1949
See also : Abstract art II Art on paper Women artists Self portrait Self portrait II Man and woman Central and South Americas Mexico Magritte Still Pollock Miro
masterpiece
1949 Head VI by Bacon
Hayward Gallery
Francis Bacon used to destroy his own works as soon as executed as far as he was not happy with the maturity of his style. Almost everything has gone.
An oil on linen simply titled and dated Painting 1946 survived because it was bought very early by the gallerist Erica Brausen for Graham Sutherland.
The post-war artists feel an irrepressible need to shout their disgust. Painting 1946 is a surrealist work. The artist originally wanted to stage a chimpanzee because visitors like to recognize themselves in a painting as in their own mirror. The monkey turned into a bird of prey and then into a fool creature encircled behind a barrier like in a museum.
The success of Painting 1946 led in 1949 to the project of a series of six Heads, also supported by Brausen. With an increasing intensity from I to VI, Bacon releases two of his major obsessions, the snapshot of death symbolized by the scream of the old woman in Battleship Potemkin, and the vanity of power symbolized by Velazquez's Innocent X.
At the invitation of Brausen, Bacon exhibits ten paintings from November 8 to December 10, 1949 at the Hanover Gallery : the six Heads, three Studies and a Figure in a landscape.
Time has finally come for that so desired maturity. The discovery of the 40 year old artist was a shock for the art community. Taking foot against all themes in fashion, Bacon expresses horror, abjection, loneliness and animality of man. Art critics led by Wyndham Lewis are already enthusiastic.
The ten works exhibited by Brausen anticipate a variety of aspects of Bacon's language. Heads or bodies dissolve in the sober background of the scene. Already, the crucifixion is a triptych.
The trauma of the image of the Battleship Potemkin had profoundly influenced Bacon. He dissociates it for using it within two separate figures. The nose clip, an outdated artifact, adorns the face of the man in Head III. In Head VI, the scream of the nurse gives a provocative meaning to Velazquez's Pope.
Head III, oil on canvas 81 x 66 cm, has the sharp line of a portrait that could be recognizable. The man with sharp gaze and no forehead is certainly his friend Eric Hall. This could be the most ancient non destructed portrait in the work of Francis Bacon. It was sold for £ 10.4M by Sotheby's on June 26, 2013.
Head VI was Bacon's first work that was directly inspired by the Velazquez portrait of Innocent X. The papal throne, not visible in Head I, has become a straitjacket, and the character has lost any freedom of movement.
For many years Bacon will paint studies associating the same hallucinations. An impotent pope is trapped on his throne as in a cage. The resemblance to the Eisenstein film scene is reinforced by the broken nose-clip in front of the swollen eye. He no longer needs a monkey to offer to the viewer the mirror of his horror.
An oil on linen simply titled and dated Painting 1946 survived because it was bought very early by the gallerist Erica Brausen for Graham Sutherland.
The post-war artists feel an irrepressible need to shout their disgust. Painting 1946 is a surrealist work. The artist originally wanted to stage a chimpanzee because visitors like to recognize themselves in a painting as in their own mirror. The monkey turned into a bird of prey and then into a fool creature encircled behind a barrier like in a museum.
The success of Painting 1946 led in 1949 to the project of a series of six Heads, also supported by Brausen. With an increasing intensity from I to VI, Bacon releases two of his major obsessions, the snapshot of death symbolized by the scream of the old woman in Battleship Potemkin, and the vanity of power symbolized by Velazquez's Innocent X.
At the invitation of Brausen, Bacon exhibits ten paintings from November 8 to December 10, 1949 at the Hanover Gallery : the six Heads, three Studies and a Figure in a landscape.
Time has finally come for that so desired maturity. The discovery of the 40 year old artist was a shock for the art community. Taking foot against all themes in fashion, Bacon expresses horror, abjection, loneliness and animality of man. Art critics led by Wyndham Lewis are already enthusiastic.
The ten works exhibited by Brausen anticipate a variety of aspects of Bacon's language. Heads or bodies dissolve in the sober background of the scene. Already, the crucifixion is a triptych.
