Golden Alex (Highlander)
100 1/2 x 63 1/4 in 255.2 x 160.6cm
Lot offered for sale by Heffel, Vancouver at the auction event "Fall 2008 Live auction" held on Wed, Nov 19, 2008.
Lot 063
Lot 063
Estimate: CAD $40,000 - $60,000
Realised: CAD $40,950
Realised: CAD $40,950
Lot description - from the online catalogue*
Provenance:
Private Collection, Ontario
Exhibitions:
Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta College of Art, Calgary, Attila Richard Lukacs, Recent Work 1990, October 11 - November 18, 1990
Literature:
Attila Richard Lukacs, Recent Work 1990, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta College of Art, 1991, reproduced unpaginated
Notes:
Following the collapse of Communism in Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, economic stagnation ensued during the period of transition to a free market economy, which left many Germans unemployed and in dire living conditions. Many of them were working class East German youth who, enraged at their situation, could be seen with shaved heads wandering the Tiergarten, a park located in the centre of Berlin which also houses the city's zoo. These East German youth often inhabited abandoned buildings in the eastern section of the city and transformed these spaces into nightclubs. Lukacs first displayed his large-scale canvases depicting these youths in such a space.
Like many of Lukacs's works from this period, Golden Alex (Highlander) is a monumental canvas. The painting has as its subject the skinheads and primates with which Lukacs is famously and controversially associated with. However, the menace and violence that often permeates his work is replaced here with a stoic calm. The skinhead iconography is present with the figure's shaven head, Fred Perry laurel logo on his shirt and Doc Martin boots with red laces, but these elements have been subverted by cloaking him in the gold leafed plaid of a Scottish Highlander. The look on his face and his pose seem to suggest a private introspection. His posture is one of inner strength more than active menace, and violence is replaced with a feeling of protective brotherhood for his primate companion. Overhead two birds fly in tandem, mirroring the central figures. Rather than being an attempt to fetishize the ultra-masculine and aggressive, this canvas seeks to show us the possibility of a humanity hidden behind the subject's exterior disguise of his uniform.
Please note: This work will be available for pick-up or delivery from PacArt, Toronto, post-auction.
Private Collection, Ontario
Exhibitions:
Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta College of Art, Calgary, Attila Richard Lukacs, Recent Work 1990, October 11 - November 18, 1990
Literature:
Attila Richard Lukacs, Recent Work 1990, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta College of Art, 1991, reproduced unpaginated
Notes:
Following the collapse of Communism in Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, economic stagnation ensued during the period of transition to a free market economy, which left many Germans unemployed and in dire living conditions. Many of them were working class East German youth who, enraged at their situation, could be seen with shaved heads wandering the Tiergarten, a park located in the centre of Berlin which also houses the city's zoo. These East German youth often inhabited abandoned buildings in the eastern section of the city and transformed these spaces into nightclubs. Lukacs first displayed his large-scale canvases depicting these youths in such a space.
Like many of Lukacs's works from this period, Golden Alex (Highlander) is a monumental canvas. The painting has as its subject the skinheads and primates with which Lukacs is famously and controversially associated with. However, the menace and violence that often permeates his work is replaced here with a stoic calm. The skinhead iconography is present with the figure's shaven head, Fred Perry laurel logo on his shirt and Doc Martin boots with red laces, but these elements have been subverted by cloaking him in the gold leafed plaid of a Scottish Highlander. The look on his face and his pose seem to suggest a private introspection. His posture is one of inner strength more than active menace, and violence is replaced with a feeling of protective brotherhood for his primate companion. Overhead two birds fly in tandem, mirroring the central figures. Rather than being an attempt to fetishize the ultra-masculine and aggressive, this canvas seeks to show us the possibility of a humanity hidden behind the subject's exterior disguise of his uniform.
Please note: This work will be available for pick-up or delivery from PacArt, Toronto, post-auction.
Most realised prices include the Buyer's Premium of 18-25%, but not the HST/GST Tax.
(*) Text and/or Image might be subject matter of Copyright. Check with Heffel auction house for permission to use.
(*) Text and/or Image might be subject matter of Copyright. Check with Heffel auction house for permission to use.