Beschreibung:

Rudolf Stingel Untitled 2010 oil and enamel on canvas 120 x 96 in. (304.8 x 243.8 cm) Signed and dated “Stingel 2010” on the reverse.
Provenance Gagosian, New York Private collection, USA Modern Collections, London Acquired from the above by the present owner Exhibited New York, Gagosian Gallery, Rudolf Stingel March 4 – April 16, 2011 Literature A. McDonald, Rudolf Stingel Gagosian Gallery, 2011, pp. 31 and 73 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay The present lot, Untitled, 2010, comprised of oil and enamel on canvas, stands as a ground of worship for brilliant hues, kaleidoscopic textures, and renowned artistic process. The iridescent surface seems as supple as the carpet which birthed its impressions. Standing at nearly ten feet tall, the canvas appears almost woven from thousands of silver silk threads, braided and entwined to create a luxurious surface inviting the viewer’s veneration and celebration of the brilliance before them. Stemming from his self-titled 2011 exhibition, Rudolf Stingel’s series of silver carpet paintings define an investigative arch that has spanned over two decades. Prior to his painterly explorations of color and reflectivity, the artist’s practice was informed early on by the tactility of woodcarving and the cultural tradition implicit in such craft. Upon landing in a conceptually driven New York art scene in 1987, Stingel had already transitioned from abstract painting to enamel works on canvas. Shortly thereafter, the artist began producing works that referenced painting and production, subverting the notion of Genius associated with Modern painters through the creation of Instructions, 1989, a limited edition art book outlining the step by step process of generating an enamel painting. In essence, by transforming his technique into a DIY project, Stingel’s critique simultaneously demystified the aura of studio process while alluding to the mechanized labor that structured Andy Warhol’s Factory. The present lot, Untitled, 2010, situates itself within a similar framework, colliding associations of craft, ornamentation, and the domestic sphere in dialogue with monumental scale and historic perceptions of Modern artistic innovation. Stingel’s vast carpet installations, most famously installed in Grand Central Terminal, have distinguished his career and much has been written about these works as imprinted surfaces, recording unique footprints and engaging the viewer’s sense of awareness in relation to spatial environment. This concern is perhaps most discernible in the artist’s footprint-laden Styrofoam works from 2003. The present lot, Untitled, 2010, plays with this very perception of trace and memory– it is “the memory of a painting.” One imagines applying silver paint to the surface of a large Persian carpet and pressing it to the primed surface of a canvas, transforming an ornate textile relief into an imprint or reversal of the object. Here, a functional and decorative object is reconstituted beyond its intended parameters; the mirrored and textured imprint becomes an integration of the mass produced and the unique, an object of reflection. Stingel’s silver carpet painting performs and retreats; occupying monumental scale and opulent resplendence, its commanding presence tempered by an undulating and phantom-like relief. “A carpet is a painting, and a painting is a carpet. It is only our position in relation to them that changes. Our relation to life, to a painting or to a carpet, is the same relation we have to the earth we stand on: it moves but we don’t feel it.” (Francesco Bonami Rudolf Stingel Gagosian, New York, 2010, p. 7) Following Bernhard Waldenfels’ philosophy of perception, contemplating the visceral presence of Untitled, 2010, arouses a tacit awareness; “when an ‘attention relief’ develops, some things stand out more than others, in much the same way as the word ‘relevance’ is derived from the Latin word relevare, which means ‘to raise up.’ For the attentive observer, this translates into preferment and deferment….What stands out not only stands out from the area, but also forms the focal point of a thematic area g