1975
1975 De Kooning returns to Painting
2013 SOLD 25 M$ including premium
Rothko had died in 1970 and Pollock for much longer. The expression of emotions through the distribution of colors could appear to be an art from the past.
Willem de Kooning had stopped painting to try sculpture. In 1975, aged 71, this pioneer of modern art operates a dramatic turnaround that restarts the abstract art.
The colors are bright, pure, explosive and even enthusiastic. Forms are only used for ensuring the dynamic balance. Biomorphic evocations if any are no longer decipherable. The color has its own language without going into the structured rectangles of Rothko.
On November 13 in New York, Sotheby 's sells Untitled V, 178 x 203 cm, one of the first works of this revival of 1975. This is one of the largest in the series and one of the most attractive in its successful balance between colors and whites.
The feat of this aging artist was to open a new path while continuing to profess that a genuine art should not be attributed to a school or a style. His Untitled from the late 1970s anticipate the Abstraktes Bild of Richter.
Untitled V is estimated $ 25M, lot 30.
POST SALE COMMENT
This abstract composition with beautiful colors was sold for $ 25M including premium.
Willem de Kooning had stopped painting to try sculpture. In 1975, aged 71, this pioneer of modern art operates a dramatic turnaround that restarts the abstract art.
The colors are bright, pure, explosive and even enthusiastic. Forms are only used for ensuring the dynamic balance. Biomorphic evocations if any are no longer decipherable. The color has its own language without going into the structured rectangles of Rothko.
On November 13 in New York, Sotheby 's sells Untitled V, 178 x 203 cm, one of the first works of this revival of 1975. This is one of the largest in the series and one of the most attractive in its successful balance between colors and whites.
The feat of this aging artist was to open a new path while continuing to profess that a genuine art should not be attributed to a school or a style. His Untitled from the late 1970s anticipate the Abstraktes Bild of Richter.
Untitled V is estimated $ 25M, lot 30.
POST SALE COMMENT
This abstract composition with beautiful colors was sold for $ 25M including premium.
1975 Three Studies for Self Portrait by Bacon
2008 SOLD for £ 17.3M including premium by Christie's
Link to catalogue.
1975 Self Portrait in the Rain
2019 SOLD for £ 16.5M including premium
The art of Francis Bacon first expressed his difficult psychological relationship with a questionable world. In an early phase, he looks at the decrepitude of his contemporaries, personified by the pope. Death is treated by everyone as a lie, with the exception of the image of the old woman in Eisenstein's movie.
After such a beginning, the artist does not have the right to get old. Francis takes care of his physical appearance but the ravages of time are inevitable. The sordid suicide of George Dyer in 1971 stops the aging of a young man, leaving Francis with his doubts and anxieties about how to manage his own life.
For five or six years, 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.
A self-portrait painted in 1975 was sold for £ 15.3M including premium by Sotheby's in London on July 1, 2015. It is listed in the same auction room on June 26, lot 9 estimated £ 15M. This oil on canvas is in 35 x 30 cm format, very often used by the artist because head studies can be in life size.
As it is often the case with Bacon, the colors are subtle, mixing green, purple and pink on a very dark heavily applied blue-purple background. Only the skin is a little shiny, to be correlated with the fact that the man is wearing a raincoat.
In this particularly gloomy atmosphere, the eye is too big, especially since it draws attention to the blank or meditative gaze. The mackintosh is tainted with unreadable residues of Letraset, considered by zealous commentators as a reference to Parisian writers, but perhaps nothing more than an original way of simulating rain.
After such a beginning, the artist does not have the right to get old. Francis takes care of his physical appearance but the ravages of time are inevitable. The sordid suicide of George Dyer in 1971 stops the aging of a young man, leaving Francis with his doubts and anxieties about how to manage his own life.
For five or six years, 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.
A self-portrait painted in 1975 was sold for £ 15.3M including premium by Sotheby's in London on July 1, 2015. It is listed in the same auction room on June 26, lot 9 estimated £ 15M. This oil on canvas is in 35 x 30 cm format, very often used by the artist because head studies can be in life size.
