1930
1930 Composition en Rouge, Bleu et Jaune by Mondrian
2022 SOLD for $ 51M by Sotheby's
On November 14, 2022, Sotheby's sold for $ 51M a Composition en rouge, bleu et jaune 51 x 51 cm painted in 1930 by Mondrian, lot 105. Please watch the video shared by the auction house where Bridget Riley narrates the influence of Mondrian on her own art.
This image is asymmetrically divided by a horizontal and a vertical end to end lines. A dominant bright red fills the upper right as a square while the other three quadrants are narrower for the escape to infinity. There is no black border on the canvas but it is mounted in a light grey artist's frame.
The smaller quadrant on the opposite side of the red is an escaping vivid blue. The upper left and lower right areas are split by a horizontal line twice thicker than the other lines, a departure of that year from Mondrian's austere rules. The lower right is on its turn split in two by a vertical line to display an escaping bright yellow corner.
This image is asymmetrically divided by a horizontal and a vertical end to end lines. A dominant bright red fills the upper right as a square while the other three quadrants are narrower for the escape to infinity. There is no black border on the canvas but it is mounted in a light grey artist's frame.
The smaller quadrant on the opposite side of the red is an escaping vivid blue. The upper left and lower right areas are split by a horizontal line twice thicker than the other lines, a departure of that year from Mondrian's austere rules. The lower right is on its turn split in two by a vertical line to display an escaping bright yellow corner.
1930 Mondrian reaches the Infinity
2014 SOLD 12.4 M£ including premium
Mondrian's quest is mystical. The colors are reduced to blue, yellow or red in a purity without shade, painted with high care to ensure the removal of any inhomogeneity.
By studying the parallel lines, Euclid invited to consider the infinite through a figure executed on a small surface. In 1930, it becomes clear that Mondrian endeavours to implement a similar vision in art: the pattern of strictly horizontal and vertical lines is important, color is secondary.
On February 4 in London, Christie's sells an oil on canvas, estimated £ 8M.
At that time, two colors are now sufficient on the condirion that they appear at opposite corners of the canvas. The lowest line is very close to the edge, opening a mysterious area. Under such conditions, a small picture is sufficient to express rhe deletion of the limits : the size of this square canvas is only 50 cm.
There is no fantasy in an abstract painting by Mondrian. The thicker horizontal line at the top of the yellow zone is so short on the canvas that it is indeed the visible part of an endless journey.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's. It masterfully demonstrates that this painting is just one element in a series of different colors, put in a comparable manner on a similar pattern. In another artwork, yellow and blue are reversed compared with the painting that comes for sale.
In a less dogmatic way than Malevich, Mondrian also eliminates any emotional value of color. The only impression that remains is infinity.
POST SALE COMMENT
This small painting enables to appreciate Mondrian's quest. It was sold for £ 12.4 million including premium.
By studying the parallel lines, Euclid invited to consider the infinite through a figure executed on a small surface. In 1930, it becomes clear that Mondrian endeavours to implement a similar vision in art: the pattern of strictly horizontal and vertical lines is important, color is secondary.
On February 4 in London, Christie's sells an oil on canvas, estimated £ 8M.
At that time, two colors are now sufficient on the condirion that they appear at opposite corners of the canvas. The lowest line is very close to the edge, opening a mysterious area. Under such conditions, a small picture is sufficient to express rhe deletion of the limits : the size of this square canvas is only 50 cm.
There is no fantasy in an abstract painting by Mondrian. The thicker horizontal line at the top of the yellow zone is so short on the canvas that it is indeed the visible part of an endless journey.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's. It masterfully demonstrates that this painting is just one element in a series of different colors, put in a comparable manner on a similar pattern. In another artwork, yellow and blue are reversed compared with the painting that comes for sale.
In a less dogmatic way than Malevich, Mondrian also eliminates any emotional value of color. The only impression that remains is infinity.
POST SALE COMMENT
This small painting enables to appreciate Mondrian's quest. It was sold for £ 12.4 million including premium.
1930 O'KEEFFE
1
White Calico Rose
2023 SOLD for $ 13M by Christie's
Georgia O'Keeffe enjoys enlarging the details of the blooms, mostly when they are hardly visible with the naked eye. She paints them in delicate pale hues.
