1958
ROTHKO
1
No. 10
2015 SOLD for $ 82M by Christie's
In 1957 Mark Rothko was outraged by his own fame. His interpretation of basic emotions is not perceived. On the contrary, the public and the art critics admire the dramatic confrontation of his blocks of bright colors, those reds, blues and yellows to which white brings the window of transcendental light.
His style and technique change. Luminosity can also emanate from a dark area when he introduces layers of transparent glaze between layers of colors. He maintains his block structure, but the monochrome is replaced by an inextricable mingle of colors created by the diffusion of almost similar pigments into each other. The edges of the blocks add a frayed confrontation with the background color.
At the end of the year, he tests the deepest blues and reds against large black blocks. At the beginning of 1958, his preference goes for a red turning to brown. Four Darks in Red was painted just before he was commissioned for the decoration of the restaurant in the Seagram building under construction.
Rothko is very enthusiastic about this project which will allow him to test his new conceptions on a very large surface, like Monet with the Grandes Décorations. Unfortunately his deliberate rejection of the general public feeds his megalomania and he believes that his own mysticism matches the sublime frescoes of Fra Angelico.
In an exceptional burst of creativity, he rejects the vivid colors. Rembrandt knew how to throw the light out of the shadow, there is no reason that could prevent Rothko to do it.
On May 15, 2013 in New York, Christie's sold for $ 27M including premium a Black on Maroon 183 x 114 cm that participates in that momentum and is not yet a symptom of the tragic depression of the artist in the following decade.
On May 13, 2015, Christie's sold for $ 82M at lot 35B the No 10 (1958), oil on canvas 239 x 176 cm. An infinite variety of colors predominantly brown interweaves within the rectangles whose structure is superseded by a magnificent halo effect.
When he broke with Seagram's, Rothko said not without wickedness that he wanted to cut hunger to the restaurant's guests. With this No. 10 contemporary of that failed project, the frustrated artist wanted to replace the sensational by the sublime but his art was to become increasingly elitist.
The video shared by Christie's shows the key importance of that year in the creative process of this highly temperamental artist.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
His style and technique change. Luminosity can also emanate from a dark area when he introduces layers of transparent glaze between layers of colors. He maintains his block structure, but the monochrome is replaced by an inextricable mingle of colors created by the diffusion of almost similar pigments into each other. The edges of the blocks add a frayed confrontation with the background color.
At the end of the year, he tests the deepest blues and reds against large black blocks. At the beginning of 1958, his preference goes for a red turning to brown. Four Darks in Red was painted just before he was commissioned for the decoration of the restaurant in the Seagram building under construction.
Rothko is very enthusiastic about this project which will allow him to test his new conceptions on a very large surface, like Monet with the Grandes Décorations. Unfortunately his deliberate rejection of the general public feeds his megalomania and he believes that his own mysticism matches the sublime frescoes of Fra Angelico.
In an exceptional burst of creativity, he rejects the vivid colors. Rembrandt knew how to throw the light out of the shadow, there is no reason that could prevent Rothko to do it.
On May 15, 2013 in New York, Christie's sold for $ 27M including premium a Black on Maroon 183 x 114 cm that participates in that momentum and is not yet a symptom of the tragic depression of the artist in the following decade.
On May 13, 2015, Christie's sold for $ 82M at lot 35B the No 10 (1958), oil on canvas 239 x 176 cm. An infinite variety of colors predominantly brown interweaves within the rectangles whose structure is superseded by a magnificent halo effect.
When he broke with Seagram's, Rothko said not without wickedness that he wanted to cut hunger to the restaurant's guests. With this No. 10 contemporary of that failed project, the frustrated artist wanted to replace the sensational by the sublime but his art was to become increasingly elitist.
