Happy April Fools Day! First of all, while I am honoring April Fools Day, this is by no means an April Fools joke. You can click on the aqua links if you don't believe me. I generally don't second-guess auction house results and I'm quite willing to let the market pay as much or as little as it likes for artwork. For myself, if I were to be in the fortunate position of being able to pay almost $8,000,000 for a work of art, I would want something a bit more colorful, perhaps a bit more figurative, but, hey, that's just foolish me. This painting is clearly seen as an important, iconic part of the artist's output, and that's fine by me. Really.
This represents an auction record for American artist Christopoher Wool. I would point out that the word Fool differs from the name Wool by only one letter, so there may be something personal or even self-deprecating in the word choice for this painting. But it should be plain to all now that Christopher Wool is no fool. There, I had to say it.
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Christopher Wool (b. 1955)
Untitled
signed, inscribed and dated 'WOOL 1990 W11' (on the reverse) enamel on aluminium 108 x 72in. (274.5 x 182.8cm.)
Executed in 1990
Estimate
£2,500,000 - £3,500,000
- ($3,945,000 - $5,523,000)
Price Realized
£4,913,250
- ($7,713,803)
- Sales totals are hammer price plus buyer’s premium and do not reflect costs, financing fees or application of buyer’s or seller’s credits.
14 February 2012
London, King Street
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VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer's premium.
Provenance
Collection of the artist.Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York.Fredrik Roos Collection, Malmo.Private Collection, Los Angeles.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2006.
Pre-Lot Text
PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED EUROPEAN COLLECTOR
Literature
Christopher Wool, exh. cat., Valencia, Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, 2006 (installation view illustrated, p. 11).
M. Thomas, 'Christopher Wool', in Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 28 November 1998 (illustrated).
Exhibited
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Christopher Wool - Cats in Bag, Bags in River, 1991. This exhibition later travelled to Bern, Kunsthalle Bern and Cologne, Kölnischer Kunstverein.
Los Angeles, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Christopher Wool, 1998, p. 288, no. 65 (installation view illustrated, p. 62). This exhibition later travelled to Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art and Basel, Kunsthalle Basel.
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