As it is often the case with Bacon, the colors are subtle, mixing green, purple and pink on a very dark heavily applied blue-purple background. Only the skin is a little shiny, to be correlated with the fact that the man is wearing a raincoat.
In this particularly gloomy atmosphere, the eye is too big, especially since it draws attention to the blank or meditative gaze. The mackintosh is tainted with unreadable residues of Letraset, considered by zealous commentators as a reference to Parisian writers, but perhaps nothing more than an original way of simulating rain.
1975 The Hibiscus in the Garden of Wu Guanzhong
2015 SOLD for RMB 69M including premium
Allowed at the end of the Maoist period to resume his artistic activities in Beijing, Wu Guanzhong feels a deep sense of joy and freedom. He uses the symbol of the abundant flowering of spring, perfectly expressed by the subtle colors of oil painting on canvas.
A plum tree in full bloom painted in 1973, 90 x 70 cm, was sold for HK $ 67M including premium by Sotheby's on April 4, 2015.
In that phase of restart, the art of Wu now offers a very wide diversity. Yet in 1975 when he observes the blossoming hibiscus in front of his small garden, he reuses a composition similar as for the plum tree. The tree occupies almost the entire surface of the image, but now the house is visible in the background. A magpie perched on the roof edge certainly translates his retrieved freedom.
This simple and beautiful shrub provides to the painter the depth of thought of a philosopher. He loves flowers but did not plant this tree that has grown to be higher than the roof of his house. A few years later, the tree was gone but the art remains.
The Hibiscus by Wu, 120 x 80 cm, was sold for RMB 63M by Poly in Beijing on June 3, 2011. It comes back by the same auction house in the same city on June 3, lot 4006. The history of this painting in the new catalog does not refer to the 2011 auction but the descriptions and images are perfectly consistent.
A plum tree in full bloom painted in 1973, 90 x 70 cm, was sold for HK $ 67M including premium by Sotheby's on April 4, 2015.
In that phase of restart, the art of Wu now offers a very wide diversity. Yet in 1975 when he observes the blossoming hibiscus in front of his small garden, he reuses a composition similar as for the plum tree. The tree occupies almost the entire surface of the image, but now the house is visible in the background. A magpie perched on the roof edge certainly translates his retrieved freedom.
This simple and beautiful shrub provides to the painter the depth of thought of a philosopher. He loves flowers but did not plant this tree that has grown to be higher than the roof of his house. A few years later, the tree was gone but the art remains.
The Hibiscus by Wu, 120 x 80 cm, was sold for RMB 63M by Poly in Beijing on June 3, 2011. It comes back by the same auction house in the same city on June 3, lot 4006. The history of this painting in the new catalog does not refer to the 2011 auction but the descriptions and images are perfectly consistent.
1975 Open Window at Santa Monica
2014 SOLD for $ 9.7M including premium
The theme of the open window is popular with landscape painters as an access to the vastness of the world. In 1914, in two experimental works that remained unpublished during his lifetime, Matisse keeps the window and gums or forgets the landscape.
In 1965, Richard Diebenkorn is dazzled by the significance of these two Matisse works, the Window at Collioure and the View of Notre-Dame. He began in 1967 his Ocean Park series from the name of the district of Santa Monica where he just opened his studio.
The frame of the window in the Ocean Parks is always partial, opening a way to infinity as Mondrian had done. It is also an excuse for manufactured colors that contrast with the transparency of the light of Southern California which is the main theme of the abstract vision of the artist.
Ocean Park # 48, 274 x 208 cm, painted in 1971, was sold for $ 13.5 million including premium at Christie's on November 14, 2012.
The sale of the Mellon collection at Sotheby's in New York on November 10 includes three major oil paintings from this series.
