1953
1953 The Sixth Year of the Creation
2013 SOLD 44 M$ including premium
From 1948 to 1953, Barnett Newman expressed his conception of the creation of the world in a series of six paintings titled Onement and numbered from I to VI. These monochrome works are crossed in the middle by a narrow vertical strip visible in another color after removal of a sparing tape. The strip is identified as the 'zip'.
The impression of homogeneity is false, as different techniques are used for applying color until the differences become almost imperceptible. Through his painstaking care, the monochromes of Newman precede the pop art flags of Jasper Johns.
The apparent simplicity of the result expresses the false uniformity of the universe. The central zip is designed as an assault by an all-powerful force.
Onement V, 152 x 96 cm, was sold for $ 22.5 million including premium at Christie's on May 8, 2012. The zip in low contrast separates the two dark blue vertical areas.
In 1953, Onement VI is the apotheosis of the series, in the metaphysical meaning of that word. The space, still dark blue, becomes huge and almost square, 300 x 260 cm. The light blue zip is the first in the series to have sharp edges, predicting the victory of the disturbance on the established order.
Onement VI is estimated $ 30M, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 14. It is illustrated on the summary shared by Art Market Monitor.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
Onement VI is an iconic work, able to propagate at their best the messages and searches of abstract expressionism. It was sold $ 44M including premium.
The impression of homogeneity is false, as different techniques are used for applying color until the differences become almost imperceptible. Through his painstaking care, the monochromes of Newman precede the pop art flags of Jasper Johns.
The apparent simplicity of the result expresses the false uniformity of the universe. The central zip is designed as an assault by an all-powerful force.
Onement V, 152 x 96 cm, was sold for $ 22.5 million including premium at Christie's on May 8, 2012. The zip in low contrast separates the two dark blue vertical areas.
In 1953, Onement VI is the apotheosis of the series, in the metaphysical meaning of that word. The space, still dark blue, becomes huge and almost square, 300 x 260 cm. The light blue zip is the first in the series to have sharp edges, predicting the victory of the disturbance on the established order.
Onement VI is estimated $ 30M, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 14. It is illustrated on the summary shared by Art Market Monitor.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
Onement VI is an iconic work, able to propagate at their best the messages and searches of abstract expressionism. It was sold $ 44M including premium.
1953 Rothko and the Red Studio
2019 SOLD for $ 26.5M including premium
In 1952 Mark Rothko needs to redefine his creativity. He now has a better workshop that allows him to consider larger vertical formats. At the same time, the rise in popularity of the abstract expressionist movement generates jealousy from the other artists including Newman and Still. It is true that Rothko's blocks simulating mystical confrontations are really understandable only by himself.
The new workshop is close to the MoMA. The contemplation of Matisse's Atelier Rouge is a new starting point for Rothko. In this oil on canvas painted in 1911, Matisse has limited the image to a very saturated dark red wall to which a few small objects bring their contrasting colors. Despite the presence of the table and floor, the perspective is almost annihilated.
In 1953 Rothko continues his main theme of assembling rectangles of bright colors. Yet some paintings are directly inspired by the Atelier Rouge. This is undoubtedly the case for Blue over Red, oil on canvas 163 x 89 cm. On an orange background modulated with ochre and yellow, the blocks separated by strips of light are not very contrasted, with the exception of a bright blue band in the upper part of the image which could be a painting on Matisse's wall.
Blue over Red was sold for $ 5.6M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2005. It is estimated $ 25M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 14, lot 26. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This influence has been fruitful for the artist. He will now look for illusions of the pulsation of light by the contradictory forces of dilatation and contraction, and will soon replace the garish colors with dark hues.
The new workshop is close to the MoMA. The contemplation of Matisse's Atelier Rouge is a new starting point for Rothko. In this oil on canvas painted in 1911, Matisse has limited the image to a very saturated dark red wall to which a few small objects bring their contrasting colors. Despite the presence of the table and floor, the perspective is almost annihilated.
In 1953 Rothko continues his main theme of assembling rectangles of bright colors. Yet some paintings are directly inspired by the Atelier Rouge. This is undoubtedly the case for Blue over Red, oil on canvas 163 x 89 cm. On an orange background modulated with ochre and yellow, the blocks separated by strips of light are not very contrasted, with the exception of a bright blue band in the upper part of the image which could be a painting on Matisse's wall.
Blue over Red was sold for $ 5.6M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2005. It is estimated $ 25M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 14, lot 26. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This influence has been fruitful for the artist. He will now look for illusions of the pulsation of light by the contradictory forces of dilatation and contraction, and will soon replace the garish colors with dark hues.
