1976
See also : Bacon Later Bacons Head triptych De Kooning Still Later Warhols Femme debout The Man Animals Bird
1976 Large Triptych by Bacon
2008 SOLD for $ 86M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
In 1976 Francis Bacon prepares an exhibition of new works at the Galerie Claude Bernard in Paris. The highlight is a triptych in oil and pastel on canvas, 198 x 148 cm for each element. It was sold for $ 86M including premium by Sotheby's on May 14, 2008, lot 33.
This triptych brings together a synthesis of Francis' career, as Picasso had done twenty years earlier with his series of Les Femmes d'Alger.
Five years after the suicide of George Dyer, Francis confirms that the major inspirations of his art and of his life are suffering, guilt and punishment. The main figure in the central panel is a headless Prometheus tortured by the eagle, in a composition similar to 'Painting 1946'. Other symbols on this panel include the Furies disguised as pelicans and a chalice dripping with blood.
In the 1930s and 1940s, the young artist was gradually destroying his own work. This phase of creative dissatisfaction ended after the revelation to him of the two most tragic characters in the Greek theater, Prometheus and Orestes by Aeschylus.
The very first work he considered completed, Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, in 1944, a triptych of elements 94 x 74 cm, is an interpretation of the mourners inspired by the Furies of Orestes. 'Painting 1946', 198 x 132 cm, was commented by Bacon : he had started painting a figure of a monkey, the alter ego of mankind, when the punishing eagle arrived in his subconscious.
The triptychs of 198 x 148 cm panels are the format chosen by Bacon in his later career for works he manages to be the most achieved. Three Studies of Lucian Freud, painted in 1969, was sold for $ 142M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2013. Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards, painted in 1984, was sold for $ 81M including premium by Christie's on 13 May 2014. The sale of Triptych inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus, painted in 1981, was sold for $ 85M including premium by Sotheby's on June 29, 2020.
This triptych brings together a synthesis of Francis' career, as Picasso had done twenty years earlier with his series of Les Femmes d'Alger.
Five years after the suicide of George Dyer, Francis confirms that the major inspirations of his art and of his life are suffering, guilt and punishment. The main figure in the central panel is a headless Prometheus tortured by the eagle, in a composition similar to 'Painting 1946'. Other symbols on this panel include the Furies disguised as pelicans and a chalice dripping with blood.
In the 1930s and 1940s, the young artist was gradually destroying his own work. This phase of creative dissatisfaction ended after the revelation to him of the two most tragic characters in the Greek theater, Prometheus and Orestes by Aeschylus.
The very first work he considered completed, Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, in 1944, a triptych of elements 94 x 74 cm, is an interpretation of the mourners inspired by the Furies of Orestes. 'Painting 1946', 198 x 132 cm, was commented by Bacon : he had started painting a figure of a monkey, the alter ego of mankind, when the punishing eagle arrived in his subconscious.
The triptychs of 198 x 148 cm panels are the format chosen by Bacon in his later career for works he manages to be the most achieved. Three Studies of Lucian Freud, painted in 1969, was sold for $ 142M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2013. Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards, painted in 1984, was sold for $ 81M including premium by Christie's on 13 May 2014. The sale of Triptych inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus, painted in 1981, was sold for $ 85M including premium by Sotheby's on June 29, 2020.
1976 The Ghost of George Dyer
2012 SOLD 45 M$ including premium
Francis Bacon was traumatized by the suicide of George Dyer, in 1971. For seven years, his relationship with this brute looking man were equivocal, beyond homosexuality. Bacon was amused to see the former crook falling into alcoholism.
A time comes for every sensitive man when death of younger people creates anxieties about his own destiny. In 1976, Bacon was still haunted by the memory of Dyer. It was one of the most original and most creative periods of his artistic career.
On May 14, 2008, Sotheby's sold a triptych, 198 x 148 cm for each element, $ 86M including premium. The triptych is a way to recreate the tridimensional figure by offering different views of the same subject, and it was always a favorite mode of expression for Bacon.
