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Category :Art Market |
Written by: Elena Lanzanova
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United States: Prints Up For Auction
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Monday 24 October 2011
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Sfoglia qui l’asta in oggetto link[/stextbox]The last week of October is always a very interesting moment for the many buyers of Prints, a much more democratic and approachable art sector compared to others, with a significantly lower value than paintings. Prints are always considered by experts the first step to access the economic art system, thanks to their contained quotations, but they also attract collectors who are interested in the technical quality and level of detail achieved by great masters. This category is generally quite successful due to the respectability of famous artists and its results have often anticipated the financial recovery of antique, modern and contemporary art. A department, therefore, which more often than not gives satisfying sale results to auction houses, as we can also infer from the most recent London and New York auctions held last spring.
Now the sector is entering the fray again, proposing a series of auctions in the US. Christie’s will be kicking off the autumn sales dedicated to prints with two sessions to be held in Rockfeller Plaza on 25th and 26th October, entitled Prints & Multiples including Pablo Picasso, Important Graphic Works. As we can deduce from the title, the great star of the event is Picasso, who left a graphic corpus of prints of excellent and sublime quality. And so the Spanish genius’s signature appears on seventy-six pieces featured in the catalogue, lots in which we can observe how Picasso was experimenting various chalcographic techniques at the same time as the stylistic and thematic variations of his pictorial production.
Possible top-price of the sale is La Femme au Tambourin, an etching and aquatint realised by the artist in 1929, estimated at 500-700 thousand dollars. A small black and white “jewel” – portraying a dancing female figure, holding a tambourine, anatomically completely deformed – published by the Galerie Louise Leiris of Paris (1943) and until 1985 owned by Madame Lacourière, the owner of a famous printing house in Paris which has hosted some of the greatest 20th century artists.
With much lower prices than the latter, the other works by Picasso offered at Christie’s include Torse de Femme dated 1953 (estimate 150-250 thousand dollars), Le Repas frugal, from La Suite des Saltimbanques (estimate 120-180 thousand dollars), Faune dévoilant une Femme, from La Suite Vollard (estimate 70-100 thousand dollars) and a late coloured print dated 1962, entitled Tête de Femme and estimated at 100-150 thousand dollars.
Besides Pablo Picasso, another star of the event is Andy Warhol, an artist who always preferred to use line-engraving techniques (in particular screen printing and lithographic printing) to give life to serial and objective art. Highlights among Warhol’s sixty-three lots are two portraits of Marilyn Monroe – one with bright colours (estimate 100-150 thousand dollars), the other with grey tones (estimate 150-250 thousand dollars) – but also numerous Mao prints, immortalising celebrities of the star system, characters from the Myths series, various animals and interpretations of Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus.
Other noteworthy works are the marvellous Grande Odalisque à la Culotte bayadère, realised by Henri Matisse in 1925 (estimate 400-600 thousand dollars), Louis Aragon, Celui qui dit les Choses sans Rien dire, Maeght Editeur by Marc Chagall (estimate 80-120 thousand dollars), Suites Pour Ubu Roi by Joan Mirò (estimate 70-120 thousand dollars) and fifteen typically Pop pieces by Roy Lichtenstein.
On 25th October prints will “cash in” the American opinion, non only in the Big Apple, but also on the coasts of California. Bonhams has organised an auction in San Francisco that will please the tastes of every collector, auctioning antique, modern and contemporary works. Old Master collectors will have the choice of various engravings by Albrecht Dürer – the most expensive is The Prodigal Son, estimate 15-25 thousand dollars – and by Rembrandt, among which Self Portrait with Saskia (estimate 20-30 thousand dollars) and Christ Healing the Sick: ‘The Hundred Guilder Print’ (estimate 12-20 thousand dollars). While for those who prefer modern art there are marvellous works by Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Emil Nolde and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, at auction with Ambassadeurs, Aristide Bruant, a famous coloured lithographic manifesto valued at 30-40 thousand dollars. Finally, a group of contemporary prints will be able to catch the attention of art lovers with the presence of important artists such as John Baldessari, Jim Dine, Helen Frankenthaler, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer and Takashi Murakami
From the West Coast we move once again to the East Coast on 26th October for the Evening Editions at Phillips de Pury, presenting over seventy pieces realised between the 20th and 21st century. Highlights of the New York kermis include a lithograph realised in 1970 by Man Ray (estimate 20-30 thousand dollars), in which huge red lips tower above the landscape. It is the mouth of Lee Miller, photographer, muse and lover of the American artist, to whom he dedicated a few verses: “Your mouth becomes two bodies separated by a long undulated horizon. Like the earth and the sky, like me and you”.
