Wim Delvoye, Cabinet (Installation of 14 Delft sawblades and 2 Delft gas canisters), 1990

Wim Delvoye, Cabinet (Installation of 14 Delft sawblades and 2 Delft gas canisters), 1990

Fourteen Delft painted sawblades and two Delft painted gas canisters in wood and glass cabinet.  217 x 111 x 54 cm. (85 1/2 x 43 3/4 x 21 1/4 in).  Signed and inscribed 'WDelvoye Installation of 14 Delft Saw Blades and 2 Delft gas cans' on a label adhered to the reverse of the cabinet. Est. £55,000-65,000

PROVENANCE Claudio Poleschi Arte Contemporeanea, Lucca, Italy

NOTE The art of Belgian artist Wim Delvoye is notable for the irony and humour with which it subverts popular and common objects. The work of this critic of modern consumerism has often been compared to that of a sixteen-century compatriot, Bruegel, who filled his paintings with incongruous associations bearing the stamp of folklore and the burlesque. Delvoye thus belongs in a specifically Belgian artistic tradition of combining humour, absurdity and incongruity, one that stretches from bambochades to Marcel Broodthaers. But Delvoye’s influences are not limited to this culture of carnivalesque laughter, for he has also been inspired by the decorative features of the Gothic architecture found in abundance in his homeland, and uses rose windows, ogive arches and blazons to decorate the everyday objects that he appropriates from our consumer society, such as diggers, concrete mixers, trucks and ironing boards. (K. Tuszynski, Of Mice And Men, X Rays, Galerie Guy Bärtschi, Geneva, 2008)

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