Art 1965-1969
1965 Baselitz facing the Berlin Wall
2017 SOLD for £ 7.5M including premium
A native of Saxony, Baselitz lives in West Berlin at the time of the construction of the wall in 1961. He is 23 years old. His painting will be extremely brutal in the following of Grosz and Beckmann. He attracts attention in 1963 by a scandalous exhibition including sexual artworks which express his shame about the evolution of Germany.
In 1965 and 1966 he executed under the generic title Helden (heroes) an extensive series of paintings, drawings and engravings on the theme of the returning soldier. The characters are unpleasant with their small head on an oversized body. They are covered with wounds and have tattered clothes and bare feet. By a refinement in the mockery the attitude of these defeated soldiers remains defiant in the graphic style of the Soviet realism.
On March 8 in London, Sotheby's sells Mit Roter Fahne, oil on canvas 162 x 131 cm painted in 1965, lot 6 estimated £ 6,5M.
The character grabs the handle of an enormous red flag. This symbol of the Cold War is not raised but sweeps the ground. The torn cloth of the character is opened from the neck to the sex that does not even need to be visible to reinforce the indecency.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
In 1965 and 1966 he executed under the generic title Helden (heroes) an extensive series of paintings, drawings and engravings on the theme of the returning soldier. The characters are unpleasant with their small head on an oversized body. They are covered with wounds and have tattered clothes and bare feet. By a refinement in the mockery the attitude of these defeated soldiers remains defiant in the graphic style of the Soviet realism.
On March 8 in London, Sotheby's sells Mit Roter Fahne, oil on canvas 162 x 131 cm painted in 1965, lot 6 estimated £ 6,5M.
The character grabs the handle of an enormous red flag. This symbol of the Cold War is not raised but sweeps the ground. The torn cloth of the character is opened from the neck to the sex that does not even need to be visible to reinforce the indecency.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
1965 Pipes and Still Lifes
2019 SOLD for £ 2.7M including premium
In his early art David Hockney acted deliberately as a rebel. His exceedingly naive figures are a response to the abstract minimalism of his friends Kenneth Noland and Frank Stella. The use of cylinders, spheres and cones pushes to the absurd the statements by Cézanne on the geometrical construction of still lifes.
Two paintings made in 1965 illustrate this mood.
Coming from the Stella collection, an acrylic on canvas 122 x 122 cm is titled by mockery A realistic still life. It is estimated £ 1.5M for sale by Christie's in London on March 6, lot 37.
On the theme of the Californian swimming pools, the other example is estimated £ 2.5M for sale by Sotheby's in London on March 5, lot 50. Before it passed in the same auction room on March 7, 2018, I narrated it as follows, taking also as a reference an artwork from his earlier Egyptian series.
David Hockney finishes his art studies in London in 1962. He admires the false childishness of Dubuffet's graphics.
Eager for exotic sensations, he got a mission from Sunday Times magazine for a trip to Egypt in 1963. Excited by local solutions to the problem of water, he painted on his return a Great Pyramid at Giza with Broken Head from Thebes where the foreground is invaded by a water pipe. This 183 x 183 cm oil on canvas was sold for £ 3.5M including premium by Christie's on February 13, 2013.
Until 1967 the homosexual act will remain a crime in the United Kingdom. To become a leading gay artist, Hockney prefers to leave. In 1964 he arrives in New York where he gets imbued with pop art. In Los Angeles he is enchanted by the atmosphere of freedom, the apparent ease of life, and the tanned bodies of half naked young men at the pool and on the beach.
The acrylic on canvas 183 x 152 cm painted in 1965 that comes for sale has a title is the form of a didactic program : Different kinds of water pouring into a swimming pool, Santa Monica. As in the Pyramids the pipe has the main role in this naive composition without people. Its water flows down to the floor of the pool. In the distance a row of trees benefits from the irrigation.
Shortly afterward the idyllic swimming pools under the Californian sun become the main theme of his art, with now the realism required for the contemplation of men.
RESULTS :
Sotheby's : SOLD for £ 2.7M including premium
Christie's : UNSOLD
Two paintings made in 1965 illustrate this mood.
Coming from the Stella collection, an acrylic on canvas 122 x 122 cm is titled by mockery A realistic still life. It is estimated £ 1.5M for sale by Christie's in London on March 6, lot 37.
On the theme of the Californian swimming pools, the other example is estimated £ 2.5M for sale by Sotheby's in London on March 5, lot 50. Before it passed in the same auction room on March 7, 2018, I narrated it as follows, taking also as a reference an artwork from his earlier Egyptian series.
David Hockney finishes his art studies in London in 1962. He admires the false childishness of Dubuffet's graphics.
Eager for exotic sensations, he got a mission from Sunday Times magazine for a trip to Egypt in 1963. Excited by local solutions to the problem of water, he painted on his return a Great Pyramid at Giza with Broken Head from Thebes where the foreground is invaded by a water pipe. This 183 x 183 cm oil on canvas was sold for £ 3.5M including premium by Christie's on February 13, 2013.
Until 1967 the homosexual act will remain a crime in the United Kingdom. To become a leading gay artist, Hockney prefers to leave. In 1964 he arrives in New York where he gets imbued with pop art. In Los Angeles he is enchanted by the atmosphere of freedom, the apparent ease of life, and the tanned bodies of half naked young men at the pool and on the beach.
The acrylic on canvas 183 x 152 cm painted in 1965 that comes for sale has a title is the form of a didactic program : Different kinds of water pouring into a swimming pool, Santa Monica. As in the Pyramids the pipe has the main role in this naive composition without people. Its water flows down to the floor of the pool. In the distance a row of trees benefits from the irrigation.
Shortly afterward the idyllic swimming pools under the Californian sun become the main theme of his art, with now the realism required for the contemplation of men.
RESULTS :
Sotheby's : SOLD for £ 2.7M including premium
Christie's : UNSOLD
1965 Vija Celmins in Los Angeles
2014 SOLD for $ 3.4M including premium
Vija Celmins comes out of the mists of Latvia from where she is moved at the age of two with her parents by the Soviet occupation. From 1962 to 1965, she achieves her art studies in Los Angeles at the very time when Pop Art operates the great return to figurative art based on common objects.
The young artist is keen to show the originality of her personality. The disapproval of war is a common theme of the period in America exacerbated by the Vietnam events. She does not want to be dazzled by the sun of California and finds an influence in the monotonous use of dull colors in the still lifes of Morandi.
She attends the circle of Joni Gordon, a young self taught woman who takes the role of an incubator of contemporary art in Los Angeles and later will operate an avant-garde gallery. From the deceased estate of Gordon, three artworks for sale by Sotheby's in New York on September 24 enable a complete review of the early career of Celmins.
Her varied techniques almost always rely on a photographic original in a hyperrealistic approach. Burning Plane, oil on canvas 36 x 62 cm painted in 1965, reproduces in grisaille a newspaper photo of a war drama that made eleven dead. The smoke creates the same visual effect as the blurring of the military aircraft by Richter two years earlier. This painting is estimated $ 900K, lot 6.
The preferred technique of Celmins is graphite on paper. Clouds No. 2 is a very large drawing, 67 x 99 cm, made between 1965 and 1967. This theme of hyperrealism in an unrecognizable place anticipates her Oceans. An Ocean in graphite on acrylic background 36 x 48 cm made in 1968 sold for $ 1.7M including premium at Christie's on 13 November 2013. Clouds is estimated $ 400K, lot 7. The series of paintings by Richter on the same theme is later.
Pink Pearl Eraser is an acrylic on balsa wood 17 x 50 x 8 cm made in 1966-1967, estimated $ 180K, lot 8, of pure Pop Art inspiration while symbolizing the art of drawing.
I have not found any evidence of a reciprocal influence of Celmins and Richter despite the similarity of their art at that time.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM
Burning plane (oil on canvas) : $ 3.4M
Clouds No 2 (charcoal on paper) : $ 1.56M
Pink Pearl eraser (acrylic on balsa wood) : $ 1.56M
The young artist is keen to show the originality of her personality. The disapproval of war is a common theme of the period in America exacerbated by the Vietnam events. She does not want to be dazzled by the sun of California and finds an influence in the monotonous use of dull colors in the still lifes of Morandi.
She attends the circle of Joni Gordon, a young self taught woman who takes the role of an incubator of contemporary art in Los Angeles and later will operate an avant-garde gallery. From the deceased estate of Gordon, three artworks for sale by Sotheby's in New York on September 24 enable a complete review of the early career of Celmins.
Her varied techniques almost always rely on a photographic original in a hyperrealistic approach. Burning Plane, oil on canvas 36 x 62 cm painted in 1965, reproduces in grisaille a newspaper photo of a war drama that made eleven dead. The smoke creates the same visual effect as the blurring of the military aircraft by Richter two years earlier. This painting is estimated $ 900K, lot 6.
The preferred technique of Celmins is graphite on paper. Clouds No. 2 is a very large drawing, 67 x 99 cm, made between 1965 and 1967. This theme of hyperrealism in an unrecognizable place anticipates her Oceans. An Ocean in graphite on acrylic background 36 x 48 cm made in 1968 sold for $ 1.7M including premium at Christie's on 13 November 2013. Clouds is estimated $ 400K, lot 7. The series of paintings by Richter on the same theme is later.
Pink Pearl Eraser is an acrylic on balsa wood 17 x 50 x 8 cm made in 1966-1967, estimated $ 180K, lot 8, of pure Pop Art inspiration while symbolizing the art of drawing.
I have not found any evidence of a reciprocal influence of Celmins and Richter despite the similarity of their art at that time.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM
Burning plane (oil on canvas) : $ 3.4M
Clouds No 2 (charcoal on paper) : $ 1.56M
Pink Pearl eraser (acrylic on balsa wood) : $ 1.56M
1965 The Meeting of Gutai and Zero
2016 SOLD for £ 1.54M including premium
Kazuo Shiraga is not the founder of the Gutai group but he is its most dramatic performer. The post-war world seeks a new approach to art. Shiraga is a gymnast. He offers artistic creation by the effect of physical strength.
