Saturday, April 29, 2017

Old Masters Dominate Swann Galleries’ Spring Prints Auction



Link to images: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ppu0fnsafdbvuzi/2445-JDK.zip?dl=0

New York— On Tuesday, May 2, Swann Galleries will offer Old Master Through Modern Prints, with a prodigious selection of works completed before the nineteenth century.



Martin Schongauer, A Censer, engraving, circa 1485. Estimate $120,000 to $180,000

The top lot of the sale is an astoundingly detailed engraving, A Censer, circa 1485, by Martin Schongauer.  Scholars believe that Schongauer made this intricate work for the sole purpose of showing off his technical virtuosity.

Only two other impressions have been offered at auction in the last 75 years, and many of the 28 known impressions are in institutional collections. In excellent condition with no sign of wear, the present impression is valued at $120,000 to $180,000.


Martin Schongauer, The Madonna and Child with an Apple, engraving circa 1475. Estimate $70,000 to $100,000.

Schongauer is also represented in the sale by the circa 1475 engraving The Madonna and Child with Apple, expected to sell between $70,000 and $100,000.



The Visitation is a circa 1450 engraving by Master E.S., a still-unidentified artist believed to have been active in southwestern Germany. Master E.S. was likely a goldsmith, and his works on paper are some of the earliest known Western engravings. Fewer than 20 impressions of any of the mysterious master’s approximately 320 known engravings have appeared at auction in the last 30 years. The only other known impression of this work in North America is in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York ($70,000 to $100,000).



Iconic engravings by Albrecht Dürer are led by Knight, Death and the Devil, 1513 ($50,000 to $75,000).



Other important works by the master include The Sea Monster, before 1500;




The Four Horsemen, a woodcut, 1498;



 and Melancolia I, 1514,

each valued at $40,000 to $60,000.



The Ravisher, or a Young Woman Attacked by Death, circa 1495, is believed to be Dürer’s second attempt at producing an engraving for the blossoming European print market ($7,000 to $10,000).



James A.M. Whistler, Weary, drypoint on Japan paper, 1863. Estimate $40,000 to $60,000.



Rembrandt van Rijn, Landscape with Square Tower, etching and drypoint, 1650. Estimate $50,000 to $80,000.
An exceptional array of etchings by Rembrandt van Rijn features scenes both religious and vernacular. A rare early impression of Landscape with a Square Tower, 1650, leads the section with an estimate of $50,000 to $80,000.

Also available is



The Omval, 1645 ($40,000 to $60,000),


and Abraham Casting out Hagar and Ishmael, 1637, valued at $30,000 to $50,000.

Iconic works by Canaletto, Giovanni Piranesi and Francisco José de Goya complete the selection of Old Masters. The afternoon session of the sale will pick up in the nineteenth century with works by artists from both sides of the Atlantic.



James A.M. Whistler, The Doorway, etching, drypoint and roulette, 1879-80. Estimate $40,000 to $60,000.
Highlights include The Doorway, 1879-80, from James A.M. Whistler’s Venetian tour, which shows a woman doing laundry in a palazzo doorway onto a canal ($40,000 to $60,000).


From early twentieth-century America come works that reflect a rapidly modernizing way of life. Martin Lewis is well represented in the sale, with highlights including



Winter on a White Street, 1934, and

 


Martin Lewis, Wet Night, Route 6, drypoint, 1933. Estimate $30,000 to $50,0

Wet Night, Route 6, 1933 ($20,000 to $30,000 and, $30,000 to $50,000, respectively). Also available are scenes by



Edward Hopper, whose Evening Wind, etching, 1921 is estimated at $80,000 to $120,000, as well as works by Georges Bellows and Rockwell Kent.


The Modern section glows with works by Marcel Duchamp, René Magritte, Henri Matisse, Emil Nolde, Wassily Kandinsky and Fernand Léger. Scarce highlights include Otto Mueller’s Der Mord II (Liebespaar II), circa 1919, valued at $15,000 to $20,000.


Scions Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso are also represented en masse.





Pablo Picasso, Figure composée II, lithograph, 1949. Estimate $30,000 to $50,000.

Picasso’s Figure composée II, 1949, is expected to sell between $30,000 and $50,000,



while Braque’s Pal (Bouteille de Bass et Verre sur une Table), 1911, is valued at $15,000 to $20,000.

