Art 1940-1949
1940 Disaster in Europe
2012 SOLD 13.5 M$ including premium
2017 SOLD for $ 8.7M including premium
PRE 2017 SALE DISCUSSION
The explicit drawing by Picasso of a brutal sexual act was sold for $ 13.5M including premium on November 5, 2012 by Sotheby's in New York over a lower estimate of $ 4M. It is now estimated $ 8M for sale in the same auction room on November 14, lot 38.
I narrated it as follows in 2012 :
The soft beauty of Marie-Thérèse is not sufficient for calming the hot pulses of Pablo. He turns into a Minotaur for loving Dora. Unfortunately at the same time the Spanish Civil War unfolds its horrors. Picasso is possibly not far from going insane.
Four years later the whole of Europe is on fire. On May 2, 1940, Picasso draws Le Viol (the rape). Eight days later the occupation of France by the Nazis is beginning.
Le Viol is an ink drawing 38 x 46 cm in pen, brush and wash. The couple is naked. The man is worse than the Minotaur as he displays the real head of a bearded human brute. The woman tries in vain to resist.
This artwork is ambiguous. Under the threat of war it cannot only be the exacerbated carnal expression of an artist who will soon enter his sixties. It is a scream of hatred against the horrors of war. The thin and tiny signature demonstrates how deeply Picasso knows that he cannot change the course of events.
The art of Picasso is here similar as that of a Spanish genius from another difficult time : Goya. The bestiality of the raping man is the same as that of Saturn devouring one of his children.
The explicit drawing by Picasso of a brutal sexual act was sold for $ 13.5M including premium on November 5, 2012 by Sotheby's in New York over a lower estimate of $ 4M. It is now estimated $ 8M for sale in the same auction room on November 14, lot 38.
I narrated it as follows in 2012 :
The soft beauty of Marie-Thérèse is not sufficient for calming the hot pulses of Pablo. He turns into a Minotaur for loving Dora. Unfortunately at the same time the Spanish Civil War unfolds its horrors. Picasso is possibly not far from going insane.
Four years later the whole of Europe is on fire. On May 2, 1940, Picasso draws Le Viol (the rape). Eight days later the occupation of France by the Nazis is beginning.
Le Viol is an ink drawing 38 x 46 cm in pen, brush and wash. The couple is naked. The man is worse than the Minotaur as he displays the real head of a bearded human brute. The woman tries in vain to resist.
This artwork is ambiguous. Under the threat of war it cannot only be the exacerbated carnal expression of an artist who will soon enter his sixties. It is a scream of hatred against the horrors of war. The thin and tiny signature demonstrates how deeply Picasso knows that he cannot change the course of events.
The art of Picasso is here similar as that of a Spanish genius from another difficult time : Goya. The bestiality of the raping man is the same as that of Saturn devouring one of his children.
1940 The Little Cowboy by Fechin
2010 SOLD for £ 7M by Macdougall's
to be narrated
oil on canvas 76 x 41 cm sold for £ 7M from a lower estimate of £ 500K by Macdougall's on December 1, 2010, lot 313.
1940 On the Table of Giorgio Morandi
2009 SOLD 1.45 M€ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Giorgio Morandi sought perfection of forms, colors and textures in oils on canvas systematically titled Natura Morta. He chose humble objects, especially bottles of varying heights. He does retain any details of decoration, but he positions them with harmony on the canvas, enhanced by subtle and often clear shades.
Each object is placed on the table, of which only the far end is visible, as shown by a simple line between two solid colors. They are grouped away from the edges, more or less aligned in each artwork.
It is difficult to get an idea of the price by simply viewing an image on the web, as the harmony of color is important in his work. We should therefore go to Milan on May 20, to see the sale at Sotheby's of a still life of 1940, 35 x 63 cm, estimated 900 K €.
The extended format of this painting is good, and the quantity and variety of bottles and vases should appeal to collectors of this artist.
POST SALE COMMENT
Excellent result for this painting typical of the best works of Morandi: € 1.45 million premium included.
Giorgio Morandi sought perfection of forms, colors and textures in oils on canvas systematically titled Natura Morta. He chose humble objects, especially bottles of varying heights. He does retain any details of decoration, but he positions them with harmony on the canvas, enhanced by subtle and often clear shades.
Each object is placed on the table, of which only the far end is visible, as shown by a simple line between two solid colors. They are grouped away from the edges, more or less aligned in each artwork.
It is difficult to get an idea of the price by simply viewing an image on the web, as the harmony of color is important in his work. We should therefore go to Milan on May 20, to see the sale at Sotheby's of a still life of 1940, 35 x 63 cm, estimated 900 K €.
The extended format of this painting is good, and the quantity and variety of bottles and vases should appeal to collectors of this artist.
POST SALE COMMENT
Excellent result for this painting typical of the best works of Morandi: € 1.45 million premium included.
1941 Matta between Fire and Light
2013 unsold
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Arriving in Paris in 1933, Matta is close to the Surrealists. He retains the automatic writing as a means of expressingthe subconscious. He helps the colors to choose their own forms by using a personal technique consisting of a firstapplication with a cloth preceding and framing the more precise work with the brush.
He comes back to America at the beginning of the war. His touristic trip in Mexico during the summer of 1941 exciteshis inspiration. Nature has an unstoppable power, but the fire of volcanoes and the emitted light can be compared tothe physical and emotional passion of humans.
Painted in 1941, El Prisionero de la luz is an outstanding example of this transfiguration of the artist. This oil on canvas 98 x 126 cm is estimated $ 2.5 million, for sale by Christie's in New York on May 29. Over a darkenvironment that is both biomorphic and tectonic, sparks are fired for invading the world.
In New York in 1942, Pierre Matisse dedicates an exhibition to Matta. The art of the Chilean finds in the abstraction a way to express the creative or antagonist forces of the world. Matta creates the link between surrealism and the future abstract expressionism. He had a direct influence on Pollock and his role in the history of art is underestimated.
I invite you to play the audio shared by Christie's.
Arriving in Paris in 1933, Matta is close to the Surrealists. He retains the automatic writing as a means of expressingthe subconscious. He helps the colors to choose their own forms by using a personal technique consisting of a firstapplication with a cloth preceding and framing the more precise work with the brush.
He comes back to America at the beginning of the war. His touristic trip in Mexico during the summer of 1941 exciteshis inspiration. Nature has an unstoppable power, but the fire of volcanoes and the emitted light can be compared tothe physical and emotional passion of humans.
Painted in 1941, El Prisionero de la luz is an outstanding example of this transfiguration of the artist. This oil on canvas 98 x 126 cm is estimated $ 2.5 million, for sale by Christie's in New York on May 29. Over a darkenvironment that is both biomorphic and tectonic, sparks are fired for invading the world.
In New York in 1942, Pierre Matisse dedicates an exhibition to Matta. The art of the Chilean finds in the abstraction a way to express the creative or antagonist forces of the world. Matta creates the link between surrealism and the future abstract expressionism. He had a direct influence on Pollock and his role in the history of art is underestimated.
I invite you to play the audio shared by Christie's.
1941 GLOBAL ART IN TAOS
2012 UNSOLD
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
In art, the American West is a world apart with its own painters, auction houses and collectors. Annual sales hosted byScottsdale Art Auction in early spring and Coeur d'Alene Art Auction in summer should not be missed because they display the masterpieces of Russell, Bierstadt, Moran, Couse and many others.
Ernest Blumenschein was a founding member of the prolific Society of Artists in Taos where he spent each summer.On March 31 in Scottsdale AZ, Scottsdale Art Auction sells an oil on canvas made by him in Taos in 1941, 76 x 102 cm.
Blumenschein had been first violinist of the New York Philharmonic. His synesthetic art reconstructs the landscape by associating the sound of an instrument to each figurative element: tree, Indian, teepee, pony, grass, clouds.
Titled Homeward Bound, the painting for sale is distributing the full orchestra of the life of an Indian village at sunrise,dominated by a massive haunting cloud that takes a metaphysical dimension, or perhaps more simply is the great organ. This amazing and highly original artwork is estimated $ 2M.
View the image in the catalogue of the web auction provider iCollector.
In art, the American West is a world apart with its own painters, auction houses and collectors. Annual sales hosted byScottsdale Art Auction in early spring and Coeur d'Alene Art Auction in summer should not be missed because they display the masterpieces of Russell, Bierstadt, Moran, Couse and many others.
Ernest Blumenschein was a founding member of the prolific Society of Artists in Taos where he spent each summer.On March 31 in Scottsdale AZ, Scottsdale Art Auction sells an oil on canvas made by him in Taos in 1941, 76 x 102 cm.
Blumenschein had been first violinist of the New York Philharmonic. His synesthetic art reconstructs the landscape by associating the sound of an instrument to each figurative element: tree, Indian, teepee, pony, grass, clouds.
Titled Homeward Bound, the painting for sale is distributing the full orchestra of the life of an Indian village at sunrise,dominated by a massive haunting cloud that takes a metaphysical dimension, or perhaps more simply is the great organ. This amazing and highly original artwork is estimated $ 2M.
View the image in the catalogue of the web auction provider iCollector.
1942 A Bunch of Owls
2018 SOLD for £ 4.7M including premium
Les compagnons de la peur, oil on canvas 71 x 93 cm painted by Magritte in 1942 during the German occupation of Belgium, was sold for £ 4.1M including premium by Christie's in London on February 4, 2015, lot 117. It is now estimated £ 3.5M for sale in the same auction room on June 20, lot 12.
Times are hard for everybody in Europe in 1942. Magritte is deeply questioning his own art, soon to enter a new phase of mocking Impressionism and Fauvism. Les compagnons de la peur is a singular painting based of Magritte's classical style of the artist but with a very rare political message supported by its title.
I discussed it as follows before the 2015 sale.
In front of a mountain scenery, a group of five owls occupies a dominant position from where they scan their environment with the severity of Gestapo. The arid mountain and the heavy sky increase the anxiety. In Magritte's usual rendering of the contraries the night birds look well awake in day light.
The power of these birds is an illusion. They are not birds but leaf-bird hybrids planted in their eagle's nest from where they will never take flight. The harm suggested by their uncompromising attitude will not be enforced. Some young leaves are nevertheless ready for their metamorphosis.
The leaf-bird is thus the opposite of Miro's free bird. It is following the mineral-human hybrids with which Magritte was already questioning the deep nature of beings.
Times are hard for everybody in Europe in 1942. Magritte is deeply questioning his own art, soon to enter a new phase of mocking Impressionism and Fauvism. Les compagnons de la peur is a singular painting based of Magritte's classical style of the artist but with a very rare political message supported by its title.
I discussed it as follows before the 2015 sale.
In front of a mountain scenery, a group of five owls occupies a dominant position from where they scan their environment with the severity of Gestapo. The arid mountain and the heavy sky increase the anxiety. In Magritte's usual rendering of the contraries the night birds look well awake in day light.
The power of these birds is an illusion. They are not birds but leaf-bird hybrids planted in their eagle's nest from where they will never take flight. The harm suggested by their uncompromising attitude will not be enforced. Some young leaves are nevertheless ready for their metamorphosis.
The leaf-bird is thus the opposite of Miro's free bird. It is following the mineral-human hybrids with which Magritte was already questioning the deep nature of beings.
1942 The Come Back of the Egyptian Beauty
2018 SOLD for € 5.5M including premium
Max Beckmann is in exile in Amsterdam after fleeing the Nazi Germany. After a sarcastic phase he gets worried and bored. One night this esthete sees in a dream a woman's head. On July 27, 1942 he writes in his diary: "A lot of rain but it is very good for my self-portrait and for the woman's head lit from below, done. Good mood, chicken at dinner, and rain, rain, rain".
He had realized the portrait of a primordial woman in an unusual off-centered composition. Her eyes are too large and heavily made up as in the funeral portraits of the Fayum. The attitude is solemn. The angle of illumination leaves the face half in the shadows and reinforces the mystical illusion : it is recommended to raise this little image above a candle.
The entourage of Beckmann is not mistaken. The title is found : Die Ägypterin, the Egyptian. The artist has met his Nefertiti. This famous name meant "beauty has come".
