Philips will enter the Joan Mitchell sweepstakes next week with a lower value work that still tests the levels of Mitchell market fever. Here is Phillips release for the Evening sale along with some details on a range of works from an important Arnaldo Pomodoro sculpture. Although an early work less recognizably his own, the bronze work will take advantage of the market momentum Pomodoro has seen over a number of years.
Coming to the market at a moment of marked celebration of Joan Mitchell’s work, Perch and Twirl, executed in 1973, exemplifies the artist’s oeuvre of this period with its vivid energy and bold color. Perch and Twirl came immediately after the artist’s first major solo exhibition at the Everson Museum of Art entitled My Five Years in the Country, 1972, and shortly before an eponymous show at the Whitney in 1974.
The Evening Sale will offer an important group of Italian artists, including Agostino Bonalumi, Enrico Castellani, Lucio Fontana, and Arnaldo Pomodoro with Grande Tavola Della Memoria. Executed in 1959-65, this formative sculpture became a cornerstone for the subsequent spherical and columnar bodies of work that went on to define Pomodoro’s career. Stretching approximately two meters in height and over three meters in length, the colossal bronze panels are engraved with a myriad of glyphs that reflect the artist’s lifelong fascination with the codes and markings that define the human condition. Another cast from the edition was included in Pomodoro’s one room installation at the 1988 Venice Biennale; that example is still in the artist’s collection and the other is in the collection of the municipality of Darmstadt.
Concetto spaziale, Attese, 1963 is an emblematic expression of Lucio Fontana’s preoccupation with universal and spiritual concepts. The cuts crossing the surface indicate a symbolic transcendence of space and time. Additional highlights of Italian Post-War art include Enrico Castellani’s Superficie Gialla Tokyo no. 2, 1967, that captures the artist’s iconic mastery of the inclinations of light and space (estimate: £250,000-350,000). Superficie Gialla Tokyo no. 2 was included in Castellani’s exhibition at Toyko Gallery in 1968, and has been in the same private collection ever since.
The Evening Sale champions a rich diversity of international names from the contemporary scene, including Ali Banisadr’s Nowhere, 2010. The composition of Nowhere hangs between figuration and abstraction; glimpses of forms, figures, flora and fauna emerge from the multitude of intricate brushstrokes that cultivate the surface of the canvas. Also on offer is Untitled, 2006 by Amy Sillman, who is soon to be celebrated at the Camden Arts Centre, London, in her forthcoming 2018 solo exhibition (estimate: £150,000-200,000). Other works include Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s Marble, 2010 (estimate: £150,000-200,000), Avery Singer’s Ihole, 2011 (estimate: £40,000-60,000), and Cheyney Thompson’s Chronochrome set 1, 2010 (estimate: £150,000-250,000).
In partnership with Yorkshire Sculpture Park Phillips is pleased to announce that the 20th Century & Contemporary October Sales will include works sold to raise money in support of emerging artists. Renowned artists and their representatives, including Joan Miró, Henry Moore, David Nash, KAWS and George Rickey, are supporting this initiative by donating works of art to be sold across the 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening and Day Sales.