Andreas Gursky - Contemporary Art Part I New York Thursday, May 14, 2009 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Edward Tyler Nahem Gallery, New York

  • Exhibited

    Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Andreas Gursky: Photographs from 1984 to the Present, August 29 – October 18, 1998 (another example exhibited)

  • Literature

    M. Syring, ed., Andreas Gursky: Photographs from 1984 to the Present, New York/London, 1998, p. 37 (another example illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    Andreas Gursky’s works from the 1990s, such as the present lot Untitled IX, 1998, attain a height of simple geometry and the purity of reduced form. The present lot is photographed in the contemporary setting of a Prada store, but it holds the history of Minimal Art within its fine forms. The clarity of the slender unbroken parallel rectangles of the store’s hanging racks seems to be an ode to Donald Judd while simultaneously being a send-up of commercial allure. The multicolor lingerie within the rectangles is reminiscent of Gerhard Richter’s color paintings begun in 1966 where he used color charts issued by paint manufacturers. Like Richter, Gursky uses items from commerce, an extension of the aesthetic of Pop, and turns it into a beautiful minimalist grid.With the rich aesthetic inheritance behind this photograph, Andreas Gursky turns a commercial setting into a realm of perfection.

8

Untitled IX

1998
C-print in artist’s wooden frame.
53 1/4 x 89 in. (135.3 x 226 cm).
Signed, titled and dated “Andreas Gursky O.T. IX ‘98” and numbered of six on the reverse. This work is from an edition of six.

Estimate
$200,000 - 300,000 

Sold for $278,500

Contemporary Art Part I

14 May 2009, 7pm
New York