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Lot 75 “I found myself looking a lot at 18th- and 19th-century landscape painting, which quite often contains elements of disaster; and also [looking] at old glass matte paintings used as backgrounds in cinematography.
Somewhere in that mix the idea to incorporate crashes and wreckage into the images emerged. There is something in the level of aspiration in flying or crossing oceans that I felt was suitable to the environments I was looking at. And of course nature tends to be pretty indifferent to those aspirations and with that in mind I wouldn’t necessarily say the vehicles are the subject of these paintings. They are landscapes that happen to contain them.”
Jonathan Wateridge, 2006
Somewhere in that mix the idea to incorporate crashes and wreckage into the images emerged. There is something in the level of aspiration in flying or crossing oceans that I felt was suitable to the environments I was looking at. And of course nature tends to be pretty indifferent to those aspirations and with that in mind I wouldn’t necessarily say the vehicles are the subject of these paintings. They are landscapes that happen to contain them.”
Jonathan Wateridge, 2006
Jonathan Wateridge (b. 1972)
Shipwreck
Closed5 March 2014
Price Realised
GBP 68,500
More Information
Specialist note
The present and following lot were executed circa 2005 and were acquired by Les Trois Garçons shortly before the landmark exhibition of Wateridge’s work at the David Risley Gallery, London. Constitution is a work on a monumental scale reminiscent of 19th century grande Salon History painting and the meticulous layering of paint on perspex sheets lends the work an added perspectival depth into which the viewer is drawn. In this layered method, Wateridge concerned himself with offering a kind of painting relevant to the 21st century as opposed to merely referencing any historical mode of representation.
“I came upon this way of painting with oil on glass by accident. For me, to paint on canvas seemed to belong in the past, and really
couldn’t give me the theatrical quality I was seeking.”
To achieve these extraordinary and very beautiful effects is a time-intensive process. First, Wateridge handmakes exquisite models from which to work, such as crashed planes, a four-masted ship sitting at the bottom of the sea or the sinking of the battleship Missouri. A similar work on plexiglass sheets entitled Mountain Wreck sold, Phillips London, 14 February 2013, lot 16 (£109,250 incl.).
A plane wreck scene on canvas sold Christie’s London, 11 October 2012, lot 3 (£313,250 incl.).
“I came upon this way of painting with oil on glass by accident. For me, to paint on canvas seemed to belong in the past, and really
couldn’t give me the theatrical quality I was seeking.”
To achieve these extraordinary and very beautiful effects is a time-intensive process. First, Wateridge handmakes exquisite models from which to work, such as crashed planes, a four-masted ship sitting at the bottom of the sea or the sinking of the battleship Missouri. A similar work on plexiglass sheets entitled Mountain Wreck sold, Phillips London, 14 February 2013, lot 16 (£109,250 incl.).
A plane wreck scene on canvas sold Christie’s London, 11 October 2012, lot 3 (£313,250 incl.).