Art 1960-1961
1960 La Corde Sensible
2017 SOLD for £ 14.4M by Christie's
In his deeply original way René Magritte is the less hermetic of the surrealists. His art is nothing more than lines and colors. His exegetes are far more complicated than himself. His themes disconcert by the incongruous mingling of the opposites : day and night, flesh and rock, animal and vegetable, or an object that floats freely in the sky.
In 1960, Magritte is looking for new themes involving the four primordial substances : water, air, earth, fire. The cloud, which is altogether immaterial and opaque, perpetually malleable, is a major figure of his Olympus.
On February 28, 2017, Christie's sold for £ 14.4M La Corde sensible, oil on canvas 114 x 146 cm which is a large size for this artist, lot 110. Let us remind that the title of a work by Magritte is always a result of chance without a meaningful connection with the image.
The well-centered cloud is at its normal position in the sky above a landscape. It appears as laying and slightly entering into a monumental crystal coupe.
The mystery is multiple : Is the glass empty or full ? Is the cloud the cream of a cocktail ? What Gulliver will approach his lips onto this impossible vapor ? What is the true distance to the glass ? What is the reality of the landscape? What is the reality of our own world ? By its absence of animal or human being, La Corde sensible provides no mark.
In 1960, Magritte is looking for new themes involving the four primordial substances : water, air, earth, fire. The cloud, which is altogether immaterial and opaque, perpetually malleable, is a major figure of his Olympus.
On February 28, 2017, Christie's sold for £ 14.4M La Corde sensible, oil on canvas 114 x 146 cm which is a large size for this artist, lot 110. Let us remind that the title of a work by Magritte is always a result of chance without a meaningful connection with the image.
The well-centered cloud is at its normal position in the sky above a landscape. It appears as laying and slightly entering into a monumental crystal coupe.
The mystery is multiple : Is the glass empty or full ? Is the cloud the cream of a cocktail ? What Gulliver will approach his lips onto this impossible vapor ? What is the true distance to the glass ? What is the reality of the landscape? What is the reality of our own world ? By its absence of animal or human being, La Corde sensible provides no mark.
1960 The Grand Mourning of Lee Krasner
2019 SOLD for $ 11.7M including premium
Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock's wife, was an artist of great creativity. She managed to reveal the genius of her husband to himself and to the world while pushing him to work in an isolated barn, far away from the sterile temptations of the big city.
With this success, she had let her career vanish behind Jackson's glory. When he died in 1956, she knew how to demonstrate the originality of her personal art. Inspired by biomorphics, her style is closer to de Kooning than to Pollock.
The death of her mother in 1959 is an intolerable event for this hypersensitive woman. She returns in the barn studio for painting on very large canvases. Her works are unlimited like those of Pollock, with an angry energy like that of Joan Mitchell and an obsession with repetition like Yayoi Kusama.
Her psychological trauma makes her lose sleep. Throughout the night, she paints. She remembers her talent as a colorist and regrets having to work in the dark. She skillfully chooses neutral and nuanced hues that do not ask for being improved by daylight such as amber, cream, sienna. This series of 24 paintings executed from 1959 to 1961 is titled Umber, which means both shadow and sienna.
On May 16 in New York, Sotheby's sells a 234 x 487 cm oil on canvas painted in 1960, lot 29 estimated $ 10M. It is titled The Eye is the First Circle, which is a mystical quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson searching for the meaning of the world. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
With this success, she had let her career vanish behind Jackson's glory. When he died in 1956, she knew how to demonstrate the originality of her personal art. Inspired by biomorphics, her style is closer to de Kooning than to Pollock.
The death of her mother in 1959 is an intolerable event for this hypersensitive woman. She returns in the barn studio for painting on very large canvases. Her works are unlimited like those of Pollock, with an angry energy like that of Joan Mitchell and an obsession with repetition like Yayoi Kusama.
Her psychological trauma makes her lose sleep. Throughout the night, she paints. She remembers her talent as a colorist and regrets having to work in the dark. She skillfully chooses neutral and nuanced hues that do not ask for being improved by daylight such as amber, cream, sienna. This series of 24 paintings executed from 1959 to 1961 is titled Umber, which means both shadow and sienna.
On May 16 in New York, Sotheby's sells a 234 x 487 cm oil on canvas painted in 1960, lot 29 estimated $ 10M. It is titled The Eye is the First Circle, which is a mystical quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson searching for the meaning of the world. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1960 The Winged Tiger by Shiraga
2019 SOLD for € 7.8M by Sotheby's
From 1959 Kazuo Shiraga takes as his favorite theme the 108 Stars of Destiny, a Ming epic novel whose reading in a Japanese translation had fascinated him during his childhood.
This theme is basically rebellious. 108 bandits form an army after being banished by a god. In a strictly ranked hierarchy, they are divided into 36 dominant heavenly spirits and 72 operational earthly demons. It is assigned to each of them a star, a fetish nickname, a specific role in the army and a weapon.
On December 4, 2019, Sotheby's sold for € 7.8M from a lower estimate of € 5M an oil on canvas painted in 1960 in the largest format used by Shiraga, 182 x 273 cm, lot 4.
It is made in black monochrome, with a very large thickness of paint that becomes almost a sculpture with its powerful movements in an arc. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Shiraga offers here his reincarnation of the 25th heavenly spirit, the Winged Tiger, named Lei Heng in Chinese and Tentaisei Soushiko in Japanese. He is in the legend an infantry leader, armed with a long saber named podao in Chinese used in the battles to slice the legs of the horses.
Lower in the hierarchy, Chikisei Sesuisho, the 44th character and 8th demon, was painted in the same year. This 130 x 193 cm oil on canvas was sold for HK $ 21M by Christie's on May 30, 2016.
This theme is basically rebellious. 108 bandits form an army after being banished by a god. In a strictly ranked hierarchy, they are divided into 36 dominant heavenly spirits and 72 operational earthly demons. It is assigned to each of them a star, a fetish nickname, a specific role in the army and a weapon.
On December 4, 2019, Sotheby's sold for € 7.8M from a lower estimate of € 5M an oil on canvas painted in 1960 in the largest format used by Shiraga, 182 x 273 cm, lot 4.
It is made in black monochrome, with a very large thickness of paint that becomes almost a sculpture with its powerful movements in an arc. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Shiraga offers here his reincarnation of the 25th heavenly spirit, the Winged Tiger, named Lei Heng in Chinese and Tentaisei Soushiko in Japanese. He is in the legend an infantry leader, armed with a long saber named podao in Chinese used in the battles to slice the legs of the horses.
Lower in the hierarchy, Chikisei Sesuisho, the 44th character and 8th demon, was painted in the same year. This 130 x 193 cm oil on canvas was sold for HK $ 21M by Christie's on May 30, 2016.