This oil on canvas 60 x 30 cm is immediately bought by a friend who will later start the catalogue raisonné of Beckmann. The list is finished by his widow and this painting now comes from her estate, 76 years after the original acquisition. It is estimated € 1.5M for sale by Grisebach in Berlin on May 31, lot 20. Here is the link to the website of the auction house.
This theme born of a hallucination pleased the artist. Italienerin is very similar excepted for the light that is flat. This 55 x 22 cm oil on canvas painted in 1946 was sold for £ 1.15M including premium by Christie's on June 23, 2010 over a lower estimate of £ 400K.
He had realized the portrait of a primordial woman in an unusual off-centered composition. Her eyes are too large and heavily made up as in the funeral portraits of the Fayum. The attitude is solemn. The angle of illumination leaves the face half in the shadows and reinforces the mystical illusion : it is recommended to raise this little image above a candle.
The entourage of Beckmann is not mistaken. The title is found : Die Ägypterin, the Egyptian. The artist has met his Nefertiti. This famous name meant "beauty has come".
This oil on canvas 60 x 30 cm is immediately bought by a friend who will later start the catalogue raisonné of Beckmann. The list is finished by his widow and this painting now comes from her estate, 76 years after the original acquisition. It is estimated € 1.5M for sale by Grisebach in Berlin on May 31, lot 20. Here is the link to the website of the auction house.
This theme born of a hallucination pleased the artist. Italienerin is very similar excepted for the light that is flat. This 55 x 22 cm oil on canvas painted in 1946 was sold for £ 1.15M including premium by Christie's on June 23, 2010 over a lower estimate of £ 400K.
1942 Volcanic Matta
2009 SOLD 2.5 M$ including premium
Paintings by Matta are outbreaks of bright colors mixed with indefinable forms which may be mineral. Can we speak of abstraction? The artist from the Surrealist group provides a synthesis of earth and man, of the fury of the elements and that of thought.
In 1942 he exhibited in New York at Pierre Matisse gallery some artworks inspired by the volcanoes of Mexico, a country he had visited the previous year. Endless Nudes, oil on canvas 72 x 91 cm, expresses the explosive rise of lava to a stormy sky, with a title that links with mankind and psychology.
In May 2003, Christie's recorded $ 1.5 million hammer price on Endless Nudes. On November 18, the work comes back, at Sotheby's in New York. It is becoming more expensive: $ 2 million, but it is one of the masterpieces of the artist.
The image of this lot is shared by AuctionPublicity.
In 1942 he exhibited in New York at Pierre Matisse gallery some artworks inspired by the volcanoes of Mexico, a country he had visited the previous year. Endless Nudes, oil on canvas 72 x 91 cm, expresses the explosive rise of lava to a stormy sky, with a title that links with mankind and psychology.
In May 2003, Christie's recorded $ 1.5 million hammer price on Endless Nudes. On November 18, the work comes back, at Sotheby's in New York. It is becoming more expensive: $ 2 million, but it is one of the masterpieces of the artist.
The image of this lot is shared by AuctionPublicity.
1942 Kandinsky in Paris
2013 unsold
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Wassily Kandinsky spent in Paris the last part of his life. Theorist and pioneer of abstract art, he had gone too far in the construction of his semiotics.
The tragic end of the Bauhaus released him from teaching. From 1934, he explores art as a means of expressing life.The forms of his new vocabulary become biomorphic or micro-organic and colors are joyous.
The German occupation of Paris does not interrupt this impulse but limits his material capability. Painted in January 1942, Balancement is an exceptional artwork for that time: an oil painting on large canvas, 89 x 116 cm.
By the distribution of masses, the almost zoomorphic figure on the left, and even by its title that invites to dialogue,this late masterpiece demonstrates the influence of the young Miro on the old master.
Balancement is estimated £ 5M, for sale by Christie's in London on February 6. I invite you to play the audio shared by the auction house.
POST SALE COMMENT
Unsold. This result confirms that the abstract works by Kandinsky are not convincing.
In the same sale, a Murnau landscape painted in 1909, just before the transition to abstraction, was sold £ 6.7 million including premium.
Wassily Kandinsky spent in Paris the last part of his life. Theorist and pioneer of abstract art, he had gone too far in the construction of his semiotics.
The tragic end of the Bauhaus released him from teaching. From 1934, he explores art as a means of expressing life.The forms of his new vocabulary become biomorphic or micro-organic and colors are joyous.
The German occupation of Paris does not interrupt this impulse but limits his material capability. Painted in January 1942, Balancement is an exceptional artwork for that time: an oil painting on large canvas, 89 x 116 cm.
By the distribution of masses, the almost zoomorphic figure on the left, and even by its title that invites to dialogue,this late masterpiece demonstrates the influence of the young Miro on the old master.
Balancement is estimated £ 5M, for sale by Christie's in London on February 6. I invite you to play the audio shared by the auction house.
POST SALE COMMENT
Unsold. This result confirms that the abstract works by Kandinsky are not convincing.
In the same sale, a Murnau landscape painted in 1909, just before the transition to abstraction, was sold £ 6.7 million including premium.
1942-1945 GERARD SEKOTO BEFORE EXILE
2010 SOLD 192 K£ INCLUDING PREMIUM
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
In 1938, aged 25 years, Gerard Sekoto leaves the Transvaal. This provincial painter and musician is curious of scenes and people of his country, South Africa. Unfortunately for this young black artist, the time is not favorable.
I found on the web the following anecdote. He succeeded in 1940 to have a painting accepted in a gallery of Johannesburg, but the entrance to the exhibition was denied because of the color of his skin. He lived several years in Cape Town, before finally going into exile in 1947.
His work is plentiful and varied in the sales of South African art at Bonhams in London. On March 24, an oil painting made between 1942 and 1945, 36 x 46 cm, is estimated £ 120 K. It exudes an atmosphere of peace and tranquility from this Cape Town street scene. Passersby are not much characterized (such as those of Utrillo in France), but enough to reveal the bright cosmopolitan atmosphere of the big city.
The image of this work is shared by AuctionPublicity.
POST SALE COMMENT
Sekoto's work deserves to be better known, and its rating to be followed. Despite relatively small dimensions, the Cape Town street scene has been sold at K £ 160 hammer price, 192 K £ including premium.
In 1938, aged 25 years, Gerard Sekoto leaves the Transvaal. This provincial painter and musician is curious of scenes and people of his country, South Africa. Unfortunately for this young black artist, the time is not favorable.
I found on the web the following anecdote. He succeeded in 1940 to have a painting accepted in a gallery of Johannesburg, but the entrance to the exhibition was denied because of the color of his skin. He lived several years in Cape Town, before finally going into exile in 1947.
His work is plentiful and varied in the sales of South African art at Bonhams in London. On March 24, an oil painting made between 1942 and 1945, 36 x 46 cm, is estimated £ 120 K. It exudes an atmosphere of peace and tranquility from this Cape Town street scene. Passersby are not much characterized (such as those of Utrillo in France), but enough to reveal the bright cosmopolitan atmosphere of the big city.
The image of this work is shared by AuctionPublicity.
POST SALE COMMENT
Sekoto's work deserves to be better known, and its rating to be followed. Despite relatively small dimensions, the Cape Town street scene has been sold at K £ 160 hammer price, 192 K £ including premium.
1943 The Allies of Winston Churchill
2021 SOLD for £ 8.3M including premium
It was impossible for Winston Churchill to remain idle. In 1915, when he leaves the government on the occasion of a reshuffle, he decides to try pictorial creation. He has everything to learn and listens attentively to the advices by John Lavery and Walter Sickert.
The new artist is also eager for tourism and sun. In 1935 his first visit to Marrakech is a delight. He had many political allies to whom he liked to offer his best Neo-Impressionist paintings of Morocco.
In January 1943, in the midst of the war, the Anglo-American conference takes place in Casablanca. Churchill manages to persuade President Roosevelt to make a detour to Marrakech so that they can contemplate together the sunset on the snow-capped peaks of the Atlas. Churchill remains one more day to paint the view of Marrakech with the tower of the Koutoubia mosque, from the exact point of view he had chosen to please Roosevelt.
This oil on canvas 46 x 61 cm was immediately offered by Churchill to Roosevelt. It is estimated £ 1.5M for sale by Christie's in London on March 1, lot 9. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In the same sale, the lot 3, estimated £ 300K, is a river scenery in Marrakech. This 60 x 92 cm oil on canvas was painted circa 1935 and was presented around 1950 to Lord Montgomery of Alamein.
A view of the Atlas at Tinherir (Tinghir), 64 x 76 cm, painted in 1951 and offered to General Marshall in 1953, was sold for £ 610K including premium by Sotheby's on December 11, 2006.
A 51 x 61 cm replica of the view made for Roosevelt was painted by Churchill circa 1948 as a gift for President Truman. It was sold for £ 470K including premium by Sotheby's on December 13, 2007.
RESULTS including premium :
ca 1935 : SOLD for £ 1.9M
1943 : SOLD for £ 8.3M
The new artist is also eager for tourism and sun. In 1935 his first visit to Marrakech is a delight. He had many political allies to whom he liked to offer his best Neo-Impressionist paintings of Morocco.
In January 1943, in the midst of the war, the Anglo-American conference takes place in Casablanca. Churchill manages to persuade President Roosevelt to make a detour to Marrakech so that they can contemplate together the sunset on the snow-capped peaks of the Atlas. Churchill remains one more day to paint the view of Marrakech with the tower of the Koutoubia mosque, from the exact point of view he had chosen to please Roosevelt.
This oil on canvas 46 x 61 cm was immediately offered by Churchill to Roosevelt. It is estimated £ 1.5M for sale by Christie's in London on March 1, lot 9. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In the same sale, the lot 3, estimated £ 300K, is a river scenery in Marrakech. This 60 x 92 cm oil on canvas was painted circa 1935 and was presented around 1950 to Lord Montgomery of Alamein.
A view of the Atlas at Tinherir (Tinghir), 64 x 76 cm, painted in 1951 and offered to General Marshall in 1953, was sold for £ 610K including premium by Sotheby's on December 11, 2006.
A 51 x 61 cm replica of the view made for Roosevelt was painted by Churchill circa 1948 as a gift for President Truman. It was sold for £ 470K including premium by Sotheby's on December 13, 2007.
RESULTS including premium :
ca 1935 : SOLD for £ 1.9M
1943 : SOLD for £ 8.3M
1943 MOUNT RUBINSTEIN
2011 SOLD 2.65 M$ INCLUDING PREMIUM
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Helena Rubinstein is the symbol of the successful business woman, having started from zero. Her cosmetics companybrought her a colossal wealth. The key to success was a simple idea: customers would appreciate that their beauty products are publicized by scientists and artists.
She invited Dali to help decorate her apartment (or one of their apartments ...) in New York. In 1943 he made a portrait of his patron, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 3.
Except that, as usual, Dali blurs the message. He shows a young woman, while Rubinstein was already in her seventies,and this woman also resembles a bit to Gala. Especially, she seems huge, chained by her jewelry to a rocky cliff.
Imperial, this allegory of the power personalized by Rubinstein plays the same role, in fact, that the colossal statues of the four presidents of Mount Rushmore by Borglum, completed two years before. Several small figures of the Dalinian grammar are also present in a sort of counterbalance to emphasize the complexity of the artist's message.
This oil on canvas, 89 x 64 cm, is estimated $ 1M, and illustrated on the press release shared by AuctionPublicity.
This price may seem low. Probably the scarcity of Dali's works at auction in recent years made the auction housecautious, despite their striking success of February 10 when they sold for £ 13.5 million including premium the surrealist portrait of Eluard.
POST SALE COMMENT
I said that the estimate was too conservative. It was true. This interesting Dali painting was sold $ 2.65 million including premium.
Helena Rubinstein is the symbol of the successful business woman, having started from zero. Her cosmetics companybrought her a colossal wealth. The key to success was a simple idea: customers would appreciate that their beauty products are publicized by scientists and artists.
She invited Dali to help decorate her apartment (or one of their apartments ...) in New York. In 1943 he made a portrait of his patron, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 3.
Except that, as usual, Dali blurs the message. He shows a young woman, while Rubinstein was already in her seventies,and this woman also resembles a bit to Gala. Especially, she seems huge, chained by her jewelry to a rocky cliff.