The trauma of the image of the Battleship Potemkin had profoundly influenced Bacon. He dissociates it for using it within two separate figures. The nose clip, an outdated artifact, adorns the face of the man in Head III. In Head VI, the scream of the nurse gives a provocative meaning to Velazquez's Pope.
Head III, oil on canvas 81 x 66 cm, has the sharp line of a portrait that could be recognizable. The man with sharp gaze and no forehead is certainly his friend Eric Hall. This could be the most ancient non destructed portrait in the work of Francis Bacon. It was sold for £ 10.4M by Sotheby's on June 26, 2013.
Head VI was Bacon's first work that was directly inspired by the Velazquez portrait of Innocent X. The papal throne, not visible in Head I, has become a straitjacket, and the character has lost any freedom of movement.
For many years Bacon will paint studies associating the same hallucinations. An impotent pope is trapped on his throne as in a cage. The resemblance to the Eisenstein film scene is reinforced by the broken nose-clip in front of the swollen eye. He no longer needs a monkey to offer to the viewer the mirror of his horror.
1949 Clyfford Still in Denver
2011 SOLD 62 M$ including premium
With Clyfford Still, the American art changed forever. A pioneer of abstract expressionism, he taught from 1946 to 1950 at the California Institute of Fine Arts. His art made of thick material is an explosion of colors that may symbolize life. Like Rothko, he wants to offer a total art, a vision with no frame. His vivid colors make him a precursor to the psychedelic art.
Yet Still's work is poorly understood. His paintings were exhibited but he did not search to sell and was angry with the artistic establishment. His will, well seconded by his widow, was that almost all his work is held in a unique museum which would be totally dedicated.
The city of Denver won this so special art competition. The Still museum will own about 96% of the artistic output of the master. In a highly original approach, four works are put on the market to pay for the development of the museum. Sotheby's won the bargain by offering a guarantee of $ 25M. The sale will be held in New York on November 9.
These painting are illustrated in the article shared by Art Market Monitor. I will indicate the sizes later. The two most outstanding belong to the most creative period: 1947-Y-No-2 is estimated $ 15M, and 1949-A-No.1 is estimated $ 25M.
POST SALE COMMENT
The operation was well organized and well publicized. Knowing now the result, we can consider this sale as superb.
For introducing the many works to be displayed by them, the city of Denver had found Sotheby's as a great helper. The four lots fetched altogether $ 114M including premium, more than doubling the lower estimate, and art lovers are now familiar with three periods of Still's career.
The two paintings from the period of glory received very high prices: $ 62 million for 1949-A-No.1, 236 x 200 cm, and $ 31.5 million for 1947-Y-No.2, 177 x 150 cm.
Sold $ 19.7 million, a painting of 1976, 237 x 210 cm, was from the secret period of the artist.
The formative years were represented by a painting of 1940, 104 x 95 cm, sold $ 1.25 M.
These results include premium.
Yet Still's work is poorly understood. His paintings were exhibited but he did not search to sell and was angry with the artistic establishment. His will, well seconded by his widow, was that almost all his work is held in a unique museum which would be totally dedicated.
The city of Denver won this so special art competition. The Still museum will own about 96% of the artistic output of the master. In a highly original approach, four works are put on the market to pay for the development of the museum. Sotheby's won the bargain by offering a guarantee of $ 25M. The sale will be held in New York on November 9.
These painting are illustrated in the article shared by Art Market Monitor. I will indicate the sizes later. The two most outstanding belong to the most creative period: 1947-Y-No-2 is estimated $ 15M, and 1949-A-No.1 is estimated $ 25M.
POST SALE COMMENT
The operation was well organized and well publicized. Knowing now the result, we can consider this sale as superb.
For introducing the many works to be displayed by them, the city of Denver had found Sotheby's as a great helper. The four lots fetched altogether $ 114M including premium, more than doubling the lower estimate, and art lovers are now familiar with three periods of Still's career.
The two paintings from the period of glory received very high prices: $ 62 million for 1949-A-No.1, 236 x 200 cm, and $ 31.5 million for 1947-Y-No.2, 177 x 150 cm.
