Lot 27
RETNA(B. 1979)Blackstone Camo, 2011
19 February 2021, 12:00 PST
Los AngelesSold for US$87,812.50 inc. premium
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RETNA (B. 1979)
Blackstone Camo, 2011
enamel on found aluminum
70 1/4 x 100 x 3 in.
178.4 x 254 x 7.6 cm.
enamel on found aluminum
70 1/4 x 100 x 3 in.
178.4 x 254 x 7.6 cm.
Footnotes
Provenance
Eric Firestone Gallery, New York
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner
Marquis Lewis, better known as RETNA, was inspired to create by the graffiti he saw as a youth on the freeways of Los Angeles. RETNA's typographic forms are immediately recognizable and function as a kind of universal, if at times indecipherable, language. RETNA himself has said, "I want my text to feel universal. I want people from different cultures to all find some similarity in it—whether they can read it or not." In 2011, the artist took his distinctive style to the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona, where, alongside several other renowned street artists, he lent his talents to The Boneyard Project, a creative intervention that revived disused airplanes in the Arizona desert. Curated by Carlo McCormick, other artists involved in the project included Shepard Fairey, Futura and Kenny Scharf. RETNA's contribution, Warning Shot, was an ink & latex painting fully covering a Douglas DC-3, widely recognized as the greatest airplane of its time. The present lot, created in the same year, is clearly inspired by, if not part of, that monumental achievement.