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• Lot n° 195 Rebecca Horn (1944-2024) "Thermomètre d'Amour," 1985 Glass and fluid in lined leather case Edition: 9/20 Signed, dated, and numbered to case interior: Rebecca Horn; embossed title to case exterior Glass: 30" L x 2" Dia.; Case: 31.5" L x 3" Dia. Provenance: Private collection, Pasadena, CA Other notes: Rebecca Horn was a German artist whose body of work spanned many fields including performance, sculpture, installation, film, and drawing. Horn's work often aligned with Body Art, Kinetic Art, and Conceptual Art, and incorporates elements of Dada, Surrealism, and Romanticism. Her practice is rooted in an engagement with the body: its limits, vulnerabilities, and extensions. Emerging in the early 1970s, she became prominent through a series of visceral body-sculptures and performances that transformed the human form into a site of poetic, often mechanical, transformation. Horn's early work was born out of personal experience: after a period of illness and isolation in her twenties, she began to explore the body's relationship to confinement, perception, and environment. Her breakthrough works, such as "Finger Gloves" (1972) or "Pencil Mask" (1972), extended the body into space, turning movement into drawing, sensation into choreography. These early pieces placed her in close dialogue with performance artists like Marina Abramovic and Bruce Nauman, though Horn’s approach remained uniquely lyrical and metaphorical. By the 1980s, Horn transitioned into creating complex kinetic sculptures and immersive installations. Works like "Concert for Anarchy" (1990), a grand piano suspended upside down that periodically explodes into chaos, showcase her ability to animate objects with a haunting theatricality. Similarly, "Thermomètre d'Amour" (1985), created for the Luna Luna art amusement park, uses a simple thermometer to poetically measure emotional temperature, fusing science, sensuality, and interactivity in a deeply human gesture. "Thermomètre d'Amour," or "Love Thermometer" (as it is named in current exhibitions of Luna, Luna), resembles a traditional thermometer, crafted from glass and filled with a vivid blood-red liquid. When a participant holds the thermometer, their body heat causes the liquid to rise within the glass tube. This limited-edition sculpture exemplifies Horn's fascination with the interplay between the human body and mechanical objects. By requiring physical contact, the artwork emphasizes the intimate connection between emotional and physical states. The use of red liquid not only mimics the appearance of blood but also symbolizes passion and vitality, reinforcing the theme of love and emotional intensity. Throughout her career, she has exhibited widely, including at the Venice Biennale (where she represented Germany in 1980), Documenta, and major institutions such as the Tate, MoMA, and Centre Pompidou. In 1992, she became the first woman to receive the prestigious Kaiserring award in Germany.