Sold $ 19.7 million, a painting of 1976, 237 x 210 cm, was from the secret period of the artist.
The formative years were represented by a painting of 1940, 104 x 95 cm, sold $ 1.25 M.
These results include premium.
1949 Oil on Paper on Masonite by POLLOCK
Intro
1949 was the pinnacle in the life of Jackson Pollock. His unprecedented method of painting with dripping, which he invented two years earlier, is operational. His wife Lee Krasner and the gallery owner Betty Parsons manage his career, sparing him those social relationships in which he is so uncomfortable. From the end of 1948 until November 1950, he did not drink alcohol.
With these favorable circumstances, Jack can devote himself to his art, which he has always understood as the expression of his subconscious. The laudatory comments from some art critics don't surprise him : he tells Lee that there is no other example of creativity in their country except for the Bebop by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.
He has detractors, who consider that his creative gesture is random and therefore meaningless. Motivated by this opposition, he is preparing a series of paintings which will be exhibited together at the end of the year by Betty Parsons to demonstrate the diversity of his pictorial effects in a unique format.
He chooses oil and enamel on paper, which does not alter the colors of the pigments, adding on some works a phosphorescence effect with aluminum paint. The paper format, 78 x 57 cm, is not comparable to the gigantic canvases of the previous year, but it has an operational advantage : the jerky movement of the wrist is sufficient to perform a dripping of great precision without resorting to a gesticulatory dance all around the work.
This set of 16 works mounted on masonite is exhibited in November 1949 by Betty Parsons alongside unsold items from the previous show.
With these favorable circumstances, Jack can devote himself to his art, which he has always understood as the expression of his subconscious. The laudatory comments from some art critics don't surprise him : he tells Lee that there is no other example of creativity in their country except for the Bebop by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.
He has detractors, who consider that his creative gesture is random and therefore meaningless. Motivated by this opposition, he is preparing a series of paintings which will be exhibited together at the end of the year by Betty Parsons to demonstrate the diversity of his pictorial effects in a unique format.
He chooses oil and enamel on paper, which does not alter the colors of the pigments, adding on some works a phosphorescence effect with aluminum paint. The paper format, 78 x 57 cm, is not comparable to the gigantic canvases of the previous year, but it has an operational advantage : the jerky movement of the wrist is sufficient to perform a dripping of great precision without resorting to a gesticulatory dance all around the work.
This set of 16 works mounted on masonite is exhibited in November 1949 by Betty Parsons alongside unsold items from the previous show.
1
Number 31
2022 SOLD for $ 54M by Christie's
The Number 31 of 1949, oil, enamel, aluminum paint and gesso on paper mounted on Masonite
79 x 57 cm painted in 1949, was sold for $ 54M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 21C. It is in a great original condition with fresh colors.
The abstract swirls and stains densely occupy the whole surface of the paper in a vibrant arrangement of colors. It is one of the eight examples in that series which used drips of aluminum paint to increase the brightness. Brilliant red, emerald green, turquoise, yellow and orange offer a rainbow spectrum effect.
This piece demonstrating the full maturity of Pollock's dripping process was included in the second solo show at Betty Parsons Gallery in November and December 1949.
79 x 57 cm painted in 1949, was sold for $ 54M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 21C. It is in a great original condition with fresh colors.
The abstract swirls and stains densely occupy the whole surface of the paper in a vibrant arrangement of colors. It is one of the eight examples in that series which used drips of aluminum paint to increase the brightness. Brilliant red, emerald green, turquoise, yellow and orange offer a rainbow spectrum effect.
This piece demonstrating the full maturity of Pollock's dripping process was included in the second solo show at Betty Parsons Gallery in November and December 1949.
2
Number 32
2018 SOLD for $ 34M by Sotheby's
Number 32, 1949 is one of the 8 examples that used aluminum.
In a nice freshness thanks to a parsimonious use in exhibitions, this painting on paper was sold for $ 34M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018, lot 14. Please watch the short video and the full video shared by the auction house.
In a nice freshness thanks to a parsimonious use in exhibitions, this painting on paper was sold for $ 34M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018, lot 14. Please watch the short video and the full video shared by the auction house.
