ART MARKET WATCH - May 2007

ART MARKET WATCH May, 2007 artlover5848889988788

Albert Bierstadt Mountain Lake $4,856,000 Sotheby’s New York May 23, 2007

Norman Rockwell Home on Leave (Sailor in Hammock) 1945 $4,520,000 Sotheby’s New York May 23, 2007

John Singer Sargent Mrs. William Crowninshield Endicott Jr. 1903 $2,168,000 Sotheby’s New York May 23, 2007

Edward Henry Potthast Beach at Far Rockaway $1,384,000 Sotheby’s New York May 23, 2007

Andrew Wyeth Ericksons 1973 $10,344,000 Christie’s New York May 24, 2007

Mary Cassatt Children Playing with a Dog 1907 $6,200,000 Christie’s New York May 24, 2007

Jacob Lawrence The Builders 1947 $2,504,000 Christie’s New York May 24, 2007

Newell Convers Wyeth Louise Loved to Climb to the Summit on One of the Barren Hills Flanking the River and Stand There While the Wind Blew $144,000 Bonhams New York May 22, 2007

John Martin Tracy Hunter’s Rest $420,000 Bonhams New York May 22, 2007

Wu Guanzhong Scenery of Northern China 1973 $4,051,150 Christie’s Hong Kong May 27, 2007

Yue Minjun Portrait of the Artist and His Friends 1991 $2,618,925 Christie’s Hong Kong May 27, 2007

$55 MILLION FOR SOTHEBY’S AMERICAN. . .
Last week, as the long Labor Day weekend approached, the major New York auction houses celebrated with two jam-packed sales of American art -- and both totaled $55 million, with Sotheby’s barely edging out Christie’s by $300,000 or so.

Sotheby’s New York went first on May 23, 2007, with a sale of American paintings, drawings and sculptures that totaled $55,744,199, with 180 of 217 lots finding buyers, or almost 83 percent. Prices given here include the auction house premium (20 percent of the first $500,000 and 12 percent of the rest).

Talk of the sale, and top lot, was Albert Bierstadt’s Mountain Lake, a four-foot-wide painting of deer at lakeside during sunrise, which sold to a phone bidder for $4,856,000 (est. $2 million-$3 million). Consigned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, one of the more richly endowed art institutions in the country, the work was the only Bierstadt painting in the museum collection. A museum spokesperson told Bloomberg news that the painting hadn’t been put on exhibition for the past two decades -- but curiously enough, one current show at the MFAH is titled "Bierstadt to O’Keeffe: Highlights from the Stark Museum of Art." It stands to reason -- why not sell your Bierstadt if you can borrow one when you need it? The museum is clearly undertaking some housecleaning, shedding 24 works to the hot art market to raise funds for new acquisitions.

As it happens, according to a report in the Kansas City Star, another Bierstadt, Mountain View, Sunset, which had been on loan at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City since 1969, was withdrawn by the anonymous lender and sold privately to another collector. The Nelson-Atkins wasn’t given a chance to make a counter offer on the picture, which was described as "much-loved." Thus does the hot art market suck paintings from public view.

The second highest lot at Sotheby’s was Norman Rockwell’s Home on Leave (Sailor in Hammock), a 28 x 27 in. oil of a young seaman with a dog in his lap, reclining in his whites in a striped hammock. Perhaps borne up by some good will from New York’s Fleet Week, the picture sold for $4,520,000, clearing its presale high estimate of $3 million by a goodly sum. According to the Baer Faxt, the buyer was London dealer Ray Waterhouse.

Other hot tickets were John Singer Sargent’s Mrs. William Crowninshield Endicott, Jr., an elegant half-length portrait featuring a society lady in a flowered muslin dress holding a rose and fan, which brought $2,168,000 (est. $2 million-$3 million) and Edward Henry Potthast’s impressionistic image of people relaxing at New York’s Far Rockaway beach, which went for $1,384,000 (est. $400,000-$600,000) -- a record for the artist that would be exactly equaled the next day at Christie’s, when Potthast’s The Water’s Fine sold for an identical sum.

Other new records were set for Gifford Beal ($132,000), Robert Spencer ($492,000), Walter Launt Palmer ($198,000), Alexander Ferdinand Wust ($60,000), Thomas Waterman Wood ($180,000), Daniel Ridgway Knight ($570,000), Herman Fuechsel ($84,000), Adelheid Dietrich ($252,000), Philip Russell Goodwin ($156,000), Colin Campbell Cooper ($180,000), Stephen Scott Young ($348,000), as well as Winslow Homer for a work on paper ($1,020,000).

. . . AND $55 MILLION FOR CHRISTIE’S AMERICAN
Christie’s New York’s sale of American paintings, drawings and sculpture on May 24, 2007, totaled $55,405,200, with buyers snapping up 139 of 162 lots, or 86 percent. Eleven lots sold for over $1 million, adding up to more than a fifth of the sale total. While less flashy works were passed, the sale showed a still-growing market for American painting.

Top lot was Andrew Wyeth’s 1973 Ericksons, which brought a whopping $10.34 million (est. $4 mllion-$6 million), a new auction record for the artist. New York private dealer Michael Altman was the winning bidder. In a palette of soft pinks and grays, the painting features a pensive profile of Wyeth neighbor and frequent subject George Erickson, at rest in the kitchen of his rural Maine home -- a picture that is both a quintessential piece of Americana and, with its air of solemnity, slanting light and checkered floor, evocative of works by Johannes Vermeer.

Another top lot was Mary Cassatt’s Children Playing with a Dog (1907), which sold for $6.2 million (est. $3 million-$5 million). Cassatt works don’t get much more Cassatt-like than this, depicting a mother playing gently with a baby while a little girl with ribbons in her hair holds a small dog. The work was consigned to the house directly by one of Cassatt’s heirs.

Following close behind were a 1916 watercolor of an abstract blue spiral by Georgia O’Keeffe, Blue I, which sold for $3,008,000 -- quintupling its top estimate of $600,000 -- and Jacob Lawrence’s 1947 The Builders, a tempera-on-board scene of toiling construction workers in the artist’s dynamic, jagged style, which stood out amid the soft tones and country themes of the rest of the sale and brought in $2,504,000 -- quadrupling its top estimate, also $600,000, and setting a new auction record for Lawrence.

Other records were set for Mario Korbel ($45,600), Charles Demuth ($656,000), Milton Avery ($992,000), Henry Billings ($72,000), Charles Sheeler ($1,048,000), Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait ($1,104,000), Ferdinand Richardt ($288,000), George Winter ($228,000), Frederick William MacMonnies ($300,000), Francis Luis Mora ($57,600), William Henry Lippincott ($264,000), Henry Siddons Mowbray ($288,000) and Edward Potthast ($1,384,000), as well as Oscar Bluemner ($768,000) and N.C. Wyeth ($180,000) for a work on paper.

AMERICAN SALE AT BONHAMS
Meanwhile, Bonhams New York took its turn with an "American Paintings" sale on Tuesday, May 22, totaling $3 million, with 55 of the 101 lots finding buyers. Big lots were Frederick Carl Frieseke’s oil-on-canvas Two Ladies in a Garden, which went for $880,000 (est. $700,00-$900,000), and a lovely Sargent watercolor of a Venice gondola, Sandali, which brought $768,000 (est. $200,000-$300,000).

Other notable lots were a John Martin Tracy oil titled Hunter’s Rest, featuring two gentlemen hunters enjoying a picnic with their dogs and a servant, which sold for $420,000 (est. $150,000-$200,000), and an N.C. Wyeth oil with the cumbersome title Louise loved to climb to the summit on one of the barren hills flanking the river and stand there while the wind blew, which went for $144,000 (est. $100,000-$150,000). Rockwell’s oil-on-canvas study for a Life cover, titled Good Scouts, went for $120,000, clearing its top estimate of $90,000.

CHRISTIE’S HONG KONG RAKES IT IN
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Christie’s Hong Kong totaled a whopping $79,170,000 for the firm’s combined sales of modern and contemporary Asian art on May 27, 2007.

The top lot in the 20th century Chinese art category was Wu Guanzhong’s 1973 work, Scenery of Northern China, an airy, snow-swept mountainscape, which sold for $4,051,150 (no estimate was given). Quite a coup for a man once supposedly dubbed "a fortress of bourgeois formalism" and sentenced to hard labor.

In the contemporary category, top honor went to Yue Minjun’s Portrait of the Artist and His Friends -- strangely, not the characteristic work featuring identical, cackling, pink-faced characters that Minjun is known for, but a looser group portrait of real people from 1991. No matter. It went for $2,618,925, handily topping an estimate of ca. $450,000-$700,000.

The Imperial Sale and Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Arts

The Imperial Sale and Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Arts artlover258004588598788

An important imperial gilt-incised lacquer throne, baozuo, Kangxi period (1662-1722), World auction record for an imperial throne. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2007.

HONG KONG.- Christie's Hong Kong held today The Imperial Sale and Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Arts auction. There was strong participation from international clients, both in the room, on the phone and by Christie’s LIVE. The top lot, a pair of magnificent famille rose 'peach' bowls, Yongzheng marks and of the period, sold for HK$50,720,000/ US$6,593,600 to Eskenazi Ltd that sets the new world auction record for a pair of Yongzheng famille rose peach bowls. Also of note is an important imperial gilt-incised lacquer throne from the Kangxi period that sold for HK$13,760,000/ US$1,788,800 to casino magnate Dr. Stanley Ho. This established the world auction record for an Imperial throne. “We are delighted by today’s results in which numerous world auction records were broken. Of particular note is a pair of famille rose ‘peach’ bowls originally from the Bernat Collection which sold for over HK$50 million, five times more than when it was acquired at auction ten years ago. This is an indication of the tremendous growth in this field for important Imperial objects. Dr. Stanley Ho purchased an important Imperial gilt-incised lacquer throne from the Kangxi period for over HK$13 million, forty times more than when it was last offered as part of the Sackler Collection at Christie’s New York in 1994. A European family entrusted Christie’s with a previously unknown pair of unique porcelain parfumiers which sold for over HK$33 million, ten times its low estimate. There was strong participation from international clients, both in the room, on the phone and by Christie’s LIVE. Once again, Christie's has delivered the optimal result for our consignors and collectors, presenting a highly-curated sale of the most desirable Imperial works of art. Today’s result is a testament to our efforts.” said Pola Antebi, Senior Vice President, Specialist Head of the Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art Department, Christie’s.

Sotheby's to Auction Private Collection of Reunification Art

Sotheby's to Auction Private Collection of Reunification Art artlover488588688988

Li Xiaowei, B. 1959, Chinese Heart - a group of canto-pop and local stars (e.g Jackie Chan) celebrating the handover in front of Tian'anmen - they were all popular then...oil on canvas, framed, executed in 1997. Image © Sotheby's.

HONG KONG.- On the eve of the 10th Anniversary of Hong Kong’s Reunification with China, Sotheby’s Hong Kong will offer for sale An Important Private Collection of Reunification Art on 29th June 2007 (Friday) at The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong. Comprising 30 pieces of rare and outstanding Chinese paintings and works of art, the collection was first exhibited in 1997 at the “China Grand Art Show – An Exhibition of Historical Paintings and Thematical Art Works” organized by the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China. The works cover a wide spectrum of artistic creation – from realism to contemporary – capturing the different moods of Hong Kong as well as that very important and historical moment in modern Chinese history. Estimated to bring approximately HK$20 million*, both Sotheby’s Hong Kong and the owner of the collection will donate part of the net auction proceeds to The Chinese Red Cross Foundation. The entire art collection will be exhibited from 27th to 29th June, 2007 at the Hong Kong Exhibition Centre (China Resources Building) in Wanchai. Mr. Kevin Ching, Chief Executive Officer of Sotheby’s Asia, said, “Sotheby’s Hong Kong is very honoured to be entrusted by Beijing Blue Harbor Properties Co., Ltd to auction its highly important and seminal collection of reunification art on the 10th Anniversary of Hong Kong’s Reunification with China. Sotheby’s Hong Kong has supported numerous charity auctions in the past, but this occasion is particularly meaningful because both our consignor and ourselves shall be donating directly part of the proceeds generated from the auction to The Chinese Red Cross Foundation. Therefore not only that this auction has great historical significance, but it also gives us the opportunity to share what we have with the less fortunate. Moreover, the successful buyers at the auction in effect will also be donors to this very meaningful charity” Mr. Tang Shengwen, the Standing Deputy Director of the Chinese Red Cross Foundation, said, “China is going through an enormous transformation which has brought diversification to different social classes, values and cultures. Charity serves as the lubricant which marries this diversity with much needed harmony. It brings hope to the hopeless, help to the helpless and love to those in need. We sincerely thank Sotheby’s Hong Kong and Beijing Blue Harbor Properties Co., Ltd for their generosity and commitment. I wish the auction every success.” Reunification Art – The Story- In 1997, the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China organized an exhibition entitled “China Grand Art Show – An Exhibition of Historical Paintings and Thematic Art Works”. All the pieces on offer in this charity auction, with the exception of Celebration of the Century, formed part of that exhibition. During the 2 years of preparation, the Ministry of Culture and the Chinese Artists Association invited select local artists to produce a collection of striking works of art. Participating artists and experts included those from various art schools and the Chinese Artist Association. The exhibition was held on 30th June 1997 at the Chinese Revolution Museum and was attended by the Jiang Zemin, former President of the PRC. The event gained extensive media coverage including from such staples as the Xinhua News Agency, China Central TV, People’s Daily etc, detailing all aspects of the exhibition. In 1998, a year after the reunification of Hong Kong and China, another exhibition called “Journey to Returnification Exhibition – An Exhibition of Historical Paintings and Thematical Art Works, Hong Kong” was held in the lower block of Hong Kong City Hall, featuring 33 pieces from the earlier Grand China Show, with the addition of a newly-commissioned work entitled Celebration of the Century. In September 2006, a total of 70 paintings and works of art were once again exhibited in Beijing at the National Museum in an exhibition called “Journey to Returnification Exhibition - An Exhibition of Historical Paintings and Thematic Art Works”. Most of the lots in the present auction were included in the above exhibitions. On 1st July 1997 the handover ceremony officially marking the return of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China took place in Hong Kong. Four artists from Shandong, China, namely Lu Zhang, Chen Guoli, Zhang Zhiqiang and Lu Hao, captured the moment in their collaborative work, Celebration of the Century. The gigantic portrait vividly illustrates the representatives of both countries including, from the People’s Republic of China, Jiang Zemin (President of the PRC); Li Peng (Prime Minister of the PRC); Qian Qichen (Vice Premier of the PRC); Zhang Wannian (Vice-Chairman of the Central Military Commission and PLA Chief General); Tung Chee-hwa (the 1st Chief Executive of Hong Kong). Representatives from the United Kingdom include HRH Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales; Tony Blair (Prime Minister of the UK); Robin Cook (Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs); Charles Guthrie (Chief of the Defense Staff of the UK); Chris Patten (the last Governor of Hong Kong). This exceptionally large-scale 3-by-7-metre painting was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture of the PRC in 1998. Together with other selected works first exhibited in the “China Grand Art Show”, it was displayed in the “Journey to Reunification Exhibition” held in Hong Kong City Hall. It comprises 3 panels and is a true rarity of its category. The friendly handshake of Jiang Zemin and Prince Charles is the focal point of the painting, signifying the smooth transition of the territory to Chinese sovereignty, and also denoting the harmonious relationship between the two countries. By applying red tone (a colour commonly associated with China) throughout the painting, a deeper impact is achieved. In a meeting with British Prime Minister Mrs Margaret Thatcher in the Great Hall of the People at around 10am on 24th September 1982, Deng Xiaoping restated the Chinese claim on Hong Kong and indicated there would be no compromise on the fundamental issue of Chinese sovereignty. Deng’s statement inspired Lin Yongkang from Fo Shan, Guangzhou, to paint a massive painting based on a photo taken of the meeting between the two premiers in 1982. The painting demonstrates a good use of contrast: the political figures are well lit, whilst the interpreters at the back are in the shadows. A generally dark red tone frames Deng and Thatcher, capturing the solemnity and political significance of the meeting. The artist also inserted the national flags of the two countries in the centre of the piece, emphasizing again the international importance of the meeting. This work received the Excellence Prize in the “China Grand Art Show” of 1997. The Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed on 19th December, 1984 at 5:30pm at the West Hall of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, and was broadcasted via satellite all over the world. The declaration was the basic agreement by the United Kingdom to transfer its colony of Hong Kong to full Chinese sovereignty on 1st July 1997. The ‘One Country, Two Systems’ principle was agreed, denoting that Hong Kong’s way of life would remain unchanged for a period of 50 years from the date of handover. Participating in the ceremony and signing were British Prime Minister Mrs. Margaret Thatcher (seated, signing the declaration), Deng Xiaoping (middle of the 1st row), Li Xiannian (President of the PRC, to the left of Deng) as well as Sir Geoffrey Howe (Foreign Secretary; to the right of Deng.) The Ministry of Culture commissioned this work in 1997, and the artist, Ma Baozhong executed this masterpiece based on a photograph of the event taken in 1984. He has an accomplish

Le Corbusier: Art and Architecture - A Life of Creativity

Le Corbusier: Art and Architecture - A Life of Creativity artlover2589878828848

Le Corbusier, Nature morte rouge au violon, 1920, 100 × 81 cm, oil on canvas. © FLC.

