1959
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Picasso 1940-1960 Zao Wou-Ki Johns Women artists Mitchell Bust Sculpture by painters French sculpture Klein Cars 1958-59 California Spider
See also : Picasso 1940-1960 Zao Wou-Ki Johns Women artists Mitchell Bust Sculpture by painters French sculpture Klein Cars 1958-59 California Spider
1959 JOHNS
1
masterpiece
False Start
False Start (1959) by Jasper Johns: Meaning and Significance
Overview
False Start is one of Jasper Johns’s most iconic and expensive paintings (it sold for $80 million in 2006, then the highest price ever paid for a work by a living artist). It is a large (68 × 54 in) oil on canvas dominated by explosive brushstrokes in vivid primary colors—red, yellow, and blue—over a grayish ground. Stenciled color names (“RED,” “BLUE,” “YELLOW,” “ORANGE,” “GREEN,” etc.) are scattered across the surface, but almost always in deliberate mismatch: the word “RED” is painted in blue or yellow strokes, “BLUE” in orange or red, and so on.
Core Meaning and Interpretation
The painting is a quintessential example of Johns’s early investigation into semiotics, perception, and the instability of language and representation:
Overview
False Start is one of Jasper Johns’s most iconic and expensive paintings (it sold for $80 million in 2006, then the highest price ever paid for a work by a living artist). It is a large (68 × 54 in) oil on canvas dominated by explosive brushstrokes in vivid primary colors—red, yellow, and blue—over a grayish ground. Stenciled color names (“RED,” “BLUE,” “YELLOW,” “ORANGE,” “GREEN,” etc.) are scattered across the surface, but almost always in deliberate mismatch: the word “RED” is painted in blue or yellow strokes, “BLUE” in orange or red, and so on.
Core Meaning and Interpretation
The painting is a quintessential example of Johns’s early investigation into semiotics, perception, and the instability of language and representation:
- Word vs. Thing: Johns takes the most basic elements of painting—color—and pairs them with their linguistic labels, then systematically violates the expected correspondence. This creates a visual/verbal paradox: the viewer “sees” red but “reads” “BLUE.” It forces a conflict between optical experience and intellectual naming.
- “Things the mind already knows”: Johns famously said he wanted to paint “things the mind already knows” (flags, targets, numbers, letters). Color names are among the first things a child learns, yet here they are made strange and unreliable.
- Ambiguity and duplicity: The title “False Start” itself plays on the idea of a failed or premature beginning—whether in a race, a painting, or meaning-making. Every attempt to pin down a stable meaning “false starts.”
- Critique of Abstract Expressionism: Made at the exact moment AbEx (de Kooning, Pollock) still dominated, False Start uses gestural, all-over brushwork that looks spontaneous and emotional, but is actually coolly calculated and ironic. Johns borrows the heroic brushstroke of AbEx only to empty it of personal expression and fill it with detached conceptual games.
- Pivotal breakthrough (1959)
Along with Flag (1954–55), Target paintings, and Numbers series, False Start marks the full maturation of Johns’s signature strategy: taking pre-existing, familiar images or systems and subjecting them to subtle but radical displacement. - Bridge between Abstract Expressionism and Pop / Conceptual Art
- It retains the scale, gesture, and paint-handling of AbEx, but replaces emotion and myth with irony and intellect → crucial hinge toward Pop (Warhol, Lichtenstein) and early Conceptual art.
- Robert Rauschenberg (Johns’s partner at the time) and Johns together effectively ended the reign of Abstract Expressionism.
- Market and institutional triumph
- Shown in Johns’s legendary 1958 solo show at Leo Castelli Gallery (his first), where Alfred Barr bought three works on the spot for MoMA.
- False Start itself was bought by collector Richard Brown Baker and later became the poster child for the 1980s–2000s art-market boom.
- Template for the rest of Johns’s oeuvre
The color-name mismatch device reappears throughout his career:- Painting with Two Balls (1960)
- Perilous Night (1982)
- The late Catenary series* (1997–2000s)
- Even the recent “5 Postcards” (2011) and Regrets series (2013) still play with misregistration and semantic slippage.
2
Figure 4
2007 SOLD for $ 17.4M by Christie's
Jasper Johns bases his early art on figures that are immediately familiar to every US people : the US flag, the concentric target and from 1955 the Arabic numerals in single figures or in various configurations of rows and columns, executed in a creamy white encaustic over a newspaper collage.