Phillips Evening Sale of 20th Century & Contemporary Art on Thursday, 18 May Willem de Kooning’s Untitled II



Phillips is pleased to announce that



Willem de Kooning’s Untitled II 


will be offered as a highlight in the Evening Sale of 20th Century & Contemporary Art on Thursday, 18 May. A magnificent tour-de force of his painterly virtuosity, Untitled II is one of less than ten works created in 1980, an important turning point in de Kooning’s career. Estimated at $12-18 million, this work has never been offered at auction. Since its creation nearly four decades ago, it has been exhibited twice – once at London’s Royal Academy of Arts in 1981 and once at New York’s Gagosian Gallery, in their de Kooning retrospective of 2007.

At 77x88 inches, Untitled II is an example of the largest of the three canvas sizes de Kooning used, reserved for his most ambitious projects. This painting is one of only a few paintings that he completed in 1980. The works from this period grew out of masterpieces from his highly acclaimed years of 1975-77. These bold, confident landscapes facilitated the transition from his earlier works to those created post-1981. Situated at this pivotal turning point, Untitled II takes a unique position within de Kooning’s oeuvre. On the one hand, the heavily painterliness of the background and energetic sweeps of the brush evoke de Kooning’s universally celebrated “pastoral" allover abstractions from 1975-1977. On the other hand, the present work also exemplifies the new-found sense of luminosity and open-endedness that de Kooning would further develop in a radically new visual language in the 1980s.

With Untitled II one sees an artist revisiting longstanding themes and formal elements, but also making his first forays into a new, radically different, visual territory. Shifting away from the tightly organized compositions and the heavily worked, dense canvases of his earlier years, de Kooning here puts forward a fluid space in which form, line and color blend into one another, foreshadowing the infinite white backgrounds and ribbon-like brushstrokes that would become the signature of his output in the 1980s.

Untitled II is the embodiment of the de Kooning’s newfound creativity after several years of episodic studio activity and marks the beginning of his celebrated final chapter. Widely celebrated upon its completion, it was notably exhibited the following year at the Royal Academy of Art’s A New Spirit in Painting exhibition in London.



David Hammons’ African-American Flag will alsobe offered in the Evening Sale of 20th Century & Contemporary Art on Thursday, 18 May. Executed in 1990 in an edition of only five, this particular example has never been offered publicly and is estimated at $700,000-1,000,000. In 1990, it flew over Museum Overholland on the Museum Square in Amsterdam for the duration of the exhibition Black USA, and another original from the same edition has been in the permanent collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art for ten years.

Jean-Paul Engelen, Worldwide Co-Head of 20th Century & Contemporary Art, said, “David Hammons is among the most important and fascinating artists of our time, defined by his political stance and refusal to confine himself to a particular aesthetic or medium. There is, however, a unifying thread in his oeuvre, with his works consistently being insightful, poignant, visually striking and politically engaged. His fickle relationship with the art world establishment and the inherent political commentary in his work reflect the complications of the time we live in, resulting in his unique way of visualizing the different truths we each experience. We are thrilled to offer his African-American Flag in our May Evening Sale, a captivating example from his remarkable career.”

In his work, Hammons frequently imbues potent symbols with a new meaning. From his basketball hoop sculptures Higher Goals, 1986, which commented on the limited opportunities available to young African Americans, to the arresting painting How ya like me Now, 1988, which depicts a young Reverend Jesse Jackson with white skin and blonde hair, Hammons has not shied away from topics which directly impacted his own life and which continue to be the everyday reality for a large portion of the American population. African-American Flag follows in this tradition – the red, white, and blue of the United States flag replaced with the red, black, and green of Marcus Garvey’s Pan-African Flag, which was first adopted by the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League in 1920.

Instead of working directly with the Pan-African Flag, Hammons use of its colors within the context of the traditional American flag is a reminder of the many contributions made by African Americans throughout the history of the country. Hammons combines the two objects to create a new flag of the United States, his work assuming a new, distinctly black power, which stands for those people the traditional flag has not always represented.