1960 English Nostalgia by LS Lowry
2014 SOLD 5.1 M£ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
LS Lowry was the most independent of artists, refusing honors. Retired in 1952 from an office job, he devoted to his art providing his personal vision of occupations of crowds in the industrial districts of North West England.
Before a background of the familiar scenery of factories and stadiums, the numerous characters are busy in their daily life, all of them different but all British, often with dogs. With such details, Lowry's imaging is more funny than Utrillo and comparable to Grandma Moses.
This observer of crowds could not ignore London but as a provincial he possibly did not enjoy the big city. In 1960, when Lowry twice painted Piccadilly Circus with the realism of a postcard, he did not even attempt to display his current time. A London bus will not change but the vans are outdated, and indeed pedestrians are still the masters of the street, not yet accepting to be disturbed by automobiles.
The larger of the two paintings, an oil on canvas 76 x 102 cm, was sold for £ 5.6 million including premium at Christie's on November 16, 2011. It is now coming from a collection exclusively specialized in the art of Lowry, to be dispersed by Sotheby's in London on March 25.
The animation is intense in this Lowry's painting, and the observer likes to read the large hoardings for Coca Cola, Schweppes, Bovril, Max Factor, Gordon's Gin or Wrigleys. The estimate announced by Sotheby's is £ 4M. Here is the link to the landing page of the sale.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
The earlier and smaller of the two oils on canvas, 51 x 61 cm, dated 1959, is estimated £ 2M in the same sale, lot 10 in the catalog. It was sold for £ 560K including premium by Phillips on June 9, 1998.
POST SALE COMMENT
The larger Piccadilly was sold for £ 5.1M including premium, within its range of estimates. The smaller is unsold.
LS Lowry was the most independent of artists, refusing honors. Retired in 1952 from an office job, he devoted to his art providing his personal vision of occupations of crowds in the industrial districts of North West England.
Before a background of the familiar scenery of factories and stadiums, the numerous characters are busy in their daily life, all of them different but all British, often with dogs. With such details, Lowry's imaging is more funny than Utrillo and comparable to Grandma Moses.
This observer of crowds could not ignore London but as a provincial he possibly did not enjoy the big city. In 1960, when Lowry twice painted Piccadilly Circus with the realism of a postcard, he did not even attempt to display his current time. A London bus will not change but the vans are outdated, and indeed pedestrians are still the masters of the street, not yet accepting to be disturbed by automobiles.
The larger of the two paintings, an oil on canvas 76 x 102 cm, was sold for £ 5.6 million including premium at Christie's on November 16, 2011. It is now coming from a collection exclusively specialized in the art of Lowry, to be dispersed by Sotheby's in London on March 25.
The animation is intense in this Lowry's painting, and the observer likes to read the large hoardings for Coca Cola, Schweppes, Bovril, Max Factor, Gordon's Gin or Wrigleys. The estimate announced by Sotheby's is £ 4M. Here is the link to the landing page of the sale.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
The earlier and smaller of the two oils on canvas, 51 x 61 cm, dated 1959, is estimated £ 2M in the same sale, lot 10 in the catalog. It was sold for £ 560K including premium by Phillips on June 9, 1998.
POST SALE COMMENT
The larger Piccadilly was sold for £ 5.1M including premium, within its range of estimates. The smaller is unsold.
1960 the gesture of the old sagas
2016 sold for hk$ 21m including premium
Kazuo Shiraga expresses the mixing of physical strength and mental force in a new artistic movement that he wisely merged with the Gutai in 1955. His audience becomes international when, from America to Europe, other artists also endeavor to express emotions in a full removal of the figurative.
Physical strength is inseparable of the gesture that invites to the happening. Shiraga is linked with Pollock, Fontana and Georges Mathieu.
In his childhood, Shiraga eagerly read the Japanese translation of a great Chinese epic novel from Ming time, the Water Margin, inspired by the Song legend of the 108 robbers who managed an army to revolt against the corruption of the government.
In this novel inspired by astrology, the 108 rebels have distinct personalities, each one representing a form or a symbol of strength. Shiraga takes as his hero the 44th character in this list, the water lord Shan Tinggui whose Japanese name is Chikisei Sesuisho.
In 1960 Shiraga now includes bright colors in his artistic language. He splashes the paint on the canvas and repels it with his body. An oil on canvas 130 x 193 cm entitled Chikisei Sesuisho was given by the artist to Fontana. It will be sold by Christie's in Hong Kong on May 30, lot 3027.
The transformation of the meaning of art is deep at that time. Independently of Shiraga's epic impulses, Twombly is beginning his search of the passions that generated the greatest crimes of antiquity.
Physical strength is inseparable of the gesture that invites to the happening. Shiraga is linked with Pollock, Fontana and Georges Mathieu.
In his childhood, Shiraga eagerly read the Japanese translation of a great Chinese epic novel from Ming time, the Water Margin, inspired by the Song legend of the 108 robbers who managed an army to revolt against the corruption of the government.
In this novel inspired by astrology, the 108 rebels have distinct personalities, each one representing a form or a symbol of strength. Shiraga takes as his hero the 44th character in this list, the water lord Shan Tinggui whose Japanese name is Chikisei Sesuisho.
In 1960 Shiraga now includes bright colors in his artistic language. He splashes the paint on the canvas and repels it with his body. An oil on canvas 130 x 193 cm entitled Chikisei Sesuisho was given by the artist to Fontana. It will be sold by Christie's in Hong Kong on May 30, lot 3027.
The transformation of the meaning of art is deep at that time. Independently of Shiraga's epic impulses, Twombly is beginning his search of the passions that generated the greatest crimes of antiquity.
1960 The Neo-Constructivism of Lygia Clark
2014 SOLD 1.7 M$ including premium
The art of the Brazilian Lygia Clark is an extension of the constructivism. Her painting is limited to white, gray and black squares which communicate together by their installation and more specifically by the spaces between them.
Gradually, she seeks to create a work capable of interacting with the psychism of the viewer. The latter, as in the abstract expressionism, is considered as an integral part of the work.
They even become active participants when Clark goes to sculpture. She assembles some elements of simple geometry with hinges or sockets, leaving to the viewer the possibility of handling and the decision of the position.
The art by Clark is not aesthetic but organic. She does not create the infinite universe like Mondrian or the ideal architecture like Malevich. She makes life generated by the participant up to its achievement pushed to the impossible in 1963 with the handling of Möbius strips.
This seems to have suited her purpose because she abandoned the artistic creation for a business of healing. Opposed to bourgeois art, she may also be considered as a contemporary of the hippie movement.
Her art is currently featured in an exhibition at the MoMA in New York, entitled The Abandonment of Art, until August 24.
One of her mobile structures with an organic vocation entitled Bicho parafuso sem fim (bug in endless screw) is estimated $ 1.5 million, for sale by Phillips in New York on May 29. Made in 1960 in gold plated aluminum, this sculpture of varying sizes that can be circumscribed in a cube of 60 cm is certainly one of the most appealing of her creations.