Ocean Park # 50, 236 x 206 cm, dated 1972, is estimated $ 7M, lot 23. Ocean Park # 61, in same size, dated 1973, is estimated $ 8M,lot 18. Ocean Park # 89, 206 x 206 cm, dated 1975 is estimated $ 8M, lot 11. That latter work includes an effect of cracked glass window.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM :
Ocean Park # 50 (1972) : $ 8.2M
Ocean Park # 61 (1973) : $ 6.8M
Ocean Park # 89 (1975) : $ 9.7M
In 1965, Richard Diebenkorn is dazzled by the significance of these two Matisse works, the Window at Collioure and the View of Notre-Dame. He began in 1967 his Ocean Park series from the name of the district of Santa Monica where he just opened his studio.
The frame of the window in the Ocean Parks is always partial, opening a way to infinity as Mondrian had done. It is also an excuse for manufactured colors that contrast with the transparency of the light of Southern California which is the main theme of the abstract vision of the artist.
Ocean Park # 48, 274 x 208 cm, painted in 1971, was sold for $ 13.5 million including premium at Christie's on November 14, 2012.
The sale of the Mellon collection at Sotheby's in New York on November 10 includes three major oil paintings from this series.
Ocean Park # 50, 236 x 206 cm, dated 1972, is estimated $ 7M, lot 23. Ocean Park # 61, in same size, dated 1973, is estimated $ 8M,lot 18. Ocean Park # 89, 206 x 206 cm, dated 1975 is estimated $ 8M, lot 11. That latter work includes an effect of cracked glass window.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM :
Ocean Park # 50 (1972) : $ 8.2M
Ocean Park # 61 (1973) : $ 6.8M
Ocean Park # 89 (1975) : $ 9.7M
1975 Out of Sight from the Dwarf
2016 SOLD for £ 5.5M including premium
Art is artificial as far as it is not an interpretation of death. The despairs of Picasso after the suicide of Casagemas and of Bacon after the suicide of Dyer are similar. Both have questioned the meaning of life through the use of their most private creativity. Time has passed and they have been healed.
George died in 1971 in the hotel room at the time of the great Parisian consecration of Francis, the opening of the exhibition at the Grand Palais. In the five following years Francis will use all the resources of his art to break free from his suffering and his guilt.
A painting made in 1975 includes many elements of the artistic language of Francis. Two naked wrestlers mingle their bodies in a suspended showcase. They lost their individuality and have only one head that is altogether a portrait of George and a self-portrait by Francis.
Their struggle is a sporting event. George was a strong man who reminded to Francis the male muscular figures by Michelangelo. Their dynamic movement with the dual head on the floor of the cage is inspired by the gymnasts photographed by Muybridge. Francis himself revealed these sources of his inspiration.
Their life is ridiculously staged, as for Barnum. In the right side of the composition, the observer is an old headed dwarf perched on a bar stool.
Francis presents this artwork to the young Michael Peppiatt who is already his confidant and will soon be his biographer. Voyeurism now hinders the intimate message of the artist who gets the painting back to cut it in two parts before returning to Peppiatt the left side released from the dwarf. Titled Two figures, this oil on canvas now in the format unusual for the artist of 198 x 70 cm is estimated £ 5M for sale by Christie's in London on February 11, lot 25.
Peppiatt knew Bacon since 1963 and understood the difficulties in the relationship of Francis and George. He kept Two figures so far and is a sensational witness to the genesis of this artwork which he explains in the attached video. Do not miss also in the catalog page of the sale (lot 25 linked above) the transcript of his interview with Francis Outred of Christie's
George died in 1971 in the hotel room at the time of the great Parisian consecration of Francis, the opening of the exhibition at the Grand Palais. In the five following years Francis will use all the resources of his art to break free from his suffering and his guilt.
A painting made in 1975 includes many elements of the artistic language of Francis. Two naked wrestlers mingle their bodies in a suspended showcase. They lost their individuality and have only one head that is altogether a portrait of George and a self-portrait by Francis.
