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Auction archive: Lot number 26

George Nakashima (1905-1990) Cross Legged - Unique piece

American Design
1 Dec 2021
Estimate
€35,000 - €45,000
ca. US$39,361 - US$50,607
Price realised:
n. a.
Auction archive: Lot number 26

George Nakashima (1905-1990) Cross Legged - Unique piece

American Design
1 Dec 2021
Estimate
€35,000 - €45,000
ca. US$39,361 - US$50,607
Price realised:
n. a.
Beschreibung:

Bili Bidjocka (born 1962, Cameroon) Intentions (Inferno), 2014-2018 Mixed media and beading on canvas, in three elements 279,5 × 150 cm (each) 279,5 x 450 cm (overall) Exhibitions The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory revisited by Contemporary African Artists, travelling exhibition: Frankfurt, MMK - Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt/Main, March 21st to July 27th 2014 Savannah, SCAD Museum of Art, October 16th to January 25th 2015 Washington, Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, April 8th to August 2nd 2015 Bibliography S. Njami, M. Ambrozic, The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory revisited by Contemporary African Artists, Berlin, 2014, p. 365 “Bili Bidjocka is one of those mavericks who manage to build a world apart and to enjoy it fully, for the better and the worse. His work is never a repetition, but an eternal and obsessive quest to answer a question that cannot be expressed in words: where is the space of painting? When Bidjocka says painting, he does not mean the canvas or the old techniques. Because for him painting is the very meaning of art. It may take different shapes, different representations, but at the end of the day it is what he is striving for. His favourite question is: what is a painter who doesn’t paint?” — Simon Njami Shortlisted by Art Review in 2019 as one of the “Future Greats”, Bili Bidjocka is much more than a future great. A thinker, a philosopher, “a painter who doesn’t paint”, to refer to Simon Njami’s words, the artist, born in Cameroon in 1962, has for several decades now, skillfully transcended notions of time and place, to anchor himself with equal ease in triumphs and trials of empires past, present and future. For Bili Bidjocka art truly is inseparable from life, as life is inseparable from consciousness. Intentions (Inferno), presented here, is a perfect example of the artist’s engagement with life and thought in his practice. The triptych is part of a suite of three unique works, respectively titled: Grace, Intentions and Graces. Intentions (Inferno) was unveiled for the first time at Frankfurt’s Museum of Modern Art (Museüm für Moderne Kust) in 2014, and conceived for the exhibition The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory revisited by Contemporary African Artists, curated by Simon Njami. First presented as a blank canvas, except for the word “INTENTIONS” spread accross the canvas, and at the bottom, the sentence “I always read this book The Divine Comedy with a pencil in hand, trusting that I would write a better text.” The verb write here, implied the summoning of words assembled into sentences, but not only: handwriting, as the act of laying down one’s thoughts on a physical surface, has always had for the artist, a powerful meaning. Writing is an act of faith, it is an intention pulled up from the depths of one’s psyche, and put up on display for public scrutiny. To quote Simon Njami in the catalogue of the exhibition: “What is an intention if not a wishful thought? We all have intentions. Most of the time we call them good. We need them in order to improve the order of things ruling the world or simply our lives. But like any project, any aspiration or transformation, an intention remains suspended in time and space until it is realised. Intention is similar, in vocabulary, to aspiration, which may signify going above. The problem is that gap between the wish and the reality. Will we ever be able to fulfill the plan and make it happen? And even if that would be the case, how can we know if the subjectivity of our plans is not, at the end of the end, contrary to what we are aiming at? An intention is nothing. It may even be negative like a devil’s inspiration. That is the reason why it is said that ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions.’ Unless, of course, we are touched by grace and allowed to enter the kingdom of the righteous. But shall we ever reach that level of purity that would permit us to be other than humans? Painting may be that grace we a

Auction archive: Lot number 26
Auction:
Datum:
1 Dec 2021
Auction house:
Piasa
118 rue du faubourg Saint-Honoré
75008 Paris
France
contact@piasa.fr
+33 (0)1 53341010
Beschreibung:

Bili Bidjocka (born 1962, Cameroon) Intentions (Inferno), 2014-2018 Mixed media and beading on canvas, in three elements 279,5 × 150 cm (each) 279,5 x 450 cm (overall) Exhibitions The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory revisited by Contemporary African Artists, travelling exhibition: Frankfurt, MMK - Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt/Main, March 21st to July 27th 2014 Savannah, SCAD Museum of Art, October 16th to January 25th 2015 Washington, Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, April 8th to August 2nd 2015 Bibliography S. Njami, M. Ambrozic, The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory revisited by Contemporary African Artists, Berlin, 2014, p. 365 “Bili Bidjocka is one of those mavericks who manage to build a world apart and to enjoy it fully, for the better and the worse. His work is never a repetition, but an eternal and obsessive quest to answer a question that cannot be expressed in words: where is the space of painting? When Bidjocka says painting, he does not mean the canvas or the old techniques. Because for him painting is the very meaning of art. It may take different shapes, different representations, but at the end of the day it is what he is striving for. His favourite question is: what is a painter who doesn’t paint?” — Simon Njami Shortlisted by Art Review in 2019 as one of the “Future Greats”, Bili Bidjocka is much more than a future great. A thinker, a philosopher, “a painter who doesn’t paint”, to refer to Simon Njami’s words, the artist, born in Cameroon in 1962, has for several decades now, skillfully transcended notions of time and place, to anchor himself with equal ease in triumphs and trials of empires past, present and future. For Bili Bidjocka art truly is inseparable from life, as life is inseparable from consciousness. Intentions (Inferno), presented here, is a perfect example of the artist’s engagement with life and thought in his practice. The triptych is part of a suite of three unique works, respectively titled: Grace, Intentions and Graces. Intentions (Inferno) was unveiled for the first time at Frankfurt’s Museum of Modern Art (Museüm für Moderne Kust) in 2014, and conceived for the exhibition The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory revisited by Contemporary African Artists, curated by Simon Njami. First presented as a blank canvas, except for the word “INTENTIONS” spread accross the canvas, and at the bottom, the sentence “I always read this book The Divine Comedy with a pencil in hand, trusting that I would write a better text.” The verb write here, implied the summoning of words assembled into sentences, but not only: handwriting, as the act of laying down one’s thoughts on a physical surface, has always had for the artist, a powerful meaning. Writing is an act of faith, it is an intention pulled up from the depths of one’s psyche, and put up on display for public scrutiny. To quote Simon Njami in the catalogue of the exhibition: “What is an intention if not a wishful thought? We all have intentions. Most of the time we call them good. We need them in order to improve the order of things ruling the world or simply our lives. But like any project, any aspiration or transformation, an intention remains suspended in time and space until it is realised. Intention is similar, in vocabulary, to aspiration, which may signify going above. The problem is that gap between the wish and the reality. Will we ever be able to fulfill the plan and make it happen? And even if that would be the case, how can we know if the subjectivity of our plans is not, at the end of the end, contrary to what we are aiming at? An intention is nothing. It may even be negative like a devil’s inspiration. That is the reason why it is said that ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions.’ Unless, of course, we are touched by grace and allowed to enter the kingdom of the righteous. But shall we ever reach that level of purity that would permit us to be other than humans? Painting may be that grace we a

Auction archive: Lot number 26
Auction:
Datum:
1 Dec 2021
Auction house:
Piasa
118 rue du faubourg Saint-Honoré
75008 Paris
France
contact@piasa.fr
+33 (0)1 53341010
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