魯道夫·斯丁格爾

Paula Cooper Gallery, New York (acquired from the artist)

Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2014

Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is cooler in the original. Condition: Please refer to the department for a professional condition report.
"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."

A luxuriant surface of opulent rich blacks, which appear to fold and crease across the flat canvas, Rudolf Stingel’s Untitled is an enchanting example of the artist’s iconic tulle paintings. Extremely rare and highly sought after, Stingel only ever made a handful of black tulle paintings. Having established himself at a time when painting’s end had been declared, Stingel rejected all established norms, emerging as a pioneer within a generation of artists who, instead of abandoning the medium, decided to challenge it from within. The resulting visual diversity of his oeuvre has rendered Stingel truly unique within his contemporary context.  

The endlessly engaging painterly façade of Untitled is unusually formed of a luxurious black pigment that immediately entices and absorbs the viewer, hypnotically drawing them into its illusory rippling folds. Rich in conceptual import, Untitled was meticulously crafted using the method laid out in the artist's infamous Instructions. In 1989, to coincide with his exhibition at Massimo de Carlo, Stingel confounded traditional expectations by publishing a detailed step-by-step handbook, Instructions, which illustrated the exact processes used to create his paintings. The Instructions begin with an application of thick paint in a particular colour which is then overlaid with pieces of gauze. Usually, a layer of silver paint is then sprayed over the canvas, seeping through the gauze which acts almost as a filter or a mask. When the gauze is removed the result is a richly textured surface that alludes to the presence of a materiality which has since disappeared. These instructions challenge the very idea of the artist as creator by enabling the reader to replicate Stingel's exact methods, much like an Andy Warhol Do It Yourself painting, and thus disrupting the persistent myth of the artist as genius.

Ironically, however, Stingel has in reality created an inimitable artwork; not only by using the gauze to articulate paint across the plane of the canvas to ensure a unique composition was created each time, but also by producing his Instructions, which in turn shift his paintings into a more conceptual territory. In a review of Stingel’s 2007 exhibition at the Whitney Museum, Roberta Smith suggested that Stingel’s work touches upon the notion of “empty beauty” by explaining that if an artwork is void of any conceptual foundation then it is not beautiful in any sustained way. Stingel’s real triumph, however, was noted by the curator of his exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Francesco Bonami, who stated that “by disrupting painting’s assumption of material, process, and placement, Stingel not only bursts open the conventions of painting, but creates unique ways of thinking about the medium and its reception” (Francesco Bonami cited in: Exh. Cat., Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Rudolf Stingel, 2007, p. 10).

Stingel’s engagement with his works is ever-changing, resulting in a chameleonic and highly prolific expansion of the vocabulary of painting and its modern-day perception. The artist’s perpetual reframing of his role as artist lies at the heart of his creations. As Roberta Smith summarises, “Rudolf Stingel has made work that seduces the eye whilst also upending most notions of what, exactly, constitutes a painting, how it should be made and by whom” (Roberta Smith, ‘Making Their Mark’, The New York Times, 13 October 2007, online). Utterly seductive and rigorously conceptual, Untitled is a rare and superlative example of the artist’s early facture.