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Rauschenberg’s Buffalo II Leads Mayer Collection at Christie’s

March 1, 2019 by Marion Maneker


The first of the season’s big estates has been announced at Christie’s where Chicago’s Mayer family will be selling $125m in Pop art led by Robert Rauschenberg’s Buffalo II (1964) with an estimate of around $50m:

One of the largest of Robert Rauschenberg’s iconic Silkscreen Paintings, Buffalo II is a blockbuster painting, which unites the worlds of art and politics. At over eight-feet-tall this imposing canvas is filled with an ostensibly incongruent range of images ranging from the iconic to the mundane. Dominated by a large photograph of the then Senator John F. Kennedy, Rauschenberg assembles an eclectic range of motifs that, for him, define America; famous politicians, the space race, the military, iconic consumer products and patriotic symbols of America are interspersed with more innocuous images of the urban landscape and more personal objects. A pioneer of the silkscreen technique (along with Andy Warhol who had begun using the technique just a couple of months earlier), Rauschenberg appropriates images he collected from newspapers and magazines—along with his own photographs—to produce a portrait of a country during the social and political upheaval of the 1960s.

Yet this painting is much more than an historical snapshot of the 60s, it also marks a pivotal point in Rauschenberg’s development as an artist and bears witness to his own investigations in what it means to be an artist. By bringing together pre-existing images from popular culture with an array of drips and painterly gestures, Buffalo II also acts as a bridge between the now declining dominance of Abstract Expressionism and the new burgeoning world of Pop. Many smaller examples of the artist’s Silkscreen Paintings are included in major museum collections, making this one of the last major examples to remain in private hands. Exhibited at the XXXII Venice Biennale in 1964, Buffalo II was part of group exhibition of young American painters for which Rauschenberg was awarded the coveted International Grand Prize in Painting.

Frank Stella Sells Some Work—His Own and Others—at Christie’s

February 19, 2019 by Marion Maneker

Frank Stella, “WWRL” (1967)

Earlier this week, the New York Times revealed that Frank Stella is doing a little house cleaning through various Christie’s sales. The estimates aren’t available on all of the works but the list below suggests the works are worth close to $10m on the low end. Stella isn’t afraid to sell his own works like WWRL, above, through Christie’s. And he isn’t being shy about his reasons:

Mr. Stella has decidedly catholic taste in art, further evidenced by the works he is selling at Christie’s, including an untitled 1927 Miró oil being auctioned in London on Feb. 27 and David Hockney’s “A Realistic Still Life” (1965), up for auction on March 6. In New York in May he is selling a double portrait of a couple by the Dutch painter Jan Sanders van Hemessen (1532); two of his own works, “WWRL” (1967) and “Lettre sur les Aveugles I” (1974); and Helen Frankenthaler’s “The Beach Horse” (1959). Estimates for those works range from $1.5 million to $7.5 million.

Why sell? “It’s nice to have some liquidity,” Mr. Stella said. “You don’t want to save everything for the end. I won’t be around forever.”

Bonhams to Show Richard Lin Work in HK this March for May Sale

February 18, 2019 by Marion Maneker

With several successes showing and selling works by Anglo-Taiwanese artist Richard Lin, Bonhams has decided to show another work at its offices in Hong Kong before offering it for sale a few months later in May. The painting, 1.3.1964—Repainting Relief, was first shown at Documenta III held in Kassel, Germany in 1964:

Bonhams presents a retrospective exhibition of 30 rare works by the renowned Taiwan-born minimalist artist Richard Lin (1933-2011). Open to the public, the exhibition – Richard Lin Show Yu | A Retrospective of Major Works from the 1950s to 70s – will run from Monday 18 March to Saturday 30 March 2019 at Bonhams Hong Kong gallery at One Pacific Place, coinciding with Art Basel in Hong Kong.

Following the first European retrospective exhibition of Richard Lin held in October 2018 at Bonhams London, the upcoming exhibition features works from the artist’s estate as well as a selection of works from important private collections.

Among the collection is 1.3.1964 – Painting Relief, an exceptional work that was exhibited as one of only three major works at the leading contemporary art show documenta III in 1964 in Kassel, Germany, which will be unveiled in Asia for the very first time. Richard Lin was the first Chinese artist ever to feature at the hugely important documenta projects.

This piece will later be offered at Bonhams Modern and Contemporary Art sale in Hong Kong on 27 May, 2019.