Imperial, this allegory of the power personalized by Rubinstein plays the same role, in fact, that the colossal statues of the four presidents of Mount Rushmore by Borglum, completed two years before. Several small figures of the Dalinian grammar are also present in a sort of counterbalance to emphasize the complexity of the artist's message.
This oil on canvas, 89 x 64 cm, is estimated $ 1M, and illustrated on the press release shared by AuctionPublicity.
This price may seem low. Probably the scarcity of Dali's works at auction in recent years made the auction housecautious, despite their striking success of February 10 when they sold for £ 13.5 million including premium the surrealist portrait of Eluard.
POST SALE COMMENT
I said that the estimate was too conservative. It was true. This interesting Dali painting was sold $ 2.65 million including premium.
1943 The Art of the Black Woman
2018 unsold
Granddaughter of freed slaves, Elizabeth Catlett early develops a social sensitivity that she wishes to express through art. At the time of segregation and long before the acceptance of feminism, it is illusory for a black woman to foresee a career as an artist. She will be a teacher. Her original and genuine art will serve to awaken younger African-American women.
She graduated from the University of Iowa in 1940 with a Master of Fine Arts degree for which she had made a limestone sculpture on the theme of Mother and Child.
Catlett uses all the artistic techniques : engraving, painting, wood carving, terra-cotta, plaster and bronze, but in an early phase she practices very scarcely the direct cut. Stone carving requires a discipline and a thoroughness which are hardly in line with her priority to define and divulge a modern African-American art.
Her style inspired by Zadkine is cubist with strong remains from realism, showing in an expressive simplification the characteristic lines of people from her community.
Probably also under the influence of Zadkine, she carved another stone work circa 1943. This young man's head 33 cm high is estimated $ 200K for sale by Swann Galleries in New York on October 4, lot 20.
Throughout her career spanning seven decades, Elizabeth Catlett remained within her activist commitment, not without difficulties at her time when minorities were not welcomed. Best received in Mexico in the left wing following of Rivera and Kahlo, she lost the US citizenship from 1962 to 2002.
She graduated from the University of Iowa in 1940 with a Master of Fine Arts degree for which she had made a limestone sculpture on the theme of Mother and Child.
Catlett uses all the artistic techniques : engraving, painting, wood carving, terra-cotta, plaster and bronze, but in an early phase she practices very scarcely the direct cut. Stone carving requires a discipline and a thoroughness which are hardly in line with her priority to define and divulge a modern African-American art.
Her style inspired by Zadkine is cubist with strong remains from realism, showing in an expressive simplification the characteristic lines of people from her community.
Probably also under the influence of Zadkine, she carved another stone work circa 1943. This young man's head 33 cm high is estimated $ 200K for sale by Swann Galleries in New York on October 4, lot 20.
Throughout her career spanning seven decades, Elizabeth Catlett remained within her activist commitment, not without difficulties at her time when minorities were not welcomed. Best received in Mexico in the left wing following of Rivera and Kahlo, she lost the US citizenship from 1962 to 2002.
1943 The Despair of a Sailor
2018 withdrawn
Everything goes wrong for Picasso in the fall of 1943 in Paris under the German Occupation. Guernica's message against totalitarianisms was clear and he will never deny it. His choice to stay in Paris is daring. In September an administrative letter requests him to prepare for the Service du Travail Obligatoire which is a deportation in Germany.
During that year Picasso is very busy with sculpture. When Brassaï enters his studio to take pictures, he is amazed by a large Tête de Mort. The skull looks almost alive with its empty orbits and its flattened nose. This theme expresses the sinister mood of the artist. Maybe even it is a self-portrait.
On May 15 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 8 A Le Marin, oil on canvas 129 x 81 cm dated October 28, 1943. The press release of March 30 announces an estimate in the region of $ 70M.
Once past the ambitions of his youth, Picasso generally left doubt about the identity of his characters. However he soon acknowledged that this sailor is a self-portrait.
The larger than life man in mid-length is dressed in a sailor's jersey, which is not a mere description of his signature dress habits : Pablo stuck in Paris is yearning for his beloved Mediterranean sea that he may never see again. All his attitude is sad, reinforced by the darkness around the eyes.
One year later Paris has just been liberated. Le Marin, a great symbol of wartime art, is highlighted in the Salon d'Automne. Belonging to the Ganz collection, it was sold for $ 8M by Christie's on November 10, 1997. In that sale the O version of Les Femmes d'Alger was sold for $ 32M including premium.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
WITHDRAWN after reported damage
See May 13 press release.
During that year Picasso is very busy with sculpture. When Brassaï enters his studio to take pictures, he is amazed by a large Tête de Mort. The skull looks almost alive with its empty orbits and its flattened nose. This theme expresses the sinister mood of the artist. Maybe even it is a self-portrait.
On May 15 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 8 A Le Marin, oil on canvas 129 x 81 cm dated October 28, 1943. The press release of March 30 announces an estimate in the region of $ 70M.
Once past the ambitions of his youth, Picasso generally left doubt about the identity of his characters. However he soon acknowledged that this sailor is a self-portrait.
The larger than life man in mid-length is dressed in a sailor's jersey, which is not a mere description of his signature dress habits : Pablo stuck in Paris is yearning for his beloved Mediterranean sea that he may never see again. All his attitude is sad, reinforced by the darkness around the eyes.
One year later Paris has just been liberated. Le Marin, a great symbol of wartime art, is highlighted in the Salon d'Automne. Belonging to the Ganz collection, it was sold for $ 8M by Christie's on November 10, 1997. In that sale the O version of Les Femmes d'Alger was sold for $ 32M including premium.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
WITHDRAWN after reported damage
See May 13 press release.
1944 Study of a Tomato Plant
2017 SOLD for £ 17M including premium
Picasso did not want to leave Paris during the German Occupation. Times are hard. The Germans do not forgive his interpretation of Guernica and a decree forbids to exhibit his art. Pablo devotes most of his work to still life which has a lower risk of retaliation and confiscation.
Liberation is approaching and violence is increasing. In early August 1944 Pablo left his studio in the Quartier Latin which had become too dangerous and spent several days in the apartment of the Ile Saint-Louis occupied by his former mistress Marie-Thérèse with their daughter Maya.
Pablo has no heart to pleasure. He looks at a tomato plant in front of the window. Easy to grow with little soil, water and sunlight, the tomato offers a limited complement of food in addition to the strict rationing. It mostly offers an illusion of initiative and freedom in this stifling time.
Pablo painted a simultaneous series of oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm on that theme. The more or less ripe tomatoes and the rich or weak foliage are not a naturalistic picture of Marie-Thérèse's plant but express the feelings of the Parisians at that time of undecided future. A gloomy version dated August 10 was sold for $ 13.5M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2006.
On March 1 in London, Sotheby's sells the optimistic version, dated 6 August 1944. The heavy fruits soon to be picked bend the branches in a harmoniously centered composition. This painting is estimated £ 10M, lot 8.
Liberation is approaching and violence is increasing. In early August 1944 Pablo left his studio in the Quartier Latin which had become too dangerous and spent several days in the apartment of the Ile Saint-Louis occupied by his former mistress Marie-Thérèse with their daughter Maya.
Pablo has no heart to pleasure. He looks at a tomato plant in front of the window. Easy to grow with little soil, water and sunlight, the tomato offers a limited complement of food in addition to the strict rationing. It mostly offers an illusion of initiative and freedom in this stifling time.
Pablo painted a simultaneous series of oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm on that theme. The more or less ripe tomatoes and the rich or weak foliage are not a naturalistic picture of Marie-Thérèse's plant but express the feelings of the Parisians at that time of undecided future. A gloomy version dated August 10 was sold for $ 13.5M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2006.
On March 1 in London, Sotheby's sells the optimistic version, dated 6 August 1944. The heavy fruits soon to be picked bend the branches in a harmoniously centered composition. This painting is estimated £ 10M, lot 8.
1944 The Burning Labyrinth
2020 SOLD for £ 1.63M including premium
Maria Helena Vieira da Silva joined the artistic avant-gardes in Paris in 1928. She was 20 years old. Although her art is highly original, she was influenced by the multiple perspectives of the Cubists and the fragmentation of space by the Futurists.
Her meticulous graphics, both architectural and abundant, are guided by lines of force, in an ever-changing geometry, at the border between abstraction and figuration. She will appreciate later in her life that she had maintained a childhood passion for labyrinths, the exploration of which reveals hidden visions.
During World War II, she was in Rio with her husband Arpad Szenes, a Jew who had to flee Nazism. She then incorporated crowds of damned into her works, such as in Le Naufrage painted in 1944.
L'Incendie was also made in 1944, in two oils on canvas 81 x 100 cm. The stifling atmosphere in dark colors is a direct reference to the disasters of war. The gaps between the tongues of fire reveal an entire army and a few houses. L'Incendie I was sold for £ 2.05M including premium by Christie's on March 6, 2018 over a lower estimate of £ 1.1M.
L'Incendie II has long been kept by the artist. Returning to Paris after the war, she reworked it to position an intense mystical light in the center, symbolizing the newfound hope. This painting is estimated £ 1.2M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 11, lot 29.
Her meticulous graphics, both architectural and abundant, are guided by lines of force, in an ever-changing geometry, at the border between abstraction and figuration. She will appreciate later in her life that she had maintained a childhood passion for labyrinths, the exploration of which reveals hidden visions.
During World War II, she was in Rio with her husband Arpad Szenes, a Jew who had to flee Nazism. She then incorporated crowds of damned into her works, such as in Le Naufrage painted in 1944.
L'Incendie was also made in 1944, in two oils on canvas 81 x 100 cm. The stifling atmosphere in dark colors is a direct reference to the disasters of war. The gaps between the tongues of fire reveal an entire army and a few houses. L'Incendie I was sold for £ 2.05M including premium by Christie's on March 6, 2018 over a lower estimate of £ 1.1M.
L'Incendie II has long been kept by the artist. Returning to Paris after the war, she reworked it to position an intense mystical light in the center, symbolizing the newfound hope. This painting is estimated £ 1.2M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 11, lot 29.
1945 Arshile Gorky in New York
2012 SOLD 6.8 M$ including premium
Arshile Gorky arrived in New York in 1925. His maturity came early and his artistic language was similar as Miro's. War created a forced link between the two sides of the Atlantic. In exile in New York in 1944, André Breton admired his work.
Gorky the Armenian is very close to de Kooning the Dutch. The involvement between the two artists is intense. In 1944, de Kooning said that Gorky had a powerful influence on his art, and not the contrary.
Indeed, the style of Gorky is gradually changing. The figures are no more symbols, but an abundance of life that turns the heads. Details fade, colors and characters collide to abstraction. He somehow extended the Cubist research for movement of Severini or the Delaunays.
By its apparent spontaneity, its emotional title "Impatience", the oil on canvas dated 1945, 62 x 78 cm, is one that paves the way for abstract expressionism, the fruitful movement that Gorky, dying too soon, will not know.
It is estimated $ 6M, for sale on November 13 at Sotheby's in New York. Here is the link to the catalog.
This work helps to push Gorky to his rightful place in the history of art. Like Calder at the same time, he was able to instill in America the influence of the modernist trends of Europe.
POST SALE COMMENT
This fine example of the transition between surrealism and abstract expressionism was sold for $ 6.8 million including premium.
Gorky the Armenian is very close to de Kooning the Dutch. The involvement between the two artists is intense. In 1944, de Kooning said that Gorky had a powerful influence on his art, and not the contrary.
Indeed, the style of Gorky is gradually changing. The figures are no more symbols, but an abundance of life that turns the heads. Details fade, colors and characters collide to abstraction. He somehow extended the Cubist research for movement of Severini or the Delaunays.
By its apparent spontaneity, its emotional title "Impatience", the oil on canvas dated 1945, 62 x 78 cm, is one that paves the way for abstract expressionism, the fruitful movement that Gorky, dying too soon, will not know.
It is estimated $ 6M, for sale on November 13 at Sotheby's in New York. Here is the link to the catalog.
This work helps to push Gorky to his rightful place in the history of art. Like Calder at the same time, he was able to instill in America the influence of the modernist trends of Europe.
POST SALE COMMENT
This fine example of the transition between surrealism and abstract expressionism was sold for $ 6.8 million including premium.
