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Lot Essay
Widely acknowledged and respected as one of the most visually striking and compelling contemporary Southeast Asian artists in recent years, the popularity of Natee Utarit's works across Europe and Asia can be traced to the distinctive visual impact and complexity of his art, which references Western art history and Classicism, commentaries on contemporary society, as well as explorations of truth, beauty and culture.
Produced as part of the artist's 2006 Fragment and the Sublime series, The Peel and Emptiness/ David (Lot 159) showcases a fragmented rendition of Michaelangelo's David, configured as a hollow and shredded work of bronze. Perhaps the antithesis of its marbled Renaissance ancestor, Natee's deconstruction of classical imagery weighs in on the value of historical aesthetics and its influence in the modern world. Through the fragmentation of archaic ideals toward form and beauty, the artist expounds a critique on the complexity of contemporary society, where truth and reality are often muddled by illusions of perfection, fantasy and idealism.
He explains, ‘What interests me about illusion is that it has no inherent reality yet under its influence, certain things can take on a concrete form. Things that exist in reality and things that are true are transformed into layers of overlapping shadows that cannot be distinguished one from the other.' (Natee Utarit, The Fragment and the Sublime, exhibition pamphlet, Valentine Willie Fine Art, July 2006.)
Yet, there is a sublimity to be found in the artist's revisionist approach towards classical imagery, an inimitable quality in a new world order where tension between antiquity and the contemporary creates a unique work of art that is so very compelling. Recalling an earlier work in 2003, Tulip/The Shape of Venus (Lot 160) similarly reflects the artist's experimentation with the deconstruction of classic works of Western art. A diptych featuring on one panel, a still life of a tulip extracted from an unnamed classical painting, and on the other, a stained bust of Venus, Natee subverts the power of the image that fools and mesmerises the viewer with an illusion of reality.
Produced as part of the artist's 2006 Fragment and the Sublime series, The Peel and Emptiness/ David (Lot 159) showcases a fragmented rendition of Michaelangelo's David, configured as a hollow and shredded work of bronze. Perhaps the antithesis of its marbled Renaissance ancestor, Natee's deconstruction of classical imagery weighs in on the value of historical aesthetics and its influence in the modern world. Through the fragmentation of archaic ideals toward form and beauty, the artist expounds a critique on the complexity of contemporary society, where truth and reality are often muddled by illusions of perfection, fantasy and idealism.
He explains, ‘What interests me about illusion is that it has no inherent reality yet under its influence, certain things can take on a concrete form. Things that exist in reality and things that are true are transformed into layers of overlapping shadows that cannot be distinguished one from the other.' (Natee Utarit, The Fragment and the Sublime, exhibition pamphlet, Valentine Willie Fine Art, July 2006.)
Yet, there is a sublimity to be found in the artist's revisionist approach towards classical imagery, an inimitable quality in a new world order where tension between antiquity and the contemporary creates a unique work of art that is so very compelling. Recalling an earlier work in 2003, Tulip/The Shape of Venus (Lot 160) similarly reflects the artist's experimentation with the deconstruction of classic works of Western art. A diptych featuring on one panel, a still life of a tulip extracted from an unnamed classical painting, and on the other, a stained bust of Venus, Natee subverts the power of the image that fools and mesmerises the viewer with an illusion of reality.