Winged Way

I create the paintings as an offering to my community. You are my community, and the exhibition and auction constitute the performative ritual to gift that offering to you. In exchange, I ask that you offer the appropriate sacrifice. In the auction format, the person willing to make the greatest sacrifice receives the offering. In this case the currency of exchange is the good old greenback. Ideally, the sacrifice could be measured with respect to resources -i.e. the wealthy pay more and the less wealthy pay less. Some of my most meaningful sales have come from fellow artists who have had to pay monthly installments over a long period of time. That’s sacrifice! I havent found a way to accommodate this difference in resources yet, but my interest in making the art available to anyone is significant in my decision to handle my exhibition and sales independent of a third party gallery or art dealer.

As it is my intention to re-describe the transfer of value (sale of art) in these terms, it is also important to me to energize the moment of value transfer via the incantation of the auctioneer. Auction chant is beautiful. Beauty conducts value like gold conducts electricity. Here is a beautiful example of Cecil Ward’s chant at a livestock auction in 1964. And here is Stenson Clontz in 1985. Amazing!

For the Legs Icon Auction on November 23rd, 2008, the bidding will be guided by the chant of auctioneer Michael Powers. Michael cut his auctioneering teeth at large vintage car sales in Puerto Rico. We are in for a ride and a treat - but dont worry! - he will only chant as fast as you can hear him!

First, the data:

What: All the paintings in the exhibition, Legs Icon, will be sold via live auction.

How: They will be sold absolute, with no reserve – that is to say, no minimum price.

Where and When:

If you would like to place bids over the phone, via a representative, during the live auction, please contact me.

Deals and Details:

• Admission is FREE. Registration is REQUIRED. (If you place a bid we need to know who you are and that you agree that you are responsible for your bid.) You can register in two ways: create an account on the Winged Way Auctions site, or in person at the Housing Works on the 23rd.

I would like to encourage you to get involved in the Winged Way Auctions website, and so I am offering you these incentives:

• Free copy of Legs Icon: Exhibition and Auction Catalogue if you register for the auction by creating a Winged Way Auctions account. (It will otherwise cost $10.)
• $100 discount if you place a winning bid online. (So, bid as high as you can on a piece online, and if no one is will to pay more, then you saved $100.)

I would also like to encourage you to become patrons while my work is still modestly priced, and to remain patrons as the value of my work grows. So, for this auction, and for all future purchases of paintings directly from me, I offer you this:

• 10% discount to patrons (i.e. you currently own a painting by me, Ian Robertson Duncan). If you are a first time buyer, and you buy more than one piece at this sale, this discount will apply to all but the most expensive piece you buy.

Wherefore: Sounds like fun to me!

See also “The Auction: Statement of Intent.”

The exhibition and auction catalogue is now available. Click here to download the PDF. It is a large file - it might take a minute. The catalogue includes images and lot numbers of all the paintings in the current exhibition and in the upcoming auction on November 23rd at Housing Works. It also includes the essay on the exhibition by Natasha Becker: “When Likeness Breaks With Likeness.” The physical catalogue will be available for $10 at the gallery (beginning Saturday, November 15th), at the auction, and can be ordered online here.

Images and posts relevant to the current exhibition can be seen by clicking on the category “CURRENT SHOW” in the left sidebar. The images are also posted on Winged Way Auctions (the bidding has already begun!).

Drop by to see the work in person!

Open 11-6

Wednesday - Sunday

Winged Way

273 Grand Street, 4th floor

NY NY 10002

ian@wingedway.com

646.221.0591

19″x10″x4″
Pigment, oil, skin glue and 24kt gold leaf on curved panel
2008

1 of 8 divination tablets. 1 of 4 which have one side of pure gold (24kt). These are the newest and final pieces in the Legs Icon group.

The divination question here is: “Will I won’t I.” What do you think? Seems like I (we) will.