I invite you to play the video shared by Phillips on Vimeo.
POST SALE COMMENT
This unusual gold plated sculpture by Lygia Clark was sold for $ 1.4M before fees.
Gradually, she seeks to create a work capable of interacting with the psychism of the viewer. The latter, as in the abstract expressionism, is considered as an integral part of the work.
They even become active participants when Clark goes to sculpture. She assembles some elements of simple geometry with hinges or sockets, leaving to the viewer the possibility of handling and the decision of the position.
The art by Clark is not aesthetic but organic. She does not create the infinite universe like Mondrian or the ideal architecture like Malevich. She makes life generated by the participant up to its achievement pushed to the impossible in 1963 with the handling of Möbius strips.
This seems to have suited her purpose because she abandoned the artistic creation for a business of healing. Opposed to bourgeois art, she may also be considered as a contemporary of the hippie movement.
Her art is currently featured in an exhibition at the MoMA in New York, entitled The Abandonment of Art, until August 24.
One of her mobile structures with an organic vocation entitled Bicho parafuso sem fim (bug in endless screw) is estimated $ 1.5 million, for sale by Phillips in New York on May 29. Made in 1960 in gold plated aluminum, this sculpture of varying sizes that can be circumscribed in a cube of 60 cm is certainly one of the most appealing of her creations.
I invite you to play the video shared by Phillips on Vimeo.
POST SALE COMMENT
This unusual gold plated sculpture by Lygia Clark was sold for $ 1.4M before fees.
1960 the rhythm of the flesh
2016 unsold
The art of Yves Klein must encompass the universe. His method is Cartesian : elements should be separately under control before being integrated. Colors will be cosmic and sponges will be planetary. Fire brings a mystical breath.
To include life, Klein invites naked women into his artistic process. They twirl in music around him while he covers the whole surface of his canvas with his strictly monochrome Ives Klein Blue.
Their presence around him is not carnal and the end result does not leave to the viewer a trace of the influence of the assistants of the artist. In 1958 he made a first experiment in which the woman splashes the canvas after jumping into a paint pool positioned in its center.
From February 1960, Klein alters this method in order to better control the end result and also to make it a happening during which he is the master of ceremonies, dressed in tuxedos. The bodies are coated with the IKB paint. Women wiggle their torso and thighs on the paper while following the musical rhythm. The artist hops around them to guide their movements.
The designation of the series under the name of Anthropométries, labeled ANT by the artist, follows an enthusiastic exclamation by Pierre Restany. Klein stated that his ritual was devoid of eroticism. It may be taken for sure : the body of the woman is nothing more than a tool of the artist.
Le Buffle, ANT 93, sold for $ 12.4 million including premium by Christie's on May 11, 2010, is very wide, on a paper surface of 178 x 280 cm, and it is possible that two women were simultaneously performing.
Most of the other works in this series are simpler. ANT 131, 165 × 120 cm, was sold for £ 4.2 million including premium by Sotheby's on 1 July 2008. ANT 118, 200 × 118 cm, is estimated £ 8M for sale by Christie's in London on February 11, lot 29.
To include life, Klein invites naked women into his artistic process. They twirl in music around him while he covers the whole surface of his canvas with his strictly monochrome Ives Klein Blue.
Their presence around him is not carnal and the end result does not leave to the viewer a trace of the influence of the assistants of the artist. In 1958 he made a first experiment in which the woman splashes the canvas after jumping into a paint pool positioned in its center.
From February 1960, Klein alters this method in order to better control the end result and also to make it a happening during which he is the master of ceremonies, dressed in tuxedos. The bodies are coated with the IKB paint. Women wiggle their torso and thighs on the paper while following the musical rhythm. The artist hops around them to guide their movements.
The designation of the series under the name of Anthropométries, labeled ANT by the artist, follows an enthusiastic exclamation by Pierre Restany. Klein stated that his ritual was devoid of eroticism. It may be taken for sure : the body of the woman is nothing more than a tool of the artist.
Le Buffle, ANT 93, sold for $ 12.4 million including premium by Christie's on May 11, 2010, is very wide, on a paper surface of 178 x 280 cm, and it is possible that two women were simultaneously performing.
Most of the other works in this series are simpler. ANT 131, 165 × 120 cm, was sold for £ 4.2 million including premium by Sotheby's on 1 July 2008. ANT 118, 200 × 118 cm, is estimated £ 8M for sale by Christie's in London on February 11, lot 29.
1960 the neo-dadaist disappearance of art
2015 unsold
In the mid 1950s, young artists around Robert Rauschenberg redefine the meaning of art. Jasper Johns and Cy Twombly, who both were Rauschenberg's lovers, respectively explore the triviality of the message and the proto-writing, which are actually two variants within the same trend.
Johns does not compose, he reuses. The flags, targets, numbers and letters that appear altogether early in his career have no meaning and do not bring any emotion. He accepts the color when it was codified before him and this is the deep significance of his use of the US flag probably wrongly regarded as a patriotic expression.
To master the absence of message, Johns should control the material. He uses as early as 1954 a thick encaustic wax that dries quickly enough so that a new supply does not alter the previous layers. The nervous look of his brush stroke is in fact an opposite of Kline's action painting.
These young artists soon featured by Castelli reject the expressionism and are not concerned in the pop art in the sense of their contemporaries Lichtenstein and Warhol. Their movement is sometimes called Neo-Dadaism.
Having annihilated the message of artistic creation, Johns destroys the support. The viewer likes to find his marks by the position of the canvas. Johns contradicts this desire by pasting a canvas on another canvas, both painted in the same style with some continuity in the brush strokes at their borders.
On November 4 in New York, Sotheby's sells an encaustic and canvas collage on canvas 102 x 102 cm created by Johns in 1960, lot 65T estimated $ 15M. Its title, The Disappearance, reflects the artistic nihilism of this painter who was able to lastingly shake all traditions by the fact that he was self-taught.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
Johns does not compose, he reuses. The flags, targets, numbers and letters that appear altogether early in his career have no meaning and do not bring any emotion. He accepts the color when it was codified before him and this is the deep significance of his use of the US flag probably wrongly regarded as a patriotic expression.
To master the absence of message, Johns should control the material. He uses as early as 1954 a thick encaustic wax that dries quickly enough so that a new supply does not alter the previous layers. The nervous look of his brush stroke is in fact an opposite of Kline's action painting.
These young artists soon featured by Castelli reject the expressionism and are not concerned in the pop art in the sense of their contemporaries Lichtenstein and Warhol. Their movement is sometimes called Neo-Dadaism.
Having annihilated the message of artistic creation, Johns destroys the support. The viewer likes to find his marks by the position of the canvas. Johns contradicts this desire by pasting a canvas on another canvas, both painted in the same style with some continuity in the brush strokes at their borders.