TOKYO, JAPAN.- Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, presents Le Corbusier: Art and Architecture - A Life of Creativity, on view through 24 September (Monday), 2007. Le Corbusier is without doubt the best-known non-Japanese architect in Japan. Not only did this founding father of modernism leave behind numerous architectural icons, but he was also an artist, working in private to create a vast array of personal creative vistas in paintings, drawings and sculptures. There was a constant interplay between his architecture and his art, and similarities can be seen in their development over his career. By covering all of the various facets of this unique individual’s output, "Le Corbusier: Art and Architecture –A Life of Creativity" seeks to examine Le Corbusier the man, providing an all-encompassing overview of his achievements. A Life of Creativity - Le Corbusier was born in 1887 in Switzerland, in time to witness first hand the frenzy of scientific discovery and technological invention that marked the turn of the century. However, as the age of mass production dawned, Le Corbusier, like many others of his time, saw in it the seeds of alienation of the individual and the potential for increasingly inhumane urban development. Perhaps his greatest achievement was to integrate the industrial developments of his time into a more human-friendly framework, one that took into consideration human needs and desires. In the process he created an unmistakably modern, yet at the same time more humane architectural aesthetic, one that you could say fused the stark functionality of his architect’s eye with the free-flowing, organic curves of his paintings. The exhibition begins with paintings and then continues with models, drawings and photographs depicting his architecture and urban planning. This composition mirrors Le Corbusier's life, which was devoted to architecture and art in equal measure. It is little known that Le Corbusier devoted his mornings to painting; architecture only started in the afternoons when he went to his office. As he explained, "part of every day of my life has been devoted to drawing. I have never stopped drawing and painting, looking wherever I could for the secrets of form. You don't have to look any further than this for the key to my work and research..." Full-scale, Walk-in Reproductions — Experience his Atelier and Significant Architectural Spaces Firsthand - One of the highlights of the exhibition is a number of full-scale reproductions of architectural spaces. The show starts with a walk-in model of his atelier in Paris – complete with furniture and other personal trappings. There is also a full-size reproduction of a two- story apartment from his important "Unité" project in Marseilles, and another of "le Petite Cabanon," a small wooden hut he built at Cap Martin in the south of France, his final home. Each is large enough for visitors to walk inside, providing a rare chance to experience Le Corbusier’s creations firsthand and view his furniture, paintings and sculptures within that context. The exhibition is further enhanced by the use of dozens of photographs and videos, some including three-dimensional computer graphic renderings. The majority of exhibits come from the Fondation Le Corbusier, Paris, and the Centre Pompidou, however many others will come from lenders elsewhere and in Japan. Many of the art works come from the Mori Art Collection, which includes a substantial number of drawings, paintings and tapestries assembled by Mori Art Museum founder Mori Minoru. The exhibition also benefits from the advice of leading Japanese architects such as Maki Fumihiko and Ando Tadao. The 120th anniversary of Le Corbusier’s birth is sure to keep him in the news worldwide. This exhibition provides a rare opportunity to explore the full gamut of his creative endeavor.

Le Graffiti - De la rue au musée

Le Graffiti - De la rue au musée

artlover048458488688

L´histoire du graffiti est celle d´un mouvement underground, né au rythme du Hip-Hip des années 70 dans les ghettos américains. C´est un art populaire, sauvage et éphémère. Sauvage parce que réalisé dans l´espace public de manière illégale, et éphémère car sa durée de vie, soumise aux contraintes extérieures, est forcément limitée. Les interdits qui frappent cet art urbain dès ses premiers balbutiements en Europe n´arrêtent en rien son expansion dans les années 80. A la fin de la décennie, c´est un véritable phénomène de mode qui gagne sa légitimité artistique sous la plume des journalistes et sur les cimaises des musées. Hormis les murs des villes, le mobilier urbain et les transports collectifs, les graffeurs réalisent des œuvres sur toile, papiers ou palissades, désormais prisées par un nombre grandissant de collectionneurs.

Les pionniers

La star incontestée du genre est Jean-Michel BASQUIAT qui collectionne les enchères millionnaires (plus de quarante). Le 15 mai dernier, une technique mixte de 1981 a pulvérisé le record de l´artiste en passant pour la première fois la barre des 10 millions de dollars ! Initialement estimée entre 6 millions et 8 millions de dollars, l´œuvre a décroché un coup de marteau à 13 millions de dollars (plus de 9,6 millions d´euros, Sotheby´s NY). L´ami de Warhol au destin fulgurant (mort à 27 ans), signait ses premières œuvres dans la rue sous le pseudonyme Samo. Aujourd´hui un petit dessin au crayon gris ou à la mine de plomb s´échange entre 10 000 et 20 000 € en moyenne et il faut compter entre 50 000 et 100 000 € pour un papier aux crayons de couleurs. Les prix grimpent encore pour de beaux formats à l´encre ou au pastel gras.

Un autre proche de Warhol, Keith HARING, est aussi un pilier du graffiti. Il n´atteint pas les sommets de Basquiat mais affiche une progression constante sur les 4 dernières années. Le 8 février dernier, il fallait compter pas moins de 56 000 £ (près de 85 000 €) pour emporter une petite acrylique de 1984 (50x50 cm) chez Sotheby´s Londres. Le même jour, la maison concurrente signait un nouveau record à 440 000 £ (près de 670 000 €) pour une toile de 1983 (Christie´s Londres).

Plus abordable, FUTURA 2000 fait partie des pionniers de la peinture urbaine qu´il exprime de manière instinctive sur les murs de Brooklyn dès les années 70. Seules 3 œuvres du graffeur furent soumises aux enchères en 10 ans! La dernière, une œuvre sans titre à l´acrylique et la peinture aérosol sur une planche de bois, a trouvé preneur pour 4 000 € en octobre dernier chez Artcurial qui propose début juin une toile graffée à la bombe intitulée Bar code (1983, 137 x 181 cm) pour une estimation comprise entre 4 000 et 5 000 €.

Le Graffiti plébiscité en France

La maison de ventes Artcurial va proposer une vingtaine d´œuvres de graffeurs américains et français le 6 juin prochain. Le catalogue de la vente regroupe les œuvres dans une section « Art Graffiti et post-graffiti » : jamais un auctioneer français n´avait accordé autant de crédit au genre ! La pièce maîtresse de la vente est la grande Balle de Match, Hôpital éphémère, 1993 (214,5 x 190 cm) de John PERELLO alias Jonone estimée entre 15 000 et 20 000 €. Extrêmement vif et coloré, ce travail prend des libertés avec les maîtres de l´art abstrait comme Kandinsky, Pollock et de Kooning. Dans cette vingtaine de lots et pour des estimations entre 5 000 et 10 000 € en moyenne, l´amateur peut jeter son dévolu sur les grandes toiles aux accents de BD signées John Matos CRASH ou ASH II. Entre 1 000 et 5 000 €, le choix des œuvres est large : un Jonone de près d´un mètre, les graffitis abstraits de SHARP, Chris Ellis DAZE, KOOR ou une toile au graphisme surréaliste de Alex/Mac-Crew. Pour moins de 1 000 €, on peut espérer emporter des toiles bombées de SONIC ou de HONDO et pour une estimation basse de 100 €, une œuvre sans titre mêlant divers matériaux sur un panneau de contre-plaqué signée Thierry CHEVERNEY. En deux ans, la cote des graffeurs a doublé : le phénomène des rues deviendrait-il phénomène des ventes publiques ?

I’VE GOT THEM OL’ COSMIC

I’VE GOT THEM OL’ COSMIC FILLMORE EAST BLUES AGAIN artlover54859887418522888

Timothy Leary’s L.S.D. album cover, n.d. "Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era" at the Whitney Museum of American Art

Bill Haim’s Liquid Light Show, late 1960s "Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era" at the Whitney Museum of American Art

Bonnie MacLean’s poster for Bill Graham Presents the Yardbirds, the Doors, James Cotton Blues Band, Richie Havens, 1967 Collection Wolfgang’s Vault, San Francisco "Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era" at the Whitney Museum of American Art

Vernon Panton’s Phantasy Landscape Visiona II, 1970/2000 Vitra Design Museum "Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era" at the Whitney Museum of American Art

Film still from Albert Alotta’s Peacemeal, 1967 "Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era" at the Whitney Museum of American Ar

Abdul Mati Klarwein’g Grain of Sand, 1963-65 "Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era" at the Whitney Museum of American Art

Janis Joplin’s painted Porsche "Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era" at the Whitney Museum of American Art

A wall of psychedelic posters in "Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era" at the Whitney Museum of American Art

Artworks (from left) by Paul Jenkins, Richard Lindner, Lucas Samaras and Peter Saul in "The Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era" at the Whitney Museum of American Art

Whit czar Adam Weinberg grinned at the press preview for "Summer of Love," the celebration of ‘60s youth culture that rocks two floors of the Madison Avenue museum.

"Did you pick up your tab of acid in the lobby, Charlie?" he asked.

"Gee, Adam, you aren’t even providing coffee for the press at 10 in the morning. Perhaps you were afraid that someone would spike it!"

In honor of the Whitney’s psychedelia exhibition, here, dear readers, is a piece on my teenage days at the Fillmore East, originally published in 1988 in the long defunct Metro magazine. . . Trip out!

* * *

Oh to be 16 again, dangling your legs over the balcony rail at the Fillmore East, a big bag of weed on your lap, your longhaired, free-loving babe snuggling your shoulder, and a sheet of water-pure windowpane acid in the pocket of your flannel shirt. On stage, the most beautiful woman in the world, Grace Slick, leans against an amp, intoning her immortal Bear Melt while the oil-based mandalas of Joshua Light bounce around her. Bliss!

Just remembering the bills I saw at Bill Graham’s East Village pleasure palace sends flashbacks up my spine: The Dead, Love and the Allman Brothers; The Mothers of Invention and the Youngbloods; The Kinks and the Byrds. Of course, there were the phenomenal Jefferson Airplane concerts that were always followed the next day by an even longer, better, more cosmic, free set in Central Park. And who can forget those weird Fillmore opening acts: Sea Train, The Sons of Champlin, Stone the Crows and a guy named Chris who played gongs with various parts of his body and always opened for the Airplane?

Fillmore habitués were divided into two classes: Airplane freaks (like yours truly) and Deadheads. Each liked and respected the other’s group, attending each others’ gigs, but there were differences. For Airplane freaks, Ms. Slick was Alpha and Omega, her searing voice and long dark hair riding the chuggachuggachugga of Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen. Marty Balin and Paul Kantner took stage turns as her consort. The Airplane had a driving sexuality and a commitment to the ethic of free love that drove a true acidhead couple to the heights of ecstasy.

The Dead’s main icon at the time was not so much Jerry Garcia as that ultimate biker Ron McKernan (a.k.a. Pigpen). The pig has a gravelly voice, no commercial potential and was a primo stagehog. Deadheads, a bit alienated and often unable to get laid, strongly identified with Pig’s sense of danger and self-destruction. Yet it cannot be denied that the Dead made their best music in 1967-69, with the immortal discs Anthem of the Sun and Aoxamocoa (pronounced "Wazamozoa"). These records, along with the Dead’s best tune, Dark Star, were the Kant and Kierkegaard of LSD philosophy. Who was St. Stephen, anyway? (He was Stephen Gaskins, the head of a Memphis cult which supported itself by marketing molasses.) The Dead philosophy embodied the acceptance of mortality and timelessness: "he knows he has to die" is the main refrain of Anthem. The Angels, the leather, the menacing Pigpen turned each Dead gig into a crystal ship moving towards the heart of darkness.

Dead concerts put the green-shirted staff of the Fillmore East on red alert, though these ushers were lambs compared to today’s steel-brained club bouncers. The biker fraternity hung around the Fillmore’s bathrooms looking to pick up badges of courage: a knife fight or an overdose. At the Airplane concerts, the johns were reserved for nymphettes and free love.

The dominant dude at the Fillmore East was the Brooklyn-born ex-crony of Frank Sinatra, Bill Graham, who seemed to cross the country as if by magic from his West Coast clubs, Fillmore West and Winterland, on any given weekend.

Graham argued with audiences from the stage, checked crowds at the door and engaged in harangues with those protesting the high price of tickets ($4!). One-time performance pioneers Julian Beck, Judith Malina and the Living Theater attempted to turn the FIllmore East into a free theater, only to have Graham drive them out in defense of his right to make a profit. But, the Fillmore had no drug busts, there was always a doctor in the house and vibes were good. The intimate lower balcony and steep cheap seats put everyone on top of the stage. Graham even provided cute little programs, which are probably worth a fortune in flea markets.

In many ways the crowd was the show. Frank Zappa habitually sent most of his band members, like Native American drummer Jimmy Carl Black, into the aisles for the duration, dancing and choogling. Banana of the Youngbloods brought young girls on stage to tinkle his piano, and Pigpen used to leap into the first row. As most of the audience used psychedelics, contact highs were common. No fear of sex, no burnout, just free love. Instead of old winos, beautiful 14-year-old girls in beads and shawls, just in from the coast, panhandled in the lobby.

It’s sad to trace the demise of rock in New York. The long ago ’60s created great clubs like Steve Paul’s Scene, Ungano’s and Cafe Au GoGo, where Hendrix and Clapton were regulars. The few years of the Fillmore East gave way to the Academy of Music and CBGB’s. Now we’ve got an aimless club scene and arena concerts. If only we could turn back the hands of time!

Manet's Femme nue se coiffant Sells for $7.5 Million

Manet's Femme nue se coiffant Sells for $7.5 Million artlover568988788088

Edouard Manet (1832-1883), Femme nue se coiffant, 1879. © Christie's Images Ltd.

