Stephen Dean’s Prayer Mills are so ridiculously beautiful it’s ridiculous. The light hitting them will fill the space with polygons of color. As you move around them, the dichroic glass changes color like a tricked out Hyundai. And even just sitting there in the even, featureless confines of an auction listing, the wires of the postcard rack over, behind, and through the planes of color are like a Stuart Davis drawing. [When I pin down the closer reference I’m thinking of, I’ll add it here.]
Weirdly, I remembered them as Prayer Wheels, so I guess I was wrong about that.
Anyway, point is, this one’s selling next week at Christie’s—for at least $100.
10-17 July 2024, Lot 178: Stephen Dean, Prayer Mill, 2007, est. $7-10,000, no reserve [update: sold for $8,190] [christies]
Stephen Dean | Works | Prayer Mills [stephendean.com]