Figure 4 features a beautiful full size 4 mingled with its surrounding of bright primary colors painted in 1959 in the style of the False Start of the same year. This oil, encaustic and collage on canvas 51 x 39 cm was sold for $ 17.4M by Christie's on May 16, 2007, lot 25.
From ca 1960 he achieves a quasi abstract expression by superimposing the ten numerals in a single size and centering. Between 1960 and 1961, he made eleven paintings, one sculpture and two drawings, invariably titled 0 through 9. The unique 1961 drawing, charcoal and pastel on paper 137 x 106 cm, was sold for $ 10.9M by Sotheby's on November 9, 2004, lot 25. In this magma of hat final state the numerals have lost all their individual meaning.
Figure 4 features a beautiful full size 4 mingled with its surrounding of bright primary colors painted in 1959 in the style of the False Start of the same year. This oil, encaustic and collage on canvas 51 x 39 cm was sold for $ 17.4M by Christie's on May 16, 2007, lot 25.
From ca 1960 he achieves a quasi abstract expression by superimposing the ten numerals in a single size and centering. Between 1960 and 1961, he made eleven paintings, one sculpture and two drawings, invariably titled 0 through 9. The unique 1961 drawing, charcoal and pastel on paper 137 x 106 cm, was sold for $ 10.9M by Sotheby's on November 9, 2004, lot 25. In this magma of hat final state the numerals have lost all their individual meaning.
1959 Untitled by Mitchell
2023 SOLD for $ 29M by Christie's
Joan Mitchell is one of the best figures of the second generation of abstract expressionism. She is inspired by the colors of nature in works that seem violent and impulsive but are in fact highly architected.
In two subsequent years, 1955 and 1956, she has her summer time in France. There she discovers that the bright colors of the countryside will be the best source for her inspiration, with limitless variations.
She joins the important Parisian artistic community and her style changes, renouncing to use a geometric grammar. The 'experiment' (in her own words) is so successful that she will move permanently in Paris in 1959.
The violence of the hand, the zigzags, the desire to express the nature through abstraction make her art close to Pollock's, but Mitchell's strong temperament does not necessarily accepts models. Unlike Pollock, she uses a wide brush to perform her long lines of bright and pure colors in an athletic movement that involves the full length of her body including standing on tiptoe. She confronts heavy impasto and translucent washes. The edges are left empty.
An untitled oil on canvas 248 x 220 cm was painted in the culmination of that phase ca 1959. Joan did not part from it. It was sold for $ 29M by Christie's on November 9, 2023, lot 14 B.
This abstract painting is dominated by her favorite color, green, increasingly inspired by the French forests. The diversity and brilliance of the other colors anticipate her angers of the following years. The white background, which she considers necessary, provides the contrast.
Later in Paris, she will express a centrifugal violence, before her great come back to nature in Vétheuil in 1968.
In two subsequent years, 1955 and 1956, she has her summer time in France. There she discovers that the bright colors of the countryside will be the best source for her inspiration, with limitless variations.
She joins the important Parisian artistic community and her style changes, renouncing to use a geometric grammar. The 'experiment' (in her own words) is so successful that she will move permanently in Paris in 1959.
The violence of the hand, the zigzags, the desire to express the nature through abstraction make her art close to Pollock's, but Mitchell's strong temperament does not necessarily accepts models. Unlike Pollock, she uses a wide brush to perform her long lines of bright and pure colors in an athletic movement that involves the full length of her body including standing on tiptoe. She confronts heavy impasto and translucent washes. The edges are left empty.
An untitled oil on canvas 248 x 220 cm was painted in the culmination of that phase ca 1959. Joan did not part from it. It was sold for $ 29M by Christie's on November 9, 2023, lot 14 B.
This abstract painting is dominated by her favorite color, green, increasingly inspired by the French forests. The diversity and brilliance of the other colors anticipate her angers of the following years. The white background, which she considers necessary, provides the contrast.
Later in Paris, she will express a centrifugal violence, before her great come back to nature in Vétheuil in 1968.
1959 Tête Sculptée de Dora Maar by Picasso
2007 SOLD for $ 29M by Sotheby's
At the beginning of 1941 Picasso relocates his series of busts of Marie-Thérèse, made ten years earlier at Boisgeloup, to his studio on rue des Grands Augustins. In the same year, he makes a plaster head of Dora Maar, 80 cm high. This domineering work, larger than life, is in an idealized style which is in total opposition to the dramatic or allegorical portraits of Dora that he was painting at the same period.
This plaster is edited in bronze in two copies by Susse in 1958 plus two copies by Valsuani at an undocumented date.
