God's own personal view!!!
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
newsfrom...201102
Although the relation between an auction estimation and its results just tend to measure the quality for which the auction houses estimate the economic value of an artwork, here is a graphic representing that same correlation in last week's London Contemporary Art evening sale at the three major auction houses, Sotheby's, Christie's and Phillips de Pury. Can we ask, «is the art market entering a new age of volatility?» The answer looks that the art market is back on a sable but growing path.
Friday, 18 February 2011
newsfromchristies201102
Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art evening auction confirmed strong demand for Andy Warhol artworks. Having been in a private collection since 1974, his rediscovered self-portrait, from 1967, was sold for £10.7 million ($17.4 million _ €12.8 million), against an estimate of £3 million to £5 million. When, in the previous evening, another work by the same artist was sold for £3 million at Sotheby's. However, the evening would also be remembered by six new artist records, for works by Jenny Saville, Martial Raysse, Miquel Barcelò, Wade Guyton, Ged Quinn and Adriana Varejão.The auction presented a strong group of global artists from the 21st century. Leading highlights included Parede com Incisões a la Fontana II (Wall with Incisions a la Fontana II) (executed in 2001), an important masterpiece by Adriana Varejão (b. 1964), one of Brazil’s leading contemporary artists. It was sold for £1,105,250 _ $1,786,084 _ € 1,316,353 – far exceeding the estimate of £200,000 to £300,000 and setting a record for the artist’s work at auction. Whereas, Saville's (b. 1970) Branded (painted in 1992) was auctionned for £1,497,250, which was sold within its pre-sale estimate at £700,000-£1 million; L'année dernière à Capri (titre exotique) (Last Year in Capri (Exotic Title)) by Raysse (b. 1936) fetched £4 million (est. £1-£1.5 million); Tres equis (executed in 1990), a mixed media on canvas, by Barceló (b. 1957), an arresting images of the corrida, or bullfight, that was sold for £1,273,250 (announced at £400,000-£600,000)
«'The torero always talks of distance, of space, but these are invisible spaces, a sort of phantom geometry, and this is very close to painting with this idea of perspective... But the most important thing is what happens on the sand. In a bullfight, you can read what happened in the sand; it's a beautiful metaphor of painting because my paintings are like traces of what has happened there, all that happens in the head, in fact. The picture object is a bit like the sand of the arena, a sort of detritus of what took place there'» (Barceló, quoted in Miquel Barceló: Mapamundi, exh. cat., Saint-Paul, 2002, p. 98);Guyton's (b. 1972) epson ultrachrome inkjet on linen Untitled (executed in 2005) was sold for £187,250 (against an estimate of £50,000-£70,000); and Quinn's (b. 1963), meticulously executed and beautifully rendered romantic landscape Gone to Yours (oil on linen, painted in 2005), which was bought for £193,250 (far exceeding its estimate £40,000-£60,000).
This evening auction realized £61,380,500 _ $99,190,888 _ €73,104,176 (against an pre-sale estimate of £35,860,000 to £51,760,000). This is the highest total for the Post-War and Contemporary art category, in London, since June 2008. Accordingly to Francis Outred, Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art, at Christie’s Europe, "this was a global auction that offered art from 5 continents, drew buyers from 21 countries and realized the highest total for the category in London since June 2008."
Auction data:
_ Sold by lot 92%
_ Sold by value 98%
_ Of the 63 lots offered, 58 sold (5 unsold)
_ 16 works sold for over £1 million, and 28 sold for over $1 million.
Top five lots sold:
_ Lot 11 Andy Warhol (1928-1987), Self-Portrait, 1967 for £10,793,250 _ $17,441,892 _ €12,854,761 (est. £3-€5 million) to an anonymous buyer.
_ Lot 14 Martial Raysse (b. 1936), L'année dernière à Capri (titre exotique), (Last Year in Capri (Exotic Title)), 1962 for £4,073,250 _ $6,582,372 _ €4,851,241 (est. £1-£1.5 million) to an anonymous buyer - ***World Record Price of a Work by a Living French Artist and World Record Price for the Artist at Auction***
_ Lot 8 Gerhard Richter (b. 1932), Abstraktes Bild, 1990 for £3,177,250 _ $5,134,436 _ €3,784,105 (est. £1-£1.5 million) to an anonymous buyer.
_ Lot 16 Jeff Koons (b. 1955), Winter Bears, 1988 for £2,953,250 _ $4,772,452 _ €3,517,321 (est. £2.5-£3.5 million) to an anonymous buyer.
_ Lot 19 Lucio Fontana (1899-1968), Concetto spaziale, 1961 for £2,729,250 _ $4,410,468 _ €3,250,537 (est. £2-£3 million) to an anonymous buyer.
Thursday, 17 February 2011
newsfrommadrid201102
Just pop-up to Madrid to get in touch with fashionable new trends and with the art-world vanitas. It came as no surprise by how quick is to became emergent by the local inevitability reminders. Either in an airplane, either in the subway, or, either, in anyone's booth. Moreover, it, also, came as no surprise to become just mad for something fresh, irreverent, something just on-the-institutional-side but still organized, formal, business routine as usual. It could be said that Madrid's youngest art fair was a type of music of space [€4k], but, still, music in the end, anyway.
After that, driving my attention to madrid's outskirts, a different kind of atmosphere rouse in a massive functional-architectural structure - I've really hate those wide-wide runaway alleys, what they have in spaciousness they lack in buzz. Though, whatever, it is also a different kind of flavor, and it wasn't due to being focus on Russian contemporary artworks. On the contrary, it was a more prominent one, with an identity, intimacy, addiction and madness that tends to characterize current popular taste. Nothing shallow nor penetrating. I would say that Madrid's most important art fair was characterized by a snazzy low profile, medium prices and high levels of love for our fellow fellows; while, also, maintaining that unchanging state of affairs despite the present difficulties and disturbances. Strangely enough, most press and weekend-journalist at the fair pointed out in their discourse towards "how low it was in visitors numbers throughout the professional days", notwithstanding, and according with the organization, «a su cierre, la feria habrá registrado alrededor de 150.000 visitantes, una cifra similar a la de la pasada edición, si bien con un aumento de asistencia durante las dos jornadas profesionales».
Then, after a couple of Heineken's and some Gin's, everything becomes cool, popular, in vouge. Madrid still keeps running on the edge. Well, at least for the Iberian art market.
