1967
See also : Zhang Daqian Cars Ferrari Cars 1960s Cars 1966-67 Germany II Richter < 1983 Picasso in Mougins Man and woman
1967 An Abyssal Rothko
2020 SOLD for $ 31M including premium
The Texan millionaire collectors John and Dominique de Menil enabled Rothko to achieve the culmination of his artistic process. The Rothko Chapel, started in 1964, is designed as a place of meditation.
Rothko always wanted the visitor to be mesmerized by his work. When you turn your back on the sun, you don't forget it. Inspired by Rembrandt's night scenes, he understands that dark colors are the best vehicle for transcendent meditation.
This project requires a special attention to light. Rothko sets up a new studio in New York, however a little worried about the difference in light between New York and Houston. His demands about the inner light of the chapel were such that the architect Philip Johnson had to give up.
For his dark hues, Rothko invents pigments that no one had needed before him. His traditional mingling of still wet layers increases the subtlety of his blocks, which can appear as monochrome from a distance but are absolutely not. De Menil will describe this set as an impenetrable abstract fortress on the threshold of the divine.
Rothko is getting old. Soon he can no longer paint on his large canvases himself and has to supervise assistants. Unlike the Seagram Murals, he goes through with this project. The fourteenth and last painting for the Rothko Chapel is ready in 1967. His career was interrupted at the beginning of the next year by a ruptured aneurysm from which he partially healed. The paintings will be installed in the chapel in 1971, one year after his death.
On October 6 in New York, Christie's sells an oil on canvas 173 x 153 cm painted in 1967 in the style of the Rothko Chapel, lot 11 estimated $ 30M. The image is made in two registers with various shades of dark red. The upper block is radiating. The lower block, smaller and darker, absorbs the light in a place that the artist had sometimes liked to reserve for a blinding white.
Rothko always wanted the visitor to be mesmerized by his work. When you turn your back on the sun, you don't forget it. Inspired by Rembrandt's night scenes, he understands that dark colors are the best vehicle for transcendent meditation.
This project requires a special attention to light. Rothko sets up a new studio in New York, however a little worried about the difference in light between New York and Houston. His demands about the inner light of the chapel were such that the architect Philip Johnson had to give up.
For his dark hues, Rothko invents pigments that no one had needed before him. His traditional mingling of still wet layers increases the subtlety of his blocks, which can appear as monochrome from a distance but are absolutely not. De Menil will describe this set as an impenetrable abstract fortress on the threshold of the divine.
Rothko is getting old. Soon he can no longer paint on his large canvases himself and has to supervise assistants. Unlike the Seagram Murals, he goes through with this project. The fourteenth and last painting for the Rothko Chapel is ready in 1967. His career was interrupted at the beginning of the next year by a ruptured aneurysm from which he partially healed. The paintings will be installed in the chapel in 1971, one year after his death.
On October 6 in New York, Christie's sells an oil on canvas 173 x 153 cm painted in 1967 in the style of the Rothko Chapel, lot 11 estimated $ 30M. The image is made in two registers with various shades of dark red. The upper block is radiating. The lower block, smaller and darker, absorbs the light in a place that the artist had sometimes liked to reserve for a blinding white.
1967 The North American Ferrari
2013 SOLD 27.5 M$ including premium
Ferrari has always endeavoured to flatter its American customers. The designations America, Superamerica and California attributed to high end variants are a convincing evidence of that fact.
Former winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Luigi Chinetti was a skilled agent of Ferrari in the United States. In 1958, he created the North American Racing Team (NART) that got very good results, in Europe also.
For his network of passionate customers, Chinetti negotiated in 1967 with Ferrari a special order for a new sports model to be built by Scaglietti on the 275GTB chassis.
Ten Ferrari 275GTB / 4 NART Spider cars were produced, a quantity certainly lesser than Chinetti's demand. Times are tough for Ferrari, who had to put an end to the 250GTO and escaped very narrowly an acquisition by Ford.
This rare NART Spider appears as an outstanding post-GTO model fitted to arouse passions. This small convertible is very efficient and highly elegant, and would later be imitated. Some owners of 275GTB in more standard variants will even wish to rebuild their car as a NART Spider.
One of the ten original 275GTB / 4 NART Spider cars remained in the family of the original owner who adored it. It is sold for the benefit of charities by RM Auctions in Monterey on 16 and 17 August.
I invite you to play the video shared on YouTube by Petrolicious for RM Auctions.
