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Lot Essay
‘I am interested in the idea of presenting as simple, economical, and as wholly readable a statement as possible’ (Robert Mangold)
Offered from the prestigious Crex Art Collection, the monumental Brown Wall is a seminal work that stands among Robert Mangold’s earliest creations. Executed in 1964, it is one of the very first works in his ground-breaking Walls series, which inaugurated his interrogations of pictorial space. Painted a soft, pale brown, two large, L-shaped plywood panels are held together by a hinge, forming an imperfect mirror image. A narrow metal border—also painted—frames the inset edges of each panel, and is doubled at the vertical join that marks the break between the two. The outermost edges reveal faces of unpainted wood. Brown Wall was first exhibited in Mangold’s historic solo show Walls and Areas at New York’s Fischbach Gallery in 1965, which immediately elevated him to the front rank of American art: examples from the series now reside in collections including Tate, London and the National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C. The present work has also featured in important retrospectives at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1972) and the Hallen für neue Kunst, Schaffhausen (1987), as well as in the major survey American Art in the 20th Century (1993) at the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin.
The metal slats mounted to Brown Wall’s orthogonal edges at once frame it like a painting and spotlight its materiality as an object compounded from paint and prefabricated materials. Mangold often played with this tension in his early work. As Richard Shiff writes, the Walls ‘are the most object-like, even sculptural, works of [Mangold’s] entire career. Because the support surfaces consist of plywood and/or metal, often with projecting elements, it would be fair to regard these works as painted constructions rather than painting’ (R. Shiff, quoted in R. Shiff et al., Robert Mangold, London 2000, p. 24). Like many of Mangold’s works, Brown Wall has an architectural quality, formally echoing the silhouette of an abstracted building. ‘As mimetic carpentry,’ writes Joseph Maschek, ‘the wall pieces evoke the highly patternistic architectural photography of American early modernism, such as Charles Sheeler’s board-and-batten Pennsylvania Barn or Stairwell’ (J. Maschek, ‘A Humanist Geometry’, Artforum, March 1974, Vol. 12 No. 7, p. 38).
Unlike Sheeler’s figurative portrayals of architecture and the industrial sublime, however, Mangold’s work resists the direct depiction of buildings or the built environment. In this it invites comparison with the work of the Abstract Expressionists. Mangold acknowledged the effect Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman had on his artistic sensibility. ‘When you were in front of a Rothko or a Newman,’ he remarked, ‘you were within their structure. I think that really appealed to me and also the idea that a work of art could have this kind of presence’ (R. Mangold quoted in R. Shiff et al., ibid., p. 20). Like these works, Brown Wall emanates an intoxicating aura, its vertical groove and upward reach curiously evocative of Newman’s zips. Yet where Newman’s canvases sought to express emotional transcendence, Mangold’s Brown Wall probes the subtle interactions of line, colour, surface and form, launching a profound enquiry into the mechanics of picture-making that would continue to guide his practice over the following decades.
Works from the Crex Art Collection
Christie’s is delighted to present an outstanding group of seven works from the prestigious Crex Art Collection. Spread across the 20th/21st Century London Evening Sale and the Post-War & Contemporary Art Day Sale this October, these works capture the pioneering spirit of one of Europe’s finest collections of Minimalist and Conceptual art.
Begun in Zurich in the early 1970s, the Crex Collection was distinguished by its revolutionary focus on the art of its day. In 1978, it showcased its holdings in a major touring exhibition that travelled to institutions including the Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek and the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. Already the collection included works by artists including Robert Mangold, Sol LeWitt, Blinky Palermo and Donald Judd, as well as Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and Neo-Expressionist painters such as Georg Baselitz and Markus Lüpertz. Writing in the catalogue, Rudi Fuchs wrote that ‘It was not primarily the desire to own art, it seems, which prompted this collection; there was also the profound wish to support art, contemporary art, in a country with many collections of classic art but with only little activity in the field of really contemporary art’ (R. Fuchs, quoted in Werke aus der Sammlung Crex, Zurich 1978, p. 129).
During the early 1980s, the collection took up residence in the Hallen für neue Kunst in Schaffhausen: a former textile factory. It was one of the first exhibition spaces to make use of an industrial building in this way, and mounted a series of major shows until 2014. Its celebration of both European and American artists, and its dedication to their public display, transformed the landscape for contemporary art in Switzerland and beyond.
All acquired shortly after their creation, the present selection of works demonstrates the sharp connoisseurly vision of the Crex Collection. Highlights include a rare and unique example of Blinky Palermo’s Stoffbilder (Fabric Pictures), distinguished by its vertical rather than horizontal seam. Gerhard Richter’s Grau is one of the landmark group of Grey Paintings that the artist unveiled at the Städtisches Museum, Mönchengladbach in 1974. Brown Wall (1964) is one of the very first works in Robert Mangold’s seminal Walls series, while his Four Color Frame Painting #16 (1985) featured on the cover of The Paris Review in 1989. Completing the selection are works by Markus Lüpertz, Sol LeWitt and Richard Long, rounding out a tightly-curated snapshot of one of the twentieth century’s richest art-historical periods.
