UGO RONDINONE, 2000-2005 [Contemporary, print]

UGO RONDINONE, 2000-2005
colour print
26 x 20 cm
hand signed, numbered
sticker at the back of the print is mounted upside down
edition 4500, here number 2522
mint
published by Contemporary, London, UK
rare
private sale
€ 260,- plus € 12,- Track & Trace registered EU mail
inv.URon 387-pr

Contemporary was a monthly art magazine based in London, founded and edited as The Green Book by Keith Spencer as a quarterly publication. It re-emerged twice, the first time under the title Contemporary Art in 1993 and the second time again as Contemporary in 2002, but not limited anymore to visual arts. Once subscribed to the magazine each issue came with a print, with ink stamped signature and sometimes hand signed on sticker.

UGO RONDINONE, Cigarettesandwich, 2011

UGO RONDINONE, Cigarettesandwich, 2011                                                                                                                                     DVD 52′, jewel case
edition 300
published by Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Switzerland
not available

Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone examinins the psychic and emotional nature of even the most banal events that occur in real life. Since 1997, Rondinone has been making neon-lit, rainbow-colored signs from phrases he appropriates from pop songs and everyday exclamations that are joyous affirmations of love and life, including the sculpture “Hell, Yes” which spells out the title in gigantic rainbow letters on the facade of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in Manhattan’s Bowery district in New York City.

History of prices:
Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Switzerland     € 300,- / US$ 400.- August 2012

UGO RONDINONE, still.life. (apple), 2008

UGO RONDINONE, still.life. (apple), 2008                                                                                                                   2.25 x 2.5 x 2.25 inches
painted bronze, lead
edition 20
not available

Ugo Rondinone’s “still.life (apple)” is a highly realistic, lead-filled, painted bronze sculpture. A promotion text explains: ‘As the title still.life suggests, Rondinone’s multiple represents a self-contained, frozen moment; weighted and isolated with lead. This apple is an object of desire: it is a sublime example of trompe l’oeil, which reflects a long tradition of still life in paintings’.

History of prices:
Sculpture Center, New York, USA     US$ 6,500.- February 2012

UGO RONDINONE, Nothing but the night, 2010

UGO RONDINONE, Nothing but the Night, 2010
10 × 10 cm, unique series of 10
published by NBK / Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany
not available  

In New York based mixed-media artist makes works exploring themes of fantasy and desire. Many of his pieces invite the viewer into a meditative state like the blurred, brightly colored, concentric rings of his target-shaped paintings; or his strictly black and white landscapes of gnarled trees that seem to bristle with questionable energy. His large rainbow signs are just as enigmatically alluring with their imperative affirmations of “Hell, Yes!” or “Our Magic Hour.” These signs seem to point to some hidden aspect of our reality and history. One sign, “Dog Days Are Over,” proclaims an end to a period of turmoil, but what that period is remains unclear. The signs encapsulate and make palpable an unnamed collective desire, and, in turn, may inspire a new one, e.g. this voyeuristic piece ‘Nothing but the night’.

History of prices:
NBK / Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany     € 1.600,- December 2012