PARIS, FRANCE.- A work by Edouard Manet titled Femme nue se coiffant was sold at Christie’s in Paris for $7,569,408. This is a record for a painting in France since 1993. This is also a record for a nude painting by a French impressionist painter. The work was purchased by an American collector. The years 1878 and 1879 are oftentimes heralded as Manet's great return to the nude following his notorious compositions Déjeuner sur l'herbe and Olympia of 1863. However the fact is that the artist treated the female nude only very rarely throughout his career; including the present work, only nine completed oil paintings exist in Manet's oeuvre (Wildenstein nos. 7, 40, 67, 69, 176, 226, 241, 287, 318). Along with four pastels executed the same year, Femme nue se coiffant is the last time the artist would treat the female nude in any important manner his work. While Manet was renowned as an accomplished boulevardier - a "dandy in a top hat" - his production from 1879 includes only a smattering of scenes from modern life, amongst them a few images from a café-concert and figure groupings in parks. The vast majority of his work from this year are dedicated to portraiture, for 1879 marks the serious onset of a debilitating illness that would eventually claim his life. The professional result was numerous sittings of friends and family and painting and working sessions with his sole student, Eva Gonzalès. While the younger members of the Parisian avant-garde held Manet in great esteem, he was continually reproached by critics and officials at the Salon for the "sketchy" handling of his compositions and for the implausible realism which, by concentrating on the act of painting itself, ushered "modern art" into existence. His focus on light, colour, form and composition foreshadow twentieth century artistic currants to come. "It was he," said Renoir speaking of his own early training, "who best rendered, in his canvases, the simple formula we were all trying to learn." Matisse echoed this thought years later, "He was the first to act by reflex, thus simplifying the painter's metier... Manet was a direct as could be... a great painter is one who finds lasting personal signs for the expression of his vision. Manet found his" (Manet, 1832-1883, exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 1983, p. 18). Manet's working process is readily apparent in the present work. The background was first established with ochre and blue tones which he then scraped away, leaving behind only a semi-transparent wash. His frenetic pace is palpable in the ensuing execution - the model was quickly sketched and the drapery built up around her forms, resulting in a bravura performance not only technically in the creation of space and depth, but in spontaneity of subject as well. In Femme nue se coiffant, Manet achieves a fluidity and grace, a total liberation from his subject all the while capturing the vivacity in a way that not even Monet would achieve his own Nymphéas for another thirty years to come. The "male gaze" present in Manet's work is of a very different nature to that of his contemporary - and rival - Degas. Manet himself proclaimed : "I can do nothing without nature [before my eyes]... I do not know how to invent... If I am worth something today, it is due to exact interpretation and faithful analysis" (E. Zola, "My Portrait by Edouard Manet", L'Evénement illustré, 10 May 1868; in: Gronberg, Manet: A Retrospective, New York, 1990, p. 100). Manet worked with his subject in view, yet his paintings are more like impressions of the image beheld. Degas worked in his studio from memory and sketches, yet his nudes are more like realistic transcriptions of a moment viewed from a keyhole. So while the model for his nudes of 1879 (including the four pastels heretofore mentioned) remains somewhat of a mystery, Méry Laurent, one of the painter's closest female friends in his later years, is a plausible conjecture. A highly celebrated courtisane, Méry is said to have served as the primary model for Proust's Odette Swann. At the turn of the century, Méry was one of the great demi-mondaines and she lived a life of luxury and leisure, surrounding herself with as many fine toiletries as learned men of the arts. Prior to meeting Thomas Evans, who would become her protector, she had a short-lived career as a stage entertainer. To her Mallarmé dedicated odes, and Joris Karl Huysmans, John Lewis Brown and James McNeil Whistler were counted among her close friends. Manet was delighted by her presence, her gaity, her frivolity, and she would bring him with her to the dress-maker, Worth, and to her hat-maker on rue de la Paix. It is difficult to imagine any one else in the artist's circle of intimates who would have posed for such daring compositions. Since its inception, Femme nue se coiffant has been in the collection of the painter's family and his descendants. Acquired at the Manet Atelier sale by his brother, Eugène, and his wife, Berthe Morisot. The work was then passed on to Julie Manet, Eugène and Berthe's only daughter, and her husband, Ernest Rouart, and with whose descendants this painting has been with ever since.

Christie's confirme sa position dominante en matière d'art contemporain

Christie's confirme sa position dominante en matière d'art contemporain

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Les ventes publiques new-yorkaises d'art contemporain vibrent non plus à coup de centaines de milliers de dollars, mais de millions de dollars. Au firmament des vacations de mai, une œuvre de Mark ROTHKO a été adjugée 65 millions de dollars, devenant l´œuvre post-war la plus chère du marché. Désormais pour Sotheby's et Christie's les vacations d'art contemporain affichent des produits de ventes supérieurs à celles "Impressionist & Modern Art". En 138 lots, les 15 et 16 mai ont engendré, tous frais compris, 639'528´400 millions de dollars, contre 515'012´000 millions de dollars sur 123 lots une semaine auparavant avec les ventes "Impressionist & Modern Art".

Christie´s a eu l´occasion de prouver une nouvelle fois qu´elle domine les ventes d´art contemporain. Les coups de marteau donnés à l´occasion de sa vente du soir du 16 mai 2007 résonneront longtemps encore. S´élevant à 384´654'400 dollars frais compris, il s'agit du meilleur produit des ventes d'art contemporain enregistré à ce jour. Précisons encore qu´il constitue le deuxième meilleur résultat jamais atteint en ventes aux enchères, Christie´s détenant elle-même la première place avec sa vente ventes "Impressionist & Modern Art" du 8 novembre dernier, qui lui rapportait 491'472'000 dollars, frais compris. Par ailleurs, la maison de vente est parvenue à réaliser 26 nouveaux records. Jusqu´alors détenu par son Mao depuis novembre dernier, Andy WARHOL a vu son meilleur prix quadrupler avec l´adjudication de Green Car Crash pour 64 millions de dollars. Autre record que celui de Damien HIRST dont le Lullaby Winter, créé en 2002, partait pour 6'600'000 dollars. Plusieurs œuvres faisaient monter les enchères à un rythme effréné. Ainsi, Mark ROTHKO obtenait son deuxième meilleur prix avec son Untitled de 1954 frappé à 24 millions de dollars. Celui crée en 1961 partait quant à lui pour 20 millions de dollars. Willem KOONING de enfin livrait son Untitled I pour lequel le marteau tombait sous le coup des 17'000'000 de dollars.

Bien qu´inférieur au résultat obtenu par sa concurrente, la vente de Sotheby´s ne peut pour autant être qualifiée d´accessoire. Le 15 mai, elle comptabilisait, frais compris, pas moins de 254'874'000 dollars. Mark ROTHKO trouvait ainsi meilleur preneur chez elle et signait par là même son nouveau record. Son White Center, crée en 1950, trouvait preneur à 65 millions de dollars. En novembre 2006 déjà, Sotheby´s permettait à Francis BACON de dépasser la barre des 10 millions de dollars en adjugeant sa Version No.2 of Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe pour plus de 13 millions de dollars. Trois mois plus tard, sa concurrente lui arrachait le titre en obtenant près du double, frappant 24'632'500 dollars sur Study for Portrait II. Sotheby´s espérait certes plus de 30 millions de $ pour l´étude d´Innoncent X, elle en aura finalement obtenu 47 millions le 15 mai dernier. Pour ne faire que les citer, les trois autres records de la vente ont été obtenus par Jean-Michel BASQUIAT dont le Untitled datant de 1981 est parti pour 13 millions de dollars, Robert RAUSCHENBERG dont Photograph a entendu le marteau frapper sur 9 millions 5 et enfin Tom WESSELMANN dont le Smocker n 17 aura été adjugé à 5,2 millions.

En 2006, les deux rivales obtenaient près de 660 millions de dollars au terme de ces ventes de mai new yorkaises. Cette année, les acheteurs ont déboursé plus d´un milliard de dollars sur ces dernières. Les ventes de mai des années à venir vont très certainement confirmer la position des deux maisons.

CHRISTIE’S $384.6 MILLION CONTEMPORARY SALE

CHRISTIE’S $384.6 MILLION CONTEMPORARY SALE artlover0225895888789878

Andy Warhol Green Car Crash 1963 $71,720,000 Christie’s New York May 16, 2007

Andy Warhol Lemon Marilyn 1954 $28,040,000 Christie’s New York May 16, 2007

Jasper Johns Figure 4 1959 $17,400,000 Christie’s New York May 16, 2007

Marc Newson Pod of Drawers 1987-90 $1,048,000 Christie’s New York May 16, 2007

Andy Warhol Leo Castelli 1965 $1,720,000 Christie’s New York May 16, 2007

Tobey Maguire, center, watches the action at Christie’s New York, May 16, 2007

Lisa Yuskavage Night 1999-2000 $1,384,000 Christie’s New York May 16, 2007

Philip Guston Head and Bottle 1975 $6,536,000 Christie’s New York May 16, 2007

Cindy Sherman Untitled No. 92 1981 $2,112,000 Christie’s New York May 16, 2007

Tom Wesselman Mouth #2 1966 $2,168,000 Christie’s New York May 16, 2007

John Baldessari Quality Material. . . 1967-68 $4,408,000 Christie’s New York May 16, 2007

The evening sale of post-war and contemporary art at Christie’s New York on May 16, 2007, was certainly dramatic, if higher and higher bids coming one after the other almost without end is your idea of drama. The sale totaled $384,654,400, a new record for a contemporary auction, with 74 of the 78 lots finding buyers, or 95 percent. Looks like the bulls still rule the art market.

"I’m stunned and exhausted and thrilled," said auctioneer Christopher Burge at the post-sale press conference. It seems he’s always saying something along those lines, though this time it was truer than ever. "We had strong prices in all sections of the market with bidders from all over the world." Indeed, the first passed lot didn’t come till lot 37, about an hour into the sale. Sixty-five of the lots sold for over $1 million, and 26 new artists records were set.

Prices given here include the buyer’s premium of 20 percent of the first $500,000 bid and 12 percent of the remainder.

Although plenty of action took place in the room, most of the top ten lots were won by phone bidders. Andy Warhol’s Green Car Crash (1963), which Christie’s said would establish a new price level for Warhol, did just that, soaring above its presale high estimate of $35 million to go for $71,720,000.

Burge started the bidding at $16 million, ran it quickly up to $25 million, and then the bids ping-ponged between the phones in $500,000 increments (Burge tried but never cajoled the bidders to take leaps of $1 million, like Tobias Meyer had done at Sotheby’s the night before).

The back-and-forth telephone duel between one bidder on the line with Marc Porter, president of Christie’s Americas, and another with Ken Yeh, Christie’s deputy chairman for Asia -- who was comically holding two phones, one to each ear -- seemed to go on forever, until it was abruptly interrupted by Larry Gagosian, sitting in the room, who jumped in at $61.5 million. "He’s bidding for David Geffen," guessed one know-it-all in the crowd.

Gagosian’s last-minute effort was to no avail, as Yeh’s phone bidder would not be denied, and the Warhol was knocked down at $64 million, or $71,720,000 with premium. The crowd applauded. Could the picture be heading east?

Three lots later, a small (20 x 16 in.) Andy Warhol portrait of Marilyn Monroe, dubbed Lemon Marilyn (1962), sold for $28,040,000, once again to a phone bidder -- though Gagosian, on his cell with a client, came in at $25.5 million, only to quickly rescind his bid. "We can go back and do it again if you like," quipped Burge.

For a while, it seemed as if every third or fourth lot broke $10 million. A red and pink Mark Rothko painting from 1954 sold for $26,920,000, a dark red and crimson Rothko from 1961 went for $22,440,000, a 1981 Willem de Kooning painting was purchased for $19,080,000.

Jasper Johns’ Figure 4 (1959), a picture as small as the Lemon Warhol (ca. 20 x 16 in.), sold for $17,400,000, a new auction record for the artist. The buyer was again Larry Gagosian, who won several other lots as well, including the record-setting Marc Newson riveted aluminum Pod of Drawers (1987) for $1,048,000, a large (99 x 147 in.) Damien Hirst dot painting for $2,392,000, and a painting by Eric Fischl, Slumber Party (1983), for $768,000. They obviously don’t call him "superdealer" for nothing.

As for the crowd in the room, most dressed up, and a few dressed down. Stephanie Seymour, sitting up front with her husband, Peter Brant, wore a long ribbon in her hair, a black turtleneck and black pumps, and a flared skirt with concentric rings of piping that suggested an homage to the Paul Poiret show at the Metropolitan Museum. She looked sharp.

On the other hand, Tobey Maguire, sitting further back with a couple of friends (including collector and Hollywood producer Stavros Merjos), dressed down, wearing sneakers, jeans, a gray t-shirt and gray baseball cap. Though he is an art collector (as well as Spiderman), he watched the action quietly and didn’t buy anything.

Successful bidders did include L&M Arts, which won the large (77x 62 in.) Lisa Yuskavage painting of a sultry babe, Night (1999-2000), for $1,384,000, a new auction record for the artist, and London dealer Tim Taylor, who snagged the impressive Philip Guston Head and Bottle (1975) for $6,536,000, though only after a ferocious battle among several bidders.

Daniela Luxembourg, sitting in the front row, took home an impressive set of 79-inch-wide lips by Tom Wesselmann, Mouth #2 (1966), for $2,168,000 -- the dealer flashed her own happy smile when she won the lot -- and also successfully bid for Roy Lichtenstein’s 1965 Landscape with Column, paying $4,744,000.

Jack Tilton bought Agnes Martin’s Minimalist Mountain II, a 72-inch-square traversed by pairs of parallel pencil lines, for $4,520,000, and Andrew Fabricant of Richard Gray Gallery purchased an impressive 1957 Hans Hofmann abstraction titled Early Dawn for $2,112,000, a new auction record for the artist.

Paul Judelson of I-20 gallery in Chelsea was the successful bidder for Andy Warhol’s beautiful, 40 x 40 in. portrait of art dealer Leo Castelli, which sold for $1,720,000. The painting was consigned by Laura de Coppet, a close associate of Castelli’s and the co-author of The Art Dealers.

Also late in the sale, Chelsea dealer David Zwirner won two lots back-to-back, setting new auction records for both artists: Hiroshi Sugimoto, whose Black Sea, Red Sea, Yellow Sea triptych from 1991-92 went for $1,888,000; and Cindy Sherman, whose Untitled No. 92 (1981) -- one of the well-known double-square "victim" images -- went for $2,112,000.

Needless to say, whether all these dealers were buying for clients or for stock is a secret known only to the principals.

The sale set so many new auction records that it almost makes more sense to list the lots that weren’t milestones. But let’s not; in addition to those already cited, records were set for Richard Artschwager ($1,272,000), John Baldessari ($4,408,000), Cecily Brown ($1,608,000), Richard Diebenkorn ($6,760,000), Lucio Fontana ($1,832,000), Arshile Gorky ($4,182,000), Eva Hesse ($4,520,000), Damien Hirst ($7,432,000), Donald Judd ($9,840,000), Morris Louis ($2,896,000), Agnes Martin ($4,744,000), Richard Prince ($2,840,000), Gerhard Richter ($6,200,000), Susan Rothenberg ($1,496,000), Wilhelm Sasnal ($396,000) and Matthias Weischer ($480,000).

One seller of note was Mel Bochner, who consigned a 1966 work by his friend Eva Hesse, Untitled ("Bochner Compart"), which sold for $3,064,000.

