Christopher WOOL, Absent without leave

How to define artistic influence ? Let’s take for instance a book published by Christopher Wool in 1993, titled “Absent without leave”. I can’t be sure today’s artists have seen it, or even heard of it. But its content – black and white photocopied photographs of European urban landscapes – resonates with many recent works, focused on the status of images after their alteration. Namely, RH Quaytman, Wade Guyton, Nathan Hylden, and countless others.
Christopher Wool is more well known for his canvases, such as the word paintings. His photo work has less been exhibited, and seems totally out of the scope of the art market. But the way Wool xeroxed the prints, then printing them in offset, in a repetitive yet imperfect manner, fits well with many contemporary strategies in the art world. What is more, “Absent without leave” enjoys an interesting book design. The pages paper and binding yield with an impression of both density and fragility. Its aesthetics pre-announces the return to the very direct and simple style of many publications of our time (Nieves for example), with at least a ten years advance.
For all these reasons, as an answer to the initial question, the book may well become a “classic”, exerting influence for some time again.

April in NY, Photographs auctions

NY will host a new round of art auctions, focused on Photography, held at Christies, Sothebys and Philips de Pury. They will represent an interesting test for the photo market, in a time when art collectors seem to look for “unique” pieces, not editions (I will try to come back to this point later).
Here is a small selection of lots:

Sothebys, April 13
EDWARD BURTYNSKY
'VERMONT MARBLE COMPANY #5, ABANDONED GRANITE SECTION, ROCHESTER, VERMONT'
large-format chromogenic print, mounted, mounted again to foamcore, framed, a title/edition label, signed in ink, on the reverse, 1991, printed in 2001, no. 1 in an edition of 7 (Quarries, p. 69)
12,000—18,000 USD
A real test after strong results for Burtynsky’s prints last autumn
Sothebys, April 13
PHILIP-LORCA DICORCIA
LONDON
chromogenic print, mounted, signed in pencil on the reverse, overmatted, framed, 1995, one in an edition of 15
10,000—15,000 USD
One of the nicest images of the “Streetwork” series

Christies, April 15
JOHN COPLANS (1920-2003)
Self Portrait (Clenched Fist over Thumb), 1988
gelatin silver print
signed, titled, dated, numbered '2/12' in pencil and copyright credit reproduction limitation stamp (on the reverse of the mount)
$4,000 - $6,000
Coplans’ work seems underestimated, at least by the art market.

Christies, April 15
DAIDO MORIYAMA (B. 1938)
Untitled (Lips), 2007
photosilkscreen on canvas
signed in ink, printed credit, title, date and number '1/1' on a Certificate of Authenticity affixed (on the frame backing)
$8,000 - $12,000
This image was the cover of Moriyama’s Fondation Cartier show. Could beat the estimate.

Images courtesy the artists, Christies, Sothebys

Cyprien GAILLARD, Working in a State of Emergency

In 2007, Cyprien Gaillard, a young French artist, went to Glasgow to take photographs of housing projects and graves that were to be destroyed (the buildings) or restored (the graves). The series, titled “Working in a State of Emergency” evokes an archeological process. The printing and framing of the images goes on with this metaphor: the C-Prints are given a sepia note, while the photographs are place under several layers of matte boards, as if they had been buried and re-discovered many years later.
Photography here retains its first role: keeping trace of a vanishing subject. Thanks to Cyprien Gaillard, these buildings that are not allowed to become ruins (as Hubert Robert’s paintings are full of), are given a lasting mausoleum.

Jonathan MONK, Billboard Project #1

For fan of conceptual artist’s books (and only for them ?), Three Star Books has just published the last book effort by Jonathan Monk. The Billboard Project is just what its title say, but in a brilliant way: Monk photographed, or more precisely had somebody photograph a 4x3m billboard he designed to be the colophon of the future book. Symmetrically, the internal pages of this book are actually sliced cuts of the billboard (the visual result being a mix of Martin Kippenberger’s Old Vienna Posters and Giovanni Anselmo’s Leggere).

Each detail has been thought over. For instance, every person involved in the production has been mentioned in the colophon. And the price of the book, published in only 40 copies, is the one given by the advertisement for a digital camera, visible at the left of the billboard: 599 EUR.