Art Market Monitor

Sotheby’s Paris is selling Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne’s personal collection of nearly 300 works mostly of their own making. Among the lots are a Grand Choupatte, a bronze cabbage on chicken legs; Claude’s Bureau Crocodile; as well as her tables of ginkgo leaves; François-Xavier’s Rhinocrétaire; a flock of the artist’s Moutons de Peter; and a large bar cabinet Grand Mouflon de Pauline.

This autumn, in a landmark dedicated two-day sale in Paris, Sotheby’s will offer over 280 works of art from the extraordinary collection of Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne – two of the most pioneering, important and beloved artists of the 20^th century, who lived and worked alongside each other in perfect harmony for over five decades. ‘Les Lalanne’, as they affectionately came to be known, gave life to a poetic œuvre, injecting the familiar and functional with a dreamlike enchantment and overriding sense of humour and whimsy.  Loved and celebrated by many of the leading artists, influencers and collectors of their generation, Les Lalanne were part of the cultural tapestry of the 20^th-century arts scene, their work featuring on everything from Serge Gainsbourg album covers to Salvador Dalí’s dining table.
 
With each lot in the sale appearing at auction directly from their home and studio near Fontainebleau, these were the artworks with which they chose to surround themselves. The selection includes a number of major pieces by the couple themselves, intertwined with works by artists who were friends of the duo, including Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Max Ernst, William N. Copley, Jasper Johns and Elaine Sturtevant.
 
The fascinating exhibition and auction – initiated by Claude herself and today realised by her family –will invite viewers into the intimate world that Claude and François-Xavier inhabited and give a taste of the playfully surreal and highly fashionable aesthetic they embodied and engendered in their sculptures.

Florent Jeanniard, Head of 20th Century Design at Sotheby’s Europe, said: “It is both an immense privilege and a fantastic opportunity to have been chosen by the family of Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne to orchestrate this sale, as each object is imbued with the story of this mythic couple.”

Mario Tavella, Président-directeur général Sotheby’s France and chairman Sotheby’s Europe said: “I never had the opportunity to meet François-Xavier Lalanne, but I had the privilege of knowing Claude personally, and to be introduced to the wonders of her universe and deep affinity with the natural world. It is a great honour to be able to pay tribute to these internationally renowned artists, a couple who hold today a fundamental place in the history of French art.”

Addressing its Euro-centric story of Modern art, New York’s Museum of Modern Art is accepting 45 works from Jean Pigozzi’s collection of African art that “will play an important role in the Museum’s reimagined collection installation.”

Here’s MoMA’s press release on the gift:

The Museum of Modern Art announces a major gift of 45 works of African contemporary art from the prolific collector Jean Pigozzi.

The gift includes a selection of sculptures by Romuald Hazoumè (Beninese, born 1962) and Bodys Isek Kingelez (Congolese, 1948–2015); paintings by Moké (Congolese, 1950–2001) and Chéri Samba (Congolese, born 1956); an extraordinary group of photographs by artists such as Seydou Keïta (Malian, 1923–2001), Ambroise Ngaimoko/Studio 3Z (Congolese, born Angola. 1949), and Jean Depara (Congolese, born Angola. 1928–1997); drawings by the mystic Gedewon (Ethiopian, 1939–1995) and Abu Bakarr Mansaray (Sierra Leonian, born 1970); and one of the landmark works of the 20th century: Alphabet bété (1991), a pictographic alphabet of 449 syllables by Frédéric Bruly Bouabré (Ivorian, 1923–2014) that the artist hoped would be a new tool for universal communication.

This gift makes MoMA a unique institutional leader in this aspect of contemporary African art.

Pigozzi first started collecting African art in 1989, after seeing the exhibition Magiciens de la Terre in Paris. In the ensuing decades, with single-minded vision, dedication, and passion, he assembled, with the help of curator André Magnin, one of the largest privately held collections of African contemporary art in the world today, the Contemporary African Art Collection (CAAC).