3
Number 16
2013 SOLD for $ 32.6M by Christie's
The numbers 12, 16 and 17 appear as nets entangling the black and colored lines over an ocher background. This centered pattern which hardly reaches the edge of the image gives up the effect of infinite field, which was therefore not essential in Pollock's creativity, while maintaining the total absence of a third dimension.
Number 16 was sold for $ 32.6M by Christie's on November 12, 2013, lot 39.
Number 16 was sold for $ 32.6M by Christie's on November 12, 2013, lot 39.
4
Number 17
2015 SOLD for $ 23M by Sotheby's
Number 17, 57 x 72 cm, was sold for $ 23M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2015, lot 9.
De-accessed from MoMA, Number 12 was sold for $ 11.7M by Christie's on May 11, 2004, lot 17.
De-accessed from MoMA, Number 12 was sold for $ 11.7M by Christie's on May 11, 2004, lot 17.
1949 Diego y yo by Kahlo
2021 SOLD for $ 35M by Sotheby's
Frida Kahlo suffered a lifelong intense pain in her back after an accident. She courageously faced her condition by her art and by her quest for a passion out of the ordinary, including political commitment and bisexuality. She found her partner, unfaithful husband and accomplice in the Communist artist Diego Rivera, 20 years older than her.
Kahlo's art is made of metaphors and symbols with a high poetry. A friend of the Surrealists, she nevertheless insisted to state that she was not representing her dreams but her reality. 55 of her ca 143 paintings are self portraits.
Eager to exchange an empathy, she often made and inscribed self portraits for friends : Trotsky, her doctors. On November 16, 2021, Sotheby's sold such a self portrait for $ 35M, lot 12. This oil on masonite 30 x 22 cm painted in 1949 is dedicated to Florence and Sam, a couple of friends who were instrumental in promoting her art. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The piece was titled Diego y yo by the artist. It displays the portrait in bust of Diego Rivera on the forehead, fully centered between eyebrows and hair. This figure has at the same place the third eye of wisdom. The intimate theme of this self portrait is indeed her obsession for Diego. Three tears flow on her cheeks.
A self portrait executed in 1954, the year of her untimely death, is in the same inspiration, with the image of Diego on the breast and of her rival Maria between the eyebrows.
Kahlo's art is made of metaphors and symbols with a high poetry. A friend of the Surrealists, she nevertheless insisted to state that she was not representing her dreams but her reality. 55 of her ca 143 paintings are self portraits.
Eager to exchange an empathy, she often made and inscribed self portraits for friends : Trotsky, her doctors. On November 16, 2021, Sotheby's sold such a self portrait for $ 35M, lot 12. This oil on masonite 30 x 22 cm painted in 1949 is dedicated to Florence and Sam, a couple of friends who were instrumental in promoting her art. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The piece was titled Diego y yo by the artist. It displays the portrait in bust of Diego Rivera on the forehead, fully centered between eyebrows and hair. This figure has at the same place the third eye of wisdom. The intimate theme of this self portrait is indeed her obsession for Diego. Three tears flow on her cheeks.
A self portrait executed in 1954, the year of her untimely death, is in the same inspiration, with the image of Diego on the breast and of her rival Maria between the eyebrows.
1949 L'Empire des Lumières by Magritte
2023 SOLD for $ 35M by Christie's
Surrealism is most often requiring an uneasy decoding. When practiced by René Magritte, it sometimes disturbs the viewer by the very simplicity of the message. La Trahison des Images painted in 1929 became the symbol of that language which is both offbeat and poetic.
With its title attributed by Paul Nougé, L'Empire des lumières reached a similar notoriety. The theme is commonplace : a night view of a suburb inspired by the Brussels district where Magritte resides.
The inhabitants are not visible but we imagine them behind the lighted windows. A lamppost illuminates the street with a questionable effectiveness. Beside these few glows the shadows are saturated. No contradiction of scale comes to puzzle the viewer.