1953 Study for a Trivial Man
2011 SOLD 18 M£ including premium
The artists of the twentieth century have greatly admired Velazquez. Francis Bacon goes further: his many studies of Innocent X are a great example of appropriation. Any pope is a human, and therefore has the ability to scream, but which message does he screams so? His social position does not allow such an arrogance.
In the artistic language of Bacon, a man who does not scream may be even more terrible because he does not eject his tensions. Painted in 1953, the Study for a portrait for sale by Christie's in London on June 28 anticipated by a few months the Man in Blue series.
On this large oil on canvas, 198 x 137 cm, the anonymous man is sitting in an armchair, like a pope. Attention is drawn to the ageing serious face and to trivial attributes of social success like the glasses and the tie. The rest of the subject melts into the dark and sinister atmosphere.
This portrait is like a mirror where the viewer sees his own banality charged by empty feeling. This is a key work in the artistic development of Bacon.
POST SALE COMMENT
The price, £ 18M including premium, is consistent with the fact that it is a key work in the art of Bacon.
In the artistic language of Bacon, a man who does not scream may be even more terrible because he does not eject his tensions. Painted in 1953, the Study for a portrait for sale by Christie's in London on June 28 anticipated by a few months the Man in Blue series.
On this large oil on canvas, 198 x 137 cm, the anonymous man is sitting in an armchair, like a pope. Attention is drawn to the ageing serious face and to trivial attributes of social success like the glasses and the tie. The rest of the subject melts into the dark and sinister atmosphere.
This portrait is like a mirror where the viewer sees his own banality charged by empty feeling. This is a key work in the artistic development of Bacon.
POST SALE COMMENT
The price, £ 18M including premium, is consistent with the fact that it is a key work in the art of Bacon.
1953 Femme Assise en Costume Vert by Picasso
2021 SOLD for $ 21M by Sotheby's
Françoise Gilot was 22 years old when Picasso, 40 years older, took her as his mistress, superseding Dora. They had two children, Claude and Paloma. She is an artist and a strong personality. She early knew that she would leave when she gets bored of him.
At 71 in 1952 Picasso had certainly believed that his artistic skill would be sufficient to keep Françoise with him at Vallauris, and he was still looking elsewhere for affairs with other women. In late 1952 and early 1953, he made a series of portraits of Françoise, in a high variety of styles that anticipate by two years the fifteen versions of Les Femmes d'Alger.
A thread of the Françoise portraits is the color green, symbolizing this woman whom Picasso had nicknamed La Femme Fleur at a better time.
On May 12, 2021, Sotheby's sold for $ 21M over a lower estimate of $ 14M Femme assise en costume vert, oil on board 92 x 73 cm painted in 1953, lot 1016. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house.
In this opus the contrast is striking between the uncolored stylized face drawn in the signature double angle of view of the artist, and the vegetal green clothing. The seated Françoise is not Dora : Pablo did not even try to lock her in the armchair. She left in September and restarted her artistic career.
At 71 in 1952 Picasso had certainly believed that his artistic skill would be sufficient to keep Françoise with him at Vallauris, and he was still looking elsewhere for affairs with other women. In late 1952 and early 1953, he made a series of portraits of Françoise, in a high variety of styles that anticipate by two years the fifteen versions of Les Femmes d'Alger.
A thread of the Françoise portraits is the color green, symbolizing this woman whom Picasso had nicknamed La Femme Fleur at a better time.
On May 12, 2021, Sotheby's sold for $ 21M over a lower estimate of $ 14M Femme assise en costume vert, oil on board 92 x 73 cm painted in 1953, lot 1016. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house.
In this opus the contrast is striking between the uncolored stylized face drawn in the signature double angle of view of the artist, and the vegetal green clothing. The seated Françoise is not Dora : Pablo did not even try to lock her in the armchair. She left in September and restarted her artistic career.
1953 Woman (Blue Eyes) by De Kooning
2013 SOLD for $ 19M by Christie's
The woman was a major theme of De Kooning from the early time when he was looking along with Arshile Gorky for the border between figurative and abstract. His third series of Women, from 1950 to 1955, is the most innovative, marked by alternating enthusiasms and discouragements of the artist.
De Kooning is in quest of the eternal woman who inspired artists since the age of the stone idols. More than her femininity, he expresses her fertility in a standing attitude characterized by opulent breasts. The head is only a useless excrescence in this slightly down-up vision. His drawing is reminiscent of the synthetic cubism.
