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Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
RICHARD ARTSCHWAGER Last Running Man (Gray Right).
Laminate and acrylic on Celotex in artist's original frame, 2013. 702x738x205 mm; 27 1/2x29x8 1/8 inches.
Gifted by the artist's widow to Ken Polinskie, the artist's assistant, New York; private collection, New York.
Artschwager (1923-2013) was born in Washington, D.C. He studied mathematics and science at Cornell University and worked a variety of jobs, including furniture making, before turning his attention towards art. While of the same generation as Pop, Minimalist and Conceptual artists, his work often skirted these broader movements and had a wholly unique aesthetic that explored the perception of objecthood and material culture. He used everyday materials such as formica and Celotex insulation as the basis of his sculptures, and his works often took the form of utilitarian objects.
The image of the Running Man came from a photograph that appeared in the , which showed a solitary figure darting through the snow in a Brookline, Massachusetts, park in 1989. Artschwager clipped the image, and it became a theme in his work in starting in 1991. It would appear in subsequent series through the remainder of his career. In 2013, he returned to the image in what would be his last artistic series; the figure appears in monochromatic silhouettes in hand-crafted frames. Entitled No More Running Man, the series was exhibited posthumously at Gagosian Gallery, New York in 2014.
