1970
See also : Abstract Art Abstract art II Art by Women ca 1960 USA USA II Germany II Twombly Rothko Bacon Picasso from 1940 Japan and Korea Self portrait Cars II Cars 1970s 1980s Porsche Movies Furniture Modern French furniture 20th century furniture European ceramics
1970 Cy Twombly in Quest of Writing
2014 SOLD for $ 70M including premium
Cy Twombly was projecting in his art his initial training in cryptology and his aesthetic feelings. In his first Roman period, he imagines that the colored patches that he positions on the canvas are reminiscent of messages too erased for being understood but opening an access to mythical meanings.
From 1966 Twombly continues his semiotic research towards psychoanalysis. On the black canvas that resembles the board of infant schools, he draws in white his messages which are indecipherable in direct reading but speak to the mind of the viewer.
The comparison between two canvases painted in 1970 show that the artist is seeking to express the diversity of humanity as well as his own creativity. Now inspired by graphology, Twombly's art describes and interprets the range of human characters in the fundamental and formative phase of early childhood.
One of these Blackboards, located in New York City, 144 x 178 cm, was sold for $ 17.5M including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012. The writing is nervous, with angles and backtracking.
Another example, 156 x 190 cm, is not located in the title but has been painted after the return to Rome of the artist. It is estimated $ 35M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 12, lot 20.
Here, the fake writing is made of very regular loops as if they came from an intelligent and quiet schoolchild, but their four lines form a tangled hair which widens from top to bottom in a false perspective.
From 1966 Twombly continues his semiotic research towards psychoanalysis. On the black canvas that resembles the board of infant schools, he draws in white his messages which are indecipherable in direct reading but speak to the mind of the viewer.
The comparison between two canvases painted in 1970 show that the artist is seeking to express the diversity of humanity as well as his own creativity. Now inspired by graphology, Twombly's art describes and interprets the range of human characters in the fundamental and formative phase of early childhood.
One of these Blackboards, located in New York City, 144 x 178 cm, was sold for $ 17.5M including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012. The writing is nervous, with angles and backtracking.
Another example, 156 x 190 cm, is not located in the title but has been painted after the return to Rome of the artist. It is estimated $ 35M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 12, lot 20.
Here, the fake writing is made of very regular loops as if they came from an intelligent and quiet schoolchild, but their four lines form a tangled hair which widens from top to bottom in a false perspective.
1970 Mark Rothko in his Nightfall
2014 SOLD for $ 40M including premium
Throughout his career, Rothko expressed by the relations between colors his vision of all the emotions and all cultures of the world, while voluntarily abandoning any use of figuration. By this bold and very effective approach, he became one of the most outstanding modern artists.
From the spring of 1968, nothing goes right for Mark Rothko, sick, drinker, smoker, irritable, almost impotent. His wife leaves him on 1969 new year's day. He paints small canvases dominated by gray and black expressing his new pessimistic feeling of the meaning of life.
Yet at the beginning of 1970, this highly important colorist lives a sort of restart. One of the three oils on canvas painted in this very short period, 173 x 137 cm, is estimated at $ 15M for sale bySotheby's in New York on November 10, lot 6.
This strange work is typical of his compositions but expresses the thrill of nightfall by three large dark green regions on an indigo background. It is his artistic testament, the invasion of his despair and his ultimate effort to stage a large-scale scenery.
Rothko sliced his arms with a razor on February 25, 1970.
From the spring of 1968, nothing goes right for Mark Rothko, sick, drinker, smoker, irritable, almost impotent. His wife leaves him on 1969 new year's day. He paints small canvases dominated by gray and black expressing his new pessimistic feeling of the meaning of life.
Yet at the beginning of 1970, this highly important colorist lives a sort of restart. One of the three oils on canvas painted in this very short period, 173 x 137 cm, is estimated at $ 15M for sale bySotheby's in New York on November 10, lot 6.
This strange work is typical of his compositions but expresses the thrill of nightfall by three large dark green regions on an indigo background. It is his artistic testament, the invasion of his despair and his ultimate effort to stage a large-scale scenery.
Rothko sliced his arms with a razor on February 25, 1970.
