Lot 180: Self-portrait after Messerschmidt 99.1 x 80.7 cm. (39 x 31 3/4 in.)

Self-portrait after Messerschmidt signed and inscribed twice 'Bevan/PC 0919' (verso) mixed media on canvas 99.1 x 80.7 cm. (39 x 31 3/4 in.) Painted in 2009

99.1 x 80.7 cm

With Galerie Vidal-Saint Phalle, Paris Private Collection, France

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736-1783) was a German-Austrian sculptor whose famous 'Character Heads' display what Messerschmidt deemed as the full 64 expressions within the human range. Bevan elected to draw on the heads in his 2009-2010 series After Messerschmidt, employing his familiar wrought skeletal imagery and rich surface textures. A number of the series were featured in the 2012 exhibition Messerschmidt and Modernity at the Getty Centre, Los Angeles, 2012.