Shiraga enjoys the happenings, like Yves Klein. In 1955, he cut with his ax some trees painted in his favorite color, an intense red. In 1965, three years after the death of Klein, the Gutai and Zero groups manage to exhibit together.
Shiraga also becomes a sculptor when there is a need to promote the Gutai art. In 1957, a monumental Red Timber summarizes his experiences of performance art.
In 1965, the artist creates a Red Fan that auspiciously welcomes the visitors of the exhibitions. It is a triple fully open concentric fan made in folded tissue paper over a wooden base with an overall size of 151 x 305 x 50 cm. The paper is uniformly painted in crimson.
This minimalist work is close to the creations of the Zero group and of Günther Uecker. In choosing the theme of the fan, Shiraga brings a Buddhist feeling, with altogether the perfect semicircles and the symbol of the evolution of life through the succession of blades.
The Red Fan by Shiraga was one of the star pieces of an exhibition organized in October 2015 by Bonhams in London, which brought together once again Gutai and Zero while adding also Yayoi Kusama. This artwork is now estimated £ 1.5M for sale byBonhams in London on February 11, lot 33. I invite you towatch the video shared by the auction house.
Shiraga enjoys the happenings, like Yves Klein. In 1955, he cut with his ax some trees painted in his favorite color, an intense red. In 1965, three years after the death of Klein, the Gutai and Zero groups manage to exhibit together.
Shiraga also becomes a sculptor when there is a need to promote the Gutai art. In 1957, a monumental Red Timber summarizes his experiences of performance art.
In 1965, the artist creates a Red Fan that auspiciously welcomes the visitors of the exhibitions. It is a triple fully open concentric fan made in folded tissue paper over a wooden base with an overall size of 151 x 305 x 50 cm. The paper is uniformly painted in crimson.
This minimalist work is close to the creations of the Zero group and of Günther Uecker. In choosing the theme of the fan, Shiraga brings a Buddhist feeling, with altogether the perfect semicircles and the symbol of the evolution of life through the succession of blades.
The Red Fan by Shiraga was one of the star pieces of an exhibition organized in October 2015 by Bonhams in London, which brought together once again Gutai and Zero while adding also Yayoi Kusama. This artwork is now estimated £ 1.5M for sale byBonhams in London on February 11, lot 33. I invite you towatch the video shared by the auction house.
1965 pop art and remakes
2016 unsold
The young artists who create the pop art in the late 1950s around Leo Castelli are shaking all the rules. They appropriate artefacts or images which they recycle, re-assemble, reprocess. These remakes are works of art in their own right which do not need to provide meaning or emotion.
Elaine Sturtevant joined that group of men around 1964. She carefully chooses their best works and plagiarizes them while skillfully using their own techniques. These copies of appropriations fall entirely within the logics of the pop artists whose desire is to multiply their images and push them to the rank of icons.
She sometimes discreetly adds an element revealing her feminine feeling such as the blue eyes of her Lichtenstein Frighten Girl. This oil on canvas 116 x 162 cm painted in 1966 was sold for $ 3.4 million including premium by Christie's on 12 November 2014 over a lower estimate of $ 600K. The art market is rediscovering Sturtevant.
Jasper Johns was with Rauschenberg the boldest of these early reformers of art. Sturtevant used the Johns technique in oil, encaustic and collage on canvas in her copies of his Flags and Targets.
On November 17 in New York, Sotheby's sells a Johns Flag 96 x 143 cm painted in 1965, lot 32 estimated $ 3M, which is one of the very first remakes executed by Sturtevant.
The Johns flag is one of the best symbols of pop art. Sturtevant added in 1966 another reference to the history of art by photographing herself walking in the nude in front of the example now offered for sale, in a claimed imitation of the chronophotographs by Muybridge and indirectly in honor of the Nude Descending a Staircase by Duchamp.
Rauschenberg had been the first re-user. He had inserted another flag by Johns, smaller, in an assembly realized in 1955 titled Short Circuit. When that Johns is stolen ten years later directly from the Short Circuit, Rauschenberg prefers commissioning to Sturtevant the replacement with which he restores his vandalized art.
Elaine Sturtevant joined that group of men around 1964. She carefully chooses their best works and plagiarizes them while skillfully using their own techniques. These copies of appropriations fall entirely within the logics of the pop artists whose desire is to multiply their images and push them to the rank of icons.
She sometimes discreetly adds an element revealing her feminine feeling such as the blue eyes of her Lichtenstein Frighten Girl. This oil on canvas 116 x 162 cm painted in 1966 was sold for $ 3.4 million including premium by Christie's on 12 November 2014 over a lower estimate of $ 600K. The art market is rediscovering Sturtevant.
Jasper Johns was with Rauschenberg the boldest of these early reformers of art. Sturtevant used the Johns technique in oil, encaustic and collage on canvas in her copies of his Flags and Targets.
On November 17 in New York, Sotheby's sells a Johns Flag 96 x 143 cm painted in 1965, lot 32 estimated $ 3M, which is one of the very first remakes executed by Sturtevant.
The Johns flag is one of the best symbols of pop art. Sturtevant added in 1966 another reference to the history of art by photographing herself walking in the nude in front of the example now offered for sale, in a claimed imitation of the chronophotographs by Muybridge and indirectly in honor of the Nude Descending a Staircase by Duchamp.
Rauschenberg had been the first re-user. He had inserted another flag by Johns, smaller, in an assembly realized in 1955 titled Short Circuit. When that Johns is stolen ten years later directly from the Short Circuit, Rauschenberg prefers commissioning to Sturtevant the replacement with which he restores his vandalized art.
1966 Gerhard Richter explores the Anti-Art
2010 SOLD 13.2 M$ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
In 1966, the art market did not know that Gerhard Richter will be one of the most important painters and theorists of the end of the century. His work will be complete, from figurative to abstract and from monochromatic to bright colors.
He was 34 years old. One hundred years before him, the traditionalists reviled the painters who were preparing their works by the photography in a quest for realism. Richter did the opposite. He choses a banal photo, black and white, in a first step which excludes the artistic creation. He projects the image onto the canvas which he paints, then he scrambles it by energetic brush strokes.
A painting by Richter resembles a bad image from a newspaper or from broadcast blurred up to the limit of readability. It is an artistic feat, first because the vagueness encourages the audience to imagine the real, second because at that time the bad images had already invaded our daily lives.
The Weserburg Museum of Bremen, founded in 1991, aims to support contemporary artistic creation. It could be proud to own an outstanding work of Richter. In a bold cultural gesture, it is commissioning Sotheby's to sell it. Richter was the rising star of 1966, and the museum prefers to discover and encourage the artists of today.
In more than 2 meters wide, Matrosen shows a group of sailors, in two rows like the photo of a sports team or a college class. This painting is estimated $ 6M, and the illustration is shared by Artdaily in an article prepared after a press conference organized by the museum. This will be one of the highlights of the evening sale in New York on November 9.
POST SALE COMMENT
The price, $ 13.2 million including premium, is an acknowledgement of the originality and depth of the artistic ideas of Richter at the outset of his career.
In 1966, the art market did not know that Gerhard Richter will be one of the most important painters and theorists of the end of the century. His work will be complete, from figurative to abstract and from monochromatic to bright colors.
He was 34 years old. One hundred years before him, the traditionalists reviled the painters who were preparing their works by the photography in a quest for realism. Richter did the opposite. He choses a banal photo, black and white, in a first step which excludes the artistic creation. He projects the image onto the canvas which he paints, then he scrambles it by energetic brush strokes.
A painting by Richter resembles a bad image from a newspaper or from broadcast blurred up to the limit of readability. It is an artistic feat, first because the vagueness encourages the audience to imagine the real, second because at that time the bad images had already invaded our daily lives.
The Weserburg Museum of Bremen, founded in 1991, aims to support contemporary artistic creation. It could be proud to own an outstanding work of Richter. In a bold cultural gesture, it is commissioning Sotheby's to sell it. Richter was the rising star of 1966, and the museum prefers to discover and encourage the artists of today.
In more than 2 meters wide, Matrosen shows a group of sailors, in two rows like the photo of a sports team or a college class. This painting is estimated $ 6M, and the illustration is shared by Artdaily in an article prepared after a press conference organized by the museum. This will be one of the highlights of the evening sale in New York on November 9.
POST SALE COMMENT
The price, $ 13.2 million including premium, is an acknowledgement of the originality and depth of the artistic ideas of Richter at the outset of his career.
1966 The Comedy of Art
2018 SOLD for $ 12.5M including premium
Edward Hopper was passionate about theater and cinema. The roles played by the actors brought him the human relations which he struggled to express in real life. Jo, married in 1924, was his unique muse and the manager of his work. It was difficult for them to live together as their temperaments were so different, but they succeeded.
In 1966 Edward revisits these two themes in a self-portrait with Jo. On a large empty stage, they make their final bow while holding their hands each other. Death was coming : Edward left in 1967 and Jo in 1968.
They have white clothes like Pierrot and Pierrette, the melancholic clown and his muse from the Commedia dell'Arte. The long cloth fits Edward's tall figure. Faces are wrinkled and made up. He is wearing the hat of Watteau's Pierrot.
This oil on canvas 74 x 102 cm is a poignant tribute to theater and the last fantasy of this austere illustrator of life. It has long belonged to Sinatra. It is estimated $ 12M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 16, lot 15.
In 1966 Edward revisits these two themes in a self-portrait with Jo. On a large empty stage, they make their final bow while holding their hands each other. Death was coming : Edward left in 1967 and Jo in 1968.
They have white clothes like Pierrot and Pierrette, the melancholic clown and his muse from the Commedia dell'Arte. The long cloth fits Edward's tall figure. Faces are wrinkled and made up. He is wearing the hat of Watteau's Pierrot.
This oil on canvas 74 x 102 cm is a poignant tribute to theater and the last fantasy of this austere illustrator of life. It has long belonged to Sinatra. It is estimated $ 12M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 16, lot 15.