Peter Doig’s Rosedale will also be offered as the top lot in the May Evening Sale of 20th Century & Contemporary Art in New York on 18 May. The large-scale painting was executed in 1991 and stands nearly seven feet tall by eight feet wide, depicting a Toronto home through a tapestry of snow and tree branches. Expected to realize in excess of $25 million, the work has never been publicly offered and is poised to set a new auction record for the artist.
Jean-Paul Engelen and Robert Manley, Worldwide Co-Heads of 20th Century & Contemporary Art, said, “Rosedale is a fresh-to-the-market masterpiece, emblematic of Doig’s instantly recognizable style and painted in the pivotal years of his career. This is the most impressive work by the artist to be offered at auction in recent years and we’re delighted to include it as the star lot of our May Evening Sale. Whitechapel Gallery’s recent announcement that he has been awarded their title of Art Icon for 2017 underscores Doig’s tremendous artistic significance and his continued contributions to the field of contemporary art.”

Rosedale dates from a pivotal moment in Peter Doig’s career, shortly after the artist’s graduation from the Chelsea College of Art and Design. Painted in 1991, the work was created for his celebrated solo exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, after he had won the prestigious Whitechapel Artist Prize that year. In the lead up to that exhibition, Doig produced a small number of large format canvases that represent the touchstone of his subsequent oeuvre, including Rosedale.

Depicting a grand Rosedale manor in Toronto’s ravine, the richly detailed surface is formed of abstract gestures that coalesce to reveal a home through the static of snow and thicket. Based on the artist’s own photographs, Doig described painting Rosedale “through the screens of nature,” painstakingly building up fragments of the house through the dense network of trees, as opposed to fully painting the architectural elements and then painting over them with the branches and snow in the foreground. Building on art historical and pop culture references ranging from Richter, Pollock, Bonnard and Munch to record covers, vintage postcards, and Doig’s own archive of photographs and memories of his early experiences in Canada, the visual play of impasto and glazes conjures the cinematic quality of a vintage film reel and the nostalgic glow of memory.







Friday, April 28, 2017

CAMILLE PISSARRO "LE PREMIER DES IMPRESSIONNISTES"

Marmottan Monet Museum
23 February to 2 July 2017

The Marmottan Monet Museum is presenting the first monographic exhibition of Camille Pissarro organized in Paris in nearly 40 years. Meticulously selected, 60 of his most stunning masterpieces — eight of which are being shown in France for the first time — hail from the greatest museums of the world and the most prestigious private collections. This remarkable ensemble of works tracks the trajectory of Pissarro’s life, from his youth in the Danish Antilles through his large series of urban tableaux featuring Paris, Rouen and Le Havre, all of which culminate to create a little-known portrait of the “first of the Impressionists.”

At the start of the exhibition, a self-portrait of Camille Pissarro welcomes the visitor. Seven sections retrace his career and bring to light the originality of his oeuvre, demonstrating that, even as a young artist, Pissarro always distinguished himself from his contemporaries. His initiation into painting took place on an island, far from Paris and from the beaux-arts academies.  




Two Women Talking on the Seaside, 1856 (National Gallery of Art, Washington), loaned for the first time to France,with its exoticism and illustrates that Pissarro’s artistic beginnings had no parallel.

After moving to France in 1855, Pissarro quickly made the acquaintance of the future Impressionists. Like them, he was passionate about landscape and plein-air painting. He was, therefore, inspired by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot and by Charles François Daubigny, as evinced by the canvas



Banks of the Marne (Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum), which hails from Glasgow. Following his research to environments surrounding Paris, he painted The Road to Versailles, Louveciennes, snow, 1870 (Stiftung Sammlung E.G. Bührle, Zurich) and The Road to Versailles, Louveciennes, winter sun and snow (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid), which are shown here for the first time in France. Pissarro was thus considered by Emile Zola as “one of the three or four painters of this time.”

The first to eliminate black and ochre pigments from his palette, Pissarro evolved to favor a lighter tone in his painting, typical of Impressionism. He would become one of the most engaged members of the group, and the only one to participate in all eight of their exhibitions. Numerous of his masterpieces, including


Le Déversoir de Pontoise, 1872 (Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland)



and Place du Vieux-Cimetière, Pontoise, 1872 (Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh) — which have not been shown in France for 35 years — demonstrate his artistic maturity and the triumph of Impressionism.