1945 Irma Stern and the Zanzibari Woman
2010 SOLD 2.37 M£ including premium
Irma Stern knew better than anyone to show the cosmopolitan aspect of austral Africa. She traveled extensively throughout the region, and painted the portrait of African, Malay and Indian women.
Her art is an effective mixing of ethnic realism and psychological expressionism, which was not well understood in her lifetime.
Bonhams always offers significant works by Irma Stern in their sales of South African art in London.
The next sale, on 26 and 27 October, includes an oil on canvas showing with proximity and sympathy a young woman from the Indian community in Zanzibar. Presented in a frame of African inspiration, this work made in 1945 is estimated £ 600K.
The catalog is not yet available: I will indicate the size when I will comment the result. The image with its frame is illustrated in the press release shared by AuctionPublicity.
POST SALE COMMENT
This painting is a masterpiece of Irma Stern. Bonhams did not make a mistake by announcing a high estimate, but the market went much further £ 2.1 million hammer price, 2.37 million including premium.
The size of this painting is 87 x 71 cm.
Her art is an effective mixing of ethnic realism and psychological expressionism, which was not well understood in her lifetime.
Bonhams always offers significant works by Irma Stern in their sales of South African art in London.
The next sale, on 26 and 27 October, includes an oil on canvas showing with proximity and sympathy a young woman from the Indian community in Zanzibar. Presented in a frame of African inspiration, this work made in 1945 is estimated £ 600K.
The catalog is not yet available: I will indicate the size when I will comment the result. The image with its frame is illustrated in the press release shared by AuctionPublicity.
POST SALE COMMENT
This painting is a masterpiece of Irma Stern. Bonhams did not make a mistake by announcing a high estimate, but the market went much further £ 2.1 million hammer price, 2.37 million including premium.
The size of this painting is 87 x 71 cm.
1945 The Gargoyle Girl
2016 SOLD for £ 2.3M including premium
After the war, intellectuals and artists have fun in Soho. Life finally resumes its rights. Male guys look at young women. Lucian Freud had prepared his pencils and his chalks without waiting until the war is over. He admires the accurate lines in the drawings by Dürer.
Lucian attends the Gargoyle Club and intensely looks at the owner's daughter. The artist feels that he must scrutinize his models from the closest to bring a psychological dimension to his portraits. He already understands that his attitude may be inconvenient, but that does not restrain him. If he knows to seduce his interlocutor, the drawing will be good.
Pauline's drawing by Lucian, 45 x 40 cm on gray-green paper, is estimated £ 2M for sale by Christie's in London on June 30, lot 7. The very short history of their scarcely romantic encounters makes possible to date the work to 1945, when the sitter was 17 years old.
Lucian is a competent artist. The portrait is meticulous, with a great care in the undulating lines of the blond hair. The hair style and the blouse are positioning the girl in the modern world.
Pauline's gaze anticipates the empathy that Lucian will share with his later models. Her left eye is bright while the other is in the shadow, and this difference makes the viewer feel that an eye is wet. The slight oversize of both eyes is probably intended by the grandson of Sigmund Freud to highlight that they constitute the center of his psychological composition.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's.
Lucian attends the Gargoyle Club and intensely looks at the owner's daughter. The artist feels that he must scrutinize his models from the closest to bring a psychological dimension to his portraits. He already understands that his attitude may be inconvenient, but that does not restrain him. If he knows to seduce his interlocutor, the drawing will be good.
Pauline's drawing by Lucian, 45 x 40 cm on gray-green paper, is estimated £ 2M for sale by Christie's in London on June 30, lot 7. The very short history of their scarcely romantic encounters makes possible to date the work to 1945, when the sitter was 17 years old.
Lucian is a competent artist. The portrait is meticulous, with a great care in the undulating lines of the blond hair. The hair style and the blouse are positioning the girl in the modern world.
Pauline's gaze anticipates the empathy that Lucian will share with his later models. Her left eye is bright while the other is in the shadow, and this difference makes the viewer feel that an eye is wet. The slight oversize of both eyes is probably intended by the grandson of Sigmund Freud to highlight that they constitute the center of his psychological composition.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's.
1945 The Three Heads of St Anthony
2014 SOLD for $ 2.63M including premium
In 1945, life is resuming after the Second World War. Albert Lewin is preparing a movie based on Bel-Ami, Maupassant's novel. The temptations remind the legend of St. Anthony in the desert of Egypt, a good theme to appeal surrealist artists.
Lewin has the bold and clever idea to open a competition to ten artists on the theme of St. Anthony with the goal to use the winning artwork within the film. Duchamp is a member of the jury. Max Ernst wins with a Gothic work that well matches the popular imagination on diableries. Dali performs one of his most celebrated pictures, dated 1946.
Leonora Carrington is among the ten invited artists, probably due to her pre-war affair with Max Ernst. Aged 28, she is not yet known to the public. The theme excites her imagination exacerbated by wartime psychiatric difficulties.
The oil on canvas painted by Carrington, 122 x 91 cm, dated 1945, is estimated $ 1.8M, for sale on November 24 by Sotheby's in New York, lot 17.
Leonora enjoyed to include all the symbols of the legend along with introducing new elements. The three pale heads of the saint emerge gradually out of the too white cloak which looks like the shrouds of Blake's ghosts. A young woman is preparing delicious foods. A witch is playing the trumpet in the middle of a spider net shaped blanket held by the sins. The disproportion of the figures will remain a major feature in her personal vision of surrealism.
The artist used to reply complacently to the questions on the interpretation of her works. When asked why the holy man has three heads, she replied: why not?
Lewin has the bold and clever idea to open a competition to ten artists on the theme of St. Anthony with the goal to use the winning artwork within the film. Duchamp is a member of the jury. Max Ernst wins with a Gothic work that well matches the popular imagination on diableries. Dali performs one of his most celebrated pictures, dated 1946.
Leonora Carrington is among the ten invited artists, probably due to her pre-war affair with Max Ernst. Aged 28, she is not yet known to the public. The theme excites her imagination exacerbated by wartime psychiatric difficulties.
The oil on canvas painted by Carrington, 122 x 91 cm, dated 1945, is estimated $ 1.8M, for sale on November 24 by Sotheby's in New York, lot 17.
Leonora enjoyed to include all the symbols of the legend along with introducing new elements. The three pale heads of the saint emerge gradually out of the too white cloak which looks like the shrouds of Blake's ghosts. A young woman is preparing delicious foods. A witch is playing the trumpet in the middle of a spider net shaped blanket held by the sins. The disproportion of the figures will remain a major feature in her personal vision of surrealism.
The artist used to reply complacently to the questions on the interpretation of her works. When asked why the holy man has three heads, she replied: why not?
1945 INDUSTRIAL POETRY OF ENGLAND
2010 SOLD 553 K£ INCLUDING PREMIUM
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
No need to travel far to maintain a theme: LS Lowry specialized in urban scenes of northern England. He showed us factories, sport grounds, fairs, and even the monuments of Manchester or Liverpool.
His scenes are animated by a multitude of small figures, barely typed but with varied attitudes. This superactive life, this figurative style away from all modes, make the delight of collectors. Lowry's work, popular, down to earth, highly readable, is a urban and industrial counterpart of the rural world of Grandma Moses, on the other side of the Atlantic.
On November 11 in London, Christie's sells a collection of 21 works by Lowry.
An oil on canvas dated 1945, estimated £ 500 K, shows a playground with children playing around a large slide. As usual for this artist, it is small, 46 x 62 cm. It is illustrated in the press release shared by AuctionPublicity.
POST SALE COMMENT
26 works by Lowry were sold in this auction. The highest price, £ 713K including premium, was recorded on The Steps - Irk Square, 53 x 39 cm, 1928.
Titled The Playground, the work that had been discussed in my article was sold £ 553K including premium.
No need to travel far to maintain a theme: LS Lowry specialized in urban scenes of northern England. He showed us factories, sport grounds, fairs, and even the monuments of Manchester or Liverpool.
His scenes are animated by a multitude of small figures, barely typed but with varied attitudes. This superactive life, this figurative style away from all modes, make the delight of collectors. Lowry's work, popular, down to earth, highly readable, is a urban and industrial counterpart of the rural world of Grandma Moses, on the other side of the Atlantic.
On November 11 in London, Christie's sells a collection of 21 works by Lowry.
An oil on canvas dated 1945, estimated £ 500 K, shows a playground with children playing around a large slide. As usual for this artist, it is small, 46 x 62 cm. It is illustrated in the press release shared by AuctionPublicity.
POST SALE COMMENT
26 works by Lowry were sold in this auction. The highest price, £ 713K including premium, was recorded on The Steps - Irk Square, 53 x 39 cm, 1928.
Titled The Playground, the work that had been discussed in my article was sold £ 553K including premium.
1945 an intimate nude by irma stern
2015 unsold
On February 17 in Cape Town, Stephan Welz & Co. sells a nude painted by Irma Stern, lot 596 estimated beyond ZAR 10M.
Irma Stern was born in South Africa and made her art studies in Germany. Twenty years after leaving Germany, the style of the artist was still under the influence of the expressionists and especially of Max Pechstein with whom she had worked. The nude was one of their favorite themes, allowing bold compositions and warm colors while bringing a sense of freedom.
This oil on canvas 88 x 88 cm was painted in 1945, the key year in the career of Stern when she made her second trip to Zanzibar. The clear empathy in the communication of the artist with her ethnic sitters generated the most beautiful paintings of Africa. The portrait of a young Indian woman in Zanzibar was sold for £ 2,37M including premium by Bonhams on October 26, 2010.
The nude in the next sale is not empathetic but intimate. The mature woman was probably a longtime friend of the artist. She is quietly reclining with bent legs on the colorful rug of a sofa, probably at her home. The diagonal composition is powerful. This woman with round shapes without being obese anticipates by nearly half a century the nude women friends of Lucian Freud.
Stern never forgot that she was in Africa. This painting was mounted in an Africanist frame typical of her art.
I invite you to play the video shared on YouTube by the auction house.
Irma Stern was born in South Africa and made her art studies in Germany. Twenty years after leaving Germany, the style of the artist was still under the influence of the expressionists and especially of Max Pechstein with whom she had worked. The nude was one of their favorite themes, allowing bold compositions and warm colors while bringing a sense of freedom.
This oil on canvas 88 x 88 cm was painted in 1945, the key year in the career of Stern when she made her second trip to Zanzibar. The clear empathy in the communication of the artist with her ethnic sitters generated the most beautiful paintings of Africa. The portrait of a young Indian woman in Zanzibar was sold for £ 2,37M including premium by Bonhams on October 26, 2010.
The nude in the next sale is not empathetic but intimate. The mature woman was probably a longtime friend of the artist. She is quietly reclining with bent legs on the colorful rug of a sofa, probably at her home. The diagonal composition is powerful. This woman with round shapes without being obese anticipates by nearly half a century the nude women friends of Lucian Freud.
Stern never forgot that she was in Africa. This painting was mounted in an Africanist frame typical of her art.
I invite you to play the video shared on YouTube by the auction house.
Post WWII - Bouquets with Bella
2018 SOLD for $ 1.06M including premium
Marc Chagall is an artist of joy and hope. Yet the twentieth century is terrible. The holocaust annihilates the Jews and does not spare Vitebsk, the beloved hometown where he had met Bella. He is in exile in New York where Bella suddenly dies of a viral infection in 1944.
For assembling his memories Marc composes his Bouquets d'Amour which he will paint frequently from the late 1940s until the early 1960s.
A mixed technique 58 x 45 cm in gouache, crayon, pastel, oil and collage on paper laid on canvas was sold for $ 410K including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 2007 and for $ 790K including premium by Shapiro on September 26, 2015.
This Bouquet d'Amour is estimated $ 900K for sale on March 18 in New Orleans by New Orleans Auction Galleries, lot 920. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Around the lovers everything is mixed with balance and harmony : inside and outside, the Belorussian village and the flowers from France. A dark blue dominance expresses the peaceful night. Under the huge bouquet the couple is lying for a better dream. Bella is naked and modest. The fruit basket and the free dove complete the composition. The musicians did not come.
For assembling his memories Marc composes his Bouquets d'Amour which he will paint frequently from the late 1940s until the early 1960s.
