Provenance
Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich
Exhibited
Zurich, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, large, dark & empty, 8 September–17 November 2007 (another example exhibited)
Literature
Zurich, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, large, dark & empty, 8 September–17 November 2007 (another example exhibited)
Catalogue Essay
“Maybe it’s an obvious choice but those are the things I relate to. What if I did an Fabergé egg? Would that be better? Even if I have nothing to do with it? I just use stuff that’s around me. And those objects, those domestic images, as you call them, are made in human scale, so they can also be related to humans. They’re made by humans for humans. They speak about us. They are things you are bound to deal with.” (The artist, in an interview with Massimiliano Gioni, in Urs Fischer and Alex Zachary, Urs Fischer: Shovel in a Hole, New York and Leipzig: New Museum and JRP Ringier, 2009, p. 63). Urs Fischer’s sculptural work takes unrelated everyday objects out of their normal contexts and merges them into one new startling object. In doing so, he opens up the concepts of material, structure, habit and transience to question. Fischer’s interest in reconfiguring objects is also expressed in the material he alludes to, often by juxtaposing opposites such as delicacy with mass, hardness with softness, the natural with the industrial, the grand with the subtle. “One searches for the links and tangential points of such pairs of characteristics – organic and inorganic, hard and soft, angular and circular – and one finds them both in the attentive and humorous eye that the artist casts on ‘things’ and in the dialog that he creates between them, which relies upon his use of materials and the way he puts his ideas into practice” (from the press release for the exhibition Urs Fischer: large, dark & empty, at Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, 8 September – 17 November 2007). The present lot Thank You Fuck You is composed of a washing machine, a ladder and a pillow made out of cast aluminium. The three individual objects, that one would naturally not associate within the same context, or at least not within one object, are fully immersed in white enamel, finished with a clean, opaque, almost velvety and seamless surface, covering the object’s original materials of wood, metal, feather and fabric. By uniting these components into a single structure and disguising their natural medium, Fischer creates an unusual dynamism and energy between the parts – he is creating, as Fischer termed it, an abstract “situation”, in which Fischer divests the objects of their natural, implied functions, making them redundant and thereby creating a whole new object altogether, playing with the opposed qualities of light and heavy, soft and hard, organic and artificial, subtle and grand. “I don’t even think about the object, I think about a situation … about what’s going on between elements in a work. Not compositionally, but almost politically, and definitely structurally” (the artist, Urs Fischer and Alex Zachary, 2009, p. 63). Fischer’s analysis of everyday objects with which we interact on a daily basis and may take for granted, makes one associate Fischer’s work with artists such as Duchamp, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Gober, Dieter Roth and Franz West. Fischer offers the viewer a fresh and unique angle on the world and the life of objects around us. By changing the familiar into the unfamiliar, Fischer questions their reality and underlying statements while simultaneously creating new, fascinating works with a unique aesthetic.

6

Urs Fischer

Thank You Fuck You

2007
Cast aluminium, acrylic paint.
153 × 185 × 141 cm (60 1/4 × 72 7/8 × 55 1/2 in).
This work is from an edition of 2 plus 1 artist’s proof.

Estimate
£600,000 - 800,000 ‡

Sold for £657,250

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

27 June
London

1
Urs Fischer
Oh, Sad, I See
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000
Sold for £145,250
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2
Jacob Kassay
Untitled
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000
Sold for £145,250
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3
Glenn Ligon
Stranger in the Village #8
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000
Sold for £253,250
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4
Ugo Rondinone
Get up girl a sun is running the world
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000
Sold for £541,250
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5
This lot is no longer available.
6
Urs Fischer
Thank You Fuck You
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡
Sold for £657,250
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7
Wade Guyton
Untitled
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 ‡
Sold for £205,250
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8
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Self-Portrait
Estimate £2,000,000 - 3,000,000 ‡
Sold for £2,057,250
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9
Beatriz Milhazes
O Moderno
Estimate £650,000 - 750,000 ♠
Sold for £713,250
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10
Tony Cragg
The Fanatics
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ‡♠
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11
Kelley Walker
Untitled
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000
Sold for £145,250
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12
Sean Scully
Small Horizontal Robe
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡♠
Sold for £253,250
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13
Ilya Kabakov
A Solemn Painting
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡♠
Sold for £241,250
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14
Cecily Brown
I Will Not Paint Any More Boring Leaves (2)
Estimate £350,000 - 450,000 ‡♠
Sold for £529,250
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15
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡
Sold for £577,250
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16
Andy Warhol
Mao
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000
Sold for £373,250
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17
Alighiero Boetti
Untitled
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 ‡
Sold for £193,250
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18
Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled (Vogelköpfe)
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ♠
Sold for £241,250
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19
Beatriz Milhazes
O Conflicto
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ♠
Sold for £181,250
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20
Damien Hirst
Confession
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ♠
Sold for £690,850
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21
Mark Tansey
Library (of Babylon)
Estimate £1,200,000 - 1,800,000 ‡
Sold for £1,161,250
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22
Ugo Rondinone
11.September 2008
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡
Sold for £121,250
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23
Peter Fischli and David Weiss
Brush Pot
Estimate £30,000 - 50,000
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24
Christopher Wool
Untitled
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡
Sold for £97,250
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25
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate £500,000 - 700,000 ♠
Sold for £657,250
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26
Victor Vasarely
Binaire FF
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ‡
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27
Andreas Gursky
Heidelberg Ost
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ♠
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28
Heinz Mack
Untitled
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ♠
Sold for £109,250
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29
Marino Marini
Cavallo
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡
Sold for £421,250
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30
Thomas Struth
Pergamon Museum IV, Berlin
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ♠
Sold for £109,250
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31
Andy Warhol
Muhammad Ali
Estimate £180,000 - 220,000
Sold for £217,250
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32
George Condo
Don Diego
Estimate £180,000 - 220,000
Sold for £205,250
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