Rachel Whiteread
Rachel Whiteread, born 1963 in London, UK, lives and works in London. She is widely regarded as one of the leading sculptors of her generation. Rachel Whiteread's work is centered around a continuous exploration of domestic architecture and the marks left by human presence in these spaces. She creates casts of the spaces within and around everyday objects – from bathtubs and mattresses to architectural features like doors, floors or windows, and even entire buildings. Using materials like resin, rubber, concrete or plaster, she captures the fine details of each surface. The resulting sculptures closely resemble the original molds, yet they have an peculiar, unfamiliar quality, as they present an inverse of the original form, forcing viewers to constantly shift their perspective. What is absent becomes present, the inside becomes outside, and what was once invisible is now visible. While Rachel Whiteread has only produced a limited body of work that is not large-scale, her editions aptly expand her artistic practice and are characterized by a particularly wide range of media and techniques.
Rachel Whiteread Editions
Untitled (Nets)
2009
From Forty Are Better Than One
5-part leporello, screenprint on Gmund Colors 50 paper, 32 x 125 cm (12½ x 49¼ in). Edition of 75, signed and numbered.
This work, published on the occasion of Schellmann Art's 40th anniversary, consists of the negative prints of the drawings for Untitled (Nets), 2002, Rachel Whiteread's first edition with Schellmann Art.
EUR 1,500
Lamp
2009
Bronze, porcelain, bulb. Height 41.5 cm, diameter 8.5 cm (16¼ x 3¼ in). Edition of 60, with a signed and numbered certificate.
Rachel Whiteread casts the empty spaces inside and around found objects and architectural structures in plaster, resin, or rubber. Her subjects often have domestic associations, from large interiors to small everyday items such as light switches – or bottles as was the case for this edition. In representing objects and buildings by the spaces around them, Whiteread memorialises not only her subjects but also their real or imagined histories. The absence of the object is solidified and becomes a tangible, material thing.
EUR 2,500
Untitled
2005
Published for Kunsthaus Bregenz
Digital pigment print (Ditone) on photo rag paper, 59.5 x 84 cm (23 ½ x 33 in). Edition of 60, signed and numbered.
In 2005, Rachel Whiteread created her series Doors, an assemblage of casts of 14 different doors in distinct colors and patterns taken from different buildings in London, for an exhibition at the Kunsthaus Bregenz in Austria. This edition, Untitled, 2005, is based on a drawing/collage Rachel Whiteread had made to illustrate the possible installation of her sculpture and was published by Schellmann Art for Kunsthaus Bregenz as the accompanying print for the museum installation.
EUR 1,800
Untitled (Nets)
2002
Suite with five etched German silver metal gratings, each 65 x 52 cm (25½ x 20½ in), in white museum board mats, 83 x 69 cm (32¼ x 27¼ in). Edition of 36, each signed and numbered.
In representing objects and buildings by the spaces that surround them, Rachel Whiteread memorializes not only her subjects but also their real or imagined histories. For the edition Untitled (Nets), which is based on drawings of discarded lace, the artist inverted a traditional printmaking process: where metal plates are usually etched with acid, inked and printed on paper, here are the plates themselves, etched through with jets of acid using a method usually confined to industrial manufacturing. The resulting artwork preserve the fragile beauty of the lace while emphasizing the solidity of its new medium. Rachel Whiteread thus creates a compelling contrast between the softness of handcrafted textiles and the rigidity of industrial production, evoking themes of memory, materiality, and craftsmanship.
This edition is part of the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, as well as the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