After that, driving my attention to madrid's outskirts, a different kind of atmosphere rouse in a massive functional-architectural structure - I've really hate those wide-wide runaway alleys, what they have in spaciousness they lack in buzz. Though, whatever, it is also a different kind of flavor, and it wasn't due to being focus on Russian contemporary artworks. On the contrary, it was a more prominent one, with an identity, intimacy, addiction and madness that tends to characterize current popular taste. Nothing shallow nor penetrating. I would say that Madrid's most important art fair was characterized by a snazzy low profile, medium prices and high levels of love for our fellow fellows; while, also, maintaining that unchanging state of affairs despite the present difficulties and disturbances. Strangely enough, most press and weekend-journalist at the fair pointed out in their discourse towards "how low it was in visitors numbers throughout the professional days", notwithstanding, and according with the organization, «a su cierre, la feria habrá registrado alrededor de 150.000 visitantes, una cifra similar a la de la pasada edición, si bien con un aumento de asistencia durante las dos jornadas profesionales».
Then, after a couple of Heineken's and some Gin's, everything becomes cool, popular, in vouge. Madrid still keeps running on the edge. Well, at least for the Iberian art market.
newsfromphillipsdepury201102
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988)Overrun, executed in 1985
Signed, titled and dated Basquiat Overrun 1985 (on the reverse).
Oil, acrylic and metallic paint with colour photocopy collage laid on wooden panel (203x81cm).
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium £1,127,650 (Phillips de Pury's London, February 17th 2011, Lot 11)
Estimate £1,000,000-£1,500,000
«Executed in 1985 at the height of Basquiat's powers, Overrun is a frantic, powerful canvas which features some of the most important themes found throughout the artist's work. For example, the most striking and immediately recognizable motif in the painting is the beautifully rendered, raw, expressionist figure found in the lower half of the composition. Part-human, part-animal, Basquiat's anthropomorphic creature displays an aggression and anger with its stern eyes and gaping mouth. These tormented heads have often been interpreted as self-portraits, a reflection, it has been suggested, of the artist's struggle as an African American in a predominantly white art world. The haunting, ghost-like figure with its hollow eyes, recalls African tribal masks and voodoo ritual figurines used throughout the African-American community in the Southern United States and in the former slave colonies of the Caribbean. Being of Haitian origin, Basquiat throughout his career incorporated Black history into his works, but from this mid-point in his career, an obsession with mortality also permeates his art, to the point where his final work is apocalyptically titled Riding with Death [...]
Provenance:
_ Mary Boone Gallery, New York.
_ Galerie Beaubourg, Paris.
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
newsfromchristies201102
Andy Warhol (1929-1987)Self-Portrait, painted in 1967
with the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board, Inc., stamp and numbered 'A102.103' (on the overlap)
Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas (182.9x182.9cm)
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium £10,793,250 _ $17,441,892 _ €12,854,761 (Christie's London, February 16th 2011, Lot 11)
Estimate £3,000,000-£5,000,000
Lot sold to Anonymous
«'The Self-Portrait series of 1967, originally made for the American Pavilion (a huge geodesic dome designed by Buckminster Fuller) at Expo '67 in Montreal, constitutes the images by which Warhol is best known to the public. They came at the point in his career when he had the confidence to accept his status as star and celebrity, as their large, six-foot-by-six-foot scale confirms. They are Warhol's most archetypal projection - as iconic now as his portraits of Marilyn. Yet Warhol still insisted, for himself, on a certain obscurity. Posed with his fingers against the mouth (long a received symbol of contemplation), his face half hidden in shadow, it is Warhol as-observer par excellence: he sees us more clearly than we see him. The mottled paint accentuates the notion of the picture as an impenetrable surface. In their detachment, these 1967 self-portraits avoid direct, self-confident confrontation with the viewer' (K. McShine, 'Introduction', pp. 13-23, McShine (ed.), Andy Warhol: A Retrospective, exh. cat., New York, 1989, pp. 20-21) [...]
Provenance:
_ Property from an American Estate (acquired from the previous owner by the present owner in 1974).
_ Leo Castelli Gallery, New York.
newsfromlabiennale201102
Ayse Erkmen (Istanbul in 1949) is representing Turkey at the 54 La Biennale di Venezia, in 2011
Ayse Erkmen creates irritating situations by staging subtle references to the specific conditions of the exhibition site and the metaphorical associations it evokes [...]
She develops almost all her works from particular spatial or social situations, be these exhibition venues or their urban settings. Her choice of artistic means is specific to each project and ranges from the translocation of existing objects to wall texts to discrete interventions in a material or sociological situation [...]
2001, Shipped Ships, Three Ferries from Italy, Japan & Turkey with Crews, Passengers, Ship.
(dimensions 2.435x412x80cm, 1.900x275x80cm, and 2.682x520x125cm)
(dimensions 2.435x412x80cm, 1.900x275x80cm, and 2.682x520x125cm)
Ayse Erkmen creates irritating situations by staging subtle references to the specific conditions of the exhibition site and the metaphorical associations it evokes [...]
She develops almost all her works from particular spatial or social situations, be these exhibition venues or their urban settings. Her choice of artistic means is specific to each project and ranges from the translocation of existing objects to wall texts to discrete interventions in a material or sociological situation [...]
newsfromsothebys201011
If Warhol's artworks still have strong competition (realising a total of £5 million for five works on sale, against a pre-sale total estimate of £3.8-£5.5 million) by art buyers, during yesterday's evening, Sotheby's principal stage was shared with two other works, one by the Spanish artist Juan Muñoz (brought a combined total for three works of £4,303,750 / $6,893,316/ €5,138,672), and another by the Swiss artist Franz Gertsch. Both artist were represented by rare works that had been out of circulation for a very long time.Luciano I, executed in 1976 by Gertsch, was sold for the outstanding sum of £1,497,250 / $2,398,145 / €1,787,713, well above the pre-sale expectations (estimate £500,000-700,000 / €585,000-820,000/ $775,000-1,090,000). Whereas the top lot of the evening was Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild of 1990. Monumental in scale (225cm by 200cm), this intensely-worked, museum-quality piece attracted bids from some five prospective buyers who drove the price to £7 million. Three new artist records at auction were established for Franz Gertsch, Yinka Shonibare and Gary Hume artworks.
Accordingly with Sotheby's Chairman of Contemporary Art Europe, Cheyenne Westphal, collectors were "responding strongly to works of the highest quality that have not been available on the market for very many years ..., demonstrating the depth of demand for the very best that the market has to offer."
