1974
1974 Triptych 1974-77 by Bacon
2008 SOLD for £ 26.3M by Christie's
From March to June 1975, the solo exhibition of recent works by Francis Bacon at the Met was the first one after the traumatizing experience at the Grand Palais when George committed suicide in their hotel room.
In the mean time Francis made four tributes to his deceased lover in the large triptych format, three oils on canvas 198 x 148 cm each, which he only used for his achieved works. One of them, in oil, pastel and Letraset, was prepared for the Met. It was dated May-June 1974.
Each panel is centered on a nude male crouching figure, ready to enter the world of the dead. The central panel is an arena peeped from its wall by two flat monochrome Big Brother heads. On both side panels the same nude is featured on an open beach under a black umbrella. The left scene has two blurred figures far away. The beaches are otherwise deserted.
Originally the middle scene had a slug like bespectacled watcher in the foreground. In 1977 the artist preferred simplifying the message and removed that frivolous figure. From then the opus is designated as Triptych 1974-77. It was sold for £ 26.3M by Christie's on February 6, 2008, lot 35.
In the mean time Francis made four tributes to his deceased lover in the large triptych format, three oils on canvas 198 x 148 cm each, which he only used for his achieved works. One of them, in oil, pastel and Letraset, was prepared for the Met. It was dated May-June 1974.
Each panel is centered on a nude male crouching figure, ready to enter the world of the dead. The central panel is an arena peeped from its wall by two flat monochrome Big Brother heads. On both side panels the same nude is featured on an open beach under a black umbrella. The left scene has two blurred figures far away. The beaches are otherwise deserted.
Originally the middle scene had a slug like bespectacled watcher in the foreground. In 1977 the artist preferred simplifying the message and removed that frivolous figure. From then the opus is designated as Triptych 1974-77. It was sold for £ 26.3M by Christie's on February 6, 2008, lot 35.
1974 Mao's Birthplace by Li Keran
2017 SOLD for RMB 178M by Poly
Around 1964 the art of Li Keran is an exalted praise of Maoism. Troops of the Revolution cross the steep mountains of the Long March to reach the unlimited tranquility of the hills. There is no possible misinterpretation : a poem by Mao accompanies each image and the mountains are bright red.
Yet two years later the denunciation of outdated old customs is implacable : the Cultural Revolution does not spare Li Keran. Released after six years, he may resume his brushes provided he complies with the requirements of official art, including monumental paintings of high places of Maoism for official buildings and for diplomatic gifts.
In 1974 Li Keran painted a view of Mao's birthplace, a farmhouse in the Hunan hills where the Red Guards practiced pilgrimages far away from cities and conflicts to immerse themselves within the thought of the Great Helmsman long before the current craze for red tourism.
The farmhouse is shown in a photographic realism. The composition of the landscape in full format is decidedly modern but small groups with various occupations meet the tradition of Chinese handscroll imaging. Nearly one hundred characters in green uniform constitute these groups, approaching or moving away, sitting on the ground around a teacher or posing for a photo. Red flags are everywhere. As if the poem was not enough to applaud the modern mood of the regime, two electric pylons are standing in the distant countryside.
This ink and colors 142 x 243 cm was sold for RMB 124M including premium by China Guardian on May 12, 2012. It is now for sale by Poly in Beijing on December 17, lot 2661. It is illustrated in the 2017 post sale release by The Value.
Yet two years later the denunciation of outdated old customs is implacable : the Cultural Revolution does not spare Li Keran. Released after six years, he may resume his brushes provided he complies with the requirements of official art, including monumental paintings of high places of Maoism for official buildings and for diplomatic gifts.
In 1974 Li Keran painted a view of Mao's birthplace, a farmhouse in the Hunan hills where the Red Guards practiced pilgrimages far away from cities and conflicts to immerse themselves within the thought of the Great Helmsman long before the current craze for red tourism.
The farmhouse is shown in a photographic realism. The composition of the landscape in full format is decidedly modern but small groups with various occupations meet the tradition of Chinese handscroll imaging. Nearly one hundred characters in green uniform constitute these groups, approaching or moving away, sitting on the ground around a teacher or posing for a photo. Red flags are everywhere. As if the poem was not enough to applaud the modern mood of the regime, two electric pylons are standing in the distant countryside.
This ink and colors 142 x 243 cm was sold for RMB 124M including premium by China Guardian on May 12, 2012. It is now for sale by Poly in Beijing on December 17, lot 2661. It is illustrated in the 2017 post sale release by The Value.
