1916
1916 Purified Art by Malevich
2018 SOLD for $ 86M including premium
Boccioni had wanted a global art with a figuration blurred within many facets. Kandinsky, Léger and a little later Mondrian were still exploring the boundaries between figurative and emotional. Malevich is unquestionably the first to purify art by freeing it from any interpretation of subject or object.
The second exhibition of his group, from mid-December 1915 to mid-January 1916, includes his Black Square on White Background, the first great shock from this new art. Malevich's aim is aesthetic. He finds for this new approach the designation of Suprematism.
The Black Square is his first flagship but it is not enough. The emotion must not be brought only by the freedom of the elements but also by the colors. Painted in 1915, the 18th Composition is a stack of almost rectangular non-transparent shapes in various colors. This artwork already invites to rotate the canvas for an observation in the four possible orientations. It was sold for £ 21.5M including premium by Sotheby's on June 24, 2015.
After the closing of the exhibition 0.10 in January 1916, Malevich restarts his search for the ultimate expression of colors. Suprematist Composition, oil on canvas 89 x 71 cm painted in 1916, was sold for $ 60M including premium by Sotheby's on November 3, 2008, lot 6. It will be sold by Christie's in New York on May 15, lot 12 A.
I described and commented it as follows in 2008:
The painting for sale no longer produces an illusion : it is a composition based on about fifty colored beams spread over a white background. The size, the proportions and the colors are varied. The angular positions show an opposition between the big purple beam and most of the others.
Malevich has succeeded here in his approach to an art that completely escapes nature and feeling, to retain only the aesthetics of color and geometry. He wanted his art to be understandable in the same way in all countries.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The second exhibition of his group, from mid-December 1915 to mid-January 1916, includes his Black Square on White Background, the first great shock from this new art. Malevich's aim is aesthetic. He finds for this new approach the designation of Suprematism.
The Black Square is his first flagship but it is not enough. The emotion must not be brought only by the freedom of the elements but also by the colors. Painted in 1915, the 18th Composition is a stack of almost rectangular non-transparent shapes in various colors. This artwork already invites to rotate the canvas for an observation in the four possible orientations. It was sold for £ 21.5M including premium by Sotheby's on June 24, 2015.
After the closing of the exhibition 0.10 in January 1916, Malevich restarts his search for the ultimate expression of colors. Suprematist Composition, oil on canvas 89 x 71 cm painted in 1916, was sold for $ 60M including premium by Sotheby's on November 3, 2008, lot 6. It will be sold by Christie's in New York on May 15, lot 12 A.
I described and commented it as follows in 2008:
The painting for sale no longer produces an illusion : it is a composition based on about fifty colored beams spread over a white background. The size, the proportions and the colors are varied. The angular positions show an opposition between the big purple beam and most of the others.
Malevich has succeeded here in his approach to an art that completely escapes nature and feeling, to retain only the aesthetics of color and geometry. He wanted his art to be understandable in the same way in all countries.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1915-1916 Vegetal Screens by Wu Changshuo
2017 SOLD for RMB 210M including premium by Poly
narrated in 2020
Wu Changshuo had been ruined by the civil wars of the later Qing. This artist might have been the last of the great imperial literati but had to be content with a minor job in the administration, which certainly helped him to continue working under the new regime.
Through his original training as a seal engraver, Wu understood the importance of allowing a free movement to his hand. He specializes in images of plants, with a brushstroke inspired by the emotional art of the calligrapher. He likes to express the density of the foliage. His spontaneity made him compared to Bada Shanren, the great non-conforming artist of the early Qing.
Wu innovated by the simplicity and liveliness of the line and by the use of bright colors. When Qi Baishi moved to Beijing in 1917, Wu encouraged him to modernize the Chinese pictorial art forever.
On December 17, 2017, Poly sold for RMB 210M including premium a set of twelve screens 133 x 53 cm each painted in black ink by Wu Changshuo in 1915-1916, lot 2638. This plant anthology includes peony, narcissus, pomegranate, lotus, pine, plum, bamboo, chrysanthemum, orchid, wisteria, cabbage and one that my source forgot to list, each with a text or a poem.