POST SALE COMMENT
This Ferrari was sold for $ 25M before fees. It is in very good condition and was sold to benefit charities, but this price is especially recognizing one of the best models that followed the 250 GTO.
Former winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Luigi Chinetti was a skilled agent of Ferrari in the United States. In 1958, he created the North American Racing Team (NART) that got very good results, in Europe also.
For his network of passionate customers, Chinetti negotiated in 1967 with Ferrari a special order for a new sports model to be built by Scaglietti on the 275GTB chassis.
Ten Ferrari 275GTB / 4 NART Spider cars were produced, a quantity certainly lesser than Chinetti's demand. Times are tough for Ferrari, who had to put an end to the 250GTO and escaped very narrowly an acquisition by Ford.
This rare NART Spider appears as an outstanding post-GTO model fitted to arouse passions. This small convertible is very efficient and highly elegant, and would later be imitated. Some owners of 275GTB in more standard variants will even wish to rebuild their car as a NART Spider.
One of the ten original 275GTB / 4 NART Spider cars remained in the family of the original owner who adored it. It is sold for the benefit of charities by RM Auctions in Monterey on 16 and 17 August.
I invite you to play the video shared on YouTube by Petrolicious for RM Auctions.
POST SALE COMMENT
This Ferrari was sold for $ 25M before fees. It is in very good condition and was sold to benefit charities, but this price is especially recognizing one of the best models that followed the 250 GTO.
1967 Temple at the Mountain Peak by Zhang Daqian
2021 SOLD for HK$ 210M by Christie's
Zhang Daqian found a quiet shelter when he moved to the vicinity of Sao Paolo. The cultural links with his home country were nevertheless broken. Even his frequent travels had to exclude the Continental China.
His lush Garden of the Eight Virtues is an attempt to maintain a spirit of Chinese contemplation in his exile in the attire of an elderly scholar. From bottom to upwards, he looks at the lake, the pavilions on the shore, the towering imaginary mountains layered with forest, and the sky. In these conditions this former traditionalist develops an unprecedented pictural style, although he indulges in stating Tang and Song influences.
Ancient Temples amidst Clouds, ink and colors on gold paper 172 x 90 cm painted in 1965, is typical of the new style. The mountain is an overlapping splash of saturated twilight green and blue while the other sections are neat drawings. The buildings scattered atop come from his imagination, symbolizing the link to heavens operated by the monks. This hanging scroll was sold for HK $ 102M by Christie's in 2017.
Temple at the Mountain Peak looks like a remake of Ancient Temples amidst Clouds. It was painted for the use of a friend in 1967 in the same techniques but smaller size, 128 x 63 cm. The valley is more detailed but the temples are half hidden and the resplendent sky has been canceled. The artist had it mounted with enameled knobs in cloisonné blue and white.
This piece was sold twice by Christie's : for HK $ 61M from a lower estimate of HK $ 4M on November 30, 2010,, lot 2644., and for HK $ 210M on May 24, 2021, lot 22. The catalogue suggests an inspiration from a trip made in California a few months earlier. This statement may be questioned.
His lush Garden of the Eight Virtues is an attempt to maintain a spirit of Chinese contemplation in his exile in the attire of an elderly scholar. From bottom to upwards, he looks at the lake, the pavilions on the shore, the towering imaginary mountains layered with forest, and the sky. In these conditions this former traditionalist develops an unprecedented pictural style, although he indulges in stating Tang and Song influences.
Ancient Temples amidst Clouds, ink and colors on gold paper 172 x 90 cm painted in 1965, is typical of the new style. The mountain is an overlapping splash of saturated twilight green and blue while the other sections are neat drawings. The buildings scattered atop come from his imagination, symbolizing the link to heavens operated by the monks. This hanging scroll was sold for HK $ 102M by Christie's in 2017.
Temple at the Mountain Peak looks like a remake of Ancient Temples amidst Clouds. It was painted for the use of a friend in 1967 in the same techniques but smaller size, 128 x 63 cm. The valley is more detailed but the temples are half hidden and the resplendent sky has been canceled. The artist had it mounted with enameled knobs in cloisonné blue and white.
This piece was sold twice by Christie's : for HK $ 61M from a lower estimate of HK $ 4M on November 30, 2010,, lot 2644., and for HK $ 210M on May 24, 2021, lot 22. The catalogue suggests an inspiration from a trip made in California a few months earlier. This statement may be questioned.
1967 Dschungel by Polke
2015 SOLD for $ 27M by Sotheby's
Dschungel (Jungle) is a dispersion on canvas 160 x 245 cm painted in 1967 by Sigmar Polke. The painting, including dark leaves in the foreground, is entirely built with small dots of color, as if it were an advertisement poster.