1974 Three Studies for Self Portrait by Bacon
2011 SOLD for $ 25.3M by Christie's
Since his beginnings in 1944, Francis Bacon emphasizes the triptych, enabling him to express in a single work the variants of incommunicability. In the life size head portrait format, these oils on canvas, designated as Studies by the artist, have a unique individual dimension, 35 x 30 cm. An early example is the 1964 portrait of Lucian Freud sold for £ 23M by Sotheby's in 2011.
After George's death, Francis Bacon wanders, psychologically and physically. His London friends are also aging, and he is looking for new acquaintances in the intellectual circles of Paris. John Deakin had died in 1972 and he is no more supplied with photographs of their Soho friends. He looks in his mirror for lack of a better source of inspiration. Over the years, he sees therein a kind of portrait of Dorian Gray : the true image of himself.
Morbid, disgusted, ever looking for the meaning of life, watching death at work in his own mirror, the artist comes again to one of his preferred subjects : himself. The distortion of the face lines and the violence of the colors do not remove the likeness of these self-portraits, but with the nose of an old alcoholic.
Taking as a model some images made in a photo boost, the artist manages through such triple pictures a motion reminiscent of Muybridge and also a sort of sequence of police shots and possibly the illusion of a tridimensional effect.
Made in 1974, the face of Bacon in triptych sold for $ 25.3M by Christie's on May 11, 2011, lot 36, has a revealing feature : he cannot look at himself because his eyes are shut.
After George's death, Francis Bacon wanders, psychologically and physically. His London friends are also aging, and he is looking for new acquaintances in the intellectual circles of Paris. John Deakin had died in 1972 and he is no more supplied with photographs of their Soho friends. He looks in his mirror for lack of a better source of inspiration. Over the years, he sees therein a kind of portrait of Dorian Gray : the true image of himself.
Morbid, disgusted, ever looking for the meaning of life, watching death at work in his own mirror, the artist comes again to one of his preferred subjects : himself. The distortion of the face lines and the violence of the colors do not remove the likeness of these self-portraits, but with the nose of an old alcoholic.
Taking as a model some images made in a photo boost, the artist manages through such triple pictures a motion reminiscent of Muybridge and also a sort of sequence of police shots and possibly the illusion of a tridimensional effect.
Made in 1974, the face of Bacon in triptych sold for $ 25.3M by Christie's on May 11, 2011, lot 36, has a revealing feature : he cannot look at himself because his eyes are shut.
1974 # 44 by Agnes Martin
2021 SOLD for $ 17.7M by Sotheby's
Agnes Martin expressed and disclosed in her art the perfect tranquility of nature. She shared with her audience her deep impregnation within Zen and Taoism. To achieve such a level of spirituality, her painting is devoid of form, space and time.
In the opposite, her life is a poignant fleeing from madness. She is subject to auditory hallucinations and catatonic trances and a paranoid schizophrenia has been diagnosed. In the big city, she forgets who and where she is, accepts exhibitions but rejects fame and catalogs. She once said that she is not a woman. It seems that her illness was aggravated by a frustrated homosexuality that she never confessed.
She decides in 1967 to go to the West. In her case, it is the best therapy. She lives alone without being actually isolated but refuses any help. In her wanderings in the desert she builds her own shelter huts. Old age will help Agnes to retrieve some social life but she deliberately ignores some usual aspects of it. She had never read a newspaper again.
She restarted painting in Taos in 1974. From then her penciled lattices are replaced by bands of pale color. The artist's personal touch in the painting is maintained by her hand guided by a mere straight edge without a masking tape.
Untitled # 44, acrylic and pencil on canvas 183 x 183 cm painted in 1974, was sold for $ 17.7M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 6. It is a highly rare example with a vertical central ivory line that may reminds the structural zips of Barnett Newman. The parallel bands are painted in pale blue and crimson lined with ivory that bring an exceptional luminescence.
In the spirit of Rothko the 72 x 72 inch monumental format was selected so that the viewer can enter into the art work.
In the opposite, her life is a poignant fleeing from madness. She is subject to auditory hallucinations and catatonic trances and a paranoid schizophrenia has been diagnosed. In the big city, she forgets who and where she is, accepts exhibitions but rejects fame and catalogs. She once said that she is not a woman. It seems that her illness was aggravated by a frustrated homosexuality that she never confessed.
She decides in 1967 to go to the West. In her case, it is the best therapy. She lives alone without being actually isolated but refuses any help. In her wanderings in the desert she builds her own shelter huts. Old age will help Agnes to retrieve some social life but she deliberately ignores some usual aspects of it. She had never read a newspaper again.