On November 4 in New York, Sotheby's sells an encaustic and canvas collage on canvas 102 x 102 cm created by Johns in 1960, lot 65T estimated $ 15M. Its title, The Disappearance, reflects the artistic nihilism of this painter who was able to lastingly shake all traditions by the fact that he was self-taught.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
1960-1961 The Wounds of Fire
2014 SOLD 4.7 M£ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Alberto Burri, an Italian doctor, became an artist while he was interned as a prisoner of war. His main theme will be the formless nature of the material. He began by painting on burlap, a technique that he continued to use for about ten years.
By his creation without forms or colors that much leaves to the unpredictable, he anticipates Manzoni. He precedes Rauschenberg in the use of vile materials. Earlier than Klein, he plays with fire, with passion.
From 1955, Burri is coating his surfaces with plastic or wood, or both, and burns. Executed in 1957 on fabric, Combustione legno, 117 x 97 cm, is a vision of hell. This artwork was sold for £ 3.2 million including premium by Sotheby's on 13 October 2011.
The combustion of the plastic layers generates large pale ot black blisters or craters offering the desired analogy with purulent wounds in flesh. Made in 1960-1961, a Combustione plastica on canvas 130 x 159 cm is estimated £ 1.7 million, for sale on February 11 in London by Christie's, lot 17 in the catalog.
With the same technique on red, Burri reached his goal of inhuman art. A work on canvas 102 x 90 cm made in 1963 was sold for £ 2M including premium by Sotheby's on October 13, 2011 (same sale as the above example).
Another Rosso Plastica from similar technique and same year, 80 x 100 cm, is estimated £ 2 million, for sale bySotheby's in London on February 12, lot 6 in the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENTS
1
Combustione plastica was sold for £ 4,7M including premium by Christie's.
2
Another great result for Burri : the Rosso plastica was sold for £ 3.7M including premium.
Alberto Burri, an Italian doctor, became an artist while he was interned as a prisoner of war. His main theme will be the formless nature of the material. He began by painting on burlap, a technique that he continued to use for about ten years.
By his creation without forms or colors that much leaves to the unpredictable, he anticipates Manzoni. He precedes Rauschenberg in the use of vile materials. Earlier than Klein, he plays with fire, with passion.
From 1955, Burri is coating his surfaces with plastic or wood, or both, and burns. Executed in 1957 on fabric, Combustione legno, 117 x 97 cm, is a vision of hell. This artwork was sold for £ 3.2 million including premium by Sotheby's on 13 October 2011.
The combustion of the plastic layers generates large pale ot black blisters or craters offering the desired analogy with purulent wounds in flesh. Made in 1960-1961, a Combustione plastica on canvas 130 x 159 cm is estimated £ 1.7 million, for sale on February 11 in London by Christie's, lot 17 in the catalog.
With the same technique on red, Burri reached his goal of inhuman art. A work on canvas 102 x 90 cm made in 1963 was sold for £ 2M including premium by Sotheby's on October 13, 2011 (same sale as the above example).
Another Rosso Plastica from similar technique and same year, 80 x 100 cm, is estimated £ 2 million, for sale bySotheby's in London on February 12, lot 6 in the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENTS
1
Combustione plastica was sold for £ 4,7M including premium by Christie's.
2
Another great result for Burri : the Rosso plastica was sold for £ 3.7M including premium.
1961 alkyd paint in art
2015 sold for $ 13.7m including premium
The young Frank Stella made his living as a house painter. He noted the purity of color and the gloss of the alkyd paints which he was using. Influenced by Jasper Johns, he considers an art discharged from any emotion where the object is nothing more than paint on a flat surface. Stella's minimalism is halfway between art and interior design like that of Donald Judd.
He experimented the black interrupted by a network of thin lines strictly identical and equidistant, horizontal and vertical. In this universe, all angles are right. An extreme care in paint application enables to achieve a complete homogeneity of the surface and a perfect regularity of the lines.
The Benjamin Moore brand offers six colors in alkyd: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. In 1961, Stella executes a series of six paintings on large size canvas, one for each commercial color, with variations in the pattern of lines. He later produced copies in smaller dimensions.
Stella is provoking. The series is named Benjamin Moore, and each work receives for its title the name of a famous American battle. He punctuates this homage to the manufacturer by claiming his intention to carry out his art without losing the original quality of the paint in the tube.
Delaware Crossing, alkyd on canvas 196 x 196 cm, appears as a seminal work for the introduction of color in the art of Frank Stella. Announced as one of the preferred paintings of A. Alfred Taubman, it is estimated $ 8M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 4, lot 4T.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
He experimented the black interrupted by a network of thin lines strictly identical and equidistant, horizontal and vertical. In this universe, all angles are right. An extreme care in paint application enables to achieve a complete homogeneity of the surface and a perfect regularity of the lines.
The Benjamin Moore brand offers six colors in alkyd: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. In 1961, Stella executes a series of six paintings on large size canvas, one for each commercial color, with variations in the pattern of lines. He later produced copies in smaller dimensions.
Stella is provoking. The series is named Benjamin Moore, and each work receives for its title the name of a famous American battle. He punctuates this homage to the manufacturer by claiming his intention to carry out his art without losing the original quality of the paint in the tube.
Delaware Crossing, alkyd on canvas 196 x 196 cm, appears as a seminal work for the introduction of color in the art of Frank Stella. Announced as one of the preferred paintings of A. Alfred Taubman, it is estimated $ 8M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 4, lot 4T.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
1961 The Muses of Soho
2011 SOLD 8.3 M£ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Half a century ago, Soho, London's hottest district, provided the hedonists with a certain atmosphere of freedom. You could meet there Francis Bacon, his artist friends, his fellows and their girlfriends.
When Bacon was interested in the female nude, he did it in a masterful and unprecedented manner. The female body is not for him an object of desire. It is a kind of curled meat, but still capable of communication and feelings.
He worked this theme from the merciless photographs of John Deakin. We do not know who was the model of the Crouching Nude, for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 29 , probably Henrietta Moraes, or perhaps Muriel Belcher, or even a mixture of both.
Painted in 1961, this oil on canvas, 198 x 145 cm, is illustrated in the press release shared by AuctionPublicity. In a green room with no furniture or decoration, the female monster throws her head with aggressive teeth that make her a foreshadowing of death dance. The accurate line, not blurred, is surrealist.
A sex shop would refuse this work which can only drive away the customers. This vision of horror of the fair sex by the artist of the most puzzling psychology is estimated £ 7M.
The seated woman (portrait of Muriel Belcher), 165 x 142 cm, sold € 13.7 million including premium by Sotheby's in Paris on December 12, 2007 had been painted in the same year.
POST SALE COMMENT
This nightmare work was sold £ 8.3 million including premium. It thus remained in the lower part of the range of estimates.
Half a century ago, Soho, London's hottest district, provided the hedonists with a certain atmosphere of freedom. You could meet there Francis Bacon, his artist friends, his fellows and their girlfriends.
