• Christies auction house James Christie logo

    Sale 1727

    Post War and Contemporary Art Afternoon Session

    New York

    |

    16 November 2006

    Browse Sale
Previous Lot
Search
Next Lot
    • Richard Artschwager (b. 1923)
    Lot 486

    Richard Artschwager (b. 1923)

    Tower III (Confessional)

    Price realised

    USD 240,000

    Estimate

    USD 120,000 - USD 180,000

    Follow lot

    Richard Artschwager (b. 1923)
    Tower III (Confessional)
    formica and oak
    60 x 47 x 32 in. (152.4 x 119.4 x 81.3 cm.)
    Executed in 1980.

    Provenance

    Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
    Saatchi Collection, London

    Contact us

    • Contact Client Service

      info@christies.com

      New York +1 212 636 2000

      London +44 (0)20 7839 9060

      infoasia@christies.com

      Asia +852 2760 1766

    Literature and exhibited

    Literature

    W. Zimmer, "Furniture Outlets (or Formica Follows Functions)", The Soho News, December 1, 1981, p. 48 (illustrated).
    C. van Bruggen, "Richard Artschwager", Artforum 22, September 1983, p. 49 (illustrated).
    S.H. Madoff, "Richard Artschwager's Sleight of Mind", ArtNews, January 1988, no. 87.


    Exhibited

    New Yok, Leo Castelli Gallery, Richard Artschwager, November-December, 1981.
    Kassel, Documenta 7, June-September 1982, Volume 2, p. 20 (illustrated).
    New York, Ronald Feldman Gallery, 1984-A Preview, January-March 1983.
    Paris, Museé National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Alibis, 1984, p. 48 (illustrated).
    Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Content: a Contemporary Focus 1974-1984, the Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, 1984-1985, p. 48, no. 14 (illustrated).
    Paris, Museé National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, l'Epoque, La Mode, La Morale, La Passion, 1987, p. 96 (illustrated).
    New York, Whitney Museum of American Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art; Madrid, Palacio Velasquez and Paris, Museé National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Richard Artschwager, 1988-1989, p. 131, no. 88 (illustrated in the Whitney Catalogue) and p. 86 (illustrated in the Pompidou catalogue).
    Philadelphia, Institute of Contemporary Art; Newport Beach, Newport Harbor Art Museum, Devil on the Stairs: Looking Back on the Eighties, 1991-1992.
    London, Tate Gallery; Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and Deichtorhallen Hamburg , The Froehlich Foundation. German and American Art from Beuys and Warhol, May 1996-April 1997.
    Liverpool, Tate Gallery, Contemporary German and American Art from the Froehlich Collection, June-August 1999.
    New Museum Nürnberg and London, Serpentine Gallery, Richard Artschwager. Up and Across, September 2001-February 2002.
    Wien, MAK, Richard Artschwager. The Hydraulic Door, March-June 2002.
    Bignan, Domaine de Kerguéhennec, Richard Artschwager, June-September 2003.


    Lot Essay

    "I use visual perception as a way of bringing people into my space."

    Richard Artschwager approaches sculpture from the notion that art is first and foremost an object of perception. For an artist whose main concern was eliciting a visceral response from his viewers it comes as no surprise that several of his sculptural works take on the grammar of furniture. Artschwager began to develop his formal style working as a cabinet and furniture maker during the years that preceded his artistic career. It was his experiences with this utilitarian objects that provided him with not only the vocabulary of form but also the technical skills of drafting and craftsmanship that such art-making requires. Furniture, as a utilitarian object, inherently requires participation on the part of an individual in order to fulfill its necessary function. A chair is only useful when sat in, a table is only useful once an item is placed upon it, a mirror is only useful when one looks into it. The same way furniture is cued by the shape and form of the human body Artschwager's sculptures court the human experience inviting us to both occupy its space and respond to it. But this is not to say that Artschwager produces physically accessible objects. The psychic component can only be a result of perceptual activity.

    Tower III (Confessional) invites the viewer to mentally participate in a familiar ritual of revealing ones most intimate and often disturbing emotions. The confessional, as an object, creates an artificial bond between the sinner and the adjudicator. The penitent kneels on one side of a vertical partition will the priest sits erect on the other side, placing the participants in an awkward and uncomfortable physical proximity. The artist reinforces this stilted union in his choice of materials. Formica, a cheap form of plywood, suggests not only a degree of illegitimacy but reduces what was initially a spiritual ritual into a solely spatial event. The viewer who is kept at a strategic distance is invited to participate on a strictly visual level, yet the intimate feelings that accompany this familiar arrangement are forced into the public realm through the actual act of viewing and exhibition. Harping on these private emotions Tower III (Confessional) triggers an uncomfortable external response in each of its viewer, leaving its audience not only vulnerable but standing.

    Other information

    Special Notice

    On occasion, Christie's has a direct financial interest in the outcome of the sale of certain lots consigned for sale. This will usually be where it has guaranteed to the Seller that whatever the outcome of the auction, the Seller will receive a minimum sale price for the work. This is known as a minimum price guarantee. This is such a lot.


    Pre-Lot Text

    PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION

    Recommended features

      • ‘Capturing a feeling of creati
      • ‘Capturing a feeling of creation’: Jeff Koons on Play-Doh

        The artist reveals how he created a work that became an instant icon when it debuted at the Whitney Museum in New York in 2014

      • Francis Bacon’s Study for Port
      • Francis Bacon’s Study for Portrait

        Francis Bacon's poignant celebration of George Dyer, the artist’s most important subject, will star in our Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale on 17 May

      • CoBrA: the last true avant-gar
      • CoBrA: the last true avant-garde movement of the 20th century

        In the 70th year since its founding, we look back on the movement’s brief, furious life. On 23 and 24 April, 20 works by the group will be offered in Amsterdam

      • Collecting guide: West Coast a
      • Collecting guide: West Coast art

        From Hockney to Baldessari, Ruscha to Thiebaud — how the countercultural figures who flocked to California in the Sixties became art establishment names

      • Yves Klein: ‘He had no limit’
      • Yves Klein: ‘He had no limit’

        Daniel Moquay, head of the Klein archives in Paris, discusses the French artist’s spirituality, his relationship with the colour blue — and his love of judo

      • The Tastemakers: Reimagining t
      • The Tastemakers: Reimagining the Rockefeller collection

        ​Six architects, designers and decorators select their favourite lots from the Rockefeller collection, offering ideas for how to use them in a contemporary living space

Share
Email
Copy link
Share
Email
Copy link