RICHARD ARTSCHWAGER, Quotation Mark, 2013
handmade pair of earrings, cardboard clip and leporello in box
edition 25
published by Whitney Museum, New York, USA
extremely rare
€ 420,- plus € 18,- Track & Trace registered mail

Two texts on leporello read: “These earrings are based on Richard Artschwager’s 1980 Quotation Mark originally fabricated in Formica on painted wood in an edition of 25. Made exclusively for the Whitney Museum in a limited quantity.”
“RICHARD ARTSCHWAGER! [this is the title of the solo exhibition in the Whitney Museum] is a comprehensive review of the artist’s remarkable creative explorations of the mediums of sculpture, painting, and drawing and the first U.S. retrospective exhibition of Artschwager’s work since one organised at the Whitney in 1988.”

On the site of the Whitney Museum the following text announces this limited edition:
“Product Description:
Frame your face with our exclusive, whimsical Quotation Mark Earrings, adapted from Richard Artschwager’s Quotation Mark, 1980. Taken out of context, the quotation mark as an object becomes an ornamental form, adorning and enhancing the shape of your ear. Size: 3/4 inch at longest point. Made of black acrylic painted white to imitate the original, which is white formica on painted wood. Sterling silver post.”

RICHARD ARTSCHWAGER, Blp, 2012
20 x 15 x 5 inches / ca 66 x 50 cm
print on cotton canvas bag, zipper, inner pocket with extra zipper
edition unknown
published by Whitney Museum, New York, USA
mint condition
rare               
€ 495,- plus € 24,- Track & Trace registered mail
inv.RArt Tassen-pr

Apart from being a bag this edition with a matte printed surface may be hung as a piece in itself. For its production it was being taken care of to give the black ‘Blp’ a matte rubberlike thickening layer giving the bag a sculptural outlook.

Richard Artschwager (1923 – 2013) first created his blps (pronounced as “blips”) in the late 1960s. These installed black pill shaped forms or marks were meant to inspire focused looking and draw our attention to places and things around us that often go unnoticed.
Artschwager’s blp began in 1963, in one of his notebooks is written that he was looking for a ‘very hard, dense, heavy after-image’ (notebook 12/23/1963). From 1968 and for years afterwards, the blp would appear on power plants and museum walls. Tamed to paper, the blp continued to have a life of its own. It was occasionally fuzzy and often rubbery.
This remarkable canvas Blp-bag was produced during the artist’s life time.