THOMAS RUFF, Gloire au grand Jacques Chirac / Glory to the great Jacques Chirac, 1998
29,9 x 22,4 cm
photographic print, original cardboard envelope
signed, dated, numbered
edition 100 + 20 AP
published by Texte zur Kunst, Berlin, Germany
mint
€ 485,- plus € 15,- Track & Trace registered EU mail
In 1998 Jacques Chirac being president of France is as head of the state also responsible for Foreign Affairs. He lifted his hand and nuclear tests were given free way. Thomas Ruff shows airplanes that start to lift off, human bodies as tools are scattered around. He takes the photographic collage as a means to criticize political structures à la Dada artist John Heartfield.
There is a theory on mirroring texts that create an extra moment of contemplation between what is shown in the image and told in the text. Here, textual parts are used for getting such a division between looking and reading, apparently.
History of prices:
Dobiaschofsky Auktionen, Bern, Switzerland 7 November 2024 SFr. 600,- (hammer price)
SBI Art Auction, Tokyo, Japan 19 April 2014 € 636,- (hammer price)
Additional information
In 1996 Thomas Ruff started his series “Plakate” apparently inspired by the posters of John Heartfield and Russian Avant-garde artists in the twenties and thirties. He made six photographic collage posters on politics of the late nineties.
DIETER ROTH, Der Tränensee [The Lake of Tears], 1973
47,5 x 33 x 5,5 cm
artist’s book, letterpress newspaper printing
edition 150
signed, dated, numbered
published by the artist
very good condition, discoloured cover due to aging as often seen
€ 1.950,- plus € 24,- Track & Trace registered EU mail
Roth published regularly aphorisms in the Anzeiger Stadt Luzern und Umgebung placed among the paper’s usual advertisements. After a series of lines like ‘Ein Flugzeug its ein bözes Wort’ / “An airplane it is an evil word” , ‘Ausgeweint ist ausgeschlafen’ / “Finished crying is finished sleeping” and ‘Es wird einmal gewesen sein’ / “Once it will be has been”. The newspaper cancelled Roth’s campaign after too many readers complained about the incomprehensible messages that obviously didn’t advertise anything at all. In 1973 Dieter Roth published all his 248 aphorisms in ‘Das Tränenmeer’ (The Sea of Tears).
This artist’s book is also in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam: Dieter Roth Collection Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
Aphorism: ‘Die Beweinen, die wollen beweint werden D.R.’
History of prices:
Querido Antiquariat, Germany December 2024 € 2.300,-
Querido Antiquariat, Germany August 2024 € 2.800,-
YANN SÉRANDOUR, Distorted (essay by Daniel Buren for John Knight’s exhibition catalog “Łeetsoii”) – red, 2016
beech wood, comes in black and red sets of four different chairs
signed, dated on certificate
each edition 2 + 1 AP
published by More Publishers, Brussels, Belgium
inv.YSer 000
In 2017 two other versions were added to the edition: in green and blue.
LILY VAN DER STOKKER, Argument Wall painting (You know what you do? Why don’t you just go walk a bit), 1998
15,3 x 20,2 x 2 cm
colour photo, certificate of authenticity, colour slide, authorized in print with artist’s full name, plastic sleeve
framed between glass as issued
limited edition 4
published by the artist
p.o.r.
GERHARD RICHTER, Editionen 1965-1993, 1993 [poster edition]
84,5 x 59 cm
offset on paper signed in pencil
edition unknown
mint
published by Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany
p.o.r.
Apart from a signature in print this poster is also hand signed in the middle below the image.
Salon, issue No. 1 [February], 2016
21 x 14,8 cm
art magazine, 160 pp.
limited edition 100
published by Salon Verlag & Edition, Berlin, Germany order at Salon Verlag
LILY VAN DER STOKKER, (design wallpainting 7m high with flu yellow couch, in light blue, 2000), 2001
33,6 x 39,3 cm
lithographic offset
verso: signed in print
edition 1000
published by Edition Griffelkunst, Hamburg, Germany
very good condition
This print comes from a set of 5 prints published by Griffelkunst. Verso with text: ‘Lily van der Stokker, Edition griffelkunst 2001, einmalige Auflage (design wallpainting 7m high with fluo yellow couch, in light blue, 2000)’
Hardly detectable stock aging at right back side:
inv. LvdS314
GERHARD RICHTER, Eis, 2016
19,5 x 11,5 cm
artist’s book, offset, 144 pp., ca 320 grams
46 by hand tipped-in black and white images
limited edition 350
published by Salon Verlag, Cologne, Germany mint
inv. GRich 309
€ 260,- plus € 12,- Track & Trace registered EU mail
This book is a facsimile of Gerhard Richter’s original design for ‘Eis’, an artist’s book first published by Galeria Pieroni in 1981. The brown yellowish glue stains shining through the pages of that dummy are reproduced here, as an extra factual layer. The 46 pictures – glued in the middle of the book – are reproductions of photos Richter took in Greenland.