1970 The Equation of Time of Francis Bacon
2016 SOLD for $ 35M including premium
Francis Bacon often undertook to explain his art, with passion. He is a painter, viscerally, and would not consider any other occupation.
Like his fellow Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon desires to express life. Their methods are nevertheless in total opposition. Francis does not wish to compose an image : he seeks the spontaneity. He does not inspect the model on live but is working from photographs. Each personality is complex and a single image is not enough : this is the root cause of the choice of the artist to make triptychs and, less frequently, diptychs.
In 1969, Francis Bacon paints from three instantaneous photos the portrait in triptych of Lucian Freud, which was sold for $ 142M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2013. Francis is 60 years old. His quest for immediacy is already accompanied by the anxiety on his inability to stop his own aging.
In real life, he takes fun at the expense of George Dyer but his Soho friends have also aged. Henrietta is increasingly ugly. A surprising portrait on which the woman is slipping away backwards from the picture frame remained unsold at Christie's on October 19, 2008. Francis looks again at his own face. A self-portrait with a sad gaze, 35 x 40 cm, was sold for $ 33M including premium by Sotheby's on 14 November 2007.
In 1970, Francis is desperately seeking a solution to his equation of time. He paints less and less because his old themes are no longer acceptable to him. He executes a self-portrait in diptych 35 x 30 cm per element. His attire is relaxed but the position of the head is haughty : Francis is alone in front of himself. The exuberant expressionist colors accentuate the total control of his art.
Titled Two studies for a self portrait, this work is estimated $ 22M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 11, lot 8. I invite you to watch the video shared by the auction house. The optimistic interpretation made by Sotheby's may be questioned but their conclusion that it is the finest self-portrait by Francis Bacon is highly acceptable.
Like his fellow Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon desires to express life. Their methods are nevertheless in total opposition. Francis does not wish to compose an image : he seeks the spontaneity. He does not inspect the model on live but is working from photographs. Each personality is complex and a single image is not enough : this is the root cause of the choice of the artist to make triptychs and, less frequently, diptychs.
In 1969, Francis Bacon paints from three instantaneous photos the portrait in triptych of Lucian Freud, which was sold for $ 142M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2013. Francis is 60 years old. His quest for immediacy is already accompanied by the anxiety on his inability to stop his own aging.
In real life, he takes fun at the expense of George Dyer but his Soho friends have also aged. Henrietta is increasingly ugly. A surprising portrait on which the woman is slipping away backwards from the picture frame remained unsold at Christie's on October 19, 2008. Francis looks again at his own face. A self-portrait with a sad gaze, 35 x 40 cm, was sold for $ 33M including premium by Sotheby's on 14 November 2007.
In 1970, Francis is desperately seeking a solution to his equation of time. He paints less and less because his old themes are no longer acceptable to him. He executes a self-portrait in diptych 35 x 30 cm per element. His attire is relaxed but the position of the head is haughty : Francis is alone in front of himself. The exuberant expressionist colors accentuate the total control of his art.
Titled Two studies for a self portrait, this work is estimated $ 22M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 11, lot 8. I invite you to watch the video shared by the auction house. The optimistic interpretation made by Sotheby's may be questioned but their conclusion that it is the finest self-portrait by Francis Bacon is highly acceptable.
1970 The Gray Paintings of Cy Twombly
2015 SOLD for £ 19.7M including premium
Cy Twombly is one of the deepest innovators of modern art. Abstraction had liberated art from figuration. Through his work on the emotional subconscious, Twombly freed the art from expressionism. He was early admired and analyzed by the semiologists from Roland Barthes to Philippe Sollers.
Dividing his time between New York and Rome, Twombly developed a global culture, and his fascination for the graffiti on the ancient monuments discorrelated him from time. He endeavored to meet the subconscious of the heroes from the great passionate affairs of antiquity.
In 1966, his gray paintings open up a completely unexplored field of artistic expression. The technique is to carefully prepare a surface of gray paint, then to cover it with an uninterrupted series of loops forming an illegible and meaningless proto-writing, juxtaposed as in a scalp.
This new style allows the artist to explore graphology in its full extent, dominated by reflex and spontaneity, revealing the character, and that even the most intelligent of human beings fails to control.