1966 The Cheating of the Zebras
2016 SOLD for £ 4.3M including premium by Christie's
2020 withdrawn
In 1964 an art critic designates as Op Art the application of optical illusions to abstract art. In the previous year with her seminal work titled Continuum, Bridget Riley was locking her visitors inside a spiral wall decorated with dense patterns of black and white stripes.
Visual perception is not a mere application of geometry. It has recently been discovered that the zebra's stripes serve to blur the vision of horseflies which no longer perceive their distance to its skin. Vasarely used this effect as early as 1938. In a two-dimensional view, the border separating two zebras disappears.
Riley studies on sketches the visual effect created by the spacing of her elements : the square, the straight or wavy line, the zig zag. Inspired by the art of Pollock, she does not alter the forms at the edges. She will later be a specialist in the interpretation of Mondrian. From 1967 she blurs the perception of colors in a similar way.
One of her last black and white works, painted in 1966, shows an infinitely repeated wave on a square surface. The effect is extreme. The spectator sees from a distance that the curves are perfectly aligned in the diagonal but the perception of the axes is transformed into a de-focused pulsation when he approaches the image.
This work on panel 130 x 130 cm was sold for £ 1.18M including premium by Sotheby's on June 21, 2006 from a lower estimate of £ 300K and for £ 4.3M including premium by Christie's on June 30, 2016 from a lower estimate of £ 2.5M. It is estimated £ 5.5M for sale by Sotheby's in London on October 21, lot 123.
Riley's art has attracted a growing interest over the past twenty years, with important exhibitions.
Visual perception is not a mere application of geometry. It has recently been discovered that the zebra's stripes serve to blur the vision of horseflies which no longer perceive their distance to its skin. Vasarely used this effect as early as 1938. In a two-dimensional view, the border separating two zebras disappears.
Riley studies on sketches the visual effect created by the spacing of her elements : the square, the straight or wavy line, the zig zag. Inspired by the art of Pollock, she does not alter the forms at the edges. She will later be a specialist in the interpretation of Mondrian. From 1967 she blurs the perception of colors in a similar way.
One of her last black and white works, painted in 1966, shows an infinitely repeated wave on a square surface. The effect is extreme. The spectator sees from a distance that the curves are perfectly aligned in the diagonal but the perception of the axes is transformed into a de-focused pulsation when he approaches the image.
This work on panel 130 x 130 cm was sold for £ 1.18M including premium by Sotheby's on June 21, 2006 from a lower estimate of £ 300K and for £ 4.3M including premium by Christie's on June 30, 2016 from a lower estimate of £ 2.5M. It is estimated £ 5.5M for sale by Sotheby's in London on October 21, lot 123.
Riley's art has attracted a growing interest over the past twenty years, with important exhibitions.
1966 Headless Figures by Pino Pascali
2016 SOLD for £ 2.63M including premium
The Arte Povera comes immediately after the Pop Art. Young Italians are breaking all the traditions of art : materials, formats, themes. The wording Arte Povera was coined by an exhibition organizer : it was indeed helpful to juxtapose and compare the works of these young men who knew no limit in their creativity.
Born in Bari, Pino Pascali loved the sea, toys, pop art and all sorts of futile occupations. He died in 1968 at age 33 after a motorcycle accident. He had perhaps never stopped playing.
1966 was a year of great creativity for Pascali with his series entitled Decapitazione de la scultura. These three-dimensional works look like sculptures but are fabrics stretched onto wooden structures.
The painted canvas simulates the skin of a recognizable element of an animal, such as the crest of the back of a dinosaur emerging from the floor. Pascali decapitates in his art giraffes, rhinos and sharks. This reduction of the theme to a detail may be compared with the paintings by Domenico Gnoli at the same time.
The dolphin tail, marked Cetacei by the artist, goes even further in the demolition of classical art. This artwork must be hanged to the rail like a framed painting but extends beyond the wall by no less than 143 cm. This unprecedented use of the exhibition space anticipates by four decades the installations by Maurizio Cattelan.
Coda di delfino is estimated £ 1.5M for sale by Christie's in London on October 6, lot 118.
Born in Bari, Pino Pascali loved the sea, toys, pop art and all sorts of futile occupations. He died in 1968 at age 33 after a motorcycle accident. He had perhaps never stopped playing.
1966 was a year of great creativity for Pascali with his series entitled Decapitazione de la scultura. These three-dimensional works look like sculptures but are fabrics stretched onto wooden structures.
The painted canvas simulates the skin of a recognizable element of an animal, such as the crest of the back of a dinosaur emerging from the floor. Pascali decapitates in his art giraffes, rhinos and sharks. This reduction of the theme to a detail may be compared with the paintings by Domenico Gnoli at the same time.
The dolphin tail, marked Cetacei by the artist, goes even further in the demolition of classical art. This artwork must be hanged to the rail like a framed painting but extends beyond the wall by no less than 143 cm. This unprecedented use of the exhibition space anticipates by four decades the installations by Maurizio Cattelan.
Coda di delfino is estimated £ 1.5M for sale by Christie's in London on October 6, lot 118.
1966 Wesselmann for Playboy
2010 SOLD 1.87 M$ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Do you remember the cover of Playboy # 1, the magazine of entertainment for men? That was in December 1953, and we can view it on Wikipedia. In this black and white photo, Marilyn Monroe, in a light dress, is triumphant. Her mouth is wide open. The sharp lines of heavily laden lips let see the sparkle of flawless white teeth, and the tongue.
Let us make a leap of thirteen years in history. The American Nudes of Tom Wesselmann are done with a humor very much in the tone of the magazine.
In 1966, Wesselmann began his series of the Mouths. The large canvas painted in oil and acrylic is trimmed around the vivid red lips.
Mouth # 2, 99 x 200 cm, is half open in a nice smile. It was sold for $ 2.16 million including premium at Christie's on May 16, 2007.
Mouth # 8, 190 x 246 cm, was commissioned by a staff member of Playboy, and is included in the sale of the collection of Hugh Hefner, the founder of the magazine, tomorrow December 8 by Christie's in New York. The resemblance to the mouth of Marilyn is striking. The image illustrates an interview by The Associated Press with Hefner shared by Artdaily.
The estimate of # 8, $ 2M, is directly comparable to the hammer price of # 2. There is however a good chance that the result is better.
Later, Wesselmann introduced in this theme the cigarette, the smoke and the smoker's hand.
POST SALE COMMENT
Contrary to my prediction, Mouth # 8 remained below the estimate. This artwork was sold for $ 1.87 million including premium.
Do you remember the cover of Playboy # 1, the magazine of entertainment for men? That was in December 1953, and we can view it on Wikipedia. In this black and white photo, Marilyn Monroe, in a light dress, is triumphant. Her mouth is wide open. The sharp lines of heavily laden lips let see the sparkle of flawless white teeth, and the tongue.
Let us make a leap of thirteen years in history. The American Nudes of Tom Wesselmann are done with a humor very much in the tone of the magazine.
In 1966, Wesselmann began his series of the Mouths. The large canvas painted in oil and acrylic is trimmed around the vivid red lips.
Mouth # 2, 99 x 200 cm, is half open in a nice smile. It was sold for $ 2.16 million including premium at Christie's on May 16, 2007.
Mouth # 8, 190 x 246 cm, was commissioned by a staff member of Playboy, and is included in the sale of the collection of Hugh Hefner, the founder of the magazine, tomorrow December 8 by Christie's in New York. The resemblance to the mouth of Marilyn is striking. The image illustrates an interview by The Associated Press with Hefner shared by Artdaily.
The estimate of # 8, $ 2M, is directly comparable to the hammer price of # 2. There is however a good chance that the result is better.
Later, Wesselmann introduced in this theme the cigarette, the smoke and the smoker's hand.
POST SALE COMMENT
Contrary to my prediction, Mouth # 8 remained below the estimate. This artwork was sold for $ 1.87 million including premium.
1966 Polka Dotty by Mel Ramos
2008 SOLD for $ 710K including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Behind the stars of Pop Art, head of them is Lichtenstein, other artists are to be discovered. This month there is a clear trend to push forward Mel Ramos, with no less than six paintings in the sales of the four international auction houses, Bonhams on May 13 (lot 31), Christie' s on May 14 (lot 117), Sotheby' s on May 15 (lots 199, 204 and 316), Phillips de Pury on May 16 (lot 263). There is only one city for all these sales: New York.
The creation dates spread out from 1962 to 1975, and the low estimates make a grouped shooting between 400 and 600 K$, except for the latest work which will probably make less.
This regrouping of price between four different houses is interesting. What is even more interesting, is to observe that if these five principal works make the low awaited price, they all will enter the top ten of the artist at auction.
The rise of the prices for Ramos was launched in October 2006 only, at Sotheby' s, with Peek-a-boo Raven (standing naked woman viewed in a keyhole) which sold 540 K£. The market began one year later to follow the path given by this charming work.
The tendency of this May thus seems to go to a continuation of this trend, without really being able to judge which of the four auction houses will win the top price.
POST SALE COMMENT
The result of these six lots takes the form of a severe blow for the erotic art, which records the two only unsold of the group. It is a bad surprise for that of Phillips de Pury, which represented a naked blonde cherished by a panther, and whose important size (112x168 cm) gave hope that it would reach the 400 K$ expected.
The painting of Christie's, Wild girl (102 X 81 cm), was thus overvalued at 500 K$.
Bonhams sold its Green Lantern, a kind of Superman painted in 1962, for 500 K$ before expenses, meaning 600 K$ fees included. It is a reward for the representation of a figure in the fahion of our time.
