1970
See also : Abstract Art Abstract art II USA II Twombly Rothko 1957-70 Picasso from 1961 Bacon 1963-70 Richter < 1983 Self portrait Cars 1970s 1980s Porsche Cars in movies
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 (Rome) by Twombly
2021 SOLD for $ 42M by Sotheby's
On May 12, 2021, Sotheby's sold for $ 42M an Untitled (Rome), house paint and wax crayon on canvas 155 x 195 cm executed by Twombly in 1970, lot 110.
This piece appears as the counterpart of the Blackboard opus sold for $ 70M by Christie's in 2014. Their size are nearly identical, and both are displaying four rows of loops with an overall tilting effect.
Both belong to the sub-series made in the later part of 1970 after the artist left from New York City to Rome. Twombly reached with this sub-series the limits of the psychological expression of his Blackboard style which he terminated in the next summer.
The details of the loops are also similar, but the piece for sale has an overlapping of the bands while the other example displays a neat separation. This tiny difference is sufficient to generate an opposite feeling. One of them expresses control, order and intention while the other expresses anarchy, chaos and accident.
This piece appears as the counterpart of the Blackboard opus sold for $ 70M by Christie's in 2014. Their size are nearly identical, and both are displaying four rows of loops with an overall tilting effect.
Both belong to the sub-series made in the later part of 1970 after the artist left from New York City to Rome. Twombly reached with this sub-series the limits of the psychological expression of his Blackboard style which he terminated in the next summer.
The details of the loops are also similar, but the piece for sale has an overlapping of the bands while the other example displays a neat separation. This tiny difference is sufficient to generate an opposite feeling. One of them expresses control, order and intention while the other expresses anarchy, chaos and accident.
1970 Mark Rothko's Penultimate Painting
2014 SOLD for $ 40M by Sotheby's
From the later 1940s, Mark Rothko had managed to express by the relations between colors his global vision of all emotions and cultures. From the spring of 1968, everything goes wrong. He is cardiac, drinker, smoker, irritable, depressive, almost impotent. His wife leaves on the 1969 new year's day. He paints in black on gray his new tragic feeling on the meaning of life.
Yet at the beginning of 1970, this highly effective colorist lives a sort of mental restart. The penultimate of the three oils on canvas painted in this very short period, 173 x 137 cm, was sold for $ 40M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Sotheby's on November 10, 2014, lot 6, then coming from the Mellon collection. It was sold for $ 38M by Christie's on May 13, 2021, lot 10 B.
This vibrant work catches the light by dark glowing colors, in a spectacular departure from the black on gray. It expresses the threat of nightfall by its three dark green regions on a rich saturated indigo blue background.
His last canvas, 152 x 145 cm, belonging to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., is its counterpart in red over red and acrylic. Both together constitute the translation of his despair into the sublime and his final effort to stage a large-scale abstract scenery. Rothko sliced his arms with a razor on February 25, 1970.
Yet at the beginning of 1970, this highly effective colorist lives a sort of mental restart. The penultimate of the three oils on canvas painted in this very short period, 173 x 137 cm, was sold for $ 40M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Sotheby's on November 10, 2014, lot 6, then coming from the Mellon collection. It was sold for $ 38M by Christie's on May 13, 2021, lot 10 B.
This vibrant work catches the light by dark glowing colors, in a spectacular departure from the black on gray. It expresses the threat of nightfall by its three dark green regions on a rich saturated indigo blue background.
His last canvas, 152 x 145 cm, belonging to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., is its counterpart in red over red and acrylic. Both together constitute the translation of his despair into the sublime and his final effort to stage a large-scale abstract 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 Colors of the Matador
2021 SOLD for HK$ 140M by Sotheby's
With his sequined coat (traje de luces), the matador is the symbol of the Spanish festival. The last homogeneous series executed by Picasso explores this theme in fifteen paintings made between September 27 and October 23, 1970.
The matador thus succeeds the mosquetero, with whom he has in common the sword, a symbol of virility and indirectly of the nostalgia of the aging artist. In addition the mosquetero had a pipe, the use of which is now forbidden to Pablo by his doctors.
The matador benefits from a bust composition, which is simpler, less crazy and ultimately much more optimistic. The mosquetero was the memory of the glorious past. The matador is the conscientious libertador of the new Spain, wounded by Franco's civil war.
The hard work does not weaken. Pablo dates four oils on canvas on September 27 alone. The first three are studies for the fourth.
This Buste de Matador IV, oil on canvas 130 x 97 cm, is based on the very dynamic contrast of two complementary colors, light blue and dark orange. This painting was sold for HK $ 140M from a lower estimate of HK $ 100M by Sotheby's on April 18, 2021, lot 8005.
