
Penny Day
Head of UK and Ireland
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£15,000 - £20,000
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Head of UK and Ireland

Head of Department

Director
Provenance
With Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, 21 February 2003, where purchased by the present owner
Private Collection, U.K.
The present work is the product of a meticulous procedure of pouring and tipping that Davenport began employing in 1996. Each panel is sanded smooth and sprayed with household liquid gloss paint in a selected base colour. Then, working on the floor, Davenport pours dark pigment directly on to each panel so that it pools in a circular form. Just before this expanding disc reaches the edge of the board, the panels are tipped upright, allowing the excess paint to run off, leaving an arched form in its wake. Once dry, the process is repeated, this time with the base colour poured so that the dark pigment becomes a sliver, bounding across the triptych.
The arches appear identical at first glance, but scrutiny reveals differences. The artist has commented, 'you read the surface as pretty immaculate but on closer inspection you find all the smudges and finger marks around the edge and little bits of grit' (quoted in David Batchelor, Ian Davenport: New Paintings, exh.cat., Waddington Galleries, London, 2003, p.9). Davenport's work mimics the language of industrial production, yet it is resolutely handmade. The machine-like perfection of the forms is contradicted by the evidence of their making.
We are grateful to the Artist's Studio for their assistance in cataloguing this lot.
Please note that this lot will be transferred to Cadogan Tate on Thursday 1 July.