Untitled

Details

Christian Rosa (B. 1982)
Untitled
signed and dated ‘Christian Rosa 2014’ (on reverse)
oil, charcoal, oil stick and graphite on canvas
78 ¾ x 78 ¾in. (200 x 200cm.)
Executed in 2014

Provenance

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner.

Special Notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction. All sold and unsold lots marked with a filled square in the catalogue that are not cleared from Christie’s by 5:00 pm on the day of the sale, and all sold and unsold lots not cleared from Christie’s by 5:00 pm on the fifth Friday following the sale, will be removed to the warehouse of ‘Cadogan Tate’. Please note that there will be no charge to purchasers who collect their lots within two weeks of this sale.

Lot Essay

Untitled is characteristic for the reductivist and eloquent approach to abstract painting that Brazilian born contemporary artist Christian Rosa has become known for. A fast-rising artist, Rosa was prominently featured in the group exhibitions Pangaea: New Art from Africa and Latin America at the Saatchi Gallery London in 2014. Playing with the formal legacy of such great Abstract painters as Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian and citing the lyrical abstraction of Cy Twombly and the automatism of Joan Miro, Rosa explores the archaeology of painting by creating abstract pictorial universes with a raw energy that is simultaneously reminiscent of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Using pencil, charcoal, spray and oil paint, Rosa allows disparate black squares, gestural calligraphic squiggles, marks and blotches of primary colour, suggestive of anthropomorphic forms, to float across the large canvas. With his unique punk rebelliousness, however, Rosa dispenses with the rules of high Modernism. By incorporating the notion of failure and chance as a guiding conceptual model into his paintings, he allows for emotive, visual experience and gives rise to open-ended works that encourage the viewer towards more interior contemplation and modes of enquiry.

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