These artworks are described under the generic term Blackboards chosen by art critics, not by the artist.
Located in New York and executed in 1970, a blackboard 145 x 178 cm in nervous line with jerky points and backtrackings was sold for $ 17.5M including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012. It is again for sale, by Christie's in London on February 11, lot 26.
Between these two sales, the interest of art connoisseurs to Twombly has grown considerably. A blackboard 156 x 190 cm, also made in 1970, in a quiet and regular pseudo-script, was sold for $ 70M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2014.
Dividing his time between New York and Rome, Twombly developed a global culture, and his fascination for the graffiti on the ancient monuments discorrelated him from time. He endeavored to meet the subconscious of the heroes from the great passionate affairs of antiquity.
In 1966, his gray paintings open up a completely unexplored field of artistic expression. The technique is to carefully prepare a surface of gray paint, then to cover it with an uninterrupted series of loops forming an illegible and meaningless proto-writing, juxtaposed as in a scalp.
This new style allows the artist to explore graphology in its full extent, dominated by reflex and spontaneity, revealing the character, and that even the most intelligent of human beings fails to control.
These artworks are described under the generic term Blackboards chosen by art critics, not by the artist.
Located in New York and executed in 1970, a blackboard 145 x 178 cm in nervous line with jerky points and backtrackings was sold for $ 17.5M including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012. It is again for sale, by Christie's in London on February 11, lot 26.
Between these two sales, the interest of art connoisseurs to Twombly has grown considerably. A blackboard 156 x 190 cm, also made in 1970, in a quiet and regular pseudo-script, was sold for $ 70M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2014.
1970 The Final Matador
2018 SOLD for £ 16.5M including premium
Aged 89 Pablo Picasso attends a corrida de toros in Fréjus. How could he have abandoned for so long his former craze for bullfighting ? The matador is a symbol of virility and bravery as well as the musketeer, and less obsolete. He is also a symbol of Spain. In September and October 1970 Picasso makes mid-length imaginary portraits of matadores. It is the human being and not the bull or the faena that excites the artist in what will be his last thematic series.
Picasso revisits various styles from his long career as he had done fifteen years earlier in Les Femmes d'Alger. As for that example the final opus is the most complex and the best completed. On February 28 in London, Sotheby's sells this oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm dated October 23, 1970, lot 16 estimated £ 14M.
This robust man is much larger than life. He holds the sword, an essential instrument of his function. Except for his fanciful musketeer's hat, his clothes copy a portrait of a matador painted by Goya around 1797. The background is not plain as in the previous paintings of the series : the torero poses in the middle of the sand colored arena and a pattern of hatching simulates the spectators who are waiting for the action on the seats.
With his wide open eyes and his clenched mouth, the attitude of the man is severe. His game is dangerous. Despite the poor health of the artist, this work with a good psychological expression is a picturesque evocation of the Spanish culture and not a presentiment of his next appointment with death.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
Picasso revisits various styles from his long career as he had done fifteen years earlier in Les Femmes d'Alger. As for that example the final opus is the most complex and the best completed. On February 28 in London, Sotheby's sells this oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm dated October 23, 1970, lot 16 estimated £ 14M.
This robust man is much larger than life. He holds the sword, an essential instrument of his function. Except for his fanciful musketeer's hat, his clothes copy a portrait of a matador painted by Goya around 1797. The background is not plain as in the previous paintings of the series : the torero poses in the middle of the sand colored arena and a pattern of hatching simulates the spectators who are waiting for the action on the seats.
With his wide open eyes and his clenched mouth, the attitude of the man is severe. His game is dangerous. Despite the poor health of the artist, this work with a good psychological expression is a picturesque evocation of the Spanish culture and not a presentiment of his next appointment with death.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
1970 The Preferred Car of Jo Siffert
2017 SOLD for $ 14M including premium
Porsche had never won the 24 hours of Le Mans. A change in regulations announced after the 1968 season by the ACO for the two classes 3 liters and 5 liters is seized as an opportunity. Porsche creates in parallel the models 908 and 917.
