in online exhibition Painterly

Paine Webber with Neons, 1998/2009
Silkscreen on rag paper, 97 x 97 cm (38¼ x 38¼ in). Edition of 55, signed and numbered.
EUR 8,000
This edition refers to Sarah Morris’s 1998 painting of the same title. Seemingly abstract and reminiscent of Piet Mondrian, the work depicts a zoomed-in detail of the facade of former American stock brokerage and asset management firm Paine Webber in Manhattan, New York. It is part of her series titled Midtown, comprised of similar grid-like paintings featuring details of Midtown architecture. Driven by an interest in capitalist ideology, Sarah Morris examines how these gleaming corporate buildings in Midtown – an area marked by striking economic disparities in the 1990s – reflect ideas of wealth and power dynamics.