The video shared by Christie's shows the key importance of that year in the creative process of this highly temperamental artist.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
2
No. 36
2015 SOLD for $ 40.5M by Christie's
1958 marked a turning point in the work of Mark Rothko, with two major concerns : increasing the luminescence to avoid assimilation to kitsch and releasing his art from the vertical format less suitable for his new project of the Seagram Murals. It may even seem surprising that the artist had much neglected the horizontal format so conducive to offer an immersion when facing the alignment of the eyes of the viewer.
Looking for strong colors, he achieves an incandescent heat by confronting red and orange. No. 36 (black stripe) is an astonishing abstract landscape, oil on canvas 157 x 170 cm.
The red background is reduced to the edges and inter-blocks of the picture but sets the tone by its aggressive light. The rectangles that widely spread in this new balance of composition are a dazzling orange and a narrower dark red separated by a dominating deep black stripe.
Mark Rothko, by his temperamental personality, did not try to communicate with relatives but with the basic mankind by providing emotions altogether basic and intense. Moved by the strength of the red, he almost reaches his admitted but impossible purpose that the creator of the art and the observer must feel the same mesmerizing effect.
No. 36 was sold for $ 40.5M by Christie's on May 11, 2015, lot 13A. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Looking for strong colors, he achieves an incandescent heat by confronting red and orange. No. 36 (black stripe) is an astonishing abstract landscape, oil on canvas 157 x 170 cm.
The red background is reduced to the edges and inter-blocks of the picture but sets the tone by its aggressive light. The rectangles that widely spread in this new balance of composition are a dazzling orange and a narrower dark red separated by a dominating deep black stripe.
Mark Rothko, by his temperamental personality, did not try to communicate with relatives but with the basic mankind by providing emotions altogether basic and intense. Moved by the strength of the red, he almost reaches his admitted but impossible purpose that the creator of the art and the observer must feel the same mesmerizing effect.
No. 36 was sold for $ 40.5M by Christie's on May 11, 2015, lot 13A. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
3
Black on Maroon
2013 SOLD for $ 27M by Christie's
Along with his horizontal compositions for Seagram, Rothko is trying his new techniques and their effects on smaller canvases. Thus the Black on Maroon 267 x 381 cm for Seagram is accompanied by a vertical Untitled 183 x 114 cm with the same hues.
Rothko abandons the Seagram project in 1959 in a fit of anger that he will not credibly explain. Donated by the artist to the Tate Gallery, the Black and Maroon was co-signed in 2012 by a modern Herostratus.
This Untitled was sold for $ 27M by Christie's on May 15, 2013, lot 55, and passed at Sotheby's on October 28, 2020, lot 13.
Rothko abandons the Seagram project in 1959 in a fit of anger that he will not credibly explain. Donated by the artist to the Tate Gallery, the Black and Maroon was co-signed in 2012 by a modern Herostratus.
This Untitled was sold for $ 27M by Christie's on May 15, 2013, lot 55, and passed at Sotheby's on October 28, 2020, lot 13.
1958 Pope with Owls by Bacon
2021 SOLD for $ 33M by Phillips
Since 1952 Francis Bacon is madly in love with Peter Lacy. Europe is not favorable to homosexuality and Peter settles in Tangier. From 1956 Francis visits him frequently. He works a lot despite the sadistic violence of his lover. Disillusioned by these increasingly insupportable conditions and by Peter's lack of interest in his art, Francis breaks up in 1959 and destroys almost all his Tangier paintings.
Throughout this period, his two major themes are the portraits of the ordinary man and the reinterpretations of the Velazquez pope. The two series match together over the great question of the meaning of life in a hostile world, nourished by the Freudian horror of the abusive authority of the father,
The popes of the Moroccan period have a very limited resemblance with Innocent X and lost the scream of the Potemkin. The mouth is open on a sharp set of teeth ready to bite, some of them missing in the jaw. The cheeks are emaciated. The face is painted in a thick impasto that reveals the violence of the gesture of the artist.
Pope with owls, oil on canvas 145 x 110 cm painted ca 1958, was acquired by its first owner directly from the artist in Tangier in 1959.