The rule for the 5 liter homologation requires that the model is produced in 25 identical units. Porsche's motivation is so intense that they line up their twenty-five 917 in the yard of the factory as early as April 1969. Success is still questionable because the 917 is very difficult to drive. None of them finished the 24 hours of Le Mans 1969 and a driver died during that race.
Porsche immediately conceived the necessary improvements, resulting in two variants of the chassis for each of the two models : K for Kurz Heck and LH for Lang Heck. The short variant is faster in top speed but less stable. Many drivers will prefer the LH.
On August 18 at Pebble Beach, Gooding sells a historically important 917K, lot 44 estimated $ 13M. Here is the link to the press release.
This car assembled in 1970 was immediately entered in the training and test sessions at Le Mans, Nürburgring and Ehra-Lessien in April and May, demonstrating the exceptional speed achieved by the 917K model.
It is purchased in June 1970 by Jo Siffert who does not use it in competition but leases it for the preparation of the film Le Mans. It is one of three 917K starring in this movie for which they also served as camera cars for shooting at full speed. This 917K was Siffert's favorite car and led his funeral procession in October 1971.
The car was found 30 years later in a Parisian suburb, covered with dust but untouched except for the absence of the engine. The next owner bought an original engine from the same series. The complete restoration was supervised by a former Porsche engineer who still had access to the factory archives of the 917 program.
Please watch the video shared by Gooding.
The rule for the 5 liter homologation requires that the model is produced in 25 identical units. Porsche's motivation is so intense that they line up their twenty-five 917 in the yard of the factory as early as April 1969. Success is still questionable because the 917 is very difficult to drive. None of them finished the 24 hours of Le Mans 1969 and a driver died during that race.
Porsche immediately conceived the necessary improvements, resulting in two variants of the chassis for each of the two models : K for Kurz Heck and LH for Lang Heck. The short variant is faster in top speed but less stable. Many drivers will prefer the LH.
On August 18 at Pebble Beach, Gooding sells a historically important 917K, lot 44 estimated $ 13M. Here is the link to the press release.
This car assembled in 1970 was immediately entered in the training and test sessions at Le Mans, Nürburgring and Ehra-Lessien in April and May, demonstrating the exceptional speed achieved by the 917K model.
It is purchased in June 1970 by Jo Siffert who does not use it in competition but leases it for the preparation of the film Le Mans. It is one of three 917K starring in this movie for which they also served as camera cars for shooting at full speed. This 917K was Siffert's favorite car and led his funeral procession in October 1971.
The car was found 30 years later in a Parisian suburb, covered with dust but untouched except for the absence of the engine. The next owner bought an original engine from the same series. The complete restoration was supervised by a former Porsche engineer who still had access to the factory archives of the 917 program.
Please watch the video shared by Gooding.
1970 Dear Old Picasso
2011 SOLD 9.6 M$ including premium
An oil on canvas by Pablo Picasso entitled Couple à la Guitare, 162 x 130 cm, is estimated $ 10M, to be sold at Sotheby's in New York on May 3. It is illustrated on the press release shared by AuctionPublicity.
The work, dated January 11, 1970, belongs to the period when the artist, aged 88, was taken by a frenzy of creation. It is a sensual portrait of Pablo and his wife Jacqueline, seated, embraced, facing one another.
We must look at this painting with the remembrance of the sexual revolution of the late 1960s. Pablo no longer needs to disguise himself as Minotaur, he is clearly recognizable with his big nose. Jacqueline is more stylized, with this representation of the face so characteristic of the master where the eyes come together on the same side like on a flatfish.
But we must also consider also the details: the guitar and the small bird are symbols of freedom. Pablo was certainly sensitive to the changing mores advocated by the Woodstock festival, which took place five months earlier. He might have participated if he were 60 years younger.
It is altogether very nice to imagine our Picasso so much listening to the world, even in the intimate paintings of his last three years.
POST SALE COMMENT
Sold for $ 9.6 million including premium, this painting of later date but modern theme should have deserved better.
The work, dated January 11, 1970, belongs to the period when the artist, aged 88, was taken by a frenzy of creation. It is a sensual portrait of Pablo and his wife Jacqueline, seated, embraced, facing one another.