'The Thinker' Visits Frederik Meijer Gardens

'The Thinker' Visits Frederik Meijer Gardens artlover548795887788

Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker on temporary loan from the Detroit Institute of Arts.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI.- Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, the most significant sculpture and botanic experience in the Midwest and an emerging cultural destination on the national scene, today announced the exhibition of Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker on temporary loan from the Detroit Institute of Arts from May 23, 2007 – October 31, 2007. Meijer Gardens currently has two pieces by Rodin in the permanent collection: Eve in the Sculpture Park and The Kiss in the Victorian Conservatory. One of the most well-known and iconic works in the history of art, The Thinker, originally conceived as part of the sculptor’s famed Gates of Hell, was enlarged and re-imagined as an independent work of art. Created in 1880 and cast in bronze in 1904, The Thinker was given to the Detroit Institute of Art in 1922 by Horace H. Rackham, and has never been loaned to any other organization—until now. The Thinker will arrive at Meijer Gardens on May 22, 2007 and will be placed in the Sculpture Park on May 23, 2007. The month of May marks the Sculpture Park ’s fifth anniversary, and having this monumental piece is a magnificent celebration of the organization’s achievement the art world. The Thinker will be placed across from the waterfall in The Sculpture Park – one of the most photographed scenes throughout the entire 125-acres. Rodin himself wrote about his intention: “The Thinker has a story. In the days long gone by I conceived the idea of the Gates of Hell. Before the door, seated on the rock, Dante thinking of the plan of the poem behind him…all the characters from the Divine Comedy. This project was not realized. This ascetic Dante and his straight robe separated from all the rest would have been without meaning. Guided by my first inspiration I conceived another thinker, a naked man, seated on a rock, his fist against his teeth, he dreams. The fertile thought slowly elaborates itself within his brain. He is no longer a dreamer, he is a creator.” “The Detroit Institute of Arts is very pleased to share significant works from its collection with other important cultural institutions,” said Graham W. J. Beal, DIA director. “Our loan of The Thinker to Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park this summer will allow many more Michigan residents and tourists to see this iconic piece while we complete the final phase of the museum’s renovation.” “I feel that we have been chosen as a site for this magnificent piece of sculpture because we share a mutual love and appreciation for the arts” said David Hooker, President & CEO of Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park . “We are honored to have this piece on loan to us for The Sculpture Park’s 5th anniversary in May and hope that many will take this opportunity to see this world renowned work of art while it is in West Michigan .” About Auguste Rodin: Born in Paris in 1840, Rodin attended school and began an interest in drawing at a young age. He attempted to enter Beaux-Arts (art academy) three times, but failed and decided to work briefly as a decorative sculptor. Rodin began to work with sculptor Henri Carrier-Belleuse in 1864, with whom he developed a life long relationship. At the height of his career, Rodin was regarded as the greatest sculptor since Michelangelo. His vigorous modeling technique was subjective and impressionistic; he captured movement and depth of emotion by altering traditional poses and gestures to create new forms of intense vitality. Rodin’s first public exhibit of his work, Le Vainca, took place in 1877. In 1880 the monumental Gates of Hell was commissioned whose iconography is loosely based around Dante’s Divine Comedy, and of which The Thinker was initially included. The Thinker became an independent work of sculpture one year later. In 1917, at the sculptor’s request, his personal cast of The Thinker was positioned at his tomb in Meudon.

Edward Hopper at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Edward Hopper at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston artlover2584158988

PhotoGallery / Edward Hopper at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Edward Hopper (American, 1882–1967), Nighthawks, 1942, Oil on canvas. Edward Hopper (American, 1882–1967), [Self-Portrait], 1925–30, Oil on canvas, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Josephine N. Hopper Bequest. © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of American Art; photographs by Robert E. Mates. Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

BOSTON, MA.- The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, presents Edward Hopper, an exhibition devoted to the work of one of the most enduringly popular American painters of the 20th century. On view through August 19, 2007. This comprehensive retrospective comprises nearly 100 paintings, watercolors, and prints, and focuses on the artist’s work from about 1925 to 1950––the period of Hopper’s greatest achievements. During this time, he produced emorable works of New York city scenes, as well as New England lighthouses and seascapes. Many paintings that will be on view are considered icons of 20th-century American art including Nighthawks (1942, The Art Institute of Chicago), Early Sunday Morning (1930, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York), and Automat (1927, Des Moines Art Center, Iowa). The exhibition is organized by the MFA, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and the Art Institute of Chicago. The show will be accompanied by a catalogue published by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Tour Dates: MFA: 5/6/2007–8/19/2007; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.: 9/2007–1/2008; Art Institute of Chicago: 2/2008–5/2008.

Le Pop art anglais

Le Pop art anglais

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A l´aube des années 60, le Pop art invente un nouveau répertoire d´images emprunté à la culture populaire. Les artistes s´approprient, de manière décomplexée et souvent ironique, des images issues du monde de la publicité, du cinéma, de la Bd, des médias, bref… ils jonglent avec une iconographie propre à la culture de consommation de leur époque. La définition que Richard Hamilton offre de sa production artistique donne le ton, son art se veut "populaire, éphémère, jetable, bon marché, produit en masse, spirituel, sexy, plein d´astuces, fascinant et qui rapporte gros".

Le terme de Pop art, aujourd´hui largement galvaudé, a désigné des artistes anglo-saxons émergeants à la fin des années 50. La version anglaise du mouvement est moins populaire que l´américaine et se classe pourtant sur la troisième marché du podium parmi les 10 mouvements les plus porteurs des 10 dernières années (selon le classement d´Artprice), avec une hausse de prix de + 496% enregistrée entre 1997 et janvier 2007.

David Hockney est né en Angleterre ou il fait ses études d´art, mais c´est aux Etats–Unis, au contact de Warhol, qu´il oriente sa peinture vers le Pop art. De fait, son marché est plus dynamique aux Etats-Unis (62% du produit des ventes) qu´en Angleterre (35% du produit des ventes). C´est pourtant à Londres que Sotheby´s signait son enchère record : 2,6 millions pour The Splash, la seconde peinture d´une série de trois réalisée en 1966 dont la première version fait partie des collections de la Tate Modern de Londres. L´artiste le plus coté du Pop art anglais est encore loin derrière Warhol qui a signé pas moins de 4 enchères supérieures à 10 millions de $ en 2006! La majorité des toiles de Hockney s´arrachent tout de même à plus de 100 000 $. Pour une œuvre originale n´excédant pas 10 000 $, l´amateur peut s´orienter sur ses dessins, notamment quelques travaux à l´encre ou au crayon comme le «Camera Bag» partit pour 6 000 $, le 26 février 2006 (Sotheby´s NY). Dans cette fourchette de prix, des travaux photographiques sont accessibles comme le cliché Peter beside the Pool adjugé 6 500 $ le 14 février dernier chez Swann Galleries NY. Les photomontages de grandes dimensions s´échangent quant à eux aisément au-delà des 10 000 $.

Peintures et dessins de Richard Hamilton sont rares en ventes publiques : on compte seulement 11 toiles dispersées en 10 ans et cette pénurie engage les collectionneurs à la surenchère pour des pièces historiques. Ce fut le cas en février 2006 pour la technique mixte Fashion Plate, Cosmetic Study X de 1969 qui triplait son estimation pour s´envoler à 440 000 £ signant la plus belle adjudication de Hamilton. Ces petits clichés photographiques retouchés au crayon de la série White Bay (env. 10 x 15 cm) sont accessibles entre 700 $ et 1 000 $, un montant à décupler pour une épreuve de plus grande envergure.

Outre les figures mondialement connues que sont Hamilton et Hockney, les maisons de ventes anglaises défendent des artistes populaires comme Patrick Caulfield dont 99% du produit des ventes est réalisé au Royaume-Uni. 2006 fut faste en records puisque Caulfield signait également son plus beau résultat l´été dernier avec Sun Lounge vendue 450 000 £ chez Christie´s. Le marché Peter Blake et de R. B. Kitaj est à près de 90% anglais. Blake ne bénéficie pas de l´engouement dont profitent les œuvres d´Hockney et Hamilton. Pour exemple, son travail à l´encre sur papier intitulé Water-Lillies, Holland (1974) était adjugé 3 000 £ chez Bonhams Knightsbridge (Londres) en avril 2006 mais la même œuvre soumise aux enchères le 9 mai 2007 chez Christie's-South-Kensington (Londres) ne décrochait que 600 £.

Plus prisées, les toiles d´Allen Jones changent de main pour une fourchette d´adjudication souvent comprise entre 30 000 et 65 000 $. Allen Jones a accédé à la célébrité grâce à son exposition de sculptures érotiques, notamment la série Chaise, Table et Porte manteau (1969) dans lesquels des femmes sont transformées en meubles. Ces œuvres n´ont jamais été proposées en ventes publiques mais l´amateur peut acquérir une œuvre tridimensionnelle signée Jones entre 2 000 et 3 000 $ pour des tirages à 125 exemplaires et à partir de 8 000 $ pour des éditions restreintes à 7 exemplaires.

Spencer Tunick Goes to Iceland

Spencer Tunick Goes to Iceland artlover2589568878988

Spencer Tunick, NewcastleGateshead 4 (BALTIC Centre of Contemporary Art) 2005 2005. C-print mounted between plexi 89.25 x 71 in (226.7 x 180.3 cm). Edition: 1.

REYKJAVIK.- I8 presents Spencer Tunick, on view through June 23. Spencer Tunick comes to Iceland straight from Mexico city where he conducted one of his biggest installations to date. Spencer will be exhibiting large group photos and also pictures of individuals from his stay in Iceland last year. Spencer Tunick was born in 1967 and currently lives in New York. He has been documenting the live nude figure in public since 1992 and has created installations around the world in spectacular locations including Belgium, Australia, Canada, USA and Brazil, gathering thousands of people at one time. His temporary site-specific installations in the past have been commissioned by the Vienna Kunsthalle (1999), Institut Cultura, Barcelona (2003), XXV Biennial de Sao Paulo, Brazil (2002); The Saatchi Gallery 2003); MOCA Cleveland (2004) and BALTIC, Newcastle Gateshead, UK; UNAM Mexico City (2007), among others. Creating temporary site-specific landscapes involving many nude figures arranged in public places, Tunick’s installations follow on the tradition of land art. Working directly in the landscape, the artist uses the nude body as raw material to intervene and transform a chosen site, documenting the installations with photography and video which he then exhibits in a gallery context. Tunick’s work, poetic and challenging, questions the relationship between art and urban space. To settle the installations, a large number of bodies are undressed, set all together, until they form a new common shape. They take place in an environment as a new material, drawing a totally abstract form, out of all sexual connotation and sometimes nearly close to mineral. Referring to land art, Tunick’s work also underlines the difficulties one can find to exhibit everlasting or ephemeral art into public space. The poetic whole resulting from individual bodies arranged in a sculptural way in an urban setting, challenges traditionally held views on nudity and privacy as well as social and political issues surrounding art in the public sphere. On first sight Tunick’s work generates a strong feeling of abolishment of any social, cultural, racial, economical and political difference. By mixing all backgrounds and origins of the bodies Tunick enhances the moment of the work, making it unique and collective. Showing bodies that no longer hide their sexuality raise the questions of how our contemporary society can question nudity, and how it receives it from nowadays medias : Tunick’s work isn’t about pornography nor voyeurism. It is universal, out of all the contemporary disguises. Close to ecosophy it makes men closer to the essential in a relative modesty. The spontaneous way in which the participants take place in this collective « here and now » event can be seen as a way back to a certain number of values or questions such as ethic and its place in our postmodern life. Making the artist work with a given environment, enhancing our vision on nudity and intimacy, raising a reflexion on the way art can create a link between things and human being, social or cultural, here are some of the questions that emerge from Spencer Tunick’s work. Out of any aesthetic and pictorial sensation, or on confrontation of mankind toward Nature and social points, out of the gesture of creation and the artist’s role (being out of the group and its representation), Tunick’s work essentially questions our relationship to the world.

PINAULT AND CO.

PINAULT AND CO. artlover652898788488588

Alison Gingeras and Jean-Jacques Aillagon

Robert Gober’s Door with Lightbulb (1992) at the Palazzo Grassi

Mike Kelley’s Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #1 (Domestic Scene) (2000) at the Palazzo Grassi

Subodh Gupta’s Very Hungry God (2006) at the Palazzo Grassi

Richard Prince’s Entertainers (1982) in "Sequence 1" at Palazzo Grassi

Kristin Baker’s Flying Curve, Differential Manifold (2007) at the Palazzo Grassi

Works from Roberto Cuoghi’s "Axis of Evil" (2007) at the Palazzo Grassi

Louise Lawler’s Adolf (Must Be Installed 8 Inches from the Floor) (2006) at the Palazzo Grassi

Rudolf Stingel and Franz West’s Untitled (2006), installed outside the Palazzo Grassi

Urs Fischer’s Jet Set Lady (2000-2005) and Rudolf Stingel’s Untitled (2006) carpet, at the Palazzo Grassi

Franz West’s Oasis (1997-2007) at the Palazzo Grassi

Urs Fischer’s Not titled, yet (wall paper) (2007) at the Palazzo Grassi

David Hammons and admirers at the opening of "Sequence 1"

Franz West’s La Sagra (2007) at the Palazzo Grassi

"Sequence 1: Painting and Sculpture in the François Pinault Collection," May 5-Nov. 11, 2007, at the Palazzo Grassi, Campo San Samuele, 3231 CP 708, Venice, Italy

François Pinault is an art-world King Kong. He owns Christie’s auction house. He has a collection of between 2,500 and 3,000 pieces of primo art and his own personal curator. He’s a veteran of the number one spot on innumerable art-world "Power" lists.

It’s time, then, to answer the proverbial question: Where does a 600-pound gorilla put his art?

Anywhere he wants, of course, but for now it’s the stately Palazzo Grassi in Venice, where a formidable selection from his collection, titled "Sequence 1," has just gone on view.

Two years ago, frustrated at the slow pace of his plan to found his own museum on an island in the Seine in a Paris suburb, Pinault transferred his ambitions to Venice. Striking a deal with local authorities, he took over the dormant cultural space of the Palazzo Grassi and hired starchitect Tadeo Ando to perform a tasteful, workmanlike renovation.

Jean-Jacques Aillagon, former culture minister under Jacques Chirac, is captain of Pinault’s Venetian endeavor, and he wants to be clear that all is exactly as his boss would have it. "It is not a consolation prize," he says of the Palazzo Grassi. Indeed, for Pinault has also scored rights to another enviable Venice site, the city’s Punta della Dogana, which will eventually hold a more permanent display of his collection.

Pinault’s polished, "anywhere he wants it" mastery is also what "Sequence 1" is designed to project. Organized with a sure hand by Pinault curator Alison Gingeras, "Sequence 1" boasts a roster of artists that seems calibrated to reflect the cheerful multiculturalism of tourism, Venice’s lifeblood. The show includes scads of Americans (Kristin Baker, Robert Gober, David Hammons, Mike Kelley, Louise Lawler, Laura Owens and Richard Prince); Europeans from the richer parts (Urs Fischer from Switzerland, Martial Raysse from France, Anselm Reyle from Germany and Franz West from Austria); plus a selection of artists from further afield, including Takashi Murakami (whose new works for the Palazzo Grassi remained unfinished for the press opening), Subodh Gupta (India), the South Africa-born, Netherlands-based Marlene Dumas and, last but not least, Roberto Cuoghi and Rudolf Stingel, representing homegrown Italian visitors.

To Gingeras’ credit, all of the artists seem right at home in the Palazzo Grassi, like pearls nestled in the baroque folds of an oyster shell. Ando has turned most of the rooms into clean white cubes, but he has left key bits of the traditional ceilings and walls visible, so that visitors don’t forget where they are at.

Sometimes "Sequence 1" takes advantage of the obliteration of the historical space, as with Robert Gober’s red light bulb above a door flanked by stacks of newspapers, set in a darkened white room -- suddenly you’re in a haunted amusement park. Elsewhere, the art purposefully vibrates against the context, as with Mike Kelley’s spare, deliberately incoherent recreation of the set for a high school play, Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #1 (Domestic Scene), which features a bed and a stove surrounded by some drab walls and set on a blank rug. This pathetic setup clashes pleasantly with the grandiose, densely decorative ceiling.