The papal figure in a dark staging of deep purple and dark red is haunting. His laughter reveals his craziness and indirectly the dead end of Francis's relation with Peter. The arms of the chair are closing onto him, canceling any hope to escape.
A pair of night birds perched as finials over the seat are watching straight forward, questioning the viewer from their cold gaze.
Pope with Owls was sold for $ 33M by Phillips on November 17, 2021, lot 16.
Throughout this period, his two major themes are the portraits of the ordinary man and the reinterpretations of the Velazquez pope. The two series match together over the great question of the meaning of life in a hostile world, nourished by the Freudian horror of the abusive authority of the father,
The popes of the Moroccan period have a very limited resemblance with Innocent X and lost the scream of the Potemkin. The mouth is open on a sharp set of teeth ready to bite, some of them missing in the jaw. The cheeks are emaciated. The face is painted in a thick impasto that reveals the violence of the gesture of the artist.
Pope with owls, oil on canvas 145 x 110 cm painted ca 1958, was acquired by its first owner directly from the artist in Tangier in 1959.
The papal figure in a dark staging of deep purple and dark red is haunting. His laughter reveals his craziness and indirectly the dead end of Francis's relation with Peter. The arms of the chair are closing onto him, canceling any hope to escape.
A pair of night birds perched as finials over the seat are watching straight forward, questioning the viewer from their cold gaze.
Pope with Owls was sold for $ 33M by Phillips on November 17, 2021, lot 16.
1958 Pine after Rain by Pan Tianshou
2019 SOLD for RMB 206M by China Guardian
Pine after Rain is a view caught from the Hangzhou Overseas Chinese Hotel in 1958 by Pan Tianshou in a classical Chu Qing wash painting technique.
This monumental 1.4 x 3.64 m painting hung at that hotel for 20 years until being stored for a better preservation.
It was sold for RMB 206M by China Guardian on November 18, 2019. It is illustrated in the post sale report by CGTN.
This monumental 1.4 x 3.64 m painting hung at that hotel for 20 years until being stored for a better preservation.
It was sold for RMB 206M by China Guardian on November 18, 2019. It is illustrated in the post sale report by CGTN.
1958 Action and Jazz for Franz Kline
2014 SOLD for $ 26.5M including premium
Franz Kline was a sensory man, not a theorist. Along with Pollock he is the main artist of the Action painting that gives priority to the gesture, but his process is quite different. Through Kline's hands, the action creates an endlessly reworked sketch. When the rhythm and balance of the line please him, he copies it in oil on large surfaces.
Kline was close to De Kooning but most of his major works are in black and white. Legend has it that he kept pure colors on his palette but preferred to abandon them when they did not bring him some extra sensation.
As Pollock, Kline let jazz soaking him. In 1958, he expressed his admiration for King Oliver who had died twenty years earlier. For this oil on canvas 251 x 196 cm, the pure colors are worthy of De Kooning but the altogether abstract and hot atmosphere is his own. This is one of his masterpieces.
King Oliver by Franz Kline is estimated $ 25M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 12, lot 23. I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
Kline was close to De Kooning but most of his major works are in black and white. Legend has it that he kept pure colors on his palette but preferred to abandon them when they did not bring him some extra sensation.
As Pollock, Kline let jazz soaking him. In 1958, he expressed his admiration for King Oliver who had died twenty years earlier. For this oil on canvas 251 x 196 cm, the pure colors are worthy of De Kooning but the altogether abstract and hot atmosphere is his own. This is one of his masterpieces.
King Oliver by Franz Kline is estimated $ 25M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 12, lot 23. I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
1958 GIACOMETTI
Intro
In 1947 Alberto Giacometti sets up the characters of his new universe, responding to the existentialist tendency. The Homme au Doigt or the body fragments call for metaphysical interpretations. The walking man is embarrassed by the contradictory double interpretation of energy and wandering. The standing woman, directly inspired by an Egyptian figure, is timeless.