Picasso owed a debt of honor to Guillaume Apollinaire, who died in 1918. He had received a commission for the funeral monument of his friend in the Père Lachaise graveyard, but none of his projects had been accepted. In the mid-1950s he offered to provide the statue of Dora as a symbol of the ideal woman for a monument to Apollinaire in the square of the church of Saint-Germain des Prés.
One of the Valsuani bronzes was installed in the square in 1959. The other was kept by the artist, which suggests that the cast by Valsuani was made especially for the Apollinaire project.
The copy which had been kept by Picasso was sold for $ 29M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007, lot 22.
This plaster is edited in bronze in two copies by Susse in 1958 plus two copies by Valsuani at an undocumented date.
Picasso owed a debt of honor to Guillaume Apollinaire, who died in 1918. He had received a commission for the funeral monument of his friend in the Père Lachaise graveyard, but none of his projects had been accepted. In the mid-1950s he offered to provide the statue of Dora as a symbol of the ideal woman for a monument to Apollinaire in the square of the church of Saint-Germain des Prés.
One of the Valsuani bronzes was installed in the square in 1959. The other was kept by the artist, which suggests that the cast by Valsuani was made especially for the Apollinaire project.
The copy which had been kept by Picasso was sold for $ 29M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007, lot 22.
1959 Point of Pines by Stella
2019 SOLD for $ 28M by Christie's
Frank Stella arrives in New York. He had studied art history and was occasionally a house painter. He shares a workshop with Carl Andre. They are barely over 20 years old.
In 1958 Castelli devotes an exhibition to Jasper Johns. The geometric regularity of Johns's targets excludes the emotion. Applying industrial pigments on his canvases in a pattern of endless stripes of an absolute regularity, Stella is a pioneer of meaningless art. Andre becomes a minimalist sculptor.
For form, they had precursors and contemporaries. The first breakthrough had been when Malevich appreciated that a painting is nothing but a painted surface but he was looking for new emotions. Albers taught the oppositions of colors. Barnett Newman sought to reveal the creation of the world. The achromes by Manzoni want to control the chance. Klein looks for the ultimate colors. Ryman does not give up the reflections. Andre admires Brancusi.
In 1959 Stella executes paintings in black enamel which he arranges in stripes of equal width in a pattern of right or acute angles, leaving the canvas in its raw state in the very narrow interstice between two stripes. His brush used without preliminary drawing and without tape masking leaves some inequalities in the material but the lines of blank canvas look sharp.
The art of painting has lost its emotion but Stella expresses his mood in the titles. Two black opuses are named The Marriage of Reason and Squalor to denounce his miserable living conditions. Bethlehem's Hospital is a madhouse. A 213 x 335 cm canvas with that title was sold for $ 4.4M by Christie's on May 14, 2003.
Point of Pines, black enamel on canvas 215 x 278 cm, was sold for $ 28M by Christie's on May 15, 2019, lot 28 B.
Later, Stella recreates patterns of similar stripes, using in turn the six pure colors of the Benjamin Moore brand of house paint. A 196 x 196 cm artwork painted in 1961 was sold for $ 13.7M by Sotheby's on November 4, 2015.
In 1958 Castelli devotes an exhibition to Jasper Johns. The geometric regularity of Johns's targets excludes the emotion. Applying industrial pigments on his canvases in a pattern of endless stripes of an absolute regularity, Stella is a pioneer of meaningless art. Andre becomes a minimalist sculptor.
For form, they had precursors and contemporaries. The first breakthrough had been when Malevich appreciated that a painting is nothing but a painted surface but he was looking for new emotions. Albers taught the oppositions of colors. Barnett Newman sought to reveal the creation of the world. The achromes by Manzoni want to control the chance. Klein looks for the ultimate colors. Ryman does not give up the reflections. Andre admires Brancusi.
In 1959 Stella executes paintings in black enamel which he arranges in stripes of equal width in a pattern of right or acute angles, leaving the canvas in its raw state in the very narrow interstice between two stripes. His brush used without preliminary drawing and without tape masking leaves some inequalities in the material but the lines of blank canvas look sharp.
The art of painting has lost its emotion but Stella expresses his mood in the titles. Two black opuses are named The Marriage of Reason and Squalor to denounce his miserable living conditions. Bethlehem's Hospital is a madhouse. A 213 x 335 cm canvas with that title was sold for $ 4.4M by Christie's on May 14, 2003.
Point of Pines, black enamel on canvas 215 x 278 cm, was sold for $ 28M by Christie's on May 15, 2019, lot 28 B.