For those who have been paying attention to contemporary art, there are iconic statements at every turn. Arriving by water taxi, one is greeted by Subodh Gupta’s enormous skull made of pots beside the dock out front, fresh from serving as highlight of the "La Nuit Blanche" festival in Paris last year. On the first floor alone are a room filled with black monoliths inset with Richard Prince photographs of blurry movie stars, a funky homemade David Hammons basketball hoop leaning against a wall and a gallery with Urs Fischer’s box of Camel cigarettes hanging on a string, moved slowly around the room by a mechanical arm -- one from an edition that turned heads at last year’s Art Basel Miami Beach.

On the whole, however, "Sequence 1" wrestles mightily with what the New York Times recently called the "I’m Rich, Here’s My Stuff" syndrome. This show wants to be taken much more seriously than a random collection of great and important things you can buy with $14.5 billion (Pinault’s fortune, according to Forbes). It pursues this goal, first of all, by commissioning brand new great, important things for the exhibition, thus signaling it as an event that is more than just the sum of preexisting parts. Thus, we have Kristin Baker’s Flying Curve, Differential Manifold -- a mural-sized work that resembles a Futurist skateboarding ramp turned on its side -- and Roberto Cuoghi’s "Axis of Evil" cycle, nine paintings displayed in a low-lit back gallery, each one taking the borders of a country "considered hostile to the West" and making a semi-abstract composition of it, layering together glass, lead, ink and, according to the label, cocoa butter.

From Louise Lawler is a new suite of photographs that document the installation of Gingeras’ 2006 show of the Pinault collection at the Palazzo Grassi, "Where Are We Going?," capturing details like the hoof of a preserved Damien Hirst animal sculpture. Another photo, titled Adolf (Must be Installed 8 Inches from the Floor) features a crated version of Maurizio Cattelan’s sculpture of a tiny Hitler, and is found, as per the title, randomly placed at shin level among the other art treasures.

Both in its knowing play with the space and its self-reference to the idea of Pinault as supercollector, Lawler’s piece is emblematic of a kind of labyrinthine, self-aware spin Gingeras gives the show. The experience resembles a slightly more genteel version of the keep-‘em-guessing curating of the last Whitney Biennial -- but there, it was meant to stand in for the sense of fragmentation and centerlessness of contemporary America, whereas here it is a attempt to make Pinault’s artistic personality seem total, the way putting two mirrors face-to-face yields the effect of an endlessly receding space. It is in this sense, finally, that "Sequence 1" is owned by the trio of Fischer, Stingel and West.

Gingeras speaks enthusiastically in conversation about the elusive Hammons’ personal participation in the installation of his works -- a not-so-subtle way of telegraphing the weight the Pinault project pulls. Next to these three Europeans, though, Hammons’ participation is (characteristically) invisible. Fischer, Stingel and West’s involvement is all over the place. They are out front when you approach from the street, where stands a rickety white kiosk on stilts designed by Stingel and West.

Stingel and Fischer dominate the entry to the show. The rug is a Stingel artwork, a jittery black-and-white simulacrum of a carpet pattern, while the atrium is dominated by a giant Christmas-tree-like construction by Fischer. Assembled from a chaotic and dense myriad of metal-framed images, Fischer’s sculpture is billed as a 3D depiction of the inside of the artist’s brain, which, to judge by what we see here, contains mainly cartoons and porno.

And the whole shebang climaxes on the third floor, where the contributions of Fischer and West come into glorious, playful collision down one long hall. On one end is a West work titled Oasis, a new collection of West’s signature furniture, but made with air mattresses on steel frames, accompanied by "instructions for use" videos featuring comely black-clad young people cavorting on the furniture. West brought in another artist, Tamuna Sibirladze, to repaint the walls, and visitors are encouraged to sit and interact with all the gear (in comic contrast to Fischer’s cigarette-pack-on-a-string piece a floor below, where the poor guards frantically attempt to warn each new visitor of the invisible thread).

Neighboring rooms also contain Fischer’s ghostly gray copies of classic post-war paintings that were previously displayed in the palazzo. Faint images of Rothkos, Mardens and Serras -- termed "wallpaper" by Fischer -- haunt the space, complete with copied wall labels easily confused with the contemporary ones. The artist’s work becomes both an homage to and a mockery of curator, collector and space.

Compared to these artists’ open, anything-goes enthusiasm for their Pinault-approved license, the other participants can only appear a bit standoffish, as if they don’t quite get what game they are playing. Gingeras seems to favor the anti-art gestures of this European trio, not just in the number of their works she includes but also temperamentally. Incestuous, slippery flirtations with power run to her taste. After all, she has already become an artwork herself in Untitled (Ginger Ass), when her boyfriend Piotr Uklanski ran a photo of her naked posterior as a "centerfold" in Artforum magazine, for which she wrote an accompanying essay on the esthetics of self-promotion (also revealing that "Uklanski likes porn.")

At the Palazzo Grassi is a sly repetition of this gesture, found in a painting that greets visitors as they ascend the grand stairway to the first floor. A large mock-up of an invitation to the show itself, executed in a vaguely expressionist style by Franz West, it features the title of the exhibition, prominently highlighting the name of Françios Pinault, and a list of the names of the artists in the show -- with Gingeras inserted seamlessly among them. Somehow crass and classy at once, sleek and self-mythologizing, conceptual and trophy-like, the work makes one believe that King Pinault has found his perfect Fay Wray in Gingeras.

Niki de Saint-Phalle at Coskun Fine Art

Niki de Saint-Phalle at Coskun Fine Art artlover42852984188788

Niki de Saint Phalle, Lady With Handbag.

LONDON.-Coskun Fine Art proudly presents the work of internationally renowned artist Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002) at its Walton Street gallery from 15th May until 30th June 2007. Featuring signature pieces from Sainte Phalle’s oeuvre, including sculptural pieces such as the Nanas, the exhibition’s strong colourful works capture Saint Phalle’s life-long theme of self-reflection and her wish for freedom. One of the most famous artists of the 20th century, the influence of Saint Phalle--vivacious and inventive, original and open-minded-- continues today in contemporary art. From her early works of the 1950s, when she began drawing and painting, through her assemblages and shooting pictures, to the political and artistic statements of the early 1960s and works late in her career at the turn of the century, the central concepts of her art were the additive strategies of collage and assemblage (the collection and altering of found materials); her approach to landscapes, the introduction of narrative figures and stories; and overall an intense relationship between the private life and public work. Born in 1930 into a French-American family, Saint Phalle was raised on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, but spent extended periods of her childhood in France and spent the rest of her life between Europe and the States. Long before feminism in art, she defined new roles and forms of presentation for the female artist, and with remarkable femininity. She was the beauty who challenged the beast of public taste. Deliberately ignoring accepted female role images such as passivity, withdrawal, shyness, and the willingness to play second fiddle, she directed a sharp criticism at the prejudiced images of male society. Saint Phalle is perhaps best remembered for her Tarot Garden, a sculptural garden she devised in Tuscany. Inspired by Gaudi’s Parc Güell in Barcelona, Saint Phalle sought to make a similar monumental sculptural park, but created by a woman. Having acquired the land in 1979, the park opened in 1998 after more than 20 years of work. The garden contains sculptures of the symbols found on Tarot cards. The Saint Phalle works on display at Coskun Fine Art capture the same themes in Works such as Me and You Vase (inspired by Hierophant, Card V) and L’Oiseau amoureux (inspired by Temperance, Card XIII).

Paul Cézanne Watercolor Sells for Record $25.5 Million

Paul Cézanne Watercolor Sells for Record $25.5 Million artlover2085689788

Paul Cézanne, Nature morte au melon vert. © Sotheby's.

NEW YORK.- Sotheby’s spring evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in New York brought an outstanding total of $278,548,000, the second highest total for an auction in Sotheby’s 263-year history. The top price achieved this evening was for one of the most important watercolors by Paul Cézanne remaining in private hands, Nature morte au melon vert, which sold for $25,520,000, above the high estimate of $18 million and a record for a work on paper by the artist at auction. That price was closely followed by the record price of $23,280,000 realized by Lyonel Feininger’s spectacular Jesuiten III, the cover lot of this evening’s sale which was the subject of an intense bidding battle before selling to a round of applause (est. $7/9 million). Additional auction records were established for Marino Marini and Theo van Doesburg and for works on paper by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Giacomo Balla. The sale was over 90% sold by lot and value with 36 works selling for more than $1 million. David Norman, a Chairman of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Department Worldwide, said, “We are ecstatic about the results of tonight’s sale, which were second only to the all-time record for an auction at Sotheby’s achieved back in May of 1990. There is a hunger in the marketplace for great works of art, whatever the medium or period. Tonight we saw remarkable prices for works on paper with the Cézanne still-life and Rose period Picasso; an extraordinary result for the German Expressionist work by Feininger, for rare works by artists such as Balla and van Doesburg, and fierce competition for sculpture by Giacometti and Marini. There was great depth in the bidding with numerous new buyers participating in addition to many of our long-time clients. What is particularly notable is the ever-widening geographical diversity of the buying pool. ” Highlighting this evening’s sale was Nature morte au melon vert by Paul Cézanne from the private collection of Giuseppe Eskenazi, which sold for $25,520,000, above the pre-sale estimate of $14/18 million. That price far eclipses the previous record for a work on paper by the artist at auction set by the same work at the legendary The British Rail Pension Fund sale held at Sotheby’s London in 1989. As many as five bidders competed for a painting from the height of Lyonel Feininger’s Expressionist period, Jesuiten III, driving the final price to $23,280,000, more than double the high estimate of $9 million and a record for the artist at auction. Bidding was also fierce for Fernand Léger’s superb Les Usines, from 1918, which was sought-after by as many as six different bidders driving the final price to $14,320,000. The painting, which is a brilliant example of the artist’s fascination with the rapidly evolving urban environment, had been estimated to sell for $5/7 million. This evening’s sale included an outstanding offering of paintings and sculpture spanning the career of Pablo Picasso – from important Rose period works to a powerful painting from 1965 that ranks among the artist’s finest Post-War canvases. Tête d'arlequin, one in a series of eight portraits of an anonymous adolescent boy (including the masterful Garçon à la pipe sold by Sotheby’s in 2004 for a record $104.2 million) sold for $15,160,000. A stunning work on paper, Famille d’arlequin, consigned by the family of renowned American collector, Joan Whitney Payson, surpassed a high estimate of $8 million to sell for $9,840,000. Another work by the artist, Les Amants from 1932, a rare dual-portrait of the artist watching his young lover Marie-Thérèse Walter as she sleeps, sold for $14,600,000. Le Grand Cirque by Marc Chagall was also among the top lots for this evening’s sale selling for $13,760,000. One of the artist’s largest renditions of the circus theme (159.5 x 308.5 cm) and arguably one of the finest works of its kind to ever appear on the auction market, the painting had been estimated to sell for $8/12 million. Joan Miró’s extraordinary Peinture (Le Cheval de cirque), from a series of supremely abstracted depictions of a circus horse painted at the height of his involvement with the Surrealists, brought $8,440,000 (est. $8/10 million). Among the sculpture offered this evening was Alberto Giacometti’s Homme Traversant une place par un matin soleil, the artist’s proof from an edition of six casts which brought $7,432,000. The sculpture, which five different bidders competed for, had been estimated to sell for $4/6 million. A rare, unique and monumental sculpture by Marino Marini, L’Idea del Cavaliere, sold for $7,040,000. The sculpture, a painted wood version of a work that that was originally conceived in 1955 in plaster and cast in bronze in an edition of four, was estimated at $6/8 million. For the third time, Sotheby’s had the privilege of offering works from the Neumann Family Collection, one of the most important collections of 20th century art in private hands. Giacomo Balla’s Velocità d’automobile + luci, which belongs to a seminal group of works exploring the ultimate concepts of Futurism: dynamism, speed and light, sold for $3,960,000, a record for a work on paper by the artist at auction, and Contra-Composition VII, a rare work by Theo van Doesburg, a leading member of the De Stijl movement brought $4,184,000, a record for the artist at auction.

ART MARKET WATCH - May 2007

ART MARKET WATCH - May 2007 artlover708285987898

Lyonel Feininger Jesuiten III 1915 $23, 280,000 Sotheby’s New York May 8, 2007

Paul Cézanne Nature morte au melon vert 1902-06 $25,520,000 Sotheby’s New York May 8, 2007

Paul Cézanne Rocher près des grottes au-dessus de château noir 1895-1900 $2,280,000 Sotheby’s New York May 8, 2007

Paul Cézanne Rocher près des grottes au-dessus de château noir 1895-1900 $2,280,000 Sotheby’s New York May 8, 2007

Pablo Picasso Tête d’arlequin 1905 $15,260,000 Sotheby’s New York May 8, 2007

Pablo Picasso Homme à la pipe assis dans un fauteuil 1916 $4,744,000 Sotheby’s New York May 8, 2007

Wassily Kandinsky Weisser Klang 1908 $5,416,000 Sotheby’s New York May 8, 2007

Amedeo Modigliani Jeune fille assise, les cheveux dénoués 1919 bought in Sotheby’s New York May 8, 2007

Pablo Picasso Les amants 1932 $14,600,000 Sotheby’s New York May 8, 2007

Fernand Léger Les usines 1918 $14,320,000 Sotheby’s New York May 8, 2007

Fernand Léger La gare 1918 $4,520,000 Sotheby’s New York May 8, 2007

Giacomo Balla Velocità d’automobile + Luci 1913-14 $3,960,000 Sotheby’s New York May 8, 2007

Paul Delvaux Le nu et le mannequin 1947 $3,064,000 Sotheby’s New York May 8, 2007

Balthus Nu au foulard 1981-82 $2,952,000 Sotheby’s New York May 8, 2007

During the big-ticket art auctions, the main salesroom at Sotheby’s headquarters on York Avenue in Manhattan has been more than impressive, a huge rectangular space thronged with row after row of avid art collectors and dealers, with a dense standing-room-only pack at the rear.

But something happened this time around, as the firm installed a new wall across the back part of the room, cutting out about 400 seats and making the space considerably more manageable. Did Sotheby’s Customer Care Department go into overtime separating the important bidders, who could sit in the first class section with complimentary water bottles, from the interested observers, who got to experience auctioneer Tobias Meyer’s artful ministrations remotely, somewhere? In the reorganization many people did not get tickets. Some dealers were relieved that it was one less sale they had to attend. Some muttered that the wall really masked the paucity of material on offer.

With a smaller room, and fewer lots (61 in all), the sale nevertheless took plenty long. Meyer showed patience as bidders deliberated over each $50,000 increment. The bidding was spare, slow and unsteady, with almost nothing racing past the high estimate. Few lots passed, but few lots sold with any élan, either, and those that did seemed excessive rather than stylish.

In a cash-rich environment, it seemed bidders might have bid more if there was something to bid on. For despite the near-record total of $278.5 million (with premium, now raised to 20 percent of the first $500,000 and 12 percent of the remainder) and the collection of stellar names, the parade of lots seemed rather ho-hum. In the end, the sale underlined the big box marketing efficiency of the auction houses, which have perfected the art of reaching new clients and extracting top prices for marginal work. It also draws attention to the inefficiencies of dealers, who are still working on an older paradigm.

Prices given here are at the hammer. By contrast, the prices accompanying the illustrations include the auction-house premium.

