Trans Am Apocalypse
80 cms x 127 cms (31.5 ins x 50 ins)
Initialed and dated 2016
made in 2016
Lot offered for sale by Heffel, Vancouver at the auction event "Works on Paper (7th session)" held on Thu, May 29, 2025.
Lot 820
Lot 820
Estimate: CAD $5,000 - $7,000
Realised: CAD $5,313
Realised: CAD $5,313
Lot description - from the online catalogue*
Provenance:
Private Collection, Ontario
Notes:
Across John Scott’s career, he would frequently return to imagery that would emphasize a roughly finished vision of a world in turmoil, underpinned by raw ferocity and occasionally morbid humour: bunny-eared half-men become astronauts and business yuppies, fighter jets are held aloft by wry wordplay, piles of skulls animated by the frenzied engines of history. From a career spanning four decades, perhaps no more evocative image from Scott’s practice were the Trans Am Apocalypse sculptures: using the point of a nail, Scott hand scratched the entire text of the Book of Revelations into the black-painted bodywork of two vintage Pontiac Trans Ams. That text - a biblical vision from another prophetic John, St. John the Divine - became an act of transformation, elevating the muscle cars into burly apocalyptic horsemen. Scott returns to that subject here, rendered in a night-blackened sleekness that recalls the weight and speed of his vision of a machine future.
John Scott: Firestorm, a major retrospective of the artist's career, is showing at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection until May 11.
Private Collection, Ontario
Notes:
Across John Scott’s career, he would frequently return to imagery that would emphasize a roughly finished vision of a world in turmoil, underpinned by raw ferocity and occasionally morbid humour: bunny-eared half-men become astronauts and business yuppies, fighter jets are held aloft by wry wordplay, piles of skulls animated by the frenzied engines of history. From a career spanning four decades, perhaps no more evocative image from Scott’s practice were the Trans Am Apocalypse sculptures: using the point of a nail, Scott hand scratched the entire text of the Book of Revelations into the black-painted bodywork of two vintage Pontiac Trans Ams. That text - a biblical vision from another prophetic John, St. John the Divine - became an act of transformation, elevating the muscle cars into burly apocalyptic horsemen. Scott returns to that subject here, rendered in a night-blackened sleekness that recalls the weight and speed of his vision of a machine future.
John Scott: Firestorm, a major retrospective of the artist's career, is showing at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection until May 11.
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.