Paul Pfeiffer
RED BACKGROUND #1/#2/#3
Lot Closed
June 7, 03:37:00 AM GMT
Estimate
15,000 - 18,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Paul Pfeiffer
b. 1966
RED BACKGROUND #1/#2/#3
Executed in 2000.
Digital chromogenic prints
Edition 4 of 10 + 2 artist's proofs
2 prints: 10 × 8 in. (25.4 × 20.3 cm)
1 print: 17 × 11 in. (43.2 × 27.9 cm)
Please note that while this auction is hosted on Sothebys.com, it is being administered by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and all post-sale matters (inclusive of invoicing and property pickup/shipment) will be handled by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. As such, Sotheby’s will share the contact details for the winning bidders with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago so that they may be in touch directly post-sale.
This online benefit auction has a 10% buyer’s premium, which will be added to the final hammer price of each sold work. The premium allows the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago to retain more of the proceeds of the sale and offset administrative costs.
Courtesy of Alan Koppel Gallery
In RED BACKGROUND #1/#2/#3, Paul Pfeiffer (b. 1966, Honolulu, HI; lives in New York, NY) mines popular imagery—in this case, Bert Stern’s erotic photographs of Marilyn Monroe—to reveal the structures that shape collective memory. Pfeiffer has removed Monroe from the photos, leaving only wrinkled red fabric behind. One of two works by Pfeiffer in the 2025 Art Auction, RED BACKGROUND #1/#2/#3 interrogates a key concern of the artist’s: how we consume images, culture, and celebrity. The MCA is presenting Pfeiffer’s first retrospective in summer 2025, and the artist has also had previous solo exhibitions at the MCA (2003 and 2017–18); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila, Philippines; and the Athenaeum, Athens, GA.