 Camille Pissarro, La Place du Théâtre-Français et l’avenue de l’Opéra, effet de pluie, 1898. Huile sur toile, 73, 6 x 91, 4 cm. Minneapolis, Institute of Art, fonds William Hood Dunwoody © Photo : Minneapolis Institute of Art. 
From 1883 onward, Pissarro explored the theme of the human figure and painted some of his most celebrated canvases, including



La Bergère, also known as Jeune fille à la baguette or Paysanne assise, around 1881 (Musée d’Orsay, Paris),



and Jeune Paysanne au chapeau de paille, 1881 (National Gallery of Art, Washington).


In 1886, he evolved yet again. Pissarro turned away from Impressionism and embraced the explorations of Georges Seurat and the neo-Impressionists. This exhibition presents the most important masterpieces of this period, including



La Cueillette des pommes, 1886 (Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki)



and La maison de la sourde et le clocher d’Éragny, 1886 (Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis).

Finally, the two last sections of the show explore the large portraits and urban series to which the artist dedicated an important part of his late career. An extremely rare ensemble of views of Rouen, of Le Havre, of Dieppe and of Paris — four of which have not been seen in France for a century — invite us to discover an extremely little-known aspect of Pissarro’s oeuvre.

Painter of landscapes and figures, of country and city, of earth and sea, “the first of the Impressionists” and a champion of pointillism, Camille Pissarro never ceased to reinvent himself. The exhibition at the Marmottan Monet museum brings to light the extraordinary diversity of his dignified and poetic oeuvre, one that attained dimensions both humanist and revolutionary. 
The exhibition includes 60 of the most magnificent masterpieces, all selected with great care, and of these eight have never been exhibited in France. The Paintings come from major museums in France and abroad as well as from prestigious private exhibitions. This unique collection sums up the artist's career from her early work in the Danish West Indies to the major urban series from Paris, Rouen and Le Havre and paint a different and unknown picture of Camille Pissarro. She is known as 'the first impressionist' and supporter of the painting style of pointillism, but she continued to innovate throughout life and has painted everything from landscapes, portraits, towns and the sea. The exhibition at Musée Marmottan Monet shows the unique diversity of a proud and poetic art with both humanistic and revolutionary dimensions.

Read more at: http://sca.france.fr/en/events/camille-pissarro-%C2%AB-first-impressionist-%C2%BB-musee-marmottan-monet-paris
From February 23, 2017 to July 02, 2017 From February 23rd untill July 2nd 2017 the Musée Marmottan Monet presents the first comprehensive exhibition of Camille Pissarro in Paris for over 40 years. The exhibition includes 60 of the most magnificent masterpieces, all selected with great care, and of these eight have never been exhibited in France. The Paintings come from major museums in France and abroad as well as from prestigious private exhibitions. This unique collection sums up the artist's career from her early work in the Danish West Indies to the major urban series from Paris, Rouen and Le Havre and paint a different and unknown picture of Camille Pissarro. She is known as 'the first impressionist' and supporter of the painting style of pointillism, but she continued to innovate throughout life and has painted everything from landscapes, portraits, towns and the sea. The exhibition at Musée Marmottan Monet shows the unique diversity of a proud and poetic art with both humanistic and revolutionary dimensions.

Read more at: http://sca.france.fr/en/events/camille-pissarro-%C2%AB-first-impressionist-%C2%BB-musee-marmottan-monet-paris
From February 23, 2017 to July 02, 2017 From February 23rd untill July 2nd 2017 the Musée Marmottan Monet presents the first comprehensive exhibition of Camille Pissarro in Paris for over 40 years. The exhibition includes 60 of the most magnificent masterpieces, all selected with great care, and of these eight have never been exhibited in France. The Paintings come from major museums in France and abroad as well as from prestigious private exhibitions. This unique collection sums up the artist's career from her early work in the Danish West Indies to the major urban series from Paris, Rouen and Le Havre and paint a different and unknown picture of Camille Pissarro. She is known as 'the first impressionist' and supporter of the painting style of pointillism, but she continued to innovate throughout life and has painted everything from landscapes, portraits, towns and the sea. The exhibition at Musée Marmottan Monet shows the unique diversity of a proud and poetic art with both humanistic and revolutionary dimensions.

