Lot 93 
93
Tony Cragg
Point of View, 2008.
stainless steel
Estimate:
€ 250,000 / $ 275,000 Sold:
€ 475,000 / $ 522,500 (incl. surcharge)
Point of View. 2008.
stainless steel.
With the artist's name and the date, as well as with the foundry mark of art foundry Kayser, Düsseldorf. Unique object. Circa 220 x 85 x 73 cm (86.6 x 33.4 x 28.7 in).
• Unique object.
• The appeal of the high-gloss polished stainless steel and the beautiful shape of the work from the series "Points of View" unfolds from every angle.
• As a static entity it evokes a surprising momentum.
• Tony Cragg's pillars play with geometry, symmetry and physics - they seem to disobey the rules of statics.
• Another stainless steel work from the "Points of View" series was set up in the lobby of the skyscraper "One Vanderbilt" on Vanderbilt Avenue in New York.
PROVENANCE:
Marie Christine Gennart Art Contemporain, Brussels (directly from the artist).
Private collection Belgium (acquired from the above).
"I just want to give the viewers an alternative: an alternative to looking at nature and an alternative to looking at a dull-headed industrial utilitarian reality."
Tony Cragg in an interview with Dr. Jon Wood, 2005, quoted from: Tony Cragg, in: Oxford Reference online.
stainless steel.
With the artist's name and the date, as well as with the foundry mark of art foundry Kayser, Düsseldorf. Unique object. Circa 220 x 85 x 73 cm (86.6 x 33.4 x 28.7 in).
• Unique object.
• The appeal of the high-gloss polished stainless steel and the beautiful shape of the work from the series "Points of View" unfolds from every angle.
• As a static entity it evokes a surprising momentum.
• Tony Cragg's pillars play with geometry, symmetry and physics - they seem to disobey the rules of statics.
• Another stainless steel work from the "Points of View" series was set up in the lobby of the skyscraper "One Vanderbilt" on Vanderbilt Avenue in New York.
PROVENANCE:
Marie Christine Gennart Art Contemporain, Brussels (directly from the artist).
Private collection Belgium (acquired from the above).
"I just want to give the viewers an alternative: an alternative to looking at nature and an alternative to looking at a dull-headed industrial utilitarian reality."
Tony Cragg in an interview with Dr. Jon Wood, 2005, quoted from: Tony Cragg, in: Oxford Reference online.
Tony Cragg's artistic work arises from an almost obsessive engagement with the material itself. "There is nothing but material," says Cragg (quoted from: Westdeutsche Zeitung online, April 3, 2019) and describes himself as a "radical materialist" (quoted from: Thaddaeus Ropac, https://ropac.net/news/563-tony-cragg/). Over the course of his career he has used a wide variety of materials, some of which are unusual, including plastic, fiberglass, plaster, stainless steel and consumer objects, as well as more classic materials such as bronze, wood and granite. Nature has always been the greatest source of inspiration for the creation of his extraordinary shapes. This shows, among other things, Cragg's great interest in natural sciences, in chemistry, physics, genetics and engineering, which flows into his work in many different ways. Even the sculptural groups of the "Early Forms" and the slender "Rational Beings" reference archetypes, to rational thinking and thus to the fields of biology and genetics. Some of them look like organically grown structures, evoke associations with human vertebrae and involuntarily conjure up images of naturally occurring organisms. With the subsequent series of works called "Points of View" Cragg continues to play at these perceptions. In this group the works also hover between figuration and abstraction, seems like amorphous-abstract structures and at the same time evoke the impression of a certain objectivity.
In the work offered here Cragg is obviously playing with the limits of statics, the weight is irrationally distributed and seems - like a growing plant - barely able to keep itself upright. The work evokes a moment of motion, the possibility of transformation and an inherent vitality that is further intensified by the reflective materiality. With the title "Points of View", Cragg explains the characteristic of his sculptures of an all-round perspective: there is not just one single ideal position for the observer. With the viewers walking around them, the works change, reflect their respective surroundings and offer a different spectacular play of forms from each new perspective. [CH]
In the work offered here Cragg is obviously playing with the limits of statics, the weight is irrationally distributed and seems - like a growing plant - barely able to keep itself upright. The work evokes a moment of motion, the possibility of transformation and an inherent vitality that is further intensified by the reflective materiality. With the title "Points of View", Cragg explains the characteristic of his sculptures of an all-round perspective: there is not just one single ideal position for the observer. With the viewers walking around them, the works change, reflect their respective surroundings and offer a different spectacular play of forms from each new perspective. [CH]
93
Tony Cragg
Point of View, 2008.
stainless steel
Estimate:
€ 250,000 / $ 275,000 Sold:
€ 475,000 / $ 522,500 (incl. surcharge)