When Bacon was interested in the female nude, he did it in a masterful and unprecedented manner. The female body is not for him an object of desire. It is a kind of curled meat, but still capable of communication and feelings.
He worked this theme from the merciless photographs of John Deakin. We do not know who was the model of the Crouching Nude, for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 29 , probably Henrietta Moraes, or perhaps Muriel Belcher, or even a mixture of both.
Painted in 1961, this oil on canvas, 198 x 145 cm, is illustrated in the press release shared by AuctionPublicity. In a green room with no furniture or decoration, the female monster throws her head with aggressive teeth that make her a foreshadowing of death dance. The accurate line, not blurred, is surrealist.
A sex shop would refuse this work which can only drive away the customers. This vision of horror of the fair sex by the artist of the most puzzling psychology is estimated £ 7M.
The seated woman (portrait of Muriel Belcher), 165 x 142 cm, sold € 13.7 million including premium by Sotheby's in Paris on December 12, 2007 had been painted in the same year.
POST SALE COMMENT
This nightmare work was sold £ 8.3 million including premium. It thus remained in the lower part of the range of estimates.
1961 the continuator of velazquez
2005 sold for $ 10.1M including premium by christie's
2015 unsold
PRE 2015 SALE DISCUSSION
The portrait of Pope Innocent X by Velazquez is one of the greatest masterpieces of art. Unlike the Mona Lisa by Leonardo, the intention of the artist is known.
Innocent X had enjoyed a suitable career that made acceptable his election but he was completely dominated by the widow of his brother, a stingy and greedy woman. He himself was suspicious. He doubted about Velazquez's skills and had been reluctant to sit for him.
In this painting, he is not a powerful pontiff but an ordinary man, under intense pressure with his sideways gaze and tight lips. He did not like this portrait: too true.
Francis Bacon admired the deep psychology of this masterpiece, and not the painting itself that he never went to see. It had inspired his early mingling between the weakness of the powerful and the scream from Battleship Potemkin. The atheist artist saw in this contradiction an argument concerning the human weakness for which religion is useless.
In 1961, Bacon was invited to prepare an exhibition to be held at the Tate Gallery. His studies for Innocent X were already famous. He executed a new series of six paintings in large size on this theme.
The attitude of the character mimics very closely Velazquez's. The gilt throne is replaced by an ugly black seat that reinforces the unfriendly expression, as if the pope was an imposter to his own official dignity. In this sequence, Innocent gradually collapses until the gesture of impotence of the final image with both arms raised. The gaze is not suspicious but stupid.
The first painting of this sequence, oil on canvas 153 x 120 cm, was sold for $ 10.1 million including premium by Christie's on 8 November 2005. Such a price was exceptional in its time for a work by Bacon and triggered the interest of the art market for this artist. It is now estimated £ 25M for sale by Sotheby's in London on July 1, lot 14.
The portrait of Pope Innocent X by Velazquez is one of the greatest masterpieces of art. Unlike the Mona Lisa by Leonardo, the intention of the artist is known.
Innocent X had enjoyed a suitable career that made acceptable his election but he was completely dominated by the widow of his brother, a stingy and greedy woman. He himself was suspicious. He doubted about Velazquez's skills and had been reluctant to sit for him.
In this painting, he is not a powerful pontiff but an ordinary man, under intense pressure with his sideways gaze and tight lips. He did not like this portrait: too true.
Francis Bacon admired the deep psychology of this masterpiece, and not the painting itself that he never went to see. It had inspired his early mingling between the weakness of the powerful and the scream from Battleship Potemkin. The atheist artist saw in this contradiction an argument concerning the human weakness for which religion is useless.
In 1961, Bacon was invited to prepare an exhibition to be held at the Tate Gallery. His studies for Innocent X were already famous. He executed a new series of six paintings in large size on this theme.
The attitude of the character mimics very closely Velazquez's. The gilt throne is replaced by an ugly black seat that reinforces the unfriendly expression, as if the pope was an imposter to his own official dignity. In this sequence, Innocent gradually collapses until the gesture of impotence of the final image with both arms raised. The gaze is not suspicious but stupid.
The first painting of this sequence, oil on canvas 153 x 120 cm, was sold for $ 10.1 million including premium by Christie's on 8 November 2005. Such a price was exceptional in its time for a work by Bacon and triggered the interest of the art market for this artist. It is now estimated £ 25M for sale by Sotheby's in London on July 1, lot 14.
1961 Syrtis by Mitchell
2018 SOLD for HK$ 56M by Sotheby's
Joan Mitchell is attracted by the beauty of the landscapes of France with its forests and seas. She admires Van Gogh's relationship with the ground and the Fauvist colors by Matisse.
When she establishes her studio permanently in Paris, her style changes. The lines of bright pure colors that made her practice compared with Pollock's are relegated to the edges of the image while the center becomes a violent bubbling.
The early 1960s is a difficult time for this hypersensitive artist who knows that her parents are seriously ill. Her explosions of colors are however not the result of a simple rage. The canvas is carefully prepared by a drawing defining the outlines that will guide her rapid movements, alternately centripetal and centrifugal.
The achievement of her art at that time is the expression of a location. With its cool colors, Atlantic Side, 222 x 220 cm painted in 1960-1961, is typical of these abstract landscapes that anticipate the paintings by de Kooning at Long Island. It was sold for $ 6.9M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2013.
On September 30, 2018, Sotheby's sold for HK $ 56M Syrtis, oil on canvas 130 x 162 cm painted in 1961, lot 1080.
In that year Joan spent the summer in Cap d'Antibes. Faced with the splendid colors of the French Riviera, she imagines the Mediterranean sea in the supreme expression of its hottest point, the Gulf of Sirte on the Libyan coast. Sirte has been an attractive place since antiquity with its abundant fish for which boats take the risk of running aground on the sandbanks.
By its title and exuberance, Syrtis reflects the anxieties of Joan Mitchell. Adding the reference to the distant past, this work joins the fantasies of another American who chose Europe, Cy Twombly, probably without consultation between the two artists.
When she establishes her studio permanently in Paris, her style changes. The lines of bright pure colors that made her practice compared with Pollock's are relegated to the edges of the image while the center becomes a violent bubbling.
The early 1960s is a difficult time for this hypersensitive artist who knows that her parents are seriously ill. Her explosions of colors are however not the result of a simple rage. The canvas is carefully prepared by a drawing defining the outlines that will guide her rapid movements, alternately centripetal and centrifugal.
The achievement of her art at that time is the expression of a location. With its cool colors, Atlantic Side, 222 x 220 cm painted in 1960-1961, is typical of these abstract landscapes that anticipate the paintings by de Kooning at Long Island. It was sold for $ 6.9M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2013.
On September 30, 2018, Sotheby's sold for HK $ 56M Syrtis, oil on canvas 130 x 162 cm painted in 1961, lot 1080.