“Several years ago, we began a conversation with Jean about the possibility of making a major gift to the Museum from his remarkable collection. Subsequently Jean allowed us to study his collection in depth and not only encouraged us but was instrumental in helping us realize Sarah Suzuki’s groundbreaking 2018 exhibition Bodys Isek Kingelez: City Dreams,” said Glenn D. Lowry, The David Rockefeller Director of The Museum of Modern Art. “Now this gift, the result of an extensive dialogue with Jean, will have a transformative effect on MoMA’s collection and exhibition program, and will play an important role in the Museum’s reimagined collection installation when MoMA opens its newly expanded campus on October 21, 2019.”

“I am so proud that with my gift to MoMA, some of the most important contemporary African artists will be included in its collection,” said Jean Pigozzi, “and I hope that this donation will help open the eyes of millions of art lovers from all over the world to the amazing, and not yet well-enough known, art from the oldest—and now the youngest—continent on our planet.”

A little over a year ago, Christie’s brought a previous record-setting Nicolas de Staël nude to market in New York to set a new record at $12.1m. The sale capped a run in the Russo-French painter’s market—though there have been plenty of strong sales since—that had been building for several years.

Now Christie’s has found the time, place and work to make another strong move in the painter’s market:

Christie’s France is delighted to offer Parc des Princes by Nicolas de Staël on 17 October during the week of FIAC (International Contemporary Art Fair) with an estimate of €18,000,000-25,000,000. The monumental painting has remained in the family of Nicolas de Staël since his passing in 1955, and constitutes a key element in the history of post-war art.

Completed in the spring of 1952, this large-scale painting (200x350cm) marks the zenith of the series of soccer players, which Nicolas de Staël painted after attending the France-Sweden match with his wife, on the evening of 26 March 1952, in the renowned Parisian stadium. In the spotlight, the beauty of the interaction between the players proved a striking scene for the artist, who immediately began working on figurative compositions executed with his palette knife.

Pierre Martin-Vivier, 20th Century International Director: “It is such a joy to present this historical and monumental painting in Paris during FIAC. Parc des Princes is a masterpiece by de Staël, a work that challenged the pictorial idiom of the post-war period. We believe that the art market will respond with the same enthusiasm which drives us. Coming directly from the family of the artist, it is estimated at 18-25 million euros, and could set a new world auction record”.

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ARTnews just announced:

Penske Media Corporation, the parent company of ARTnews, will acquire Art Market Monitor, an online publication run by its founding editor Marion Maneker since 2008. Through the acquisition, Maneker will become editorial director of Art Media Holdings, a company that oversees ARTnews and Art in America.

A Note to Our Readers

Dear Readers,

I’d like to share some news about Art Market Monitor: we’re joining Penske Media Corporation.

Art Market Monitor’s website, newsletters, and podcast will become a part of Penske’s Art Media Holdings along with Art in America and ARTnews.

Penske Media has a built a publishing model based upon providing readers with quality journalism and data about the worlds of entertainment, fashion and music. PMC have an extraordinary track record with Variety, Rolling Stone and WWD. Through those successes, they have built the infrastructure, experience and attitude that will help us realize many of the goals of Art Market Monitor. 

Those goals are simply to make every aspect of art—its historical context, social value, aesthetic experience and market fluctuations—as engaging and compelling as, well, fashion, music, and entertainment.

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If you have any suggestions, questions or concerns, feel free to respond to this email or send us a note here. I would love to hear from you. Seriously, I would.

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Arne Glimcher complained that increasing trade tensions and a new culture of austerity under Xi Jingping have made maintaining a gallery in Beijing difficult when he announced the closure of Pace’s outpost in the 798 Arts District. The South China Morning Post‘s Enid Tsui takes the matter one step further with these comments from Pascal de Sarthe who has galleries in Paris, Hong Kong and now just a sales office in Beijing:

“In August last year, we were forced out of our Beijing gallery space in Caochangdi, one of the two main gallery districts in the city.

“This allowed us to rethink how to do business in China and ultimately led us to the same conclusion as Pace – to operate only a private viewing room while maintaining our team, instead of reopening a new gallery space.”

“We should ask ourselves, are galleries – as a business model – obsolete in this environment?” he added.

De Sarthe said restrictions on the flows of money, and high import and sales taxes, had already “reduced tremendously” the secondary market in China for modern and post-war art by Western and Chinese artists.