Winner Jumalon

This work is in good condition overall, as is the canvas. There is minor wear and handling to the edges, but the paint layers are well-preserved and stable. Under ultraviolet light inspection there is no evidence of restoration. Unframed, on stretcher.
"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."

Grotto presents the artist’s incessant preoccupation with art as a process that is personal and spiritual, even sacred, but one that is also dictated by political economy, especially today. The work lays out images, notably of beasts, from cave paintings along with contemporary depictions of the flesh, which include that of the animal (as in Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog) and of humans (as in Damien Hirst’s Virgin Mother, and in the portrait of the wealthy British artist himself). The prehistoric images drip into stalactite figures while the contemporary ones accrete as stalagmites. Together, they draw the eye to an unmarked center of a cave—a space that contains either the dark within, or the light without.

Using loud, pastel colors, Grotto invites the viewer into a conversation across time, between a culture that presumably did art in anonymity and a celebrity culture which banks on the individuality of its artists. To put it crudely, the “conversation” echoes back and forth in the continuum of art that was created “in the dark” on the one end, and art which is being produced in the limelight, on the other.

Screwed on the canvas are portraits of other international artists encapsulated in resin, recalling religious images in Catholic altars as it does cold liquid in caves trickling ever so slowly. Grotto brings forth the mythological symbolism of the cave as the meeting-place—or shrine, if you will—for figures of deities and ancestors. It is like a torch or lantern in this exploration of the cult of the artist: hunter-gatherers from long ago, and now the hunted in the complex cult site of the modern art market.