Lot 142: Sensible Ways

James Rielly (B. 1956) Sensible Ways signed and dated 'J.M.Rielly 1996' (on the overlap) on four elements oil on canvas, in sixty parts each ranging from: 8 x 6in. (20.3 x 15.2cm.) to 20 x 18in. (50.5 x 45.7cm.) overall installation dimensions: 118 x 393in. (299.7 x 998.2cm.) Painted in 1996-1997

20.3 x 15.2cm.

Nantes, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, James Rielly: Sensible Ways, 1997, no. 1 (illustrated in colour, unpaged).

Laurent Delaye Gallery, London. Saatchi Gallery, London. Private Collection, London. Anon. sale, Phillips London, 13 October 2011, lot 336. Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

‘The figures, guardians of the secret, seem near in body but light years away in mind. For in their eyes it is often hard to discern any acknowledgement of the existence of other people. Their minds, in particular, seem fixed in two directions at once: on what is exactly before them, or on the eye of the lens. For in its growing entirety, Sensible Ways seems to speak of photography and its uses. Are the pastel colours a kind of emollient, taking our focus off the sadness and uncompromising reality of the image? Is the sense of passing time without thinking a comment on the way tabloid newspapers avoid or simply embroider the truth in order to purvey low entertainment to their readers?’ (S. Morgan, ‘Sensible Ways’, in James Rielly: Sensible Ways, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, Nantes 1997, unpaged).