Sotheby's Contemporart Art Evening sale realised £44,359,900 / $71,051,252 / €52,965,613 (the sales had a pre-sale estimate of £30.4 to £43 million). With Looking Closely (held last week) sale, this sum brings the total for Sotheby’s Contemporary Art auction series so far this season to £88,022,550 / $138,728,359 / €104,465,529 (pre-sale estimate between £56 to £78 million) – well above combined pre-sale expectations – representing the second-highest total for a February Contemporary Art Sales Series in London (£95 million in 2008 - the highest total for any sale of contemporary art ever held in Europe -, £17.8 million in 2009, and £54.1 million in 2010) and the highest total for a Contemporary Art Sales Series in London since July 2008.
Auction data:_ Sold by lot 91.5%
_ Sold by value 95.5%
_ Of the 59 lots offered, 54 sold (5 unsold)
_ 8 works sold for over £1 million, and 23 sold for over $1 million, bringing the total number of Contemporary artworks sold so far this season at Sotheby's for over £1 million to 17, and the number of works sold for over $1 million to 33 artworks.
Top five lots sold:
_ Lot 13 Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild, 1990 for £7,209,250 (est. £5-£7 million) to an anonymous buyer.
_ Lot 36 Andy Warhol, Nine Multicoloured Marilyns (Reversal Series), signed and dated 79/86 for £3,177,250 (est. £2 - £3 million) to an anonymous buyer.
_ Lot 37 Juan Muñoz, Conversation Piece, 1993 for £3,065,250 (£600,000-£800,000) to a Private European buyer.
_ Lot 17 Robert Ryman, Rule, signed and dated 91 for £1,889,250 (£900,000-£1,200,000) to a Private US buyer.
_ Lot 14 Franz Gertsch, Luciano I, 1976 for £1,497,250 (est. £500,000-£700,000) to a Private European buyer.
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
newsfromsothebys201102
Gerhard Richter (1932)Abstraktes Bild,
Signed, dated 1990 and numbered 725-1 in the reverse
Oil on canvas (225x200cm)
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium £7,209,250 _ $11,547,056 _ €8,607,827 (Sotheby's London, February 15th 2011, Lot 13)
Estimate £5,000,000-£7,000,000
Lot sold to Anonymous
«Gerhard Richter's artistic contribution is internationally considered within the highest tier of this era; his inimitably diverse canon evidencing more than five decades of philosophical enquiry into the core natures of perception and cognition. Indeed, with its poignant critical reflections and groundbreaking advancements, it is undeniable that his output has opened up a wealth of possibilities for the future course of Art History. Since the early 1960s he has considered all genres of painting, delving into and pushing the boundaries of theoretical and aesthetic levels of understanding whilst exploring and challenging the fundamentals of their development. However, his extraordinary odyssey into the realm of abstract painting is often regarded as the culmination of his artistic and conceptual enquiries into the foundations of visual understanding. After decades of exploring the role of painting in relation to competing visual cultures; film and photography; and even painting itself, the emergence of the Abstraktes Bild stands as the crowning achievement of his oeuvre. As Benjamin H. D. Buchloh has highlighted, and as there can be absolutely no doubt, Richter's position within the canon of abstraction is one of 'incontrovertible centrality' (in: Exhibition Catalogue, Cologne, Museum Ludwig and Munich, Haus der Kunst, Gerhard Richter Large Abstracts, 2009, p. 9) [...]
Provenance:
_ Property of a Private American Collector (acquired directly from the previous owner by the present owner in 2007)
_ Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco
_ Private Collection, Korea
_ Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco
_ Marguerite and Robert Hoffman Collection, Dallas
_ Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London
_ Private Collection, Dublin
_ Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London
Friday, 11 February 2011
newsfrom...201102
Em Maio próximo, entre os dias 12 e 15 de Maio, vamos ter o prazer de perceber qual a recepção da arte portuguesa pelo mercado brasileiro, ao acompanhar a presença e saber qual o resultado da participação da Galeria Filomena Soares e da Vera Cortês, Agência de Arte na 7ª edição da feira de arte SP-Arte, em São Paulo, Brazil...hopefully...e entretanto, ver quais as obras de artistas portugueses, como Mara Castilho ou Manuel Caeiro estão presentes nos stands de galerias brasileiras (representada pela Zipper Galeria e Lurixs: Arte Contemporânea, respectivamente) .
Thursday, 10 February 2011
newsfromlisbon201102
is an artwork a pleasure-seeking (hedonistic, pleasure-seeking, sybaritic, indulgent, luxurious, lotus-eating, epicurean; intemperate, immoderate, overindulgent, excessive, extravagant, licentious, dissolute, decadent) attitude by an artist? is it self-indulgence since it is lacking economy and control? or is it the intention of someone just trying to get in to the star system, to get his/her name naming a constellation forming a recognizable pattern in the sky?_ self-indulgence is (adj.) someone characterized by doing or tending to do exactly what one wants, esp. when this involves pleasure or idleness
newsfromchristies201102
Strong results in these last two evenings at Sotheby's and Christie's Impressionist and Modern Art auction's demonstrated a solid market for both classic impressionism and the masterpieces of the avant-garde.A new auction record was achieved at Christie's Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale on yesterday's auction. Christie's realise £84,879,800 / US$136,316,959 / €99,903,525 (the sales had a pre-sale estimate of £72,580,000 to £107,060,000) of total revenue. Whereas last year sales total results - £76,834,650 - were on the same level as this year for the two auctions held on the same evening sale (The Art of the Surreal and Impressionist and Modern Art).
"Terrasse à Vernon by Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947), which realized £7,209,250 / $11,578,056 / €8,485,287", set a new world record price for the artist at auction and was the top price at the auction. "A masterclass in colourist painting executed in 1923, it was one of only 3 works that Bonnard selected to be exhibited at the Salon d’Automne that year where it was very well received. Acquired by the family of the vendor in 1935, it had since passed by descent and was offered at auction for the first time with a pre-sale estimate of £3 million to £4 million."
While at The Art of the Surreal evening sale, "Etude pour `Le miel est plus doux que le sang’", 1926-27, a landmark work and one of the first Surreal paintings executed by Salvador Dalí (1904-1989), realized £4,073,250 / $6,541,640 / €4,794,215", and set a new world record price for the artist at auction (estimate: £2 million to £3 million). Both works were bought by anonymous collectors.
