Acrylic on canvas

49 × 59 cm. 19 1/4 × 23 1/4 in.

Signed in English and dated on the reverse
PROVENANCE
Almine Rech Gallery, New York
Acquired directly by present private Asian collector from the above

The “Gentleman Painter” Wandering through Art History
Rising Art Star——Genieve Figgis

“A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally.”
——Oscar Wilde

The Irish poet Wilde once said that “An artwork is the unique result of a unique temperament.” As a high-profile contemporary female artist, Genieve Figgis, born in Dublin, Ireland in 1972, is like a “gentleman” wandering in art history. In her beautiful and ironic paintings, people could feel the tenderness in the cruel reality.

In 2014, Figgis published a new work on the social platform Twitter. The highly recognizable painting style and the unique theme of grafting classical and contemporary have attracted the attention of the famous American artist Richard Prince who collected the paintings of Figgis and promoted the rising star. With the flowing vortex brushwork similar to oriental calligraphy, she quickly gained the favor of Asian collectors. In December 2020, her work Wedding Party set a new personal auction record at a high price of nearly 10 times the estimated value, 4.41 million Hong Kong dollars.

See the Insight into the Soul through Illusion, Surpass the Life with Humor

Figgis is known for her witty and subversive appropriation of iconic works in art history, such as Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Édouard Manet, and others. Gentleman in a Forest presented this time comes from the Gentleman series that won high praise for her in 2014. In this series, Figgis creates an image of a gentleman riding a white horse, walking through and galloping in a medieval square constructed in red and blue color. The painting contains the artist's response to Jean-Honoré Fragonard's classic masterpiece The Isle of Love. In the painting, the flowing strokes of Figgis dispel all the hints about the environment and overturn the aristocratic tradition of the Rococo period; the noble men and women on the boat of the original The Isle of Love are transformed into middle-class gentlemen, implying the class discrepancy and contradiction in the social structure. Different from the “red sky and blue ground” background often seen in the paintings of the same series, Figgis deliberately exchanges red and blue, which not only indicates the alternation of day and night, but also refers to deep political meaning. The towering tree canopy grows in the dark blue that represents traditional power. The bright green outline indicates that the new power will eventually break free from the shackles of tradition. The white brushstrokes that spread like snowflakes become the footprints of a gentleman, separated between red and blue, like the independent sober consciousness, becoming starlight for insight into the truth in the dark night. Figgis transforms idealism in Fragonard's painting into a realistic stage of undercurrents, using a “flaming gothic” gorgeous style and the “presence” outside the incident, perfectly interpreting the Wilde style humor, “Nothing is more annoying than being calm.” The delicate emotions and subtle insights originated from the woman identity of the artist convey the same melancholic romance like that in the Starry Night Over the Rhône by Vincent Van Gogh, enabling the viewers to feel the warmth from the cruel reality in the contradiction.

Price estimate:
HKD: 230,000 - 350,000
USD: 29,500 - 45,000

Auction Result:
HKD: 360,000