Sotheby's sold its three paintings at prices comparable with the estimates: 710, 490 and 340 K$ fees included. The most expensive of the three, a pleasant Polka Dotty of 1966, owes its price to its size (172 X 132 cm). The arrival of the second at nearly 500 K$ in spite of its very small size (45 X 45 cm) is a sign of the current taste for the mixing of figures and lettrism, as I already noted when commenting on the Nurses of Prince. of
Behind the stars of Pop Art, head of them is Lichtenstein, other artists are to be discovered. This month there is a clear trend to push forward Mel Ramos, with no less than six paintings in the sales of the four international auction houses, Bonhams on May 13 (lot 31), Christie' s on May 14 (lot 117), Sotheby' s on May 15 (lots 199, 204 and 316), Phillips de Pury on May 16 (lot 263). There is only one city for all these sales: New York.
The creation dates spread out from 1962 to 1975, and the low estimates make a grouped shooting between 400 and 600 K$, except for the latest work which will probably make less.
This regrouping of price between four different houses is interesting. What is even more interesting, is to observe that if these five principal works make the low awaited price, they all will enter the top ten of the artist at auction.
The rise of the prices for Ramos was launched in October 2006 only, at Sotheby' s, with Peek-a-boo Raven (standing naked woman viewed in a keyhole) which sold 540 K£. The market began one year later to follow the path given by this charming work.
The tendency of this May thus seems to go to a continuation of this trend, without really being able to judge which of the four auction houses will win the top price.
POST SALE COMMENT
The result of these six lots takes the form of a severe blow for the erotic art, which records the two only unsold of the group. It is a bad surprise for that of Phillips de Pury, which represented a naked blonde cherished by a panther, and whose important size (112x168 cm) gave hope that it would reach the 400 K$ expected.
The painting of Christie's, Wild girl (102 X 81 cm), was thus overvalued at 500 K$.
Bonhams sold its Green Lantern, a kind of Superman painted in 1962, for 500 K$ before expenses, meaning 600 K$ fees included. It is a reward for the representation of a figure in the fahion of our time.
Sotheby's sold its three paintings at prices comparable with the estimates: 710, 490 and 340 K$ fees included. The most expensive of the three, a pleasant Polka Dotty of 1966, owes its price to its size (172 X 132 cm). The arrival of the second at nearly 500 K$ in spite of its very small size (45 X 45 cm) is a sign of the current taste for the mixing of figures and lettrism, as I already noted when commenting on the Nurses of Prince. of
1966-1967 The Housewife of Beverly Hills
2009 SOLD 7.9 M$ by Christie's
David Hockney is known for his paintings of large size that represent the villas and swimming pools in California. He is one of the artists of the Pop Art. His geometric figures make of his work a following of classic architectural drawings, but his purpose is art and not construction.
He thus became a witness to the lifestyle of the owners of Beverly Hills. Incidentally, it was clever from this young British to go there to excite the dream of life of the wealthy Californian establishment. In 1966-1967, he painted as a diptych the "Beverly Hills Housewife," with total dimensions of 3.6 x 1.8 m. The villa is the main topic. The terrace is sunny, an empty lounge chair is waiting for a visitor. An alignment of windows gives an idea of the depth of the building. But the focal point is the lady of the house welcoming us in a long pink dress.
A rare interest in this work is that it demonstrates the meeting between the artist and his collector, Betty Freeman, who kept the painting. It was the top lot of her collection. It was sold for $ 7.9M by Christie's on May 13, 2009.
He thus became a witness to the lifestyle of the owners of Beverly Hills. Incidentally, it was clever from this young British to go there to excite the dream of life of the wealthy Californian establishment. In 1966-1967, he painted as a diptych the "Beverly Hills Housewife," with total dimensions of 3.6 x 1.8 m. The villa is the main topic. The terrace is sunny, an empty lounge chair is waiting for a visitor. An alignment of windows gives an idea of the depth of the building. But the focal point is the lady of the house welcoming us in a long pink dress.
A rare interest in this work is that it demonstrates the meeting between the artist and his collector, Betty Freeman, who kept the painting. It was the top lot of her collection. It was sold for $ 7.9M by Christie's on May 13, 2009.
1966-1967 The Green Angles of Carmen Herrera
2019 sold for $ 2.9m including premium
Carmen Herrera is passionate about architecture, in the following of the Constructivists and of the Bauhaus. Her paintings reject optical illusion and emotion.
The acute angle becomes the basic element of her geometric figures. It is monochrome, on a background that can be black or white. All triangles are filled of a unique color. The tip of a triangle touches the tip or side of another. These figures reach the edge of the image without alteration, opening the access to infinity like in Mondrian's compositions.
Beginning in 1959, the most minimalist series of Carmen Herrera's art bears the generic title of Blanco y Verde. The use of the Spanish language is a reminiscence of her Cuban origins. The composition is structured by the horizontal and the vertical which correspond to an edge or the axis of each green triangle. The acute angles are invariant.
Carmen Herrera's minimalist approach has been compared to the art of Ellsworth Kelly or Frank Stella. Despite her efforts to exhibit her work, she was utterly ignored by New York's artistic society until 2008. In 2015, the year of her 100th birthday, a documentary film establishes her rightful place in US abstract art.
A Blanco y Verde painted in 1966, acrylic on canvas 102 x 115 cm staging two horizontal triangles, was sold for $ 2.65M including premium by Phillips on November 15, 2018 over a lower estimate of $ 1M.
On March 1 in New York, Sotheby's sells a 102 x 178 cm painting dated 1966-1967 of the same series and same technique, lot 12 estimated $ 1.5M. The horizontal triangle is complete. It provides the junction on its left with an ascending triangle and on its right with a descending triangle.
The acute angle becomes the basic element of her geometric figures. It is monochrome, on a background that can be black or white. All triangles are filled of a unique color. The tip of a triangle touches the tip or side of another. These figures reach the edge of the image without alteration, opening the access to infinity like in Mondrian's compositions.
Beginning in 1959, the most minimalist series of Carmen Herrera's art bears the generic title of Blanco y Verde. The use of the Spanish language is a reminiscence of her Cuban origins. The composition is structured by the horizontal and the vertical which correspond to an edge or the axis of each green triangle. The acute angles are invariant.
Carmen Herrera's minimalist approach has been compared to the art of Ellsworth Kelly or Frank Stella. Despite her efforts to exhibit her work, she was utterly ignored by New York's artistic society until 2008. In 2015, the year of her 100th birthday, a documentary film establishes her rightful place in US abstract art.
A Blanco y Verde painted in 1966, acrylic on canvas 102 x 115 cm staging two horizontal triangles, was sold for $ 2.65M including premium by Phillips on November 15, 2018 over a lower estimate of $ 1M.
On March 1 in New York, Sotheby's sells a 102 x 178 cm painting dated 1966-1967 of the same series and same technique, lot 12 estimated $ 1.5M. The horizontal triangle is complete. It provides the junction on its left with an ascending triangle and on its right with a descending triangle.
1967 Warhol emerges from the Shadows
2011 SOLD 10.8 M£ including premium
Already famous for the portraits of his favorite celebrities, Marilyn and Liz, Warhol builds his pantheon. His art is known, but not his face. Andy decides that his self-portraits have to be part of his major works.
His first tests shows him too juvenile or too ordinary. In 1966, a photograph (which was not preserved) gives him the right choice. The attitude with fingers over the mouth is enigmatic. Half his face in the shadow hides the fact that aged less than 40 years he still looks quite young.
Andy, in his already usual practice, executes infinite variations, with psychedelic colors. Then in 1967 he finally dares to make this self-portrait in large size, 1.83 x 1.83 m.
It was believed that he made ten variants. An eleventh appears at Christie's for sale on February 16 in London. Curiously, this painting that had belonged to his dealer Castelli had remained unpublished. It now comes from an estate and has been approved by the Andy Warhol Authentication Board.
This piece of acrylic and silkscreen ink in a bold red is illustrated in the article shared by The Telegraph. It is estimated £ 3M, cautiously.
POST SALE COMMENT
Without being one of the top icons of the art of Warhol, this painting belongs to a significant phase of his work, and moreover it was fresh on the market. It was sold £ 10.8M including premium.
His first tests shows him too juvenile or too ordinary. In 1966, a photograph (which was not preserved) gives him the right choice. The attitude with fingers over the mouth is enigmatic. Half his face in the shadow hides the fact that aged less than 40 years he still looks quite young.
Andy, in his already usual practice, executes infinite variations, with psychedelic colors. Then in 1967 he finally dares to make this self-portrait in large size, 1.83 x 1.83 m.
It was believed that he made ten variants. An eleventh appears at Christie's for sale on February 16 in London. Curiously, this painting that had belonged to his dealer Castelli had remained unpublished. It now comes from an estate and has been approved by the Andy Warhol Authentication Board.
This piece of acrylic and silkscreen ink in a bold red is illustrated in the article shared by The Telegraph. It is estimated £ 3M, cautiously.
POST SALE COMMENT
Without being one of the top icons of the art of Warhol, this painting belongs to a significant phase of his work, and moreover it was fresh on the market. It was sold £ 10.8M including premium.
1967 Badende
2023 SOLD for $ 9.6M by Christie's
Badende was conceived by Gerhard Richter in 1967, the final year in his phase of recuperation of blurred black and white photos.
This new opus brings two major changes in his practice. The picture mingles a variety of source images in a gradation of blur. The painting is not a mere black and white but is softly tinted like an early sepia photo print.
The result is a tight group of women in full nudity which may be seen as a reminiscence to Ingres's Turkish bath. The erotic excitement is enhanced or cancelled by the dissolving blur depending on the mood of the peeper, making it a significant demonstrator of what Magritte called la trahison des images.
The mid 1960s were indeed the time of the sexual revolution. Bunnies, a tight group of young women in swimming suit and high heels, had been painter by Richter's comrade Sigmar Polke in the previous year. Richter reused Badende in 1972 as a painting within a painting beside the nude model Brigid Polk.
The original Badende painting, oil on canvas 160 x 200 cm, is estimated $ 15M for sale by Christie's on May 17, 2023, lot 23C.
This new opus brings two major changes in his practice. The picture mingles a variety of source images in a gradation of blur. The painting is not a mere black and white but is softly tinted like an early sepia photo print.