Above this peaceful night the sky is blue, dotted with white clouds. The artist asks a poetic question for which he knows that there is no answer : are day and night incompatible or are they two complementary elements of real life ? In pre war works such as Le Poison, the addition of the crescent moon and starred sky on the façade added the surrealist feeling that Magritte removed in L'Empire des lumières.
The first oil variant of the Empire des lumières was completed in 1949. This canvas 49 x 59 cm was sold by Christie's for $ 20.6M on November 13, 2017, lot 12 A and for $ 35M on November 9, 2023, lot 16 B.
Nobody dared questioning if the Empire des lumières was not just a mere realistic twilight. It somehow illustrates a typically Surrealist verse by Breton : 'Si seulement il faisait du soleil cette nuit'.
With its title attributed by Paul Nougé, L'Empire des lumières reached a similar notoriety. The theme is commonplace : a night view of a suburb inspired by the Brussels district where Magritte resides.
The inhabitants are not visible but we imagine them behind the lighted windows. A lamppost illuminates the street with a questionable effectiveness. Beside these few glows the shadows are saturated. No contradiction of scale comes to puzzle the viewer.
Above this peaceful night the sky is blue, dotted with white clouds. The artist asks a poetic question for which he knows that there is no answer : are day and night incompatible or are they two complementary elements of real life ? In pre war works such as Le Poison, the addition of the crescent moon and starred sky on the façade added the surrealist feeling that Magritte removed in L'Empire des lumières.
The first oil variant of the Empire des lumières was completed in 1949. This canvas 49 x 59 cm was sold by Christie's for $ 20.6M on November 13, 2017, lot 12 A and for $ 35M on November 9, 2023, lot 16 B.
Nobody dared questioning if the Empire des lumières was not just a mere realistic twilight. It somehow illustrates a typically Surrealist verse by Breton : 'Si seulement il faisait du soleil cette nuit'.
1949 Peinture (Femmes, Lune, Etoiles) by Miro
2023 SOLD for € 20.8M by Christie's
From 1945 Miro's art exploded in the joy of the end of war. His bright colors and stylized figures may become exuberant again.
L'Auberge de la Colombe d'Or, originally Chez Robinson, was founded in 1920 at Saint-Paul de Vence by Paul Roux, an amateur of art and poetry. In a wonderful hilltop landscape, the hotel equipped with a terrace gathers the avant-garde artists, poets and movie stars.
Nobody better than Miro would mingle bright painting and surrealist poetry. In 1950 at the Galerie Maeght in Paris, Roux purchases Peinture (Femmes, Lune, Etoiles). This work features a joyful crowd of dancers on a radiant background. Two of the minor figures have the French bleu blanc rouge colors. Moon and stars connect to the cosmos.
This oil and casein paint on canvas 73 x 92 cm executed in 1949 remained on the wall of the dining room during seven decades. It was sold for € 20.8M by Christie's on October 20, 2023, lot 309. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Miro made his first visit to the auberge in 1951.
L'Auberge de la Colombe d'Or, originally Chez Robinson, was founded in 1920 at Saint-Paul de Vence by Paul Roux, an amateur of art and poetry. In a wonderful hilltop landscape, the hotel equipped with a terrace gathers the avant-garde artists, poets and movie stars.
Nobody better than Miro would mingle bright painting and surrealist poetry. In 1950 at the Galerie Maeght in Paris, Roux purchases Peinture (Femmes, Lune, Etoiles). This work features a joyful crowd of dancers on a radiant background. Two of the minor figures have the French bleu blanc rouge colors. Moon and stars connect to the cosmos.
This oil and casein paint on canvas 73 x 92 cm executed in 1949 remained on the wall of the dining room during seven decades. It was sold for € 20.8M by Christie's on October 20, 2023, lot 309. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Miro made his first visit to the auberge in 1951.
1949 By Twos by Newman
2013 SOLD for $ 20.6M by Sotheby's
A son to Jewish immigrants from Poland to the USA, Barnett Newman considered that a new art was necessary after the Holocaust. He went to consider in 1946 that only an artist would be able to reach the primal essence of existence.
He painfully defined his signature style in 1948 with Onement I. A monochrome background is supporting the single figure of a strictly vertical line of another color which is something like a straight flash that opens the cosmos. He will refer that line as the "zip".