Alberto creates in 1947 a plaster of the Grande Figure of the standing woman, 1.30 m high. A unique bronze cast in 1948 by Alexis Rudier was sold for £ 18M by Sotheby's on June 21, 2017.
After various stagings alone or in groups amidst walking men, the standing woman survives the existentialism.
In 1956 retrospective exhibitions of Alberto's work are planned in Venice and Bern. He reacts like a real great artist. His past is not essential but the long march of a creative process that is not finished. He decides to do something new.
He chooses the figure of the nude woman standing still, feet together. He will show that this model allows a subtle variation in the expression of feelings. He will not do it as portraits but as his interpretation of the ideal woman. The most important is the texture that brings realism to non-proportioned bodies.
On a single armature, Alberto kneads the clay. He does not want to be influenced excepted by his own emotions which may change every next day. When finally satisfied, he leaves it to Diego who casts the plaster, releasing the frame for the next job. It is an art to be touched, admired by Genet.
About fifteen female figures are created in this intense process. Ten plasters are accepted, and divided between the two exhibitions in Bern and Venice. The group of nine is first displayed together in 1958 at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York.
The plaster is not the final state of the project because it does not have the expressive possibilities of bronze. Nine women are edited in small series : five of them were in the group of Venice, two in Bern and two had not been exhibited. The set is now known under the generic name of Femmes de Venise, I to IX. They are different one another. For example, I and IV are the more anatomical while II, III, VII and IX are more abstract.
The bronzes listed below were cast by Susse in Paris.
Alberto creates in 1947 a plaster of the Grande Figure of the standing woman, 1.30 m high. A unique bronze cast in 1948 by Alexis Rudier was sold for £ 18M by Sotheby's on June 21, 2017.
After various stagings alone or in groups amidst walking men, the standing woman survives the existentialism.
In 1956 retrospective exhibitions of Alberto's work are planned in Venice and Bern. He reacts like a real great artist. His past is not essential but the long march of a creative process that is not finished. He decides to do something new.
He chooses the figure of the nude woman standing still, feet together. He will show that this model allows a subtle variation in the expression of feelings. He will not do it as portraits but as his interpretation of the ideal woman. The most important is the texture that brings realism to non-proportioned bodies.
On a single armature, Alberto kneads the clay. He does not want to be influenced excepted by his own emotions which may change every next day. When finally satisfied, he leaves it to Diego who casts the plaster, releasing the frame for the next job. It is an art to be touched, admired by Genet.
About fifteen female figures are created in this intense process. Ten plasters are accepted, and divided between the two exhibitions in Bern and Venice. The group of nine is first displayed together in 1958 at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York.
The plaster is not the final state of the project because it does not have the expressive possibilities of bronze. Nine women are edited in small series : five of them were in the group of Venice, two in Bern and two had not been exhibited. The set is now known under the generic name of Femmes de Venise, I to IX. They are different one another. For example, I and IV are the more anatomical while II, III, VII and IX are more abstract.
The bronzes listed below were cast by Susse in Paris.
1
Femme de Venise
2022 SOLD for $ 25M by Christie's
On May 6, 2014, Christie's sold at lot 33 for $ 12.7M the number 2/6 of La Femme de Venise IV, 115 cm high, cast in bronze by Susse in 1957 and painted by Alberto.
La Femme de Venise IV has the specific feature of arms well freed from the body. Elbows are turned behind and accentuate the curving of the back, providing a physical presence and an authoritative look that the other Femmes do not have.
Giacometti knows that the lack of coloring of a sculpture is a decadence of modern art in comparison to ancient, medieval or tribal art. That number 2/6 has a unique feature. It came back into the hands of the artist who painted the genital area in flesh color amidst the overall gray-green patina.
The Femme de Venise III number 5/6, 1.18 m high, cast in 1958 with a brown and green patina, was sold for $ 25M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 32.
A posthumous Femme de Venise II cast in 1976, 122 cm high, was sold for $ 17.6M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2022, lot 26. This piece numbered 0/6 had certainly been made for the use of Alberto's widow Annette who was its first owner. II is the second highest Femme of the group of nine.