The big news was lot 22, Lyonel Feininger’s 1915 Expressionist Jesuiten III, measuring 29 x 23 in. and estimated to go for $7,000,000-$9,000,000. It sold for $20,750,000 at the hammer to one of two phone bidders. The price was a world record, made all the more extraordinary because the picture is so loathsome. Garish and saccharine both, it was guaranteed by Sotheby’s and chosen for the cover of the catalogue (rather than for a box of chocolates). Previous record prices for works from the same period have included Angler with Blue Fish (1912) at $7.6 million in June 2006 and Newspaper Readers II (1916) at $4.4 million in February 2004. One might speculate that the buyer owns 30 other Feiningers and was shifting the market. Still, it took 15 minutes and was mildly depressing.

Other sensational events included le groupe Cézanne, lots 8, 9, 10, 11 and 15. The first four belonged to Asian art expert John Eskenazi, and were guaranteed by Sotheby’s. Nature Mort au melon vert (1902-06) sold for $22,750,000 at the hammer, above a presale high estimate of $18 million. Back in 1989, as part of the British Rail Pension Fund’s famous foray into art-as-investment, the late still-life sold in 1989 for $4.3 million, making it the most expensive Cézanne watercolor ever sold, both then and now.

A transparent, heavily worked depiction of a melon, a glass, an apple and a basket of something in the background, Nature Mort au melon vert did not scintillate. Most Cézanne watercolors at auction have been washy and dull like the rest of the night’s offerings. Lot 9, Rocher près des grottes au-dessus de château noir (1895-1900), estimated at $2 million-$3 million, sold for $2 million. Lot 10, Amandiers en Provence (ca. 1900), estimated at $1.4 million-$1.8 million, sold for $900,000. Lot 11, La montagne Ste. Victoire (1900-02), estimated at $1.2 million-$1.6 million, sold for $1.1 million.

Lot 15, Groupe de baigneurs (ca. 1900), the best of the lot, sold for $1.4 million. It had been estimated at $900,000-$1,200,000. None of them would set your walls on fire.

Lot 18, Pablo Picasso’s tiny (13 x 10 in.) Tete d’arlequin from 1905, estimated at $14 million-$18 million, sold for $13.5 million, a lot of money. The bidding opened at $11 million, shifted quickly up to the reserve and ended in brief, dispirited bidding. If you spent your waking day making moody little heads, it would be sufficient reason to invent Cubism. Ordinary doesn’t do the picture justice. Sotheby’s described it as the allegorical son of Garcon a la pipe, the Rose Period Picasso that sold for $104 million in 2004. True, but not necessarily a commendation.

On a positive note, Lot 16, Picasso’s Homme a la pipe assis dans un fauteuil (1916) sold for $4.2 million, as the room briefly took flight. It is a tiny (12 x 9 in.), complex, elaborately worked Cubist gouache, restrained, sedately colored and expressive. It had been estimated at $2 million-$3 million.

Lot 23, Wassily Kandinsky’s Weisser Klang (White Sound) from 1908, 27 x 27 in., came up after the Feininger miracle. It was estimated at $6 million-$8 million and barely sold at $4.8 million. Had it not been guaranteed, would it have passed? It is a ravishing, big-dog Kandinsky, something to put on your wall and stare at in blank wonder; it would never have made cover for any box of chocolates. It sold in 1998 for $3.3 million. Kandinsky’s Starnberger See sold for $9.1 million last fall at Sotheby’s.

Lot 25, Henri Matisse’s Odalisque gris et jaune (1925), 31 x 46 in., estimated $15 million-$20 million. The residue of a quietly vicious argument with Madame Matisse over the highest and best use for Lydia Delectorskaya? Dreary colors, plainly composed, without ambition, purposeless, and evidence that great painters can make lousy, large pictures sold for $13 million to one phone bidder. Nu couchee vu de dos, half the size but a better picture, sold for $18.5 million last May at Sotheby’s. Hence, the firm presumed to give it a run at cum laude value or as Abba put it, “Take a chance on me.”

Lots 26 and 38, Amedeo Modigliani’s 1918 Portrait de Jean Hebuterne, 18 x 11 in.,estimated at $8 million-$10 million, and his 1919 Jeune fille assises, les cheveux denoues, 39 x 25 in., estimated at $12 million-$15 million. The first is a small, uninteresting portrait that looks like Popeye’s girlfriend, Olive Oyl. The second is worse as it is larger. Red hair on a red wall, pale blue dress on a pale green wall, Modigliani was a great painter and one wants to believe, but. . . . Both passed.

Picasso was the flavor of the night. Lot 29, Les Amants (1932), 38 x 51 in., estimated at $10 million-$15 million, sold for $13.1 million, with the bidding cadence of a Chinese water clock. It came with a bizarre and washy yet affecting surface. This picture sold in 2000 for $6.3 million. In 2004, the considerably larger Femme couchee a la meche blonde, a complete fantasy of that sinuous Marie-Therese Walter line wrapping around her amatory parts, sold for $9.3 million at Sotheby’s London. Here, Picasso Mini-Me sits regarding his teenaged lover. It has the linear joie of a subway map but the picture itself still carries considerable force.

Lots 30 and 33 were both by Fernand Léger, his 1918 Les Usines, 27 x 21 in., estimated at $5 million-$7 million, and the 1918 La Gare, 25 x 31 in., estimated at $2.5 million-$3.5 million. The first was a great picture and sold for $12.75 million. The bidding opened at $3.5 million and moved up in $250,000 increments. The slow action made it seem like a duller market. The second, La Gare, sold for $4 million.

Léger’s 1918 Le moteur sold at Christie’s New York in 2001 for $16.7 million, over a presale estimate of $4 million-$6 million. It was, however, more than twice the size. Les deux acrobats (1918), a painting that more closely approximates the size and quality of La Gare, sold for $5.5 million in 2002. Sotheby’s modest estimates cause a certain uneasiness. Only the second picture was guaranteed.

Lot 42, Giacomo Balla’s Velocità d’automobile + Luci (1913), 19 x 26 in., was estimated at $3.5 million-$4.5 million. Brown Futurist marking on gold paper celebrating dynamism and low tech are disappointing. They are also rare. It sold for $3.5 million, a record. Balla’s Velocita astratta (1913) sold in 1996 for $1.1 million. The auction audience was beginning to fidget.

Lot 49, Pablo Picasso’s 1965 Femme nue assise, 45 x 35 in., was estimated at $8 million-$10 million. The sale included 15 Picassos out of 61 lots. Not to be prudish, but this one depicted a naked woman seated in an armchair with a side by side at the top and an over and under at the bottom. It was plain nasty if you compare it to lot 16, the early Homme a la pipe assis dans un fauteuil, and still nasty if you don’t. It sold for $7.25 million.

The anonymous buyer was certainly hardcore. Bidding on the phone with paddle 0055, he snagged the record-setting Cézanne watercolor, the sale’s Gauguin village scene, the Balla and the rude Picasso -- a total of more than $42 million.

Lot 52, Paul Delvaux’s Le nu et le mannequin (1947), 61 x 88 in., was estimated at $2 million-$3 million and sold mid-estimate at $2.7 million. Sotheby’s shored up Delvaux’s esthetic by illustrating in the catalogue paintings of nudes by Bouguereau and Cabanel, two of the wealthiest and most reviled members of the French Academie, at least by avant guardistes like Manet and his crowd. Cabanel’s La Naissance de Venus, showing the kitschy dishy Venus floating atop the waves guarded by putti, is the perfect antecedent of Delvaux’s soft-core pandering. Le nu et le mannequin previously sold at Christie’s London in 2003 for $2.8 million.

People were getting logy by the time the Balthus twins hit the block. Lots 53 and 54, Nu au Foulard and Nu au Mirroir, both 1981-83, 64 x 51 in., were estimated at $1.5 million-$2 million and $1.25 million-$1.75 million, respectively. Sotheby’s should have shored up the Delvaux with these beauties, earth-colored preteens in an earth-colored room with a strong undertow of pedophilic eroticism. Your living room? Nu au Foulard sold for $2.6 million and Nu au Mirroir sold for $2.1 million. Very good prices for what they were.

A few lots later we were racing for the elevators, through the doors and breathing the night air, absolutely none the wiser. Values soared. Records were set. Sotheby’s will crow atop the $278.5 million worth of art it sold, but if the market sustains itself it will not be on the Impressionist and modern sales of either house. This spring, post-war and contemporary is where the real money will be.

Rare Original Pooh Illustrations at Bonhams in London

Rare Original Pooh Illustrations at Bonhams in London artlover50896878258

Lot 273. Pooh in Owl's parlour by Ernest H. Shepard (1879 - 1976). © Bonhams.

LONDON.- Two rare illustrations featuring the adventures of A.A. Milne's much-loved creation, Winnie-the-Pooh by Ernest H. Shepard (1879 - 1976), are to go under the hammer at Bonhams in London later this month. 'Tigers don't like honey' and 'Pooh visiting in Owl's parlour' are expected to fetch between £20,000 - 30,000 each at Bonhams' Sale of Modern Pictures and Illustrations at Knightsbridge on 22 May 2007. 'Tiggers don't like honey,' in coloured crayon and measuring 11 x 12 cm, was drawn as an illustration for the 1958 edition of The World of Pooh, but it was not included in the printed version. It remained part of the estate of the artist until it was acquired and exhibited by Sally Hunter Fine Art, and then bought by a private collector, who is selling it now at Bonhams. The same collector has consigned 'Pooh visiting in Owl's parlour,' in pen, ink and coloured pencil, to Bonhams' sale. The picture measures 10.5 x 12 cm, and was published in the 1929 Methuen edition of Winnie-the-Pooh. The sale also includes four studies by Shepard for Milne's poem 'Missing,' which famously begins 'Has anybody seen my mouse?' and is estimated to fetch between £4,000 - 6,000. It had previously been in possession of Ann Faith Shepard, the artist's daughter-in-law, before entering a private collection. Further charming illustrations from favourite children's books also feature in the sale, such as a scene from Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows 'by Michael Foremnan for £400 - 600, a sketch of Captain Pugwash by John Ryan; and Dr Seuss's Cat in the Hat for £1,500 - 2,000.

Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon at 100 Opens at MoMA

Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon at 100 Opens at MoMA artlover628967808

Pablo Picasso, Spanish, 1881-1973. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907. Oil on canvas. 8' x 7' 8" (243.9 x 233.7 cm). Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest © 2007 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

NEW YORK.-In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the creation of Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), the painting that marked a radical break from traditional artistic values of composition, perspective, harmony, and beauty, The Museum of Modern Art presents Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon at 100. On view from May 9 through August 27, 2007 , the exhibition examines the genesis of the epoch-making painting by reuniting it with nine preparatory studies from public and private collections. The exhibition is complemented by an installation in The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building that features conservation materials and a timeline tracing the painting’s fascinating 100-year history. Picasso’s Demoiselles d’Avignon at 100 is organized by Anna Swinbourne, Assistant Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art. “In looking back over the past one hundred years, there has never been a work that so changed the course of modern or contemporary art ,” says John Elderfield, The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art. “It became apparent to artists who had at first scoffed at it that this painting had changed everything, including the future progress of Picasso’s art, which built on what the Demoiselles had achieved, and created what we now call Cubism.” Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973) began making sketches and preparatory studies for Les Demoiselles d’Avignon in the winter of 1906–07, producing hundreds over the ensuing months before arriving at the final composition in the summer of 1907. Combining Picasso's interest in the classical nude and antique Iberian statuary with his newfound passion for African art, the composition’s asymmetrical, angular figures and flat, splintered planes were rendered in clashes of color and style. The eight-foot-square canvas created an enormous stir among visitors to Picasso’s studio. Dealers, critics, friends, and fellow artists such as Henri Matisse and André Derain reacted to the painting with shock, incomprehension, anger, or laughter. Picasso did not title the painting; it was referred to as The Philosophical Brothel until a friend of the artist, the writer André Salmon, entitled it Les Demoiselles d’Avignon on the occasion of its first public exhibition, the 1916 Salon d’Antin in Paris. With the exception of that exhibition, the painting was rarely seen, and details of its whereabouts are largely undocumented until its acquisition in 1924 by the French collector Jacques Doucet. In 1937, MoMA’s founding director, Alfred H. Barr, who had seen the painting in Paris and had unsuccessfully tried to borrow it for the exhibition Cubism and Abstract Art, began the campaign to acquire it from the gallery to which it had been sold. The purchase was finalized in 1939, and the painting was exhibited that spring in the Museum’s tenth anniversary exhibition Art in Our Time, which inaugurated the Museum’s new building at 11 West 53 Street. A cornerstone of the Museum’s collection, which includes 54 other paintings by Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon has seldom been lent by the Museum. It underwent extensive examination and conservation treatment during the Museum’s renovation and expansion, and returned to view in the new building in November 2004.

Up to THE MINUTE

Up to THE MINUTE artlover4085689878

Dana Schutz How We Cured the Plague 2007 Zach Feuer Gallery

John Singleton Copley Watson and the Shark 1778 National Gallery of Art

Dana Schutz Dad 2007 Zach Feuer Gallery

Dana Schutz How We Would Dance 2007 Zach Feuer Gallery

Dana Schutz Abstract Model 2007 Zach Feuer Gallery

Paintings by Josh Smith at Luhring Augustine, installation view

Josh Smith Untitled 2007 Luhring Augustine

Paintings by Josh Smith at Luhring Augustine, installation view

Hannah Van Bart at Marianne Boesky Gallery, installation view

Hannah Van Bart Best Wishes 2005 Marianne Boesky Gallery

Hannah Van Bart The Trap 2006 Marianne Boesky Gallery

Katharina Wulff Untitled 2006 Greene Naftali Gallery

Shana Mouton Whispering Pines (video still) n.d. Bellwether Gallery

Shana Mouton Whispering Pines (video still) n.d. Bellwether Gallery

Orchard gallery on Orchard Street in Manhattan

Photographs by Liz Deschenes at Orchard, installation view

Liz Deschenes Moiré #3 2007 Orchard

A detail of a photo by Liz Deschenes

Sterling Ruby, "Killing the Recondite" at Metro Pictures, installation view

Sterling Ruby’s Superoverpass (2007) at Foxy Production

Sterling Ruby Superoverpass Study / Crips & Bloods in Corltrola 2007 Foxy Production

In "Stand by Earth Man," 31-year-old New York painter Dana Schutz’s fifth solo show in five years -- her third at Zach Feuer Gallery -- the precocious Columbia grad confirms her position as junior partner in the only firm of American painting that seems to have anything at stake at the moment: Currin, Yuskavage & Schutz.

This trio has gained its grip on the art-public imagination by embracing unequivocally what has made most of us uneasy -- our sense that this is an age of "baroque pluralism," or "laissez faire esthetics," as New Republic critic Jed Perl crankily opined last February, a response to John Currin’s last show at Gagosian Gallery. Perl is ruffled by the way that Currin’s conflates "Cranach the Elder with a raunchy comic in the Mad magazine tradition," and how Yuskavage weds "Disney cartoons and Giovanni Bellini's altarpieces." These painters declare that there is no controversy in their leveling of influences, and in so doing make themselves controversial.

Anything goes in image-making, and it is her own confidence in the power of pastiche that gives Schutz her freedom at the canvas. Now freedom is a mixed blessing, and while it’s evident that a blank surface has never been an obstacle to this prolific artist, not every work in the current effort exemplifies the success of her endeavor. The outsized centerpiece, How We Cured the Plague (2007), puts both the possibilities and the perils of her strategy on display.