The result is at the opposite of the aesthetics of his time despite an expressionist use of color. An art critic said in 1953 that De Kooning "had gone too far, but that is the only place to go".
The inspiration goes on a same path for the idols of ancient times and for the modern naive artists : the series of Corps de Dames by Dubuffet, the prophet of Art Brut, is also starting in 1950 and offers a similar vision of morphology.
On May 15, 2013, Christie's sold for $ 19M from a lower estimate of $ 12M a Woman with blue eyes, oil, enamel and charcoal on paper 71 x 51 cm laid down on canvas executed by De Kooning in 1953, lot 29.
De Kooning is in quest of the eternal woman who inspired artists since the age of the stone idols. More than her femininity, he expresses her fertility in a standing attitude characterized by opulent breasts. The head is only a useless excrescence in this slightly down-up vision. His drawing is reminiscent of the synthetic cubism.
The result is at the opposite of the aesthetics of his time despite an expressionist use of color. An art critic said in 1953 that De Kooning "had gone too far, but that is the only place to go".
The inspiration goes on a same path for the idols of ancient times and for the modern naive artists : the series of Corps de Dames by Dubuffet, the prophet of Art Brut, is also starting in 1950 and offers a similar vision of morphology.
On May 15, 2013, Christie's sold for $ 19M from a lower estimate of $ 12M a Woman with blue eyes, oil, enamel and charcoal on paper 71 x 51 cm laid down on canvas executed by De Kooning in 1953, lot 29.
1953 21 Feuilles blanches by Calder
2018 SOLD for $ 18M by Christie's
A hanging mobile 150 x 204 x 89 cm executed by Calder in 1953 is made of 21 metal elements, all painted in a resplendent pure white. The difference with the Snow Flurry is the varied shape of the plates.
This mobile 150 x 205 x 89 cm was sold for $ 18M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Christie's on November 15, 2018, lot 5C.
This mobile 150 x 205 x 89 cm was sold for $ 18M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Christie's on November 15, 2018, lot 5C.
1953-1954-1955 Motor Cars at the Turin Motor Show
2020 SOLD for $ 14.8M including premium
The concept car is a marketing operation promoted post war by Harley Earl for General Motors. Production chassis are fitted with futuristic bodies and displayed in the Motor Shows to elicit reactions from the public and the journalists.
Franco Scaglione is a stylist with an experience in clothing. The car is his passion. Before the war, he had a training in aeronautics and his project is to design an aerodynamic car. Of course he will have to cooperate with a coachbuilder.
Manufacturers have their own design offices and their sub-contractors and are reluctant to hand over such major tasks to an ambitious newcomer. Bertone finally accepts. On the Fiat stand at the Turin Motor Show in 1952, the Abarth 1500 Biposto is a concept car designed by Scaglione and built by Bertone.
In the same year, Alfa Romeo chooses Carrozzeria Touring over Bertone for the design of its new racing car, the Disco Volante. The Bertone-Scaglione team persevers however and develops the B.A.T. (Berlina Aerodinamica Tecnica) based on the road going Alfa Romeo 1900.
Three concept cars are exhibited by Bertone at the Turin Motor Show : the B.A.T. 5 in 1953, the B.A.T. 7 in 1954 and the B.A.T. 9d in 1955. The B.A.T. 5 has already reduced the drag coefficient below 0.25, making it possible to push the modest Alfa to nearly 200 km/h. The B.A.T. 7 is a further improvement in aerodynamics while the B.A.T. 9d responds to a request from Alfa Romeo to provide a road version.
These performances are all the more remarkable as they are solely due to Scaglione's pencil and Bertone's know-how, without wind tunnel tuning and of course without a computer. With such simplification of forms, the three B.A.T. are works of art.
Each of these prototypes was sold after its Salon. They were brought together for the first time in their history at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in 1989 in the presence of Bertone, following which a keen collector managed to acquire all three vehicles. The trio is estimated $ 14M for sale on October 28 in New York by Sotheby's in cooperation with RM Sotheby's, lot 38. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
The image is shared by Wikimedia. The licensing tag was added to this file as part of the GFDL licensing update.
Franco Scaglione is a stylist with an experience in clothing. The car is his passion. Before the war, he had a training in aeronautics and his project is to design an aerodynamic car. Of course he will have to cooperate with a coachbuilder.
Manufacturers have their own design offices and their sub-contractors and are reluctant to hand over such major tasks to an ambitious newcomer. Bertone finally accepts. On the Fiat stand at the Turin Motor Show in 1952, the Abarth 1500 Biposto is a concept car designed by Scaglione and built by Bertone.