Later, Stella recreates patterns of similar stripes, using in turn the six pure colors of the Benjamin Moore brand of house paint. A 196 x 196 cm artwork painted in 1961 was sold for $ 13.7M by Sotheby's on November 4, 2015.
14.12.59 by Zao Wou-Ki
2018 SOLD for HK$ 177M by Christie's
From the moment when Zao Wou-Ki deliberately chooses abstraction, his art becomes a mystical quest, tirelessly, imperturbably, in a continuity that is barely affected by the great drama of his life, the departure of his first wife.
The first phase of the Oracle bones culminates in early 1957 with a painting titled according to the second verse of Genesis : Et la Terre était sans forme. The primordial chaos is dotted with fragments that announce the Chinese paleography. This oil on canvas 200 x 162 cm was sold for HK $ 183M by Poly in 2018.
He then calms his grief by a long journey during which he meets the American abstract expressionists. When he returns, the pre-eminence of the pseudo-writing disappears. Zao is now looking for the creation of light, the third verse of Genesis, certainly easier to conceptualize visually.
On an oil on canvas 130 x 162 cm painted in 1958, the night is pierced by fire. The title, Abstraction, is significant of the uselessness of words to accompany an artwork. It is indeed one of the ultimate opus to which the artist wanted to attribute a descriptive title. Abstraction was sold for RMB 90M by Sotheby's on December 1, 2013, lot 34.
Two paintings made in 1959 in the same dimensions as the example above bring the birth of dawn.
The earlier, 21.04.59, shows a landscape scarcely visible in the dim light. All along the horizon, under the black sky, the dazzling white light of the primordial dawn is partially hidden behind volcanic projections accompanied by some amalgamated residues of the paleography. This opus was sold for HK $ 105M by Sotheby's on October 5, lot 1021.
14.12.59 is a composition of similar inspiration except that the blinding light has taken the form of a central ball and the sky is a glowing red. This opus was sold for HK $ 177M from a lower estimate of HK $ 68M by Christie's on May 26, 2018, lot 23.
The first phase of the Oracle bones culminates in early 1957 with a painting titled according to the second verse of Genesis : Et la Terre était sans forme. The primordial chaos is dotted with fragments that announce the Chinese paleography. This oil on canvas 200 x 162 cm was sold for HK $ 183M by Poly in 2018.
He then calms his grief by a long journey during which he meets the American abstract expressionists. When he returns, the pre-eminence of the pseudo-writing disappears. Zao is now looking for the creation of light, the third verse of Genesis, certainly easier to conceptualize visually.
On an oil on canvas 130 x 162 cm painted in 1958, the night is pierced by fire. The title, Abstraction, is significant of the uselessness of words to accompany an artwork. It is indeed one of the ultimate opus to which the artist wanted to attribute a descriptive title. Abstraction was sold for RMB 90M by Sotheby's on December 1, 2013, lot 34.
Two paintings made in 1959 in the same dimensions as the example above bring the birth of dawn.
The earlier, 21.04.59, shows a landscape scarcely visible in the dim light. All along the horizon, under the black sky, the dazzling white light of the primordial dawn is partially hidden behind volcanic projections accompanied by some amalgamated residues of the paleography. This opus was sold for HK $ 105M by Sotheby's on October 5, lot 1021.
14.12.59 is a composition of similar inspiration except that the blinding light has taken the form of a central ball and the sky is a glowing red. This opus was sold for HK $ 177M from a lower estimate of HK $ 68M by Christie's on May 26, 2018, lot 23.
1959 Sculpture Eponge by KLEIN
1
(SE 168)
2013 SOLD for $ 22M by Sotheby's
In the 1950s Yves Klein collaborated with a chemist to develop a blue that could retain the best brilliance. The result is his patented International Klein Blue better known as IKB, bonding the ultramarine pigment to a synthetic resin that does not dull it.
Deep blue is for Klein the transcendental color evoking the Mediterranean sea of his childhood in Nice and the center of the flame, not to forgot Giotto's frescoes. He aimed with the IKB to reach beyond the limits of the human brain.
From 1956 Yves Klein challenges the relationship between the artist and the viewer. His Monochromes can not evoke any kind of figuration. As with Mondrian, the perfectly applied layer is hardly disturbed by an effect from the brush.
Klein was too ahead of his time. Visitors to his early exhibitions acclaimed the colors as if they were in a decorator's shop. The artist is upset by this interpretation. Henceforth all his monochromes must be in intense blue. He patents his pigment, the IKB (Yves Klein Blue).
