Adam McEwen Rubbermaid Step Stool 2010 graphite 12 7/8 x 15 7/8 x 15 7/8 in. (33 x 40.6 x 40.6 cm.) This work is artist's proof 2 from an edition of 3 plus 2 artist's proofs and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.
Provenance Private Collection Exhibited New York, Bortolami, Re-Dressing, September 15 - November 6,2010 (another example exhibited) Paris, Galerie Art Concept, The House of Marlon Brando, May 7 - June 18, 2011 Dallas, Goss-Michael Foundation, Adam McEwen April 13 - July 28, 2012 (another example exhibited) Catalogue Essay I like the fact that this material is very familiar, it has a democratic relationship to people but they don't know it in this context. ADAM MCEWEN 2012 Adam McEwen is one of the most dynamic and energetic artists to emerge in the last ten years. His voluminous appetite for—and regurgitation of—the tropes of everyday life make him an apt inheritor of the rich legacy of artists such as Richard Prince Claes Oldenburg and ultimately Duchamp. McEwen disrupts our understanding of popular culture and objects by recycling, re-imagining, and re-creating existing images and commercial objects as something unmistakably new. Across a variety of media McEwen’s true materials are his viewers—our own—preconceived notions about culture, history and images. This exploration finds its most iconoclastic form in his laser cut graphite sculptures. By mining readymade replicas of everyday objects from graphite blocks the artist strips away functionality, leaving these products as naked, purely suggestive referents. In the present lot, Step Stool (Rubbermaid), 2010, McEwen attacks the core functions the iconic and banal Rubbermaid step stool, amputating its ability to provide ascendancy and support. Although McEwen’s step stool has the appearance of stability the fact remains; this is a work of graphite, a friable usually mark-making material, always at risk of granulation. “You could erase all of these sculptures. You could pick the sculpture up, draw on the wall with it and rub it out. And eventually you would have nothing left.” (Adam McEwen in S. Becker, “Q&A: Adam McEwen ” Art & Seek, April 16, 2012). Read More
Adam McEwen Rubbermaid Step Stool 2010 graphite 12 7/8 x 15 7/8 x 15 7/8 in. (33 x 40.6 x 40.6 cm.) This work is artist's proof 2 from an edition of 3 plus 2 artist's proofs and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.
Provenance Private Collection Exhibited New York, Bortolami, Re-Dressing, September 15 - November 6,2010 (another example exhibited) Paris, Galerie Art Concept, The House of Marlon Brando, May 7 - June 18, 2011 Dallas, Goss-Michael Foundation, Adam McEwen April 13 - July 28, 2012 (another example exhibited) Catalogue Essay I like the fact that this material is very familiar, it has a democratic relationship to people but they don't know it in this context. ADAM MCEWEN 2012 Adam McEwen is one of the most dynamic and energetic artists to emerge in the last ten years. His voluminous appetite for—and regurgitation of—the tropes of everyday life make him an apt inheritor of the rich legacy of artists such as Richard Prince Claes Oldenburg and ultimately Duchamp. McEwen disrupts our understanding of popular culture and objects by recycling, re-imagining, and re-creating existing images and commercial objects as something unmistakably new. Across a variety of media McEwen’s true materials are his viewers—our own—preconceived notions about culture, history and images. This exploration finds its most iconoclastic form in his laser cut graphite sculptures. By mining readymade replicas of everyday objects from graphite blocks the artist strips away functionality, leaving these products as naked, purely suggestive referents. In the present lot, Step Stool (Rubbermaid), 2010, McEwen attacks the core functions the iconic and banal Rubbermaid step stool, amputating its ability to provide ascendancy and support. Although McEwen’s step stool has the appearance of stability the fact remains; this is a work of graphite, a friable usually mark-making material, always at risk of granulation. “You could erase all of these sculptures. You could pick the sculpture up, draw on the wall with it and rub it out. And eventually you would have nothing left.” (Adam McEwen in S. Becker, “Q&A: Adam McEwen ” Art & Seek, April 16, 2012). Read More
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