The result is a tight group of women in full nudity which may be seen as a reminiscence to Ingres's Turkish bath. The erotic excitement is enhanced or cancelled by the dissolving blur depending on the mood of the peeper, making it a significant demonstrator of what Magritte called la trahison des images.
The mid 1960s were indeed the time of the sexual revolution. Bunnies, a tight group of young women in swimming suit and high heels, had been painter by Richter's comrade Sigmar Polke in the previous year. Richter reused Badende in 1972 as a painting within a painting beside the nude model Brigid Polk.
The original Badende painting, oil on canvas 160 x 200 cm, is estimated $ 15M for sale by Christie's on May 17, 2023, lot 23C.
1967 A Virtual Encounter with Boetti
2017 SOLD for £ 3.7M including premium
What is important is not the art object but its message. Michelangelo Pistoletto involves the viewer in a unique way that evokes altogether the happenings and the installations.
In 1961 the artist was preparing a self-portrait on a polished surface. Seeing his reflection in that mirror, he finds the inspiration of a new art. He enlarges photos up to the life size of the characters and transposes them into a painting on tissue paper which is glued on a stainless steel plate. After 1971 he replaced the paint by a silkscreen from the original photo.
The character or the couple is often relegated to one edge of the mirror, leaving free the rest of the surface where the visitor adds his own reflection to the scene proposed by the artist. Pistoletto displays almost exclusively his friends and family. In this way the viewer joins the present time to a private scene from the artist's past.
On October 6 in London, Christie's sells a mirror painting 230 x 120 cm made in 1967 by Pistoletto, lot 108 estimated £ 2.5M.
Titled Uomo che guarda un negativo, it shows Alighiero Boetti standing, inspecting a photographic negative that he holds at arm's length. The viewer can position his own reflection in front of the artist or in front of the negative which is an image in the image viewed beyond the mirror by a perspective effect.
In the same year Boetti, Pistoletto and their friends created the movement Arte Povera liberating for the artistic creation the use of the most diverse materials in the trend opened by Duchamp, Rauschenberg and Cornell.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's including an interview of the artist and a very convincing demonstration by a young blonde woman of this illusion of encounter between the frozen past of the artwork and her real life.
In 1961 the artist was preparing a self-portrait on a polished surface. Seeing his reflection in that mirror, he finds the inspiration of a new art. He enlarges photos up to the life size of the characters and transposes them into a painting on tissue paper which is glued on a stainless steel plate. After 1971 he replaced the paint by a silkscreen from the original photo.
The character or the couple is often relegated to one edge of the mirror, leaving free the rest of the surface where the visitor adds his own reflection to the scene proposed by the artist. Pistoletto displays almost exclusively his friends and family. In this way the viewer joins the present time to a private scene from the artist's past.
On October 6 in London, Christie's sells a mirror painting 230 x 120 cm made in 1967 by Pistoletto, lot 108 estimated £ 2.5M.
Titled Uomo che guarda un negativo, it shows Alighiero Boetti standing, inspecting a photographic negative that he holds at arm's length. The viewer can position his own reflection in front of the artist or in front of the negative which is an image in the image viewed beyond the mirror by a perspective effect.
In the same year Boetti, Pistoletto and their friends created the movement Arte Povera liberating for the artistic creation the use of the most diverse materials in the trend opened by Duchamp, Rauschenberg and Cornell.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's including an interview of the artist and a very convincing demonstration by a young blonde woman of this illusion of encounter between the frozen past of the artwork and her real life.
1967 The Threads of Eva Hesse
2019 SOLD for $ 4M including premium
Eva Hesse shared her short life between her native Germany and New York City. She was influenced by the Minimalists from both sides of the Atlantic. Uecker's nails demonstrate that art can be created with any hardware. She appreciates with Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Yayoi Kusama and Agnes Martin the expressive force of the repetition of forms.
Her conception of the ephemeral aspect of things is premonitory. She chooses to use latex because it disintegrates. In 1965 during a stay in the Ruhr in an abandoned textile factory, she became passionate about sewing threads.
On May 16, 2007, a 23 x 23 x 5 cm a spiral of cord inside papier-mâché made in 1966 was sold for $ 3.06M including premium by Christie's. Back in the same auction room on November 8, 2011, it was sold for $ 2.7M including premium.
In the same 2007 sale, a 56 x 51 x 3.2 cm work aptly titled Iteration, made in 1966-1967, was sold for $ 4.5M including premium. It consists of nine vertical columns of wood shavings. A piece of string ended by a tiny knot hangs under each column.
On May 16 in New York, Phillips sells a 36 x 36 cm drawing in graphite and ink wash on paper made in 1967. A concentric figure is regularly repeated through seven rows and seven columns. A small piece of nylon string hangs from the center of each of these figures. This artwork is estimated $ 2,5M, lot 23.
Eva Hesse died of a brain tumor in 1970, aged 34. Much of her artistic output early vanished.
Her conception of the ephemeral aspect of things is premonitory. She chooses to use latex because it disintegrates. In 1965 during a stay in the Ruhr in an abandoned textile factory, she became passionate about sewing threads.
On May 16, 2007, a 23 x 23 x 5 cm a spiral of cord inside papier-mâché made in 1966 was sold for $ 3.06M including premium by Christie's. Back in the same auction room on November 8, 2011, it was sold for $ 2.7M including premium.
In the same 2007 sale, a 56 x 51 x 3.2 cm work aptly titled Iteration, made in 1966-1967, was sold for $ 4.5M including premium. It consists of nine vertical columns of wood shavings. A piece of string ended by a tiny knot hangs under each column.
On May 16 in New York, Phillips sells a 36 x 36 cm drawing in graphite and ink wash on paper made in 1967. A concentric figure is regularly repeated through seven rows and seven columns. A small piece of nylon string hangs from the center of each of these figures. This artwork is estimated $ 2,5M, lot 23.
Eva Hesse died of a brain tumor in 1970, aged 34. Much of her artistic output early vanished.
1967 Stripes of Colors by Bridget Riley
2014 SOLD 2.9 M£ including premium
Early in her career, Bridget Riley experimented with optical effects. Her paintings in black and white sometimes supplemented with shades of gray generate illusions that hide the actual distance to the canvas. This research is similar to Vasarely"s.
Suddenly in 1967 she shows us the color. Chant 2 is one of the first paintings of this second phase, and perhaps the earliest in which she completely gave up the use of black.
The image is an immutable alternating of narrow blue-red-blue and red-blue-red vertical stripes, these color stripes being separated by white stripes of same width. Like all the compositions by Riley, it is endless.
The colors by Riley are as pure as Mondrian's but the optical access to infinity is offered through larger surfaces. Chant 2 is an oil on canvas 231 x 231 cm.
Chant 2 was already known in this column when Sotheby's sold it for £ 2.5 million including premium on 1 July 2008. It is now for sale by Christie's in London on February 13. It is estimated £ 2.5 million, lot 13 in the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
Slight gain compared with the 2008 sale : £ 2.9M including premium.
Suddenly in 1967 she shows us the color. Chant 2 is one of the first paintings of this second phase, and perhaps the earliest in which she completely gave up the use of black.
The image is an immutable alternating of narrow blue-red-blue and red-blue-red vertical stripes, these color stripes being separated by white stripes of same width. Like all the compositions by Riley, it is endless.
The colors by Riley are as pure as Mondrian's but the optical access to infinity is offered through larger surfaces. Chant 2 is an oil on canvas 231 x 231 cm.
Chant 2 was already known in this column when Sotheby's sold it for £ 2.5 million including premium on 1 July 2008. It is now for sale by Christie's in London on February 13. It is estimated £ 2.5 million, lot 13 in the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
Slight gain compared with the 2008 sale : £ 2.9M including premium.
1967 Art in the Bush
2020 SOLD for A$ 2.2M including premium
narrated in 2010 before its previous sale by Deutscher and Hackett (see below)
Horizon, color, and especially the ground tissue consisting of sparse but endless similar vegetation, such is the interpretation of the Australian bush by Fred Williams.
Hillside at Lysterfield II is one of his most subtle paintings, where the top of the hill is just matching the background. This oil on canvas 137 x 153 cm, painted in 1967, belongs to the best period of the artist. It was sold twice by Deutscher and Hackett : for A$ 1.2M including premium in Sydney on September 1, 2010, lot 15, and for A$ 2.2M including premium in Melbourne on November 11, 2020, lot 8.
The Australian critics have now discovered the originality of the work of Williams. In the antipodes of the suburbs of Melbourne, we may compare his art to the deserts of Agnes Martin, at the same time, where texture eventually eliminated shape and variety.
Hillside at Lysterfield II is one of his most subtle paintings, where the top of the hill is just matching the background. This oil on canvas 137 x 153 cm, painted in 1967, belongs to the best period of the artist. It was sold twice by Deutscher and Hackett : for A$ 1.2M including premium in Sydney on September 1, 2010, lot 15, and for A$ 2.2M including premium in Melbourne on November 11, 2020, lot 8.
The Australian critics have now discovered the originality of the work of Williams. In the antipodes of the suburbs of Melbourne, we may compare his art to the deserts of Agnes Martin, at the same time, where texture eventually eliminated shape and variety.
1967-1976 Balthus, Art without Biography
2012 SOLD 2.3 M€ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Balthus's mother became in 1919 the lover of Rainer Maria Rilke. In their circle, the boy met the intellectuals of the hypersensitivity, Gide, Cocteau. His older brother, Pierre Klossowski, will be the exegete of Sade.
Soon famous for his art, Balthus escaped any attempt to biography. He was only the interpreter of girls and cats. His style, so often at the limit of obscenity, was too personal to be attached to a trend.
He studies the girls at an age when they have not understood the mystery of their bodies. They are thin, and their attitudes are worried and contorted. Balthus's drawing is sharp, in the opposite of the surrealism of Bacon, but both artists are close together by their intrusion into the psychology of their models.
In 1967, Balthus marries a Japanese woman. He is 59 years old, she is 24. She is his muse. The Japonaise à la table rouge, 144 x 192 cm, naked in the privacy of her living room, remains thoughtful and clumsy.
