Lot 400: Monumental Olivier Mosset Painting, Too Little Too Late, 1986, ex-Margo Leavin/John Gibson

Olivier Mosset (Swiss, b. 1944) acrylic on canvas painting, “Too Little Too Late,” 1986. Blue and aquamarine fields meet along a diagonal, with a heavy black line that rises from lower right and culminates at the divide between the two colored fields. Inscribed “top” in pencil to upper center en verso. With Margo Leavin Gallery, LA exhibition label and John Gibson Gallery, NYC label affixed to stretcher. Lot includes the original stretcher (disassembled) and shipping/storage tube inscribed with title. 84 in. H x 252 in. W. Exhibition History: Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, “Paravision,” July 12 -August 23, 1986; John Gibson Gallery, New York, “Olivier Mosset, New Paintings,” January 10-February 11, 1987. Note: Kate Linker discusses this painting in her review of the 1987 John Gibson Gallery exhibition published in Artforum 25, no. 8 (1987), 124. Additionally, in an interview conducted in 2000 Mosset notes in regard to the title of this painting, “As for me, the awareness of painting’s tendency towards objectification needed to continue to formulate itself in purely pictorial terms. Only the titles of my works allowed me to add a critical gaze to the context of the time and my own practice (for example: Bandwagon, Lobby, Double Reverse, Too Little Too Late).” (Source: Lionel Bovier and Christophe Cherix, “Interview with Olivier Mosset” from Lionel Bouvier, ed., OLIVIER MOSSET: ARBEITEN/WORKS 1966-2003, exh. cat. [Musee Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, 2003]).

PROVENANCE:

Private West Tennessee collection. Ex-Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles; John Gibson Gallery, New York

CONDITION:

Overall very good condition. Unframed and unstretched (original stretcher currently disassembled for transport).