Trade of Restraint

Nayland Blake, Dual Restraint, 1990, 95 x 95 inches? 144 x 144 inches? Selling Nov. 17 at HA.com

An intriguing work by Nayland Blake is coming up for auction. Double Restraint (1990) is a canvas and steel structure, object, sculpture, outfit? It’s a strait jacket built for two, but it hangs on the wall like a kinky Richard Tuttle.

The auction house says it’s from a prominent West Coast collection. When a Blake Double Restraint (1990) belonging to Ruth and Jacob Bloom was installed at the Hammer Museum in LA, it was apparently four feet taller and wider. Maybe it shrank in the wash? Are there two? From the buckles and hoods, they look like the same size.

Nayland Blake, Single Restraint, 1990, canvas and steel, 96 x 58 in., image: naylandblake.net

Blake’s 1990 show at Petersburg Gallery in SoHo included both [one of?] Double Restraint and Single Restraint (above). Whether they wrap up like a knuckle bandaid or a burrito, these Restraint works insinuate bodies that aren’t there, which could be either an invitation, a threat, or an elegy.

17 Nov 2022, Lot 77244: Nayland Blake, Double Restraint, 1990 [ha.com]