Utopian Scheme
by Jake and Dinos Chapman

Medium: Mixed media
Origin / Date: 1988
Edition: Unique
Size: Variable
Condition: Excellent
Price: Sold

Description: Utopian Scheme is a pivotal work by Jake Chapman which was first presented at his graduation show at the University of East London in 1988. Presented in seven separate parts (eight including the hand-written 'Owner's Manual' on paper), the work prefigures many of Jake and Dinos Chapman’s later iconic works, most notably their masterpieces, 'Hell' from the Saatchi Collection (destroyed in the 2004 Momart fire) and 'Fucking Hell', 2008 - both of which showed apocalyptic visions of hell on earth and human atrocities being committed by Nazi soldiers. As with these later works, Utopian Scheme explores Western Society’s detachment from the realities of war. The artist deliberately places hand-modeled and adapted Nazi toy soldiers on top of benign childhood snow globes and specially created jars filled with iconography representing the ideals of Greek democracy. The juxtaposition of these figures, remodelled and mutilated, representing the horrors of war and man, seen against utopian memories of childhood and the cradle of Western civilization makes for an extremely powerful and thought-provoking work. This is an exceptionally rare and seminal work by one of the YBA movement's most celebrated enfants terribles. Since their graduation from the Royal College of Art in 1990, Jake and Dinos Chapman have collaborated together and are one of the most celebrated and infamous members of the YBA (Young British Artists) movement which emerged in the international art scene in the mid 1990s and early 2000s. They made their name producing iconoclastic sculptures, prints and installations which examine with searing wit and energy, contemporary politics, religion and morality. (Mixed media composition - specimen jars, snow globes, textiles, cast resin, maps, mutilated toy soldiers, ink on paper).