Auction data:
_ Sold by lot 79%
_ Sold by value 84%
_ Of the 76 lots offered, 60 sold (16 unsold)
_ Over 93% of the sold lots last evening achieved prices at or above their estimate
_ 3 works sold for over £5 million, 23 sold for over £1 million
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
newsfromsothebys201102
A new auction record was achieved at Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Evening sale during yesterday's auction "for a work on paper by the Surrealist artist René Magritte with the sale of Le Maître d'École for £2,505,250 / US$4,040,718 / €2,952,187" to an anonymous buyer. "This gouache on paper depicting Magritte's iconic bowler-hatted man fetched a price over double the pre-sale estimate (est. £800,000-1.2 million) and double the previous record for a work on paper" by the artist. Sotheby's realize £68,834,400 (last year total revenue was more than double - £146,828,350 - for 39 lots on offer) in sale total.Auction data:
_ Sold by lot 76.2%
_ Sold by value 84.5%
_ Of the 42 lots offered, 32 sold (10 unsold)
_ Over 93% of the sold lots last evening achieved prices at or above their estimate
_ Average lot value £2.15 million / US$3.5 million
_ 15 works sold for over £1 million, 28 sold for over US$1 million
newsfromchristies201102
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) 
Nature morte à "L'Espérance", painted in Tahiti in 1901
Signed and dated Paul Gauguin 1901 (lower right)
Oil on canvas (66,2x76,2cm)
Estimate £7,000,000-£10,000,000 (US$11,291,000-US$16,130,000) (Lot 17)
«Nature morte à 'L'Espérance' is an historic picture painted in 1901, towards the end of Paul Gauguin's legendary stay in Tahiti. This picture has passed through the hands of a very prestigious array of prominent collectors including Gustave Fayet, one of the people who helped to found Gauguin's reputation and whose collection, including this picture, was shown at a retrospective dedicated to the artist at the 1906 Salon d'Automne, an exhibition that was to have a marked influence on many of the great pioneers of modern art including Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. Nature morte à 'L'Espérance' is one of four showing sunflowers which he painted that year, doubtless in part as a tribute to his friend and fellow artistic pioneer Vincent van Gogh, who had died just over a decade earlier. One of the other sunflower still life compositions, Fleurs de tournesol dans un fauteuil, is now in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, and another similar composition is in the Fondation E.G. Bürhle, Zurich; a fourth in a private collection is the only vertical example of the group, and thus appears to be a more overt reference to Van Gogh. Nature morte à 'L'Espérance', which Françoise Cachin has described as perhaps the best of the group in her monograph (F. Cachin, Gauguin, trans. B. Ballard, Paris, 1990, p. 239), differs from the others in the inclusion of two artworks in the background, a reproduction of Puvis de Chavannes' L'Espérance from around 1872 (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) and Edgar Degas' print Le petit cabinet de toilette of 1879-80. Puvis de Chevannes' L'Espérance is a study for his major composition Allégorie de L'Espérance (Walters Art Museum, Baltimore) [...]
Provenance:
_ Property from a private european collection.
_ Acquired from the estate of the below by the present owner in 1996.
_ Joanne T. Cummings, Chicago, by descent from the below in 1985.
_ Nathan Cummings, Chicago, by whom acquired in 1956.
_ Robert Rutherford McCormick, Chicago, by 1930, and thence by descent to Mrs. Robert Rutherford McCormick.
_ Chester H. Johnson, Chicago.
_ Paul Rosenberg, Paris.
_ Gustave Fayet, Igny.
André Derain (1880-1954)
Bateaux à Collioure, painted in 1905
Signed a derain (lower left)
Oil on canvas (38,4x46cm)
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium £5,865,250 US$9,419,592 €6,903,399 (Christie's London, February 9th 2011, Lot 16)
Estimate £4,000,000-£6,000,000 (US$6,452,000-US$9,678,000)
Lot sold to Anonymous
«Bateaux à Collioure is one of the pictures that André Derain painted during his historic stay in the French coastal town of the same name, where he had gone to join his fellow artist and friend, the older Henri Matisse. There, the two worked alongside each other, blazing the trail of the movement that would, in the Salon d'Automne that was held sometime after their return to Paris later that year, be dubbed the 'Fauves.' The wildness that lent the loosely-joined movement its name is clear in the bold, brightly blazing colours of Bateaux à Collioure, with the broad areas of red and yellow making up the foreground, the lapis flecks that convey some of the shimmering water and the boats, and the green of the sky. This painting perfectly embodies Derain's statement that, 'Fauvism was for us a trial by fire... The colours became sticks of dynamite. They had to explode into light' (Derain, quoted in N. Kalitina, André Derain, Leningrad, 1976, p. 9) [...]
Provenance:
_ Property from a private swiss collection.
_ Acquired by the present owner circa 1960.
_ Anonymous Sale, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 17 June 1960.
_ Ambroise Vollard, Paris.
Georges Braque (1882-1963)
Nature morte à la guitare (rideaux rouge), painted in 1938
Signed and dated G. Braque 38 (lower left)
Oil and sand on canvas (81x100cm)
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium £3,961,250 US$6,361,768 €4,662,391 (Christie's London, February 9th 2011, Lot 5)
Estimate £3,500,000-£5,500,000 (US$5,645,500-US$8,871,500)
Lot sold to Anonymous
«Painted in 1938, Nature morte à la guitare (rideaux rouge) dates from a crucial period when Georges Braque began to create elaborate still life and interior compositions that were filled with a new vitality, in part due to the more ambitious scale of the motifs depicted. In the case of Nature morte à la guitare (rideaux rouge), this is evident in the fact that the table - the guéridon, that icon of late Cubism - is viewed from a distance that incorporates the various elements, be it the fruit, the crockery, the musical instrument or indeed the curtains themselves within the view. Rather than showing a clutch of objects in close-up, this gives a richer sense of the fabric of the interior in Braque's own world, plunging the viewer into his universe [...]
Provenance:
_ Sold by the Art Institute of Chicago.
_ A gift from the below to The Art Institute of Chicago in 1959.
_ Mr and Mrs Albert D. Lasker, New York, by whom acquired from the below in January 1947.
_ Paul Rosenberg & Co., London and New York, by whom acquired directly from the artist in 1938.
Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
Danseuses jupes jaunes (Deux danseuses en jaune), executed circa 1896
Signed Degas (lower right)
Pastel and charcoal on joined paper (60,2x42,4cm)
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium £5,417,250 US$8,700,104 €6,376,103 (Christie's London, February 9th 2011, Lot 9)
Estimate £3,000,000-£5,000,000 (US$4,839,000-US$8,065,000)
Lot sold to Anonymous
«Danseuses jupes jaunes (Deux danseuses en jaune) is a highly-finished pastel dating from circa 1896 which shows Edgar Degas' most favoured theme, the ballet, captured in the explosive palette that marked his works from this period. Here, two dancers are shown resting against the painted theatre backdrop, one adjusting the straps and facing us, the other facing away with her hands on her back, as though stretching. This is an informal glimpse of life behind the curtain, of a world of incredible athleticism, movement and action in a rare moment of repose and respite, yet that atmosphere of informality is belied by the incredible finish of the surface, which Degas has eked out not in a mere instant, capturing an intimate moment, but instead with an incredible build-up of often hatched strokes of pastel, creating his distinctive palimpsest-like accumulation of colour. This is especially visible in the areas of shadow, for instance at the dancers' feet [...]