In that year Joan spent the summer in Cap d'Antibes. Faced with the splendid colors of the French Riviera, she imagines the Mediterranean sea in the supreme expression of its hottest point, the Gulf of Sirte on the Libyan coast. Sirte has been an attractive place since antiquity with its abundant fish for which boats take the risk of running aground on the sandbanks.
By its title and exuberance, Syrtis reflects the anxieties of Joan Mitchell. Adding the reference to the distant past, this work joins the fantasies of another American who chose Europe, Cy Twombly, probably without consultation between the two artists.
1961 Zero for Yves Klein
2010 SOLD 3.3 M£ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
The late 1950s live the feeling of a change in civilization, with on the positive side the conquest of the infinite by the space adventure, and on the negative side the fear of nuclear destruction.
The young artists of that time do not want the style of their predecessors. Their names are Yves Klein, Piero Manzoni.Lucio Fontana, older, comes within the same movement. Exhibitions are held. In this spirit, Klein developes new trends such as his Anthropométries and his fire artworks, and also some happenings.
A group of gallerists in Düsseldorf, admirers of Klein, create the movement and magazine Zero, which are to these artists what Dada was for the Surrealists 40 years before. More quietly, a collector named Lenz buys their best works.He provides 49 of them for sale at Sotheby's in London on February 10.
The centerpiece, estimated £ 2.8 million (after having been announced at £ 3.5 million in the first press release), is Feu 88 by Klein, executed in 1961. Very large, 140 x 300 cm, the color of fire on resin coated card includes traces of human bodies using the technique of the Anthropométries.
POST SALE COMMENT
As expected, this work of Yves Klein obtained the best result within this special collection: £ 3.3 million including premium.
It was therefore wise that Sotheby's slightly revised downward its estimate. The price obtained, very close to the expected price in the catalog, attests to their mastery of this market.
The late 1950s live the feeling of a change in civilization, with on the positive side the conquest of the infinite by the space adventure, and on the negative side the fear of nuclear destruction.
The young artists of that time do not want the style of their predecessors. Their names are Yves Klein, Piero Manzoni.Lucio Fontana, older, comes within the same movement. Exhibitions are held. In this spirit, Klein developes new trends such as his Anthropométries and his fire artworks, and also some happenings.
A group of gallerists in Düsseldorf, admirers of Klein, create the movement and magazine Zero, which are to these artists what Dada was for the Surrealists 40 years before. More quietly, a collector named Lenz buys their best works.He provides 49 of them for sale at Sotheby's in London on February 10.
The centerpiece, estimated £ 2.8 million (after having been announced at £ 3.5 million in the first press release), is Feu 88 by Klein, executed in 1961. Very large, 140 x 300 cm, the color of fire on resin coated card includes traces of human bodies using the technique of the Anthropométries.
POST SALE COMMENT
As expected, this work of Yves Klein obtained the best result within this special collection: £ 3.3 million including premium.
It was therefore wise that Sotheby's slightly revised downward its estimate. The price obtained, very close to the expected price in the catalog, attests to their mastery of this market.
1961 Swollen Wounds for a Healer
2015 SOLD for £ 2.63M including premium
The mission of a physician is to heal. Faced with the horrors of the Second World War, Alberto Burri became an artist. He creates festering wounds within ordinary materials, beginning with burlap before discovering the aesthetic power of fire, first on wood and then on plastic.
By torturing these materials, Burri seeks to give the illusion of a swollen flesh. His approach is positive: man can not defeat such horrors if he is unable to face them, in details, objectively.
In his time, the artistic quest of Burri is unique. His use of fire anticipates Klein, the creation of forms through the use of chance comes before the achrome plaster casts by Manzoni and his trivial materials will inspire the arte povera.
The fire comes to alter a thin surface layer on a support that can be canvas or wood. The work is then finished with paint.
On 11 February 2014, Christie's sold for £ 4.7 million including premium a Combustione plastica 130 x 150 cm made in 1960-1961 in plastic, combustion and acrylic on canvas.
On October 15 in London, Sotheby's sells Bianco plastica 1, lot 14 estimated £ 1.5M, made in 1961 in plastic, combustion and tempera on faesite which is an Italian variant of masonite. Its size, 75 x 100 cm, enables to focus the attention on the circular corruptions that appear less dispersed than on the larger Combustione discussed above.
The intention of this artist to act as a healer makes no doubt. A quarter century later, he will restore some life to a Sicilian village destroyed by an earthquake by covering it with a cement dug with trenches on the site of the earlier streets in which tourists may walk again.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's, rightly insisting on the fact that the work for sale was owned for more than 30 years by Dr. Passaré, a Milanese doctor who was a friend of Italian artists.
By torturing these materials, Burri seeks to give the illusion of a swollen flesh. His approach is positive: man can not defeat such horrors if he is unable to face them, in details, objectively.
In his time, the artistic quest of Burri is unique. His use of fire anticipates Klein, the creation of forms through the use of chance comes before the achrome plaster casts by Manzoni and his trivial materials will inspire the arte povera.
The fire comes to alter a thin surface layer on a support that can be canvas or wood. The work is then finished with paint.
On 11 February 2014, Christie's sold for £ 4.7 million including premium a Combustione plastica 130 x 150 cm made in 1960-1961 in plastic, combustion and acrylic on canvas.
On October 15 in London, Sotheby's sells Bianco plastica 1, lot 14 estimated £ 1.5M, made in 1961 in plastic, combustion and tempera on faesite which is an Italian variant of masonite. Its size, 75 x 100 cm, enables to focus the attention on the circular corruptions that appear less dispersed than on the larger Combustione discussed above.
The intention of this artist to act as a healer makes no doubt. A quarter century later, he will restore some life to a Sicilian village destroyed by an earthquake by covering it with a cement dug with trenches on the site of the earlier streets in which tourists may walk again.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's, rightly insisting on the fact that the work for sale was owned for more than 30 years by Dr. Passaré, a Milanese doctor who was a friend of Italian artists.
1961 The United Nations of Barbara Hepworth
2013 SOLD 2.4 M£ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
In 1961, Barbara Hepworth expects to live the consecration of her career. She arranges a large workshop where she can execute the monumental bronzes required by public institutions.
She specialized in the Single Forms series of sculptures with perfect geometrical curves centered with a hole symbolizing the opening to landscape or to infinity.
She had for long a very good customer and friend, Dag Hammarskjöld, who became Secretary General of the UnitedNations. He considered that artists should play an important role in social communities without losing their individuality. Together they undertake the project of a monument for the United Nations.
Curved form (Bryher II) is one of the artworks preparing this project. The 2.12 m high bronze is decorated with copperwires, some of which are passing above the hole like strings on a musical instrument. Bryher is an island at the end of the world ashore of that Cornwall deeply loved by Hepworth.
Bryher II was edited in seven copies. One of them is estimated £ 1M, for sale by Christie's in London on July 10.