This painting, undated like many works by Balthus, was made between 1967 and 1976, before hanging for many yearsin the petit salon of Hélène Rochas. It is estimated € 3M, for sale by Christie's in Paris on September 27. It is illustrated on the press release shared by Artdaily.
POST SALE COMMENT
Balthus's paintings are rare at auction but this one, possibly too belated, did not reach its estimate. It was sold € 2.3 million including premium.
Balthus's mother became in 1919 the lover of Rainer Maria Rilke. In their circle, the boy met the intellectuals of the hypersensitivity, Gide, Cocteau. His older brother, Pierre Klossowski, will be the exegete of Sade.
Soon famous for his art, Balthus escaped any attempt to biography. He was only the interpreter of girls and cats. His style, so often at the limit of obscenity, was too personal to be attached to a trend.
He studies the girls at an age when they have not understood the mystery of their bodies. They are thin, and their attitudes are worried and contorted. Balthus's drawing is sharp, in the opposite of the surrealism of Bacon, but both artists are close together by their intrusion into the psychology of their models.
In 1967, Balthus marries a Japanese woman. He is 59 years old, she is 24. She is his muse. The Japonaise à la table rouge, 144 x 192 cm, naked in the privacy of her living room, remains thoughtful and clumsy.
This painting, undated like many works by Balthus, was made between 1967 and 1976, before hanging for many yearsin the petit salon of Hélène Rochas. It is estimated € 3M, for sale by Christie's in Paris on September 27. It is illustrated on the press release shared by Artdaily.
POST SALE COMMENT
Balthus's paintings are rare at auction but this one, possibly too belated, did not reach its estimate. It was sold € 2.3 million including premium.
1968 Homme et Femme Nus
2019 SOLD for £ 12.5M by Christie's
Settled in Mougins with Jacqueline since June 1961, Pablo Picasso begins a new life. His wife adores him. They live together apart from society as an ordinary couple despite their 45 years of age difference.
Up to his death in 1973, Picasso exacerbates his passion for artistic creation. He paints very quickly, as if he is in a hurry. Sometimes he feels that he is creating a masterpiece. Le Peintre et son modèle dans un paysage was painted in ten iterations from June to September 1963. This oil on canvas 130 x 195 cm passed at Christie's on November 5, 2013 with a lower estimate of $ 25M.
At the end of 1966 after a long illness, Picasso restarts his most carnal theme, the expression of the sensuality of the woman in love. The woman exhibits her whole anatomy, like in the famous image by Courbet. In the feverish imagination of Picasso, she is Jacqueline, although Jacqueline never posed for him. The man is naked at her side, often without the attributes of an artist. In the same period, Picasso also confronts the nude woman with other emanations of himself such as the musician or the musketeer.
On June 18, 2019, Christie's sold for £ 12.5M Homme et femme nus, oil and industrial paint on canvas 162 x 130 cm painted in a single day in Mougins on November 13, 1968, lot 6.
The two characters are lying on their backs as on the beach, side by side, the bodies slightly intertwined. The woman looks at the man with an ecstatic expression. Complacent and even satisfied with this assault, the man quietly smokes his pipe.
Up to his death in 1973, Picasso exacerbates his passion for artistic creation. He paints very quickly, as if he is in a hurry. Sometimes he feels that he is creating a masterpiece. Le Peintre et son modèle dans un paysage was painted in ten iterations from June to September 1963. This oil on canvas 130 x 195 cm passed at Christie's on November 5, 2013 with a lower estimate of $ 25M.
At the end of 1966 after a long illness, Picasso restarts his most carnal theme, the expression of the sensuality of the woman in love. The woman exhibits her whole anatomy, like in the famous image by Courbet. In the feverish imagination of Picasso, she is Jacqueline, although Jacqueline never posed for him. The man is naked at her side, often without the attributes of an artist. In the same period, Picasso also confronts the nude woman with other emanations of himself such as the musician or the musketeer.
On June 18, 2019, Christie's sold for £ 12.5M Homme et femme nus, oil and industrial paint on canvas 162 x 130 cm painted in a single day in Mougins on November 13, 1968, lot 6.
The two characters are lying on their backs as on the beach, side by side, the bodies slightly intertwined. The woman looks at the man with an ecstatic expression. Complacent and even satisfied with this assault, the man quietly smokes his pipe.
1968 Stadtbild by Polke
2021 SOLD for $ 8M by Christie's
Both exiled from East Germany, Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter meet during their art studies at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Richter wanted to escape the official Socialist art and Polke's family expected to escape poverty.
They find unprecedented artistic solutions to express that consumerism is an illusion cleverly maintained by the abundance of images. When Richter enlarges the most distressing photos from the newspapers and when Polke imitates the wall posters, both take care to build their artworks without obscuring the origin of their inspiration.
The Dürckheim collection included two works by Sigmar Polke, significant from the end of that phase : Dschungel 160 x 247 cm made in 1967, and Stadtbild II 150 x 125 cm made in 1968. These seemingly opposed themes match indeed together : Polke did not have holidays in the jungle and has not seen New York yet. He warns against the false promises made by the consumer society. Only the rich benefit from capitalism.
Dschungel is entirely realized with the technique of the dispersion projecting the colors onto the canvas through a pierced screen. Stadtbild is a night view of New York using this process partially to introduce some fireworks in the black background. The silhouettes of the skyscrapers are bright yellow sinuous lines directly squeezed on the canvas from the paint tube.
In the sale of the Dürckheim collection by Sotheby's on June 29, 2011, Dschungel was sold for £ 5.75M including premium and Stadtbild II for £ 4.6M, lot 14. On May 12, 2015 Dschungel was sold for $ 27M by Sotheby's.
Stadtbild II passed at Phillips on May 17, 2018, lot 18. and was sold for $ 8M by Christie's in New York on May 13, 2021, lot 20 B.
They find unprecedented artistic solutions to express that consumerism is an illusion cleverly maintained by the abundance of images. When Richter enlarges the most distressing photos from the newspapers and when Polke imitates the wall posters, both take care to build their artworks without obscuring the origin of their inspiration.
The Dürckheim collection included two works by Sigmar Polke, significant from the end of that phase : Dschungel 160 x 247 cm made in 1967, and Stadtbild II 150 x 125 cm made in 1968. These seemingly opposed themes match indeed together : Polke did not have holidays in the jungle and has not seen New York yet. He warns against the false promises made by the consumer society. Only the rich benefit from capitalism.
Dschungel is entirely realized with the technique of the dispersion projecting the colors onto the canvas through a pierced screen. Stadtbild is a night view of New York using this process partially to introduce some fireworks in the black background. The silhouettes of the skyscrapers are bright yellow sinuous lines directly squeezed on the canvas from the paint tube.
In the sale of the Dürckheim collection by Sotheby's on June 29, 2011, Dschungel was sold for £ 5.75M including premium and Stadtbild II for £ 4.6M, lot 14. On May 12, 2015 Dschungel was sold for $ 27M by Sotheby's.
Stadtbild II passed at Phillips on May 17, 2018, lot 18. and was sold for $ 8M by Christie's in New York on May 13, 2021, lot 20 B.
1969 Rothko dissolved in his Light
2018 SOLD for $ 19M including premium
For Mark Rothko 1969 is a year of frenetic creation. His wife has just left him and his illness is getting worse. He has no other occupation than his art. Monitored by doctors he can no longer work in large formats, at least temporarily.
The most important American abstract artists, Pollock and Rothko, both appreciated that paper could offer a better final brightness than canvas. Certainly for reasons of fragility and of conservation of the paper, their career was however mostly done with canvases.
During this critical phase which will be in remission before the end of the year, Rothko focuses on the luminous properties of his colors on paper, generally not exceeding 40 inches. Most of these papers are mounted on canvas.
Rothko brings to this new phase his experience of two decades in the choice of pigments. Many of his works in this pathetic series have a dark texture that does not exclude a high radiance. Clear compositions are rarer and may reflect short lived phases of optimism.
The vibrating reds then have a dominant role, even when their surface is restricted to the edge and the interstices. A large red and yellow oil on paper 134 x 103 cm was sold for $ 11M including premium by Christie's on November 15, 2017.
An example in pearly white and orange of this quest for ultimate brightness is for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 16. The scarlet red is thin but contributes to the powerful balance. This oil on paper 99 x 65 cm mounted on canvas is estimated $ 7M, lot 5 in the sale of the Mandel collection. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The most important American abstract artists, Pollock and Rothko, both appreciated that paper could offer a better final brightness than canvas. Certainly for reasons of fragility and of conservation of the paper, their career was however mostly done with canvases.
During this critical phase which will be in remission before the end of the year, Rothko focuses on the luminous properties of his colors on paper, generally not exceeding 40 inches. Most of these papers are mounted on canvas.
Rothko brings to this new phase his experience of two decades in the choice of pigments. Many of his works in this pathetic series have a dark texture that does not exclude a high radiance. Clear compositions are rarer and may reflect short lived phases of optimism.
The vibrating reds then have a dominant role, even when their surface is restricted to the edge and the interstices. A large red and yellow oil on paper 134 x 103 cm was sold for $ 11M including premium by Christie's on November 15, 2017.
An example in pearly white and orange of this quest for ultimate brightness is for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 16. The scarlet red is thin but contributes to the powerful balance. This oil on paper 99 x 65 cm mounted on canvas is estimated $ 7M, lot 5 in the sale of the Mandel collection. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1969 L'Etreinte by Picasso
2021 SOLD for £ 14.7M by Christie's
Painted in October 1969 while in seclusion with Jacqueline in Mougins, L'Etreinte is a later opus in Picasso's carnal series, like a final view of his erotic passion.
The recumbent nude couple is closely embracing. The oversized limbs brings a hot pleasure to the action. The ecstatic dark haired woman is undoubtedly Jacqueline. The bright and joyous colors are in the following of the just completed Mousquetaires.
