1975
1975 Seestück by Richter
2022 SOLD for $ 30M by Sotheby's
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 by Christie's on October 13, 2014 and for £ 10.4M by Sotheby's on July 28, 2020, lot 20.
In 1975 Gerhard Richter revisited his Seestück photo-painting series of 1969 by enlarging the canvas from a square 200 x 200 cm to a panoramic 200 x 300 cm. This extension to this larger size of the luminescent effect is a technical feat.
The out of focus of clouds and sea mingling through a faint horizon is an invite to the viewer to change his mind about visual perception. It is indeed.a step further by Richter in his quest of a personal total abstraction. The lack of focusing point within a monumental scale also leads to an illusion of movement and chance in the line of Riley's op art.
This new set is made of four paintings. One of them was sold for $ 30M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2022, lot 5.
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 by Christie's on October 13, 2014 and for £ 10.4M by Sotheby's on July 28, 2020, lot 20.
In 1975 Gerhard Richter revisited his Seestück photo-painting series of 1969 by enlarging the canvas from a square 200 x 200 cm to a panoramic 200 x 300 cm. This extension to this larger size of the luminescent effect is a technical feat.
The out of focus of clouds and sea mingling through a faint horizon is an invite to the viewer to change his mind about visual perception. It is indeed.a step further by Richter in his quest of a personal total abstraction. The lack of focusing point within a monumental scale also leads to an illusion of movement and chance in the line of Riley's op art.
This new set is made of four paintings. One of them was sold for $ 30M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2022, lot 5.
1975 De KOONING
1
Untitled V
2013 SOLD for $ 25M by Sotheby's
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.
From 1975 Willem de Kooning finds an unexpected happiness that gradually generates a great impulse of creativity. He lives in Long Island amidst a lush nature, next to his mistress Mimi Kilgore. Elaine, from he never divorced, will soon be back to help.
His 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 being locked in Rothko's structured rectangles.
The colors come to play over an almost translucent lead white ground prepared in several phases of sanding that emulates the clarity of the coastal light. The hand is fast but the balance of the blocks and the uneven brightness provided by the variation in the thickness of paint meet a predefined composition.
De Kooning liked closing his eyes for sculpting clay so that only the gesture and the touch defined the form. Similarly in his new series of paintings the drips and flecks are not created by the sight but by the hand. He once defined his practice of painting as a bending (of forms and colors) just like Miles Davis was bending and not playing the notes for creating rhythm and syncopation.
The most important paintings of this period are named Untitled, with the indication of the year and a serialization in Roman numerals. The numbering of an opus in the sequence, restarting with a nuw I in 1977 and 1980, is not significant.
On November 13, 2013, Sotheby 's sold at lot 30 for $ 25M 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. The violent scraps and smears of the brush and knife of de Kooning's Untitled from the late 1970s anticipate the squeegee technique of Richter.
From 1975 Willem de Kooning finds an unexpected happiness that gradually generates a great impulse of creativity. He lives in Long Island amidst a lush nature, next to his mistress Mimi Kilgore. Elaine, from he never divorced, will soon be back to help.
His 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 being locked in Rothko's structured rectangles.
The colors come to play over an almost translucent lead white ground prepared in several phases of sanding that emulates the clarity of the coastal light. The hand is fast but the balance of the blocks and the uneven brightness provided by the variation in the thickness of paint meet a predefined composition.
De Kooning liked closing his eyes for sculpting clay so that only the gesture and the touch defined the form. Similarly in his new series of paintings the drips and flecks are not created by the sight but by the hand. He once defined his practice of painting as a bending (of forms and colors) just like Miles Davis was bending and not playing the notes for creating rhythm and syncopation.
The most important paintings of this period are named Untitled, with the indication of the year and a serialization in Roman numerals. The numbering of an opus in the sequence, restarting with a nuw I in 1977 and 1980, is not significant.
On November 13, 2013, Sotheby 's sold at lot 30 for $ 25M 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. The violent scraps and smears of the brush and knife of de Kooning's Untitled from the late 1970s anticipate the squeegee technique of Richter.
2
Untitled VI
2012 SOLD for $ 12.4M by Phillips de Pury
The Untitled VI of 1975 by de Kooning was sold for $ 12.4M by Phillips de Pury on May 10, 2012, lot 19.
This oil on canvas has the same 203 x 178 cm size as the Untitled V but in a vertical format. The comparison may stop here as the abstract composition of these two works is very different.
The V is an explosion of colors that manage to occupy the major part of the canvas. The VI is made of elongated forms with distorted shapes and outlines that float within a plain space. Such a composition anticipates the confrontations of simpler floating lines of the 1980s.
They are not landscapes. The gravity is canceled by the artist by rotating the easel during the creation of the work.
This oil on canvas has the same 203 x 178 cm size as the Untitled V but in a vertical format. The comparison may stop here as the abstract composition of these two works is very different.
The V is an explosion of colors that manage to occupy the major part of the canvas. The VI is made of elongated forms with distorted shapes and outlines that float within a plain space. Such a composition anticipates the confrontations of simpler floating lines of the 1980s.
They are not landscapes. The gravity is canceled by the artist by rotating the easel during the creation of the work.
1975 Three Studies for Self Portrait by Bacon
2008 SOLD for £ 17.3M 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.
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.
A Study for Self Portrait with vague eyes painted in 1975 by Francis Bacon in the same format was sold for £ 17.3M by Christie's on June 30, 2008, lot 29.