The other way to achieve the same result is the juxtaposition in the artwork of the character and of his image through the mirror. The writing figure, oil on canvas 198 x 147 cm, is a single work that is in many ways comparable to the famous triptych.
This naked man sitting on a simple bar stool is George, featured by his muscular back. He is lending on a shelf and he writes. Incredible: George is writing. But let's say instead that Francis would have been keen if George had endeavoured to write. George died before Francis could fully understand him, and the mirror is also a symbol of death.
This work is estimated $ 30M, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 9.
I invite you to play the video shared by the auction house.
POST SALE COMMENT
Today's collectors love the works charged with an intense emotion. The success was thus assured in advance for this posthumous figure sold $ 45M including premium.
A time comes for every sensitive man when death of younger people creates anxieties about his own destiny. In 1976, Bacon was still haunted by the memory of Dyer. It was one of the most original and most creative periods of his artistic career.
On May 14, 2008, Sotheby's sold a triptych, 198 x 148 cm for each element, $ 86M including premium. The triptych is a way to recreate the tridimensional figure by offering different views of the same subject, and it was always a favorite mode of expression for Bacon.
The other way to achieve the same result is the juxtaposition in the artwork of the character and of his image through the mirror. The writing figure, oil on canvas 198 x 147 cm, is a single work that is in many ways comparable to the famous triptych.
This naked man sitting on a simple bar stool is George, featured by his muscular back. He is lending on a shelf and he writes. Incredible: George is writing. But let's say instead that Francis would have been keen if George had endeavoured to write. George died before Francis could fully understand him, and the mirror is also a symbol of death.
This work is estimated $ 30M, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 9.
I invite you to play the video shared by the auction house.
POST SALE COMMENT
Today's collectors love the works charged with an intense emotion. The success was thus assured in advance for this posthumous figure sold $ 45M including premium.
1976 Three Studies for Self Portrait by Bacon
2008 SOLD for $ 28M by Christie's
Francis Bacon emphasizes the triptych. 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.
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 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 by Bacon in 1976 was sold for $ 28M by Christie's on May 13, 2008, lot 10.
In a kinetic sequence from the right to the left panel, a medical lens floats in front of the left cheek. The right eye looks much damaged like after a brawl.
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 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 by Bacon in 1976 was sold for $ 28M by Christie's on May 13, 2008, lot 10.
In a kinetic sequence from the right to the left panel, a medical lens floats in front of the left cheek. The right eye looks much damaged like after a brawl.
1976 Untitled XXI by de Kooning
2015 SOLD for $ 25M by Sotheby's
East Hampton is the closest land's end to New York City, facing from the eastern side of Long Island the vastness and violence of the ocean. The big city is not conducive to the communion of an artist with nature. Adroitly pushed by Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock established their workshop in a barn near the village.
The countryside is flat like in Holland, but the nature explodes in rich colors. Around Leo and Ileana Castelli who also settled in East Hampton, the artists of abstract expressionism and of action painting come to imbibe themselves within the purity of that place.
Willem de Kooning visits the Castelli in East Hampton in 1951 and moves his studio and home in the village in the early 1960s. His early intention of making abstract landscapes is ephemeral. Returning to the representation of human nature, he devotes his art primarily to sculpture in 1969.
The series of Untitled paintings of 1975-1977 is a turning point in De Kooning's art. The artist was happy and intensely enjoying the nature. The shining colors that he dispositioned on the whole surface of his large paintings express such deep feelings. His painting is a landscape without drawing.
On November 4, 2015, Sotheby's sold for $ 25M the Untitled XXI of 1976, oil on canvas 203 x 178 cm, lot 15T. The artist added thinning oils to the paint for displaying sculptural effects on the canvas. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The passion of action painting liberates to the viewer's imagination the waves breaking on the rocks, the color of gorse in blossom on the dune and a woman standing in a long dress who observes all this beauty. Alfred Taubman enjoyed this specific opus.
