Where Does It All End

Details

Sarah Lucas (B. 1962)
Where Does It All End
wax and cigarette
2½ x 3¾ x 2½in. (6.4 x 9.5 x 6.4cm.)
Executed in 1994, this work is from an edition of 10

Provenance

Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York.
Private collection, New York.

Literature

J. van Adrichem, 'Where Does It All End?', in: 'Parkett', no. 45, 1995, (another from the edition illustrated in colour, p. 86).
'BRILLIANT! New Art from London', Minneapolis 1996 (another from the edition illustrated in colour p. 64).
'Sarah Lucas', Rotterdam 1996 (another from the edition illustrated p. 13, 47).
'Sarah Lucas', Frankfurt 1996 (another from the edition illustrated).
'Minky Manky', London 1997 (another from the edition illustrated).
'Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi collection, London 1997 (another from the edition illustrated in colour, p. 117).
B. Riemschneider and U. Grosenick (eds.), 'Art at the Turn of the Millennium', Cologne 1999 (another from the edition illustrated in colour, p. 327).
J. Barnbrook and J. Beard, 'Young British Art: the Saatchi decade, London 1999 (another from the edition illustrated in colour, p. 209).

Exhibited

New York, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, 'Sarah Lucas - Supersensible', Mar.-Apr. 1995.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

'Where does it all end?' is an example of Lucas's self-portraiture where she presents herself as alternatively crude, laid-back and defiant. The work is a play on the visual and linguistic expressions of anger and aggression. The colour of the wax has a certain degree of naturalism, but it also represents hostility. It appears like a face without skin. The expression is not necessarily one of anger, but a threatening grimace that is naked and raw. The exasperated title is not a hopeful one and evokes an expression of resigned despair: "I don't make things which are really preciously made. I don't have the patience to be whittling away at something forever. I make things how I am, in the way I'd naturally do something." (S. Lucas, in C. Freedman, 'Bollocks', in: 'Parkett', no.45, 1995, p.109.)
However, there is dexterity and control in her work. Lucas has pared down, edited out the unnecessary, to create an independent concise form. Lucas's interest in the material condition of the artwork, her use of casts and the reference to her own physique and person suggest an affinity with the work of Jasper Johns ('Target with Plaster Casts', 1955), Bruce Nauman ('From Hand to Mouth', 1967) and Robert Gober ('Untitled Leg', 1989-90).

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