A Femme de Venise VIII cast in 1957, 1.22 m high, was sold for $ 10.1M by Sotheby's on May 7, 2008, lot 20.
La Femme de Venise IV has the specific feature of arms well freed from the body. Elbows are turned behind and accentuate the curving of the back, providing a physical presence and an authoritative look that the other Femmes do not have.
Giacometti knows that the lack of coloring of a sculpture is a decadence of modern art in comparison to ancient, medieval or tribal art. That number 2/6 has a unique feature. It came back into the hands of the artist who painted the genital area in flesh color amidst the overall gray-green patina.
The Femme de Venise III number 5/6, 1.18 m high, cast in 1958 with a brown and green patina, was sold for $ 25M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 32.
A posthumous Femme de Venise II cast in 1976, 122 cm high, was sold for $ 17.6M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2022, lot 26. This piece numbered 0/6 had certainly been made for the use of Alberto's widow Annette who was its first owner. II is the second highest Femme of the group of nine.
A Femme de Venise VIII cast in 1957, 1.22 m high, was sold for $ 10.1M by Sotheby's on May 7, 2008, lot 20.
2
Femme Leoni
2020 SOLD for $ 26M including premium
An unused plaster 1.67 m high surfaced in 1956 in an exhibition in Bern alongside several Femmes de Venise. It is believed to be an interpretation of Isabel Rawsthorne prepared in 1947.
This model was edited in 1957 after a rework by Alberto to improve stability. The first bronze was supplied to Peggy Guggenheim for her Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in Venice. A copy cast in 1958 of this Femme Leoni was sold for $ 26M by Sotheby's on October 28, 2020, lot 112.
This model was edited in 1957 after a rework by Alberto to improve stability. The first bronze was supplied to Peggy Guggenheim for her Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in Venice. A copy cast in 1958 of this Femme Leoni was sold for $ 26M by Sotheby's on October 28, 2020, lot 112.
1958 To Fellini by Guston
2013 SOLD for $ 26M by Christie's
Early and late in his career, the paintings by Philip Guston express his horror of racism and anti-Semitism. He is influenced by the social muralism of Siqueiros.
The 1950s constitute his intermediate period, which he will disown. Abstract expressionism and action painting attempt to resurface the basic sensations of human beings. Painting is an illusion that Guston then wants to use for releasing his perception of the atmosphere. The title of the work guides the visitor.
The color is applied in blocks which become lighter as we move away from the center. This centrifugal composition anticipates and perhaps even inspires the Parisian angers of Joan Mitchell.
That abstract expressionism in bolder colors by Philip Guston is beginning in 1956. A precursor in style had been Beggar's Joys, painted in 1954-1955 to narrate the extreme poverty of the artist, sold for $ 10.2M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2008, lot 30.
Other forms of art are also mere illusions, such as the projection of light filtered by a film onto a cinema screen. To Fellini was sold by Christie's on May 15, 2013 for $ 26M from a lower estimate of $ 8M, lot 23. This 175 x 188 cm oil on canvas painted in 1958 invites a comparison between both techniques.
Another opus is Nile, oil on canvas 165 x 190 cm also painted in 1958. It was sold for $ 18M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2022, lot 15, to benefit the O’Donnell philanthropic foundation.
Nile is a fair example of the abstract technique of the artist, who increased the emotional intensity by working in a very close proximity to the picture plane thereby removing the notion of space. Guston was an avid movie goer. It is believed that the title of that painting reminds a scene from Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 Ten Commandments in which Moses turns the river to blood.
Shortly after, Guston returns to a caricatural figuration, often with self-derision. The Ku Klux Klan is his target, but the public does not perceive the subversive message hidden behind his mockery hoods that are not threatening. A major exhibition was canceled in 2020 : the organizers were unable to disentangle the ambiguities of this artist who might have been a major precursor to street art.