All of them are illustrated as the second entry in the article shared by The Value after this very important sale, alongside the twelve landscapes by Qi Baishi sold for RMB 930M including premium.
Through his original training as a seal engraver, Wu understood the importance of allowing a free movement to his hand. He specializes in images of plants, with a brushstroke inspired by the emotional art of the calligrapher. He likes to express the density of the foliage. His spontaneity made him compared to Bada Shanren, the great non-conforming artist of the early Qing.
Wu innovated by the simplicity and liveliness of the line and by the use of bright colors. When Qi Baishi moved to Beijing in 1917, Wu encouraged him to modernize the Chinese pictorial art forever.
On December 17, 2017, Poly sold for RMB 210M including premium a set of twelve screens 133 x 53 cm each painted in black ink by Wu Changshuo in 1915-1916, lot 2638. This plant anthology includes peony, narcissus, pomegranate, lotus, pine, plum, bamboo, chrysanthemum, orchid, wisteria, cabbage and one that my source forgot to list, each with a text or a poem.
All of them are illustrated as the second entry in the article shared by The Value after this very important sale, alongside the twelve landscapes by Qi Baishi sold for RMB 930M including premium.
1916 Houses at Unterach by Klimt
2006 SOLD for $ 31.4M including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2020
It is illusory to represent a volume on a canvas or on a photograph. Klimt takes this into account in his paintings, whatever the subject.
He does not work from a photo, but his removal of the perspective seems to be independent of Cézanne's deconstructions. He finds textures and geometric elements in the landscape, using a viewfinder made up of a hole in a cardboard. Later a friend will give him an ivory eyeglass.
After choosing his elements, Klimt reassembles them in square formats. His villages can be compared to the accumulations of houses in Krumau by Schiele. Both artists thus obtain a personification of the buildings in their compositions with no characters. Their final effect, however, is in opposition. Schiele wants to annihilate his haunted city but Klimt is on holidays : his colors are happy.
Klimt spends every summer at the residence of Emilie's family in Litzlberg on the Attersee. Unterach is a very picturesque village at the other end of the lake. To avoid any temptation of perspective and horizon, the artist takes his view with a telescope from the other side of the lake.
A view of Unterach, oil on canvas 110 x 110 cm painted circa 1916 and coming from the Bloch-Bauer restitution, was sold for $ 31.4M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2006 over a lower estimate of $ 18M, lot 52. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
He does not work from a photo, but his removal of the perspective seems to be independent of Cézanne's deconstructions. He finds textures and geometric elements in the landscape, using a viewfinder made up of a hole in a cardboard. Later a friend will give him an ivory eyeglass.
After choosing his elements, Klimt reassembles them in square formats. His villages can be compared to the accumulations of houses in Krumau by Schiele. Both artists thus obtain a personification of the buildings in their compositions with no characters. Their final effect, however, is in opposition. Schiele wants to annihilate his haunted city but Klimt is on holidays : his colors are happy.
Klimt spends every summer at the residence of Emilie's family in Litzlberg on the Attersee. Unterach is a very picturesque village at the other end of the lake. To avoid any temptation of perspective and horizon, the artist takes his view with a telescope from the other side of the lake.
A view of Unterach, oil on canvas 110 x 110 cm painted circa 1916 and coming from the Bloch-Bauer restitution, was sold for $ 31.4M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2006 over a lower estimate of $ 18M, lot 52. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1916 Portrait by MODIGLIANI
1
Madame Dorival
2022 SOLD for $ 17.6M by Sotheby's
Amedeo Modigliani reluctantly stopped practicing sculpture due to poor health in 1914. Looking for self destruction in alcohol and drugs, he restarted painting on the recommendation of the poet Max Jacob and of the art dealer Paul Guillaume. He then painted portraits heads of Montparnasse artists, poets, actors, patrons and demi mondaines in a simplified drawing and rich colors.
Madame Dorival was the wife of an actor. In her portrait by Modigliani, the shape of the head and the elongated neck are directly in the follow of the 1911-1912 stone busts. The eyes are nearly closed without a visible pupil. The head is tilted to her right and the sensuous lips are bright red.