Offered from the prestigious Crex Art Collection, the monumental Brown Wall is a seminal work that stands among Robert Mangold’s earliest creations. Executed in 1964, it is one of the very first works in his ground-breaking Walls series, which inaugurated his interrogations of pictorial space. Painted a soft, pale brown, two large, L-shaped plywood panels are held together by a hinge, forming an imperfect mirror image. A narrow metal border—also painted—frames the inset edges of each panel, and is doubled at the vertical join that marks the break between the two. The outermost edges reveal faces of unpainted wood. Brown Wall was first exhibited in Mangold’s historic solo show Walls and Areas at New York’s Fischbach Gallery in 1965, which immediately elevated him to the front rank of American art: examples from the series now reside in collections including Tate, London and the National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C. The present work has also featured in important retrospectives at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1972) and the Hallen für neue Kunst, Schaffhausen (1987), as well as in the major survey American Art in the 20th Century (1993) at the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin.
The metal slats mounted to Brown Wall’s orthogonal edges at once frame it like a painting and spotlight its materiality as an object compounded from paint and prefabricated materials. Mangold often played with this tension in his early work. As Richard Shiff writes, the Walls ‘are the most object-like, even sculptural, works of [Mangold’s] entire career. Because the support surfaces consist of plywood and/or metal, often with projecting elements, it would be fair to regard these works as painted constructions rather than painting’ (R. Shiff, quoted in R. Shiff et al., Robert Mangold, London 2000, p. 24). Like many of Mangold’s works, Brown Wall has an architectural quality, formally echoing the silhouette of an abstracted building. ‘As mimetic carpentry,’ writes Joseph Maschek, ‘the wall pieces evoke the highly patternistic architectural photography of American early modernism, such as Charles Sheeler’s board-and-batten Pennsylvania Barn or Stairwell’ (J. Maschek, ‘A Humanist Geometry’, Artforum, March 1974, Vol. 12 No. 7, p. 38).
Unlike Sheeler’s figurative portrayals of architecture and the industrial sublime, however, Mangold’s work resists the direct depiction of buildings or the built environment. In this it invites comparison with the work of the Abstract Expressionists. Mangold acknowledged the effect Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman had on his artistic sensibility. ‘When you were in front of a Rothko or a Newman,’ he remarked, ‘you were within their structure. I think that really appealed to me and also the idea that a work of art could have this kind of presence’ (R. Mangold quoted in R. Shiff et al., ibid., p. 20). Like these works, Brown Wall emanates an intoxicating aura, its vertical groove and upward reach curiously evocative of Newman’s zips. Yet where Newman’s canvases sought to express emotional transcendence, Mangold’s Brown Wall probes the subtle interactions of line, colour, surface and form, launching a profound enquiry into the mechanics of picture-making that would continue to guide his practice over the following decades.
Works from the Crex Art Collection
Christie’s is delighted to present an outstanding group of seven works from the prestigious Crex Art Collection. Spread across the 20th/21st Century London Evening Sale and the Post-War & Contemporary Art Day Sale this October, these works capture the pioneering spirit of one of Europe’s finest collections of Minimalist and Conceptual art.
Begun in Zurich in the early 1970s, the Crex Collection was distinguished by its revolutionary focus on the art of its day. In 1978, it showcased its holdings in a major touring exhibition that travelled to institutions including the Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek and the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. Already the collection included works by artists including Robert Mangold, Sol LeWitt, Blinky Palermo and Donald Judd, as well as Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and Neo-Expressionist painters such as Georg Baselitz and Markus Lüpertz. Writing in the catalogue, Rudi Fuchs wrote that ‘It was not primarily the desire to own art, it seems, which prompted this collection; there was also the profound wish to support art, contemporary art, in a country with many collections of classic art but with only little activity in the field of really contemporary art’ (R. Fuchs, quoted in Werke aus der Sammlung Crex, Zurich 1978, p. 129).
During the early 1980s, the collection took up residence in the Hallen für neue Kunst in Schaffhausen: a former textile factory. It was one of the first exhibition spaces to make use of an industrial building in this way, and mounted a series of major shows until 2014. Its celebration of both European and American artists, and its dedication to their public display, transformed the landscape for contemporary art in Switzerland and beyond.
All acquired shortly after their creation, the present selection of works demonstrates the sharp connoisseurly vision of the Crex Collection. Highlights include a rare and unique example of Blinky Palermo’s Stoffbilder (Fabric Pictures), distinguished by its vertical rather than horizontal seam. Gerhard Richter’s Grau is one of the landmark group of Grey Paintings that the artist unveiled at the Städtisches Museum, Mönchengladbach in 1974. Brown Wall (1964) is one of the very first works in Robert Mangold’s seminal Walls series, while his Four Color Frame Painting #16 (1985) featured on the cover of The Paris Review in 1989. Completing the selection are works by Markus Lüpertz, Sol LeWitt and Richard Long, rounding out a tightly-curated snapshot of one of the twentieth century’s richest art-historical periods.