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Property from a Private Collection, U.S.A.30Henry TaylorAri and the Deersigned, titled and dated ‘“Ari” and the Dear 2015-2017 Henry Taylor’ on the reverse acrylic and paper collage on canvas 182.2 x 119.1 cm (71 3/4 x 46 7/8 in.) Executed in 2015-17. Full CataloguingEstimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡ Place Advance BidContact Specialist Kate Bryan Specialist, Head of Evening Sale +44 20 7318 4026 kbryan@phillips.com
Overview'[Taylor’s] greatest subject is human personality, although, in his portraits, personality is not a matter of literal representation but rather a vibe, a texture, a series of vertical block colors laid out on a horizontal plane.' —Zadie SmithSpecifically, the woman’s clear blue eyes in the upper quadrant of Ari and the Deer bear a distinctly Taylor-esque quality. 'Taylor has a way of painting peoples’ eyes with such a deepness that they appear personal, and highly emotional', writes Antwaun Sargent.iii In the present work, it indeed seems that the anonymous protagonist stares deeply into the soul of the viewer, as if this remote ocular dialogue could prompt a mutual understanding of both participants’ deep internal complexities, constituting a human bond beyond the confines of the canvas. When asked why he paints eyes the way he does, Taylor answered 'I probably went for 10 years starting with the eyes. I just stare so much at people, maybe that’s why'.iv Juggling introspection, imperfection, anxiety and self-assurance, Taylor’s idiosyncratic gazes distinguish his portraiture from that of his peers. In Ari and the Deer, the tiered protagonist is endowed with eyes only through its constitutive female form – blurring out the surrounding environment, as if the force of her gaze could nullify the world’s peripheral movements. Henry Taylor in Conversation In a 2019 interview with Laura Hoptman, Henry Taylor discussed his distinctive mode of portraiture, influenced by his childhood, his human encounters, and his love of drawing. The Brooklyn Rail: May I ask you about “portraiture”? I know that there’s a question about whether you call yourself a portraitist or not. How do you choose your subjects? Henry Taylor I liken myself to something like a junkie. [Laughs] You know, I just need to do it. Sometimes I have a desire, I have a need; on the train with Paul, my studio manager, I said, “hey Paul, look at these noses.” I just had to point them out, I don’t know why I was looking at noses. TBR: It could be anyone then? HT: Yeah, everybody on the train, and I insisted that we take the train. I said, “let’s take the train and look at people.” TBR: That was my next question: do you only pick people you like? I guess not. HT: Not necessarily. A lot of people think that, but I painted strangers off of skid row. Read the rest of the interview here. i Sarah Lewis, ‘Henry Taylor: The Impossible Present’, Henry Taylor New York, 2018, p. 15. ii Zadie Smith, ‘Henry Taylor’s Promiscuous Painting’, The New Yorker, 23 July 2018, online. iii Antwaun Sargent, ‘Examining Henry Taylor’s Groundbreaking Paintings of the Black Experience’, Artsy, 16 July 2018, online. iv Henry Taylor quoted in Antwaun Sargent, ‘Examining Henry Taylor’s Groundbreaking Paintings of the Black Experience’, Artsy, 16 July 2018, online. It’s All In The Eyes Henry Taylor Untitled, 2011, acrylic on canvas, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image: © Henry Taylor The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Fund for the Twenty-First Century. '[Taylor’s] greatest subject is human personality, although, in his portraits, personality is not a matter of literal representation but rather a vibe, a texture, a series of vertical block colors laid out on a horizontal plane.' —Zadie SmithSpecifically, the woman’s clear blue eyes in the upper quadrant of Ari and the Deer bear a distinctly Taylor-esque quality. 'Taylor has a way of painting peoples’ eyes with such a deepness that they appear personal, and highly emotional', writes Antwaun Sargent.iii In the present work, it indeed seems that the anonymous protagonist stares deeply into the soul of the viewer, as if this remote ocular dialogue could prompt a mutual understanding of both participants’ deep internal complexities, constituting a human bond beyond the confines of the canvas. When asked why he paints eyes the way he does, Taylor answered 'I probably went for 10 years starting with the eyes. I just stare so much at people, maybe