Some smaller paintings of similar technique are titled East Hampton, revealing the inspiration of the whole. East Hampton VI, oil on canvas 77 x 91 cm painted in 1977, was sold for $ 10.4M by Christie's on May 13, 2021, lot 3 B.
The countryside is flat like in Holland, but the nature explodes in rich colors. Around Leo and Ileana Castelli who also settled in East Hampton, the artists of abstract expressionism and of action painting come to imbibe themselves within the purity of that place.
Willem de Kooning visits the Castelli in East Hampton in 1951 and moves his studio and home in the village in the early 1960s. His early intention of making abstract landscapes is ephemeral. Returning to the representation of human nature, he devotes his art primarily to sculpture in 1969.
The series of Untitled paintings of 1975-1977 is a turning point in De Kooning's art. The artist was happy and intensely enjoying the nature. The shining colors that he dispositioned on the whole surface of his large paintings express such deep feelings. His painting is a landscape without drawing.
On November 4, 2015, Sotheby's sold for $ 25M the Untitled XXI of 1976, oil on canvas 203 x 178 cm, lot 15T. The artist added thinning oils to the paint for displaying sculptural effects on the canvas. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The passion of action painting liberates to the viewer's imagination the waves breaking on the rocks, the color of gorse in blossom on the dune and a woman standing in a long dress who observes all this beauty. Alfred Taubman enjoyed this specific opus.
Some smaller paintings of similar technique are titled East Hampton, revealing the inspiration of the whole. East Hampton VI, oil on canvas 77 x 91 cm painted in 1977, was sold for $ 10.4M by Christie's on May 13, 2021, lot 3 B.
1976 Strong Light by Guston
2021 SOLD for $ 24.4M by Sotheby's
In his later career, an embittered Philip Guston was displaying his anguished view of the modern world.
A world that did not eradicate the Ku Klux Klan is full of many threats including the horrible wars of the 20th century accompanied by dictatorships and unrest. He paints cartoonish forms in a reduced palette of bright colors. The scenery may be lit by day by a full sun or by night by a huge bare electric bulb.
Strong light, painted in 1976, has the radiant bulb and the black background. Three elongated tightly knit human legs probably from dead humans mingle with five shoe soles on a carpet posed on a parqueted wood. This simplified composition does not include other symbols of the continuous social revolt of the artist.
This oil on canvas 204 x 175 cm was sold for $ 24.4M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 8.
A world that did not eradicate the Ku Klux Klan is full of many threats including the horrible wars of the 20th century accompanied by dictatorships and unrest. He paints cartoonish forms in a reduced palette of bright colors. The scenery may be lit by day by a full sun or by night by a huge bare electric bulb.
Strong light, painted in 1976, has the radiant bulb and the black background. Three elongated tightly knit human legs probably from dead humans mingle with five shoe soles on a carpet posed on a parqueted wood. This simplified composition does not include other symbols of the continuous social revolt of the artist.
This oil on canvas 204 x 175 cm was sold for $ 24.4M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 8.
1976 Skull by Warhol
2022 SOLD for $ 24M by Christie's
Obsessed with death, Warhol managed to modernize in his signature technique the old theme of the vanities.
In 1976 he went to be busy with a skull found by him in a flea market in Paris, complete with two full rows of teeth. His photographer assistant endeavored to obtain the most dramatic effect, with the jaws open in an appealing laugh and the piece posed on the floor.
A large size painting 183 x 203 cm in acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas was sold for $ 24M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 24C. This psychedelic example displays a highly disturbing bright blue color of the skull and a weird butter yellow shadow.
In the same technique, a pink skull on a sky blue floor on canvas 38 x 48 cm was sold for £ 700K by Phillips on June 27, 2013, lot 13.
A chromolithography 40 x 34 cm edited in 125 copies was gathering the same image in three rows of two columns in various colors.