Read more at: http://sca.france.fr/en/events/camille-pissarro-%C2%AB-first-impressionist-%C2%BB-musee-marmottan-monet-paris
Previous Next Camille Pissarro, « the first impressionist », at Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris From February 23, 2017 to July 02, 2017 From February 23rd untill July 2nd 2017 the Musée Marmottan Monet presents the first comprehensive exhibition of Camille Pissarro in Paris for over 40 years. The exhibition includes 60 of the most magnificent masterpieces, all selected with great care, and of these eight have never been exhibited in France. The Paintings come from major museums in France and abroad as well as from prestigious private exhibitions. This unique collection sums up the artist's career from her early work in the Danish West Indies to the major urban series from Paris, Rouen and Le Havre and paint a different and unknown picture of Camille Pissarro. She is known as 'the first impressionist' and supporter of the painting style of pointillism, but she continued to innovate throughout life and has painted everything from landscapes, portraits, towns and the sea. The exhibition at Musée Marmottan Monet shows the unique diversity of a proud and poetic art with both humanistic and revolutionary dimensions.

Read more at: http://sca.france.fr/en/events/camille-pissarro-%C2%AB-first-impressionist-%C2%BB-musee-marmottan-monet-paris
Previous Next Camille Pissarro, « the first impressionist », at Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris From February 23, 2017 to July 02, 2017 From February 23rd untill July 2nd 2017 the Musée Marmottan Monet presents the first comprehensive exhibition of Camille Pissarro in Paris for over 40 years. The exhibition includes 60 of the most magnificent masterpieces, all selected with great care, and of these eight have never been exhibited in France. The Paintings come from major museums in France and abroad as well as from prestigious private exhibitions. This unique collection sums up the artist's career from her early work in the Danish West Indies to the major urban series from Paris, Rouen and Le Havre and paint a different and unknown picture of Camille Pissarro. She is known as 'the first impressionist' and supporter of the painting style of pointillism, but she continued to innovate throughout life and has painted everything from landscapes, portraits, towns and the sea. The exhibition at Musée Marmottan Monet shows the unique diversity of a proud and poetic art with both humanistic and revolutionary dimensions.

Read more at: http://sca.france.fr/en/events/camille-pissarro-%C2%AB-first-impressionist-%C2%BB-musee-marmottan-monet-paris

Heritage Auctions' American Art Signature Auction May 3


Heritage Auctions' American Art Signature Auction May 3 will feature masterworks by trailblazers such as Thomas Moran, E. Irving Couse, Birger Sandzén and Norman Rockwell. Additionally, a significant selection of Early American Modernist works on paper from the collection of Dr. and Mrs. Henry and May Ann Gans will prove a true highlight for savvy collectors.

WESTERN ART


 
Leading the sale is Thomas Moran's Mountain Lion in Grand Canyon (Lair of the Mountain Lion) (est. $600,000-800,000). Previously owned by distinguished Western Art collector William Thomas Gilcrease, the painting's impeccable provenance further underscores its importance within Moran's oeuvre. Although Gilcrease donated the majority of his collection to his eponymous museum in Tulsa, he kept Mountain Lion in Grand Canyon for himself, ultimately gifting it to his daughter, Des Cygne. The painting has remained in the family of Des Cygne's husband, the late Corwin D. Denney, a Gilcrease Museum board member and philanthropist in his own right.

"Once again, we have obtained a superb selection of American works from private sources, and we are thrilled to present fresh to market masterworks at various price points. Considered by many to be the premier painter of the American West, Thomas Moran captured the imagination of viewers at the turn of the century, and his works such as this helped inspire the creation of the National Park System,"said Aviva Lehmann, Heritage Auctions' Director of American Art.



Birger Sandzén (Swedish/American, 1871-1954), Creek at Twilight, 1927. Oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches. Estimate: $300,000 - $500,000.
Birger Sandzén's Creek at Twilight (est. $300,000-500,000) from 1927 is a large-scale example of the artist's painterly virtuoso. Exemplifying his hallmark Fauvist palette and bold, energized brushwork, this monumental example showcases the artist's ability to truly dazzle his viewer. Purchased in 1927 directly from the artist's trunk by the graduating class of Washington High School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Creek at Twilight has remained in the school's possession to this day. Appearing at auction directly from the Washington High School Alumni Scholarship Foundation, proceeds from the sale will benefit the foundation's Continuing Education Scholarship Fund.

