£7,560
Contemporary & Post-War Art // Prints & Multiples | 724
Auction: Contemporary & Post-War Art
Acrylic on Card
Note: We believe this work to be a unique, hand painted developmental piece that was the made in advance of the exhibition 'Elephants at the Woodmill' at artist led space, The Woodmill, in London in February 2011.
This was the first outing of Nicolas' elephant plinth works, shown later that year at The Modern Institute's 'Dinner For 24 Elephants.'
Through Nicolas Party’s dream-like lens, traditional portraiture and still life subjects are transposed into a world that is vivid and surreal. Party works across painting, sculpture and installation, usually implementing a signature jewel-toned palette. While his subjects invariably derive from nature, Party renders their organic forms smooth and geometrical, elucidating their underlying form: a head is portrayed as a sphere; a tree as a cylinder surmounted by a cone; an elephant as a cuboid.
This unique hand-painted sculpture was a preparatory piece for Nicholas Party’s 2011 exhibition ‘Elephants at the Woodmill’. Each side of the cuboid bears a detailed painting of an elephant’s form, creating an interesting interplay between the flat planes and the three-dimensionality of the subject and plinth. ‘Elephants and the Woodmill’ brought together artists from London’s Woodmill Studios, and was the culmination of Party’s residency with Studio Voltaire’s New Work Scotland programme. Party’s seventeen elephant plinths were placed throughout the exhibition space, with Woodmill studio members displaying their works upon the plinths.
New York-based Party was born in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1980. In his late teens and early twenties he was a graffiti artist, and would sneak out at night to paint on walls and trains. He drew constantly, and on the strength of his work was accepted to Lausanne School of Art. Party then studied for an MA at the Glasgow School of Art, graduating in 2019. He has since built up an international reputation, and is recognised as one of the biggest names in contemporary art. His work is held in public collections in London, Zurich, Essen and Nanjing.