Born in Taiwan in 1933, Richard Lin was schooled in Hong Kong and the UK before studying architecture and fine arts in London. Graduating in 1958, he quickly made his mark with solo shows including his first solo show at Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in 1958 and represented Britain in the leading contemporary art show, documenta III in Kassel in 1964. Influenced by Western abstraction as well as traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy, Lin gradually developed a highly reductive and formal minimalist style in pursuit of simplicity and balance. The emergence of his White Series during the 1960s established this unique style and redefined the artist’s interpretation of Chinese landscape painting.

Recent pieces sold at Bonhams Modern and Contemporary Art sale on 26 November 2018 included two sourced directly from Richard Lin’s estate – Painting Relief (1961) which sold for HK$3,940,000 against a pre-sale estimate of HK$1,000,000-2,000,000 and Untitled (The Black Sun) (1958-1960), selling for HK$3,460,000, against an estimate of HK$850,000-1,250,000. A third piece, Untitled (1967), sold for HK$2,000,000, against a pre-sale estimate of HK$650,000-850,000.

Mary Weatherford Neon Leads Phillips New Now

February 18, 2019 by Marion Maneker

 

A Mary Weatherford painting from among her early neons is one of the highlights of Phillips’s New Now sales that will coincide with the ADAA Art Show and The Armory Show in the coming weeks. The Feb 27th auction focuses on Contemporary art where the house has an historic advantage as the maker of markets for many emerging talents. Weatherford’s auction history has begun to gain traction with another example from the 2012 neon works selling in London last October. Varick St. (2012) was offered at Christie’s with a £250-350k estimate range and made a solid £344k selling price. Varick St. was no stranger to the podium. Three years earlier it changed hands in New York at Sotheby’s for $237.5k in a May day sale , giving the consignor a half-decent profit.

That was followed by Pico Rivera (2013) making $372.5k in a November day sale at Christie’s. Now Phillips has put an attractive $250k low estimate on Truxton and we’ll get a better sense of how deep the demand is for these works:

“Phillips’ New Now auctions have become a staple of the auction season, with collectors all over the globe eager to acquire works by both established and emerging artists alike,” said Samuel Mansour, Head of New Now Sales, New York. “This season, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to present an exceptional group of works, with some examples that are are solidly and deservedly established within in the art historical canon, such as Jenny Holzer’s Truisms and Andy Warhol’s Toy Paintings, as well some that serve as a new and exciting opportunity for collectors.

After Phillips introduced Awol Erizku to the secondary market in 2017 with his photography, this auction will mark the first time that one of his paintings is being offered at auction, along with other first timers, such as Caitlin Keogh and Louisa Gagliardi.

Leading the auction is Mary Weatherford’s Truxtun. Arresting and color-driven, this work belongs to The Bakersfield Project, Weatherford’s most celebrated series of neon paintings inspired by her experiences within the uniqueness of city landscapes. Throughout this series, Weatherford utilized diluted Flashe paint to create a translucent effect that forms a gradient of richness in hue, integrating her mixed media to create a harmonization of color. Elevating this subdued aesthetic, two delicate bands of neon stretch across the canvas and beam above the color field with an eye-catching illumination that adds depth and vigor. Further highlighting this element, Weatherford showcases the transformer and power cords as an essential part of the piece. She rejects hiding these elements for aesthetic purposes and rather drapes them elegantly over the canvas as an intentional compositional element. Executed in 2012, Truxtun is one of the first to feature the neon rods that were a career-altering experimentation for the artist and have been featured in her work ever since.

Jenny Holzer’s Truisms: All things are delicately interconnected…, a stone bench from the artist’s provocative series, executed in 1987, will also be featured among the highlights. Standing authoritatively, this work expertly embodies Jenny Holzer’s artistic practice. Shortly after moving to New York City, Holzer worked nearly exclusively on her acclaimed Truisms series from 1977-1979, marking a turning point in the artist’s career. This body of work is a conglomeration of blunt stream-of-consciousness declarations that touch upon an array of themes such as feminism, violence, oppression, and vulnerability. Candidly professed from an anonymous and universal perspective, the artist’s Truisms poetically reveal one’s most intimate, and at times irreverent, thoughts. The present lot features a selection of Truisms that cover the entirety of the object allowing viewers to meander around and absorb the piece in its unique totality.

Andy Warhol’s Rollover Mouse from his series Toy Paintings is an outstanding example of the artist’s preoccupation with commercialism and animation, as well as his fascination with the universality of toys and their ability to transcend age and nationality. Created in 1983, this painting is part of the artist’s later body of work that witnessed a resurgence of his energetic and colorful canvases. Zurich gallerist Bruno Bischofberger, who hosted one of the most significant Pop-Art shows in Europe in 1965, later requested a series of work conducive for children and bought the resulting 100-work compilation with London gallerist Fabian Carlsson. These works were then displayed in Bischofberger’s gallery, hung at children’s eye level in an installation that resembled a shiny and whimsical toy store. Serving as a more child-oriented expression of Warhol’s acclaimed advertising motifs of Brillo and Mott’s boxes from the 1960s, his Toy Paintings series embodies the same consumerist spirit.