Creating a rare and special opportunity for collectors, Heritage Auctions is also offering



the masterwork by E. Irving Couse, The Pottery Connoisseur, circa 1930, (est. $100,000-150,000) along with the actual Zia pot featured in this striking composition. The Pottery Connoisseur was purchased directly from Couse's son, Kibbey, in 1964 by famed Taos School collectors Veda and Ward Vickery.

ILLUSTRATION ART


 
Study of Triple Self Portrait, 1960, (est. $150,000-250,000) is a superbly painted preparatory work for
what is certainly one of Norman's Rockwell's most iconic images. Here, the artist, with his back to the viewer and gripping his signature pipe, renders an idealized image of himself on canvas, providing an amusing contrast with his bespectacled reflection in the mirror.

The final painting, in permanent collection of the Norman Rockwell Museum, electrified the cover of the Feb. 13, 1960 Saturday Evening Post, which debuted the first installment of Rockwell's memoir, My Adventures as an Illustrator. The present study, executed in oil on photographic paper, originally was gifted to Rockwell's friend, Henry Strawn.

MODERNISM



 
Highlights include John Marin's Headed Down East, (est. $25,000-35,000),



Milton Avery's Bridle Path - Central Park West at 67th Street, (est. $25,000-35,000)



and Joseph Stella's Elevated Railroad, ($20,000-30,000).

Others highlights include, but are not limited to:



· Rockwell Kent's Greenland (Spring) (est. $50,000-70,000), which epitomizes the artist's Modernist interpretation of man's role within a vast wilderness



· Charles Marion Russell's early Indian portrait, Wolf Robe, of 1896 (est. $50,000-70,000)



· Frank Weston Benson's, Down Stream, a work on paper that relates to the artist's celebrated oil, Indian Guide, of 1927 (est.$40,000-60,000)



· Stevan Dohanos' delightful First Day of School, Saturday Evening Post magazine cover, Sept. 2, 1944 (est. $25,000-35,000)

Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction in New York on 18 May 2017


Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction will be led by



Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled from 1982, a monumental masterpiece that has been virtually unseen since it last appeared on the market in May 1984. The landmark canvas is one of a number of iconic American post-war paintings in a sale that also features Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly, as well as European masters including David Hockney, Rudolf Stingel and Gerhard Richter. The work is estimated to fetch in excess of $60 million.

Grégoire Billault, Head of Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Department in New York, commented: “It is an enormous pleasure to bring a Basquiat of this magnitude to the market. The scale, subject matter, date and freshness, combined with recent record prices and increased demand for the artist’s work, make May the ideal time to present a masterpiece of this caliber – a truly outstanding achievement of recent art history – to the market.”

Jean-Michel Basquiat completed Untitled in 1982 at a time when he was virtually unknown to the art world. Exhibited only in a small group exhibition called Fast at Alexander Milliken Gallery in New York from June to July of that year, Untitled entered the distinguished private collection from which it is being offered just two years later in 1984, when it was purchased at auction for $19,000. Never loaned for public exhibition since its acquisition 33 years ago, the appearance of the painting to market is made all the more remarkable given that it has been known only from a small thumbnail picture in the artist’s catalogue raisonné.

Untitled is among the most important paintings by the artist still in private hands. The vast 72 1/8 by 68 1/8-inch canvas marks a critical moment in the artist’s career, executed in the same year that the artist had his seminal first solo exhibitions at Annina Nosei Gallery in New York and Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles. Intricate layers of forcefully applied and impastoed oilstick, acrylic, and spraypaint in a spectrum of electric color coalesce in an intensely worked, rich surface that exemplifies Basquiat’s singular command as a master colorist and draftsman. Exploding in a torrent of irrepressible gestural energy that reflects Basquiat’s early beginnings in graffiti, the painting further inaugurated the beginnings of a new mode of figurative painting that took hold of the New York art world in downtown Manhattan in the early 1980s.








Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction in New York on 18 May 2017 will feature Roy Lichtenstein’s Nude Sunbathing.