The final piece in this series is a portrait in an almost realistic style, without the dual perspective of the face. This 146 x 114 cm oil on canvas was sold for £ 16.5M including premium by Sotheby's on February 28, 2018.
The matador thus succeeds the mosquetero, with whom he has in common the sword, a symbol of virility and indirectly of the nostalgia of the aging artist. In addition the mosquetero had a pipe, the use of which is now forbidden to Pablo by his doctors.
The matador benefits from a bust composition, which is simpler, less crazy and ultimately much more optimistic. The mosquetero was the memory of the glorious past. The matador is the conscientious libertador of the new Spain, wounded by Franco's civil war.
The hard work does not weaken. Pablo dates four oils on canvas on September 27 alone. The first three are studies for the fourth.
This Buste de Matador IV, oil on canvas 130 x 97 cm, is based on the very dynamic contrast of two complementary colors, light blue and dark orange. This painting was sold for HK $ 140M from a lower estimate of HK $ 100M by Sotheby's on April 18, 2021, lot 8005.
The final piece in this series is a portrait in an almost realistic style, without the dual perspective of the face. This 146 x 114 cm oil on canvas was sold for £ 16.5M including premium by Sotheby's on February 28, 2018.
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 The Evaporated City
2020 SOLD for £ 10.4M including premium
Gerhard Richter redefines art, appropriating shabby photos whose meaning is important to him or more often to nobody. He thus becomes a specialist in blurred images of monumental size.
However, he does not want to lose any filiation with the great masters of the past. The clouds catch his attention. Their shape and color are constantly changing and yet they are perfectly identifiable. Through the clouds, Richter finds Friedrich, Constable and Turner.
After trials in limited dimensions and quantities in 1968 and 1969, the artist explores more systematically the clouds in 1970. For this sole year, his catalogue raisonné includes fifteen paintings on this theme, with various effects : pink, blue, green blue, atmosphere, backlight, abstract.
Within this set the opus 266 titled Wolken (Fenster) is the most ambitious, and the only one to meet one of Richter's fundamental ambitions : to simulate an architectural environment.
This quadriptych of oils on canvas of individual dimension 200 x 100 cm appears like a large fragmented window which opens onto nothing. In turn, this nothingness takes on an emotional meaning by making the visitor believe that he sees the sky at sunset from the upper floors of a skyscraper, evaporating the city. This work anticipates the fragmented pools by David Hockney by almost ten years and the panels of snow-capped mountain scenery by Cui Ruzhuo by four decades.
Wolken (Fenster) was sold for £ 6.2M including premium by Christie's on October 13, 2014 and is estimated £ 9M for sale by Sotheby's in London on July 28, lot 20.
Among the Wolken of the same group, let us quote the pink triptych opus 267 of the same dimension of elements as the 266, sold for $ 5M including premium by Christie's on May 11, 2011, and the opus 269, 170 x 170 cm, sold twice by Sotheby's, for $ 5.7M including premium on May 9, 2012 and for £ 4.1M including premium on February 10, 2015.
However, he does not want to lose any filiation with the great masters of the past. The clouds catch his attention. Their shape and color are constantly changing and yet they are perfectly identifiable. Through the clouds, Richter finds Friedrich, Constable and Turner.
After trials in limited dimensions and quantities in 1968 and 1969, the artist explores more systematically the clouds in 1970. For this sole year, his catalogue raisonné includes fifteen paintings on this theme, with various effects : pink, blue, green blue, atmosphere, backlight, abstract.
Within this set the opus 266 titled Wolken (Fenster) is the most ambitious, and the only one to meet one of Richter's fundamental ambitions : to simulate an architectural environment.
This quadriptych of oils on canvas of individual dimension 200 x 100 cm appears like a large fragmented window which opens onto nothing. In turn, this nothingness takes on an emotional meaning by making the visitor believe that he sees the sky at sunset from the upper floors of a skyscraper, evaporating the city. This work anticipates the fragmented pools by David Hockney by almost ten years and the panels of snow-capped mountain scenery by Cui Ruzhuo by four decades.
Wolken (Fenster) was sold for £ 6.2M including premium by Christie's on October 13, 2014 and is estimated £ 9M for sale by Sotheby's in London on July 28, lot 20.
Among the Wolken of the same group, let us quote the pink triptych opus 267 of the same dimension of elements as the 266, sold for $ 5M including premium by Christie's on May 11, 2011, and the opus 269, 170 x 170 cm, sold twice by Sotheby's, for $ 5.7M including premium on May 9, 2012 and for £ 4.1M including premium on February 10, 2015.
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.
