Galerie Lelong was established in 1981 with spaces first in Paris and then New York showcasing a history of modern masters like Joan Miro, Pierre Alechinsky, Antonio Tapies and Alberto Giacometti. They remain ranked among the top global art galleries, a feat further impressed by their longevity. So when they added Kate Shepherd to their roster with her first solo exhibitions at their New York gallery in 2001 and 2002, that was quite a statement. A solo in their Paris showroom in 2003 was the exclamation point.
This particular painting was completed at the time of the Paris exhibition, and it's a brilliant representation of Kate's ouvre. One of my favorite critics is Barry Schwabsky, and he wrote the forward for the exhibition's catalogue (a copy of which will be included with this sale). He describes one of Kate's paintings in this show in a way that I find reflects similarly to this one, a diptych entitled Cranberry Stage, Transparent Scrim, Wings and Curved Sides: "It is as if there were two independent logics, two unrelated kinds of decision-making going on here. There is the architecture of the painting, and then there is the architecture within the painting -- the architecture of the object and the architecture of the image."
Kate's flawless abstraction evokes the ghosts of Mondrian and Newman all at once, an architectural geometry sculpted in an absolute that is dynamically dimensional. There is no better testimony to this than an exhibition at the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. in 2010 as part of its Intersection series. It was called Relation to and yet not (homage to Mondrian) featuring Shepherd's paintings on view with respect to the collection's own Mondrian Composition No. III and Painting No. 9. Need I say more?
Schwabsky further notes: "Shepherd's poetic architecure suggest, oh so gently, that architecture may not be real, nor we who haunt it either. She makes us see both the space within painting and the space within which painting is placed as phantasmatic. And if there is no one else to be seen within those spaces, then who else is the specter who troubles them but their percipient?"
This painting is signed and dated 2003 with the additional inscribed KS03P18 (on the reverse) and features enamel on wood panel in a 64 x 48" format
Fun fact: Kate was commissioned to design the official poster for the French Open in 2007. A copy of that is included in the pictures.
Kate Shepherd, Gauze Buildings, Wine to Black, 2003, enamel on wood panel
Take it home, hang it on the wall in that just-right spot, or move it around a bit, live with it for a bit. And if you find for whatever reason it's simply not perfect for you, we'll take it back. No questions asked. You will receive a full refund for the price of the painting. But please note that any custom framing that was done for you cannot be refunded.