Parting away from the signature blur by Polke and Richter, the unidentified tropical scenery in backlighting is dominated by a huge sun rising or setting over the sea with a spectacular halo.
Dschungel was sold by Sotheby's for £ 5.75M on June 29, 2011 and for $ 27M on May 12, 2015, lot 8.
Polke did not have holidays in the idyllic jungle and has not seen New York yet. He warns against the false promises made by the consumer society. Only the rich benefit from capitalism. Stadtbild II, painted in 1968, is a demonstrator of that evolution in Polke's political sensitivity after he completed his studies in Düsseldorf.
The theme looks opposite to the Jungle as its skyscrapers lit in the night are now superseding the tropical sun, but the contrasts of colors are similarly striking and both artworks question the society by referring to the travel posters. Stadtbild II, dispersion on canvas 150 x 126 cm, was sold for £ 4.6M in the same 2011 sale as Dschungel, and for $ 8M by Christie's on May 13, 2021, lot 20 B.
Parting away from the signature blur by Polke and Richter, the unidentified tropical scenery in backlighting is dominated by a huge sun rising or setting over the sea with a spectacular halo.
Dschungel was sold by Sotheby's for £ 5.75M on June 29, 2011 and for $ 27M on May 12, 2015, lot 8.
Polke did not have holidays in the idyllic jungle and has not seen New York yet. He warns against the false promises made by the consumer society. Only the rich benefit from capitalism. Stadtbild II, painted in 1968, is a demonstrator of that evolution in Polke's political sensitivity after he completed his studies in Düsseldorf.
The theme looks opposite to the Jungle as its skyscrapers lit in the night are now superseding the tropical sun, but the contrasts of colors are similarly striking and both artworks question the society by referring to the travel posters. Stadtbild II, dispersion on canvas 150 x 126 cm, was sold for £ 4.6M in the same 2011 sale as Dschungel, and for $ 8M by Christie's on May 13, 2021, lot 20 B.
1967 Musical Waking with Picasso
2011 SOLD 23 M$ including premium
Since the Middle Ages, music accompanies the joy of living in love. In the morning, the musician is enchanting the lovers with the aubade. In the evening, he concludes the day with the serenade.
Jacqueline Picasso, naked, is still in bed. Beside her, a fiery bearded Faun plays the flute, symbolic instrument of original music. The hirsute character is her husband, Pablo, who is both the musician and the lover of this aubade.
Jacqueline is in ecstasy, both eyes wide open. On this oil on canvas 130 x 195 cm painted in 1967, the woman's face is barely cubist, but one of her cheeks is distorted as if it were drawn by the flute.
Picasso, then 86 years old, wanted to stay young forever and continue to enjoy the sensory pleasures. The friendly side of this otherwise exuberant work is the gift of music to the beloved.
This painting is estimated $ 18M, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 2.
POST SALE COMMENT
This artwork is outstanding when considering its period in the life of Picasso. It marks the ridiculous and inevitable conflict between sexuality and aging. It was sold $ 23M including premium.
Jacqueline Picasso, naked, is still in bed. Beside her, a fiery bearded Faun plays the flute, symbolic instrument of original music. The hirsute character is her husband, Pablo, who is both the musician and the lover of this aubade.
Jacqueline is in ecstasy, both eyes wide open. On this oil on canvas 130 x 195 cm painted in 1967, the woman's face is barely cubist, but one of her cheeks is distorted as if it were drawn by the flute.
Picasso, then 86 years old, wanted to stay young forever and continue to enjoy the sensory pleasures. The friendly side of this otherwise exuberant work is the gift of music to the beloved.
This painting is estimated $ 18M, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 2.
POST SALE COMMENT
This artwork is outstanding when considering its period in the life of Picasso. It marks the ridiculous and inevitable conflict between sexuality and aging. It was sold $ 23M including premium.
1967 Beyond Germany
2019 SOLD for $ 20.5M including premium
From 1963 to 1967 Gerhard Richter realizes his series of photo-paintings, appropriations in oil on canvas in giant format of bad black and white photos. For some images like Düsenjäger painted in 1963, he explains his choice with a personal memory. The rest is more difficult to decode, probably related to intimate feelings.
This unprecedented practice of blurred paintings on themes of extreme banality brings him fame and customers. He diversifies his techniques without losing his desire to shock, as for example with his Farbtafeln.
