Brian Eno, the legendary musician and recognized Renaissance man known for his musings on art, science and more, will be selling a collection of paintings for just £500 (approximately $666) each through his London gallery Paul Stolper. The online auction, which begins on November 12, follows a two-day performance in which Eno created more than 400 pieces using stencils, spray paint and other materials including “found shapes and dried pasta.”
To make the pieces, Eno placed a series of wooden blocks on a large table in his London studio and covered them with templates and other placed or randomly dropped objects. He then painted them and removed certain blocks while keeping others for more work as new blank blocks were added. “Throughout the process, Eno has been selecting works that appear to be finished, leaving gaps to fill with other blocks,” gallery materials read. “A block remains in circulation until it ‘gets somewhere’.”
personal clogged The painting, which measures approximately 5 x 7 inches, sells for £500. Other pieces composed of four blocks are priced at £3,000 (approximately $3,900). The sale coincides with an exhibition at Paul Stolper (November 14-January 17), for which Eno has staged other past exhibitions, including one of luminous turntables he made and another show pairing some of his lightbox works with fluorescent works by Dan Flavin.
Eno has been in the news lately. 2024 Documentary InoDirected by Gary Hashwaite, The Movie tells the story of his life and is noted as a “generative” film, with different parts and passages assembled in different ways for each screening, meaning it is never shown the same way twice.
Earlier this year, Eno published The role of art: an unfinished theorya thoughtful, funny book of aphorisms created in collaboration with artist Bette A. The Ezra Klein Show Podcast for new york timesEno talked about the book and many other various topics. Regarding art, he said, “I’ve always thought that art is actually one of the most important things that humans do with their time. In my book, there’s a long list of things that I think would fall under the heading of art. Of course, it includes the obvious things like symphonies and photographs and paintings, but also cardigans and jewelry and makeup and tattoos, and all the things that humans do that they don’t have to do.”
Brian Eno in his London studio.
Contributed by Paul Stolper, London