Painted in 1995 and exemplary of Lichtenstein’s late, great genius, the work revisits one of his signature subject matters: the female form. Rare to the market, Lichtenstein’s limited group of Late Nudes were the first series he undertook following his major 1993 career retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and were the very last major paintings that occupied the final years before his death in 1997. Examples from the series are represented in the world’s most renowned institutional and private collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Fondation Beyeler, and the Broad Art Foundation, among others.

Nude Sunbathing will be offered at auction for the first time and is expected to fetch in the region of $20 million. Having been unveiled in Hong Kong, the work will be shown in London 7-12 April before the New York exhibition opens on 5 May.

“Benday dots, a vibrant red, and a seductive female temptress make this the ultimate late Lichtenstein,” commented Amy Cappellazzo, Chairman of Sotheby’s Fine Art Division. “Reimagining the archetypal women that dominated his iconic early ‘60s paintings, Nude Sunbathing is unabashed in its sensuality. Lichtenstein’s larger-than-life nude in repose confidently occupies the entirety of the canvas, endowed more with the strength of her own desire rather than the vulnerability of the comic-book damsels that defined Lichtenstein’s early Girls.”

Taking inspiration from two of his most significant art historical influences – Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse – Lichtenstein abstracts the female body to its very simplest form, defined primarily by his trademark graphic line and boldly colored Benday dots. What distinguishes his 1990s Nudes from his earlier works are the varied planes of gradated Benday dots within the composition, which model the figure with great depth and heightened dimensionality. Nude Sunbathing is unique among this vaulted series of Nudes in that it is dominated primarily by a single color: the blistering contours of red that shape both her figure and the background.



Basquiat’s exceptional rendering of a single skull-like head draws many parallels with the artist’s most celebrated works, perhaps most significantly Untitled from 1981 in the collection of The Broad, Los Angeles. The canvas is populated with a range of Basquiat’s greatest icons: most remarkably dominated by the complexly detailed anatomical head, the three-pointed crown and all-over scrawled typography. The work is estimated to fetch in excess of $60 million.



The first painting in the catalogue for the momentous 1999 exhibition, Andy Warhol: Hammer and Sickle at Thomas Ammann Fine Art in Zurich, Hammer and Sickle occupies a lofty place in Andy Warhol’s oeuvre. Dated 1976-77, the present work was acquired by renowned gallerist and founder of the Dia Art Foundation Heiner Friedrich and his wife Philippa de Menil the year after it was painted (estimate $6/8 million). The finest work of Andy Warhol’s late 1970s series and notable for its pristine paint application, this composition is one of four known large-format paintings that match the icon on the Soviet Flag, of which two are held in museums: the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Museum Brandhorst in Munich.



The large-scale Untitled #13 from 1980 is quintessential Agnes Martin. Enveloping the viewer with stunningly soft and muted colors, and mesmerizing patterns, the work is reminiscent of the artist’s full-scale works from 1968, when she moved to New Mexico. Previously exhibited in San Francisco, New York, Amsterdam, Paris, and many other locations, the acrylic, gesso, and graphite on canvas comes to auction this season with a pre-sale estimate of $5/7 million.

With gestural brushwork and a beautiful combination of bold and pastel tones, Silex Scintillans is an energetic and vibrant work that highlights many of the most celebrated aspects of Cy Twombly’s creative output in a rare triptych format (estimate $5/7 million). Titled after Henry Vaughan’s Silex scintillans – a collection of religious poems published in 1650 – the present work embodies the artist’s newfound interest in the late 1970s and 1980s of classical themes and inspirations, including religion, love and fate.

Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild utilizes the artist’s signature spatula technique to scatter accents of red, yellow and blue across a 78 3/4 by 63-inch canvas painted in luminous ivory. Acquired in the year it was painted from Galerie Liliane & Michel Durand-Dessert in Paris, and having remained in the same distinguished collection for over twenty-five years, Abstraktes Bild makes its auction debut on 18 May with an estimate of $12/18 million.

Rudolf Stingel’s Untitled is an exceptional paradigm of the artist’s electroplated copper reliefs. The 2012 work, estimated to fetch $5/7 million, is particularly rare in its monumental configuration of six joined panels, measuring 94 1/2 by 141 3/4 by 1 1/2 inches overall.