In the same year, Alfa Romeo chooses Carrozzeria Touring over Bertone for the design of its new racing car, the Disco Volante. The Bertone-Scaglione team persevers however and develops the B.A.T. (Berlina Aerodinamica Tecnica) based on the road going Alfa Romeo 1900.
Three concept cars are exhibited by Bertone at the Turin Motor Show : the B.A.T. 5 in 1953, the B.A.T. 7 in 1954 and the B.A.T. 9d in 1955. The B.A.T. 5 has already reduced the drag coefficient below 0.25, making it possible to push the modest Alfa to nearly 200 km/h. The B.A.T. 7 is a further improvement in aerodynamics while the B.A.T. 9d responds to a request from Alfa Romeo to provide a road version.
These performances are all the more remarkable as they are solely due to Scaglione's pencil and Bertone's know-how, without wind tunnel tuning and of course without a computer. With such simplification of forms, the three B.A.T. are works of art.
Each of these prototypes was sold after its Salon. They were brought together for the first time in their history at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in 1989 in the presence of Bertone, following which a keen collector managed to acquire all three vehicles. The trio is estimated $ 14M for sale on October 28 in New York by Sotheby's in cooperation with RM Sotheby's, lot 38. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
The image is shared by Wikimedia. The licensing tag was added to this file as part of the GFDL licensing update.
1953 The Immobile Movement of the Bird
2015 SOLD for £ 9.2M including premium
In 1953, Joan Miro consciously deploys the enthusiasm of a child. The dark years of war and activism are over, only remains the need to express freedom. He is 60 years old.
The careful technique of the artist is not incompatible with the ampleness and speed of his gesture which had inspired Pollock. His pictorial grammar is childish. The composition is a search for a motion that would not contradict the immobility of the canvas.
On February 4 in London, Christie's sells an oil on canvas 90 x 116 cm painted in 1953, lot 116 estimated £ 7M.
The title-poem, L'Oiseau au plumage déployé vole vers l'arbre argenté (the bird with the deployed plumage flies to the silver tree), describes the image, which is not always the case in the surrealist art of Miro and suggests that the action was chosen very early in the design of this artwork.
The background provides the atmosphere of a peaceful twilight with the night coming from the right. A dynamic although imaginary arch supporting the upper part of the scenery leads the bird to the tree in a move that will cross through the crescent moon.
Miro does not accept empty spaces in his paintings. The picture is completed by stars stylized as snowflakes and a foreground with two important figures including some anthropomorphic features.
The careful technique of the artist is not incompatible with the ampleness and speed of his gesture which had inspired Pollock. His pictorial grammar is childish. The composition is a search for a motion that would not contradict the immobility of the canvas.
On February 4 in London, Christie's sells an oil on canvas 90 x 116 cm painted in 1953, lot 116 estimated £ 7M.
The title-poem, L'Oiseau au plumage déployé vole vers l'arbre argenté (the bird with the deployed plumage flies to the silver tree), describes the image, which is not always the case in the surrealist art of Miro and suggests that the action was chosen very early in the design of this artwork.
The background provides the atmosphere of a peaceful twilight with the night coming from the right. A dynamic although imaginary arch supporting the upper part of the scenery leads the bird to the tree in a move that will cross through the crescent moon.
Miro does not accept empty spaces in his paintings. The picture is completed by stars stylized as snowflakes and a foreground with two important figures including some anthropomorphic features.
1953 C-Type Jaguars for Le Mans
2015 SOLD for $ 13.2M including premium
In June 1950 in Le Mans, Jaguar executives are delighted. They had allocated some cars to private pilots and one of them showed a good behavior of his XK120 before dropping at the 21th hour for a braking issue. Jaguar is then resolutely committed to the technological challenge of competition and launches the study of the XK120C soon known as the C-Type.
In 1951, success is achieved for the first official attempt by Jaguar at Le Mans : a C-Type wins the race. In the following year, the failure is scathing. To counter Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar had modified the aerodynamics without appreciating that it would cause an excessive overheating.
The option taken for 1953 is innovative, with a lightweight body made of aluminum and some equipment improvements. The unique target of the brand is Le Mans, and only three cars are assembled. They will be the last three in the C-Type. Success returns : the new Jaguars brilliantly occupy the first, second and fourth final positions.
This variant of transition is the rarest Jaguar, made obsolete by the development of the D-Type.
