Beschreibung:

Dan Colen Wouldn't it be Nice 2006 Acrylic and oil on found framed canvas. 48.3 x 36.8 cm (19 x 14 1/2 in).
Provenance Gagosian Gallery, New York Exhibited New York, Gagosian Gallery, Potty Mouth Potty War Pot Roast Pot Is a Reality Kick, 2006 Catalogue Essay At just 31 years of age, Dan Colen is the current favourite of the contemporary art scene. His recent major exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery in New York was the most talked about show of the year – in fact, Colen has been one of the most talked about artists of the last five years. Along with Nate Lowman, Ryan McGinley and the late Dash Snow he rejuvenated the New York art scene with his debauched and wild hard-partying antics. His work is as controversial as his lifestyle is, often incorporating swear words, representing faeces and generally displaying a teenage insouciance. The present lot is an early work in which Colen defaces a found canvas of a Walt Disney like scene in which a young girl sobs in the arms of a bear. Below the scene, which Colen has altered to look hallucinatory like, a lingering trail of smoke from snuffed candles curl into the phrase ‘Wouldn't it be nice', the painting's title and a reference to the uplifting song by The Beach Boys. Suggesting ephemerality and transience, the tableau becomes however a paradox between the naïveté and innocence of the touching moment and the subversive implication of a tongue-in-cheek phrase written out in smoke. Read More