L13025

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Lot 351
  • 351

Dana Schutz

Estimate
25,000 - 35,000 GBP
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Description

  • Dana Schutz
  • Feelings
  • signed and dated 2003 on the reverse
  • oil on canvas
  • 46 by 51cm.; 18 1/8 by 20in.

Provenance

Zach Feuer Gallery, New York
Private Collection, USA
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 2005

Exhibited

New York, Zach Feuer Gallery, Material Eyes: David Altmejd, Dana Schutz and Kirsten Stoltmann, 2003-04

Literature

Koenig Books, The Triumph of Painting, London 2005, u.p., illustrated in colour

Condition

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the tonality of the character's face contains fewer yellow undertones, and the strokes of blue pigment towards the lower centre of the composition tend more towards turquoise in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Very close inspection reveals that some of the impasto towards the bottom of the painting has been slightly compressed over time. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultra-violet light.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

Dana Schutz’s Feelings is a painting of contrasts: boldly executed in Schutz’s unmistakeable trademark style, it provokes both compassion and revulsion. The young girl, roughly figured in broad, expressive brushstrokes and a subtly muted palette invites an immediate sympathy and her narrowed eyes and introspective gaze imply a human, relatable grief. Further down the canvas, however, the flat precision of Schutz’s paint breaks down into a cacophony of colour and texture. Squeezed directly from the tube the paint becomes a metaphor for the self-destructive, compulsive face of human misery.

As with much of Schutz’s artistic oeuvre, Feelings occupies a strange reality of her own invention; as she described it, “I feel that in paintings I propose a reality initially and then it can go off from there. I never think about them as being surreal because they are paintings of invented things that operate under their own set of logical conditions. The subjects are very much involved in their own actuality or self-actualizing process” (the artist in interview with Mei Chin, Bomb 95, Spring 2006). In Feelings Schutz balances the real with the surreal, the benign with the destructive, and ultimately postpones the choice, creating a remarkably compelling vision of desolation.