The white calico rose is a typical flower of the Southwest, used to express mortality. Represented in fabric or paper, they adorn graves and altars in the New Mexico desert. O'Keeffe sometimes associates it in a memento mori with a cow's skull, the arch-symbol of the Wild West.
White Calico Rose, oil on canvas 76 x 91 cm, was painted in 1930 after she came back from her summer time in New Mexico. This close up view is taken from over, in the exquisite pale tones of a pure and chaste palette over a dark background. There may be a doubt whether the model was the flower or its perfectly rendered artifact. It was sold for $ 13M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 38A.
In another theme, a study in pale tones 61 x 91 cm painted in the same year was sold for $ 3.4M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2010. Closer to the geometric abstraction, it features the mollusk that lives inside a clam shell.
The white calico rose is a typical flower of the Southwest, used to express mortality. Represented in fabric or paper, they adorn graves and altars in the New Mexico desert. O'Keeffe sometimes associates it in a memento mori with a cow's skull, the arch-symbol of the Wild West.
White Calico Rose, oil on canvas 76 x 91 cm, was painted in 1930 after she came back from her summer time in New Mexico. This close up view is taken from over, in the exquisite pale tones of a pure and chaste palette over a dark background. There may be a doubt whether the model was the flower or its perfectly rendered artifact. It was sold for $ 13M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 38A.
In another theme, a study in pale tones 61 x 91 cm painted in the same year was sold for $ 3.4M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2010. Closer to the geometric abstraction, it features the mollusk that lives inside a clam shell.
2
On the Old Santa Fe Road
2023 SOLD for $ 7.9M by Christie's
The art by Georgia O'Keeffe explores new paths. She begins by being a pioneer of abstract art but that does not satisfy her. This daughter of a dairy farmer from Wisconsin wants to be close to nature. She develops two opposing themes during her stays in Lake George, both in architectural compositions : the grand landscape and the intimate detail of the flower.
During a tour of the west Rebecca Strand has an intuition : her friend Georgia will be able to express the wild power of the rolling hills of New Mexico. In 1929 the two women leave New York City and their husbands for a first long stay in Taos where they will return for several consecutive summers.
Georgia is immediately seduced by these pure landscapes that are not soiled by vegetation. In a spontaneous Humboldtian vision, she finds a biomorphic dimension in these dry lands flooded by sunlight.
On the Old Santa Fe Road is a sculptural mountain guised with the folds and curves of a pelvis or of the interior of a bloom, with no foreground. This oil on canvas 41 x 76 cm was painted in a wide range of warm colors, probably in 1930 during her second summer in New Mexico.
It was sold for $ 5.1M by Sotheby's on November 20, 2014, lot 24, and for $ 7.9M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 41A.
Georgia once said : "I am willing to take off all my clothes and lie back against these hills".
During a tour of the west Rebecca Strand has an intuition : her friend Georgia will be able to express the wild power of the rolling hills of New Mexico. In 1929 the two women leave New York City and their husbands for a first long stay in Taos where they will return for several consecutive summers.
Georgia is immediately seduced by these pure landscapes that are not soiled by vegetation. In a spontaneous Humboldtian vision, she finds a biomorphic dimension in these dry lands flooded by sunlight.
On the Old Santa Fe Road is a sculptural mountain guised with the folds and curves of a pelvis or of the interior of a bloom, with no foreground. This oil on canvas 41 x 76 cm was painted in a wide range of warm colors, probably in 1930 during her second summer in New Mexico.
It was sold for $ 5.1M by Sotheby's on November 20, 2014, lot 24, and for $ 7.9M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 41A.
Georgia once said : "I am willing to take off all my clothes and lie back against these hills".
1930 Bones by PICASSO
1
Profil
2021 SOLD for $ 7.3M by Christie's
After the 1920s Picasso needed to move forward, artistically and emotionally. As most often in his career he looks for influences.
The wrought iron sculptures of his childhood friend Julio Gonzalez encourage him to assemble forms featuring human organs. Watching from various angles creates the composition of his paintings as Matisse had done in his early days. When a rocky architecture posed on a beach evokes a woman whose hollows appeal for eroticism, it is unclear between Picasso and Dali who influenced the other.
