Karen Kilimnik Swimming in the Atlantic at Dawn 1999 water soluble oil on canvas 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm) Signed, titled, and dated “July 22, 99 – November 2, 99, Swimming in the Atlantic at Dawn, Karen Kilimnik” on the reverse.
Provenance Marc Jancou Fine Art, New York Literature N. Tobbe, Karen Klimnik Paintings, Zurich, New York, pp. 262-63 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay With a practice emerging from the late 1980s and early 1990s, Karen Kilimnik investigates an underlying darkness in representations of nostalgia, fantasy, folklore, and mythology. Whether borrowed from popular culture or taken from more traditional cultural histories, Kilimnik negotiates a form of awkward romanticism and the concept of naiveté as a trope with a varied multimedia approach. The present lot, Swimming in the Atlantic at Dawn, 1999, unveils an interstitial space in the representation of mythological subject matter through the appropriation and subversion of a canonical work of art. Here Kilimnik has selected Noël-Nicolas Coypel’s The Abduction of Europa, 1727, which is based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Employing a color palette synonymous with the Rococo style, Coypel depicts a moment of terror; Europa helplessly realizes that she has been deceived and abducted. The drama is slightly tempered by the use of pastel hues, ranging from pale blues, pinks, and yellows, anchored by various deities and thrashing dark blue waves at the bottom of the canvas. While traditional salon paintings were large scale, notably of historical or mythological depiction such as Coypel’s, Kilimnik chooses to disrupt this tradition. Not only has the artist cropped a version of the original painting, creating a small intimate piece, she interrupts Ovid’s narrative through a gesture of incompleteness. Here, Kilimnik has refused Coypel’s soft voluptuous figures, Europa is eerily absent, leaving only the semblance of a deity – a roughly sketched cherub. By removing the dramatic mise-en-scene Kilimnik has left us with another narrative to consider. Instead of treading through the sea with Europa on his back Zeus appears inactive, lying in a semi-pastoral setting rather than on a shore. Zeus is no longer threatening but caricatured; his bestial expression now conveys clumsiness, adorned with a crown of pastel flowers. Read More
Karen Kilimnik Swimming in the Atlantic at Dawn 1999 water soluble oil on canvas 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm) Signed, titled, and dated “July 22, 99 – November 2, 99, Swimming in the Atlantic at Dawn, Karen Kilimnik” on the reverse.
Provenance Marc Jancou Fine Art, New York Literature N. Tobbe, Karen Klimnik Paintings, Zurich, New York, pp. 262-63 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay With a practice emerging from the late 1980s and early 1990s, Karen Kilimnik investigates an underlying darkness in representations of nostalgia, fantasy, folklore, and mythology. Whether borrowed from popular culture or taken from more traditional cultural histories, Kilimnik negotiates a form of awkward romanticism and the concept of naiveté as a trope with a varied multimedia approach. The present lot, Swimming in the Atlantic at Dawn, 1999, unveils an interstitial space in the representation of mythological subject matter through the appropriation and subversion of a canonical work of art. Here Kilimnik has selected Noël-Nicolas Coypel’s The Abduction of Europa, 1727, which is based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Employing a color palette synonymous with the Rococo style, Coypel depicts a moment of terror; Europa helplessly realizes that she has been deceived and abducted. The drama is slightly tempered by the use of pastel hues, ranging from pale blues, pinks, and yellows, anchored by various deities and thrashing dark blue waves at the bottom of the canvas. While traditional salon paintings were large scale, notably of historical or mythological depiction such as Coypel’s, Kilimnik chooses to disrupt this tradition. Not only has the artist cropped a version of the original painting, creating a small intimate piece, she interrupts Ovid’s narrative through a gesture of incompleteness. Here, Kilimnik has refused Coypel’s soft voluptuous figures, Europa is eerily absent, leaving only the semblance of a deity – a roughly sketched cherub. By removing the dramatic mise-en-scene Kilimnik has left us with another narrative to consider. Instead of treading through the sea with Europa on his back Zeus appears inactive, lying in a semi-pastoral setting rather than on a shore. Zeus is no longer threatening but caricatured; his bestial expression now conveys clumsiness, adorned with a crown of pastel flowers. Read More
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