Jaguar is not totally uninterested in the fate of its C-Type Works Lightweight since they managed to sell all the three cars to the Ecurie Ecosse after the 1953 season. The three cars are getting high successes throughout 1954 before being sold again.
The best overall record of these Lightweight comes to the car that had been fourth at Le Mans in 1953. It then will undergo major transformations including changing its coachwork. Its current owner has fitted a new body that scrupulously meets the 1953 configuration, excepted that it is metallic blue painted in the colors of Ecurie Ecosse.
The C-Type Lightweight is the rarest Jaguar. This newly restored unit is estimated $ 9M for sale by RM Sotheby's in Monterey on August 14, lot 235. I invite you to watch the video shared by Petrolicious.
In 1951, success is achieved for the first official attempt by Jaguar at Le Mans : a C-Type wins the race. In the following year, the failure is scathing. To counter Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar had modified the aerodynamics without appreciating that it would cause an excessive overheating.
The option taken for 1953 is innovative, with a lightweight body made of aluminum and some equipment improvements. The unique target of the brand is Le Mans, and only three cars are assembled. They will be the last three in the C-Type. Success returns : the new Jaguars brilliantly occupy the first, second and fourth final positions.
This variant of transition is the rarest Jaguar, made obsolete by the development of the D-Type.
Jaguar is not totally uninterested in the fate of its C-Type Works Lightweight since they managed to sell all the three cars to the Ecurie Ecosse after the 1953 season. The three cars are getting high successes throughout 1954 before being sold again.
The best overall record of these Lightweight comes to the car that had been fourth at Le Mans in 1953. It then will undergo major transformations including changing its coachwork. Its current owner has fitted a new body that scrupulously meets the 1953 configuration, excepted that it is metallic blue painted in the colors of Ecurie Ecosse.
The C-Type Lightweight is the rarest Jaguar. This newly restored unit is estimated $ 9M for sale by RM Sotheby's in Monterey on August 14, lot 235. I invite you to watch the video shared by Petrolicious.
1953 Abstraction in Manhattan
2020 SOLD for $ 11.3M including premium
In May and June 1951, the Ninth Street Exhibition was a landmark in Manhattan artistic life. Managed by Leo Castelli with the support of Franz Kline, it brings together the works of 74 artists. Alongside Hans Hofmann, Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, the youngest already form the second generation of abstract expressionism.
This exhibition reveals the 26-year-old Joan Mitchell. Arrived from Chicago in the previous year, she had soon entered the artistic circles of New York. In this first phase, energy is dominant over color. Her surfaces are dotted with small abstract figures that provide anchor points and rhythm, quite similar to de Kooning's compositions at that time, inspired by Mondrian's earliest abstractions, and anticipating Twombly and Ryman.
Joan needs to be alone in her studio to transfer her feelings onto the canvas. She has a very good fitness and is not afraid to work on large formats. Her art expresses her interpretation of her environment without recourse to figuration, modernizing Cézanne's precept that nature cannot be copied.
On December 7 in New York, Phillips sells an oil on canvas 205 x 176 cm painted by Joan Mitchell circa 1953, expressing her vision of Manhattan in a style that was already premonitory of the major phases of her career. It is estimated $ 10M, lot 24.
In 1955 and 1956 Joan spends the summer in France. There she discovers that the bright colors of the countryside will be the best source for her inspiration, with limitless variations. Later in Paris, she will express a centrifugal violence, before her great come back to nature in Vétheuil in 1968.
This exhibition reveals the 26-year-old Joan Mitchell. Arrived from Chicago in the previous year, she had soon entered the artistic circles of New York. In this first phase, energy is dominant over color. Her surfaces are dotted with small abstract figures that provide anchor points and rhythm, quite similar to de Kooning's compositions at that time, inspired by Mondrian's earliest abstractions, and anticipating Twombly and Ryman.
Joan needs to be alone in her studio to transfer her feelings onto the canvas. She has a very good fitness and is not afraid to work on large formats. Her art expresses her interpretation of her environment without recourse to figuration, modernizing Cézanne's precept that nature cannot be copied.
On December 7 in New York, Phillips sells an oil on canvas 205 x 176 cm painted by Joan Mitchell circa 1953, expressing her vision of Manhattan in a style that was already premonitory of the major phases of her career. It is estimated $ 10M, lot 24.
In 1955 and 1956 Joan spends the summer in France. There she discovers that the bright colors of the countryside will be the best source for her inspiration, with limitless variations. Later in Paris, she will express a centrifugal violence, before her great come back to nature in Vétheuil in 1968.
