Marc Quinn

Galerie Hopkins-Custot, Paris
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Colours: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the pink is stronger in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition.
"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."

In his mesmerizing work, Pink Sphinx, Marc Quinn takes Kate Moss, a modern day icon, and contorts her ubiquitous image into a yoga position of unyielding difficulty.   Cast in bronze using the model's body parts, the artist created the sculpture around a position held by another, resulting in a highly constructed and inorganic composition that teeters on the edge of reality and illusion.  Quinn uses Kate Moss to investigate such disparities and conflicts as those between the spiritual and the physical and the internal and the external – differences that Quinn sees as the defining traits of humanity.

 

A highly visible person in contemporary society, Kate Moss is immediately recognisable, and yet, by the public, not known at all.  To this end, Quinn's portrait, its pink colour, blank expression and unearthly position, is the perfect representation of a woman whose image is created, emulated and idealized through a collective unconscious.  While the work is a portrait, it adheres to none of the traditional notions of portraiture, making no attempt to convey her inner self; instead it presents the viewer with a portrait of an image.  Rather than a person, Quinn's Pink Sphinx faces the audience as an unearthly deity, an idea, an image, to be worshiped with the same vigor in which it was collectively created.