Provenance:
_ Property of a private european collector.
_ Bruno and Paul Cassirer, Berlin (no. 173), by whom acquired from the below galeries on 27 April 1899, and thence by descent to the present owner.
_ Galeries Durand-Ruel, Paris (no. 3942), by whom acquired directly from the artist on 15 October 1896.
Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947)
Terrasse à Vernon, painted in 1923
Signed and dated BOnnard 23 (lower right)
Oil on canvas (120x105cm)
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium £7,209,250 US$11,578,056 €8,485,287 (Christie's London, February 9th 2011, Lot 10)
Estimate £3,000,000-£4,000,000 (US$4,839,000-US$6,452,000)
Lot sold to Anonymous
«Painted in 1923, Terrasse à Vernon is a colourist masterclass, showing the view from Ma Roulotte, the Norman home of Pierre Bonnard. This picture, which was one of only three that Bonnard selected to be exhibited at the Salon d'Automne that year, and which was very well-received, is saturated with luscious greens, lapis and turquoise, while the ground has a sunny feel that is enhanced by the glimmer of light of the young woman watching the artist - or the viewer. The composition itself deliberately avoids classical perspective or a sense of over-central emphasis, to drag the viewer's attention, ensuring that our eye grazes across the entirety of the canvas, taking in the landscape as a whole while also enjoying such details as the blue and white stripes of the table-cloth, the red petals of the flowers or the landscape that stretches out in the background, or rather which reaches up the height of the canvas to the horizon, two thirds of the way to its top. This is a device that Bonnard used in many of his most accomplished landscapes, satisfying his innate passion for monumental canvases filled with colour - the legacy of his Nabi past [...]
Provenance:
_ Property of a private french collector.
_ M. Léon Delaroche, by whom acquired from the below galerie, by 1935, and thence by descent to the present owner.
_ Galerie d'Art Moderne, Lausanne.
_ Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, by whom acquired directly from the artist in 1923.
Nature morte à "L'Espérance", painted in Tahiti in 1901
Signed and dated Paul Gauguin 1901 (lower right)
Oil on canvas (66,2x76,2cm)
Estimate £7,000,000-£10,000,000 (US$11,291,000-US$16,130,000) (Lot 17)
«Nature morte à 'L'Espérance' is an historic picture painted in 1901, towards the end of Paul Gauguin's legendary stay in Tahiti. This picture has passed through the hands of a very prestigious array of prominent collectors including Gustave Fayet, one of the people who helped to found Gauguin's reputation and whose collection, including this picture, was shown at a retrospective dedicated to the artist at the 1906 Salon d'Automne, an exhibition that was to have a marked influence on many of the great pioneers of modern art including Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. Nature morte à 'L'Espérance' is one of four showing sunflowers which he painted that year, doubtless in part as a tribute to his friend and fellow artistic pioneer Vincent van Gogh, who had died just over a decade earlier. One of the other sunflower still life compositions, Fleurs de tournesol dans un fauteuil, is now in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, and another similar composition is in the Fondation E.G. Bürhle, Zurich; a fourth in a private collection is the only vertical example of the group, and thus appears to be a more overt reference to Van Gogh. Nature morte à 'L'Espérance', which Françoise Cachin has described as perhaps the best of the group in her monograph (F. Cachin, Gauguin, trans. B. Ballard, Paris, 1990, p. 239), differs from the others in the inclusion of two artworks in the background, a reproduction of Puvis de Chavannes' L'Espérance from around 1872 (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) and Edgar Degas' print Le petit cabinet de toilette of 1879-80. Puvis de Chevannes' L'Espérance is a study for his major composition Allégorie de L'Espérance (Walters Art Museum, Baltimore) [...]
Provenance:
_ Property from a private european collection.
_ Acquired from the estate of the below by the present owner in 1996.
_ Joanne T. Cummings, Chicago, by descent from the below in 1985.
_ Nathan Cummings, Chicago, by whom acquired in 1956.
_ Robert Rutherford McCormick, Chicago, by 1930, and thence by descent to Mrs. Robert Rutherford McCormick.
_ Chester H. Johnson, Chicago.
_ Paul Rosenberg, Paris.
_ Gustave Fayet, Igny.
André Derain (1880-1954)
Bateaux à Collioure, painted in 1905
Signed a derain (lower left)
Oil on canvas (38,4x46cm)
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium £5,865,250 US$9,419,592 €6,903,399 (Christie's London, February 9th 2011, Lot 16)
Estimate £4,000,000-£6,000,000 (US$6,452,000-US$9,678,000)
Lot sold to Anonymous
«Bateaux à Collioure is one of the pictures that André Derain painted during his historic stay in the French coastal town of the same name, where he had gone to join his fellow artist and friend, the older Henri Matisse. There, the two worked alongside each other, blazing the trail of the movement that would, in the Salon d'Automne that was held sometime after their return to Paris later that year, be dubbed the 'Fauves.' The wildness that lent the loosely-joined movement its name is clear in the bold, brightly blazing colours of Bateaux à Collioure, with the broad areas of red and yellow making up the foreground, the lapis flecks that convey some of the shimmering water and the boats, and the green of the sky. This painting perfectly embodies Derain's statement that, 'Fauvism was for us a trial by fire... The colours became sticks of dynamite. They had to explode into light' (Derain, quoted in N. Kalitina, André Derain, Leningrad, 1976, p. 9) [...]
Provenance:
_ Property from a private swiss collection.
_ Acquired by the present owner circa 1960.
_ Anonymous Sale, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 17 June 1960.
_ Ambroise Vollard, Paris.
Georges Braque (1882-1963)
Nature morte à la guitare (rideaux rouge), painted in 1938
Signed and dated G. Braque 38 (lower left)
Oil and sand on canvas (81x100cm)
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium £3,961,250 US$6,361,768 €4,662,391 (Christie's London, February 9th 2011, Lot 5)
Estimate £3,500,000-£5,500,000 (US$5,645,500-US$8,871,500)
Lot sold to Anonymous
«Painted in 1938, Nature morte à la guitare (rideaux rouge) dates from a crucial period when Georges Braque began to create elaborate still life and interior compositions that were filled with a new vitality, in part due to the more ambitious scale of the motifs depicted. In the case of Nature morte à la guitare (rideaux rouge), this is evident in the fact that the table - the guéridon, that icon of late Cubism - is viewed from a distance that incorporates the various elements, be it the fruit, the crockery, the musical instrument or indeed the curtains themselves within the view. Rather than showing a clutch of objects in close-up, this gives a richer sense of the fabric of the interior in Braque's own world, plunging the viewer into his universe [...]