The 1950s constitute his intermediate period, which he will disown. Abstract expressionism and action painting attempt to resurface the basic sensations of human beings. Painting is an illusion that Guston then wants to use for releasing his perception of the atmosphere. The title of the work guides the visitor.
The color is applied in blocks which become lighter as we move away from the center. This centrifugal composition anticipates and perhaps even inspires the Parisian angers of Joan Mitchell.
That abstract expressionism in bolder colors by Philip Guston is beginning in 1956. A precursor in style had been Beggar's Joys, painted in 1954-1955 to narrate the extreme poverty of the artist, sold for $ 10.2M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2008, lot 30.
Other forms of art are also mere illusions, such as the projection of light filtered by a film onto a cinema screen. To Fellini was sold by Christie's on May 15, 2013 for $ 26M from a lower estimate of $ 8M, lot 23. This 175 x 188 cm oil on canvas painted in 1958 invites a comparison between both techniques.
Another opus is Nile, oil on canvas 165 x 190 cm also painted in 1958. It was sold for $ 18M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2022, lot 15, to benefit the O’Donnell philanthropic foundation.
Nile is a fair example of the abstract technique of the artist, who increased the emotional intensity by working in a very close proximity to the picture plane thereby removing the notion of space. Guston was an avid movie goer. It is believed that the title of that painting reminds a scene from Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 Ten Commandments in which Moses turns the river to blood.
Shortly after, Guston returns to a caricatural figuration, often with self-derision. The Ku Klux Klan is his target, but the public does not perceive the subversive message hidden behind his mockery hoods that are not threatening. A major exhibition was canceled in 2020 : the organizers were unable to disentangle the ambiguities of this artist who might have been a major precursor to street art.
1958 After Plowing by Pan Tianshou
2017 SOLD for RMB 160M including premium by China Guardian
narrated in 2018 before Poly sale of a later variant (see below)
Pan Tianshou mixes traditional techniques with modern themes. His ink and color paintings on paper leave large empty spaces that further enhance the beauty of the drawing.
Since 1957 he is for the second time the head of the National Academy. Suspected of being a Kuomintang spy, he is viciously persecuted by the Cultural Revolution from 1966 until his death in 1971. A 358 x 150 cm landscape painted in 1963 was sold for RMB 290M including premium by China Guardian on November 20, 2018.
Animals are allegories. Perched at the top of the rock, the eagle or raven is an aggressive vigil. The buffalo exhausted by its plowing work receives as its only reward from the humans the right to have a rest in the pond.
With a Chinese title meaning After Plowing, a buffalo painted in 1958, 227 x 121 cm, was sold for RMB 160M including premium by China Guardian on June 19, 2017. The animal with the rope of slavery in the nostrils keeps its head down and has a sad gaze.
With a less politically risky title meaning Buffalo in Spring, the 248 x 101 cm painting made in 1961 is almost identical, with variations in the foliage and another position of the poem. It passed on December 7, 2018 at Poly in Beijing, lot 2524. It had been illustrated in the China Daily article announcing the sale.
Since 1957 he is for the second time the head of the National Academy. Suspected of being a Kuomintang spy, he is viciously persecuted by the Cultural Revolution from 1966 until his death in 1971. A 358 x 150 cm landscape painted in 1963 was sold for RMB 290M including premium by China Guardian on November 20, 2018.
Animals are allegories. Perched at the top of the rock, the eagle or raven is an aggressive vigil. The buffalo exhausted by its plowing work receives as its only reward from the humans the right to have a rest in the pond.
With a Chinese title meaning After Plowing, a buffalo painted in 1958, 227 x 121 cm, was sold for RMB 160M including premium by China Guardian on June 19, 2017. The animal with the rope of slavery in the nostrils keeps its head down and has a sad gaze.
With a less politically risky title meaning Buffalo in Spring, the 248 x 101 cm painting made in 1961 is almost identical, with variations in the foliage and another position of the poem. It passed on December 7, 2018 at Poly in Beijing, lot 2524. It had been illustrated in the China Daily article announcing the sale.
