Lot 40: SEAN LANDERS

Midnight in the Oasis
Signed, titled and dated "'Midnight in the Oasis' ©1995 Sean Landers" lower left.

84 3/8 x 122 in. (214.3 x 309.9 cm)

oil on linen

1995

New York, Andrea Rosen Gallery, 13 April–20 May 1995

Ha, Paul, Cynthia Daignault and Michelle Reyes Landers, eds. Sean Landers: 1990–1995, Improbable History. Zürich: JRP|Ringier Kunstverlag AG, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 2011 (illustrated).

Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
Private collection

"...I stopped writing on paper and started writing on lead primed linen. I wanted it to last. That’s behind my impulse to make art. I want it to last, to outlast me... I transfer my life into artworks, into these static objects, and when I die that's all that will be left. Perhaps that’s corny, tacky, laughable, or whatever you want to call it, but it's at the basis of my impulse to do this. I've always taken great pleasure in telling the truth, especially when it’s the ‘wrong’ thing to do. Most artists will do their damnedest to avoid this kind of statement."

(Landers quoted in Leíth, Caoimhín M., and Beatrix Ruff. "Interview with Sean Landers." SEAN LANDERS. Zurich: JRP Ringier, 2004. p 44.)