# Ugo Rondinone artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/ugo-rondinone/
Profile generated: 2026-05-11T02:22:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Nationality: Swiss
- Movements: Contemporary art
- Common media: Sculpture, Painting, Photography, Video, Drawing, Installation art, Public sculpture

## About Ugo Rondinone

Ugo Rondinone is a Swiss contemporary artist born in 1964 in Brunnen, Switzerland. Active since the mid-1980s, he works across an unusually broad range of media—sculpture, painting, drawing, photography, video, and installation—often within expansive, immersive series. His practice blends poetic, pop-cultural, and minimalist vocabularies, producing recognizable bodies of work that include his large-scale stacked-stone Mountain sculptures, figurative nude sculptures, still.life paintings, and text-based pieces. Rondinone's work is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and has been the subject of exhibitions at major international institutions. He maintains an active studio practice and continues to produce public commissions, gallery exhibitions, and cross-disciplinary projects that bridge visual art with poetry and performance.

## Common works and media

Rondinone produces large-scale painted bronze or stone Mountain sculptures, figurative nude sculptures in various materials, still.life paintings often depicting candles, text-based and poem-derived works, drawings, photographs, and video installations. Public sculptures are a significant part of his output. Works on paper, small-scale sculptures, and editioned photographs appear frequently in auction contexts, while monumental outdoor pieces are typically commissioned or sited in public collections.

## Market and appraisal context

Rondinone's work appears regularly in the contemporary art auction market, particularly sculpture, painting, and editioned photographs from his well-known series. Factors that affect appraisal include whether a piece belongs to a recognized series (such as the Mountain or nude sculptures), the scale and medium, provenance linking to major gallery exhibitions, and the work's date within his decades-long career. Unique sculptures and large paintings typically command the strongest results. Collectors should verify edition details for prints and multiples, confirm provenance, and assess condition, as these variables materially influence value. Institutional exhibition history and published catalogue references further support appraisal accuracy.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine independent artist-identity research from museum records, library authority files, and official sources with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. For Ugo Rondinone, this page draws on data from the Museum of Modern Art, the Library of Congress, the Getty Union List of Artist Names, VIAF, the RKD, and the artist's official site.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q599273
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugo_Rondinone
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500123760
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/96595056/
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n97115277
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/8043
- RKD: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/202382
- Ugo Rondinone: https://ugorondinone.com/