She restarted painting in Taos in 1974. From then her penciled lattices are replaced by bands of pale color. The artist's personal touch in the painting is maintained by her hand guided by a mere straight edge without a masking tape.
Untitled # 44, acrylic and pencil on canvas 183 x 183 cm painted in 1974, was sold for $ 17.7M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 6. It is a highly rare example with a vertical central ivory line that may reminds the structural zips of Barnett Newman. The parallel bands are painted in pale blue and crimson lined with ivory that bring an exceptional luminescence.
In the spirit of Rothko the 72 x 72 inch monumental format was selected so that the viewer can enter into the art work.
1974 Lotus by Wu Guanzhong
2019 SOLD for HK$ 130M by Sotheby's
sold for HK $ 130M from a lower estimate of HK $ 15M by Sotheby's on March 31, 2019, lot 1018.
1974 Elegy for the Spanish Republic by Motherwell
2019 SOLD for $ 10.3M by Sotheby's
On May 16 in New York, Sotheby's sells two opus from the Spanish elegy by Robert Motherwell.
The lot 35 estimated $ 9M, typical of an obstructed hope, is the Elegy for the Spanish Republic No. 134, acrylic and charcoal on canvas 245 x 305 cm painted in 1974. Dated 1976 but probably completed in 1979, the Elegy Study No. XIII, 61 x 122 cm, lets freedom flowing through the right edge. It is estimated $ 1.5M, lot 14.
RESULTS including premium :
Lot 35 SOLD for $ 10.3M
Lot 14 SOLD for $ 2.9M
The lot 35 estimated $ 9M, typical of an obstructed hope, is the Elegy for the Spanish Republic No. 134, acrylic and charcoal on canvas 245 x 305 cm painted in 1974. Dated 1976 but probably completed in 1979, the Elegy Study No. XIII, 61 x 122 cm, lets freedom flowing through the right edge. It is estimated $ 1.5M, lot 14.
RESULTS including premium :
Lot 35 SOLD for $ 10.3M
Lot 14 SOLD for $ 2.9M
1974 Farbtafel by Richter
2018 SOLD for £ 7.4M by Sotheby's
In 1966 Gerhard Richter is occupied with the anti-art. For the figurative he copies his blurry photos. This is not enough for his pictorial revolution : he now manages to attack also the abstract art.
To free the abstraction of all emotion he imitates the color charts of the industrial paint brands, without any fancy in the geometric composition. The carefully aligned rectangles are separated by a narrow white grid.
He begins the year 1973 with gray monochromes and then tries real abstract dialogues between red, yellow and blue. At the turn of 1974 he devotes himself again to his Farbtafeln in lacquer on canvas in which he often removes the white stripes for a mosaic juxtaposition.
The opus 357-2 painted in 1974, 121 x 124 cm with 1,025 separated colors was sold for $ 4.1M including premium by Sotheby's on May 14, 2008. It is estimated £ 5M for sale by Sotheby's in London on March 7, lot 8.
The Farbtafel 359 painted in 1974 by Richter is the most complex and the final of this series with 254 x 254 cm and 4,096 colors. It was sold for $ 3.7M by Christie's on May 11, 2004. The other extreme is the opus 353-1 20 x 20 cm with 4 colors which is also the first without the separating grid.
The culmination is nevertheless achieved in 2007 with the opus 901, 196 lacquered aluminum panels of 25 squares each that form when they are all assembled together a square of 680 x 680 cm and 4900 colors in an interesting example of art adjustable by the user.
To free the abstraction of all emotion he imitates the color charts of the industrial paint brands, without any fancy in the geometric composition. The carefully aligned rectangles are separated by a narrow white grid.
He begins the year 1973 with gray monochromes and then tries real abstract dialogues between red, yellow and blue. At the turn of 1974 he devotes himself again to his Farbtafeln in lacquer on canvas in which he often removes the white stripes for a mosaic juxtaposition.
The opus 357-2 painted in 1974, 121 x 124 cm with 1,025 separated colors was sold for $ 4.1M including premium by Sotheby's on May 14, 2008. It is estimated £ 5M for sale by Sotheby's in London on March 7, lot 8.
The Farbtafel 359 painted in 1974 by Richter is the most complex and the final of this series with 254 x 254 cm and 4,096 colors. It was sold for $ 3.7M by Christie's on May 11, 2004. The other extreme is the opus 353-1 20 x 20 cm with 4 colors which is also the first without the separating grid.
The culmination is nevertheless achieved in 2007 with the opus 901, 196 lacquered aluminum panels of 25 squares each that form when they are all assembled together a square of 680 x 680 cm and 4900 colors in an interesting example of art adjustable by the user.
