Artist: Peter Anton
Title: Dark Chocolate Bar
Size: 42 3/4 x 14 1/6 x 5 7/8 inches
Medium: Wood & Mixed Media
Edition: Original Sculpture
Year: 2007
Notes: Signed, Dated and Titled on Verso. Excellent Condition. Gallery COA Included. Provenance: Galerie Terminus, Munich Private Collection, Germany (acquired from the above). Acquired from the above by the present owner then sold at Sotheby's 2024.
About: Peter Anton (b. 1963) is a contemporary sculptor renowned for his larger-than-life candies and desserts. He aims to create art that can "lure, charm, tease, disarm, and surprise," producing oversized, intricately detailed, and subtly unsettling food sculptures, especially sweets. Anton's fascination with food stems from its ability to bring people together and celebrate life, stimulating basic human desires and passions.
Much like Claes Oldenburg, Anton plays with scale, transforming donuts, lollipops, boxes of chocolate, and banana splits into absurdly large and somewhat menacing proportions. Viewers are captivated by his colorful confections, which are meticulously crafted with attention to every detail, down to the last sugar crystal. His studio often resembles a sweet shop, filled with real treats he uses as models. Anton’s creative process involves eating, smelling, feeling, studying, and dissecting food to become intimately familiar with his subjects before sculpting, carving, sanding, painting, and constructing his mixed media works.
Anton has exhibited in numerous museums worldwide, including a solo exhibition at the Netherlands' Museum Jan van der Togt in Amstelveen and group exhibitions at the Austin Museum of Art, the Hudson River Museum, and the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, among others. His work has also been showcased at leading art fairs in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Peter Anton's sculptures are widely collected and featured in prestigious private, corporate, and museum collections, including those of Steven A. Cohen, Sir Howard Stringer, Keith Richards, the Jordanian Royal Family, architect Lord Norman Foster, and President Bill Clinton. His work can also be found in the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the Copelouzos Art Museum in Athens, the Portland Museum of Art, and various corporate collections like Oppenheim Bank and NIKE.