1959
See also : Picasso 1940-1960 Zao Wou-Ki Calder Bust Sculpture by painters French sculpture Klein Post war cars Cars 1958-59 Ferrari LWB to GTO California Spider
1959 Tête Sculptée de Dora Maar
2007 SOLD for $ 29M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
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 including premium by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007 over a lower estimate of $ 20M, 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 including premium by Sotheby's on November 7, 2007 over a lower estimate of $ 20M, lot 22.
1959 Ousting the Meaning
2019 SOLD for $ 28M including premium
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 including premium by Christie's on May 14, 2003.
On May 15 in New York, Christie's sells Point of Pines, black enamel on canvas 215 x 278 cm, lot 28 B estimated $ 25M.
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 including premium 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 including premium by Christie's on May 14, 2003.
On May 15 in New York, Christie's sells Point of Pines, black enamel on canvas 215 x 278 cm, lot 28 B estimated $ 25M.
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 including premium 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 from a lower estimate of HK $ 75M 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 by Christie's on May 26, 2018 from a lower estimate of HK $ 68M, 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 from a lower estimate of HK $ 75M 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 by Christie's on May 26, 2018 from a lower estimate of HK $ 68M, lot 23.
1959 Relief Eponge by Yves Klein
2013 SOLD for $ 22M by Sotheby's
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.
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.
1959 Poems to the Sea by Cy Twombly
2013 SOLD for $ 21.7M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
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 including premium 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 including premium by Sotheby's on November 13, 2013 over a lower estimate of $ 6M, 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 including premium 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 including premium by Sotheby's on November 13, 2013 over a lower estimate of $ 6M, lot 20.
1959 Aluminum for Chinetti
2017 SOLD for $ 18M including premium
Designed on the 250 GT chassis as a cabriolet to please American customers, the California Spider (or 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 bodied spiders.
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 is for sale by RM Sotheby's in New York on December 6, lot 141 estimated $ 14M.
One of the seven (or eight) other LWB aluminum bodied Spiders was sold for $ 18M including premium by Gooding on August 20, 2016. Ferrari and NART did not push this solution much further : only three SWB Spiders will be 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 bodied spiders.
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 is for sale by RM Sotheby's in New York on December 6, lot 141 estimated $ 14M.
One of the seven (or eight) other LWB aluminum bodied Spiders was sold for $ 18M including premium by Gooding on August 20, 2016. Ferrari and NART did not push this solution much further : only three SWB Spiders will be built for competition.
1959 A California Spider in Lightweight Alloy
2016 SOLD for $ 18M including premium
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 is for sale on August 20 by Gooding in Pebble Beach, lot 033. It is illustrated in the post shared by Forbes.
The settings of this model 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 $ 11.3 million including premium on 18 August 2012, also by Gooding. 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 is for sale on August 20 by Gooding in Pebble Beach, lot 033. It is illustrated in the post shared by Forbes.
The settings of this model 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 $ 11.3 million including premium on 18 August 2012, also by Gooding. Made in 1960, it had been used by Reed as a show car. It was in excellent condition but with no racing history.
1959 Long March through the Mountains by Li Keran
2010 SOLD for RMB 108M by China Guardian
The steep mountains by Li Keran symbolize the domination of the political regime over the wilderness.
A black and white 96 x 146 cm drawing made in 1959 on the theme of the Long March through the mountains was sold for RMB 108M by China Guardian on November 22, 2010.
A black and white 96 x 146 cm drawing made in 1959 on the theme of the Long March through the mountains was sold for RMB 108M by China Guardian on November 22, 2010.
1959 39=50 by Calder
2022 SOLD for $ 15.6M by Phillips
In 1959 Alexander Calder had prepared an untitled hanging mobile of 39 white discs on the model of the Snow Flurry.
Two years later, a friend requested a piece of 50 elements for celebrating the 50th anniversary of his wife. Sandy did not have it ready. He chose to supply the 39 disc mobile instead. With his usual delicacy and humor, he titled it 39=50, rejuvenating the lady by that way.
This cascade of snow 120 x 260 cm was sold for $ 15.6M from a lower estimate of $ 10.5M by Phillips on May 18, 2022, lot 10. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Two years later, a friend requested a piece of 50 elements for celebrating the 50th anniversary of his wife. Sandy did not have it ready. He chose to supply the 39 disc mobile instead. With his usual delicacy and humor, he titled it 39=50, rejuvenating the lady by that way.
This cascade of snow 120 x 260 cm was sold for $ 15.6M from a lower estimate of $ 10.5M by Phillips on May 18, 2022, lot 10. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1958-1959 The Pleated Kaolin of Piero Manzoni
2014 SOLD for £ 12.6M including premium
In the late 1950s, artists achieve the ancient anti-bourgeois dream of removing figures and emotion from art. Everything is allowed in materials and methods, from the use of objects by Rauschenberg or Cornell to the flamethrowers and the women brushes of Klein.
In 1958 and 1959, the series of Achromes by Piero Manzoni releases the art from the color. His wish for an absolute purity makes his approach different from the mysticism of Klein and Fontana and from Burri's disgust.
Manzoni managed to run on his canvas a magma of kaolin, this material which already a millennium earlier had brought the absolute white to the Chinese potters. Same as with Fontana's lacerations, the creative act of the artist is not fully absent: the fabric is pleated before being coated. When the paste dries, it solidifies the interstices of the furrows.
Manzoni does not act during the drying, except for monitoring the climatic conditions. The details of the texture such as thickness, bubbles and drippings escape the artist's gesture.
The largest Achrome paintings are technical feats as a homogeneous layer is needed to provide the effect of purity desired by the artist. Their pattern is a wide central horizontal band of tight grooves while the top and bottom of the artwork remain smooth, like a river flowing between its banks or like a long hair.
An Achrome painted in 1958, 116 x 148 cm, with interesting undulations of the furrows, was sold for $ 14M including premium by Christie's on 15 May 2013. Another one from the same year, 114 x 145 cm, was sold for $ 10M including premium by Sotheby's on May 14, 2008.
A similar Achrome, 110 x 150 cm with a bright contrast in some furrows is estimated £ 5M for sale on October 17 in London by Sotheby's, lot 12.
In 1958 and 1959, the series of Achromes by Piero Manzoni releases the art from the color. His wish for an absolute purity makes his approach different from the mysticism of Klein and Fontana and from Burri's disgust.
Manzoni managed to run on his canvas a magma of kaolin, this material which already a millennium earlier had brought the absolute white to the Chinese potters. Same as with Fontana's lacerations, the creative act of the artist is not fully absent: the fabric is pleated before being coated. When the paste dries, it solidifies the interstices of the furrows.
Manzoni does not act during the drying, except for monitoring the climatic conditions. The details of the texture such as thickness, bubbles and drippings escape the artist's gesture.
The largest Achrome paintings are technical feats as a homogeneous layer is needed to provide the effect of purity desired by the artist. Their pattern is a wide central horizontal band of tight grooves while the top and bottom of the artwork remain smooth, like a river flowing between its banks or like a long hair.
An Achrome painted in 1958, 116 x 148 cm, with interesting undulations of the furrows, was sold for $ 14M including premium by Christie's on 15 May 2013. Another one from the same year, 114 x 145 cm, was sold for $ 10M including premium by Sotheby's on May 14, 2008.
A similar Achrome, 110 x 150 cm with a bright contrast in some furrows is estimated £ 5M for sale on October 17 in London by Sotheby's, lot 12.