Provenance:
_ Sold by the Art Institute of Chicago.
_ A gift from the below to The Art Institute of Chicago in 1959.
_ Mr and Mrs Albert D. Lasker, New York, by whom acquired from the below in January 1947.
_ Paul Rosenberg & Co., London and New York, by whom acquired directly from the artist in 1938.
Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
Danseuses jupes jaunes (Deux danseuses en jaune), executed circa 1896
Signed Degas (lower right)
Pastel and charcoal on joined paper (60,2x42,4cm)
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium £5,417,250 US$8,700,104 €6,376,103 (Christie's London, February 9th 2011, Lot 9)
Estimate £3,000,000-£5,000,000 (US$4,839,000-US$8,065,000)
Lot sold to Anonymous
«Danseuses jupes jaunes (Deux danseuses en jaune) is a highly-finished pastel dating from circa 1896 which shows Edgar Degas' most favoured theme, the ballet, captured in the explosive palette that marked his works from this period. Here, two dancers are shown resting against the painted theatre backdrop, one adjusting the straps and facing us, the other facing away with her hands on her back, as though stretching. This is an informal glimpse of life behind the curtain, of a world of incredible athleticism, movement and action in a rare moment of repose and respite, yet that atmosphere of informality is belied by the incredible finish of the surface, which Degas has eked out not in a mere instant, capturing an intimate moment, but instead with an incredible build-up of often hatched strokes of pastel, creating his distinctive palimpsest-like accumulation of colour. This is especially visible in the areas of shadow, for instance at the dancers' feet [...]
Provenance:
_ Property of a private european collector.
_ Bruno and Paul Cassirer, Berlin (no. 173), by whom acquired from the below galeries on 27 April 1899, and thence by descent to the present owner.
_ Galeries Durand-Ruel, Paris (no. 3942), by whom acquired directly from the artist on 15 October 1896.
Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947)
Terrasse à Vernon, painted in 1923
Signed and dated BOnnard 23 (lower right)
Oil on canvas (120x105cm)
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium £7,209,250 US$11,578,056 €8,485,287 (Christie's London, February 9th 2011, Lot 10)
Estimate £3,000,000-£4,000,000 (US$4,839,000-US$6,452,000)
Lot sold to Anonymous
***WORLD RECORD FOR THE ARTIST AT AUCTION***
«Painted in 1923, Terrasse à Vernon is a colourist masterclass, showing the view from Ma Roulotte, the Norman home of Pierre Bonnard. This picture, which was one of only three that Bonnard selected to be exhibited at the Salon d'Automne that year, and which was very well-received, is saturated with luscious greens, lapis and turquoise, while the ground has a sunny feel that is enhanced by the glimmer of light of the young woman watching the artist - or the viewer. The composition itself deliberately avoids classical perspective or a sense of over-central emphasis, to drag the viewer's attention, ensuring that our eye grazes across the entirety of the canvas, taking in the landscape as a whole while also enjoying such details as the blue and white stripes of the table-cloth, the red petals of the flowers or the landscape that stretches out in the background, or rather which reaches up the height of the canvas to the horizon, two thirds of the way to its top. This is a device that Bonnard used in many of his most accomplished landscapes, satisfying his innate passion for monumental canvases filled with colour - the legacy of his Nabi past [...]
Provenance:
_ Property of a private french collector.
_ M. Léon Delaroche, by whom acquired from the below galerie, by 1935, and thence by descent to the present owner.
_ Galerie d'Art Moderne, Lausanne.
_ Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, by whom acquired directly from the artist in 1923.
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
newsfromlabiennale201102
Dora García (Valladolid, Spain in 1965) is representing Spain at the 54 La Biennale di Venezia, in 2011
newsfromsothebys201102
Sotheby's Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale maintained confidence. Sotheby's "will be led by a major painting by Pablo Picasso, depicting Marie-Thérèse Walter, the woman who transformed both his life and his art. Picasso’s La Lecture of 1932 (estimated at £12,000,000-18,000,000 / US$18,570,000 - $27,850,000*) relates closely to the legendary painting Le Rêve (The Dream), painted in the same year, and ranks among the stars of the big season of sales that will take place in London from February 8th to 17th."
Furthermore, "2010 was an exceptional year for sculpture, with record-breaking prices seen across the board. Chief among these was Giacometti’s £65 million L’Homme qui marche I, sold at Sotheby’s in February last year and establishing a record for any work of art sold at auction. Given the strength of the sculpture market, this February’s sale includes a fittingly strong selection of sculpture, with works by Marini, Giacometti, Moore and Maillol."
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
La Lecture, painted in January 1932
Signed Picasso (upper right), inscribed 11 decembre M.CM.XXXII. on the reverse
Oil on panel (65.5x51cm)
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium £25,241,250 US$40,711,612 €29,744,296 (Sotheby's London, February 8th 2011, Lot 8)
Estimate £12,000,000-18,000,000
Lot sold to Anonymous
«Picasso's iconic paintings of his lover Marie-Thérèse Walter reign supreme as the emblems of love, sex and desire in twentieth-century art. The sensual La Lecture, which is one of the most recognisable images among this landmark series from the beginning of 1932, essentially introduced the young woman as an extraordinary new presence in Picasso's life and his art. This exceptional work is one in a series of defining paintings in the artist's oeuvre in which he depicts his lover asleep in an armchair, the curves of her body transformed into a sumptuous confection with colourful swirls and sweeping arabesques. Marie-Thérèse's potent mix of physical attractiveness and sexual naivety had an intoxicating effect on Picasso, and his rapturous desire for the girl brought about a wealth of images that have been acclaimed as the most erotic and emotionally uplifting compositions of his long career. Picasso's unleashed passion is nowhere more apparent than in the depictions of the sleeping beauty, the embodiment of tranquility and physical acquiescence. Similar to Le Rêve (fig. 1), painted only days apart, La Lecture is rich with signifiers of sexual availability, fertility and pleasure and exemplifies Picasso's creative power in full bloom [...]
Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966)
Diego, painted in 1958
Signed Alberto Giacometti and dated 1958 (lower right)
Oil on canvas (81x65cm)
Estimate £3,000,000-5,000,000 (Lot 11)
«Diego is a dramatic and haunting portrait of Giacometti's younger brother, influenced by the post-war Existentialist movement and Giacometti's own reworking of themes from his Surrealist past. Like an apparition in the foggy space of the composition, the bust of a man emerges through a haze of grey paint. The juxtaposition of the slender head and the broad, voluminous bust is reminiscent of Giacometti's bronzes executed around this time. The picture captures a particular sentiment that the artist once expressed in a Surrealist prose poem: 'The human face is as strange to me as a countenance, which, the more one looks at it, the more it closes itself off and escapes by the steps of unknown stairways' (quoted in Alberto Giacometti (exhibition catalogue), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. &San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, 1988-89, p. 37) [...]
Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966)
Grand buste de Diego avec bras, executed in 1957 and cast in bronze in an edition of 6. The present work was cast in 1958.
Inscribed Alberto Giacometti, dated 1957, numbered 5/6 and with the foundry mark Susse Fr, Paris
Bronze, gold platina (height 57,5cm)
Estimate £3,500,000-5,000,000 (Lot 31)
«Grand buste de Diego avec bras belongs to a celebrated series of Alberto Giacometti's sculptural portraits of his younger brother Diego, who was the primary model for the artist's numerous variations on the theme of head and bust sculptures throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Throughout their professional lives, the Giacometti brothers (fig. 1) had an intensely close relationship. Diego devoted the major part of his own artistic career to assisting Alberto with his sculpture and supervising the casting of his bronzes. By the early fifties, Alberto had gained considerable critical recognition in Paris and had amassed a broad clientele, while Diego had just begun to design the bronze furniture which would eventually make him famous in his own right. Well aware of his younger brother's talent, Alberto encouraged Diego to pursue his own career. Nevertheless, Alberto relied heavily upon his brother's expertise and recognised him as indispensable in the production of the numerous innovative sculptures that had secured Alberto a contract with the Galerie Maeght in 1950. Speaking of this relationship, Annette Arm observed of her husband Alberto in June 1952: 'He remains always his same anxious self, but fortunately, he has a brother who is more calm and understands him well' (quoted in James Lord, Giacometti, A Biography, New York, 1983, p. 329) [...]
Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Argenteuil, fin d'après-midi, painted in 1872.
Signed Claude Monet (lower right)
Oil on canvas (60x81cm)
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium £3,401,250 US$5,124,587 €3,744,072 (Sotheby's London, February 8th 2011, Lot 15)
Estimate £3,500,000-4,500,000
Lot sold to Anonymous
«Argenteuil, fin d'après-midi, painted at the dawning of the Impressionist movement in the early 1870s, is one of Monet's first major landscapes of his new home, just outside of Paris. Argenteuil was famous for its annual regatta, and Monet took full advantage of the town's nautical resources to depict scenes of sailboats on the Seine. As Paul Hayes Tucker explains, '[By] 1871, when Monet moved there, his new home was not just some secluded little town outside of Paris but a celebrated center for pleasure boating in France. Boating meant Argenteuil and Argenteuil meant boating; the two were inseparable. The importance of this fact cannot be overemphasized, considering how much of Monet's work is devoted to sailboats on the Seine. He could have painted the barges or the fishing boats as Daubigny had when he came to neighbouring Bezons – for these vessels could still be seen coming and going on the river in Argenteuil in the 1870s –but they were old-fashioned. Rather, Monet chose to depict only those craft that represented the leisure activity of the day, and one of the most up-to-date aspects of the life of the town' (P. H. Tucker, Monet at Argenteuil, New Haven, 1982, pp. 90-91) [...]
Marino Marini (1901-1980)
L'idea del cavaliere, executed in 1955 and cast in bronze in an edition of 4. This work was also carved in wood in 1956.
inscribed MM, numbered 3/3 and stamped with the foundry mark Fonderia d'Arte De Andreis, Milano
Bronze, painted by the artist (height 220cm)
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium £4,185,250 US$5,485,876 €4,008,034 (Sotheby's London, February 8th 2011, Lot 20)
Estimate £3,700,000-4,500,000
Lot sold to Anonymous
«Equestrian images have a long and esteemed tradition in Western art. Throughout the centuries, paintings and sculptures of men on horseback, often depicting noble cavalrymen or generals mounted on their steed, celebrated the glories and victories of an era or an empire. But the sculptures of riders and horses that Marino Marini created after the Second World War are a radical departure from this tradition. Conceived in the midst of profound political transformation, Marini's riders are a response to the wave of uncertainty that engulfed civilisation during the Cold War. Marini was obsessed with making the horse and rider theme applicable to the contemporary age, and no other artist in the history of 20th century art came close to revitalising this age-old subject with such creativity and expressive force. His anonymous, highly abstracted horsemen eschew any pomp or pretence and are rich with psychological complexity and formal beauty. This monumental sculpture from 1955 of a rider and his horse, rigid with explosive tension, is a wonderful example of the artist's achievements in this area [...]
Furthermore, "2010 was an exceptional year for sculpture, with record-breaking prices seen across the board. Chief among these was Giacometti’s £65 million L’Homme qui marche I, sold at Sotheby’s in February last year and establishing a record for any work of art sold at auction. Given the strength of the sculpture market, this February’s sale includes a fittingly strong selection of sculpture, with works by Marini, Giacometti, Moore and Maillol."
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
La Lecture, painted in January 1932
Signed Picasso (upper right), inscribed 11 decembre M.CM.XXXII. on the reverse
Oil on panel (65.5x51cm)
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium £25,241,250 US$40,711,612 €29,744,296 (Sotheby's London, February 8th 2011, Lot 8)
Estimate £12,000,000-18,000,000
Lot sold to Anonymous
«Picasso's iconic paintings of his lover Marie-Thérèse Walter reign supreme as the emblems of love, sex and desire in twentieth-century art. The sensual La Lecture, which is one of the most recognisable images among this landmark series from the beginning of 1932, essentially introduced the young woman as an extraordinary new presence in Picasso's life and his art. This exceptional work is one in a series of defining paintings in the artist's oeuvre in which he depicts his lover asleep in an armchair, the curves of her body transformed into a sumptuous confection with colourful swirls and sweeping arabesques. Marie-Thérèse's potent mix of physical attractiveness and sexual naivety had an intoxicating effect on Picasso, and his rapturous desire for the girl brought about a wealth of images that have been acclaimed as the most erotic and emotionally uplifting compositions of his long career. Picasso's unleashed passion is nowhere more apparent than in the depictions of the sleeping beauty, the embodiment of tranquility and physical acquiescence. Similar to Le Rêve (fig. 1), painted only days apart, La Lecture is rich with signifiers of sexual availability, fertility and pleasure and exemplifies Picasso's creative power in full bloom [...]
Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966)
Diego, painted in 1958
Signed Alberto Giacometti and dated 1958 (lower right)
Oil on canvas (81x65cm)
Estimate £3,000,000-5,000,000 (Lot 11)
«Diego is a dramatic and haunting portrait of Giacometti's younger brother, influenced by the post-war Existentialist movement and Giacometti's own reworking of themes from his Surrealist past. Like an apparition in the foggy space of the composition, the bust of a man emerges through a haze of grey paint. The juxtaposition of the slender head and the broad, voluminous bust is reminiscent of Giacometti's bronzes executed around this time. The picture captures a particular sentiment that the artist once expressed in a Surrealist prose poem: 'The human face is as strange to me as a countenance, which, the more one looks at it, the more it closes itself off and escapes by the steps of unknown stairways' (quoted in Alberto Giacometti (exhibition catalogue), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. &San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, 1988-89, p. 37) [...]
Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966)
Grand buste de Diego avec bras, executed in 1957 and cast in bronze in an edition of 6. The present work was cast in 1958.
Inscribed Alberto Giacometti, dated 1957, numbered 5/6 and with the foundry mark Susse Fr, Paris
Bronze, gold platina (height 57,5cm)
Estimate £3,500,000-5,000,000 (Lot 31)
«Grand buste de Diego avec bras belongs to a celebrated series of Alberto Giacometti's sculptural portraits of his younger brother Diego, who was the primary model for the artist's numerous variations on the theme of head and bust sculptures throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Throughout their professional lives, the Giacometti brothers (fig. 1) had an intensely close relationship. Diego devoted the major part of his own artistic career to assisting Alberto with his sculpture and supervising the casting of his bronzes. By the early fifties, Alberto had gained considerable critical recognition in Paris and had amassed a broad clientele, while Diego had just begun to design the bronze furniture which would eventually make him famous in his own right. Well aware of his younger brother's talent, Alberto encouraged Diego to pursue his own career. Nevertheless, Alberto relied heavily upon his brother's expertise and recognised him as indispensable in the production of the numerous innovative sculptures that had secured Alberto a contract with the Galerie Maeght in 1950. Speaking of this relationship, Annette Arm observed of her husband Alberto in June 1952: 'He remains always his same anxious self, but fortunately, he has a brother who is more calm and understands him well' (quoted in James Lord, Giacometti, A Biography, New York, 1983, p. 329) [...]
Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Argenteuil, fin d'après-midi, painted in 1872.
Signed Claude Monet (lower right)
Oil on canvas (60x81cm)
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium £3,401,250 US$5,124,587 €3,744,072 (Sotheby's London, February 8th 2011, Lot 15)
Estimate £3,500,000-4,500,000
Lot sold to Anonymous
«Argenteuil, fin d'après-midi, painted at the dawning of the Impressionist movement in the early 1870s, is one of Monet's first major landscapes of his new home, just outside of Paris. Argenteuil was famous for its annual regatta, and Monet took full advantage of the town's nautical resources to depict scenes of sailboats on the Seine. As Paul Hayes Tucker explains, '[By] 1871, when Monet moved there, his new home was not just some secluded little town outside of Paris but a celebrated center for pleasure boating in France. Boating meant Argenteuil and Argenteuil meant boating; the two were inseparable. The importance of this fact cannot be overemphasized, considering how much of Monet's work is devoted to sailboats on the Seine. He could have painted the barges or the fishing boats as Daubigny had when he came to neighbouring Bezons – for these vessels could still be seen coming and going on the river in Argenteuil in the 1870s –but they were old-fashioned. Rather, Monet chose to depict only those craft that represented the leisure activity of the day, and one of the most up-to-date aspects of the life of the town' (P. H. Tucker, Monet at Argenteuil, New Haven, 1982, pp. 90-91) [...]
Marino Marini (1901-1980)
L'idea del cavaliere, executed in 1955 and cast in bronze in an edition of 4. This work was also carved in wood in 1956.
inscribed MM, numbered 3/3 and stamped with the foundry mark Fonderia d'Arte De Andreis, Milano
Bronze, painted by the artist (height 220cm)
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium £4,185,250 US$5,485,876 €4,008,034 (Sotheby's London, February 8th 2011, Lot 20)
Estimate £3,700,000-4,500,000
Lot sold to Anonymous
«Equestrian images have a long and esteemed tradition in Western art. Throughout the centuries, paintings and sculptures of men on horseback, often depicting noble cavalrymen or generals mounted on their steed, celebrated the glories and victories of an era or an empire. But the sculptures of riders and horses that Marino Marini created after the Second World War are a radical departure from this tradition. Conceived in the midst of profound political transformation, Marini's riders are a response to the wave of uncertainty that engulfed civilisation during the Cold War. Marini was obsessed with making the horse and rider theme applicable to the contemporary age, and no other artist in the history of 20th century art came close to revitalising this age-old subject with such creativity and expressive force. His anonymous, highly abstracted horsemen eschew any pomp or pretence and are rich with psychological complexity and formal beauty. This monumental sculpture from 1955 of a rider and his horse, rigid with explosive tension, is a wonderful example of the artist's achievements in this area [...]
Sunday, 6 February 2011
Saturday, 5 February 2011
newsfromsmagos201102
landscape is all the visible features of an area of countryside or land, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal
Friday, 4 February 2011
newsfromsmagos201102
slowness or laziness is the work carried out by the government for the community.
Wednesday, 2 February 2011
newsfromlisbon201102
Public Images : advertisements are regulated by the law governing the cultural assets and landscape of wherever and in each case are the product of the judgement of the local superintendent, who has the difficult task of interpreting local sensibilities.
[Largo do Chafariz de Dentro, 2011/02/02 17:08]
newsfrom...201102
And finally, still about VIP Art Fair, and its total number of times that artworks were viewed (7.65 million), total number of zoom views/videos watched (420,000), and total number of artist page views (42,300)
«VIP Art Fair came to an end at 23:59 on Sunday, January 30, 2011
We hope you agree with us that it was interesting and fun
We really appreciate your visiting our booth once, twice and many times during the week of January 22 - 30, and we would like to keep in touch with you!
Come visit us in ... or check out our web site (www.....com) and, please, let us know if you would like to join our mailing list to receive further information about our artists and activities
How many art works sold? How many visitors registered? Collectors, Dealers and Visitors comments?
We hope you agree with us that it was interesting and fun
We really appreciate your visiting our booth once, twice and many times during the week of January 22 - 30, and we would like to keep in touch with you!
Come visit us in ... or check out our web site (www.....com) and, please, let us know if you would like to join our mailing list to receive further information about our artists and activities
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
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