This oil on canvas 61 x 46 cm in rich tones of green, ochre, black and burgundy was sold for $ 17.6M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2022, lot 28. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Madame Dorival was the wife of an actor. In her portrait by Modigliani, the shape of the head and the elongated neck are directly in the follow of the 1911-1912 stone busts. The eyes are nearly closed without a visible pupil. The head is tilted to her right and the sensuous lips are bright red.
This oil on canvas 61 x 46 cm in rich tones of green, ochre, black and burgundy was sold for $ 17.6M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2022, lot 28. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
#AuctionUpdate: Amedeo Modigliani’s ‘Madam Dorival’ sculpture sells for $17.5 million #SothebysModern pic.twitter.com/XmYQw2ci6T
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) May 18, 2022
2
Paul Guillaume
2013 SOLD for £ 6.8M by Christie's
The art dealer Paul Guillaume represented Modigliani from 1914 to 1916, although they did not contract. Guillaume was also an early self taught authority in the African tribal art whose purified forms had highly influenced the artist. Modigliani made four portraits of him.
A head portrait of Guillaume was executed in 1916 for the use of the sitter. This oil on cardboard laid down on panel 53 x 37.5 cm was sold for £ 6.8M by Christie's on June 18, 2013, lot 22.
As usual in Modigliani's paintings of that time, the head is tilted to the sitter's right. A slight dyssymmetry adds some intimacy. Mouth and moustache are diminutive in the broad face.
A head portrait of Guillaume was executed in 1916 for the use of the sitter. This oil on cardboard laid down on panel 53 x 37.5 cm was sold for £ 6.8M by Christie's on June 18, 2013, lot 22.
As usual in Modigliani's paintings of that time, the head is tilted to the sitter's right. A slight dyssymmetry adds some intimacy. Mouth and moustache are diminutive in the broad face.
3
Le Photographe Dilewski
2021 SOLD for £ 4.4M by Christie's
Modigliani was introduced in 1915 by the Polish born painter Kisling to Zborowski who was to become his dealer in the next year. A bearded man identified as "le photographe Dilewski" has no identified biography. He was arguably an acquaintance of Modigliani through Kisling.
Portrait du photographe Dilewski, oil on canvas 73 x 50 cm painted by Modigliani in 1916, was sold for £ 4.4M from a lower estimate of £ 2.2M by Christie's on March 23, 2021, lot 29.
The symmetric face is elusive, including empty blue almond shaped eyes in the new signature style of Amedeo.
Portrait du photographe Dilewski, oil on canvas 73 x 50 cm painted by Modigliani in 1916, was sold for £ 4.4M from a lower estimate of £ 2.2M by Christie's on March 23, 2021, lot 29.
The symmetric face is elusive, including empty blue almond shaped eyes in the new signature style of Amedeo.
#AuctionUpdate Amedeo Modigliani's 'Portrait du photographe Dilewski' (1916) realised £4,402,500, more than double its low estimate. The strongly characterised portrait displays the signature traits of the male facial type that #Modigliani developed during this period.⠀ pic.twitter.com/3q24Em8PLP
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) March 23, 2021
1916 A Swirl of Colors by Goncharova
2010 SOLD 6.4 M£ including premium
The work of Natalia Goncharova was one of the most varied of her time. She had been close of all the avant-gardes: the Blaue Reiter, Cubism, Futurism.
She early met Diaghilev, and designed for years sets and costumes for his Ballets Russes. Diaghilev was the producer of a total show combining music, dance and visual arts, as Aeschylus two thousand years before him.
Inspired by a project for the Ballets Russes, Goncharova painted a Spanish dancer, circa 1916. The long dress and mantilla are made of bright colors and decorative patterns forming a cubist swirl around the extremely simplified head.
This oil on canvas, 130 x 80 cm, estimated £ 4 million, is for sale by Christie's on February 2 in London.
It is tempting to draw a parallel with the beautiful futuro-cubist ballerina of Severini, dating from 1915, which was sold for £ 15M including premium at Sotheby's on June 25, 2008.
