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Terminus: Drawings and Recent Paintings, a solo exhibition by Raoul De Keyser at David Zwirner through October 14, featured some 50 small abstractions with a geometric bent. I was taken with the intimacy of the work and with the playful, almost naive, shapes and colors.
Raoul De Keyser, Crawly, 2009, oil on canvas, app. 13.5 x 17.5 inches
But that's only half of why I'm writing about the show. The other half is to talk about the prices. The small paintings--most not much larger than 12 inches in any one dimension--had enormous prices. How enormous? Like $55,000 to $75,000 enormous. And there were red dots next to most of them. Want to guess the price of Crawly, above? See for yourself:
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Did I step into an alternate universe? In this beautiful show, most of the paintings, in the high five figures, were red dotted
The three paintings on the wall, above, are shown in the price list below:
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Below: Also on the price list is Complex, 2009, oil on canvas, 12 x 10 7/8 inches. Price: $55,000
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