Auction: 31st October 2023
Preview: 27.-29. October 2023
Once again Van Ham surprises with an extraordinary special sale: on 31 October 2023 the Cologne auction house will be offering the entire series of 270 works which were editioned by the international Swiss art magazine Parkett between 1984 and 2017. This sale represents the very first auction of all Parkett editions on the international market. For those interested in art this is a unique opportunity to acquire works by the most important contemporary artists, with estimated prices ranging from 200 to 500,000 euros. The museum quality of the legendary Parkett editions has already been recognised at exhibition venues of international renown, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan.
Parkett published a total of 270 artist portraits consisting of three to five texts each by respected authors. Every one of the participating artists was actively involved in the design of the publication – from the selection of the images to the page layout – and in addition created an artwork in the form of an edition. The results were prints, sculptures, installations, media works, paintings and drawings. The list of the 234 artists in total (some of whom are represented several times) reads like a Who’s Who of contemporary art: they range from Mark Bradford, Elizabeth Peyton, Rashid Johnson, Julie Mehretu and Francis Alÿs to Katharina Fritsch, Damien Hirst, Marlene Dumas and Anish Kapoor, and through to Louise Bourgeois, Yayoi Kusama and Gerhard Richter, to name just a few.
LOT 248:
Ai Weiwei
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Ai Weiwei: Swatter (für Parkett 81)
WEIWEI, AI
1957 BEIJING
Title: Swatter (for Parkett 81).
Date: 2007.
Technique: Fly swatter made of brass, gold-plated.
Measurement: 54 x 11 x 0,5cm.
Notation: Numbered and inscribed (engraved) on the handle. Signed and numbered on the enclosed certificate.
Publisher: Parkett-Verlag, Zurich (publisher).
Number: 1/55.
Condition:
The multiple is in very good condition.
With enclosed certificate. With Parkett magazine.
"I make the useful become not useful. It is a basis for dealing with perception and when you think about how people use an object, you're also using so-called knowledge in the sense that "useful" has a meaning. The meaning is the use. And that plays a great role in human understanding and culture."
Ai Weiwei in conversation with Jacques Herzog, Parkett no. 81, 2003.
article on work and artist from Parkett edition no. 81.
Explanations to the Catalogue
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