We must look at this painting with the remembrance of the sexual revolution of the late 1960s. Pablo no longer needs to disguise himself as Minotaur, he is clearly recognizable with his big nose. Jacqueline is more stylized, with this representation of the face so characteristic of the master where the eyes come together on the same side like on a flatfish.
But we must also consider also the details: the guitar and the small bird are symbols of freedom. Pablo was certainly sensitive to the changing mores advocated by the Woodstock festival, which took place five months earlier. He might have participated if he were 60 years younger.
It is altogether very nice to imagine our Picasso so much listening to the world, even in the intimate paintings of his last three years.
POST SALE COMMENT
Sold for $ 9.6 million including premium, this painting of later date but modern theme should have deserved better.
1967-1970 Ostrich Bar by François-Xavier Lalanne
2017 SOLD for € 6.2M including premium by Sotheby's
1970 12-V-70 #172 by Kim Whanki
2016 SOLD for HK$ 41.5M by Seoul Auction
1970 The Pierced Family of Barbara Hepworth
2016 SOLD for £ 3.75M including premium
Henry Moore deconstructed and reconstructed the human body. Lynn Chadwick populated his own world with surrealist characters in bronze who enjoyed to gather on English lawns. Meanwhile the sculpture by Barbara Hepworth is resolutely abstract, inspired by sea spray on the megaliths of Cornwall.
Hepworth returns to figuration in 1970, in her own way. After all, a menhir and a standing human have similarities of forms. Same as Chadwick she does not look for recognizable details. She builds her characters like her totems by including holes that become more expressive than their surrounding material.
Nine Figures on a Hill, later renamed The Family of Man, is an assembly of nine separate sculptures that symbolize the phases of growth and maturity of the human being like in a surrealist wedding : Young Girl, Youth, Bride, Bridegroom, Parent I, Parent II, Ancestor I, Ancestor II and Ultimate Form. The number of stacked components varies from child to adult, from two to four.
The Family of Man was made in bronze in two complete sets plus four copies of each of the nine individual figures.
According to the artist, Parent I is the universal mother who may have given life to about twenty children. At nearly 2.70 cm high, she dominates the scenery while remaining opulent with her flexible lines. A bronze of Parent I is estimated £ 2M for sale by Sotheby's in London on November 22, lot 13.
Hepworth returns to figuration in 1970, in her own way. After all, a menhir and a standing human have similarities of forms. Same as Chadwick she does not look for recognizable details. She builds her characters like her totems by including holes that become more expressive than their surrounding material.
Nine Figures on a Hill, later renamed The Family of Man, is an assembly of nine separate sculptures that symbolize the phases of growth and maturity of the human being like in a surrealist wedding : Young Girl, Youth, Bride, Bridegroom, Parent I, Parent II, Ancestor I, Ancestor II and Ultimate Form. The number of stacked components varies from child to adult, from two to four.
The Family of Man was made in bronze in two complete sets plus four copies of each of the nine individual figures.
According to the artist, Parent I is the universal mother who may have given life to about twenty children. At nearly 2.70 cm high, she dominates the scenery while remaining opulent with her flexible lines. A bronze of Parent I is estimated £ 2M for sale by Sotheby's in London on November 22, lot 13.
1970 Six Hours on the Nürburgring
2017 SOLD for $ 3.6M including premium
Porsche understood that they cannot win all the endurance competitions with a single model. The powerful and heavy 917 brings the necessary top speed to win Le Mans.
On winding roads a nimble car is needed. The 908 with its 3-liter engine is the subject of successive variants that follow both the critical need of lightening for maintaining the lead over its competitors and the unceasing changes in the regulations.
The first 908's are coupes. In 1969 with the 908/02 Porsche gives up the closed cockpit. This very low spyder opens the period of extreme minimalism in the shape of the cars : the optimization of the aerodynamics leaves no place for an aesthetic initiative. These flat cars are even more spectacular with garish colors.
With a shorter chassis the 908/03 introduced in 1970 weighs no more than 500 Kg. It includes the ultimate subtlety of decentering the weights to the right side for a greater efficiency in the closed circuits of Nürburgring and Targa Florio. Vertical fins are added to the rear in 1971.