Their struggle is a sporting event. George was a strong man who reminded to Francis the male muscular figures by Michelangelo. Their dynamic movement with the dual head on the floor of the cage is inspired by the gymnasts photographed by Muybridge. Francis himself revealed these sources of his inspiration.
Their life is ridiculously staged, as for Barnum. In the right side of the composition, the observer is an old headed dwarf perched on a bar stool.
Francis presents this artwork to the young Michael Peppiatt who is already his confidant and will soon be his biographer. Voyeurism now hinders the intimate message of the artist who gets the painting back to cut it in two parts before returning to Peppiatt the left side released from the dwarf. Titled Two figures, this oil on canvas now in the format unusual for the artist of 198 x 70 cm is estimated £ 5M for sale by Christie's in London on February 11, lot 25.
Peppiatt knew Bacon since 1963 and understood the difficulties in the relationship of Francis and George. He kept Two figures so far and is a sensational witness to the genesis of this artwork which he explains in the attached video. Do not miss also in the catalog page of the sale (lot 25 linked above) the transcript of his interview with Francis Outred of Christie's
1975 Back to the Futurism
2019 SOLD for £ 5M including premium
In 1961 Look Mickey abolished all prior definitions of art, highlighting the recuperation and abolishing the differentiation between the popular image and the art in museums and galleries. As early as 1962 Roy Lichtenstein adds to his repertoire some reinterpretations of Picasso's Cubist women.
Roy has become a great artist, since everyone tells him so. In 1969, at the age of 46, he has a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum. All the greatest artists including Picasso wanted to take reference on their most famous predecessors. Roy does not lack wit : he will do the same. In 1972 he begins to paint still lifes.
In 1974 he retrieves the decomposition of movements by the Italian Futurists. Imitating an artwork created in 1913 by Carlo Carra, The Red horseman is a galloping horse with eight legs and two heads, mounted by a four-headed jockey in action.
On June 27 in London, Phillips sells The Conductor, oil and acrylic 188 x 137 cm painted by Roy Lichtenstein in 1975, lot 10 estimated £ 4M. This work is a very free adaptation of the movement of a ballerina painted in 1914 by Gino Severini and belonging to the Peggy Guggenheim collection.
Roy was certainly interested in the fact that Severini was supposedly inspired by Seurat's Le Chahut painted in 1889-1890, showing the alignment of the legs of four French cancan dancers. He thus creates a relationship between post-Impressionist pointillism and his signature reproduction of Ben-Day dots, used in particular in The Conductor.
Roy continues to stroll in the history of art. In 1975 the purism of Le Corbusier and Ozenfant allows him to integrate into his art small objects of everyday life such as bottles or dice.
Roy has become a great artist, since everyone tells him so. In 1969, at the age of 46, he has a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum. All the greatest artists including Picasso wanted to take reference on their most famous predecessors. Roy does not lack wit : he will do the same. In 1972 he begins to paint still lifes.
In 1974 he retrieves the decomposition of movements by the Italian Futurists. Imitating an artwork created in 1913 by Carlo Carra, The Red horseman is a galloping horse with eight legs and two heads, mounted by a four-headed jockey in action.
On June 27 in London, Phillips sells The Conductor, oil and acrylic 188 x 137 cm painted by Roy Lichtenstein in 1975, lot 10 estimated £ 4M. This work is a very free adaptation of the movement of a ballerina painted in 1914 by Gino Severini and belonging to the Peggy Guggenheim collection.
Roy was certainly interested in the fact that Severini was supposedly inspired by Seurat's Le Chahut painted in 1889-1890, showing the alignment of the legs of four French cancan dancers. He thus creates a relationship between post-Impressionist pointillism and his signature reproduction of Ben-Day dots, used in particular in The Conductor.
Roy continues to stroll in the history of art. In 1975 the purism of Le Corbusier and Ozenfant allows him to integrate into his art small objects of everyday life such as bottles or dice.
