Fenster (Window)

Details

Thomas Demand (b. 1964)
Fenster (Window)
signed, numbered and dated 'Thomas Demand 1998 2/6' (on the reverse)
digital chromogenic print mounted to Diasec
72¼ x 112¾in. (183.5 x 286.5cm.)
Executed in 1998, this work is number two from an edition of six

Provenance

303 Gallery, New York.
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

Literature

Great Illusions, exh. cat., Kunstmuseum, Bonn 1999 (another from the edition illustrated, p. 80).
Thomas Demand, exh. cat., Paris, Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, November 2000-February 2001 (another from the edition exhibited, pp.78-79).
Thomas Demand, exh. cat., Art Pace, San Antonio 2001, no. 3 (another from the edition illustrated, unpaged).
Thomas Demand, exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York 2005 (another from the edition illustrated on the front cover and p. 76).
Thomas Demand, exh. cat., Serpentine Gallery, London 2006 (another from the edition illustrated, p. 106).

Special notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Lot Essay

"...Fenster may be the most emblematic of Demand's work. The vertical blinds refuse all eyes. At closer scrutiny, two narrow gaps between the slats of the blinds appear. In these gaps, two indistinguishable shapes are visible. This je ne sais quoi quality is the something that always seems to haunt Demand's work. These Barthian puncti are the teasers that invite the curious. This way, the work is always open, but since these openers are always obscure, like mirrors, we must bring in our own "baggage". Demand's is the architecture of our nostalgia, our smiles, and our fears" (L. Lerup in: Thomas Demand, exh. cat., Art Pace, San Antonio 2001, unpaged).

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