Fortunately, the project for the United Nations has not been interrupted by the unexpected death of the Secretary General in a plane crash during the same year. 6.40 m high, the Single Form of the United Nations is the largest sculpture made by Hepworth.
POST SALE COMMENT
This outstanding sculpture was obviously worth better than its estimate. It was sold for £ 2.4M including premium.
In 1961, Barbara Hepworth expects to live the consecration of her career. She arranges a large workshop where she can execute the monumental bronzes required by public institutions.
She specialized in the Single Forms series of sculptures with perfect geometrical curves centered with a hole symbolizing the opening to landscape or to infinity.
She had for long a very good customer and friend, Dag Hammarskjöld, who became Secretary General of the UnitedNations. He considered that artists should play an important role in social communities without losing their individuality. Together they undertake the project of a monument for the United Nations.
Curved form (Bryher II) is one of the artworks preparing this project. The 2.12 m high bronze is decorated with copperwires, some of which are passing above the hole like strings on a musical instrument. Bryher is an island at the end of the world ashore of that Cornwall deeply loved by Hepworth.
Bryher II was edited in seven copies. One of them is estimated £ 1M, for sale by Christie's in London on July 10.
Fortunately, the project for the United Nations has not been interrupted by the unexpected death of the Secretary General in a plane crash during the same year. 6.40 m high, the Single Form of the United Nations is the largest sculpture made by Hepworth.
POST SALE COMMENT
This outstanding sculpture was obviously worth better than its estimate. It was sold for £ 2.4M including premium.
1961 Ben Nicholson between Cubism and abstraction
2013 sold 1.08 M£ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Picasso had tried the Synthetic Cubism but never wanted to take the step towards abstraction. From the 1920s, Ben Nicholson commits in this process. Figuration is a pretext for balanced representation of forms that, as in Mondrian,can become exclusively geometric.
Along with Barbara Hepworth (with whom he was married from 1938 to 1951) and Henry Moore, Nicholson is one of the English artists who developed a new style by ignoring boundaries between painting and sculpture, and between figuration and abstraction.
In 1958, 64 years old, tired of the constraints of British artistic life, Nicholson fled England and settled on the shore ofLake Lugano that was more conducive to foster his creativity.
On July 11 in London, Sotheby's sells a monumental work of this period in Switzerland, estimated £ 1M. Entitled Oct 61 (Mycenae - Axe-Blue), this oil on panel 202 x 450 cm is fully abstract despite its enigmatic title. Here is the link to the catalog.
The color range is varied but not bright, leaving the lead to the geometric elements accentuated by the carved panel,in an interesting synthesis of minimalism in painting and in sculpture.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
Despite its monumental size, this artwork made during one of the best periods of the artist remained around its lower estimate. It was sold for £ 1.08 million including premium.
Picasso had tried the Synthetic Cubism but never wanted to take the step towards abstraction. From the 1920s, Ben Nicholson commits in this process. Figuration is a pretext for balanced representation of forms that, as in Mondrian,can become exclusively geometric.
Along with Barbara Hepworth (with whom he was married from 1938 to 1951) and Henry Moore, Nicholson is one of the English artists who developed a new style by ignoring boundaries between painting and sculpture, and between figuration and abstraction.
In 1958, 64 years old, tired of the constraints of British artistic life, Nicholson fled England and settled on the shore ofLake Lugano that was more conducive to foster his creativity.
On July 11 in London, Sotheby's sells a monumental work of this period in Switzerland, estimated £ 1M. Entitled Oct 61 (Mycenae - Axe-Blue), this oil on panel 202 x 450 cm is fully abstract despite its enigmatic title. Here is the link to the catalog.
The color range is varied but not bright, leaving the lead to the geometric elements accentuated by the carved panel,in an interesting synthesis of minimalism in painting and in sculpture.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
Despite its monumental size, this artwork made during one of the best periods of the artist remained around its lower estimate. It was sold for £ 1.08 million including premium.
1961 SITTINGS FOR AUERBACH
2010 SOLD 860 K£ INCLUDING PREMIUM
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Aged thirty in 1961, Frank Auerbach was then developing his own style. He painted the portraits of his friends, with features outlined by large flows of monochrome paint.
The date is important. The thick material of his works provides a figurative equivalent of the Achromes of Manzoni. Like Klein, Auerbach needed a female presence to execute such paintings.
His lover naturally became a most regular subject. She must have been very loving to endure long sittings, which often ended with the destruction of the trials of the day. And fortunately, when a work was finished, one must have the loving eyes of the artist to find a resemblance with the model.
On June 30 in London, Bonhams sells an oil on board titled Head of E.O.W. III. Its small size, 32 x 31 cm, results in an estimate that might otherwise seem low, £ 400K. It is illustrated in the press release shared by AuctionPublicity.
The previous lot is a drawing of similar composition, 74 x 56 cm, made in 1977, showing the head of a man. The comparison of these two works highlights the commitment of the painter to limit his line to sketches and to have carried all the expressive weight by the material. This drawing is estimated £ 40K.
POST SALE COMMENT
Auerbach is well above the estimate for the portrait of his girl friend: 750 K £ before fees, 860 K £ including premium.
The drawing for sale by Bonhams was sold £ 42 K before fees, 50.4 K £ including premium.
Aged thirty in 1961, Frank Auerbach was then developing his own style. He painted the portraits of his friends, with features outlined by large flows of monochrome paint.
The date is important. The thick material of his works provides a figurative equivalent of the Achromes of Manzoni. Like Klein, Auerbach needed a female presence to execute such paintings.
His lover naturally became a most regular subject. She must have been very loving to endure long sittings, which often ended with the destruction of the trials of the day. And fortunately, when a work was finished, one must have the loving eyes of the artist to find a resemblance with the model.
On June 30 in London, Bonhams sells an oil on board titled Head of E.O.W. III. Its small size, 32 x 31 cm, results in an estimate that might otherwise seem low, £ 400K. It is illustrated in the press release shared by AuctionPublicity.
The previous lot is a drawing of similar composition, 74 x 56 cm, made in 1977, showing the head of a man. The comparison of these two works highlights the commitment of the painter to limit his line to sketches and to have carried all the expressive weight by the material. This drawing is estimated £ 40K.
POST SALE COMMENT
Auerbach is well above the estimate for the portrait of his girl friend: 750 K £ before fees, 860 K £ including premium.
The drawing for sale by Bonhams was sold £ 42 K before fees, 50.4 K £ including premium.
1961 YVES KLEIN, INVENTOR OF COLORS
2008 SOLD 370 K€ INCLUDING PREMIUM
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Yves Klein did not invent one but several new colors. His IKB ("International Klein Blue") is a deep blue, very recognizable and single of its kind. This is probably the most famous color of Klein, which he used on many occasions on all media (monochrome paintings, statuettes, coffee tables, sponges). On 11 November, Sotheby's New York sold $ 21.4 million charge included a blue Archisponge, 200 x 165 cm.
