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Lot 86
Imants Tillers(born 1950)Untitled (It was 8pm. Just imagine. The painting sees you, but you do not see it.)
Amended
11 – 12 May 2022, 17:00 AEST
SydneySold for AU$6,765 inc. premium
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Merryn Schriever
Managing Director, Australia
Alex Clark
Head of Sale, Senior Specialist
Imants Tillers (born 1950)
Untitled (It was 8pm. Just imagine. The painting sees you, but you do not see it.)
synthetic polymer paint on nine canvasboards
each panel numbered sequentially with stencil verso: '39677-39685'
114.0 x 76.0cm (44 7/8 x 29 15/16in).
synthetic polymer paint on nine canvasboards
each panel numbered sequentially with stencil verso: '39677-39685'
114.0 x 76.0cm (44 7/8 x 29 15/16in).
Footnotes
PROVENANCE
Contemporary Benefactor's Dinner, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1994
The Gene & Brian Sherman Collection, Sydney
Imants Tillers was one of the very first artists introduced to Sherman
Galleries by Bill Wright in 1991. His overarching and ongoing Book
of Power – comprising tens of thousands of small, numbered, panel
boards – mitigated costly Australian freight bills whilst providing a
visual springboard for the artist's intellectual interests and conceptual
preoccupations; the nature of perception, the significance of place, the
role of chance.
Looking to mirror Imants' triumphant United States début, An
Australian Accent, organised by John Kaldor in 1984 at MoMA PS1,
and via the good offices of the National Gallery of Australia's curatorial
staff, Imants was selected to participate in the first Beijing Biennale in
2003. The Biennale was a somewhat chaotic affair, given the global
nature of what was an early Chinese government initiative seeking-soft-power and the fact that a tiny fraction of the organisers spoke
English (or indeed any language other than their own).
In light of the short timeframe between invitation to participate and
opening date, we agreed to lend our own 292 panel mega work
Izkliede (1994) and the almost equal-in-scale Mexico Etcetera (2001), owned by private Sherman Galleries' collectors.
The artist, unable to travel to China at the time, entrusted the
activation of the Project to his gallerist (moi) and, accompanied by the
enthusiastic collector of the second significant Tillers work, I travelled
to Beijing in order to install the two monumental works and attend the
opening. I had a faint hope that Imants' works might be singled out
for special attention, perhaps winning one of the generous excellence
awards which I thought would hugely add to the thrill of the occasion.
On arrival, with gusto we started navigating the complexities of the
country's first ever government-sanctioned, mega visual arts event.
We had three full days before the grand opening and approximately
800 panels to piece together relying on a team of Chinese workers
who understood no English and had not worked on art installations
prior to the Biennale. All hands to the deck – at least theoretically.
In reality, the work, officially on site according to our correspondence,
was nowhere to be found. We rushed here and there, hoping to
quickly lay our hands on the missing crates, via quick engagement
of a paid translator, to better explore the highways and byways of the
country's unwieldy bureaucracy. To no avail. Night followed day as,
with beating hearts, we frantically rushed against time. Calls to the
Australian Embassy were made, help was solicited from China-familiar
Australian academics, many of whom had arrived in the Beijing for the
grand event and, after 24 hours marked by resounding failure, I was to
be found exhausted in the bath, a glass of whiskey in hand and tears
rolling down my cheeks.
And then miraculously, almost biblical in its revelation, the crates
turned up. Somehow, they had become the subject of an
interdepartmental dispute over who was responsible for certain
charges. The full story was never revealed.
Sherman Galleries' longstanding Head of Installation was flown to
China overnight, worked without pause for almost 24 hours (with a
now double-in-size manually dexterous Chinese team) and voilà - the
opening saw two gloriously sophisticated Tillers' works, enormous in
scale at 305 x 915cm and 305 x 853cm, mounted centre stage and
viewed in respectful silence by admiring crowds.
Miracles, a rarity by definition, are not normally replicated. However, in
this instance, during the attendant-to-the-show's official proceedings,
a second unexpected surprise awaited us. Imants had won the
Grand Prize, with a substantial cheque and an Oscar-like statue
ceremoniously handed over to me. When I mounted the stage to
receive the award on behalf of Imants, I believe they might have taken
me for the artist. At that point my energies were so depleted I smiled,
bowed low and, without attempting to explain further, reached out
my hands in deep relief and gratitude that we had accomplished the
seemingly impossible.
At a time when the fledgling Beijing avant-garde art scene has grown
to rival the energy and talent of Soho, having an Australian artist catch
the slowly massing art wave was a small coup, Sherman believes:
'All the speakers were talking about welcoming international art into
China, cultural exchanges and so on ... which people told me hadn't
been heard in Beijing for over a century'.
Dr Gene Sherman
Saleroom notices
The correct title for this work is Painting for Closed Eyes II, 1993