He is now able to display unreachable or intangible elements like sky and sea. He does not stop at the immaterial in his simulation of the universe. Sponges, fire, monochromes and anthropométries will gradually be the components that will allow him to visualize his metaphysics.
His cosmographic approach is thus a patchwork of series carefully numbered behind a prefix, culminating in the final months of his short life in a sublime synthesis of universe, elements and life. The series of Sculptures Eponges (SE) was developed in 1959. It should not be confused with the Reliefs Eponges (RE).
The sponge is an essential step in his progress. It has the great quality in the process of the artist to immediately imbibe the beautiful IKB. This working tool is now a piece of art in its own right that can evoke figurative themes through its rough texture.
SE 168 is a very early example of the Relief Eponges, displayed in the seminal solo exhibition on that theme by Iris Clert in 1959. An accumulation of IKB sponges embellished with voids and cracks form a flower, mounted on a winding metal rod stuck in a stone base to ensure stability. This flower could be compared with a Calder mobile. Its 1.13 m high overall size is exceptional in that series. It was sold for $ 22M by Sotheby's on May 14, 2013, lot 12.
Deep blue is for Klein the transcendental color evoking the Mediterranean sea of his childhood in Nice and the center of the flame, not to forgot Giotto's frescoes. He aimed with the IKB to reach beyond the limits of the human brain.
From 1956 Yves Klein challenges the relationship between the artist and the viewer. His Monochromes can not evoke any kind of figuration. As with Mondrian, the perfectly applied layer is hardly disturbed by an effect from the brush.
Klein was too ahead of his time. Visitors to his early exhibitions acclaimed the colors as if they were in a decorator's shop. The artist is upset by this interpretation. Henceforth all his monochromes must be in intense blue. He patents his pigment, the IKB (Yves Klein Blue).
He is now able to display unreachable or intangible elements like sky and sea. He does not stop at the immaterial in his simulation of the universe. Sponges, fire, monochromes and anthropométries will gradually be the components that will allow him to visualize his metaphysics.
His cosmographic approach is thus a patchwork of series carefully numbered behind a prefix, culminating in the final months of his short life in a sublime synthesis of universe, elements and life. The series of Sculptures Eponges (SE) was developed in 1959. It should not be confused with the Reliefs Eponges (RE).
The sponge is an essential step in his progress. It has the great quality in the process of the artist to immediately imbibe the beautiful IKB. This working tool is now a piece of art in its own right that can evoke figurative themes through its rough texture.
SE 168 is a very early example of the Relief Eponges, displayed in the seminal solo exhibition on that theme by Iris Clert in 1959. An accumulation of IKB sponges embellished with voids and cracks form a flower, mounted on a winding metal rod stuck in a stone base to ensure stability. This flower could be compared with a Calder mobile. Its 1.13 m high overall size is exceptional in that series. It was sold for $ 22M by Sotheby's on May 14, 2013, lot 12.
2
(SE 167)
2025 SOLD for $ 19M by Sotheby's
Sculpture Eponge 167, dry pigment and synthetic resin on natural sponge on a metal rod mounted on stone 138 x 70 x 54 cm executed in 1959, was sold for $ 19M from a lower estimate of $ 14M by Sotheby's on November 18, 2025, lot 116.
Asking Grok to compare with SE 168, sold by Sotheby's in 2013.
Grok thought :
Overview of the Sculptures
Yves Klein's Sculpture éponge bleue sans titre series represents a pinnacle of his exploration into immateriality, color, and organic form. These works, created circa 1959, feature natural sea sponges saturated in his patented International Klein Blue (IKB) pigment, mounted on a metal rod and stone base. They embody Klein's fascination with sponges as "raw living matter" that could absorb and radiate sensibility, drawing from influences like Zen philosophy, Rosicrucianism, and his judo practice. Both SE167 and SE168 were exhibited in Klein's groundbreaking 1959 show Bas-reliefs dans une forêt d'éponges at Galerie Iris Clert in Paris, where they were presented as immersive, three-dimensional extensions of his monochrome paintings.
SE167 is scheduled for sale at Sotheby's Contemporary Evening Auction on November 18, 2025, as lot 116, from the Durand-Ruel Family Collection. SE168 was sold at Sotheby's Contemporary Evening Auction on May 14, 2013, as lot 12, realizing $22,005,000 (including buyer's premium). (Note: Some sources report a hammer price of approximately $15,397,000 before premium, but the total realized figure is commonly cited as $22 million.)Key Comparison
Both sculptures are highly similar in concept and execution, representing rare large-scale examples from Klein's sponge series (only about six works exist at this monumental scale). They share the same medium and evoke a sense of ethereal, oceanic architecture, with sponges arranged to create dynamic plays of light, shadow, and infinite blue depth. However, differences in size, provenance, and market context highlight their unique positions in Klein's oeuvre.