A mixed technique 58 x 45 cm in gouache, crayon, pastel, oil and collage on paper laid on canvas was sold for $ 410K including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 2007 and for $ 790K including premium by Shapiro on September 26, 2015.
This Bouquet d'Amour is estimated $ 900K for sale on March 18 in New Orleans by New Orleans Auction Galleries, lot 920. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Around the lovers everything is mixed with balance and harmony : inside and outside, the Belorussian village and the flowers from France. A dark blue dominance expresses the peaceful night. Under the huge bouquet the couple is lying for a better dream. Bella is naked and modest. The fruit basket and the free dove complete the composition. The musicians did not come.
1946 The Dove came back
2019 SOLD for £ 4.2M including premium
Under the title La Magie noire, René Magritte shows in 1934 a naked standing woman, like a Venus of Milo who would have found her arms, in frontal view. The head and torso imitate the blue of the sky behind her, in contradiction with the lower body treated in the color of the flesh. A dove is tenderly resting on a shoulder, beak near cheek.
A variant 73 x 54 cm with the same title was sold for £ 1.62M including premium by Christie's on February 28, 2017. Le Beau navire, 93 x 70 cm, was sold for £ 3.7M including premium by Sotheby's on 3 February 2010. These two examples were painted in 1942. The dove is no longer there. The hand holds an ephemeral rose.
A later version of La Magie noire, oil on canvas 81 x 60 cm, was sold for $ 2.1M including premium by Sotheby's on November 3, 2008. It is estimated £ 2.5M for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 19, lot 17.
This remake painted in 1946 for his brother Raymond includes the main elements of the previous versions : the two-colored woman with empty eyes, a hand on a rock serving as a guéridon. Peace has come back, the dove too.
A variant 73 x 54 cm with the same title was sold for £ 1.62M including premium by Christie's on February 28, 2017. Le Beau navire, 93 x 70 cm, was sold for £ 3.7M including premium by Sotheby's on 3 February 2010. These two examples were painted in 1942. The dove is no longer there. The hand holds an ephemeral rose.
A later version of La Magie noire, oil on canvas 81 x 60 cm, was sold for $ 2.1M including premium by Sotheby's on November 3, 2008. It is estimated £ 2.5M for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 19, lot 17.
This remake painted in 1946 for his brother Raymond includes the main elements of the previous versions : the two-colored woman with empty eyes, a hand on a rock serving as a guéridon. Peace has come back, the dove too.
1946 The Tragic Face of Antonin Artaud
2012 SOLD 2.15 M€ including premium
Antonin Artaud had a lifelong headache. His pain was inacceptable and uninterrupted. Poet, actor, playwright, he made up for the impossibility of a social life through the expression of absurd and evil. His attitude interested the surrealists, from whom he was sometimes close.
He had friends who managed to make him leave the psychiatric hospital after eight years of confinement, in May 1946. He is not cured but a new life begins for him with an intense creative activity interspersed with morbid public happenings.
He draws some portraits. His most famous graphic work is certainly the self-portrait dated December 17, 1946, 60 x 45 cm. Estimated € 500K, it is for sale by Sotheby's in Paris on April 5. Here is the link to the catalog.
He is an elderly man 50 years old, worn out by life. He is aware of his decline but wants to display himself as he is, just like he sees himself in the mirror with his exacerbated eyes. This is both a terrible image of one of the leading intellectuals of French theater and an inexhaustible subject of study for psychiatrists.
A month later, on the occasion of an exhibition, Artaud discovers the self-portraits of Van Gogh. He is conquered. He lives the pain of Van Gogh as if it were his own and understands that he himself is also a great artist. He still has just over one year to live.
POST SALE COMMENT
This extraordinary self-portrait is a unique link between French art and literature. It deserved a price rarely achieved by a drawing of the twentieth century: € 2.15 million including premium.
He had friends who managed to make him leave the psychiatric hospital after eight years of confinement, in May 1946. He is not cured but a new life begins for him with an intense creative activity interspersed with morbid public happenings.
He draws some portraits. His most famous graphic work is certainly the self-portrait dated December 17, 1946, 60 x 45 cm. Estimated € 500K, it is for sale by Sotheby's in Paris on April 5. Here is the link to the catalog.
He is an elderly man 50 years old, worn out by life. He is aware of his decline but wants to display himself as he is, just like he sees himself in the mirror with his exacerbated eyes. This is both a terrible image of one of the leading intellectuals of French theater and an inexhaustible subject of study for psychiatrists.
A month later, on the occasion of an exhibition, Artaud discovers the self-portraits of Van Gogh. He is conquered. He lives the pain of Van Gogh as if it were his own and understands that he himself is also a great artist. He still has just over one year to live.
POST SALE COMMENT
This extraordinary self-portrait is a unique link between French art and literature. It deserved a price rarely achieved by a drawing of the twentieth century: € 2.15 million including premium.
1946 PIERNEEF, DRAW ME A TREE
2014 SOLD 3.1 M ZAR INCLUDING PREMIUM
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
The tree of Jacob Hendrik Pierneef is powerful. Its huge trunk rises right to the sky. At the top, its branches without leaves are shaped as a crown in which experts from Bonhams saw the influence of Art Nouveau style.
These paintings, made around 1934, indeed show baobabs. It stands at the center of the image, well highlighted by elements of the surrounding countryside. On 10 September 2008, Bonhams sold in London at £ 826 K premium included a large oil on canvas, 112 x 142 cm. The country is dry, with two farther baobabs and some distant mountain. Five tiny figures at the foot of the tree provide the scale.
On 20 and 21 October in Cape Town, Stephan Welz in association with Sotheby's is selling a work of very similar design. The central baobab is one of its kind, surrounded by a more attractive meadow. This monstruous tree seems almost smiling.
The dimensions of this painting are not yet published. It is estimated 2.4 MZAR. Converting in the same currency Bonhams' Baobab discussed above, there are 12.4 MZAR.
Pierneef deserves to be better known. The desert landscapes of his country, South Africa, are strange and beautiful.
POST SALE COMMENT
Good result for this Baobab painted in 1946, sold 3.1 MZAR including premium, around the high estimate. This painting 45 x 60 cm could not compare (besides the subject) to the exceptional work sold by Bonhams in 2008.
The tree of Jacob Hendrik Pierneef is powerful. Its huge trunk rises right to the sky. At the top, its branches without leaves are shaped as a crown in which experts from Bonhams saw the influence of Art Nouveau style.
These paintings, made around 1934, indeed show baobabs. It stands at the center of the image, well highlighted by elements of the surrounding countryside. On 10 September 2008, Bonhams sold in London at £ 826 K premium included a large oil on canvas, 112 x 142 cm. The country is dry, with two farther baobabs and some distant mountain. Five tiny figures at the foot of the tree provide the scale.
On 20 and 21 October in Cape Town, Stephan Welz in association with Sotheby's is selling a work of very similar design. The central baobab is one of its kind, surrounded by a more attractive meadow. This monstruous tree seems almost smiling.
The dimensions of this painting are not yet published. It is estimated 2.4 MZAR. Converting in the same currency Bonhams' Baobab discussed above, there are 12.4 MZAR.
Pierneef deserves to be better known. The desert landscapes of his country, South Africa, are strange and beautiful.
POST SALE COMMENT
Good result for this Baobab painted in 1946, sold 3.1 MZAR including premium, around the high estimate. This painting 45 x 60 cm could not compare (besides the subject) to the exceptional work sold by Bonhams in 2008.
1947 Man and Woman by de Kooning
2021 SOLD for € 5.6M by Tajan
In 1947 Willem de Kooning shares a studio in New York City with his long time good friend Arshile Gorky. Both artists oscillate between figuration and abstraction.
De Kooning had in his recent works a series of figures of women and a series of abstractions in black and white. Much rarer in his art, the male figure is a self portrait for which he uses as model a mannequin dressed with his own clothes and shoes.
On December 1, 2021, Tajan sold for € 5.6M a 54 x 42 cm an oil, enamel, graphite and charcoal on paper mounted on fiberboard painted ca 1947 on the theme of the tension between man and woman, lot 12. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The stylized characters are in the style of Picasso. On the left side, the well dressed man represents harmony and admiration, with an upward gaze. On the right side, the ferocious woman is dressed in garish colors. She maliciously bends her head and her mouth is opened on sharpened teeth. A silhouette behind these two standing characters is her bad angel with both arms raised over her head.
From 1943 Willem was living an open marriage with Elaine. The painting sold by Tajan may represent a marital dispute. This woman anticipates the deliberate ugliness of de Kooning's Women of the 1950s.
De Kooning had in his recent works a series of figures of women and a series of abstractions in black and white. Much rarer in his art, the male figure is a self portrait for which he uses as model a mannequin dressed with his own clothes and shoes.
On December 1, 2021, Tajan sold for € 5.6M a 54 x 42 cm an oil, enamel, graphite and charcoal on paper mounted on fiberboard painted ca 1947 on the theme of the tension between man and woman, lot 12. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The stylized characters are in the style of Picasso. On the left side, the well dressed man represents harmony and admiration, with an upward gaze. On the right side, the ferocious woman is dressed in garish colors. She maliciously bends her head and her mouth is opened on sharpened teeth. A silhouette behind these two standing characters is her bad angel with both arms raised over her head.
From 1943 Willem was living an open marriage with Elaine. The painting sold by Tajan may represent a marital dispute. This woman anticipates the deliberate ugliness of de Kooning's Women of the 1950s.
1947 The New Gods of Wifredo Lam
2015 SOLD for $ 2.63M including premium
The cosmopolitan culture of Wifredo Lam anticipates the contemporary globalization. He was born in Cuba, son of a Chinese and grandson of a Cuban mulatto with a Congolese slave. His godmother is a voodoo healer.
The sensitivity of Wifredo Lam is not mystical but social. Republican fighter, he met Picasso after Guernica. He will populate his paintings with fantastical characters in hybrid forms combining human, animal and plant without forgetting the aesthetic influence of African fetishes.
His surrealist compositions convey a political message in favor of the Third World, guided by titles that are often linked to the Yoruba mythology. The all-powerful figures announce a different world.
On May 26 in New York, Phillips sells an oil on canvas 100 x 100 cm painted in 1947, lot 25 estimated $ 2M.
Simply titled Présages, this artwork has the characteristics of a fantastic and multiple nativity. A cluster of four small spheres of which two are horned is coiled in one of the leafy arms of the creature who is necessarily the female. The being who flies over the scene like a pterodactyl is the father. A little further, a third character with the triangular head of an African mask attends the event.
Premonitions (Présages) of freedom actually appeared in 1947 with the end of the colonial period in India and Palestine, two years after the end of World War II.
The sensitivity of Wifredo Lam is not mystical but social. Republican fighter, he met Picasso after Guernica. He will populate his paintings with fantastical characters in hybrid forms combining human, animal and plant without forgetting the aesthetic influence of African fetishes.
His surrealist compositions convey a political message in favor of the Third World, guided by titles that are often linked to the Yoruba mythology. The all-powerful figures announce a different world.
On May 26 in New York, Phillips sells an oil on canvas 100 x 100 cm painted in 1947, lot 25 estimated $ 2M.
Simply titled Présages, this artwork has the characteristics of a fantastic and multiple nativity. A cluster of four small spheres of which two are horned is coiled in one of the leafy arms of the creature who is necessarily the female. The being who flies over the scene like a pterodactyl is the father. A little further, a third character with the triangular head of an African mask attends the event.
Premonitions (Présages) of freedom actually appeared in 1947 with the end of the colonial period in India and Palestine, two years after the end of World War II.
1947 Cut-Outs by Matisse
2017 SOLD for $ 1.57M including premium
The great project of Matisse was to bring a new meaning to art by the choice of colors and the simplicity of lines. La Danse, painted in 1909, appears as a prototype of his evolution at the end of his career.
Jazz, edited in 1947 by Tériade, marks the triumph of his new technique of cut papers. It is however only one of the elements of the restart of the theories of the artist for a joyous art that seeks the sublime, escaping henceforth the conventions of painting, sculpture and drawing.
Helped by his very efficient assistant Lydia, Matisse covers the walls of his studio in Vence with his new realizations of which he constantly modifies the positions in search of a soothing balance in the global effect. Not only did Matisse reach abstraction but he also anticipated the monochromists of the following decade.