These images may have influenced the skull paintings made by Basquiat in 1982, the year when he first met Warhol. The series of jawless skulls by Richter was executed in 1983.
In 1976 he went to be busy with a skull found by him in a flea market in Paris, complete with two full rows of teeth. His photographer assistant endeavored to obtain the most dramatic effect, with the jaws open in an appealing laugh and the piece posed on the floor.
A large size painting 183 x 203 cm in acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas was sold for $ 24M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 24C. This psychedelic example displays a highly disturbing bright blue color of the skull and a weird butter yellow shadow.
In the same technique, a pink skull on a sky blue floor on canvas 38 x 48 cm was sold for £ 700K by Phillips on June 27, 2013, lot 13.
A chromolithography 40 x 34 cm edited in 125 copies was gathering the same image in three rows of two columns in various colors.
These images may have influenced the skull paintings made by Basquiat in 1982, the year when he first met Warhol. The series of jawless skulls by Richter was executed in 1983.
1976 PH-1044 by Still
2011 SOLD for $ 19.7M by Sotheby's
PH-1044, oil on canvas 237 x 210 cm painted in 1976, represented the final years of Clyfford Still among the four lots consigned to Sotheby's on November 9, 2011 for financing the development of the Denver museum. It was sold for $ 19.7M, lot 13. The availability on the market of a Still painting from his most secret period is extremely rare.
It was later sold by Christie's for $ 17.5M, on May 13, 2014, lot 35.
This opus contributes to the ultimate quest by Still to thr sublime, viewed as a whole new world for which there are no words.
It was later sold by Christie's for $ 17.5M, on May 13, 2014, lot 35.
This opus contributes to the ultimate quest by Still to thr sublime, viewed as a whole new world for which there are no words.
1976 Femme de Venise by Giacometti (posthumous)
2022 SOLD for $ 17.6M by Sotheby's
In 1956 retrospective exhibitions of Giacometti's work are planned in Venice and Bern. He reacts like a real great artist. His past is not essential but the long march of a creative process that is not finished. He decides to do something new.
He chooses the figure of the nude woman standing still, feet together. He will show that this model allows a subtle variation in the expression of feelings. He will not do it as portraits but as his interpretation of the ideal woman. The most important is the texture that brings realism to non-proportioned bodies.
A posthumous Femme de Venise II cast by Susse in 1976, 122 cm high, was sold for 17.6M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2022, lot 26. This piece numbered 0/6 had certainly been made for the use of Alberto's widow Annette who was its first owner. II is the second highest Femme of the group of nine.
He chooses the figure of the nude woman standing still, feet together. He will show that this model allows a subtle variation in the expression of feelings. He will not do it as portraits but as his interpretation of the ideal woman. The most important is the texture that brings realism to non-proportioned bodies.
A posthumous Femme de Venise II cast by Susse in 1976, 122 cm high, was sold for 17.6M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2022, lot 26. This piece numbered 0/6 had certainly been made for the use of Alberto's widow Annette who was its first owner. II is the second highest Femme of the group of nine.
1976 The Sugar Shack by Barnes
2022 SOLD for $ 15.3M by Christie's
Ernie Barnes is an athlete who turned to be an artist. When he retired from professional American football on 1965, this 1.91 m tall African American desired to become an official artist to the NFL. He made his first solo exhibition in 1966.
Barnes was born in North Carolina at the time of the 'Jim Crow' segregation rules. In 1971 he remembered having lost the innocence of his boyhood in 1952, aged 13, when he attended the sins of dance contests of his racial community amidst frantic music and movement.
His 1971 painting titled The Sugar Shack is populated by closely pressed dancing couples with elongated bodies and ample gesture. The eyes are closed for expressing the introspective behavior of the hectic dancing movement. In the racial WASP America, the rhythm of dance and jazz thus enables the African Americans to deal in the bliss with their physical tensions. The hectic entertainment theme reminds Lautrec's Moulin Rouge.
