Wim Delvoye, Clio, 2001-2002

Wim Delvoye, Clio, 2001-2002

Steel, x-ray photographs, glass, lead, fluorescent lights.  200 x 80 cm. (78 3/4 x 31 1/2 in).  Est. £25,000-35,000

PROVENANCE Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris

EXHIBITED New York, Sperone Westwater, Wim Delvoye: Gothic Works, 13 September - 26 October, 2002

LITERATURE Exhibition catalogue, Sperone Westwater & Manchester City Art Galleries, Wim Delvoye: Gothic Works, New York, 2002, p. 82 - 83 (illustrated)

NOTE The artistic output of conceptual Belgian artist Wim Delvoye, an enfant terrible of the contemporary scene, is wide ranging and richly layered. He gained notoriety in 1992 when he displayed his elaborately sculpted faeces on ornate tiles at Documenta in Kassel. Delvoye has continually pushed the boundaries of what is permissible, blurring the parameters between art and life.The present lot, a large scale backlit stained glass window, belongs to a recent body of work, Gothic Works, in which the artist employs techniques associated with various medieval craft traditions. Clio is from a series of nine windows each featuring prints sandwiched between panes of coloured glass.When the window is recessed into the gallery wall and backlit to create an X-ray like image, a surreal abstracted scene is revealed. But what first appears to be floating fields of colour turns out to be images of copulating couples. "The whole idea [says Delvoye] is that you come in the gallery and see this very abstract work.Then you start to read these things and find what's really happening." (Wim Delvoye as quoted in P. Laster, ‘XXX-ray Vision,' Time Out NewYork, 17 October, NewYork, 2002, p. 22)

Philips de Pury & Company. Contempory Art Evenig Sale. Juen 29 2009 London. www.phillipsdepury.com