The 908 wins the 1000 Km Nürburgring every year from 1968 to 1971, breaking the record of 6H 54 obtained in the previous year by a Porsche 910. The progression rewards the efforts of the designers : 6H 34 by a 908 in 1968, 6H 11 by a 908/02 in 1969, 6H 05 by a 908/03 in 1970 and 5H 51 in 1971 by a 908/03 piloted by a private team.
Built as a prototype in January 1970, a 908/03 finished second in the same year at the 1000 Km Nürburgring. It then came back to the factory as a development car and received the rear fins. Restored in its configuration and pale yellow livery of the 1970 Nürburgring, it is estimated $ 3.5M for sale by RM Sotheby's in Monterey on August 19, lot 256. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
On winding roads a nimble car is needed. The 908 with its 3-liter engine is the subject of successive variants that follow both the critical need of lightening for maintaining the lead over its competitors and the unceasing changes in the regulations.
The first 908's are coupes. In 1969 with the 908/02 Porsche gives up the closed cockpit. This very low spyder opens the period of extreme minimalism in the shape of the cars : the optimization of the aerodynamics leaves no place for an aesthetic initiative. These flat cars are even more spectacular with garish colors.
With a shorter chassis the 908/03 introduced in 1970 weighs no more than 500 Kg. It includes the ultimate subtlety of decentering the weights to the right side for a greater efficiency in the closed circuits of Nürburgring and Targa Florio. Vertical fins are added to the rear in 1971.
The 908 wins the 1000 Km Nürburgring every year from 1968 to 1971, breaking the record of 6H 54 obtained in the previous year by a Porsche 910. The progression rewards the efforts of the designers : 6H 34 by a 908 in 1968, 6H 11 by a 908/02 in 1969, 6H 05 by a 908/03 in 1970 and 5H 51 in 1971 by a 908/03 piloted by a private team.
Built as a prototype in January 1970, a 908/03 finished second in the same year at the 1000 Km Nürburgring. It then came back to the factory as a development car and received the rear fins. Restored in its configuration and pale yellow livery of the 1970 Nürburgring, it is estimated $ 3.5M for sale by RM Sotheby's in Monterey on August 19, lot 256. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1970 The Ultimate Muscles
2015 SOLD for $ 2.25M before fees
The Muscle car was a US automobile style to appeal to baby boomers eager for high-performance cars. Since 1964, the competition is fierce between Ford, Chrysler and General Motors.
Sales drop sharply in 1971: the overpowered engines are no longer welcomed after the 1970 Clean Air Act, without forgetting the rise of gas prices and of insurance rates.
Chrysler develops two parallel product lines in 1970 on their new E-Body chassis and the huge Hemi engine, the Hemi Cuda in the Plymouth division and the Challenger in the Dodge division. The convertible version of the Hemi Cuda is the ultimate high-end muscle car, extremely rare: 14 cars produced in 1970 and 11 cars in 1971.
An exceptional 1971 Hemi Cuda Convertible 4 Speed retaining its original engine was sold for $ 3.8 million including premium by Mecum on June 14, 2014.
A Hemi Cuda Convertible made in 1970 with an automatic transmission is estimated $ 2.5M for sale by Mecum at Monterey on August 14, lot F69. It had been presented new including a large number of the available options to its bodywork stylist, John Herlitz.
Sales drop sharply in 1971: the overpowered engines are no longer welcomed after the 1970 Clean Air Act, without forgetting the rise of gas prices and of insurance rates.
Chrysler develops two parallel product lines in 1970 on their new E-Body chassis and the huge Hemi engine, the Hemi Cuda in the Plymouth division and the Challenger in the Dodge division. The convertible version of the Hemi Cuda is the ultimate high-end muscle car, extremely rare: 14 cars produced in 1970 and 11 cars in 1971.
An exceptional 1971 Hemi Cuda Convertible 4 Speed retaining its original engine was sold for $ 3.8 million including premium by Mecum on June 14, 2014.
A Hemi Cuda Convertible made in 1970 with an automatic transmission is estimated $ 2.5M for sale by Mecum at Monterey on August 14, lot F69. It had been presented new including a large number of the available options to its bodywork stylist, John Herlitz.
