolf Stingel. Captions”, Rudolf Stingel Palazzo Grassi 2013, Milan: Mondadori, 2013, p.12). Since then, floors have become an enduring concern, recurrent in much of his work. The present lot Untitled of 2000 shares this interest. To create the work, Stingel walked across four Styrofoam panels in lacquer thinner-coated boots, effectively melting the white material below. As Criqui notes, the piece “inevitably [evokes] expanses of snow which people have walked across” (Jean Pierre Criqui, “Rudolf Stingel. Captions”, Rudolf Stingel Palazzo Grassi 2013, Milan: Mondadori, 2013, p.14). Yet despite the intimation of tundra, the piece somehow exists beyond any specific locale. It put forth an abstracted landscape that recalls the work of Gerhard Richter not least in that it draws attention to the artist’s mark. The present lot is a document of process; the prints which decorate the surface are traces of action that direct the viewer’s attention to the moment of creation. Yet this moment remains fundamentally evasive; far from self-evident, it requires reconstruction on behalf of the viewer. Whilst the shoeprints on the left hand panels reveal the artist’s path, the overlaid imprints on the right hand side obscure any kind of linear route. The left hand panels bespeak remoteness, suggesting an isolated individual trailing across an empty landscape. By contrast, the right hand panels abound with activity and teem with disorder. The frenzy of shoeprints suggests multitudes, recursion, and crossing paths. They imagine a landscape of coming-and-going, a palimpsest of half-remembered movement. Discussing his practice, Stingel opines “I walk on my paintings because I want to hurt them.” (Rudolf Stingel “Shit, How Are You Going to Do This One?”, Flash Art, Issue 291, July - September). The present lot, and its eroded surface, makes manifest this desire to inflict damage. The violent gesture, however, is not one of nihilistic anger; in Stingel’s hands, it becomes its own form of creation.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