The highest price recorded for the artist remains a very remarkable gold leaf on panel of 146 x 114 cm sold $ 23.6 million including expenses on May 28 at Sotheby's in New York.
A few years ago in the highlight exhibition of Drouot Montaigne I saw a Tableau de Feu (Fire Work) by Klein which was very remarkable, a color that I had never really seen before. I found another version, 104 x 51 cm, on Artvalue, sold 390 K £ inclusive by Christie's London in October 2006. Another one, 37 x 62 cm, was sold 290 K € in Nice in December 2006 by Palloc Courchet Fede.
Back to Sotheby's, in Paris on December 10. Lot 15 is also a burned cardboard mounted on panel. Executed in 1961 and measuring 100 x 65 cm, it was dedicated to the art critic Pierre Restany. Klein made the colors varying between gold and brown by changing the distance of the torch. So he got these streaks of color which, to my taste, are his most extraordinary artworks. It is estimated 300 K €.
POST SALE COMMENT
The Klein panel sold 370 K € fees included.
Yves Klein did not invent one but several new colors. His IKB ("International Klein Blue") is a deep blue, very recognizable and single of its kind. This is probably the most famous color of Klein, which he used on many occasions on all media (monochrome paintings, statuettes, coffee tables, sponges). On 11 November, Sotheby's New York sold $ 21.4 million charge included a blue Archisponge, 200 x 165 cm.
The highest price recorded for the artist remains a very remarkable gold leaf on panel of 146 x 114 cm sold $ 23.6 million including expenses on May 28 at Sotheby's in New York.
A few years ago in the highlight exhibition of Drouot Montaigne I saw a Tableau de Feu (Fire Work) by Klein which was very remarkable, a color that I had never really seen before. I found another version, 104 x 51 cm, on Artvalue, sold 390 K £ inclusive by Christie's London in October 2006. Another one, 37 x 62 cm, was sold 290 K € in Nice in December 2006 by Palloc Courchet Fede.
Back to Sotheby's, in Paris on December 10. Lot 15 is also a burned cardboard mounted on panel. Executed in 1961 and measuring 100 x 65 cm, it was dedicated to the art critic Pierre Restany. Klein made the colors varying between gold and brown by changing the distance of the torch. So he got these streaks of color which, to my taste, are his most extraordinary artworks. It is estimated 300 K €.
POST SALE COMMENT
The Klein panel sold 370 K € fees included.
1961 and suddenly pop art was born
2014 unsold
In 1961 the painting by Roy Lichtenstein takes two different directions that are not in contradiction : he recuperates both comics and advertising for launching new artistic themes.
In Look Mickey, he has the idea surprising for his time to reuse the dots of the original printed image that form after expansion the texture of his own painting. This work also introduces the phylactery into major art.
For advertising, he proceeds differently. Since the previous year, the fashion of wearing sneakers has spread throughout the USA. These canvas shoes with rubber soles become both an object of consumerism of great popularity and a symbol of the evolution of the American society towards a less severe world.
The oil and graphite on canvas titled Keds, 122 x 87 cm, displays a pair of sneakers including in the foreground the abstract drawing under a sole. The shoes are put on a bright yellow surface framed by a dazzling zigzag. When Lichtenstein brings Keds to Castelli, Pop Art is born.
Soon Warhol tries a similar inspiration. In the beginning his relationship with advertising is more ambiguous. Lichtenstein removes the brand, and for making Keds he had even reused an announcement from a competing product. Another characteristic anticipates the divergent careers of the two founders of Pop Art: in Look Mickey as in Keds, Lichtenstein creates an art of total optimism.
Keds is for sale by Christie's on November 12 in New York, lot 32. I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
In Look Mickey, he has the idea surprising for his time to reuse the dots of the original printed image that form after expansion the texture of his own painting. This work also introduces the phylactery into major art.
For advertising, he proceeds differently. Since the previous year, the fashion of wearing sneakers has spread throughout the USA. These canvas shoes with rubber soles become both an object of consumerism of great popularity and a symbol of the evolution of the American society towards a less severe world.
The oil and graphite on canvas titled Keds, 122 x 87 cm, displays a pair of sneakers including in the foreground the abstract drawing under a sole. The shoes are put on a bright yellow surface framed by a dazzling zigzag. When Lichtenstein brings Keds to Castelli, Pop Art is born.
Soon Warhol tries a similar inspiration. In the beginning his relationship with advertising is more ambiguous. Lichtenstein removes the brand, and for making Keds he had even reused an announcement from a competing product. Another characteristic anticipates the divergent careers of the two founders of Pop Art: in Look Mickey as in Keds, Lichtenstein creates an art of total optimism.
Keds is for sale by Christie's on November 12 in New York, lot 32. I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
ART IN BALI
2010 SOLD 25.3 MHK$ INCLUDING PREMIUM
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Bali appeals to dreaming. This island of Indonesia is a symbol of lifestyle, and has a long artistic and cultural tradition.For decades, visitors from all countries were charmed, and have generated an original art inspired both from local traditions and international techniques.
Lee Man Fong, a Chinese artist who spent most of his life in Indonesia, provides an excellent example of this mixture of genres in the painting that Sotheby's is selling in Hong Kong on April 5. It is an oil on canvas, Western technology.Ambient colors are processed in the wash as the Chinese paintings. The artwork shows women in traditional Balinese dress serenely busy with their everyday life. A man watches quietly.
In widescreen format, 100 x 200 cm, it looks like a fresco. This work from the early 1960s is outstanding, and difficult to estimate. The auction house only told that it recorded last year the highest price for a painting by this artist at auction, with horses that were sold 8.2 MHK$.
POST SALE COMMENT
A result of international level has been recorded on this exceptional artwork: HK $ 25.3 million including premium.
The image of this lot is shared by Bloomberg.
Bali appeals to dreaming. This island of Indonesia is a symbol of lifestyle, and has a long artistic and cultural tradition.For decades, visitors from all countries were charmed, and have generated an original art inspired both from local traditions and international techniques.
Lee Man Fong, a Chinese artist who spent most of his life in Indonesia, provides an excellent example of this mixture of genres in the painting that Sotheby's is selling in Hong Kong on April 5. It is an oil on canvas, Western technology.Ambient colors are processed in the wash as the Chinese paintings. The artwork shows women in traditional Balinese dress serenely busy with their everyday life. A man watches quietly.
In widescreen format, 100 x 200 cm, it looks like a fresco. This work from the early 1960s is outstanding, and difficult to estimate. The auction house only told that it recorded last year the highest price for a painting by this artist at auction, with horses that were sold 8.2 MHK$.
POST SALE COMMENT
A result of international level has been recorded on this exceptional artwork: HK $ 25.3 million including premium.
The image of this lot is shared by Bloomberg.
