David Shrigley
The World
2020
Screenprint in colours on paper
76 × 56 cm
Ed. / 125 — Signed and numbered verso
Location: London, United Kingdom
Arianee token ID
487447243
Share by
Email
Documents
-
Invoice or proof of purchase
-
Certificate of authenticity
-
Other documents
About the artwork
Created in 2020,The World presents a green cat and red ball that reduce an enormous subject to a private comic universe. The spare composition,flat color and irregular line keep the image immediately legible while the caption shifts its emotional register. Humour emerges from the gap between the apparent simplicity of the statement and the more ambiguous behavior or feeling suggested by the figure.
The stated technique is screenprint in colors on paper. It measures approximately 76 × 56 cm. Text and figure are isolated against the unprinted ground,so neither functions as a conventional caption or illustration. The screenprinted color remains flat and direct,preserving the uneven edges and apparent spontaneity of the original drawing while giving the edition a clear graphic presence.
Expert opinion
This work is characteristic of Shrigley’s use of a direct caption to destabilize a deliberately simple image. The grand title and modest scene suggest that an individual world may be built from attachments that appear insignificant to others. Its apparent accessibility is important to the work: the joke arrives quickly,but its emotional implications remain open after the initial reading.
Across David Shrigley’s broader output,The World is notable because it condenses everyday emotion into an accessible image-text encounter whose humor remains psychologically open.
About the artist
David Shrigley is a British artist born in 1968. He studied design and environmental art at the Glasgow School of Arts. His work is characterized by a simplistic, childlike style, with trivial, banal themes always accompanied by a humorous phrase. Although his works are often reminiscent of children's drawings, they are nonetheless charged with humor and lucidity. David Shrigley often uses art as a way of demonstrating his political commitment, particularly to environmental causes. He has published in the English newspaper The Guardian since 2005 and is now an Instagram star, with over a million followers. In 2013, he was nominated for the Turner Prize, awarded by Tate Britain to a contemporary artist. His work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions worldwide (K Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, Stephen Friedman Gallery in London, Anton Kern Gallery in New York...) and is present in the collections of MoMa, the Royal Academy of Arts and the Tate.
Additional info
3x
OTHER ARTWORKS YOU MAY LIKE
Your Dynamic Snippet will be displayed here...
This message is displayed because you did not provide both a filter and a template to use.