Charlotte Redman
Associate Specialist
Lot 31*
BILL VIOLA(B. 1951)Ablutions
2005
2005
Amended
16 March 2023, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £82,200 inc. premium
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BILL VIOLA (B. 1951)
Ablutions
2005
Colour video diptych on two flat panel displays mounted vertically on wall
7:01 minutes
Performers: Jeff Mills, Lisa Rhoden
102 by 122 by 10.8 cm.
40 3/16 by 48 1/16 by 4 1/4 in.
This work was executed in 2005 and is number 2 from an edition of 7, plus 1 artist's proof.
2005
Colour video diptych on two flat panel displays mounted vertically on wall
7:01 minutes
Performers: Jeff Mills, Lisa Rhoden
102 by 122 by 10.8 cm.
40 3/16 by 48 1/16 by 4 1/4 in.
This work was executed in 2005 and is number 2 from an edition of 7, plus 1 artist's proof.
Footnotes
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.
Provenance
James Cohen, New York
Private Collection
Sale: Sotheby's, London, Contemporary Curated, 24 November 2020, Lot 126
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
New York, James Cohen, Bill Viola, 2005 (another example exhibited)
Bern, Kunstmuseum Bern and Cathedral of Bern, Bill Viola: Passions, 2014 (another example exhibited)
Uppsala, Uppsala Cathedral, Bill Viola, Visitation Reformation, 2017 (another example exhibited)
Philadelphia, Barnes Foundation, I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like: The Art of Bill Viola, 2019 (another example exhibited)
From one of the most pioneering artists of the contemporary period whose name is synonymous with the Video Art movement, Ablutions is a timeless and captivating work of art whose religiosity and humanity deliver an unwavering sense of Bill Viola's celebrated oeuvre. A key chapter of his seminal seven-part Purification series – made up of The Approach, The Arrival, The Disrobing, Ablutions (presented here), Basin of Tears, The Dowsing and Dissolution – this work stands alone as an earie and transfixing piece of pure beauty that was created in response to Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde in 2005, when Viola collaborated with Peter Sellars for his production at the Opéra national de Paris that year; a staging of the work that saw significant acclaim and multiple revivals in seasons since.
A twin-screen presentation, capturing the careful rinsing of palms and digits between a male and female subject over the course of seven minutes, Ablutions is presented in Viola's quintessential slowed frame rate that brings the most intimate and tender details to bear in an unsettling, thought-provoking work by the artist. Devoid of sound, the hypnotic simplicity of the performance feels heightened and intense, stirring images of devotion, of worship, and catharsis. As a work of art set against Wagner's opera, Viola's Ablutions takes a symbolic function: it reveals the inner realisation of love in the mind of the lovers that can only be achieved through a process of joint cleansing and sacrifice. As the artist commented on his response to the opera: "Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde is the story of a love so intense and profound that it cannot be contained in the material bodies of the lovers. In order to fully realize their love, Tristan and Isolde must ultimately transcend life itself. [...] They trace the movement of human consciousness through one of its most delicate, poignant states: the surrender to an absolute, all-consuming love. [...] Act I presents the theme of Purification, the universal act of the individual's preparation for the symbolic sacrifice and death required for the transformation and rebirth of the self" (the artist in: Giuliano Picchi, 'Bill Viola, Tristan und Isolde', Scenography Today, 18 October 2018, Online).
Ablutions is a significant and wonderfully compelling work that takes one of the greatest operas ever composed as its inspiration. Viola nonetheless maintains a distance from the grand narrative of Wagner's masterpiece, and in the present work we see the artist's mastery in full flow, conjuring Renaissance painting as readily as sacred gestures. An artist who has defined Video Art, being one of the first to use digital technology at its emergence, Bill Viola's practice has unquestionably shaped the landscape of contemporary art and film, and his works reside in global museum collections that include the Chicago Art Institute; the Fondation Cartier, Paris; the Kunstmuseum Basel; The Redtory Museum of Contemporary Art, Guangzhou; and the Tate Collection, London.
Saleroom notices
Pease note that the first line of provenance should read as: James Cohan, New York
