CHRIS THORSON Clothes Chair

Oil on canvas 213.4 x 124.5 cm (84 x 49 in.) Painted in 2004 Provenance: Private collection, Los AngelesThis lot is under temporary exportation and is subject to import tax (EU). California-based artist Chris Thorson has a keen interest in the way that everyday objects display both cultural significance and personal history. Be it in her paintings or sculptures, her work captures small details that refer to specific moments, and hint at the stories these seemingly mundane subjects might tell. Thorson is the Dean of Arts Practice, Painting at the Oxbow School in Napa, and even in her sculptures painting plays a key role in her practice. Her sculptures are often created from casts of items that she painstakingly paints to create a trompe l’oeil effect, and her work explores the boundaries between what people discard or overlook, and what they cherish. Painted the year she graduated with an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, Clothes Chair is a precursor to the various sculptural series that Thorson later created that centred around discarded or dirty clothing items, such as Lost (2012) and Bro Palace (2013).