The work takes the "Schutz style" -- macabre figures of primitivist, humorous proportions, with pathetic, endearing features and mostly sweet expressions, all done in a cartoonish palette -- and pushes it wholeheartedly into Thomas Eakins territory, an artist for whom Schutz has expressed admiration more than once. We Cured the Plague depicts a large, old-fashioned and unsanitary medical ward, suffused with natural tones from the sun-filled, atrium-style window at the rear, and filled in the background with sickly-green bodies, lying on the floor or in beds, somewhere between life and death. The scene distills Eakins’ sense of the grandeur and the horror of the medical sciences as represented in his 1875 The Gross Clinic, a prize effect Schutz has snatched away from the classic artist’s vaunted realism and made her own.

In the foreground, a man stands on a pedestal in cruciform while medical professionals in masks plug tubes into his arteries. These blood red channels connect to a large flaccid shark, gasping on the ground, its placement and form lifted directly out of Copley’s 1778 masterpiece Watson and the Shark. Here, the historical loan Schutz has taken seems showier and less pertinent. The painter’s desire to pad the work with sly eccentricity is a little stomach-turning in its cuteness; the painting’s magic is endangered by self-consciousness; the purity of the Eakins chord Schutz strikes is disturbed, and the image begins to flatten out and recede from us. We become critically distant while Schutz herself, as composer, becomes too present; too much of her thinking now obscures the painting, the vastness of which has ceased to envelop, ceased to impress.

The other, smaller, less ambitious paintings in the show, which start at $30,000, generally maintain the artist’s charm, which is real, and in some cases they give vent to purely formal experiments, on the whole with more even success. How We Would Dance (2007) revisits a motif Schutz has privileged before, the cavorting band of bodies. Here she evokes a sock-footed, hootin’ good time in a small, low-lit, shag-carpeted apartment with the same clarity of physical and psychological atmosphere that she conjured up for Plague through Eakins. The work is made curious by the brilliantly up-front and simple technical maneuver of masking out random strips of the image with tape, which, now removed, throw beams of reddish-white ground across the picture like kooky light rays.

Schutz is now a prepotent mega-painter, and the shadow she casts over Chelsea is long, but concurrent exhibitions of other talents remind us that painting now is having something of a 21st-century heyday. Across the street from Schutz’ show, New York painter Josh Smith has mounted an ambitious solo effort at Luhring Augustine, following in the footsteps of his friend and former employer Christopher Wool, who is also with the gallery, and whose pioneering painterly idiom opened the door to Smith’s work.

Unfortunately, Smith’s show is overhung, and it looks like the artist is coming out undercooked; the crisp kick in the ass of his messy, desublimated work seems watered down, soupy and a little rarified. Nevertheless, the exhibition itself is significant. Although Smith works in a mode quite literally all his own -- his paintings are based on the writing of his name -- his inclusion in this prestigious gallery’s roster can be seen as a sign of the arrival in full of the youngest generation of conceptually rigorous painters, a cadre which includes names like Cheney Thompson, Blake Rayne and Mathew Cerletty.

European artists, naturally, have their own set of concerns, and different paradigms to contend with, so while it’s tempting to see a bit of "Schutziness" in the work of a couple of seasoned figurative painters from the continent on view close by, these superficial coincidences need to be extracted and recognized as such. At Marianne Boesky Gallery, in 44-year-old Dutch painter Hannah Van Bart’s second U.S. solo show, we are greeted at the door by a large painting of a waving man, titled Best Wishes (2005). The idiom is again cartoon, but here the anachronistic, sepia-toned hobo esthetic puts one into a nostalgic, newsprint frame of mind completely absent from the American painters we’ve been talking about. More present are some of the masters of European Neo-Expressionism, like Georg Baselitz and Jörg Immendorff.

In its subject’s friendly gaze, and in his misanthropic, mal-gendered figure, Best Wishes is the perfect introduction for the 15 or so paintings, priced from $18,000 to $20,000, that comprise Van Bart’s exhibition, wherein touchstone gestures, themes and icons are reiterated without becoming redundant. Many of the works are straightforward portraits, in which figural dysfunction is poised against the artist’s battle with paint (acrylic, in this case). Mistakes and switchback compositional decisions account for as many of the subjects’ deformities as do intentional distortions, an effect which is likely to win one over: Van Bart shows us she is not posturing, and so her paintings are more convincing.

The strongest works here also partake in ambivalent allegory. The Trap (2006) shows a rabbit-headed, busty female in a short black dress, standing in a half split and pointing indeterminately at what appear to be her own black droppings between her legs. Behind the figure, a brick wall is partly articulated, complimenting her somewhat vulnerable pose to assure the viewer that it is the subject of the work who is trapped here. Not so fast; echoing the lines of the wall is the fetching stroke of eloquent cleavage, and this concerts with the vague command articulated in the gesture of the hand, which might be pointing crotchward, suggesting an entirely different take on the meaning of "trap." The sum of conclusions to be had strikes this male viewer as eminently ripe.

Two blocks over, at Greene Naftali’s light-filled eighth-floor space on West 26th Street, the 39-year-old Berlin-based painter Katharina Wulff’s small, uncanny quasi-portraits look first and foremost like a kind of revivalist Neusachlichkeit. The work also resurrects an untrained, Eastern European folk esthetic. The human subjects of these elegantly deliberate renderings, mostly depicted in arboreal, autumnal settings, are themselves stiff, wooden and unnaturally colored, yet they manage to remain paintings of people, not of statues, and we identify in them a nuanced, organic, Teutonic pathos, sympathetic despite its chill. And in a surrealist touch, the finely rendered detail of a sweater or an elegant hairdo is in many cases belied by missing or defiled facial features. The results put the viewer into a number of dialectics, between comfort and alienation, identification and rejection. The price range is $20,000-$45,000.

Outside the Arcadian world of painting in New York, other paradises can be found in the galleries. Bellwether Gallery is worth a long visit; here one can gladly spend an hour to devote to watching all six episodes of 30-year-old Shana Moulton’s video series "Whispering Pines," started in 2004. Moulton, who has just arrived in New York from California, where she grew up, has named the series after the mobile home park where she was raised. We may guess, then, that it is a title by turns hopeful, ironic, sentimental and artificial, which puts it perfectly in tune with the videos themselves.

Moulton’s semi-narrative films are hinged upon her deep understanding of, and reverence for, that class of objects known as California kitsch. These plug-in, plastic relics of the ‘70s -- lighted crystals, tabletop fountains, "magic eye" pictures, medicine-colored electric blankets -- are the vehicles which, through the artist’s inventive filmic manipulation, lead her, as the ever-present bewigged protagonist, into a series of misadventures that always seem to culminate in the character’s dissolution into the cosmos, a death / nirvana attained passively, simply by dancing along the special-effects pathway that some knickknack or other has presented. It is in this bewildered hero’s attaining that we as viewers most enjoy, laughing and marveling at the virtuosic associations the artist draws along the way.

Many will note shades of Portland filmmaker Miranda July in the saccharine, goofy, hippie-girl esthetic Moulton cultivates, but the stronger affinity at the heart of Moulton’s work is with the films of Maya Deren, the surrealist and early pioneer of experimental cinema whose most famous piece, Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), is known to every art student.

A totally different and much more stringent pleasure is to be had across town on Orchard Street, at Miguel Abreu Gallery’s exhibition of photographic works by 40-year-old, New York-based photographer Liz Deschenes. Like her structuralist predecessors did in the 1970s, Deschenes lays claim to a brand of techno-iconoclasm, purporting to turn lens-based media in on itself, dispensing with a depicted subject in the real world and instead bringing the functioning of the technical apparatus to the fore.

At Abreu are about seven largish (54 x 40 in.) iterations of a moiré pattern of overlaid screens, a double-dot matrix made by overlapping two negatives in the darkroom. The works, priced at around $8,500 each, are visually captivating, and stunning examples of what Clement Greenberg, late in his career, called opticality, that is, a purely visual, non-Cartesian depth defined by the retinal effects of the image and causing it to float free from the wall into it’s own anti-geometry.

The structuralist ideas underpinning Deschenes’ work have been around for nearly half a century, but her endeavor, if not the rhetoric surrounding it, is given legs by the technological expansions which have occurred in that time, most notably the leap all imaging technologies have made into the digital. A smallish, cadmium red monochrome diptych addresses this issue in a sort of fussy way. These simple nonimages are printed using an outmoded process known as dye transfer, whose unrivaled color quality has been superseded for most applications by far more economical digital techniques.

Deschenes’ work strikes me as specific to an esoteric and nerdy history, but like the moiré pieces, it gains currency in its knowing resonance with painterly concerns (Deschenes has long associated her photography practice with the ideals of monochrome painting; her last solo show in New York, at Andrew Kreps Gallery in 2001, also played heavily on the issue). The referent of this dead-ended process, for example, might be Alexandr Rodchenko’s canonical "Pure Color" paintings from 1921, by which the artist claimed to represent the "end of painting."

In a much-anticipated New York debut, the German-born, Los Angeles-based artist Sterling Ruby has just opened two concurrent exhibitions within blocks of each other, at Metro Pictures and at Foxy Productions. The latter show, in Foxy’s very manageable space, is a handsome affair, wherein a single monolithic arch sculpture -- its white formica finish defaced by smudges and scratched-in graffiti -- is paired with a series of collages -- the medium in which the artist is most dependably good. But it is the outrageously ambitious installation at Metro Pictures that gives us our clearest picture of Ruby’s position as an artist.

Ruby is perhaps destined to emerge as this decade’s Damien Hirst figure. He has yet to display that artist’s Napoleonic will to media power, but the esthetic proclivities of the two are startlingly similar. Like Hirst, Ruby attacks big issues with big art, taking on the contemporary experience of the body and the modern meaning of mortality with works produced in a studio cum factory by a regiment of assistants. But where Hirst’s style has always been snazzy, clinical and scientific, Ruby’s is messy, gothic, putrefied, mystical.

Ruby is a master of the slather and the drip, of liquid on liquid, the material symbol of transformation and change. Standing in Metro Pictures among his towering geometric sculptures covered in layer upon layer of poured plastic ($50,000-$100,000) is like standing in the bowels of a tumor-ridden giant or on some kind of science fiction set. These aren’t loveable works, but the way they declare their own importance can’t be written off.

Jane Cartney - Debut & Retrospective

Jane Cartney - Debut & Retrospective artlover1086898758

Jane Cartney, Life Study Seated Female.

SOMERSET, UK.- Jane Cartney - Debut & Retrospective is on view through May 13 at Venue 99 - North Somerset Arts Week 2007. Contemporary Scottish colourist-expressionist - professional painter and printmaker, art historian. Formative training in Aberdeen, main centres of study, Amsterdam, Ghent, Paris, Edinburgh,London,Brighton, Chosen subjects architecture and sculptural objects together with life study. Returned to painting Spring 2006. To date, group exhibition, solo exhibition, invited to solo at Weston Arts Festival September 2007. Invited to submit fine-art print to USA auction (3.5.07 Lupus International, Fullerton, Orange County, CA) - eagerly awaiting auction results. This is a curated retrospective and work from Cartney's five recent mature series of paintings and associated prints: Beach Road, Boulevard, Glasgow, Pheasant, Wadham Beach. The retrospective exhibition gives a glimpse into Cartney's long development with a rare opportunity to see the paintings produced under the tutelage of Burns in Aberdeen, plus London and Brighton life studies from the '80s, notably the Wandsworth drawings of Kate (featured on the poster), and the oil pastels and charcoal and chalk studies of two Brighton favourites, Jill, and athletic model, Alex.

The Fifth Triennale of Finnish Art To Open in Helsinki

The Fifth Triennale of Finnish Art To Open in Helsinki artlover10286878988

Mari Rantanen, Move Over, 2002. akryyli ja pigmentti kankaalle, 200 × 270 cm. Kuva/Photo: Steven Dixon.

HELSINKI.- The Fifth Triennale of Finnish Art, In Search of the Miraculous, will take place at Kunsthalle Helsinki from may 12 to June 10, 2007. For the Fifth Triennale of Finnish Art, the curator Luigi Fassi has gathered work by 13 artists which epitomise many of the key characteristics of Finnish contemporary art. A humanistic concern about the place of mankind in the world is a palpable presence in the work of all artists featured in the show. Mankind's relationship to nature and culture, encounters between people or between man and nature, the mediation and construction of experiences, empathy and the search for contact with other people, these are among the themes which unite the works in the show. According to Fassi, this indicates an art that has a powerful commitment to life and the present moment. "An acute awareness of the transience of life and a fascination and wonderment at the profusion of detail in everyday life, these are among the key themes in the works. Another central aspect is the ability and courage to put one's privacy on display directly," Luigi Fassi describes. The title of the exhibition is borrowed from Bas Jan Ader's unfinished work In Search of the Miraculous (1973), where the artist sought for "miracles" of human existence and experience. The work would have consisted of three parts: a walk from dawn to sunset in Los Angeles, a travel diary of an ocean crossing, and a night-time walk through Amsterdam. The last two of these were never completed when the artist was lost at sea crossing the Atlantic in 1975. The Fifth Triennale of Finnish Art focuses on photography, media art and video art. Many of the works are new and have never been exhibited before. Among the artists and works in the show are: Pasi Autio (b. 1974), video work J&S, 2006-2007; Lauri Astala (b. 1958), As Though Time Was All Around, 2002; Petri Eskelinen (b. 1975), installation Maalla ja merellä (On Land and Sea), 2006; Maarit Hohteri (b. 1976), photographs; Antti Laitinen (b. 1975), Yritys halkaista meri (An Attempt to Cleave the Sea), 2006; Anni Leppälä (b. 1981), Garden, 2007; Petra Lindholm (b. 1973), No End, 2005; Sini Pelkki (b. 1978), photographs; Aurora Reinhard (b. 1975), Tiger Tom Singing, 2002-2006; Jani Ruscica (b. 1978), Batbox, 2007; Jari Silomäki (b. 1975), Sivustakatsojan henkilökohtaisia sotakertomuksia (Personal War Stories of an Outsider), 2007; Pilvi Takala (b. 1981), Seinäruusu (Wall Flower), 2006; Antti Tanttu (b. 1963), Mortui vivos docent, 2002. Triennales of Finnish art are reviews of Finnish contemporary art produced by the Artists' Association of Finland. They have been organised in Finland and abroad since 1994. The Artists' Association of Finland organises the Young Artists' Exhibition, the Finnish Artists' Exhibition and the Triennale of Finnish Art in alternate years. Curator Luigi Fassi has been involved with Finnish art since 2006. Among his work this year is the exhibition of contemporary art from the Baltic region for the Prague Biennale opening in May. The exhibition in the Kunsthalle is opened by Ms Paula Tuomikoski, Head of Cultural Export Division at the Ministry of Education.

Modern & Contemporary Southeast Asian Art

Modern & Contemporary Southeast Asian Art artlover2088

Women Around the Lotus Pond by Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merprès (Estimate: HK$8,000,000-10,000,000/ US$1,120,000-1,282,100). © Christie's Images Ltd.

