MEME CIX
2010
cast iron
5 3/8 x 3 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches

"British artist Antony Gormley has received international acclaim for his sculptures that rely on the power of the human form. “I am interested in the body”, he says, “because it is the place where emotions are most directly registered. When you feel frightened, when you feel excited, happy, depressed somehow the body registers it.” Gormley began his Meme series in 2007. In discussing these small cast iron works, he says: A Meme is a cultural analogue to a gene. Forms that are transmitted in thought or behaviour from one body to another, responding to conditional environments, self-replicating and capable of mutation. The miniature or the model allows the totality of a body to be seen at once. These small solid iron works use the formal language of architecture to replace anatomy and construct volumes to articulate a range of 32 body postures. The ambition is to make intelligible forms that form an abstract lexicon of body-posture but which nevertheless carry the invitation of empathy and the transmission of states of mind. Antony Gormley was born in 1950 in London, England, where he lives and works. He has participated in major group exhibitions including the International Sculpture Biennale of Carrara (2008 and 2010), the Sydney Biennale (2006), Documenta VIII, Kassel, Germany (1987) the Venice Biennale (1982 and 1986). Solo exhibitions include Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz (2010); Artium, Valencia (2009); Kunsthall Rotterdam, Musée d’Art Moderne De Saint-Etienne Metropole, and MARCO, Monterrey (2008); Hayward Gallery, London (2007); MADRE, Naples (2006); Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon (2004); Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, England (2003); and the National History Museum, Beijing, China (2003). He was awarded the Turner Prize in 1994 and made an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1997. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and has been a Royal Academician since 2003, and his sculpture has frequently been on view at the Nasher Sculpture Center. "

estimated retail value:  $50,000

opening bid:  $35,000

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