Contemporary Art

Live Virtual Auction, 15 February 2020

Contemporary Art

Sold for

ZAR 136 560
Lot 59
  • Mikhael Subotzky; Keith, Lavender Hill
  • Mikhael Subotzky; Keith, Lavender Hill
  • Mikhael Subotzky; Keith, Lavender Hill


Lot Estimate
ZAR 80 000 - 120 000
Selling Price
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
ZAR 136 560

About this Item

South African 1981-
Keith, Lavender Hill
2005

photographic edition 6/9

smashed edition 1/1

inkjet print framed and mounted on Dibond, with face-mounted toughened glass smashed by the artist
82 by 54,5cm excluding frame

Notes

Mikhael Subotzky’s smashed works are an ongoing series dating back to 2004 when, after a death in Pollsmoor prison, Subotzky sought to photograph the body of a deceased prisoner with his (the prisoner’s) parents’ permission. “After printing it, I agonised over whether to take such a violent image back to Chris’ mother. I could hardly look at the image, but she took one look at my print, kissed its surface and pushed it to her chest, thanking me for helping her to put her son to rest.The image haunted me for years and I had a strange but strong instinct that I wanted to smash it. This felt like a very scary, violent thing to do, in some ways re-enacting the violence done to Chris. But I soon realised that conversely, in smashing the glass, I was also covering up the burnt nakedness of his body.” Through smashing this and other photographs, Subotzky’s relationship to photography has fundamentally changed, he sees it as his method of being able to relate to the pain of others and to “the pain I feel in myself.”1

 

1. https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artwork/44546/Mikhael-Subotzky-Keith-Lavender-Hill

Exhibited

Goodman Gallery booth, Art Basel, Miami Beach, 2016.

View all Mikhael Subotzky lots for sale in this auction


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