19″x10″x4″
Pigment, oil, skin glue and 24kt gold leaf on curved panel
2008

1 of 8 divination tablets. 1 of 4 which have one side of pure gold (24kt). These are the newest and final pieces in the Legs Icon group.

The divination question here is “Whose life is this.” I am consistently, persistently lucky. This is a question I often ask myself.

19″x10″x4″
Pigment, oil, skin glue and 12kt gold leaf on curved panel
2008

1 of 8 divination tablets. 1 of 4 which have one side of white gold (12kt) – 50% gold and 50% silver – yin and yang are equalized. These are the newest and final pieces in the Legs Icon group.

This figure looks like another traveler. The divination question here is “Where might and what.” The reds are iron oxide and cinnabar, and the blues are lapis.

19″x10″x4″
Pigment, oil, skin glue and 24kt gold leaf on curved panel
2008

1 of 8 divination tablets. 1 of 4 which have one side of white gold (24kt). These are the newest and final pieces in the Legs Icon group.

The divination question here is “When.” The emergent form/symbol seems to suggest something passing….

19″x10″x4″
Pigment, oil, skin glue and 12kt gold leaf on curved panel
2008

1 of 8 divination tablets. 1 of 4 which have one side of white gold (12kt) – 50% gold and 50% silver – yin and yang are equalized. These are the newest and final pieces in the Legs Icon group.

The divination question here is: “In what way and what was said.” The figure in the opening looks like he is going somewhere. It struck me that one can be a naysayer, a yeasayer, but it is more interesting and productive to say neither yes nor no, but instead describe the way.

19″x10″x4″
Pigment, oil, skin glue and 12kt gold leaf on curved panel
2008

1 of 8 divination tablets. 1 of 4 which have one side of white gold (12kt) – 50% gold and 50% silver – yin and yang, sun and moon, are equalized. These are the newest and final pieces in the Legs Icon group.

The divination question never became words on this one. The question and the answer emerge in a kind of turtleback pattern. Some of the earliest symbolic language was etched into turtle shells thousands of years ago in what is now China. The forms were also arrived at via divination.

75″x40″x13″
Pigment, oil, skin glue on curved panel
2008

1 of 4 large Legs Icon pieces. 1 of 2 that are painted on both sides.

The forms are more figural than I usually work with. They feel strong and strange.

75″x40″x13″
Pigment, oil, skin glue on curved panel
2008

1 of 4 large Legs Icon pieces. 1 of 2 that are painted on both sides.

Both sides have a swarming feel to me. The inside form feels human and atavistic, the outside form feels like a nest. The gold brush strokes are 24kt gold flakes ground and mixed with walnut oil to make paint.

75″x40″x13″
Pigment, oil, skin glue and 12kt gold leaf on curved panel
2008

Collection of Heather Masse Duncan

1 of 4 large Legs Icon pieces. 1 of 2 that are gilded with white gold.

“Sunder” means to split apart. This form seems on the one hand feminine and receptive, and on the other hand a tool to divide or discern. The text on the painting reads: “between the sheets and presidents, history got made.”

75″x40″x13″
Pigment, oil, skin glue and 12kt gold leaf on curved panel
2008

1 of 4 large Legs Icon pieces. 1 of 2 large pieces with white gold leaf covering one side.

The spiraling and the trinity form feel essential in some broader way to me. I haven’t figured out its meaning yet.

19″x10″x4″
Pigment, oil, skin glue and 12kt gold leaf on curved panel
2008

1 of 8 divination tablets. 1 of 4 which have one side of white gold (12kt) – 50% gold and 50% silver – yin and yang are equalized. These are the newest and final pieces in the Legs Icon group.

Divination in this case means to hold a question in your mind, and then let intuition and chance guide you to a symbol or form. This emergent symbol or form is taken then to be the answer to the question, and is interpreted to give clarity. The divination question for this painting is “Really” – which is to say – what is really real? and also to express doubt if the word is inflected one way, and certainty is it is inflected the other way.