Notable Features
SE 167: Larger scale emphasizes immersive, eye-level confrontation; described as sprouting "an amalgamation of sea sponges from a hefty stone base"; one of only six at this scale, embodying transcendence beyond the material world.
SE168: Exceptional for intricate sponge composition and chromatic intensity; held in esteemed collections like the Tremaines'; evokes alien landscapes or ocean beds, with evolving light/shadow effects.
Detailed Analysis and ComparisonSimilarities:
Asking Grok to compare with SE 168, sold by Sotheby's in 2013.
Grok thought :
Overview of the Sculptures
Yves Klein's Sculpture éponge bleue sans titre series represents a pinnacle of his exploration into immateriality, color, and organic form. These works, created circa 1959, feature natural sea sponges saturated in his patented International Klein Blue (IKB) pigment, mounted on a metal rod and stone base. They embody Klein's fascination with sponges as "raw living matter" that could absorb and radiate sensibility, drawing from influences like Zen philosophy, Rosicrucianism, and his judo practice. Both SE167 and SE168 were exhibited in Klein's groundbreaking 1959 show Bas-reliefs dans une forêt d'éponges at Galerie Iris Clert in Paris, where they were presented as immersive, three-dimensional extensions of his monochrome paintings.
SE167 is scheduled for sale at Sotheby's Contemporary Evening Auction on November 18, 2025, as lot 116, from the Durand-Ruel Family Collection. SE168 was sold at Sotheby's Contemporary Evening Auction on May 14, 2013, as lot 12, realizing $22,005,000 (including buyer's premium). (Note: Some sources report a hammer price of approximately $15,397,000 before premium, but the total realized figure is commonly cited as $22 million.)Key Comparison
Both sculptures are highly similar in concept and execution, representing rare large-scale examples from Klein's sponge series (only about six works exist at this monumental scale). They share the same medium and evoke a sense of ethereal, oceanic architecture, with sponges arranged to create dynamic plays of light, shadow, and infinite blue depth. However, differences in size, provenance, and market context highlight their unique positions in Klein's oeuvre.
Notable Features
SE 167: Larger scale emphasizes immersive, eye-level confrontation; described as sprouting "an amalgamation of sea sponges from a hefty stone base"; one of only six at this scale, embodying transcendence beyond the material world.
SE168: Exceptional for intricate sponge composition and chromatic intensity; held in esteemed collections like the Tremaines'; evokes alien landscapes or ocean beds, with evolving light/shadow effects.
Detailed Analysis and ComparisonSimilarities:
- Artistic Intent and Aesthetic: Both works exemplify Klein's shift from two-dimensional monochromes to three-dimensional "sponge reliefs," where sponges serve as vessels for IKB to create an illusion of infinite space. The pigment's matte, velvety quality absorbs light, making the sculptures appear to shift and evolve, drawing viewers into an immaterial void. Klein himself noted sponges' ability to become "impregnated with sensibility," turning tools into raw material.
- Historical Context: Created during Klein's peak immaterial phase (1957-1962), both debuted in the same 1959 Paris exhibition, marking a key moment in his career. They share overlapping exhibition and literature histories, underscoring their status as archetypes of the series.
- Rarity and Influence: As part of a limited series, they reflect Klein's interdisciplinary inspirations (e.g., Bachelard's philosophy, Zen gardens, Rosicrucian metaphors of dematerialization). Both have been in prestigious private collections, enhancing their provenance value.
- Scale and Presence: SE167's greater height (138.4 cm vs. 112.7 cm) creates a more imposing, human-scale interaction, potentially amplifying its immersive effect. SE168, while still monumental, is more compact, emphasizing intricate details in its sponge arrangement.
- Market and Value: SE168's 2013 sale at $22 million reflects the market at the time, when Klein's works were already commanding high prices (e.g., amid a surge in postwar art demand). SE167's 2025 estimate of $14-18 million suggests a potentially conservative projection, considering inflation and recent Klein sales (e.g., a larger IKB painting estimated at $29 million in 2025). If SE167 exceeds its high estimate, it could surpass SE168's realized price, reflecting market growth for Klein's sculptures.