Building, Pershing Square, Los Angeles is a critical early landmark of David Hockney’s era-defining painted visions of Los Angeles, encapsulating the very genesis of his lifelong enchantment with the magnetic allure of Southern California (estimate $6/8 million). Significantly regarded as one of the very first paintings Hockney made after arriving in the city in January of that year, the work was included in his first American exhibition at Charles Alan’s gallery. Acquired in April 1974 by the pioneering Los Angeles dealer Paul Kantor, Building, Pershing Square, Los Angeles has remained in the same family collection until the present day.

Also by the artist, Gauguin’s Chair has been shown in major exhibitions around the world including David Hockney: Espace/Paysage at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in 1999 and David Hockney: Maleri 1960-2000 at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek from 2001-2001. Estimated to fetch $2.5/3.5 million, the work is an outstanding example of the artist’s mastery of color and form.


Wednesday, April 19, 2017

A Hudson River School Legacy


New-York Historical Society
March 24 – June 4, 2017


In 2015, the New-York Historical Society received a magnificent gift of 15 Hudson River School paintings from the collection of the late Arthur and Eileen Newman. These new acquisitions will be displayed together for the first time since they hung on the walls of the Newmans’ Manhattan apartment, alongside selected examples from New-York Historical’s longstanding collections.

Inspired by the natural beauty of the Hudson River Valley region and the emotional intensity of the scenes captured by painters of the first self-consciously “American” school of art, Arthur and Eileen Newman acquired works by artists including Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin Church, and Martin Johnson Heade. Collecting began as an avocation, for the couple’s personal pleasure and enrichment. But ultimately the Newmans’ sought to bring their private holdings to a public institution so that these gems of the Hudson River School could be shared with future generations.



Cole’s Sunset, View on the Catskill;



Church’s Early Autumn;

Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823–1900)
Wickham Pond and Sugar Loaf Mountain, Orange County, 1876
Oil on canvas
32 1/8 in. × 40 in. × 1 1/4 in
Collection of Arthur and Eileen Newman, Bequest of Eileen Newman, 2015.33.9
Photography, Glenn Castellano, Courtesy of the New-York Historical Society

and Cropsey’s Wickham Pond and Sugar Loaf Mountain, Orange County


Martin Johnson Heade (1819–1904)
Storm Clouds over the Marshes, ca. 1871–75
Oil on canvas
13 1/8 × 24 1/4 × 1 3/8 in.
Collection of Arthur and Eileen Newman, Bequest of Eileen Newman, 2015.33.7
Photography, Glenn Castellano, Courtesy of the New-York Historical Society


Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900)
Home by the Lake, 1852
Oil on canvas
26 1/2 × 40 1/2 × 1 1/8 in.
Collection of Arthur and Eileen Newman, Bequest of Eileen Newman , 2015.33.13
Photography, Glenn Castellano, Courtesy of the New-York Historical Society

join other paintings to reveal the legacy of the Hudson River School.


Complementing A Hudson River School Legacy, New-York Historical presents ​​The Inspiration:​ ​“​​​​The Hudson River Portfolio​,”​ curated by Roberta J.M. Olson, curator of drawings. ​In 1820 Irish-born ​​William Guy Wall embarked on a sketching tour of the Hudson River Valley​. A selection of ​his watercolors were engraved by English-born master printmaker John Hill in ​​​​The Portfolio, long-considered the forerunner of the Hudson River School of painters. ​A cornerstone of American printmaking and landscape, its topographical views cover 212 miles of the river’s 315-mile course―from Lake Luzerne in the Adirondacks to Governors Island near Manhattan.



William Guy Wall (1792–after 1864)
Preparatory Study for Plate 19 of “The Hudson River Portfolio”: View of the Palisades, New Jersey, 1820
Watercolor, graphite, and scratching out with touches of gouache on paper, laid on card
Gift of John Austin Stevens, 1903.13
William Guy Wall (1792–after 1864)
Preparatory Study for Plate 10 of “The Hudson River Portfolio”: View Near Fort Edward, New York, 1820
Watercolor, scratching out, selective glazing, and touches of gouache and black ink on paper, laid on card, laid on canvas
James B. Wilbur Fund, 1941.1119


On view are the eight rare watercolor models by Wall (the only known in existence), a bound copy of The Hudson River Portfolio,​ and other related works, all drawn from the New-York Historical’s rich holdings.