Apocalypse Now (painting)
Apocalypse Now is a 1988 painting by the American artist Christopher Wool, widely regarded as among the most important of his "word paintings" created in the late 1980s.[1][2][3] It consists of the words "SELL THE HOUSE SELL THE CAR SELL THE KIDS", stenciled in black, block letters in alkyd enamel[4][5] on an off-white painted aluminum and steel plate measuring 84 x 72 inches (213.4 x 182.9 cm).[4] The quotation is from the 1979 Francis Ford Coppola movie Apocalypse Now, where it is written in a letter mailed home by a character who has lost his mind in the jungle.[1][a]
The work (a first version of which exists on paper
Apocalypse Now was exhibited in the
Ségalot engineered a 2001 sale to François Pinault, owner and chairman of Christie's auction house, for approximately $400,000.[1] Pinault sold it four years later to hedge fund manager David Ganek (of Level Global Investors) for approximately $2 million.[1] Ganek was reported to have taken bank loans out against the painting,[1] which changed hands again shortly before a Christie's auction on November 12, 2013, where it sold for $26,485,000 to an unnamed buyer.[4][7][8] In its lot description, Christie's described the painting as "timeless and affecting, imposing and arresting" and "of robust relevance today".[4]
The sale of Apocalypse Now broke the previous Christopher Wool auction record of £4,913,250 ($7,758,022) set in February 2012 by Untitled ('Fool').[9] The record was in turn eclipsed in May 2015 when Untitled ('Riot'), a work Wool painted in 1990, sold for $29,930,000 at Sotheby's.[10] An unnamed European curator told The Art Newspaper that Wool's reputation as a blue-chip "must-have artist" was established by a 2008 limited edition monograph issued by Taschen,[11] but that his market inventory, in relatively short supply, was at risk of being controlled (like that of Jean-Michel Basquiat) by a small, powerful clique of collectors.[8]
Notes
- ^ In the 1979 film the full text of the letter, written by Captain Colby, reads "SELL THE HOUSE/SELL THE CAR/SELL THE KIDS/FIND SOMEONE ELSE/FORGET IT!/I'M NEVER COMING
HOMEBACK/FORGET IT!!!"[6] - ^ The 1988 enamel on paper version of Apocalypse Now measures 28.3 × 26.8 in (71.8 x 65.4 cm) and is in the collection of Stephanie Seymour.[6]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Silver, Vernon; Tarmy, James (October 9, 2014). "The 350,000 Percent Rise of Christopher Wool's Masterpiece Painting". Bloomberg Business. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ^ a b Schjeldahl, Peter (November 4, 2013). "Writing on the Wall: a Christopher Wool Retrospective". The New Yorker. Retrieved January 5, 2016.
- ^ a b c Flood, Richard. Wool Gathering Archived 2017-05-03 at the Wayback Machine, Parkett, no. 83, 2008, p. 142. Retrieved January 5, 2016.
- ^ a b c d e "Apocalypse Now by Christopher Wool (b. 1955), auction November 12, 2013". Christie's Auction House. November 12, 2013. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ^ a b c Larson, Kay (May 27, 1991). "The Subplot Thickens". New York Magazine. p. 67. Retrieved January 5, 2016.
- ^ a b c "Christopher Wool: WORDS". Guggenheim Arts Curriculum. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
- ^ Schwabsky, Barry (December 18, 2013). "Surviving the Moment". The Nation. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
- ^ a b Harris, Gareth (September 20, 2013). "Why the rise of Christopher Wool?". The Art Newspaper. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
- ^ "$7.8 M. Artist Record for Christopher Wool Set at Christie's Evening Sale". The Observer. February 14, 2012. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
- ^ Duray, Dan (May 13, 2015). "Sotheby's Delivers a Solid, If Slow, $379.7 M. Contemporary Sale, With Records for Polke, Wool, More". ARTnews. Retrieved January 5, 2016.
- ^ "Wool: His painting spells TRBL". Taschen Books. 2008. Retrieved January 4, 2016.