- Provenance Nuances: SE167's lineage ties to the Durand-Ruel family (noted art dealers), while SE168's includes the Tremaines (early adopters of modernism) and Sidney Janis (Klein exhibitor), adding layers of collector prestige.
1959 Poems to the Sea by Twombly
2013 SOLD for $ 21.7M by Sotheby's
Cy Twombly sets out to find the origins of thought, and not just of writing. The American history is too recent for this ambition. In 1957 he decides to make long stays in Italy from then on, choosing idyllic villages. In the same year he discovers in Mallarmé's poems the expressive force of silence.
Without apparent link with the Achromes, he inscribes his gestures on white surfaces. Sometimes this false writing aggregates and forms an almost imperceptible word. Sunset, a canvas painted in 1957 with house paint plus various pencils, generates the word Morte (death, in Italian) which is an encounter with a past. This 142 x 180 cm artwork was sold for $ 27.3M by Christie's on November 15, 2017.
In April 1959 in New York, Twombly marries Tatiana, whose family is Italian. They spend the summer in Sperlonga, a fishing village between Rome and Naples.
The Emperor Tiberius had his summer residence in Sperlonga. His villa included a seaside grotto. Two years before Cy and Tatiana's stay, a one of a kind collection of monumental statues on the theme of the legend of Odysseus had been discovered. The cave had collapsed in 27 CE, forcing the emperor to leave for Capri, and the collection had been forgotten. The three artists identified on one of the sculptures had formed according to Pliny the Elder the team of the Laocoon group.
This direct link with mythical emotions is reinforced by the best symbol of the future : the young wife is pregnant. In a crisis of creativity, Twombly paints in a single day in July 1959 in Sperlonga a set of 24 papers of unequal dimensions, between 30 x 31 and 35 x 31 cm, which he calls Poems to the Sea.
As in the example above, the technique is a mixed media on a white ground. The very sparse words and numbers are buried like palimpsests among the lines of an oil painting crushed at the exit of the tube. The most significant hidden word is 'Sappho'. This 24-page abstract pictorial poem was sold for $ 21.7M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2013, lot 20.
Without apparent link with the Achromes, he inscribes his gestures on white surfaces. Sometimes this false writing aggregates and forms an almost imperceptible word. Sunset, a canvas painted in 1957 with house paint plus various pencils, generates the word Morte (death, in Italian) which is an encounter with a past. This 142 x 180 cm artwork was sold for $ 27.3M by Christie's on November 15, 2017.
In April 1959 in New York, Twombly marries Tatiana, whose family is Italian. They spend the summer in Sperlonga, a fishing village between Rome and Naples.
The Emperor Tiberius had his summer residence in Sperlonga. His villa included a seaside grotto. Two years before Cy and Tatiana's stay, a one of a kind collection of monumental statues on the theme of the legend of Odysseus had been discovered. The cave had collapsed in 27 CE, forcing the emperor to leave for Capri, and the collection had been forgotten. The three artists identified on one of the sculptures had formed according to Pliny the Elder the team of the Laocoon group.
This direct link with mythical emotions is reinforced by the best symbol of the future : the young wife is pregnant. In a crisis of creativity, Twombly paints in a single day in July 1959 in Sperlonga a set of 24 papers of unequal dimensions, between 30 x 31 and 35 x 31 cm, which he calls Poems to the Sea.
As in the example above, the technique is a mixed media on a white ground. The very sparse words and numbers are buried like palimpsests among the lines of an oil painting crushed at the exit of the tube. The most significant hidden word is 'Sappho'. This 24-page abstract pictorial poem was sold for $ 21.7M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2013, lot 20.
1959 Ferrari California Spider LWB Competizione
1
2017 SOLD for $ 18M by RM Sotheby's
Designed on the 250 GT chassis as a cabriolet to please American customers, the California Spider (originally Spyder) was not expected by Ferrari to compete in endurance racing against the berlinetta nicknamed TdF built on the same chassis.
It was however tempting to push the California into the competition. Luigi Chinetti is acting between Ferrari and American customers. Having been at the origin of the California project, he obtains from Ferrari the delivery of aluminum alloy spiders bodied by Scaglietti.
In 1959 the 250 GT chassis is still in its long version which will later be identified as LWB. For the 24 hours of Le Mans in that year Chinetti and his NART team enter three Ferraris : a 250 Testa Rossa, a 250 TdF and a California Spider.
