ArtCrush Auction 2024 ASPEN ART MUSEUM
SUMMER 2024 EDITION
43
Derek Fordjour Work generously donated by the artist
Opposite Jonathan Lyndon Chase. Courtesy: the artist and Company Gallery; photograph: Rafael Martinez Left Derek Fordjour. Courtesy: the artist; photograph: Brandon Hicks
Derek Fordjour is best known for his large-scale paintings which combine acrylic with charcoal, pastel, foil and other materials on newspaper—the salmon pink pages of the Financial Times , to be precise—all mounted on canvas. Figures—often engaged in sports or some kind of performance—repeat to create a pulsating rhythm. In Aquatic Composition (2019), held in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, swimmers plough up and down the pool, their uniform white swim caps bobbing above the surface, rotat- ing arms throwing up spray. Painted in Fordjour’s signature vibrant tones, the cheerful bunting and lane-dividers here bring the intense details and pat- terning typical of his work. In Chorus of Maternal Grief (2020), held in the Guggenheim Museum, New York, the robes of female singers merge into a sea of sumptuous purple, echoing the harmonies of the music we cannot hear. Full of energy, the paintings are also imbued with a sense of nostalgia, their dapper gures exuding an old- world glamor. There is a great deal of joy in Fordjour’s work, but also darkness. Pall Bearers (2020), in the collection of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, shows six gures in top hats and tails, heads bowed, carrying a gold casket—a work inspired by images of George Floyd’s funeral. In a conversation with Trevor Noah for Interview magazine in 2023, the comedian and presenter shrewdly observed his friend’s work to be “both a celebration of the Black experience and its excellence and power, and at the same time, it’s an examination of everything that Black people have had to experience.” Fordjour was born in Memphis, TN, and lives and works in New York. He was the Alex Katz Chair at Cooper Union and served as a Core Critic at the Yale School of Art. Emma McIntyre Work generously donated by the artist, David Zwirner and Château Shatto There is a dynamism to Emma McIntyre’s paintings. It is as if the process of becoming is not yet resolved —their energy has been captured, their organic forms arrested in ight. Either large or small—nothing in between—McIntyre favors a strong palette, often using a restricted selection of colors within each work, with one tone in particular dominating the whole. She combines oil, acrylic, oil stick and other materials, adding in a chemical solution which reacts with iron-based pigment; its rusting eect is almost instantaneous, but the colors mutate further over time. McIntyre begins by pouring her paint onto a at support, allowing chance to play a protagonist’s role. Once she has reoriented the work, she adds further marks, using brushes, rags and her ngers. In recent paintings, recognizable details have emerged amid the abstractions—plants and signs of animal life. In an article from 2022 for Cultured , Dean Kissick quotes McIntyre as explaining, “Sometimes it feels like I can almost see the nished work, and the painting process is about nding it.”
The online auction opens for bidding on July 25 and closes August 3: christies. com/aspenartmuseum
The live auction takes place on August 2 at the ArtCrush gala. Visit the museum and view the ArtCrush Auction Exhibition from July 17–August 3. Phone and absentee bids accepted. For all enquiries, email bid@aspenart museum.org. Download the Christie’s app and register as a bidder today!
Left Emma McIntyre. Courtesy: the artist and David Zwirner;
photograph: Brad Torchia
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