1975 Niki Lauda in the Scuderia
2019 SOLD for $ 6M including premium
Despite his sensational success in the production of sports cars, the track remains the main goal of Enzo Ferrari. However, after the victory of John Surtees in 1964, the Formula One world championships of constructors and drivers escape sustainably his Scuderia.
Reasons for these issues were varied : funding difficulties, poor selection of some drivers, difficulty in developing a competing engine against the Ford Cosworth. In 1969 40% of Ferrari was sold to the FIAT group.
Agnelli is impatient. In 1973 he forces Enzo Ferrari to share his decisions with a young manager, Luca di Montezemolo, who cancels some blunders. Mauro Forghieri returns to his position as technical director. Back in the Scuderia, Clay Regazzoni makes Niki Lauda hired in 1974.
Forghieri had designed the Ferrari 312B in 1971. In 1975 its evolution 312T finally gives the supremacy to the Scuderia, thanks to a transversal gear box which improves the distribution of the masses. The two 312Ts driven in that year by Lauda and Regazzoni in the Grand Prix cumulate pole positions and wins. Ferrari and Lauda are world champions. Three other cars had been built.
Like many models of that period, the 312T is ephemeral. Obsolete in 1976 after a change in the rules for prohibiting the spectacular air box behind the cockpit, it is replaced by the 312T2.
On August 16 at Pebble Beach, Gooding sells a 312T raced by Lauda in 1975. It began its career by winning the Silverstone Trophy, which is not counted in the world championship. Qualified five times in pole position in the Grand Prix of the championship, it won in France.
This car is estimated $ 6M, lot 031. Here is the link to the press release. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Reasons for these issues were varied : funding difficulties, poor selection of some drivers, difficulty in developing a competing engine against the Ford Cosworth. In 1969 40% of Ferrari was sold to the FIAT group.
Agnelli is impatient. In 1973 he forces Enzo Ferrari to share his decisions with a young manager, Luca di Montezemolo, who cancels some blunders. Mauro Forghieri returns to his position as technical director. Back in the Scuderia, Clay Regazzoni makes Niki Lauda hired in 1974.
Forghieri had designed the Ferrari 312B in 1971. In 1975 its evolution 312T finally gives the supremacy to the Scuderia, thanks to a transversal gear box which improves the distribution of the masses. The two 312Ts driven in that year by Lauda and Regazzoni in the Grand Prix cumulate pole positions and wins. Ferrari and Lauda are world champions. Three other cars had been built.
Like many models of that period, the 312T is ephemeral. Obsolete in 1976 after a change in the rules for prohibiting the spectacular air box behind the cockpit, it is replaced by the 312T2.
On August 16 at Pebble Beach, Gooding sells a 312T raced by Lauda in 1975. It began its career by winning the Silverstone Trophy, which is not counted in the world championship. Qualified five times in pole position in the Grand Prix of the championship, it won in France.
This car is estimated $ 6M, lot 031. Here is the link to the press release. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1975 The Clouds of Kilimanjaro
2017 SOLD for RMB 32M including premium
On June 2, 2010 in Beijing, Poly Auction devoted a sale session to the evolution of the landscape in the art of Wu Guanzhong spanning 1975 to 1994.
During these twenty years of great creativity of the artist, the drawing is at first realistic, based on a bold setting and on bright colors. Over time a growing interest in composition and geometry leads Wu up to the abstract landscape. The best result from that group, RMB 28M including premium, was recorded on an ink on paper 124 x 124 cm made in 1990 on the theme of the Grand Canyon in America.
I had chosen in 2010 to discuss the earliest artwork, Mount Kilimanjaro, an oil on canvas 100 x 180 cm painted in 1975, which fetched RMB 20M including premium. It is for sale by the same auction house on June 4, lot 4554 estimated RMB 28M.
Wu had completed in 1972 his three years of hard labor during which he had prudently destroyed most of his own work. Returning to full freedom in the following year, he immediately endeavored to redefine modern art by jointly improving his practice of ink on paper and of oil on canvas.