I have come to see the creative act as an act of divination – but I haven fleshed out this concept yet. Check back in on the website for essays on the matter over the next couple months.

Also inscribed is “Disce Pati, Disce Cantere” which means “Learn to suffer, learn to sing.” (Latin) “Disce Pati” is the Duncan clan motto from way back when, and “Disce Cantere” is my riff on that. I have these words tattooed on the right side of my rib cage.

19″x10″x4″
Pigment, oil, skin glue and 24kt gold leaf on curved panel
2008

1 of 8 divination tablets. 1 of 4 which have one side of pure gold (24kt). These are the newest and final pieces in the Legs Icon group.

The divination question here is: “To what end.” This text is etched into the surface of the painting. This was the fist divination piece. The emergent form seems to suggest ascent in some way.

Check it out here.

Check it out here.

by Natasha Becker

Independent Curator and Critic

Legs Icon, Ian Robertson Duncan, November 6-22, 2008

Like his previous series, Skin, Legs Icon are the kind of paintings that make Ian Robertson Duncan the enigmatic painter that he is; one can’t resist looking, touching, feeling, and pondering the rich surfaces of the work, yet the work also dares us to look beneath its surface. Indeed, they extend to the realm of human relations and invite us to go beyond our own layered and complex surfaces.

(read more…)

19″ x 10″ x 4″
Pigment, oil, egg, and skin glue on curved panel
2008

Collection of William and Cynthia Duncan

19″ x 10″ x 4″
Pigment, oil, egg, and skin glue on curved panel
2008

Collection of William and Cynthia Duncan

1 of 5 of the first generation of small free-standing pieces.

The words “Legs Icon” – the title of this group of paintings, and of the exhibition - first appeared on this painting. The words “Ce La” are French for “this” or literally, “this here”, which is a riff on the presence of absence – or re-presenting something that is of another realm. Also, as the words are arranged on the painting, if read from bottom to top, like text on pavement (for example, “STOP AHEAD”)– a sign for travelers – it reads as LA CE. This can be understood as “Here This” or “Hear This,” or simply “Lace.” It is an exploration of the relationship between body and spirit, sexiness and sacredness. Other text in the painting: “The sex of the church;” “Et al” (suggesting authorship by many people rather than just Ian); “Long;” “Slow.”

19″ x 10″ x 4″
Pigment, oil, egg, and skin glue on panel
2008

1 of 2 small Legs Icon pieces made with angled flat panels.

“Weather” is how we articulate the conditions or attributes of a liminal space (a space that is neither here nor there). From one perspective, my paintings can be seen as making present here in this world things from out there: that mysterious place that is the source of creativity, perhaps of creation.

19″ x 10″ x 4″
Pigment, oil, egg, and skin glue on panel
2008

1 of 2 small Legs Icon pieces made with angled flat panels.

One of the pleasures and strengths of the painted image and object is the tension between the moment and duration. “Now” means to evoke this aspect and spend some time with it.

19″ x 10″ x 4″
Pigment, oil, egg, and skin glue on curved panel
2008

1 of 5 of the first generation of small free-standing pieces. 3 sold before the exhibition, and this is 1 of 2 available tonight.

A possible interpretation: on the outside a threshold space, with an invitation; on the inside an animal or human form to guide or greet the visitor.

19″ x 10″ x 4″
Pigment, oil, egg, and skin glue on curved panel
2008

Collection of Hank Thiel

19″ x 10″ x 4″
Pigment, oil, egg, and skin glue on curved panel
2008

Collection of Zhongxian Wu

37.5″ x 20″ x 7″
Pigment, oil, egg, and skin glue on curved panel
2008

1 of 2 medium sized Legs Icon pieces made with curved panel.

The emerging form again seems human and atavistic. A net, a shroud, again, a liminal space.

38″ x 20″ x 7″
Pigment, oil, egg, and skin glue on curved panel
2008

1 of 2 medium sized Legs Icon pieces made with curved panel.