A triptych with half closed eyes painted in 1976 was sold for $ 28M by Christie's on May 13, 2008, lot 10.
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.
A Study for Self Portrait with vague eyes painted in 1975 by Francis Bacon in the same format was sold for £ 17.3M by Christie's on June 30, 2008, lot 29.
A triptych with half closed eyes painted in 1976 was sold for $ 28M by Christie's on May 13, 2008, lot 10.
1975 Self Portrait in the Rain by Bacon
2019 SOLD for £ 16.5M by Sotheby's
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 twice by Sotheby's : for £ 15.3M on July 1, 2015 and for £ 16.5M on June 26, 2019, lot 9. 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 twice by Sotheby's : for £ 15.3M on July 1, 2015 and for £ 16.5M on June 26, 2019, lot 9. 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 George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware by Colescott
2021 SOLD for $ 15.3M by Sotheby's
In the mid 1970s Basquiat was a teenager and Kerry James Marshall was an art student. The pioneer in considering that Black figures are absent in the museums was Robert Colescott.
Colescott managed to parody iconic pieces from the art of the White, transferring some characters from white to black with wit and humor. His models were Manet, van Gogh, Picasso or van Eyck's Arnolfini. In terms of race relations, Manet's Olympia with the nude white lady assisted by a black servant was a perfect target and the 1980 Déjeuner sur l'Herbe by Colescott was a delightful revenge.
Colescott's masterpiece in that style is titled George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware and subtitled Page from an American History Textbook.The reappropriated piece is an 1851 patriotic painting owned by the Met Museum.
The boat is full of joyful Negroes in various occupations, inspired from pejorative stereotypes. Details are social or funny, including the VOTE inscribed on a cap and the bare buttocks of a well dressed woman. The leader at the prow in the attire of a US Revolutionary War officer is not George Washington but George Washington Carver.
Rigged by this memorial first name, Carver was born in slavery during the US Civil War. He went to be a successful agricultural scientist who engineered suitable solutions against the depletion of the soil by the extensive culture of cotton.
This acrylic on canvas 200 x 250 cm painted in 1975 was sold for $ 15.3M from a lower estimate of $ 9M by Sotheby's in New York on May 12, 2021, lot 108. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Commenting this specific work, the artist said : "It is the satire that kills the serpent".
Colescott managed to parody iconic pieces from the art of the White, transferring some characters from white to black with wit and humor. His models were Manet, van Gogh, Picasso or van Eyck's Arnolfini. In terms of race relations, Manet's Olympia with the nude white lady assisted by a black servant was a perfect target and the 1980 Déjeuner sur l'Herbe by Colescott was a delightful revenge.
Colescott's masterpiece in that style is titled George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware and subtitled Page from an American History Textbook.The reappropriated piece is an 1851 patriotic painting owned by the Met Museum.
The boat is full of joyful Negroes in various occupations, inspired from pejorative stereotypes. Details are social or funny, including the VOTE inscribed on a cap and the bare buttocks of a well dressed woman. The leader at the prow in the attire of a US Revolutionary War officer is not George Washington but George Washington Carver.
Rigged by this memorial first name, Carver was born in slavery during the US Civil War. He went to be a successful agricultural scientist who engineered suitable solutions against the depletion of the soil by the extensive culture of cotton.
This acrylic on canvas 200 x 250 cm painted in 1975 was sold for $ 15.3M from a lower estimate of $ 9M by Sotheby's in New York on May 12, 2021, lot 108. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Commenting this specific work, the artist said : "It is the satire that kills the serpent".
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 Park by Diebenkorn
2014 SOLD for $ 9.7M including premium
The sale of the Mellon collection at Sotheby's on November 10, 2014 included three major oil paintings from this series, #50, 61 and 89, sold for $ 8.2M, 6.8M and 9.7M.
Ocean Park # 89, 206 x 206 cm, dated 1975, was sold for $ 9.7M, lot 11. It includes an effect of cracked glass window.
Ocean Park # 50, 236 x 206 cm, dated 1972, was sold for $ 8.2M, lot 23. Ocean Park # 61, 236 x 206 cm, dated 1973, was sold for $ 6.8M, lot 18.
Ocean Park # 89, 206 x 206 cm, dated 1975, was sold for $ 9.7M, lot 11. It includes an effect of cracked glass window.
Ocean Park # 50, 236 x 206 cm, dated 1972, was sold for $ 8.2M, lot 23. Ocean Park # 61, 236 x 206 cm, dated 1973, was sold for $ 6.8M, lot 18.
1975 Royal Fireworks by Frankenthaler
2020 SOLD for $ 7.9M by Sotheby's
Helen Frankenthaler manages to display joy in her art. Royal Fireworks, painted in 1975, is festive in its title, format and color.
This monumental diluted acrylic on canvas 152 x 400 cm is a nearly monochromatic warmly saturated orange in a panoramic format anchored at left and lower sides in an irregular azure blue border. In another shape, an association of the same hues had been executed by Rothko in 1955.
Royal Fireworks was sold for $ 7.9M from a lower estimate of $ 2M by Sotheby's on June 29, 2020, lot 2.
This monumental diluted acrylic on canvas 152 x 400 cm is a nearly monochromatic warmly saturated orange in a panoramic format anchored at left and lower sides in an irregular azure blue border. In another shape, an association of the same hues had been executed by Rothko in 1955.
Royal Fireworks was sold for $ 7.9M from a lower estimate of $ 2M by Sotheby's on June 29, 2020, lot 2.
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