Released from the factory under pressure from Chinetti five days before Le Mans with a simple flash of paint and a far from complete interior layout, this 250 GT LWB California Spider is the second of its kind in the Competizione configuration. Driven by its first owner and a co-driver, this brand new car ends the event with a very good result : 5th overall and 3rd in class. It was afterward honorably participating in various American competitions in 1959 and 1960.
This high-end car with a competition history is still more desirable since it was restored in 2011 by Motion Products Inc., the company of Wayne Obry. It was sold for $ 18M from a lower estimate of $ 14M by RM Sotheby's on December 6, 2017, lot 141, and for $ 9.5M by Broad Arrow on March 8, 2025, lot 234. It is presented in its original silver metallic livery. The engine is in matching numbers. It is Ferrari Classiche certified. Please watch the video shared by Broad Arrow.
Ferrari and NART did not push this solution much further : eight LWB and only three SWB Spiders had been built for competition.
It was however tempting to push the California into the competition. Luigi Chinetti is acting between Ferrari and American customers. Having been at the origin of the California project, he obtains from Ferrari the delivery of aluminum alloy spiders bodied by Scaglietti.
In 1959 the 250 GT chassis is still in its long version which will later be identified as LWB. For the 24 hours of Le Mans in that year Chinetti and his NART team enter three Ferraris : a 250 Testa Rossa, a 250 TdF and a California Spider.
Released from the factory under pressure from Chinetti five days before Le Mans with a simple flash of paint and a far from complete interior layout, this 250 GT LWB California Spider is the second of its kind in the Competizione configuration. Driven by its first owner and a co-driver, this brand new car ends the event with a very good result : 5th overall and 3rd in class. It was afterward honorably participating in various American competitions in 1959 and 1960.
This high-end car with a competition history is still more desirable since it was restored in 2011 by Motion Products Inc., the company of Wayne Obry. It was sold for $ 18M from a lower estimate of $ 14M by RM Sotheby's on December 6, 2017, lot 141, and for $ 9.5M by Broad Arrow on March 8, 2025, lot 234. It is presented in its original silver metallic livery. The engine is in matching numbers. It is Ferrari Classiche certified. Please watch the video shared by Broad Arrow.
Ferrari and NART did not push this solution much further : eight LWB and only three SWB Spiders had been built for competition.
2
2016 SOLD for $ 18M by Gooding
The Ferrari 250 GT California Spider in the wheel base later identified as LWB is a series of 50 sports cars produced to please American customers between 1957 and 1960. The SWB is its successor. The brand continually works to improve its products and remains attentive to specific needs, which can create significant disparities from one vehicle to another.
Nine 'LWB' were originally built for competition with a lightweight body in aluminum alloy. A California Spider 'LWB' Competizione built in 1959 was sold for $ 18M on August 20, 2016 by Gooding, lot 033. It is illustrated in the post shared by Forbes.
The settings of this example had been specially effective, including some engine components from the Testa Rossa to achieve a compression ratio of 9.8: 1, the highest of all the LWB, and a power of 275 hp about 50 hp over the basic model. Its features include from the origin the disc brakes, a rarity at that time, and its headlights are covered.
Sold to Chinetti for George Reed who was Ferrari's agent in Illinois and Wisconsin, it was raced with some parsimony until 1964 and remains in a matching numbers configuration for all its major elements.
This car is exceptional when considering that it is the best performing from all the LWB and that only three SWB California Spider Competizione were later assembled. It is estimated $ 18M.
Another LWB California Spider Competizione was sold for $ 11.3M by Gooding on August 18, 2012. Made in 1960, it had been used by Reed as a show car. It was in excellent condition but with no racing history.
Nine 'LWB' were originally built for competition with a lightweight body in aluminum alloy. A California Spider 'LWB' Competizione built in 1959 was sold for $ 18M on August 20, 2016 by Gooding, lot 033. It is illustrated in the post shared by Forbes.
The settings of this example had been specially effective, including some engine components from the Testa Rossa to achieve a compression ratio of 9.8: 1, the highest of all the LWB, and a power of 275 hp about 50 hp over the basic model. Its features include from the origin the disc brakes, a rarity at that time, and its headlights are covered.
Sold to Chinetti for George Reed who was Ferrari's agent in Illinois and Wisconsin, it was raced with some parsimony until 1964 and remains in a matching numbers configuration for all its major elements.
This car is exceptional when considering that it is the best performing from all the LWB and that only three SWB California Spider Competizione were later assembled. It is estimated $ 18M.
Another LWB California Spider Competizione was sold for $ 11.3M by Gooding on August 18, 2012. Made in 1960, it had been used by Reed as a show car. It was in excellent condition but with no racing history.