POST SALE COMMENT
It was clearly seen. This Spanish dancer is a masterpiece of Goncharova, without reaching the artistic importance of the ballerina of Severini.
The market establishes its excellent position within the barometer of auction results: £ 6.4 million including premium.
She early met Diaghilev, and designed for years sets and costumes for his Ballets Russes. Diaghilev was the producer of a total show combining music, dance and visual arts, as Aeschylus two thousand years before him.
Inspired by a project for the Ballets Russes, Goncharova painted a Spanish dancer, circa 1916. The long dress and mantilla are made of bright colors and decorative patterns forming a cubist swirl around the extremely simplified head.
This oil on canvas, 130 x 80 cm, estimated £ 4 million, is for sale by Christie's on February 2 in London.
It is tempting to draw a parallel with the beautiful futuro-cubist ballerina of Severini, dating from 1915, which was sold for £ 15M including premium at Sotheby's on June 25, 2008.
POST SALE COMMENT
It was clearly seen. This Spanish dancer is a masterpiece of Goncharova, without reaching the artistic importance of the ballerina of Severini.
The market establishes its excellent position within the barometer of auction results: £ 6.4 million including premium.
1916 Kandinsky in Moscow
2015 SOLD for £ 6.3M including premium
Kandinsky was at first a painter of landscapes and epic improvisations. He is the first great theoretician of abstract art, questioning the usefulness of figuration in art and taking as an example one of his own artworks placed on the wrong side.
Yet before the 1920s and the emulation provided by the Bauhaus, he did not really become an abstract artist and willfully ignored Malevich's Suprematist developments.
Kandinsky had developed his art and his theories in Germany. Driven out by the war, he arrived in Moscow in December 1914. Like in Murnau, he is passionate about the light and colors of the city that he did not know quite well, having spent his youth in Odessa.
On February 3 in London, Sotheby's sells Moskau II, oil on canvas 53 x 38 cm painted in 1916, lot 22 estimated £ 6M.
Moskau II is a nice example of the ambiguity of the boundaries between abstract and figurative. The main theme is undeniably the evocation of Moscow's colors.
Moskau II is not an abstract work but an evolution of an urban landscape entitled Moskau I in which perspective was highly shaken. The proportions of the buildings have been conserved between both artworks, but the detailed design of the facades and of the sun, very readable in Moskau I, disappeared in Moskau II. Depriving the viewer of his figurative marks, Moskau II offers a strange poetry.
Yet before the 1920s and the emulation provided by the Bauhaus, he did not really become an abstract artist and willfully ignored Malevich's Suprematist developments.
Kandinsky had developed his art and his theories in Germany. Driven out by the war, he arrived in Moscow in December 1914. Like in Murnau, he is passionate about the light and colors of the city that he did not know quite well, having spent his youth in Odessa.
On February 3 in London, Sotheby's sells Moskau II, oil on canvas 53 x 38 cm painted in 1916, lot 22 estimated £ 6M.
Moskau II is a nice example of the ambiguity of the boundaries between abstract and figurative. The main theme is undeniably the evocation of Moscow's colors.
Moskau II is not an abstract work but an evolution of an urban landscape entitled Moskau I in which perspective was highly shaken. The proportions of the buildings have been conserved between both artworks, but the detailed design of the facades and of the sun, very readable in Moskau I, disappeared in Moskau II. Depriving the viewer of his figurative marks, Moskau II offers a strange poetry.
1915-1917 Enfilade by Eileen Gray
2009 SOLD for € 4M by Christie's
Eileen Gray had completed in Paris her art studies. She specializes in luxury furnishings. Sensitive and autonomous with a taste for exoticism, she innovates without worrying about pre-existing fashions. Seeking quality rather than series production, she prefers designing unique works.
She opens a workshop for lacquered wood in Paris in 1910 with the specialized Japanese craftsman Seijo Sugawara. They develop together new colors. In 1913 the refinement and originality of their Japan-inspired panels are praised by fashion designer Jacques Doucet, instantly making Eileen Gray a pioneer of the Parisian Art Déco.