The most interesting contribution Gerhard Richter has managed to deliver in the comtemporary visual arts is the uninterpreted image, i.e. an image without interpretation, morality or emotion. A picture made with the objectifying camera leads to a matter of pictorial fact. Since we are used to read images within a fraction of a second Richter manipulates his images by blurring them, and so creating a cooler distance from the viewer looking at an image. Due to this added misty curtain it is more difficult to detect what is going on. Also it blocks a first fast reading. What Emmanuel Kant analysed for the theory of knowledge is what Gerhard Richter analysed for the pictorial phenomenology, i.e. knowledge a priori (knowledge one is born with) or a posteriori (knowledge achieved by experience) is comparable to Richter’s observation that a photo is empty (no thoughts, no ideology, no theme, no order) or loaded (with ethics, aesthetics, etc.).
Since Gerhard Richter is convinced that the objectivity of the (snapshot) photo has to be helped by providing it with manipulations of distance, he states that painting a photo is the best way to bring its emptiness of no position to perfection.
Reading ‘Eis’ against the background of the above one may say that Richter’s idea to make this artist’s book with no beginning and no ending is expressing his will to neutralise a fixed direction of reading (in fact, there are no texts to read). Black and white images are glued in and some are shown upside down towards each other, depending from where you start reading the book. After some confusion one may accept its awkwardness of how to read on and a kind of reader’s ‘floating’ is created. This awareness of being in a cloud is the detached situation Richter is looking for. In German one would say: “Richter’s richtige Richtung” leading to a void in which there is no urge anymore to judge. The reader finds himself in a pictoriality of no beginning and no ending.
The tipped-in images in the middle seen from the book edge:
History of prices:
Stefan Schuelke Fine Books, Cologne, Germant January 2025 € 280,-
eBay-carolinanitsch, New York, USA US$ 1,500.- September 2023
Studio Bibliografico Marini, Valenzano, Italy € 439,- September 2023
Galerie Buchholz, Cologne, Germany € 680,- September 2023
eBay-carolinanitsch, New York, USA US$ 900.- December 2022
Galerie Buchholz, Cologne, Germany US$ 351.- December 2022
eBay Kleinanzeigen-Christian, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Sankt-Augustin, Germany € 550,-
July 2022
Studio Bibliografica Marini, Rome, Italy € 350,- July 2022
eBay-carolinanitsch, New York, USA US$ 900.- December 2021
Antiquariat Querido-Frank Hermann, Düsseldorf, Germany US$ 255.- December 2021
Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, Germany € 240,- July 2021
Antiquariat Querido-Frank Hermann, Düsseldorf, Germany € 220,- April 2020
JESSICA STOCKHOLDER, Place mats, 2002
each 35,6 x 26,7 cm / 10 1/2 x 14 inches
pack of 100 double-sided paper place mats
offset
edition 1000
mint condition
published by The Renaissance Society / University of Chicago, Chicago, USA
inv.JStoc 299
History of prices:
Unoriginalsins.co.uk, Midlothian, UK June 2023 GBP 45.-
The Renaissance Society, Chicago, USA June 2022 US$ 30.-
Artware, New York, USA July 2016 US$ 40.-
The Renaissance Society, Chicago, USA January 2012 US$ 30.-
TAKAKO SAITO, Hutschachspiel, 1990
ca 16,5 x 21,5 x 27 cm
grey bowler hat, gouache, wooden chess pieces
signed, numbered, dated
edition 10 + 2 AP
sold
The edition Hutschachspiel comes in the colour black. There is an AP edition of 2 that comes in grey; here number AP 2/2. The miniature set of wooden chess pieces are put on a tiny hand painted chess board pattern.
