Domain I

‘I wanted to escape from the boundary of the skin and to acknowledge the body as a place of transformation’ (Antony Gormley)

Executed in 1999, and acquired by Tiqui Atencio and Ago Demirdjian the following year, the present work is the first in Antony Gormley’s landmark series of Domains. Standing almost two metres tall, it is composed of thin steel bars welded together, which coalesce to form a life-size human presence. The Domains marked a new degree of visual complexity in Gormley’s oeuvre. Unlike his lead bodycase works of the 1980s, which wrapped the human form in lead, these works allow light into the centre of the sculpture and capture the body in a state of flux. ‘I wanted to escape from the boundary of the skin and to acknowledge the body as a place of transformation’, explained Gormley (A. Gormley, ‘Domains, 1999—2025’, www.antonygormley.com). Domain I is also an important precursor to his series of Quantum Clouds (1999—2007), a major example of which is permanently installed overlooking the River Thames on the Greenwich Peninsula in London.

Gormley explains the origins and evolution of the series. ‘The Domains really got going when I realised I could describe the space of the body as a matrix formed from 8 lengths of stainless steel’, he writes, ‘and with a loose set of rules: one end of each T-connection should always be on the skin surface, and the rods should be as orthogonal to the original skin surface as possible. As the work progressed, it achieved tension, and a minimum member rule arose, which involved using the least amount of material necessary to convey the attitude of the body, while still allowing it to stand. Each Domain is an attempt to separate the subtle body from the material body; to abstract an attitude and expose it to light and space. It is a diagnostic instrument; both a receiver and a transmitter’ (A. Gormley, ibid.). In 2003, the series reached new heights in the installation work Domain Field at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, Newcastle: a vast congregation of over 200 figures cast from local residents. More recently, works from the series have been included in Gormley’s current retrospective at the Nasher Sculpture in Dallas: the artist’s first major museum survey in the US.

Gormley’s oeuvre seeks to understand the body as a place. Often cast directly from his own form, his works reinterpret human physiognomy through structures that allude to nature, architecture or geometry. In doing so, the artist attempts to move away from sculpture’s view of the body as a static entity, inviting us to reflect on our own forms as dynamic, ever-changing sites. The shifting matrix of Domain I confronts the viewer like an abstract mesh, intimately entwined with the surrounding space. ‘How do you express energy without illustrating muscular movement?’ he asks. ‘The Domain was a breakthrough substituting space and light for mass and structure. There is no skin, each of those trajectories stops where the skin was: internal antennae charting the place where we all live—the other side of appearance’ (A. Gormley, quoted at https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6299777).

For Art’s Sake: Selected Works by Tiqui Atencio and Ago Demirdjian

‘I wanted to understand what it meant to spend one’s life surrounded by and devoted to art’ (Tiqui Atencio)

For Tiqui Atencio and Ago Demirdjian, art functions as a catalyst for conversation: between an artist and the world, and between the public and the society they inhabit. ‘[Artists] are the antennas of the world,’ Tiqui says, ‘picking up on the energy and transforming it into their own vocabulary for us to appreciate, to see, to feel.’ For the Venezuelan-born collector and tastemaker, those conversations began in her early 20s, when her beloved aunt and uncle started taking her to galleries and museums all over the world. Enthralled by the works of art that she saw, Tiqui set out to learn as much as she could, sparking what would become a lifetime endeavour.

The product of these visits, along with countless other conversations, is a dynamic collection that encapsulates the artistic zeitgeist of the past few decades. Following the sale of selected works in New York, Paris and London earlier this year, Christie’s is delighted to present a large and outstanding group from the collection in London this October. Spread across the 20th/21st Century Evening Sale and Post-War & Contemporary Art Day and Online Sales, these works capture Tiqui’s immersion in the British art scene at the turn of the millennium. Among them are exceptional works by Damien Hirst, including Never Mind (1990-1991)—one of the artist’s earliest Medicine Cabinets—and the rare parallelogram-shaped Pharmaceutical Painting Nalorphine (1995). Works by Antony Gormley, Sarah Lucas, Tracey Emin and others are brought into dialogue with international artists including Franz West, Fischli & Weiss and Sarah Morris. The group also pays tribute to Tiqui’s love of Latin American art, with works by artists such as Carlos Garaicoa, Oscar Murillo and Ernesto Neto.

Tiqui’s highly refined eye has led her to become a sought-after advisor to museums around the world. Together she and Ago have served on influential committees including the International Council of the Tate Gallery in London, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris and the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco. Tiqui’s passion to communicate the joys she has found in art has also resulted in several critically acclaimed books, including Could Have, Would Have, Should Have (Art/Books, 2016), For Art’s Sake: Inside the Homes of Art Dealers (Rizzoli, 2020), and Inside the Homes of Artists: For Art’s Sake (Rizzoli, 2024).