The son of a white man (Air force pilot / plantation owner), 2010. Signed, titled and dated “Dan Colen, 2010, The son of a white man (Air force pilot / plantation owner)” along the overlap. chewing gum on canvas 48 x 36 in. (121.9 x 91.4 cm)

PROVENANCE Gagosian Gallery, New York
Drawing from mass media, environmental experience and sub-cultural language, Dan Colen’s work infuses a sense of magic in the prosaic and ordinary. In the present lot, The son of a white man (Air force pilot / plantation owner), 2010, a canvas is coated, plastered, smeared, and overlaid with chewing gum. The once pristine surface is fictionally transplanted to the urban landscape of a metropolitan city. It immediately conjures images of the teenage ritual of smearing gum on the surfaces of municipal buildings, street signs, and benches. But unlike the haphazard and random design of this adolescent rebellion, the gum is stretched across the surface in beautiful arches of monochromatic tones. The overlapping blacks, criss-crossing whites, and entwined grays, rhythmically dance across the picture plane with the fluidity and vitality of Pollock’s drip paintings. Instead of paying homage to the Abstract Expressionist painter’s rich oils, Colen has instead replaced the traditional medium with that of a disposable and chewable substance. In explaining the evolution of his gum paintings, Colen says, “When I first started, the canvases were very sparse. Each one would have 20 or 30 pieces of chewed gum placed apart from each other randomly around the canvas. I took a break from making the gum paintings for a while, and when I picked them up again after a few months, I really went for it. It slowly developed into a more elaborate and involved process. I started adding a lot more gum to each canvas; I would put pieces down, pick them up again, move ’em around, stretch them out, mush ’em together, and mix flavors to create new colors.” (The artist, quoted in A. Kellner, “SUCK ON THIS, Dan Colen Chews Our Ears Off About His Gum Paintings (Get it?),” Vice, 2008). The gum is manipulated to simulate the lush strokes of saturated paintbrush, creating hypnotic spirals, and vast bridges of thick color. The present lot, The son of a white man (Air force pilot / plantation owner), 2010, conjures a sublime image with poeticism and poignancy as it encompasses hyper-realism, ready-made objects, and trompe l’oeil sculptures-it functions as both a reliquary of past movements and a harbinger of the unique mediums inundating Contemporary Art today.