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Lot No. 2
Joe Wardwell

 

  • NYC Benefit Auction 2017

  • Tribeca Rooftop

Soon I Will be President, 2016
Oil on canvas, 30 × 22”

Boston-based artist Joe Wardwell fashions layered paintings that examine America through the lens of landscape imagery, political slogans, and song lyrics. With inspiration ranging from Hudson River School painters such as Thomas Cole and Frederic Church to punk-rock musicians Patti Smith and Mission of Burma, Wardwell’s paintings depict a moment of uncertainty as seen in his monumental wall work Hello America: 40 Hits from the 50 States now on view at MASS MoCA. The winner of this lot receives Soon I Will Be President, an iconic Wardwell work in which the artist layers an acidic orange sky with silhouettes of palm trees through which the title text is visible. This is Oval Office and Hollywood rolled into one — a garish American dream.

Wardwell is an Associate Professor of Fine Arts at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting in 1996 from the University of Washington, Seattle, and a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from Boston University in 1999. He has work in the collections of the deCordova Sculpture Park and has exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Courtesy of the artist
Estimated value: $5,000

The November 7 live auction will be conducted by Eric Widing, Deputy Chairman, Christie’s Americas. All net proceeds from the auction support MASS MoCA. To place an absentee bid, fill out this form, and email it to Emily Daunis at edaunis@massmoca.org by 4pm on November 7.