Another prominent figure in this session in Marchel Duchamp with the famous L.H.O.O.Q. Rasée – shaved (estimate 25-35 thousand dollars) and Bride (estimate 10-15 thousand dollars), but also Chuck Close with Self-Portrait (estimate 40-60 thousand dollars), David Hockney with Red Celia, from Moving Focus series (estimate 25-35 thousand dollars) and various works by Cy Twombly, including Note I and Note II del 1967, both valued by experts at 30-50 thousand dollars.
The autumn Prints Week in the US ends with Sotheby’s two sales on 27th October, both dedicated exclusively to prints. In the first morning session, the main figure – once again – is Andy Warhol with ten coloured screen prints offered altogether for 250-350 thousand dollars. It is a complete portfolio from 1985, illustrating predominantly publicity images: James Dean portrayed as the typical rebel boy and, next to him, Japanese ideograms, a green Volkswagen beetle, the coloured Macintosh apple, the timeless Chanel N°5 and other typical products of the consumerist society.
Another big of the sale is Pablo Picasso with various works, among which Portrait de Jacqueline dated 1959 (estimate 100-150 thousand dollars), the coloured lithograph Figure au Corsage Rayé (estimate 80-120 thousand dollars) and a tableware service with a fish printed on it, valued at 80-100 thousand dollars. Sotheby’s first sale is presenting other important names of the market who are very appreciated by buyers. In particular, Cy Twombly with Roman Notes – a portfolio of six lithographic prints produced in 1970, valued at 150-200 thousand dollars – but also Roy Lichtenstein (View from the Window and Reverie, both estimated at 80-120 thousand dollars), Edvard Munch with the gloomy Death in the Sickroom (estimate 80-120 thousand dollars) and, finally, James McNeill Whistler with Nocturne, a marvellous night-time seascape valued at 80-120 thousand dollars.
The second auction presents contemporary prints from an important American collection. A catalogue featuring only 40 lots, which includes once again Andy Warhol with various portfolios: Mao (estimated 700 thousand-1.4 million dollars), Myths (estimated 350-450 thousand dollars), Mick Jagger and Campbell’s Soup (both estimated at 300-500 thousand dollars). And also: the Important Contemporary Prints from an American Collection is presenting various pieces by Jasper Johns (False Start, estimate 120-180 thousand dollars; Seasons, estimate 100-150 thousand dollars), Roy Lichtenstein, Tom Wesselmann, Robert Rauschenberg and other great masters of contemporary art.
Arcadja Auctions Browse here Christie’s auction – New York, October 25-26th 2011 Arcadja Auctions Browse here Bonhams’ auction – San Francisco, October 25th 2011 Arcadja Auctions Browse here Phillips de Pury’s auction – New York, October 26th 2011 Arcadja Auctions Browse here Sotheby’s auction – New York, October 27th 2011 Arcadja Auctions Browse here Sotheby’s auction – New York, October 27th 2011
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Tags: Rembrandt, New York, Prints, Henri Matisse, Albrecht Dürer, Important Graphic Works, Evening Editions, Prints Week, Marc Chagall, Prints & Multiples including Pablo Picasso, Sotheby’s, Henri De toulouse-lautrec, stampe, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, Bonhams, Tom Wesselmann, Emil Nolde, San Francisco, Christie’s, Joan Miro, incisioni, Phillips de Pury, Andy Warhol, Marcel Duchamp, Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly, Man Ray, Chuck Close, David Hockney, James McNeill Whistler
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