SKOGLUND SANDY (1946 ) Radioactive Cats

Sale 2166 - Lot 395

Price Realized: $ 7,200

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000

SKOGLUND, SANDY (1946- )
"Radioactive Cats." Dye-transfer print, 25x31 1/2 inches (63.5x80 cm.), flush mounted. 1980

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Additional Details

From the collection of Jay Mulvaney.

Mulvaney was the Director of Media Development for the Rockwell Group, VP of Programming and Production for the Discovery Channel, VP of Program Development for Nickelodeon and VP of Original Programming for VH1. His work earned him three Emmy Awards, both as a writer and producer, and his shows also won such prestigious awards as the Peabody, CableAce and Parents Choice Awards.

Skoglund started her career in the early 1970s as a conceptual artist. Her desire to permanently document ideas led her to take up photography. She constructs elaborate sets furnished with carefully chosen objects, which often take months to complete, and actors. (However, in this tableau, the couple depicted were the photographer's neighbors, who lived in her apartment building.)

Skoglund's surrealist-inspired photographs utilize either a monochromatic color scheme or an acidic palate. She has been seen to mimic a "Frankensteinian model," on in which humans create a mutating out-of-control-world that eventually turns against them. Critics of her work have interpreted "Radioactive Cats" to reference society's lack of concern for the elderly, which is evidenced by the morose color of the subjects and how they diasppear into their surroundings. Another critic wrote about how the picture suggests the aftermath of nuclear war; the toxic green cats appear to be multiplying in front of the viewer's eyes.