Juan Muñoz

Sean Kelly, New York
Private Collection, Dallas
Zwirner & Wirth, New York
Private Collection

This work is in very good condition overall. There are a few small patches of discoloration. There are 1 1/2 inches of light wear accretion 8 1/2 inches from the bottom, at the front of the sculpture.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

"The acceptance of this condition of blindness is important to the pieces. They are looking inwards, and that looking inwards automatically excludes the receiver, the person in front. The most successful statues give the impression that they are humming inside even though you can't hear them." - Juan Muñoz

Residing in the highest tier of Juan Muñoz's prodigious sculptural output, Single Conversation, No. 2 is a work of tremendous thematic potency and irresistible tactile magnetism. The indefinable, elusive figure rocks back on its rounded base with arms resolutely locked, eyes bolted shut, and mouth not only closed but decidedly smothered. This confined being, trapped within a restrictive bundle that denies any bipedal human existence, stands as the artist's definitive allegory for the banality of quotidian communication, thereby informing the work's ironic title.

Emerging out of Muñoz's celebrated balcony and floor pieces, the Conversation cycle involved a combination of both casting and modeling in resin, with ochre patinas achieved by sand being thrown at a wet painted surface of liquid resin. The present work is archetypal of this critical series, with its stiff bodily expression apparently both confronting and ignoring the presence of the viewer. Indeed, this reappraisal of the relationship between viewer and modeled figure has been concisely summarized by Michael Brenson: "The figures are always seen more than they see, more known than they know. Even as Muñoz insists on the necessity of human consciousness, he evokes an omniscient, godlike consciousness of which the consciousness of any human being is just a pitiful fragment." (Michael Brenson in Exh. Cat., Washington D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Juan Muñoz, p. 160).