On November 13 in New York, Christie's sells one of the latest photo-paintings, oil on canvas 180 x 180 cm painted in 1967, lot 12 B estimated $ 18M.
This gray image shows the ferry from the Hamburg-Copenhagen transport line during the swallowing of a train, in a row between the terminal and the Baltic. Inaugurated four years before, this line named Vogelfluglinie is still a recent topic. The blur leads to the limits of readability.
Unique in Richter's imagery, this dehumanized picture comes in full opposition with his erotic and pornographic inspirations of the same period. The line of the bird flight could have been an invitation to travel beyond Germany. It is instead a witness to some repulsive ugliness in modern life. With Richter, everything seems simple but nothing is simple.
This unprecedented practice of blurred paintings on themes of extreme banality brings him fame and customers. He diversifies his techniques without losing his desire to shock, as for example with his Farbtafeln.
On November 13 in New York, Christie's sells one of the latest photo-paintings, oil on canvas 180 x 180 cm painted in 1967, lot 12 B estimated $ 18M.
This gray image shows the ferry from the Hamburg-Copenhagen transport line during the swallowing of a train, in a row between the terminal and the Baltic. Inaugurated four years before, this line named Vogelfluglinie is still a recent topic. The blur leads to the limits of readability.
Unique in Richter's imagery, this dehumanized picture comes in full opposition with his erotic and pornographic inspirations of the same period. The line of the bird flight could have been an invitation to travel beyond Germany. It is instead a witness to some repulsive ugliness in modern life. With Richter, everything seems simple but nothing is simple.
1967 Ripe by Ruscha
2021 SOLD for $ 20M by Christie's
Throughout his career, Ed Ruscha is an explorer of word based art, centered inside otherwise minimalist compositions.
An oil on canvas 150 x 140 cm reads the word Ripe. It was sold for $ 20M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 37C.
This opus is an alignment of these four letters. Their broad viscous lines are filled by a red material populated with pustules that could illustrate some psychedelic pop music. Its letter shape over the yellow and green background is flat and frontal, despite a dripping below the p and the drop shaped dot of the i.
Painted in 1967, Ripe is an example of the so-called liquid paintings of the artist when he managed to display words posed on a liquid surface.
An oil on canvas 150 x 140 cm reads the word Ripe. It was sold for $ 20M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 37C.
This opus is an alignment of these four letters. Their broad viscous lines are filled by a red material populated with pustules that could illustrate some psychedelic pop music. Its letter shape over the yellow and green background is flat and frontal, despite a dripping below the p and the drop shaped dot of the i.
Painted in 1967, Ripe is an example of the so-called liquid paintings of the artist when he managed to display words posed on a liquid surface.
1967 Jacqueline offered to Rembrandt
2018 SOLD for £ 13.7M including premium
After a long convalescence Pablo Picasso takes his brushes again at the end of 1966. He cannot smoke anymore and is sexually disabled. He compensates for this handicap by the theme of the couple including his wife Jacqueline naked in various positions. Cubist distortions are now minimized.
Pablo admires Rembrandt and Velazquez as well as the vitality with which the men of their time were pictured. He copies several times in his own style one of his favorite images, the self-portrait engraved in 1636 of Rembrandt with his wife Saskia.
On February 27 in London, Christie's sells Mousquetaire et nu assis, oil and industrial paint on canvas 130 x 97 cm executed in April 1967, lot 18 estimated £ 12M. This artwork had been sold for £ 6.7M including premium on June 18, 2007 in the same auction room. Ten years ago the late works of Picasso were less appreciated.
On the right side the domineering man in a musketeer's attire conforms to the 30-year-old Rembrandt with no resemblance to Picasso. He does not look at his wife.
Saskia was 24 years old in 1636. In a submissive attitude, she was dressed like the wives of her time. Picasso gives her place to his 41-year-old Jacqueline. Pablo no longer accepts censorship against his creative freedom : Jacqueline is outrageously nude with her sex moved to the thigh for being better exhibited in the foreground of the image. Her loving gaze attests that she is offered to the fantasies of her old husband.
Throughout that year Picasso also develops the portraiture of singled musketeers as a symbol of virility while he remains aware of the illusion of his own boasting.
Pablo admires Rembrandt and Velazquez as well as the vitality with which the men of their time were pictured. He copies several times in his own style one of his favorite images, the self-portrait engraved in 1636 of Rembrandt with his wife Saskia.
On February 27 in London, Christie's sells Mousquetaire et nu assis, oil and industrial paint on canvas 130 x 97 cm executed in April 1967, lot 18 estimated £ 12M. This artwork had been sold for £ 6.7M including premium on June 18, 2007 in the same auction room. Ten years ago the late works of Picasso were less appreciated.
