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拍品專文
Christopher Wool's enigmatic painting Untitled is the culmination of a series of canvases in which he examines the nature of the gesture in relation to contemporary art. Throughout the history of modern painting the supremacy of the gesture has remained constant. From the drips of Jackson Pollock to the expressive brushstrokes of Willem de Kooning and even Pop images of Andy Warhol, the act of making a distinguishing mark upon a surface is what has defined the artists' role in society. It was in this context that Wool began to question the very existence of the gesture and instigated a series of work which questioned the importance of this act and its centrality in the genre of contemporary painting.
In 1997 Wool began a series of paintings in which he began to investigate the notion that the act of destruction could be just as valid as a means of artistic expression as the act of construction. Thus began a series of works in which Wool would lay down, cover, erase, hide and stain various screen-printed layers of paint onto a large canvas resulting in paintings that contained a permanent sense of instability. Untitled marks the triumphant final stage of this process in which Wool takes this progression to its ultimate incarnation, using a photograph of one of these altered canvases and screening it in its entirety, thereby capturing the instability and formally conferring upon it the mantle of 'high art'.
Just as Robert Rauschenberg famously erased Willem de Kooning's work in 1953, Christopher Wool's has persistently challenged the nature of art and has questioned the nature of painting in the modern world. His emergence as an artist in the early 1980s coincides with a period of soul searching within the art world about the status of painting. In his seminal 1981 essay "The End of Painting," the influential curator and art historian Douglas Crimp condemned the belief in painting and the investment in the human touch that was perceived to be crucial to maintaining painting's unique aura (Cf. Douglas Crimp, "The End of Painting," October, Vol. 16 (Spring 1981), pp. 69-86). It was into this environment that Wool began his exploration of the painterly process and the different techniques that could be used to expand its properties. The result is one of the most innovative bodies of work produced by an artist of his generation. In his infamous encounter with Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg succeed in erasing the gesture from art, with a work such as Untitled Wool has re-establishing its validity and ensuring its relevance for future generations.
In 1997 Wool began a series of paintings in which he began to investigate the notion that the act of destruction could be just as valid as a means of artistic expression as the act of construction. Thus began a series of works in which Wool would lay down, cover, erase, hide and stain various screen-printed layers of paint onto a large canvas resulting in paintings that contained a permanent sense of instability. Untitled marks the triumphant final stage of this process in which Wool takes this progression to its ultimate incarnation, using a photograph of one of these altered canvases and screening it in its entirety, thereby capturing the instability and formally conferring upon it the mantle of 'high art'.
Just as Robert Rauschenberg famously erased Willem de Kooning's work in 1953, Christopher Wool's has persistently challenged the nature of art and has questioned the nature of painting in the modern world. His emergence as an artist in the early 1980s coincides with a period of soul searching within the art world about the status of painting. In his seminal 1981 essay "The End of Painting," the influential curator and art historian Douglas Crimp condemned the belief in painting and the investment in the human touch that was perceived to be crucial to maintaining painting's unique aura (Cf. Douglas Crimp, "The End of Painting," October, Vol. 16 (Spring 1981), pp. 69-86). It was into this environment that Wool began his exploration of the painterly process and the different techniques that could be used to expand its properties. The result is one of the most innovative bodies of work produced by an artist of his generation. In his infamous encounter with Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg succeed in erasing the gesture from art, with a work such as Untitled Wool has re-establishing its validity and ensuring its relevance for future generations.