L'Etreinte, oil on canvas 114 x 146 cm, was sold for £ 14.7M by Christie's on June 30, 2021, lot 8.
The recumbent nude couple is closely embracing. The oversized limbs brings a hot pleasure to the action. The ecstatic dark haired woman is undoubtedly Jacqueline. The bright and joyous colors are in the following of the just completed Mousquetaires.
L'Etreinte, oil on canvas 114 x 146 cm, was sold for £ 14.7M by Christie's on June 30, 2021, lot 8.
1969 Homme à la Pipe by Picasso
2016 SOLD for $ 18.4M by Christie's
The theme of the Mousquetaires is funny and invites Picasso to reinterpret in his own way the masters of the past.
L'Homme à la pipe painted on May 8, 1969 joins this movement with other features. He is not a mosquetero but an artist. The heavy beard and the hat in the style of a canotier even allows to identify an impressionist. The beard is green, providing a link between the pioneers of outdoor painting and the desire of a return to the land expressed by the new generations.
Young people are indeed restless at that time, with the protest movements of 1968 and the Woodstock festival in the following year. They are more appealed by this new style of Picasso than by Van Dyck or Velazquez. The images of Pablo are sharp, without those cubist distortions of the faces that were beginning to bother his own admirers.
L'Homme à la pipe is a larger than life oil on canvas 195 x 130 cm. It was sold for $ 11.8M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007, and for $ 18.4M by Christie's on November 16, 2016, lot 26 B.
L'Homme à la pipe painted on May 8, 1969 joins this movement with other features. He is not a mosquetero but an artist. The heavy beard and the hat in the style of a canotier even allows to identify an impressionist. The beard is green, providing a link between the pioneers of outdoor painting and the desire of a return to the land expressed by the new generations.
Young people are indeed restless at that time, with the protest movements of 1968 and the Woodstock festival in the following year. They are more appealed by this new style of Picasso than by Van Dyck or Velazquez. The images of Pablo are sharp, without those cubist distortions of the faces that were beginning to bother his own admirers.
L'Homme à la pipe is a larger than life oil on canvas 195 x 130 cm. It was sold for $ 11.8M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007, and for $ 18.4M by Christie's on November 16, 2016, lot 26 B.
1969 A White Shirt from Italy
2015 SOLD for $ 6.9M including premium
1969 is the year of highest creativity for Domenico Gnoli, the young Italian artist who died from cancer in the following year. He expresses his relationship to the world by a huge magnification of details in clothing. Even when he deals with more personalized subjects such as the hair of his wife, his keeping of geometry in the figuration remains one of the highlights of his style.
His attraction to white is rare but perfectly follows one of the major trends of Italian modern art, after the achromatic folds by Manzoni, the lacerations by Fontana and the geometric patterns by Castellani.
Gnoli uses a technique of acrylic and sand that brings an effect of texture onto the canvas. On the other side of the Atlantic, artistic variations in the white are experienced by Robert Ryman.
Shirt collar size 14 1/2 displays an immaculate and neatly folded shirt with a light fringe of shadow and a geometry interrupted by the size label. Such use of hyperrealism in white is a feat of composition. This artwork 170 x 130 cm is estimated $ 7M, for sale by Phillips on May 13 in New York, lot 30.
His attraction to white is rare but perfectly follows one of the major trends of Italian modern art, after the achromatic folds by Manzoni, the lacerations by Fontana and the geometric patterns by Castellani.
Gnoli uses a technique of acrylic and sand that brings an effect of texture onto the canvas. On the other side of the Atlantic, artistic variations in the white are experienced by Robert Ryman.
Shirt collar size 14 1/2 displays an immaculate and neatly folded shirt with a light fringe of shadow and a geometry interrupted by the size label. Such use of hyperrealism in white is a feat of composition. This artwork 170 x 130 cm is estimated $ 7M, for sale by Phillips on May 13 in New York, lot 30.
1969 The Violence in the Feet of Kazuo Shiraga
2014 SOLD 3.9 M€ including premium
The abstract art by Kazuo Shiraga is looking for a total energy through a direct contact between the body of the artist and the canvas. The choice of bright colors further increases the violence.
His technique of painting with his feet by hanging onto a rope from the ceiling can transfer to the artwork the full power of instinct, with highly expressive turning movements. The varied colors attest to a gradual process like in Pollock's drippings.
This spectacular art is also an incentive to the happenings, that Shiraga loved practicing. His physical approach to painting is inspired by Japanese martial arts, but his art was also especially appreciated in Paris where it could be compared with the hyper-fast colored scars by Georges Mathieu.
Two of his oil paintings made twenty years apart are for sale in Paris in the coming days. Each of them is estimated € 1M.
Painted in 1969, Gekidou Suru Aka, 183 x 229 cm, is typical of these powerful energies that fans appreciate in the early career of Shiraga. It is for sale by Sotheby's on June 3, lot 4.
More complex in its relationships of colors despite a similar technique, Yagenko reminds the contrasts of the infernal compositions by Matta. Made in 1989, this 194 x 258 cm painting is for sale by Christie's on June 4, lot 28.
POST SALE COMMENTS
1
The 1969 painting discussed above is very important in the career of Shiraga : it had been made in the preparation of the Osaka World Exhibition. It was sold for € 3.9 million including premium by Sotheby's.
2
The 1989 painting was sold for € 1.02M including premium by Christie's.
His technique of painting with his feet by hanging onto a rope from the ceiling can transfer to the artwork the full power of instinct, with highly expressive turning movements. The varied colors attest to a gradual process like in Pollock's drippings.
This spectacular art is also an incentive to the happenings, that Shiraga loved practicing. His physical approach to painting is inspired by Japanese martial arts, but his art was also especially appreciated in Paris where it could be compared with the hyper-fast colored scars by Georges Mathieu.
Two of his oil paintings made twenty years apart are for sale in Paris in the coming days. Each of them is estimated € 1M.
Painted in 1969, Gekidou Suru Aka, 183 x 229 cm, is typical of these powerful energies that fans appreciate in the early career of Shiraga. It is for sale by Sotheby's on June 3, lot 4.
More complex in its relationships of colors despite a similar technique, Yagenko reminds the contrasts of the infernal compositions by Matta. Made in 1989, this 194 x 258 cm painting is for sale by Christie's on June 4, lot 28.
POST SALE COMMENTS
1
The 1969 painting discussed above is very important in the career of Shiraga : it had been made in the preparation of the Osaka World Exhibition. It was sold for € 3.9 million including premium by Sotheby's.
2
The 1989 painting was sold for € 1.02M including premium by Christie's.
1969 The Musical Feast of Marc Chagall
2010 SOLD 32 MHK$
Chagall never stopped painting his dream world. In 1969, he was a forever young man of 82 years, fascinated by the rhythm of life.
Bestiaire et Musique (Bestiary and Music), a large oil on canvas 140 x 155 cm, features a frantic dance of the usual characters of the mythology of the artist. Before the primordial couple of Marc and Bella, among a crowd of circus figures, the flutist is a donkey.
Dark and saturated colors are common in the art of Chagall at that time. They highlight the enormous chicken head that mystically dominates this carousel.
This painting is for sale on October 4 by Seoul Auction in Hong Kong.
POST SALE COMMENT
This painting by Chagall was both an outstanding work and the highlight of this cosmopolitan sale. It was sold HK $ 28.5 million before fees.
Bestiaire et Musique (Bestiary and Music), a large oil on canvas 140 x 155 cm, features a frantic dance of the usual characters of the mythology of the artist. Before the primordial couple of Marc and Bella, among a crowd of circus figures, the flutist is a donkey.
Dark and saturated colors are common in the art of Chagall at that time. They highlight the enormous chicken head that mystically dominates this carousel.
This painting is for sale on October 4 by Seoul Auction in Hong Kong.
POST SALE COMMENT
This painting by Chagall was both an outstanding work and the highlight of this cosmopolitan sale. It was sold HK $ 28.5 million before fees.
1969 Vija Celmins facing the Swell
2016 SOLD for $ 2.9M including premium
Vija Celmins begins her artistic career in Los Angeles in the wake of pop art by painting images of ordinary objects and reproductions of black and white photographs.
Her Burning plane painted in 1965 echoes the military aircrafts by Richter although she was more directly inspired from similar ideas by Jasper Johns about an art without expressed feeling. This oil on canvas 36 x 62 cm was sold for $ 3.4M including premium by Sotheby's on September 24, 2014.
Influenced also by the art in shades of grey by Morandi, she specializes in graphite drawing from 1965, starting with hyperrealist enlargements of photographs of clouds shot by herself.
In 1968 Vija Celmins modified her technique by drawing on a paper previously covered with an acrylic paint. Through more than ten years she photographed and painstakingly copied the swell of the Pacific Ocean from the end of the pier at Venice Beach in LA.
The total absence of land and life brings an illusion of infinity which can be compared with the paintings by Agnes Martin. The respective distance of the undulations of the sea brings the perspective that is lacking in the art of Martin.
One of the very first artworks of this series, made on paper 36 x 48 cm including a wide border, was sold for $ 1,7M including premium by Christie's on November 13, 2013. A view taking the wind in diagonal, drawn in 1969 within a narrower border, is estimated $ 1.5M for sale by Phillips in New York on November 16, lot 6.
Her Burning plane painted in 1965 echoes the military aircrafts by Richter although she was more directly inspired from similar ideas by Jasper Johns about an art without expressed feeling. This oil on canvas 36 x 62 cm was sold for $ 3.4M including premium by Sotheby's on September 24, 2014.
Influenced also by the art in shades of grey by Morandi, she specializes in graphite drawing from 1965, starting with hyperrealist enlargements of photographs of clouds shot by herself.
In 1968 Vija Celmins modified her technique by drawing on a paper previously covered with an acrylic paint. Through more than ten years she photographed and painstakingly copied the swell of the Pacific Ocean from the end of the pier at Venice Beach in LA.