Picasso defined this ephemeral surrealist period as the series of Bones, supported by some craze for the skeletons. Do not believe what artists say.
In fact Pablo is frustrated. He had chosen Marie-Thérèse as a muse but she is still a minor and he hides her in an apartment close to his. Olga certainly has doubts about Pablo's loyalty, and acrimony begins to settle in the couple.
Picasso's Bones are indeed women. The painter will later say that they are showing Olga, perhaps because he can no longer accept his frustration at not being legally able to display Marie-Thérèse.
On January 18, 1930 he was still painting L'Acrobate, a poor imitation of La Musique by Matisse, 162 x 130 cm. At the end of January in the same size the Baigneuse is Olga seated at the seaside. In a surrealist construction she has the overall morphology of a naked woman.
Profil, oil and charcoal on panel 66 x 50 cm painted on January 27, 1930, was sold for $ 7.3M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 47C. The human features are ambiguous, with a fully distorted face over the background of the head and neck with a blonde ponytail.
The wrought iron sculptures of his childhood friend Julio Gonzalez encourage him to assemble forms featuring human organs. Watching from various angles creates the composition of his paintings as Matisse had done in his early days. When a rocky architecture posed on a beach evokes a woman whose hollows appeal for eroticism, it is unclear between Picasso and Dali who influenced the other.
Picasso defined this ephemeral surrealist period as the series of Bones, supported by some craze for the skeletons. Do not believe what artists say.
In fact Pablo is frustrated. He had chosen Marie-Thérèse as a muse but she is still a minor and he hides her in an apartment close to his. Olga certainly has doubts about Pablo's loyalty, and acrimony begins to settle in the couple.
Picasso's Bones are indeed women. The painter will later say that they are showing Olga, perhaps because he can no longer accept his frustration at not being legally able to display Marie-Thérèse.
On January 18, 1930 he was still painting L'Acrobate, a poor imitation of La Musique by Matisse, 162 x 130 cm. At the end of January in the same size the Baigneuse is Olga seated at the seaside. In a surrealist construction she has the overall morphology of a naked woman.
Profil, oil and charcoal on panel 66 x 50 cm painted on January 27, 1930, was sold for $ 7.3M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 47C. The human features are ambiguous, with a fully distorted face over the background of the head and neck with a blonde ponytail.
2
Femme
2011 SOLD for $ 7.9M by Sotheby's
On February 1, 1930, Picasso's Femme is a hollowed head that has retained the triangular beak and vertical jaws of the previous Baigneuse. This 64 x 47 cm oil on panel was sold for $ 7.9M by Sotheby's on May 3, 2011 from a lower estimate of $ 3M, lot 17.
3
Figure
2018 SOLD for £ 8.3M by Christie's
On February 2, 1930, Figure foils the attempts to interpret the organic features, even in comparison with the Femme from the day before, as if Picasso had wanted to ensure an abstract jump of his fantasies from Olga to Marie-Thérèse.
This oil and charcoal on panel 66 x 49 cm was sold for £ 8.3M from a lower estimate of £ 3M for sale by Christie's on February 27, 2018, lot 106.
This oil and charcoal on panel 66 x 49 cm was sold for £ 8.3M from a lower estimate of £ 3M for sale by Christie's on February 27, 2018, lot 106.
1930 Nu Allongé by Matisse
2001 SOLD for $ 10.5M by Phillips, de Pury and Luxembourg
During Matisse's lifetime only eleven bronzes of the Nu allongé I (L'Aurore) were cast, the last one being an artist's proof. They are distributed from 1908 to 1951 in no less than five different casts.
The first three bronzes were edited in Paris around 1908. One of them was sold for £ 15M by Phillips on March 8, 2018, lot 9.
Two later copies had been sold : for $ 8.4M by Christie's on November 9, 1999 for one of the two 1912 bronzes and for $ 10.5M by Phillips, de Pury and Luxembourg on May 7, 2001 for one of the three 1930 bronzes, lot 17.
The first three bronzes were edited in Paris around 1908. One of them was sold for £ 15M by Phillips on March 8, 2018, lot 9.
