Sterling Ruby

Pace Gallery, New York

Private Collection, Belgium

Sale: Phillips, London, Contemporary Art Evening Auction, 27 June 2013, Lot 24

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate, although there is more contrast in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition.
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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."

A hypnotic expanse of shimmering pearlescent paint, Sterling Ruby’s Alabaster SR10-7 is a mesmerising example of the artist’s multifaceted oeuvre, which encompasses ceramics, collage, biomorphic sculpture, video, photography and above all abstract painting. Raised in the west-coast of America, Ruby’s diverse background involved stints as a construction worker, as a teaching assistant with Mike Kelley and a brief spell as a professional skateboarder, all roles that have all come to shape the idiosyncratic nature of the artist’s enigmatic output. To address what Ruby sees as the deficiencies in Minimalism, his art simultaneously both indulges and critiques the excesses and social constraints of contemporary society. Lauded as one of the most interesting artists to emerge in the Twenty-First Century by New York Times art critic Roberta Smith, Ruby has risen to great critical acclaim with solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2008), the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rome (2013) and at the Baltimore Museum of Art this year.

Alabaster SR10-7 brilliantly translates Ruby’s rejection of Minimalism’s rigid line into concrete form. In the present work the artist has frenetically ranged as though with an expressionistic fervour across the piece leaving behind great drips and smatterings of iridescent acrylic paint. Alabaster SR10-7 is quite literally a visual articulation of Ruby’s re-injection of the personal into Modernist painting, whilst it also innovatively brings to light the contemporary tension that exists between decoration and vandalism. As the artist recalls, "everything I do holds a kind of gesture in it. For me, it’s this kind of dramatic gesture. A truncated gesture. It’s like an expression that was at one point very fervent and then it just gets kind of stopped" (Sterling Ruby in conversation with Hans-Maarten, Utopia Parkway, 10 December 2009, online resource).