The Sugar Shack was used in March 1976 by the singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye as the cover art of an album, becoming an icon of African-American life.
In September 1976 Barnes painted a replica of his Sugar Shack without the opportunistic Marvin Gaye banner. This acrylic on canvas 91 x 122 cm was sold for $ 15.3M from a lower estimate of $ 150K by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 29C.
Barnes was born in North Carolina at the time of the 'Jim Crow' segregation rules. In 1971 he remembered having lost the innocence of his boyhood in 1952, aged 13, when he attended the sins of dance contests of his racial community amidst frantic music and movement.
His 1971 painting titled The Sugar Shack is populated by closely pressed dancing couples with elongated bodies and ample gesture. The eyes are closed for expressing the introspective behavior of the hectic dancing movement. In the racial WASP America, the rhythm of dance and jazz thus enables the African Americans to deal in the bliss with their physical tensions. The hectic entertainment theme reminds Lautrec's Moulin Rouge.
The Sugar Shack was used in March 1976 by the singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye as the cover art of an album, becoming an icon of African-American life.
In September 1976 Barnes painted a replica of his Sugar Shack without the opportunistic Marvin Gaye banner. This acrylic on canvas 91 x 122 cm was sold for $ 15.3M from a lower estimate of $ 150K by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 29C.
1976 Francis Bacon after the Mourning
2018 SOLD for £ 10M including premium
Francis Bacon was a homosexual but did not reject the company of women in Soho's debauched life. He has three female muses with differentiated social roles. Muriel pours his drinks and Isabel helps him to meet other artists. Henrietta Moraes is much younger. He loves her unconstrained freedom and her laughter.
The years go by too fast and the bodies get older. Henrietta's figure with her hypodermic syringe painted in 1968, 198 x 148 cm, was sold for £ 20.2M including premium by Christie's on June 30, 2016.
George's suicide in 1971 marks a turning point in Bacon's behavior and art. It takes him five years to shake off his guilt. His paintings of this mourning often have a black background made intense and homogeneous by the priming through the back of the canvas. Voluntarily away from London since 1974, Bacon has now his studio in Paris.
He returns to a less tormented life in 1976 and is interested again in former friends. He is 67 years old. Henrietta, 45, has successfully passed her difficult period. Francis pays tribute to this female phenix by a triptych of oils on canvas in his usual format, 35 x 30 cm each. It is estimated £ 10M for sale by Christie's in London on March 6, lot 25.
John Deakin died in 1972. To compose this triptych, Francis is not relying on an image of Henrietta but transposes on her personality a still of Emmanuelle Riva with a wet strand falling down over her nose in Hiroshima mon Amour. The contribution of Henrietta in this creation is the application of bright colors around the mouth for memorizing the vivacity of her attitude in Soho ten years earlier. Her eyes are closed.
The years go by too fast and the bodies get older. Henrietta's figure with her hypodermic syringe painted in 1968, 198 x 148 cm, was sold for £ 20.2M including premium by Christie's on June 30, 2016.
George's suicide in 1971 marks a turning point in Bacon's behavior and art. It takes him five years to shake off his guilt. His paintings of this mourning often have a black background made intense and homogeneous by the priming through the back of the canvas. Voluntarily away from London since 1974, Bacon has now his studio in Paris.
He returns to a less tormented life in 1976 and is interested again in former friends. He is 67 years old. Henrietta, 45, has successfully passed her difficult period. Francis pays tribute to this female phenix by a triptych of oils on canvas in his usual format, 35 x 30 cm each. It is estimated £ 10M for sale by Christie's in London on March 6, lot 25.
John Deakin died in 1972. To compose this triptych, Francis is not relying on an image of Henrietta but transposes on her personality a still of Emmanuelle Riva with a wet strand falling down over her nose in Hiroshima mon Amour. The contribution of Henrietta in this creation is the application of bright colors around the mouth for memorizing the vivacity of her attitude in Soho ten years earlier. Her eyes are closed.