The stiff paper is covered with a monochrome gouache in the expressive color desired by the artist. His large sewing scissors cut an abstract silhouette of harmonious curves in the middle of this plate which is then pinned on a cardboard of another color. When the artist left Vence two years later, the pins were carefully replaced by light dots of glue.
On May 17 in New York, Bonhams sells a 41 x 26 cm abstract cutout made in 1947, titled Arbre de neige, lot 12 estimated $ 800K. Within the fuchsia-colored gouache, the hole on a white background evokes a tree-like shape with undulating edges.
Another cutout of same size made in the same year was sold for $ 1,08M including premium by Christie's on November 4, 2013 in the sale of the Krieger collection. The comparison of the two artworks shows the diversity of the new inspiration of the artist : these Arabesques violettes sur un fond orange have shredded edges close to the violence of the abstract paintings by Clyfford Still.
Please watch the video shared by Bonhams.
Jazz, edited in 1947 by Tériade, marks the triumph of his new technique of cut papers. It is however only one of the elements of the restart of the theories of the artist for a joyous art that seeks the sublime, escaping henceforth the conventions of painting, sculpture and drawing.
Helped by his very efficient assistant Lydia, Matisse covers the walls of his studio in Vence with his new realizations of which he constantly modifies the positions in search of a soothing balance in the global effect. Not only did Matisse reach abstraction but he also anticipated the monochromists of the following decade.
The stiff paper is covered with a monochrome gouache in the expressive color desired by the artist. His large sewing scissors cut an abstract silhouette of harmonious curves in the middle of this plate which is then pinned on a cardboard of another color. When the artist left Vence two years later, the pins were carefully replaced by light dots of glue.
On May 17 in New York, Bonhams sells a 41 x 26 cm abstract cutout made in 1947, titled Arbre de neige, lot 12 estimated $ 800K. Within the fuchsia-colored gouache, the hole on a white background evokes a tree-like shape with undulating edges.
Another cutout of same size made in the same year was sold for $ 1,08M including premium by Christie's on November 4, 2013 in the sale of the Krieger collection. The comparison of the two artworks shows the diversity of the new inspiration of the artist : these Arabesques violettes sur un fond orange have shredded edges close to the violence of the abstract paintings by Clyfford Still.
Please watch the video shared by Bonhams.
1947 The Dreams of Leonora Carrington
2009 SOLD 1.5 M$ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
In Paris, the English Leonora Carrington was close to the Surrealists. Very young, she had an affair with Max Ernst. When came the Second World War, she almost descended into madness, and then took refuge in Mexico where she married twice. She was a key personality of the intense artistic life of Mexico, where she still lives in the same corner after six decades.
In October 1944, she pictorially celebrated her second Mexican marriage, with the Hungarian Chiki. This oil, tempera and ink 90 x 90 cm, French entitled "Chiki, ton pays" (Chiki, your country) was sold 420 K £ including expenses by Sotheby's in London in February 2002. It is again coming at auction, estimated $ 1.2 million, at Sotheby's in New York on May 27.
A giant woman with a very small head occupies the left part of a fantastic landscape, completed with a pond that provides impossible reflections. The newlyweds dominate this dream scene from the top inside of a bright red draped mountain.
This friend of Frida Kahlo is definitely one of the discoveries of this spring. The theme of the small headed giant woman is the main subject of a tempera on panel, circa 1947, 120 x 69 cm, estimated 800 K$ by Christie's in New York on May 28.
POST SALE COMMENTS
1
For "Chiki ton pays", the market did not follow the arguments of the auction house on the importance of the work. This painting has not been sold. Surrealism is too complicated to interpret, and it is increasingly difficult to achieve high prices there.
Wait now Christie's lot, less important in the work of the artist, but also less difficult to decode.
2
There is no doubt, it is the surprise of the day. Christie's sold their painting, $ 1.5 million including expenses. This result, well above the estimate, is also higher than what Sotheby's was waiting on Chiki.
This Giantess, also called the Guardian of the Egg, is as dreamlike as Chiki, but the simplicity (and thus the strength) of its design enabled it to succeed.
In Paris, the English Leonora Carrington was close to the Surrealists. Very young, she had an affair with Max Ernst. When came the Second World War, she almost descended into madness, and then took refuge in Mexico where she married twice. She was a key personality of the intense artistic life of Mexico, where she still lives in the same corner after six decades.
In October 1944, she pictorially celebrated her second Mexican marriage, with the Hungarian Chiki. This oil, tempera and ink 90 x 90 cm, French entitled "Chiki, ton pays" (Chiki, your country) was sold 420 K £ including expenses by Sotheby's in London in February 2002. It is again coming at auction, estimated $ 1.2 million, at Sotheby's in New York on May 27.
A giant woman with a very small head occupies the left part of a fantastic landscape, completed with a pond that provides impossible reflections. The newlyweds dominate this dream scene from the top inside of a bright red draped mountain.
This friend of Frida Kahlo is definitely one of the discoveries of this spring. The theme of the small headed giant woman is the main subject of a tempera on panel, circa 1947, 120 x 69 cm, estimated 800 K$ by Christie's in New York on May 28.
POST SALE COMMENTS
1
For "Chiki ton pays", the market did not follow the arguments of the auction house on the importance of the work. This painting has not been sold. Surrealism is too complicated to interpret, and it is increasingly difficult to achieve high prices there.
Wait now Christie's lot, less important in the work of the artist, but also less difficult to decode.
2
There is no doubt, it is the surprise of the day. Christie's sold their painting, $ 1.5 million including expenses. This result, well above the estimate, is also higher than what Sotheby's was waiting on Chiki.
This Giantess, also called the Guardian of the Egg, is as dreamlike as Chiki, but the simplicity (and thus the strength) of its design enabled it to succeed.
1947 Hand and Gesture
2014 unsold
In 1946, Alberto Giacometti is not satisfied with his own art. His plaster figurines are expressive but too small. Haunted by the conjunction of death memories and of nightmares, he abandons the realistic figure of the body for a new wire-drawn disproportion.
1947 is his great year of creativity, including L'homme qui marche (walking man) who was to remain his most powerful work, the masterpiece of the derision of man in his loneliness.
The flesh is a mystery that has no meaning after death. All organs may contribute to the expression. The mouth in his Head on rod is wide open in the agony. The sculpture entitled La Main is actually a hand with long opened fingers at the end of a complete folded arm also mounted on a rod.
A hand does not require the rest of the body for expressing a passion. This asexual hand holds nothing. Fingers crave but the wide opening of the elbow is a gesture of hope.
Pierre Matisse appreciates that Alberto has become one of the most important artists of his time. With the financial participation of Matisse, Giacometti can commission bronzes of his new works to the best foundry in Paris, the Alexis Rudier workshop.
The serial number 1 of the first edition cast by Rudier in 1947 was part of the seminal exhibition of the new art of Giacometti opened by Matisse in New York on January 19, 1948. This bronze with brown patina 57 x 72 x 3.5 cm is estimated £ 10M for sale by Christie's in London on June 24, lot 12.
A bronze of La Main in the same dimension with brown and green patina cast by Rudier in March 1948 was sold for $ 26M including premium by Christie's on May 4, 2010.
1947 is his great year of creativity, including L'homme qui marche (walking man) who was to remain his most powerful work, the masterpiece of the derision of man in his loneliness.
The flesh is a mystery that has no meaning after death. All organs may contribute to the expression. The mouth in his Head on rod is wide open in the agony. The sculpture entitled La Main is actually a hand with long opened fingers at the end of a complete folded arm also mounted on a rod.
A hand does not require the rest of the body for expressing a passion. This asexual hand holds nothing. Fingers crave but the wide opening of the elbow is a gesture of hope.
Pierre Matisse appreciates that Alberto has become one of the most important artists of his time. With the financial participation of Matisse, Giacometti can commission bronzes of his new works to the best foundry in Paris, the Alexis Rudier workshop.
The serial number 1 of the first edition cast by Rudier in 1947 was part of the seminal exhibition of the new art of Giacometti opened by Matisse in New York on January 19, 1948. This bronze with brown patina 57 x 72 x 3.5 cm is estimated £ 10M for sale by Christie's in London on June 24, lot 12.
A bronze of La Main in the same dimension with brown and green patina cast by Rudier in March 1948 was sold for $ 26M including premium by Christie's on May 4, 2010.
1948 Trois Hommes qui marchent
2011 SOLD 10.7 M£ including premium
After the war, Alberto Giacometti creates and operates his own universe through the sculpture. He establishes rules that he will remarkably maintain in his later work in his signature wire-like style : man is walking, woman is still.
Some are shown in groups. The Trois hommes qui marchent I (three walking men I) will soon be telescoped. Three walking men II are leaving from each other in a contradictory movement, for which a moment before is impossible. It is a powerful work, which reminds that the artist had been tempted by surrealism.
Also in 1948, la Place (the square) shows five characters further apart, expressing the loneliness of every man in the crowd.
This great creative impulse will be achieved through the exhibition of works at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in 1950. La Forêt (the forest) and La Clairière (the glade) provide a coherent meaning to the whole. They are designed like the square, but impersonal trees have superseded the men. The arms and legs are united with the body but the head is still outlined at the top of the tree. Not only each man is alone, but in addition he is nothing.
On June 22, 2011, Sotheby's sold for £ 10.7M a copy of the Trois hommes qui marchent II cast by Alexis Rudier company as early as 1948. This bronze with a rich brown patina, 76 cm high, once belonged to Pierre Matisse.
Some are shown in groups. The Trois hommes qui marchent I (three walking men I) will soon be telescoped. Three walking men II are leaving from each other in a contradictory movement, for which a moment before is impossible. It is a powerful work, which reminds that the artist had been tempted by surrealism.
Also in 1948, la Place (the square) shows five characters further apart, expressing the loneliness of every man in the crowd.
This great creative impulse will be achieved through the exhibition of works at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in 1950. La Forêt (the forest) and La Clairière (the glade) provide a coherent meaning to the whole. They are designed like the square, but impersonal trees have superseded the men. The arms and legs are united with the body but the head is still outlined at the top of the tree. Not only each man is alone, but in addition he is nothing.
On June 22, 2011, Sotheby's sold for £ 10.7M a copy of the Trois hommes qui marchent II cast by Alexis Rudier company as early as 1948. This bronze with a rich brown patina, 76 cm high, once belonged to Pierre Matisse.
1948 Demonstration of Dripping
2010 SOLD 8.7 M$ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Life magazine asked the question in 1949: Jackson Pollock - is he the greatest living painter in the United States? An answer came in 2006 when a board painted in 1948, numbered No. 5, 244 x 122 cm, was sold $ 140 million in a private sale, with the probable participation of Sotheby's.
Let us return at Sotheby's but this time in an auction, the day after tomorrow, on May 12 in New York.
No. 12A is an important work, also made in 1948, and one of three which illustrated the article in Life. It is unfortunately small, 58 x 78 cm. Enameled dripping of various width in yellow, gray and black have been laid on a white paper prepared with a smooth and shiny coating. The image is shared by AuctionPublicity (as usual on the web, without warranty of color and with no shining effect !).
The estimate, $ 4 million, is a compromise. We probably prefer Pollock works on larger surface, on canvas or board, which better reflect that technical gesture for which he is recognized as one of the leading innovators in the history of art.
POST SALE COMMENT
This small painting on paper is important in art history. It was sold $ 8.7 million including premium.
Life magazine asked the question in 1949: Jackson Pollock - is he the greatest living painter in the United States? An answer came in 2006 when a board painted in 1948, numbered No. 5, 244 x 122 cm, was sold $ 140 million in a private sale, with the probable participation of Sotheby's.
Let us return at Sotheby's but this time in an auction, the day after tomorrow, on May 12 in New York.
No. 12A is an important work, also made in 1948, and one of three which illustrated the article in Life. It is unfortunately small, 58 x 78 cm. Enameled dripping of various width in yellow, gray and black have been laid on a white paper prepared with a smooth and shiny coating. The image is shared by AuctionPublicity (as usual on the web, without warranty of color and with no shining effect !).
The estimate, $ 4 million, is a compromise. We probably prefer Pollock works on larger surface, on canvas or board, which better reflect that technical gesture for which he is recognized as one of the leading innovators in the history of art.