During the war Gray and Sugawara work in London. In the auction of the Saint-Laurent Bergé collection in February 2009, Christie's sold for € 4M including premium a highly rare lacquered enfilade cabinet made in that transition period, lot 243. At the end of the war they restart the Parisian workshop.
On November 27, 2018, a lacquered console table passed at Artcurial from a lower estimate of € 1M. It had been made before 1920 with a 124 x 39 cm top and a total length of 169 cm including the retractable side shelves. It is entirely lacquered with various colors and the lacquer of the top is inlaid with silver powder.
The only known similar table, with slightly different dimensions, was also in the Saint-Laurent Bergé collection. In its auction already referred above, it was sold for € 2.3M including premium over a lower estimate of € 1M, lot 277. It is dated before 1920 in the catalogue.
She opens a workshop for lacquered wood in Paris in 1910 with the specialized Japanese craftsman Seijo Sugawara. They develop together new colors. In 1913 the refinement and originality of their Japan-inspired panels are praised by fashion designer Jacques Doucet, instantly making Eileen Gray a pioneer of the Parisian Art Déco.
During the war Gray and Sugawara work in London. In the auction of the Saint-Laurent Bergé collection in February 2009, Christie's sold for € 4M including premium a highly rare lacquered enfilade cabinet made in that transition period, lot 243. At the end of the war they restart the Parisian workshop.
On November 27, 2018, a lacquered console table passed at Artcurial from a lower estimate of € 1M. It had been made before 1920 with a 124 x 39 cm top and a total length of 169 cm including the retractable side shelves. It is entirely lacquered with various colors and the lacquer of the top is inlaid with silver powder.
The only known similar table, with slightly different dimensions, was also in the Saint-Laurent Bergé collection. In its auction already referred above, it was sold for € 2.3M including premium over a lower estimate of € 1M, lot 277. It is dated before 1920 in the catalogue.
1916 Dock Builders by Bellows
2011 SOLD for $ 3.9M by Sotheby's
A pupil of Robert Henri, George Bellows had a deep social sensitivity. The grandson of a whaling captain, he was attracted by the ports and by the living conditions of the working class. Also a specialist in graphic art related to sports, he captured both the decisive moment of a boxing match and the colorful crowd of spectators of polo or tennis.
Painted in 1912, the 114 x 161 cm oil on canvas titled Men of the Docks shows daily laborers hiring on Brooklyn Harbor with a huge boat in the background. This masterpiece of American socialist art was bought in a private sale in 2014 for $ 25.5M by the National Gallery of London.
In the summer, the artist enjoyed a relaxing atmosphere in Maine. The war is restarting the shipyards at Camden. Bellows is amazed by the construction of a four-mast cargo ship employing about a hundred workers. He paints a series of scenes on this theme, sometimes including the composite crowds who go about their daily lives. These brightly colored paintings appear resolutely optimistic, like an indirect contribution of Bellows to war patriotism.
Looking out to the sea, Dock builders, oil on canvas 77 x 97 cm painted in 1916, was sold for $ 3.9M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2011.
Looking beyond the crowd to the colossal ship being built in its dry dock, Shipyard Society, oil on panel of the same size also painted in 1916, passed at Christie's on May 22, 2019.
Painted in 1912, the 114 x 161 cm oil on canvas titled Men of the Docks shows daily laborers hiring on Brooklyn Harbor with a huge boat in the background. This masterpiece of American socialist art was bought in a private sale in 2014 for $ 25.5M by the National Gallery of London.
In the summer, the artist enjoyed a relaxing atmosphere in Maine. The war is restarting the shipyards at Camden. Bellows is amazed by the construction of a four-mast cargo ship employing about a hundred workers. He paints a series of scenes on this theme, sometimes including the composite crowds who go about their daily lives. These brightly colored paintings appear resolutely optimistic, like an indirect contribution of Bellows to war patriotism.
Looking out to the sea, Dock builders, oil on canvas 77 x 97 cm painted in 1916, was sold for $ 3.9M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2011.
Looking beyond the crowd to the colossal ship being built in its dry dock, Shipyard Society, oil on panel of the same size also painted in 1916, passed at Christie's on May 22, 2019.