This achievement triggers his creativity. In 1949 Newman tries several placements, widths and colors in no less than 17 paintings, including first trials of asymmetry.
Among them, Galaxy is the very first opus to display two parallel zips. The line in the left side is light and broad while the other line is dark and narrow, both on a rich burgundy background. This oil on canvas 61 x 51 cm was sold for $ 10M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018, lot 35. Such a small size in a near square format is reminiscent of Mondrian's abstract masterpieces.
Also executed in 1949 with two zips, By Two is an attempt of a vertical format that simulates the size of a standing human body. The zips are light blue in same width, one of them being centered and the other one at one third within the right side. The background is velvety black. Such a dissymmetry may evoke face and profile together while the title may refer to the pairs in Noah's Ark.
This tall oil on canvas 168 x 41 cm was sold for $ 20.6M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2013, lot 28.
The black on black Abraham was painted in the same year.
He painfully defined his signature style in 1948 with Onement I. A monochrome background is supporting the single figure of a strictly vertical line of another color which is something like a straight flash that opens the cosmos. He will refer that line as the "zip".
This achievement triggers his creativity. In 1949 Newman tries several placements, widths and colors in no less than 17 paintings, including first trials of asymmetry.
Among them, Galaxy is the very first opus to display two parallel zips. The line in the left side is light and broad while the other line is dark and narrow, both on a rich burgundy background. This oil on canvas 61 x 51 cm was sold for $ 10M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018, lot 35. Such a small size in a near square format is reminiscent of Mondrian's abstract masterpieces.
Also executed in 1949 with two zips, By Two is an attempt of a vertical format that simulates the size of a standing human body. The zips are light blue in same width, one of them being centered and the other one at one third within the right side. The background is velvety black. Such a dissymmetry may evoke face and profile together while the title may refer to the pairs in Noah's Ark.
This tall oil on canvas 168 x 41 cm was sold for $ 20.6M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2013, lot 28.
The black on black Abraham was painted in the same year.
1949 Abstraction by de Kooning
2012 SOLD for $ 19.7M by Sotheby's
On November 13, 2012, Sotheby's sold at lot 13 for $ 19.7M from a lower estimate of $ 15M an artwork with an unambiguous title : Abstraction.
Executed circa 1949 by Willem de Kooning in oil, enamel and charcoal on cardboard 62 x 83 cm, it is however a great demonstration of the close relationship between abstract art and figurative art in the early days of what was called "abstract expressionism".
The woman is the favorite topic of de Kooning. Gradually, he deconstructs her. He also observes the balance of lines and fields in the art of Gorky. He sees Pollock struggling to hide the figure until it is no longer readable.
But he understood, as Miro before him, that it is to the viewer to identify the subject of the work, and the ambiguity in the interpretation generates emotion.
De Kooning admired Cubism. This abstraction with pale colors is not carnal. It may be viewed as the dressed shoulders of a Cubist woman pushed to the extreme limits of abstraction. Or as an abstraction leaving the impression of a female presence.
De Kooning gave a decisive impetus to a new emotional language at the border of surrealism and of action painting. With Abstract Expressionism, New York became the artistic capital of the world.
Executed circa 1949 by Willem de Kooning in oil, enamel and charcoal on cardboard 62 x 83 cm, it is however a great demonstration of the close relationship between abstract art and figurative art in the early days of what was called "abstract expressionism".
The woman is the favorite topic of de Kooning. Gradually, he deconstructs her. He also observes the balance of lines and fields in the art of Gorky. He sees Pollock struggling to hide the figure until it is no longer readable.
But he understood, as Miro before him, that it is to the viewer to identify the subject of the work, and the ambiguity in the interpretation generates emotion.
De Kooning admired Cubism. This abstraction with pale colors is not carnal. It may be viewed as the dressed shoulders of a Cubist woman pushed to the extreme limits of abstraction. Or as an abstraction leaving the impression of a female presence.
De Kooning gave a decisive impetus to a new emotional language at the border of surrealism and of action painting. With Abstract Expressionism, New York became the artistic capital of the world.