1974 Gala by Riley
2022 SOLD for £ 4.4M by Christie's
Influenced by pointillism and by Vasarely, Bridget Riley initially specialized in visual illusions in black and white. In the 1970s, she added color.
Inspecting the unlimited pattern on the large size image provides a mesmerizing illusion of instability of which it is hard to part.
Gala is an acrylic on canvas 160 x 160 cm painted in 1974. The sinuous lines are tight and equidistant, except against oblique stripes were they tighten even more. We see unstoppable rolling waves or a corrugated iron. The colors look mingled : the simple red, blue and green lines create an additional sensation of orange and pink.
It was sold for £ 4.4M from a lower estimate of £ 2.5M by Christie's on March 22, 2022, lot 10.
Inspecting the unlimited pattern on the large size image provides a mesmerizing illusion of instability of which it is hard to part.
Gala is an acrylic on canvas 160 x 160 cm painted in 1974. The sinuous lines are tight and equidistant, except against oblique stripes were they tighten even more. We see unstoppable rolling waves or a corrugated iron. The colors look mingled : the simple red, blue and green lines create an additional sensation of orange and pink.
It was sold for £ 4.4M from a lower estimate of £ 2.5M by Christie's on March 22, 2022, lot 10.
1974 Large Torso by de Kooning
2009 SOLD for $ 5.7M by Sotheby's
Made from a clay model and cast in 1974, two years after Clamdigger, the Large Torso taking the form of a sculpture from the Renaissance is an exception in the art of de Kooning. Nevertheless the details are abstract. For this artwork, the artist used gloves for a bolder 'action' gesture. Its size is 86 x 82 x 64 cm.
The bronze 6/7 cast by the Modern Art Foundry New York was sold for $ 5.7M from a lower estimate of $ 4M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2009, lot 14.
The bronze 6/7 cast by the Modern Art Foundry New York was sold for $ 5.7M from a lower estimate of $ 4M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2009, lot 14.
1974 Circe by Frankenthaler
2022 SOLD for $ 4.8M by Sotheby's
With her monumental color fields applied with soak paint, Helen Frankenthaler went further than the abstract expressionism. Displaying the joyful colors of nature in abstract form, she may be compared with Joan Mitchell. Her use of non-contrasted color tones is nevertheless in the opposite of Mitchell's striking colors.
Circe is a natural inspiration for Frankenthaler : a daughter of sun and ocean, the Greek goddess uses her feminine energy to command the elements.
Circe, acrylic on canvas 156 x 244 cm painted in 1974, was sold for $ 4.8M from a lower estimate of $ 2.5M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2022, lot 103. The overall composition is reminiscent of Zao Wou-Ki's abstract landscapes of the 1960s. Aquatic veils of cobalt and cerulean blue are balanced by earthy ochre and purple, so that the viewer cannot decide between ocean and desert.
Circe is a natural inspiration for Frankenthaler : a daughter of sun and ocean, the Greek goddess uses her feminine energy to command the elements.
Circe, acrylic on canvas 156 x 244 cm painted in 1974, was sold for $ 4.8M from a lower estimate of $ 2.5M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2022, lot 103. The overall composition is reminiscent of Zao Wou-Ki's abstract landscapes of the 1960s. Aquatic veils of cobalt and cerulean blue are balanced by earthy ochre and purple, so that the viewer cannot decide between ocean and desert.
1974 Henri's Armchair by Whiteley
2020 SOLD for A$ 6.25M by Menzies
Through the window of his studio in Sydney, Brett Whiteley has a view over Lavender Bay. The sea is blue, like Matisse's Méditerranée.
The modernist vision of Matisse had changed art, now differentiated from aesthetics. He wrote in 1908 :
« Ce que je rêve, c'est un art d'équilibre, de pureté, de tranquillité, sans sujet inquiétant ou préoccupant, qui soit, pour tout travailleur cérébral, pour l'homme d'affaires aussi bien que pour l'artiste des lettres, par exemple, un lénifiant, un calmant cérébral, quelque chose d'analogue à un bon fauteuil qui délasse de ses fatigues physiques. »
“My dream is for an art of balance, purity, tranquility, without worrying or depressing subject, which is, for any brain worker, for the businessman as well as for the literary artist, for example, a soothing, a cerebral calming, something analogous to a good armchair which relaxes from physical fatigue."
L'Atelier Rouge is a direct application of this promising theory. Exhibited at MoMA, this monumental oil on canvas 180 x 220 cm painted in 1911 considerably influenced Rothko in 1952.
