Black is Beautiful, So Is White, So Is...

Details

Alistair Mackinven (B. 1971)
Black is Beautiful, So Is White, So Is...
signed with the artist's initials, titled and dated 'BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL, SO IS... 2006 A.J.R.M.' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
76 ¾ x 65in. (195 x 165cm.)
Painted in 2008

Provenance

Hotel Gallery, London.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2008.

Exhibited

St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, Newspeak, British Art Now, 2009-2010 (illustrated in colour, p. 180). This exhibition later travelled to London, Saatchi Gallery.

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. VAT rate of 20% is payable on hammer price and buyer's premium

Brought to you by

Stefano Amoretti

samoretti@christies.com +44 (0)20 7752 3323

Lot Essay

Black Is Beautiful, So Is White, So Is... was the first work created as part of Alastair Mackinven’s sixteen-piece series Jerking Off the Dog to Feed the Cat, informed by 1960s agitprop posters promoting various causes. This work is based on the texts and graphics of a civil rights poster about racial equality, adapted into a monochrome format that decontextualizes its original purpose and message. ‘This allows me the possibility to paint from every political position’ states Mackinven. ‘It’s a way for me to do feminist, right wing, or black power painting.’ Mackinven’s depictions of graphic text in monochrome also bears witness to the influence of Jasper Johns, inviting comparison with his number and alphabet paintings.

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