Two later copies had been sold : for $ 8.4M by Christie's on November 9, 1999 for one of the two 1912 bronzes and for $ 10.5M by Phillips, de Pury and Luxembourg on May 7, 2001 for one of the three 1930 bronzes, lot 17.
1930 Pretty Women in the Roaring Twenties
2020 SOLD for $ 9.4M including premium
Tamara de Lempicka knew how to propel herself into Parisian high society through her talents as a portrait painter. She resolutely expresses the desire of good life in the Roaring Twenties, when women's skins begin to be revealed. The women in his paintings are neat and healthy, in warm colors and pleasing curves that appeal to partners. They are well in their time even when they are naked, by the bob hairstyle, the lipstick and the nails, and also by the proud assurance of their attitude.
She has no sexual taboos and is a pretty woman herself whom her admirers like to compare to Garbo. Beside her social portraits, she paints anonymous women who are often self-portraits or pictures of her favorite lovers, Ira and Rafaela.
On October 6 in New York, Christie's sells Les Jeunes femmes, oil on panel 73 x 38 cm painted in 1930, lot 29 estimated $ 6M. This work is also titled Les Deux amies in an assimilation with the couples of women by Toulouse-Lautrec.
They are naked. The slight chiaroscuro shows that they are outside. The brunette is leaning on a railing on which the blonde is seated in a dominant position. Despite their physical proximity, their intimacy is not sexual in this picture. They are both looking at something happening under their balcony.
The blonde's resemblance to Tamara seems obvious. The brunette, whose face is not visible, may be Ira.
She has no sexual taboos and is a pretty woman herself whom her admirers like to compare to Garbo. Beside her social portraits, she paints anonymous women who are often self-portraits or pictures of her favorite lovers, Ira and Rafaela.
On October 6 in New York, Christie's sells Les Jeunes femmes, oil on panel 73 x 38 cm painted in 1930, lot 29 estimated $ 6M. This work is also titled Les Deux amies in an assimilation with the couples of women by Toulouse-Lautrec.
They are naked. The slight chiaroscuro shows that they are outside. The brunette is leaning on a railing on which the blonde is seated in a dominant position. Despite their physical proximity, their intimacy is not sexual in this picture. They are both looking at something happening under their balcony.
The blonde's resemblance to Tamara seems obvious. The brunette, whose face is not visible, may be Ira.
1930-1933 South Truro by Hopper
2023 SOLD for $ 7.2M by Sotheby's
Painted in 1925 by Edward Hopper, House by the railroad features an outdated Victorian mansion confronted with a surrounding which is void of any living being. Despite the breakthrough of his new style to express a lonely mood, the artist preferred puzzling his followers by stating that he "was more interested in the sunlight on the buildings and on the figures than any symbolism".
In 1930 Edward and his wife Jo are dazzled by the soft landscape of sandy hills of South Truro above Cape Cod bay. With no hotels, movie theaters or commercial shopping, the small village matched Edward's mood for isolation. The couple will return every summer for the rest of their lives to their little paradise on earth.
It is no surprise that Edward was more appealed by the simplest dwellings than by the inhabitants. A view of Cobb's Barns was painted in that early discovery phase in 1930 when they rented a cottage for summer to that Mr Cobb.
This oil on canvas 86 x 126 cm was treasured by the artist until his death. Owned by bequest by the Whitney Museum, it was displayed on loan in the Oval Office of the White House in 2014 during Obama's term. It was sold after de-accession for $ 7.2M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2023, lot 145. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In 1930 Edward and his wife Jo are dazzled by the soft landscape of sandy hills of South Truro above Cape Cod bay. With no hotels, movie theaters or commercial shopping, the small village matched Edward's mood for isolation. The couple will return every summer for the rest of their lives to their little paradise on earth.
It is no surprise that Edward was more appealed by the simplest dwellings than by the inhabitants. A view of Cobb's Barns was painted in that early discovery phase in 1930 when they rented a cottage for summer to that Mr Cobb.
This oil on canvas 86 x 126 cm was treasured by the artist until his death. Owned by bequest by the Whitney Museum, it was displayed on loan in the Oval Office of the White House in 2014 during Obama's term. It was sold after de-accession for $ 7.2M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2023, lot 145. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