POST SALE COMMENT
This small painting on paper is important in art history. It was sold $ 8.7 million including premium.
1948 Beauford Delaney in the Village
2018 SOLD for $ 560k including premium
Beauford Delaney is the son of a Methodist minister in Knoxville TN and of a former slave. He receives from his family environment a social hypersensitivity accompanied by self-esteem and honesty that he will keep during his whole life.
Times were hard for a young homosexual Black guy, especially since he arrived in New York during the Great Depression of 1929. He frequented jazz clubs and cafés and painted many portraits. Wanting to escape the homophobic mockery from his fellows in Harlem, he set up his studio in 1936 in Greenwich Village.
The Village gathers all the hopes of this young man just out of misery. He paints the atmosphere of his street and of Washington Square with flat tints of saturated colors in a heavy impasto, over an extremely schematic drawing. His style inspired by Van Gogh, Cézanne and Gauguin persuades the very young James Baldwin that an African-American art is possible.
On April 5 in New York, Swann sells a street scene in the Village, oil on canvas 74 x 102 cm painted in 1948, lot 33 estimated $ 150K.
Close to the jazz elites but far from American artistic circles, Delaney settled in Paris in 1953 where Baldwin had become a famous writer of the homosexual dignity. His art is first welcomed in Montparnasse but his last years are marred by alcoholism and misery. His distance from the United States made him lose any chance of an artistic recognition in New York and of a direct participation in the civic movements of which he was still very close.
Beauford Delaney has joined Van Gogh in the class of the artistes maudits. Thirty years after his death in Paris in 1979 in a hospital for insane, his unmarked grave was identified and preserved by his Parisian admirers. His art remains undervalued.
Times were hard for a young homosexual Black guy, especially since he arrived in New York during the Great Depression of 1929. He frequented jazz clubs and cafés and painted many portraits. Wanting to escape the homophobic mockery from his fellows in Harlem, he set up his studio in 1936 in Greenwich Village.
The Village gathers all the hopes of this young man just out of misery. He paints the atmosphere of his street and of Washington Square with flat tints of saturated colors in a heavy impasto, over an extremely schematic drawing. His style inspired by Van Gogh, Cézanne and Gauguin persuades the very young James Baldwin that an African-American art is possible.
On April 5 in New York, Swann sells a street scene in the Village, oil on canvas 74 x 102 cm painted in 1948, lot 33 estimated $ 150K.
Close to the jazz elites but far from American artistic circles, Delaney settled in Paris in 1953 where Baldwin had become a famous writer of the homosexual dignity. His art is first welcomed in Montparnasse but his last years are marred by alcoholism and misery. His distance from the United States made him lose any chance of an artistic recognition in New York and of a direct participation in the civic movements of which he was still very close.
Beauford Delaney has joined Van Gogh in the class of the artistes maudits. Thirty years after his death in Paris in 1979 in a hospital for insane, his unmarked grave was identified and preserved by his Parisian admirers. His art remains undervalued.
1948-1949 The Blazing Hell of Clyfford Still
2016 SOLD for $ 13.7M including premium
Clyfford Still is a pioneer. He does not need anyone to develop a new art. Art teacher in San Francisco from 1946 to 1950 he had a considerable influence which will long be underestimated. In the fierce isolation of his last thirty years he tirelessly continues painting to release his existential impulses.
Obsessed with the theme of the fight between life and death, Still had given up a morbid figuration. He works the blazing colors of hell in an impasto laid on the canvas with a knife. His abstract art is a burst that produces a psychedelic glow. He alternately defined it as an explosion or as an implosion.
The black of death and the red of vitality are juxtaposed with a great violence until they reach a balance that will ever remain precarious, like a sheared curtain. The other colors are subsidiaries to these two key elements. In a powerful tendency of exacerbating the vertical, these abstract scenes often in large size can be observed from bottom up like a mystical painting by El Greco.
On November 16 in New York, Phillips sells an oil on canvas 140 x 106 cm painted circa 1948 or 1949, lot 9 estimated $ 12M.
This unnumbered opus escaped the large corpus of Still's work now kept in the Denver Museum because he presented it in 1951 to one of his best students. Before this friendly disposal the artist had reworked this painting to drown within the deep red a few bright spots that could contradict the force.
This creator has provided to his fellows and his competitors the basics of abstract expressionism. He covers like Pollock the surfaces that he considered as unachieved. He gets in the boundaries between the colored blocks a shredding illusion that anticipates Rothko. The Homeric struggles for vital power between the dominant elements anticipate the creations of the world by Barnett Newman.
1948-H features two tiny bright lightnings over a dark background in various rich tones. This oil on canvas 190 x 177 cm was sold by Sotheby's on November 13, 2012 for $ 9.9M, lot 14.
Obsessed with the theme of the fight between life and death, Still had given up a morbid figuration. He works the blazing colors of hell in an impasto laid on the canvas with a knife. His abstract art is a burst that produces a psychedelic glow. He alternately defined it as an explosion or as an implosion.
The black of death and the red of vitality are juxtaposed with a great violence until they reach a balance that will ever remain precarious, like a sheared curtain. The other colors are subsidiaries to these two key elements. In a powerful tendency of exacerbating the vertical, these abstract scenes often in large size can be observed from bottom up like a mystical painting by El Greco.
On November 16 in New York, Phillips sells an oil on canvas 140 x 106 cm painted circa 1948 or 1949, lot 9 estimated $ 12M.
This unnumbered opus escaped the large corpus of Still's work now kept in the Denver Museum because he presented it in 1951 to one of his best students. Before this friendly disposal the artist had reworked this painting to drown within the deep red a few bright spots that could contradict the force.
This creator has provided to his fellows and his competitors the basics of abstract expressionism. He covers like Pollock the surfaces that he considered as unachieved. He gets in the boundaries between the colored blocks a shredding illusion that anticipates Rothko. The Homeric struggles for vital power between the dominant elements anticipate the creations of the world by Barnett Newman.
1948-H features two tiny bright lightnings over a dark background in various rich tones. This oil on canvas 190 x 177 cm was sold by Sotheby's on November 13, 2012 for $ 9.9M, lot 14.
1949 The Road to Clarity
2017 SOLD for £ 10.7M including premium
Around the figurative painter Milton Avery a circle of young artists in New York sought the simplification of the forms. As an exegete of Aeschylus and Nietzsche Mark Rothko considered that a simplified painting could reinforce the expression of the most extreme passions. This theorist did not write : his aim was to set an example by his art.
A meeting and a personal tragedy set him on the road to clarity. In 1943 Rothko visited Clyfford Still in California. The art of Still is a confrontation of forces represented by abstract fields of colors with edges shredded by violence.
Rothko's mother died in October 1948 after a long illness. The artist expresses his deep grief by drawing empty horizontal rectangles in a vertical column. What could have been a simple alignment of graves becomes a new expression of forces when he fills these geometric figures with different monochromatic colors.
In 1949 Mark Rothko explores this new language and adds a perfectionist search for luminosity. Twelve works are selected for an exhibition to be held in January 1950 at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York. They will be numbered from 1 to 12 in the sequence chosen by the artist for the hanging. Later Rothko will number his opus in a similar way by starting again with a No. 1 in each new year.
On March 7 in London, Christie's sells as lot 11 No. 1 (1949), oil on canvas 199 x 98 cm.
The rectangles are bordered by thick lines in another colors. The upper lemon-yellow element first appeals the gaze by its brightness. The central element offers an internal structure, like the labyrinth of one of those mythical monsters with which Rothko once looked for his inspiration. No. 1 is suggesting the stage of a theater prepared to exacerbate the passions between two antagonistic camps characterized by opposite colors.
A meeting and a personal tragedy set him on the road to clarity. In 1943 Rothko visited Clyfford Still in California. The art of Still is a confrontation of forces represented by abstract fields of colors with edges shredded by violence.
Rothko's mother died in October 1948 after a long illness. The artist expresses his deep grief by drawing empty horizontal rectangles in a vertical column. What could have been a simple alignment of graves becomes a new expression of forces when he fills these geometric figures with different monochromatic colors.
In 1949 Mark Rothko explores this new language and adds a perfectionist search for luminosity. Twelve works are selected for an exhibition to be held in January 1950 at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York. They will be numbered from 1 to 12 in the sequence chosen by the artist for the hanging. Later Rothko will number his opus in a similar way by starting again with a No. 1 in each new year.
On March 7 in London, Christie's sells as lot 11 No. 1 (1949), oil on canvas 199 x 98 cm.
The rectangles are bordered by thick lines in another colors. The upper lemon-yellow element first appeals the gaze by its brightness. The central element offers an internal structure, like the labyrinth of one of those mythical monsters with which Rothko once looked for his inspiration. No. 1 is suggesting the stage of a theater prepared to exacerbate the passions between two antagonistic camps characterized by opposite colors.
1949 La Fête d'Anniversaire by Foujita
2018 SOLD for £ 7.1M by Bonhams
Foujita is in Montparnasse during the Roaring Twenties. He likes social life, white women, champagne. Returning to Japan in the 1930s, he collaborates successively with the imperial army and with the American occupier. His situation is becoming untenable. In 1949 General MacArthur manages to get him out of Japan.
Foujita stays in New York for a few months. He understands that he was wrong and that art should not glorify war but express peace and beauty. He enthusiastically prepares an exhibition on new themes.
The figuration remains done with a thin line in the Japanese style. The staging is inspired by his great knowledge of Western art. The works include interwoven symbols beside personal reminiscences.
For example, Au Café, oil on canvas kept at the Centre Pompidou, follows L'Absinthe by Degas, les Folies Bergères by Manet and le Lapin Agile by Picasso. Behind the window, another café is La Petite Madeleine, reminding the ballerina from the Casino de Paris who followed him to Japan and died of an overdose in Tokyo in 1936.
In a series titled Hommage à La Fontaine, Foujita brings human attitudes and expressions to zoomorphic figures. On October 11, 2018, Bonhams sold for £ 7.1M from a lower estimate of £ 900K La Fête d'anniversaire, oil on canvas 77 x 102 cm, lot 18. Proud of his speed in producing a masterpiece, the artist has taken care to inscribe in the verso the time he spent to make it, 79 hours.
The scene evokes the Flemish and Dutch banquets of the 17th century. Around the table, the animals are happy and one of the cats is hilarious. As in Isaiah's Paradise, the differentiation of the species does not allow them to eat each other : the meal is composed of fish, fruits and cakes. The artist's frame 92 x 116 cm is illustrated with kitchen utensils.
The figure of a nude woman in the artist's signature style is nailed on the wall. She is the only fully human form in this painting that Foujita has humorously re-signed at that place.
Foujita stays in New York for a few months. He understands that he was wrong and that art should not glorify war but express peace and beauty. He enthusiastically prepares an exhibition on new themes.
The figuration remains done with a thin line in the Japanese style. The staging is inspired by his great knowledge of Western art. The works include interwoven symbols beside personal reminiscences.
For example, Au Café, oil on canvas kept at the Centre Pompidou, follows L'Absinthe by Degas, les Folies Bergères by Manet and le Lapin Agile by Picasso. Behind the window, another café is La Petite Madeleine, reminding the ballerina from the Casino de Paris who followed him to Japan and died of an overdose in Tokyo in 1936.
In a series titled Hommage à La Fontaine, Foujita brings human attitudes and expressions to zoomorphic figures. On October 11, 2018, Bonhams sold for £ 7.1M from a lower estimate of £ 900K La Fête d'anniversaire, oil on canvas 77 x 102 cm, lot 18. Proud of his speed in producing a masterpiece, the artist has taken care to inscribe in the verso the time he spent to make it, 79 hours.
The scene evokes the Flemish and Dutch banquets of the 17th century. Around the table, the animals are happy and one of the cats is hilarious. As in Isaiah's Paradise, the differentiation of the species does not allow them to eat each other : the meal is composed of fish, fruits and cakes. The artist's frame 92 x 116 cm is illustrated with kitchen utensils.
The figure of a nude woman in the artist's signature style is nailed on the wall. She is the only fully human form in this painting that Foujita has humorously re-signed at that place.