In 1975 his personal situation was completely restored to the point that he was participating in a delegation in Africa to set up the Chinese plant in charge of building the new railway line between Tanzania and Zambia. His contribution consisted of painting for the factory offices a view of each of the two most spectacular sites in East Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro and the Victoria Falls both of which he had not visited however.
He imagined showing the famous snowy summit of the Kilimanjaro emerging over a thick sea of clouds. The clouds covering most of the image hide the valley, leaving a question about the altitude and thus reinforcing the mystical majesty of this mountain.
In the same size his painting of the Falls was sold for RMB 30.8M including premium by Poly in the 2009 autumn sales.
During these twenty years of great creativity of the artist, the drawing is at first realistic, based on a bold setting and on bright colors. Over time a growing interest in composition and geometry leads Wu up to the abstract landscape. The best result from that group, RMB 28M including premium, was recorded on an ink on paper 124 x 124 cm made in 1990 on the theme of the Grand Canyon in America.
I had chosen in 2010 to discuss the earliest artwork, Mount Kilimanjaro, an oil on canvas 100 x 180 cm painted in 1975, which fetched RMB 20M including premium. It is for sale by the same auction house on June 4, lot 4554 estimated RMB 28M.
Wu had completed in 1972 his three years of hard labor during which he had prudently destroyed most of his own work. Returning to full freedom in the following year, he immediately endeavored to redefine modern art by jointly improving his practice of ink on paper and of oil on canvas.
In 1975 his personal situation was completely restored to the point that he was participating in a delegation in Africa to set up the Chinese plant in charge of building the new railway line between Tanzania and Zambia. His contribution consisted of painting for the factory offices a view of each of the two most spectacular sites in East Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro and the Victoria Falls both of which he had not visited however.
He imagined showing the famous snowy summit of the Kilimanjaro emerging over a thick sea of clouds. The clouds covering most of the image hide the valley, leaving a question about the altitude and thus reinforcing the mystical majesty of this mountain.
In the same size his painting of the Falls was sold for RMB 30.8M including premium by Poly in the 2009 autumn sales.
1975 Yocks by Barkley Hendricks
2019 SOLD for $ 3.74M including premium by Sotheby's
1975 A Cool Gang of Friends
2020 SOLD for $ 2.8M including premium
In the continuation of the Black Power movement, it becomes clear that the African-American community is poorly represented in graphic art. Barkley L. Hendricks makes life-size portraits of his friends in all the variety of their dress and posture.
These young people love pop music, jazz and dance. They are proud and uninhibited. The life size, the photorealistic style, the bright colors give the viewer of the series the illusion of living with the group.
They are happy. A 1974 hit is an Al Green song titled Sha la la (Make me happy). On November 17 in New York, Sotheby's sells Jackie Sha-la-la, oil and acrylic on canvas 127 x 152 cm painted by Hendricks in 1975, lot 108 estimated $ 2M.
The young woman is coiled in a corner of the sofa. The head is upright and the mouth is authoritative, but the hand raised to hold a can is an invitation to communicate. She is wearing a printed dress with floral motifs. The shadow of the wide-brimmed hat covers the eyes, but the straight gaze is not in doubt.
Here are three works from the same period sold by Sotheby's. The results include the premium.
A two-man group titled Yocks painted in 1975 was sold for $ 3.74M on May 16, 2019 from a lower estimate of $ 900K. Brenda P, a portrait of a young woman standing painted in 1974, was sold for $ 2.17M on May 16, 2018 from a lower estimate of $ 700K. North Philly Niggah, painted in 1975, was sold for $ 1.93M on November 14, 2018 from a lower estimate of $ 1.2M.
Such results, sadly posthumous, mark the recent appreciation at the top of the art market of the portraits painted by Barkley Hendricks, with his community specialization, his realism and his compelling psychology.
These young people love pop music, jazz and dance. They are proud and uninhibited. The life size, the photorealistic style, the bright colors give the viewer of the series the illusion of living with the group.
