Lot 105: CORY ARCANGEL

Photoshop CS: 84 by 66 inches. 300 DPI, RGB, square pixels, default gradient "Blue, Red, Yellow", mousedown y=7600 x=8600, mouseup y=7850 x=8600
This work is unique and is accompanied by a certifcate of authenticity signed by the artist

212.3 x 166.6 cm (83 5/8 x 65 5/8 in)

chromogenic print in artist’s frame

2011

Lisson Gallery, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Expression, nostalgia and humour underpin the œuvre of American digital and new media artist Cory Arcangel, with the present lot embodying all three. The unique work falls into multiple visual art categories which Arcangel describes: "Technically it’s a photograph. It’s a photograph because it’s photographic paper. But obviously I think about them as paintings, because they refer to the history of painting. I also have to think about them as sculptures, because every part of the process is part of the project. They’re sculptures because they play on the idea of what should be hanging in a gallery. In that sense they’re also kind of ready-mades" (Interview with M. Heilmann, ‘Art: Cory Arcangel’, Interview Magazine, online).

Referring not only to Duchampian ready-mades, Arcangel’s series Photoshop Gradient Demonstrations refers to abstract expressionist colour-felds with carefully articulated bands of computer generated colour. While art history has informed the visual narrative, the continual obsolescence and regeneration of technology thematically informs Arcangel’s work. The tension in Photoshop CS arises from this theme of time and nostalgia: "When you implant technological time with art time, people don’t know what is nostalgic and what isn’t" (‘Do it 2: Dara Birnbaum and Cory Arcangel,’ ArtForum, March 2009).

Arcangel’s sense of humour is articulated within the title of the work as it describes the Photoshop specifcations and mouse click position required to recreate the image on
any computer. With tuned irony, each piece in the Photoshop Gradient Series is created as a unique edition, repudiating the inherent infnite nature of digital fles and printing technology.