On the right side the domineering man in a musketeer's attire conforms to the 30-year-old Rembrandt with no resemblance to Picasso. He does not look at his wife.
Saskia was 24 years old in 1636. In a submissive attitude, she was dressed like the wives of her time. Picasso gives her place to his 41-year-old Jacqueline. Pablo no longer accepts censorship against his creative freedom : Jacqueline is outrageously nude with her sex moved to the thigh for being better exhibited in the foreground of the image. Her loving gaze attests that she is offered to the fantasies of her old husband.
Throughout that year Picasso also develops the portraiture of singled musketeers as a symbol of virility while he remains aware of the illusion of his own boasting.
1967 Merging the Opposites
2015 SOLD for £ 12.2M including premium
Isabel Nicholas, who became Isabel Rawsthorne by her third marriage, was an artist. Sexually liberated in the wake of the existentialism, she was the muse and lover of Alberto Giacometti just before and just after the Second World War and contributed to the development of the new artistic style emphasizing the psychological expression for superseding the figurative realism.
The art of Francis Bacon is deeply rooted in Giacometti's. Francis knew Isabel for many years when she introduced him to Alberto for the first time in 1965.
Alberto's death in January 1966 triggers or reinforces the idea of Isabel to create diptychs for displaying opposites such as life and death. Always eager to interpret the character and behavior of his closest friends, Francis painted in 1967 a diptych gathering the portraits of Isabel Rawsthorne and George Dyer.
This oil on canvas composed of two elements 35 x 30 cm in a single frame is estimated £ 8M for sale by Christie's in London on June 30, lot 36.
The estrangement between both characters is obvious and their dialogue seems impossible. The woman is in front view and the man in profile. The gaze of Isabel is sideways and George's eyes are barely open.
They shared their deserved reputation as heavy drinkers and the fascination they exercised over Francis. They were opposite one another by their role in society. George, the pretty thug, was psychologically fragile. Isabel, intellectual and activist, was an independent woman.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's.
The art of Francis Bacon is deeply rooted in Giacometti's. Francis knew Isabel for many years when she introduced him to Alberto for the first time in 1965.
Alberto's death in January 1966 triggers or reinforces the idea of Isabel to create diptychs for displaying opposites such as life and death. Always eager to interpret the character and behavior of his closest friends, Francis painted in 1967 a diptych gathering the portraits of Isabel Rawsthorne and George Dyer.
This oil on canvas composed of two elements 35 x 30 cm in a single frame is estimated £ 8M for sale by Christie's in London on June 30, lot 36.
The estrangement between both characters is obvious and their dialogue seems impossible. The woman is in front view and the man in profile. The gaze of Isabel is sideways and George's eyes are barely open.
They shared their deserved reputation as heavy drinkers and the fascination they exercised over Francis. They were opposite one another by their role in society. George, the pretty thug, was psychologically fragile. Isabel, intellectual and activist, was an independent woman.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's.
1967 Untitled Blackboard by Twombly
2011 SOLD for $ 15.2M by Christie's
The art of Cy Twombly is unclassifiable, expressing something different from classical abstraction or abstract expressionism. On the canvas, a few lines offer a message, but his calligraphy made in lasso loops and sawtooth does not meet any existing writing.
Yet the messages without words of Twombly deserve to be analyzed. Maybe not by you or me, but one of the keenest decipherers of his work had been Roland Barthes.
In 1967, that false writing on a dark gray background imitated the traces of chalk on the blackboard of a children school. Handwriting experts observe that it matches the Palmer method for writing which Twombly had learnt as a schoolboy.
A 122 x 140 cm Untitled made in wax crayon over an oil based background in five wide horizontal lines of repeated lasso script was sold for $ 15.2M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Christie's on May 11, 2011, lot 25.
From the next year, Twombly will try every possible disturbance of line and script.
Yet the messages without words of Twombly deserve to be analyzed. Maybe not by you or me, but one of the keenest decipherers of his work had been Roland Barthes.
In 1967, that false writing on a dark gray background imitated the traces of chalk on the blackboard of a children school. Handwriting experts observe that it matches the Palmer method for writing which Twombly had learnt as a schoolboy.
A 122 x 140 cm Untitled made in wax crayon over an oil based background in five wide horizontal lines of repeated lasso script was sold for $ 15.2M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Christie's on May 11, 2011, lot 25.
From the next year, Twombly will try every possible disturbance of line and script.