1949 The Social Dimension of Football
2011 SOLD 5.6 M£ including premium
On a large island off the Europe, English people are living. When one of them managed to cultivate in his everyday life a trend for originality, it can become high art.
LS Lowry worked until his retirement as a cashier in a real estate company in an industrial district of northern England. Escaping the monotony of his professional work, he began to draw and paint. He became famous and refused the honors.
He enjoyed confusing. For example, Wikipedia can not find a convincing explanation for his practice of settling each of the clocks in his living room at a different time.
As many employees, he loved football and was a supporter of the Manchester team. Christie's sells on May 26 in London a painting on this theme, estimated £ 3.5 million, illustrated on the article shared by Metro. Executed in 1949, it is quite large for this artist: 70 x 90 cm.
The stadium is adjacent to a park in the middle of old factories with smoky chimneys. The match is in progress. The players are scattered on the lawn surrounded by a crowd of spectators. This is the event of that day, mobilizing the people and emptying the streets in the neighborhood.
With its typical industrial cityscape, its hundreds of characters hardly differentiated, its stadium looking like the frame of an almost empty painting, this is a masterpiece of one of the strangest British artists. It is very close to the best surrealism by a snow effect that affects the stadium, the park and the streets but not the factory roofs.
LS Lowry worked until his retirement as a cashier in a real estate company in an industrial district of northern England. Escaping the monotony of his professional work, he began to draw and paint. He became famous and refused the honors.
He enjoyed confusing. For example, Wikipedia can not find a convincing explanation for his practice of settling each of the clocks in his living room at a different time.
As many employees, he loved football and was a supporter of the Manchester team. Christie's sells on May 26 in London a painting on this theme, estimated £ 3.5 million, illustrated on the article shared by Metro. Executed in 1949, it is quite large for this artist: 70 x 90 cm.
The stadium is adjacent to a park in the middle of old factories with smoky chimneys. The match is in progress. The players are scattered on the lawn surrounded by a crowd of spectators. This is the event of that day, mobilizing the people and emptying the streets in the neighborhood.
With its typical industrial cityscape, its hundreds of characters hardly differentiated, its stadium looking like the frame of an almost empty painting, this is a masterpiece of one of the strangest British artists. It is very close to the best surrealism by a snow effect that affects the stadium, the park and the streets but not the factory roofs.
1949 Beckmann against Medusae
2001 SOLD for $ 3.85M including premium by Sotheby's
2009 UNSOLD
PRE 2009 SALE DISCUSSION
Self portraits constitute the Ariadne wire of the work of Max Beckmann. They display an austere and serious man (no nonsense as the Americans say), who would slay all the horrors of his time. When the Nazis included him in their famous class of degenerate artists, he certainly felt honored but was forced into exile.
He certainly set himself in the role of Perseus, a dark colossus viewed from backside who has just beheaded a bright bare breasted Medusa. Made in 1949, the year before the sudden death of the artist, this oil on canvas, 89 x 142 cm, has all the visual and symbolic complexity of the latest Beckmann works inspired by mythological stories.
This painting fetched $ 3.85 million including premium at Sotheby's on May 8, 2001. It is now available in Paris on December 8, at Tajan, with an estimate of 2.5 million €.
I report an excellent recent result for Beckmann: On November 27, the day before yesterday, Grisebach sold in Berlin a landscape of Marseille at € 2.6 million including premium on an estimate of 1.4 million €. For such a subject which could have been calm and peaceful, the hard lines may surprise, but they are typical of the style of this expressionist artist.
Self portraits constitute the Ariadne wire of the work of Max Beckmann. They display an austere and serious man (no nonsense as the Americans say), who would slay all the horrors of his time. When the Nazis included him in their famous class of degenerate artists, he certainly felt honored but was forced into exile.
He certainly set himself in the role of Perseus, a dark colossus viewed from backside who has just beheaded a bright bare breasted Medusa. Made in 1949, the year before the sudden death of the artist, this oil on canvas, 89 x 142 cm, has all the visual and symbolic complexity of the latest Beckmann works inspired by mythological stories.
This painting fetched $ 3.85 million including premium at Sotheby's on May 8, 2001. It is now available in Paris on December 8, at Tajan, with an estimate of 2.5 million €.
I report an excellent recent result for Beckmann: On November 27, the day before yesterday, Grisebach sold in Berlin a landscape of Marseille at € 2.6 million including premium on an estimate of 1.4 million €. For such a subject which could have been calm and peaceful, the hard lines may surprise, but they are typical of the style of this expressionist artist.
1949 Landscapes on Burlap
2017 SOLD for € 1.93M including premium
Encouraged by the intellectuals including Paulhan and Breton, Jean Dubuffet develops a new conception of figurative art while openly and violently castigating all cultural traditions. His personal and self-taught vision of art is unprecedented. He gives himself the right to use all supports, all tools, all pictorial materials.
He groups his works in themes, offering new visions of a universe that becomes exclusively mental, at the extreme limit of the obsessive pathology. Dubuffet is happy when the audience or critics are upset. He claims that anyone can do what he does and that is absolutely true.
Until 1948 the art of Dubuffet remains narrative, with a deliberately grotesque and neglected drawing. In 1949 his characters are juxtaposed without action or individualization in a shapeless landscape limited by a horizon. The artist paints in gray or neutral color on burlap. The color is indicated in the title to shock even more the bourgeois, as for example Paysage grotesque violâtre or Paysage couleur de viande cuite.
With his impulse to do differently from any other artist and his careful observation of the art of the mentally ill, Dubuffet's creativity is unlimited. The 1950 Corps de Dames are typical of this new art positioned in a total opposition to expressionism and abstraction.
On June 6 in Paris, Sotheby's sells Paysage gris aux taches cerises, oil on burlap 89 x 117 cm painted in 1949, lot 6 estimated € 1,5M.
He groups his works in themes, offering new visions of a universe that becomes exclusively mental, at the extreme limit of the obsessive pathology. Dubuffet is happy when the audience or critics are upset. He claims that anyone can do what he does and that is absolutely true.
Until 1948 the art of Dubuffet remains narrative, with a deliberately grotesque and neglected drawing. In 1949 his characters are juxtaposed without action or individualization in a shapeless landscape limited by a horizon. The artist paints in gray or neutral color on burlap. The color is indicated in the title to shock even more the bourgeois, as for example Paysage grotesque violâtre or Paysage couleur de viande cuite.
With his impulse to do differently from any other artist and his careful observation of the art of the mentally ill, Dubuffet's creativity is unlimited. The 1950 Corps de Dames are typical of this new art positioned in a total opposition to expressionism and abstraction.
On June 6 in Paris, Sotheby's sells Paysage gris aux taches cerises, oil on burlap 89 x 117 cm painted in 1949, lot 6 estimated € 1,5M.
1949 in the footsteps of Burke and Wills
2015 SOLD for A$ 1.16M including premium
Australia is a world apart. Around the Angry Penguins, young intellectuals and artists refuse war and seek to shock the bourgeoisie. Sidney Nolan takes his themes in the toughest episodes from the history of his country. He transposes them for the attention of the modern viewer through a Surrealism with naive graphics.
The terrible Ned Kelly dressed as a black robot is also protected against the modern world by his incredible helmet that leaves only the slot for the nasty gaze.
The first set of Ned Kelly paintings by Nolan in 1946 paves the way for the modern Australian art, protesting, unaligned and timeless. The artist creates an empathic connection with this crazy renegade, heir to the convicts, lonesome in his illusory struggle. A painting from this first series was sold for AUD 5.4 million including premium by Menzies on March 25, 2010.
Australia's historians can only disavow Ned Kelly but they honor in due course Burke and Wills, the two explorers who died in 1861 in the return travel from the first continental crossing from south to north.
Nearly a century had passed after Burke and Wills when Sidney Nolan long wandered in Queensland in search of the cultural roots of the Australian pioneers. On August 25 in Sydney, Sotheby's Australia sells The Emu hunt, enamel on board 91 x 121 cm painted in 1949, lot 48 estimated AUD 600K.
The frightened big bird is surrounded by a man and a woman, both holding shotguns. The improbable attitudes of all characters make it an epic poetry. The man is out of balance and ready to shoot, while the amazone in bourgeois dress on a galloping horse displays a nice smile without worrying about hunting.
The tree in the center of the composition is not only a reminder that Queensland is not a desert. It marks the separation between pioneers and bourgeois. The bird whose only fate is to be the victim of these two irreconcilable social environments is perhaps the artist himself.
The terrible Ned Kelly dressed as a black robot is also protected against the modern world by his incredible helmet that leaves only the slot for the nasty gaze.
The first set of Ned Kelly paintings by Nolan in 1946 paves the way for the modern Australian art, protesting, unaligned and timeless. The artist creates an empathic connection with this crazy renegade, heir to the convicts, lonesome in his illusory struggle. A painting from this first series was sold for AUD 5.4 million including premium by Menzies on March 25, 2010.
Australia's historians can only disavow Ned Kelly but they honor in due course Burke and Wills, the two explorers who died in 1861 in the return travel from the first continental crossing from south to north.
Nearly a century had passed after Burke and Wills when Sidney Nolan long wandered in Queensland in search of the cultural roots of the Australian pioneers. On August 25 in Sydney, Sotheby's Australia sells The Emu hunt, enamel on board 91 x 121 cm painted in 1949, lot 48 estimated AUD 600K.
The frightened big bird is surrounded by a man and a woman, both holding shotguns. The improbable attitudes of all characters make it an epic poetry. The man is out of balance and ready to shoot, while the amazone in bourgeois dress on a galloping horse displays a nice smile without worrying about hunting.
The tree in the center of the composition is not only a reminder that Queensland is not a desert. It marks the separation between pioneers and bourgeois. The bird whose only fate is to be the victim of these two irreconcilable social environments is perhaps the artist himself.
1949 Two Night Girls and a Kitten
2013 unsold
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Max Beckmann wanted to be the great humanist artist of the realities of life. Shocked by the First World War, hebecame fascinated for the life in the cabarets of Berlin and was very popular during the Weimar Republic.
An early opponent to Nazism, he fled Germany under Hitler's diatribes against degenerate art. His figurative art with thick lines is then filled with mythical monsters and masks which, without offering a direct political message, areexpressing the threats against humanity.
He dreams of America, and is able to move to New York in September 1949. He is again attracted by the night clubsand their misfit girls. This artist regarded by his friends as jovial was uncompromisingly building the most gloomy portrait of civilization and of himself. Wanting to be away from all the trends although his drawing style is close toLéger, he was indeed a philosopher.
On February 5 in London, Sotheby's sells an oil on canvas, 143 x 89 cm, painted by Beckmann in New York in 1949.The title is descriptive but announces the mystery: Vor dem Ball - Zwei Frauen mit Katze (before the ball - two women with cat).
The junk jewelry and flashy dress of the brunette leave no doubt about their bad life. The attitude of the two women is stiff, devoid of thoughts. The paradox is that the blonde holds the kitten snuggled against her chest without looking at him, and that this animal is perhaps the only living being with whom she could communicate some feelings.
This painting is estimated £ 5M. I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
Max Beckmann wanted to be the great humanist artist of the realities of life. Shocked by the First World War, hebecame fascinated for the life in the cabarets of Berlin and was very popular during the Weimar Republic.
An early opponent to Nazism, he fled Germany under Hitler's diatribes against degenerate art. His figurative art with thick lines is then filled with mythical monsters and masks which, without offering a direct political message, areexpressing the threats against humanity.
He dreams of America, and is able to move to New York in September 1949. He is again attracted by the night clubsand their misfit girls. This artist regarded by his friends as jovial was uncompromisingly building the most gloomy portrait of civilization and of himself. Wanting to be away from all the trends although his drawing style is close toLéger, he was indeed a philosopher.
On February 5 in London, Sotheby's sells an oil on canvas, 143 x 89 cm, painted by Beckmann in New York in 1949.The title is descriptive but announces the mystery: Vor dem Ball - Zwei Frauen mit Katze (before the ball - two women with cat).
The junk jewelry and flashy dress of the brunette leave no doubt about their bad life. The attitude of the two women is stiff, devoid of thoughts. The paradox is that the blonde holds the kitten snuggled against her chest without looking at him, and that this animal is perhaps the only living being with whom she could communicate some feelings.
This painting is estimated £ 5M. I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