Untitled (The World Stage: Brazil), 2012, by Kehinde Wiley captures two subjects, wearing contemporary urban attire, rendered in a photo‐realistic style set against and contrasted with a decorative floral background. Wiley’s subjects typically derive, however, from “street casting” people he encounters in Harlem. Culling from a wide range of art historical sources, Wiley captures these young African American men assuming poses that connote the canonical works of Holbein, Titian, Velázquez, David, and Ingres. Wiley inserts these brilliantly rendered compositions within a lineage of traditional portraiture while also drawing attention to the absence of African Americans from cultural and historical narratives. The present lot exemplifies Wiley’s unmatched compositional instinct and ability to deliver layers of visual and conceptual gravity that simultaneously coalesce and collide.

Sotheby’s to Sell SFMoMA’s $35m Rothko for Acquisitions Firepower

February 15, 2019 by Marion Maneker

Sotheby’s will be selling SFMoMA’s untitled 1960 Mark Rothko painting with a $35-50m estimate to benefit the museum’s acquisitions fund. The sale will be held in New York in May:

An important work completed at the apex of Rothko’s artistic powers, Untitled, 1960is one of just 19 paintings completed by the artist in 1960. This year marks a critical juncture in the iconic Abstract Expressionist’s career, following his defining commission of the Seagram Murals (1958-59) and his representation of the United States in the XXIX Venice Biennale (1958) – organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, which would subsequently hold Rothko’s first and only major lifetime retrospective in 1961. Untitled, 1960 is distinguished further by its connection to Peggy Guggenheim, preeminent philanthropist and patron of the 20th century.

Untitled, 1960 will travel to London, Taipei and Hong Kong, before returning to New York for exhibition and auction this May.

Neal Benezra, Helen and Charles Schwab Director of SFMOMA, said: “With a spirit of experimentation, diversity of thought, and openness to new ways of telling stories, we are rethinking our exhibitions, collections, and education programs to enhance accessibility and expand our commitment to a global perspective, while sustaining our dedication to Bay Area and California art. Untitled, 1960is being sold in order to broadly diversify SFMOMA’s collection, enhance its contemporary holdings, and address art historical gaps in order to continue to push boundaries and embrace fresh ideas.

Gary Garrels, Elise S. Haas Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture, said: “SFMOMA is very fortunate to have rich holdings of Mark Rothko, including his undisputed masterpieceNo. 14, 1960, which was acquired in the late 1990s as the result of another strategic deaccession. The proceeds from the upcoming sale will allow us to make great strides in diversifying the collection.  Janet Bishop, Thomas Weisel Family Curator of Painting and Sculpture, and I are creating a focused plan and list of priority acquisitions. Works will be proposed to our Accessions Committee for review as early as May 29, 2019.”

Saara Pritchard, Senior Vice President and Senior Specialist in Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Department in New York, said: “Sotheby’s is honored to present Mark Rothko’s Untitled,1960 on behalf of SFMOMA this spring. This exquisite work embodies the height of Rothko’s artistic practice, and provokes an intense emotional reaction in the viewer which was his preoccupation at this time. While featuring all of the expressive and transcendent qualities of Rothko’s 1950s pictures, there is a nuance to the surface, brushwork and layering of colors in the present painting that creates a compelling sense of vibration, movement, breath, life and depth. Given the rarity of works from this period on the market, as well as its connection to the great Peggy Guggenheim, the appearance of Untitled, 1960 at auction this spring will be a major market moment – one we are privileged to present to collectors around the world in the coming months.”

The ownership history of Untitled, 1960 unites the artist and institution with one of the preeminent philanthropists and patrons of the 20th century. A champion of Abstract Expressionism broadly and of Rothko specifically, Peggy Guggenheim’s pioneering vision and commitment to the artists she promoted paved the way for one of the most significant artistic movements in history. Determined to provide a voice and platform to this new generation of artists, Guggenheim gave Rothko one of his first important solo shows in 1945, at her famed Art of This Century gallery. The following year, she loaned the artist’s Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea to SFMOMA’s exhibition of Rothko’s work titled An Environment for Faith, and subsequently donated the work to the institution. Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea remained in the museum’s collection until 1962, when SFMOMA made the direct request to Rothko to exchange the work for a more contemporary example of his oeuvre. The artist obliged, and the museum selected Untitled, 1960, which has remained in their collection to present. Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea now resides in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

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