The total absence of land and life brings an illusion of infinity which can be compared with the paintings by Agnes Martin. The respective distance of the undulations of the sea brings the perspective that is lacking in the art of Martin.
One of the very first artworks of this series, made on paper 36 x 48 cm including a wide border, was sold for $ 1,7M including premium by Christie's on November 13, 2013. A view taking the wind in diagonal, drawn in 1969 within a narrower border, is estimated $ 1.5M for sale by Phillips in New York on November 16, lot 6.
1969 Domenico Gnoli between Pop and Op
2014 SOLD for £ 2.2M including premium
In 1969, Domenico Gnoli painted hugely magnified details of people around him. These trivial themes that evoke the pop art are excuses to generate gently undulating lines in a dense network. Remaining figurative, he is however close to the abstract op art of Riley and Vasarely.
An acrylic and sand on canvas 170 x 150 cm showing from behind the dark black hair of his wife was sold for £ 7M including premium at Christie's on February 13, 2014 over a lower estimate of £ 1.2M.
On October 17 in London, Sotheby's sells the hyperrealist image of the top part of gray trousers, in two registers with vertical lines equipped at belt level with a carefully sewn button well positioned in its buttonhole.
Made in the same technique of acrylic and sand as for the hair, this painting on canvas 98 x 131 cm is estimated £ 2M, lot 16.
1969 was the great year of Gnoli's artistic inspiration. He died of cancer in the following year, aged 37.
An acrylic and sand on canvas 170 x 150 cm showing from behind the dark black hair of his wife was sold for £ 7M including premium at Christie's on February 13, 2014 over a lower estimate of £ 1.2M.
On October 17 in London, Sotheby's sells the hyperrealist image of the top part of gray trousers, in two registers with vertical lines equipped at belt level with a carefully sewn button well positioned in its buttonhole.
Made in the same technique of acrylic and sand as for the hair, this painting on canvas 98 x 131 cm is estimated £ 2M, lot 16.
1969 was the great year of Gnoli's artistic inspiration. He died of cancer in the following year, aged 37.
1969 The Inner Landscapes of VS Gaitonde
2012 SOLD 960 K$ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Young artists who wanted to renew the art of India were figurative, sometimes violent. The path chosen by VS Gaitonde is the opposite, although he always refused to be considered as an abstract painter.
This meditator influenced by Zen exclusively devoted his life to his art. Very familiar with the trends of his time, he creates subtle shapes and shades that expresses the tranquility as well as Rothko expresses the fascination.
There is no story or life in a landscape by Gaitonde, the observer is alone in front of the quiet world.
The oil on canvas painted in 1969, for sale by Christie's in New York on September 12, lot 315, is typical. It is estimated $450K, but the works of this period and of similar dimensions, 152 x 101 cm, may be more expensive in India where his art is widely recognized. A luminous mist permeatesl an unidentified flooded space broken off by a row of shrubs and their reflections.
Gaitonde worked carefully, spreading his layers with roller and knife. He has his right place in the long line of artists who flirt for a century at the border between landscape and abstraction, from Monet to Richter through Zao Wou-Ki.
POST SALE COMMENT
I had correctly stated that the estimate was too low. This outstanding painting by Gaitonde was sold for $ 960K including premium, far above its higher estimate.
Young artists who wanted to renew the art of India were figurative, sometimes violent. The path chosen by VS Gaitonde is the opposite, although he always refused to be considered as an abstract painter.
This meditator influenced by Zen exclusively devoted his life to his art. Very familiar with the trends of his time, he creates subtle shapes and shades that expresses the tranquility as well as Rothko expresses the fascination.
There is no story or life in a landscape by Gaitonde, the observer is alone in front of the quiet world.
The oil on canvas painted in 1969, for sale by Christie's in New York on September 12, lot 315, is typical. It is estimated $450K, but the works of this period and of similar dimensions, 152 x 101 cm, may be more expensive in India where his art is widely recognized. A luminous mist permeatesl an unidentified flooded space broken off by a row of shrubs and their reflections.
Gaitonde worked carefully, spreading his layers with roller and knife. He has his right place in the long line of artists who flirt for a century at the border between landscape and abstraction, from Monet to Richter through Zao Wou-Ki.
POST SALE COMMENT
I had correctly stated that the estimate was too low. This outstanding painting by Gaitonde was sold for $ 960K including premium, far above its higher estimate.
1969 ultimate glow
2017 withdrawn
Threatened by hypertension and excess, Mark Rothko's health deteriorates in early 1968. He does not listen to the doctors' recommendations about his living conditions. In January 1969 Mark and his wife separate. He takes refuge in his studio.
He nevertheless applies one of the prescriptions : to avoid fatigue, he limits the format of his paintings to 40 inches high. He now uses acrylic on a paper to be mounted on a canvas. Having lost his illusions about using his art to convey an emotional message, he explores the possibilities of his new technique in a quest of glowing light.
In this period lasting less than two years before the final disaster, Rothko once again reaches the sublime by making a brilliant light gushing through saturated colors. Although his colors become increasingly dark in the follow of the worsening of his depression, he feels how transcendental his art is. He gradually returns to larger sizes and to oils on canvas.
On October 6 in London, Christie's sells an acrylic 182 x 98 cm dated May 21, 1969, lot 40 estimated £ 4M. The provenance of this artwork is impeccable : it was purchased in 1997 by Antoni Tapies to the daughter of the artist.
This untitled opus is extraordinary in its opposition with his fall into the dark. The yellow center bordered at top and bottom by orange blocks is a tribute to pure light and maybe also a very brief return to optimism like a high point in a cyclothymia.
A ultimate completion of that phase, oil on canvas 175 x 137 cm in dark green on indigo painted a few weeks before his suicide, was sold for $ 40M including premium by Sotheby's on November 10, 2014.
He nevertheless applies one of the prescriptions : to avoid fatigue, he limits the format of his paintings to 40 inches high. He now uses acrylic on a paper to be mounted on a canvas. Having lost his illusions about using his art to convey an emotional message, he explores the possibilities of his new technique in a quest of glowing light.
In this period lasting less than two years before the final disaster, Rothko once again reaches the sublime by making a brilliant light gushing through saturated colors. Although his colors become increasingly dark in the follow of the worsening of his depression, he feels how transcendental his art is. He gradually returns to larger sizes and to oils on canvas.
On October 6 in London, Christie's sells an acrylic 182 x 98 cm dated May 21, 1969, lot 40 estimated £ 4M. The provenance of this artwork is impeccable : it was purchased in 1997 by Antoni Tapies to the daughter of the artist.
This untitled opus is extraordinary in its opposition with his fall into the dark. The yellow center bordered at top and bottom by orange blocks is a tribute to pure light and maybe also a very brief return to optimism like a high point in a cyclothymia.
A ultimate completion of that phase, oil on canvas 175 x 137 cm in dark green on indigo painted a few weeks before his suicide, was sold for $ 40M including premium by Sotheby's on November 10, 2014.
1969 the champions of the ballroom
2015 unsold
John Brack offers a critical view of Australian life at the time of a huge suburban development.
The Boucher Nude, painted in 1957, is a frightening transposition into the modern world of a happy composition by Boucher, in a striking opposition to the eroticism of the original version from the eighteenth century. This oil on canvas 81 x 146 cm was sold for AUD 1.5M including premium by Deutscher and Hackett on 27 and 28 August 2008.
Throughout the next decade, the artist takes a growing interest in the theme of dance championships in the popular ballrooms. The subject is shifting to a high degree of social stupidity. The champions are professionals and their dance, which gained virtuosity, lost the romanticism that was the original reason for their hobby.
Brack collected photos of champion couples in all categories of these dances. In 1969 he created the series of twelve paintings titled Ballroom Dancing. The release in the same year on the screens of They shoot horses don't they, the masterpiece starring Jane Fonda, is a nice coincidence or rather the awareness at the end of that decade that the leisures of the past were not necessarily a delight.
One of these paintings titled The Old Time shows an aging couple demonstrating an obsolete waltz. The man in a second couple has his competition number displayed on the back of his jacket. This oil on canvas 162 x 129 cm was sold for AUD 3,36M including premium by Sotheby's on May 7, 2007 over a lower estimate of AUD 600K.
On August 25 in Sydney, Sotheby's Australia sells Junior Latin American, oil on canvas 96 x 164 cm, lot 15 estimated AUD 1M, also based on an image of champions. As with the Boucher Nude and more than with the Old Time, his social message is disturbing. The serious attitude with no pleasure of the two dancers of questionable youth contradicts the Junior class of their bleak competition.
The Boucher Nude, painted in 1957, is a frightening transposition into the modern world of a happy composition by Boucher, in a striking opposition to the eroticism of the original version from the eighteenth century. This oil on canvas 81 x 146 cm was sold for AUD 1.5M including premium by Deutscher and Hackett on 27 and 28 August 2008.
Throughout the next decade, the artist takes a growing interest in the theme of dance championships in the popular ballrooms. The subject is shifting to a high degree of social stupidity. The champions are professionals and their dance, which gained virtuosity, lost the romanticism that was the original reason for their hobby.
Brack collected photos of champion couples in all categories of these dances. In 1969 he created the series of twelve paintings titled Ballroom Dancing. The release in the same year on the screens of They shoot horses don't they, the masterpiece starring Jane Fonda, is a nice coincidence or rather the awareness at the end of that decade that the leisures of the past were not necessarily a delight.
One of these paintings titled The Old Time shows an aging couple demonstrating an obsolete waltz. The man in a second couple has his competition number displayed on the back of his jacket. This oil on canvas 162 x 129 cm was sold for AUD 3,36M including premium by Sotheby's on May 7, 2007 over a lower estimate of AUD 600K.
On August 25 in Sydney, Sotheby's Australia sells Junior Latin American, oil on canvas 96 x 164 cm, lot 15 estimated AUD 1M, also based on an image of champions. As with the Boucher Nude and more than with the Old Time, his social message is disturbing. The serious attitude with no pleasure of the two dancers of questionable youth contradicts the Junior class of their bleak competition.