They are happy. A 1974 hit is an Al Green song titled Sha la la (Make me happy). On November 17 in New York, Sotheby's sells Jackie Sha-la-la, oil and acrylic on canvas 127 x 152 cm painted by Hendricks in 1975, lot 108 estimated $ 2M.
The young woman is coiled in a corner of the sofa. The head is upright and the mouth is authoritative, but the hand raised to hold a can is an invitation to communicate. She is wearing a printed dress with floral motifs. The shadow of the wide-brimmed hat covers the eyes, but the straight gaze is not in doubt.
Here are three works from the same period sold by Sotheby's. The results include the premium.
A two-man group titled Yocks painted in 1975 was sold for $ 3.74M on May 16, 2019 from a lower estimate of $ 900K. Brenda P, a portrait of a young woman standing painted in 1974, was sold for $ 2.17M on May 16, 2018 from a lower estimate of $ 700K. North Philly Niggah, painted in 1975, was sold for $ 1.93M on November 14, 2018 from a lower estimate of $ 1.2M.
Such results, sadly posthumous, mark the recent appreciation at the top of the art market of the portraits painted by Barkley Hendricks, with his community specialization, his realism and his compelling psychology.
1975 An American Sensuousness
2018 SOLD for € 1.75M including premium
Pop Art was born from several sources. It reflects the atmosphere of the best era of the American dream. In 1961 Lichtenstein and Wesselmann, independently of each other, gain notoriety with large format images showing this society that believes to be liberated.
Tom Wesselmann is inspired by the pure colors and themes of Matisse. His three seminal series, Great American Nudes, Bedroom Paintings and Still Life, are designed to mingle with each other. He adds typical US references like portraits of statesmen hanging on the wall of the room. Painted in 1961, a 152 x 122 cm Great American Nude with the US flag and the Kennedy portrait was sold for $ 4.1M including premium by Sotheby's on November 11, 2008.
Wesselmann expresses an intense eroticism by limiting feminine forms to erogenous zones and by using flat areas of warm colors. He conceives in 1967 a daring composition. The naked woman is lying in her room. Her head in the foreground is reversed to the rear. The open mouth between the scarlet lips expresses an ecstasy. The nose and eyes are useless and have been removed. Further, the framed portrait of a woman plays the role of the voyeur.
The realization is painstaking, with no less than 25 preparatory drawings. With a humor of self-mockery, the artist entitles this work Long Delayed Nude. Dated 1967-1975, Big Study for Long Delayed Nude, oil on canvas 92 x 127 cm, was sold for £ 540K including premium by Christie's on October 7, 2017.
On December 5 in Paris, Sotheby's sells Long Delayed Nude, shaped oil on canvas 172 x 258 cm also dated 1967-1975, lot 7 estimated € 1M. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Tom Wesselmann is inspired by the pure colors and themes of Matisse. His three seminal series, Great American Nudes, Bedroom Paintings and Still Life, are designed to mingle with each other. He adds typical US references like portraits of statesmen hanging on the wall of the room. Painted in 1961, a 152 x 122 cm Great American Nude with the US flag and the Kennedy portrait was sold for $ 4.1M including premium by Sotheby's on November 11, 2008.
Wesselmann expresses an intense eroticism by limiting feminine forms to erogenous zones and by using flat areas of warm colors. He conceives in 1967 a daring composition. The naked woman is lying in her room. Her head in the foreground is reversed to the rear. The open mouth between the scarlet lips expresses an ecstasy. The nose and eyes are useless and have been removed. Further, the framed portrait of a woman plays the role of the voyeur.
The realization is painstaking, with no less than 25 preparatory drawings. With a humor of self-mockery, the artist entitles this work Long Delayed Nude. Dated 1967-1975, Big Study for Long Delayed Nude, oil on canvas 92 x 127 cm, was sold for £ 540K including premium by Christie's on October 7, 2017.
On December 5 in Paris, Sotheby's sells Long Delayed Nude, shaped oil on canvas 172 x 258 cm also dated 1967-1975, lot 7 estimated € 1M. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