HONG KONG.- A selection of superb paintings by Southeast Asian masters as well as outstanding works by contemporary artists will be offered at Christie’s Modern & Contemporary Southeast Asian Art sale in Hong Kong on 27 May. The auction promises to be a visual fiesta celebrating the vivacious style and dynamics of the art of the region. The sale also features sumptuous pieces from prestigious private collections, featuring works by Le Mayeur, Affandi and Le Pho. In this Spring auction series, Christie's Hong Kong will introduce a real-time multi-media auction service Christie’s LIVE™, becoming the first international auction house in Asia to offer fine art through live online auctions. Christie’s LIVE™ enables collectors around the world to bid from their personal computers while enjoying the look, sound and feel of the sale. A Private Collection from London featuring Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merprès (1880-1958). “Except for a few journeys to the Far East, I never left the island. Why should I? Sir, I am an impressionist. There are three things in life that I love: beauty, sunlight and silence. Now could you tell me where to find these in a more perfect state than in Bali?” – Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merprès. True to his spirit as an Impressionist and painter-traveller, Le Mayeur sought light, colour and beauty – a quest which took him to faraway places all over the world. Finally at the age of 52, he discovered his ideal location, the Indonesian island of Bali. There he married his favourite model Pollock, a young Balinese girl. Bali became a rich stimulant for Le Mayeur, and he devoted himself to depicting his immediate surroundings: the Balinese people, the luxuriant flora, the beach and the sea that are all bathed in shimmering light. Christie’s is proud to present in this season a private collection from London featuring rare works by Le Mayeur including Women around the lotus pond (Lot 38, Estimate: HK$8,000,000-10,000,000/ US$1,120,000-1,282,100). Le Mayeur was the consummate Impressionist. Differing effects of colour and light on a subject captivated him throughout his career. Compared to his pre-war Balinese works, the figures in the present lot are smaller and less the centre of attention. Instead, attention is given to the arrangement of foliage and the wide array of lighting effects from the tropical sun, and spaciousness is enhanced by the inclusion of the sea and beach in the background. Measuring 150 x 200 cm, Women around the lotus pond is extraordinary, as it is one of the only six paintings by Le Mayeur of this size known to exist. A Centennial Celebration – A Private Collection of a Gentleman from America featuring Affandi (1907-1990). This year, 2007, marks the 100th birthday of Affandi, a renowned Indonesian artist. It is a privilege and honour for Christie’s to present 11 works by Affandi from the private collection of a gentleman from America at this time. Affandi had an extremely prolific career and was active from the 1950’s up until his death in 1990. He painted some of the most memorable icons of Indonesian modern art and is considered the “people’s artist” – all this from a boy who used to paint with mud and water on the kitchen floor at the tender age of one. Affandi is a true Expressionist, injecting his works with great passion and vigour. His use of colour and brushstroke technique never fail to amaze his viewers. Cockfight St. Mark’s Square. Highlights in this collection include Cockfight (Lot 81, Estimate; HK$650,000-800,000/ US$83,400-102,600), St. Mark’s Square (Lot 86, Estimate: HK$480,000-650,000/ US$61,600-83,300), and Balinese dancer (Lot 38, Estimate: HK$650,000-800,000/ US$83,300-102,600). Superbly executed in the prime years of Affandi’s career, these works best demonstrate the artist’s unique compositions constructed in clusters of smears of paint. Varied colours and textures allow whatever subject is depicted to float across the surface of the canvas, and to be animated only by the ebullient brushwork that never fails to convey an atmospheric effect. Balinese dancer Hendra Gunawan (1918-1983) - Ever the skilled visual storyteller, Hendra Gunawa – like his contemporary Affandi, is another people’s artist who was however known for his absolute and defining infatuation with all things Indonesian. His paintings are profound expressions of his own reality, encapsulated in a style that was accessible to all Indonesians because of its warmth, sensitivity and humanity. The effects of his paintings are immediate and unabashed – colours are used generously and in the most idiosyncratic manner. Of particular note is Street Musician (Lot 108, Estimate: HK$800,000-1,000,000/ US$102,600-128,200) where Hendra’s celebration of people is typically conveyed with the use of bright colour. The sheer size and importance Hendra has given to his figures clearly illustrates the way he saw his fellow countrymen - they are content and with no trace of depression or despondency. In expressing his own spirituality and resolve, he incarnates the soul of his country and its people. Le Pho: A Centennial Celebration (1907-2001) – Rare early silk works by Le Pho from a Private Collection, Asia. Christie’s is also delighted to present an extraordinary assemblage of works during the centennial celebration of another renowned artist, Le Pho. This collection comprehensively illustrates the artist’s vast repertoire and versatility in various media. Taking centre-stage is Une mère et ses 3 enfants (A mother with her 3 children) (Lot 63, Estimate: HK$800,000-1,000,000/ US$102,600-128,200), an exceedingly rare early work on silk by Le Pho. The artist uses a fine paint brush with ink and colour on silk to depict a mother playing with her three children. He also successfully combines the elegance and gracefulness reminiscent of Chinese silk paintings with a predominantly classical Western style. Une mère et ses 3 enfants Jeune fille à la fleur Further highlight includes a large oil on canvas work evocative of Le Pho’s later, more Impressionist style La cueillette des poppies (Gather the poppies) (Lot 67, Estimate: HK$320,000-400,000/ US$41,000-51,300). On the other hand, Jeune fille à la fleur (Young girl with flower) (Lot 64, Estimate: HK$400,000-550,000/ US$51,300-70,500) is a classic female portrait painted with delicate attention to the portrayal of light and colour. La cueillette des poppies Contemporary Southeast Asian Art: Attracting attention in the world auction market, contemporary Southeast Asian art offers inexhaustible surprises and delights to collectors. It is an exciting area, encompassing works in a dazzlingly rich variety of forms. The use of different materials and media, both new and old, conventional and unconventional, coupled with the wide range of source materials - daily news, comics, movies, music, novels - create an unrivalled visual vocabulary. Of particular note is Dance by I Nyoman Masriadi (born in 1973) (Lot 8, Estimate: HK$32,000-50,000/ US$4,100-6,400) addressing social issues with a comic fervour; and the eerily exquisite work The absurdity of being by Geraldine Javier (born in 1970) (Lot 26, Estimate: HK$12,000-18,000/ US$1,600-2,300) inspired by scenes of movies and advertisements in magazines. Equally eye-catching is the quirky kinetic sculptural work Tree of life – reaching out by Gabriel Barredo (born in 1957) (Lot 32, Estimate: HK$35,000-50,000/US$4,500-6,400), where history and fantasy are richly interwoven, reflecting his passion for classical objects that still shine in people’s minds, such as opera and ballet.The attempt of Ramon Orlina (born in 1944) to make his vision comprehensible and to crystallize it for a contemporary audience is shown by Michael’s martial arts form 07-01 (Lot 15, E

Art Museum To Host Exhibition by Jasper Johns

Art Museum To Host Exhibition by Jasper Johns artlover4088

Jasper Johns, Targets Flags, 1968.

MYRTLE BEACH, SC.- South Carolina-raised Jasper Johns, one of America’s most revered artists, has been credited with two major feats in the art world: as the artist who paved the way from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art and Minimalism, and as the creator of the highest-priced work by a living artist sold at auction (his 1959 painting False Start sold for $17 million in 1988). Johns’ art returns to South Carolina June 5 with Jasper Johns: 41 Years of Prints at the Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach. The exhibition opens on Tuesday, June 5 and will run through Sunday, September 2, 2007. Museum hours are from 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and from 1 – 4 p.m. Sundays. Jasper Johns: 41 Years of Prints, a collection of 60 lithographs, silkscreens, intaglios and mezzotints produced from 1960 through 2001, is on loan from the John and Maxine Belger Family Foundation of Kansas City, Missouri. In 1953, at age 23, Johns’ career as a painter began in relative seclusion in his New York City studio. Five years later he had a one-man exhibition at Leo Castelli’s New York gallery, which the director of the Museum of Modern Art visited. A few days later MOMA’s director returned, purchased three of Johns’ works for the museum’s collection and Johns’ career was launched. In 1960 Johns’ began working with Universal Limited Art Editions to create the lithographs Target and 0 Through 9. Once again, the art world took note, and Johns’ career as a renowned fine arts printmaker was launched Jasper Johns: 41 Years of Prints covers the period from Target to works from the 21st Century. The exhibit explores in depth what has captivated many about Johns’ prints: his exactness of line and characteristic clarity and elegance of his simplest drawn forms. Equally compelling are his works in shades of gray, exploring the visual and tactile dimensions that can be expressed in a single color. In his paintings and prints, Johns depicted such familiar icons as flags, maps, targets, letters and numbers, striving to portray these symbols as existing outside of their symbolic context. Thus an American flag, for example, would become solely a visual object, removed from its symbolic connotations and reduced to something in and of itself, incorporating Johns’ use of textural effects and novel materials. Jasper Johns: 41 Years of Prints is presented as part of the Art Museum’s 10th Anniversary Celebration. Admission to the Museum is free, but donations are welcome. For further information, call 843-238-2510 or visit www.MyrtleBeachArtMuseum.org. The Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum is a wholly nonprofit institution located across from Springmaid Pier at 3100 South Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free, but donations are welcomed. Components of Museum programs are funded in part by support from the City of Myrtle Beach, the Horry County Council and the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO DAVID ROCKEFELLER?

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO DAVID ROCKEFELLER? artlover908

Mark Rothko White Center 1950 est. $40 million Sotheby’s New York May 15, 2007

David Rockefeller is 91 years old. Next week a precious purple and white Rothko which he bought for $10,000 45 years ago goes up for auction.

It should probably meet the hammer at, conservatively, $90 million. I remember Rothko, because he committed suicide on the same day that my beloved grandmother, Mary Finch, died of esophageal cancer in 1970. Their obituaries ran next to each other in the New York Times. David Rockefeller’s brother Nelson, Governor of New York and Vice-President, died in the arms of his alleged lover Megan Marshack in 1979, after hosting a party with Henry Kissinger that night at my alma mater, the Buckley School.

Now that Carol Vogel, my fellow Yale alumnus, has parsed the putative significance of next week’s Rothko/Rockefeller sale in the New York Times, how can we deconstruct its mighty dollar estimate for the weakness that it really represents?

Let us begin with Rothko bleeding in the bathtub: even the sensual spirituality of a Manhattan sunset leaking through the shaded windows which inspired his breakthrough canvases could not save him. Can the $90 million at auction save the buyer next week?

And what of the socially connected hedger who will be next week’s buyer? Let’s quote from the Economist, which last week presented the first comprehensible explanation of the hedgers’ slicing and dicing the dance of debt: "Imagine a geared hedge fund owing the riskiest tranches of CDOS exposed to subprime debt. Lombard Street Research reckons that the combined gearing could reach 54 fold, implying that a 2 percent drop could wipe out the entire portfolio.

What that means, dear readers, is that, as the norm, every hedge fund purchase in the art market represents a multiple of 54 on its intrinsic value.

So every time the auction houses quote you a number, to comprehend the true market value of the piece, divide it by 54. . . that is what its resale price would be in a market undivided by the distortions of debt products and their discontents.

Sol LeWitt in Memoriam Opens at MCA Chicago

Sol LeWitt in Memoriam Opens at MCA Chicago artlover908

Sol LeWitt, All One-, Two-, Three-, and Four- Part Combinations of Bands of Color in Four Directions, 1993 – 1994, Gouache on paper, Set of 64 sheets, each: 30 x 22 in. (76.2 x 55.9 cm). Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, restricted gift of Alsdorf Foundation, Lindy Bergman, Ann and Bruce Bachmann, Carol and Douglas Cohen, Frances and Thomas Dittmer, Gael Neeson and Stefan T. Edlis, Sandra P. and Jack Guthman, Anne and William J. Hokin, Judith Neisser, Susan and Lewis Manilow, Dr. Paul and Dorie Sternberg, Howard and Donna Stone, Lynn and Allen Turner, Martin E. Zimmerman, Mr. and Mrs. Burton W. Kanter, Ralph and Helyn Goldenberg, and Marcia and Irving Stenn. Photo © MCA, Chicago. Photo by Joe Ziolkowski.

CHICAGO.- The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, presents Sol LeWitt in Memoriam, on view through August 5, 2007. In memory of the artist Sol LeWitt, the MCA is presenting a special exhibition of his work that includes a sequence from One-, Two-, Three-, and Four-Part Combinations of Vertical, Horizontal, and Diagonal Left and Right Bands of Color (1993-94), which represents his more recent, colorful style, and a selection of lithographs from Suite of 16 in Color (1971) that shows a progression of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal marks in black, yellow, blue, and red which represents his more spare style of the 1970s. The exhibition includes photographic documentation of LeWitt tracing his long history with the MCA, including major exhibitions in 1979 and 2000, along with a selection of his artists' books. One of the most influential American artists of the 20th century, LeWitt was a pioneer of conceptual art. "No matter what form [art] may finally have it must begin with an idea," he wrote in Paragraphs on Conceptual Art, 1967, "when an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art." This method was realized in his famous wall drawings which were created by others using a simple set of instructions. LeWitt was also a seminal figure in the area of artists' books, producing a number of books and co-founding Printed Matter which publishes and distributes artists' books.

Les ventes new-yorkaises de mai fort attendues

Les ventes new-yorkaises de mai fort attendues

artlover608

Le 8 novembre dernier, au cours des ventes new-yorkaises, Christie´s avait écrasé son concurrent, Sotheby´s, par une vacation record de 491 millions de dollars de chiffre d´affaires en 78 lots ! Cette année, Sotheby´s compte prendre sa revanche, avec une estimation de 416 – 561 millions de dollars de produits de ventes attendu sur les ventes new-yorkaises, « Impressionist and Modern Art » et « Contemporary Art ».

Une attention toute particulière a été apportée à la section art contemporain et après-guerre, avec une exceptionnelle œuvre de Mark ROTHKO White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) sur laquelle le marteau pourrait tomber au-delà des 40 millions de dollars. Par ailleurs, une œuvre majeure de Francis BACON, Study from Innocent X, 1962 sera mise en vente. Il en est attendu près de 30 millions de dollars. Plus actuelle, une large toile de Jean-Michel BASQUIAT, estimée 6 – 8 millions de dollars, est supposée signer un nouveau record pour l´artiste. De son côté, sur ces mêmes ventes thématiques, Christie´s espère décrocher un produit de vente de 405 – 545 millions de dollars. Pour sa session « Post War ans Contemporary Art » du 16 mai, Donald JUDD est à l´honneur avec un probable record pour Untitled de 1977, une œuvre constituée de 10 unités en plexiglas et acier, proposée à 5-7 millions de dollars. Andy WARHOL, le deuxième artiste du classement Artprice par chiffre d´affaires, devrait briller au cours de la vente, avec une Lemon Marilyn de 1962 et Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I) de 1965, qui pourraient toutes deux effacer l´ancien record de l´artiste, toujours détenu par Orange Marilyn, adjugée 15,75 millions de dollars en 1998.

Dans le secteur « Impressionist and Modern Art », Sotheby´s et Christie´s misent toutes deux sur des pièces majeures de Pablo PICASSO. Le 8 mai, Sotheby´s proposera une Tête d´arlequin de 1905 estimée 14-18 millions de dollars et le lendemain, Christie´s dispersera, pour la même fourchette d'estimation, Tête et main de femme (1921), une œuvre acquise 12 millions de dollars en 2005. Porté par 35 enchères millionnaires en 2006 et une progression de son chiffre d´affaires de +112%, Picasso reste l´artiste phare du marché. Autre artiste couronné de succès un 2006, classé 12ème du TOP des artistes artprice par produit de ventes, Ernst Ludwig KIRCHNER, est attendu chez Chrtistie´s avec un nu féminin de 1910 intitulé Dodo mit grossem Fächer pour une estimation de 12-18 millions de dollars. Son record est détenu par Berliner Strassenszene/Bäume,une toile de 1913-1914, adjugée en novembre dernier par Christie´s pour 34 millions de dollars. Parmi les chefs-d´œuvre impressionnistes et modernes dispersée par Sotheby´s, signalons la Nature morte au melon vert de Paul CÉZANNE, une aquarelle estimée de 14-18 millions de dollars, qui deviendrait alors le dessin le plus cher de l´artiste. Le lot phare de la vente devrait être l´Odalisque grise et jaune d´Henri MATISSE(1925), pour laquelle on attend 15-20 millions de dollars.