“Utter” in this case means both “absolute, outer limits” and “to make a sound.” These paintings present and traverse limits, thresholds. The word also evokes “udder,” and suggest the way in which the paintings are intended to provide sustenance in some way. The form on the outside of the panel seems motherly, and suggest birth.

38″ x 20″ x 7″
Pigment, oil, egg, and skin glue on panel
2008

1 of 2 medium-sized Legs Icon pieces made with angled flat panels.

“Fledge” means “to develop feathers large enough for flight.” On the side panels, language-like marks attempt to gather enough form to have meaning, and arrive at the bottom in the two words: “Gold” and “Lead.” An essential metaphor in the alchemical tradition (a path of inner transformation) is the transmutation of base metal into precious metal. I am interested in the relationship between these processes of transformation and that of pigment and vegetable oil into paintings.

On the front panel, the words “Circumambulation of the knowing place” refer somewhat literally to walking in circles. But rather than to suggest futility, I mean to suggest that this is how we know things. It is a Heideggerian model of thought exploration and understanding. We may be standing in the same place we were when we began, but we know much more because we considered each step around the circle.

The text sequence is “Fledge-claym-straynge-stone-own-flown-oh.”

38″ x 20″ x 7″
Pigment, oil, egg, and skin glue on panel
2008

1 of 2 medium-sized Legs Icon pieces made with angled flat panels.

Some of the text that happened on this painting: “Make thee another self for love”; “Circumambulation of the wanting place”; “Full”; “Wist”; “Legs”; “Voice”; “Fill me.”

“Wist” is the past participle of “wit.” Its roots are Germanic and Sanskrit words for “knowledge” and “sight.”

20″ x 20″ x 2″
Pigment, oil, egg, and skin glue on panel
2008

Collection of Jessica Orkin

20″ x 20″ x 2″
Pigment, oil, egg, and skin glue on panel
2008

Collection of Graham Duncan

20″ x 20″ x 2″
Pigment, oil, egg, and skin glue on panel
2008

Collection of Elizabeth Hill

20″ x 20″ x 2″
Pigment, oil, egg, and skin glue on panel
2008

Collection of Leeza Doreian

20″ x 20″ x 2″
Pigment, oil, egg, and skin glue on panel
2008

1 of 9 of the first group of paintings on curved panel, finished in January 2008. 1 of 5 that remain, and are included in the exhibition.

By “mean” I mean meaning (not “unkind”). The text on the painting is “This time I meant it.” This common statement struck me as an interesting phrase because when someone says it, you can be quite sure that it is false. So, in many ways, context is more important that grammatical sense with respect to meaning. And in the context of text and texture and symbol and meaning and color and space (i.e. in the context of painting) this is an interesting and fun idea to play with.

20″ x 20″ x 2″
Pigment, oil, egg, and skin glue on panel
2008

1 of 9 of the first group of paintings on curved panel, finished in January 2008.

By “cours” I mean to lead you to think of “course,” corps,” “of course.” On the painting it appears as “dis – cours” – suggesting text or conversation. Also implying “dis” “corps” or “this” “body.” Text…body…speech…communication.

Other textual play on this panel: “A page out of this man’s book;” “drawl” – which might suggest both drawing and speech; “lilt” – another speech pattern.

20″ x 20″ x 2″
Pigment, oil, egg, and skin glue on panel
2008

1 of 9 of the first group of paintings on curved panel, finished in January 2008.

“A world without land” some one said, looking at this painting. I like that. Curved and deep space. Playing with the perceptual possibilities of the curved panel. A chart to uncharted waters.

20″ x 20″ x 2″
Pigment, oil, egg, and skin glue on panel
2008

1 of 9 of the first group of paintings on curved panel, finished in January 2008.

The title means to suggest “shield well” or “effectively” and also “well” like the hole in the ground – the source of water. Some of the text moments are: “Welling over”; “like a cup”; “crippled me and gave me wings”; “inside of me inside of you.”