forms that are already evident in earlier works, such as his two 1981 screenprints, Detective Room and Orange Grove (from The Plain of Smokes) (Lot 90). While spontaneity played a decisive role in his practice throughout his long career, later in his life Price was also a fastidious adherent of the protocols of craft. His process was painstakingly work-intensive, often involving an obsessive, unorthodox application of copious coats of paint which he sanded in order to realize highly glossy surfaces of mottled, polychromatic hues, as found in the oozing contours of his later sculptures, such as his 2004 work, McShann (Lot 87). These later, creature-like sculptures could just as easily fit the description the artist used to describe earlier works as reminiscent of “mountain peaks, breasts, eggs, worms, worm trails, the damp undersides of things, intestines, veins and the like,” an aesthetic that Price would continue to grow into throughout his career.
Barron, Stephanie. Ken Price: A Retrospective. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2013. Dreishpoon, Douglas, ed. Ken Price: Slow Steady Wins the Race, Works on Paper 1962-2010. Drawing Center, 2013. Hopps, Walter and Lebow, Edward. Ken Price. Menil Collection, 1992. Price, Ken. Ken Price: Specimen Rocks. Matthew Marks Gallery, 2014. Smith, Roberta. “Ken Price, Sculptor Whose Artworks Helped Elevate Ceramics, Dies at 77.” Art & Design sec. The New York Times. 24 Feb. 2012. Web.
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89 KEN PRICE
Volcanic Dust 2004 Ink and gouache on paper Signed and dated in graphite lower left sheet; retains Matthew Marks Gallery label frame verso Sheet: 10.875" x 8.375" Frame: 13.75" x 11.25" (Sheet: 28 x 21 cm) P ROV E NANC E Claire Labine, New York, New York; Private Collection, Desert Hot Springs, California (acquired directly from the above, c. 2016)
$15,000–20,000