In 1974 Whiteley paints in Matisse's way a view of his own studio home, with humor and subtlety. His oil, ink and charcoal on canvas 195 x 300 cm titled Henri's Armchair is an anthology of Matisse's themes and styles : the blue sea, the nude drawing, the disorder of the wall hangings, the bouquet on the table, the Cézannian deletion of perspective. He innovates by adding a television set to the illusion of windows and mirrors and by displaying in the foreground Wendy's bare legs by the fireside.
Henri's Armchair is estimated A $ 5M for sale by Menzies in Sydney on November 26, lot 1. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The modernist vision of Matisse had changed art, now differentiated from aesthetics. He wrote in 1908 :
« Ce que je rêve, c'est un art d'équilibre, de pureté, de tranquillité, sans sujet inquiétant ou préoccupant, qui soit, pour tout travailleur cérébral, pour l'homme d'affaires aussi bien que pour l'artiste des lettres, par exemple, un lénifiant, un calmant cérébral, quelque chose d'analogue à un bon fauteuil qui délasse de ses fatigues physiques. »
“My dream is for an art of balance, purity, tranquility, without worrying or depressing subject, which is, for any brain worker, for the businessman as well as for the literary artist, for example, a soothing, a cerebral calming, something analogous to a good armchair which relaxes from physical fatigue."
L'Atelier Rouge is a direct application of this promising theory. Exhibited at MoMA, this monumental oil on canvas 180 x 220 cm painted in 1911 considerably influenced Rothko in 1952.
In 1974 Whiteley paints in Matisse's way a view of his own studio home, with humor and subtlety. His oil, ink and charcoal on canvas 195 x 300 cm titled Henri's Armchair is an anthology of Matisse's themes and styles : the blue sea, the nude drawing, the disorder of the wall hangings, the bouquet on the table, the Cézannian deletion of perspective. He innovates by adding a television set to the illusion of windows and mirrors and by displaying in the foreground Wendy's bare legs by the fireside.
Henri's Armchair is estimated A $ 5M for sale by Menzies in Sydney on November 26, lot 1. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1974 Gaitonde
2020 SOLD for INR 32 crores before fees (worth US $ 4.4M) by Pundole's
Vasudev S. Gaitonde seeks to express through a pictorial work the relationship between mind and world. He finds inspiration in Zen.
For more than three decades, his format was invariably vertical. The bottom-up perception is like a prayer. The technique also varies little. The successive addition of layers of transparent paint has as a final objective the best possible relationship between pigment and light, with a subtlety that cannot be reproduced by photography.
Gaitonde's works are not monochrome, because they are compartmentalized into zones of slightly different shades. This texture, as well as the outline and density of the slightly biomorphic floating forms, varies over time. For Gaitonde, each opus is unique, separated from the previous one by a long meditation. This false figuration marks the variable part of the corpus of this one-of-a-kind artist.
Around 1974 the image is divided into several adjacent horizontal bands of similar height. To better share meditation, the floating forms are less and less contrasted.
On September 3, 2020 in Mumbai, Pundole's sold at lot 11 for INR 32 crore before fees, worth US $ 4.4M, a 153 x 102 cm oil on canvas painted in 1974, from a lower estimate of INR 15 crore.
Another oil on canvas from same format and year divides in five horizontal stripes a population of abstract flowing forms of various rounded shapes, each of them embedding a few color filled geometric elements. It was sold for INR 15.6 crores by Christie's on December 18, 2016, lot 151.
For more than three decades, his format was invariably vertical. The bottom-up perception is like a prayer. The technique also varies little. The successive addition of layers of transparent paint has as a final objective the best possible relationship between pigment and light, with a subtlety that cannot be reproduced by photography.
Gaitonde's works are not monochrome, because they are compartmentalized into zones of slightly different shades. This texture, as well as the outline and density of the slightly biomorphic floating forms, varies over time. For Gaitonde, each opus is unique, separated from the previous one by a long meditation. This false figuration marks the variable part of the corpus of this one-of-a-kind artist.
Around 1974 the image is divided into several adjacent horizontal bands of similar height. To better share meditation, the floating forms are less and less contrasted.
On September 3, 2020 in Mumbai, Pundole's sold at lot 11 for INR 32 crore before fees, worth US $ 4.4M, a 153 x 102 cm oil on canvas painted in 1974, from a lower estimate of INR 15 crore.
Another oil on canvas from same format and year divides in five horizontal stripes a population of abstract flowing forms of various rounded shapes, each of them embedding a few color filled geometric elements. It was sold for INR 15.6 crores by Christie's on December 18, 2016, lot 151.
