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Lot 156: ELLEN GALLAGHER, (American, b. 1965), Lips & Paper, 1993, ink, oil, and collaged paper on canvas, 72 x 64 in.

Est: $50,000 USD - $70,000 USDSold:
Grogan & CompanyBoston, MA, USNovember 07, 2021

Item Overview

Description

ELLEN GALLAGHER
(American, b. 1965)
Lips & Paper
1993, ink, oil, and collaged paper on canvas

Dimensions

72 x 64 in.

Artist or Maker

Medium

1993, ink, oil, and collaged paper on canvas

Condition Report

As noted by the artist, the yellow paper has darkened with age. There is faint wear at the edges of the work (this work is not framed), and some surface abrasions visible in raking light, but the work is in overall good condition.

Please note: All property is sold "AS IS" and any statement, whether oral or written, is given as a courtesy and shall not be deemed as a guarantee, warranty, or representation of the authenticity of authorship, physical condition, size, quality, rarity, importance, provenance, exhibitions, literature or historical relevance of the property or otherwise. The absence of a condition report does not imply the item is in perfect condition.

Provenance

Purchased directly from the artist by a Cambridge, Massachusetts woman in the early 1990s. After learning about Gallagher at an event at the Institute of Contemporary Art featuring emerging Boston artists, the Cambridge woman visited Gallagher's studio and purchased this painting. It has hung in her home ever since.

Grogan & Company thanks Ellen Gallagher for confirming the title, date, and additional details about her work.

Exhibitions: Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Milena Dopitova in Context, January 19 - March 27, 1994 (exhibited alongside works by Lillian Hsu-Flanders, Annette Lemieux, Denise Marika, and Ellen Rothenberg).

Notes

Ellen Gallagher works in paint, collage, drawing, and film to communicate social commentary. Her canvases layer everyday materials, soft tones, and symbolism drawn from African–American targeted advertisements and caricatures that recall blackface and minstrelsy. In discussing her use of abstracted bodily forms, the artist notes, "What is crucial to my making of a language and a cosmology of signs is the type of repetition that is central to jazz. You start off with a limited class of signs and, like jazz, you revisit and repeat with slight changes and build structure...as these things are repeated and revised they expand–depending on the configuration of characters." As such, from a distance, paintings in the manner of Lips & Paper read as minimalist and abstract, yet up close the repeating patterns of ink lips, printed on penmanship paper and meticulously laid on the canvas, challenge viewers to engage with issues of race and identity. Lips & Paper was created in 1993, following Gallagher's formative summer at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. It was at this time that she began to increase the scale of her paintings and utilize the technique of transfer printing on penmanship paper applied to stretched canvas, as seen in the present work. The artist considers Lips & Paper to be a direct precursor to her 1994 work Afro Mountain, which was included in the 1995 Whitney Biennial and is now in the Whitney's permanent collection.

In describing her creative process for Lips & Paper, Gallagher writes, "Lips and Paper is the direct precursor to Afro Mountain (1994) which is in the collection of the Whitney and included in the 1995 Biennial. It was made directly following my summer at Skowhegan where I began to increase the scale of the paintings and apply transfer printing technique- that you see further worked out in Afro Mountain.
It was made on canvas stretched over a hard surface. Then the penmanship paper was applied (from the same batch as Afro Mountain, pages which were already printed machine yellow - though on top of that darken with age) to the stretched surface - as I still do now.
Finally, I worked directly over the surface transfer printing the black ink lip forms. applying pressure, burnishing by hand the transfer into the paper canvas ground. I would have been sitting on the canvas rubbing the printed marks into it and then standing up to see the overall view. Lastly, painting and drawing into this printed field. So a kind of haptic weaving of "fixed" signs - (processed these other sounds like memories, the thick process is about histories, embodied lived memories - Bert Williams mastery of the minstrel mask through timing and technology). The historical "fixedness" in combination with more spontaneous directly physical actions. This weaving into the plain of the painting directly develops out of Oh! Susanna, 1993 (Lips and Paper comes a few months afterwards).
During this period (and in partnership with the ICA exhibition In Context), I was allowed access to the printing press at Harvard's Carpenter Center for Visual Arts. Some of these pages have been transfer printed by running through this press. But most are transfer printed by hand rubbing over the paper surface both before the pages were affixed to the canvas support and afterwards."

Payment & Shipping

Accepted forms of payment: Money Order / Cashiers Check, Personal Check, Wire Transfer

Shipping

A list of recommended shippers can be found on our website. Please contact the shipper directly to get quotes and to make arrangements for them to pick up your items at our gallery. The shipper should contact us to make an appointment to pick up the items and purchasers should also call the gallery to authorize release of the items to the shipper.

Auction Details

The Fall Auction

by
Grogan & Company
November 07, 2021, 11:00 AM EST

20 Charles Street, Boston, MA, 02114, US

Terms

Buyer's Premium

30.0%

Bidding Increments

From:To:Increment:
$0$999$100
$1,000$1,999$100
$2,000$4,999$250
$5,000$9,999$500
$10,000$19,999$1,000
$20,000$49,999$2,500
$50,000$99,999$5,000
$100,000+$10,000

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Payment Terms

Acceptable forms of payment include cash, check, or wire transfer. For personal checks over $3,000, property will not be released until the check clears, unless credit has been previously established, or if a bank letter has been received prior to the sale guaranteeing said personal check. All property must be paid for within 5 business days following the sale and removed from the gallery within 20 days. Property not removed from the gallery within 20 days will be sent to our warehouse where storage fees may be assessed. At our option, payment will not be deemed to have been made in full until we have collected funds represented by checks, or, in case of bank or cashier's checks, we have confirmed authenticity.

Shipping Information

A list of recommended shippers can be found on our website. Please contact the shipper directly to get quotes and to make arrangements for them to pick up your items at our gallery. The shipper should contact us to make an appointment to pick up the items and purchasers should also call the gallery to authorize release of the items to the shipper.

Buyer's Premium

A buyer's premium of 25% will be added to the successful hammer price and is payable by the purchaser as part of the total purchase price. Purchases made through Invaluable or LiveAuctioneers will be subject to an additional 5% charge and through Bidsquare a 3% charge.

Taxes on your purchase

Unless exempt by law, the purchaser will be required to pay the Massachusetts sales tax or any applicable compensating use tax of another state on the total purchase price. The rate of sales tax in Massachusetts is 6.25%. For those eligible, a Massachusetts exemption number may be applied for prior to the auction by contacting the Massachusetts Department of Corporations and Taxation, 100 Cambridge Street, Boston, Massachusetts.

Condition Satement

All property is sold "as is" and neither we nor the consignor make any guarantees, warranties or representations, expressed or implied, with respect to the property, merchantability, or correctness of the catalogue or other description of the authenticity of authorship, physical condition, size, quality, rarity, importance, provenance, exhibitions, literature, or historical relevance of the property or otherwise. No statement anywhere, whether oral or written, shall be deemed such a guarantee, warranty, or representation. Prospective bidders should inspect the property before bidding to determine its condition, size, and whether or not it has been repaired or restored. We and the consignor make no representation or warranty as to whether the purchaser acquires any copyrights, including but not limited to any reproduction rights, in the property. However, if within 14 days of the sale of any lot, the purchaser gives notice in writing to us that the lot is counterfeit and within 10 days after such notice, the purchaser returns the lot to us in the same condition as when sold, and demonstrates to our satisfaction that the lot is a counterfeit, we will refund the purchase price.