1978
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Sport in art French sculpture Sculpture by painters Matisse Zhang Daqian Li Keran
See also : Sport in art French sculpture Sculpture by painters Matisse Zhang Daqian Li Keran
(1930) - 1978 Back IV by Matisse (posthumous)
2010 SOLD for $ 49M by Christie's
In 1906, Matisse designs an original theme of sculpture: a nude woman standing, life size, seen from behind, leaning against a wall. The subject fascinated him to such a degree that he created three further versions, in 1913, 1916 and 1930. Psychoanalysts could probably tell us the reason of that backside position.
These four naked Backs are changing from realism to stylization, from flexibility to a balance of the masses. The last state is broad and symmetrical, the body barred from head to buttocks by a vertical braid that resembles the tail of a heavy horse.
Twelve bronzes were published from each of the four plasters between 1948 and 1981. On November 3, 2010, Christie's sold for $ 49M from a lower estimate of $ 25M a bronze of the Back IV, 189 cm high with a brown patina, cast in 1978.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
These four naked Backs are changing from realism to stylization, from flexibility to a balance of the masses. The last state is broad and symmetrical, the body barred from head to buttocks by a vertical braid that resembles the tail of a heavy horse.
Twelve bronzes were published from each of the four plasters between 1948 and 1981. On November 3, 2010, Christie's sold for $ 49M from a lower estimate of $ 25M a bronze of the Back IV, 189 cm high with a brown patina, cast in 1978.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
- This 2010 tweet by@ArtHitParade announced the $48.8 million sale of Henri Matisse's "Nu de dos, 4 état (Back IV)" at Christie's, a life-size bronze relief that shattered the artist's prior auction record.
- The sculpture, the fourth and most abstracted in Matisse's decades-long Back series started in 1909, features a simplified female nude emphasizing geometric harmony and was cast in 1978 from a 1930 plaster.
- Exceeding its $25-35 million estimate amid a bidding war, the sale to Gagosian Gallery highlighted surging demand for Matisse's sculptures, a record unbroken until a 2018 painting sale.
1978 Autumn Mountains by Zhang Daqian
2021 SOLD for RMB 196M by China Guardian
Zhang Daqian was keen to express the colors of dawn and twilight on the mountains.
A panoramic Autumn morning painted in 1978 has similarities in its composition and vibrant colors with the 1967 vertical Autumn mountains in twilight sold by Sotheby's for HK $ 200M on December 9, 2023, lot 9.
The 1978 opus, ink and color on paper 88 x 183 cm, was sold for RMB 196M by China Guardian on December 10, 2021, lot 297.
A panoramic Autumn morning painted in 1978 has similarities in its composition and vibrant colors with the 1967 vertical Autumn mountains in twilight sold by Sotheby's for HK $ 200M on December 9, 2023, lot 9.
The 1978 opus, ink and color on paper 88 x 183 cm, was sold for RMB 196M by China Guardian on December 10, 2021, lot 297.
1978 Muhammad Ali by Warhol
2021 SOLD for $ 18M by Christie's
In Marilyn's time, film actors and actresses crystallized the admiration and jealousy of the general public. In 1977 the art collector Richard Weisman manages to convince Andy Warhol that times have changed. Viewers now enjoy the live broadcasts of sporting events, and the era of sports marketing has already begun.
Richard selects ten champions who dominate their sport. He will visit them with Andy and their team. Andy takes the photos with his Polaroid. Back in his 'Factory', he has the canvases painted in acrylic by his collaborators, himself adding expressive scratches in the still wet paint, and at the end of the process they do the silkscreen printing.
The Athletes series, completed in 1979, is made up of ten portraits of champions in a standardized 40 x 40 inches (102 x 102 cm) format. 8 series are realized. The images are multicolored, with variations from one series to another. This grouping of ten elements to constitute a series was also standardized by Andy for his editions of prints since 1967.
These encounters between two worlds that were ignoring each other bring some surprises. O.J. Simpson has a five-day beard, Jack Nicklaus is upset against Andy's incompetence in sports. The meeting with Muhammad Ali begins with an interminable preamble during which it seems impossible to stop the champion from speaking.
A set of ten paintings was sold by Christie's for $ 5.7M on May 11, 2011. Two other sets have later been sold from the deceased estate of Weisman, also by Christie's. One of them was separated in New York on November 13 and 14, 2019 and the other one in London on February 12, 2020.
Comparing these groups provides additional information : the first Weisman set included Vitas Gerulaitis, while the other two sets display the ice hockey player Rod Gilbert. Weisman certainly wanted such a substitution to avoid tennis, already illustrated by Chris Evert, to be represented twice.
Muhammad Ali was the only one to control that his portrait matched well the image of himself that he wanted to leave, just as fearless in his activism as in his sport. He is the only one of the eleven whose sport is not symbolized by an artifact : his bare fists are brandished towards the artist.
A complete set was sold for $ 5.7M by Christie's on May 11, 2011, lot 54. The ten elements of this specific set were painted in 1978 in synthetic polymer and silkscreen ink on canvas 102 x 102 cm each. Separated from the rest of the set, Muhammad Ali was sold for $ 18M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 36C. The champion is featured in red with blue and yellow fists over a purple ground.
On November 13, 2019 a portrait of Muhammad Ali executed in 1977 was sold by Christie's for $ 10M, lot 5 B. Another example completed by Warhol in 1978, acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen 102 x 102 cm, was sold for £ 5M by Christie's on February 12, 2020, lot 8.
Behind the boxing champion, the greatest is Pelé, fetching $ 860K in 2019 and £ 580K in 2020.
Richard selects ten champions who dominate their sport. He will visit them with Andy and their team. Andy takes the photos with his Polaroid. Back in his 'Factory', he has the canvases painted in acrylic by his collaborators, himself adding expressive scratches in the still wet paint, and at the end of the process they do the silkscreen printing.
The Athletes series, completed in 1979, is made up of ten portraits of champions in a standardized 40 x 40 inches (102 x 102 cm) format. 8 series are realized. The images are multicolored, with variations from one series to another. This grouping of ten elements to constitute a series was also standardized by Andy for his editions of prints since 1967.
These encounters between two worlds that were ignoring each other bring some surprises. O.J. Simpson has a five-day beard, Jack Nicklaus is upset against Andy's incompetence in sports. The meeting with Muhammad Ali begins with an interminable preamble during which it seems impossible to stop the champion from speaking.
A set of ten paintings was sold by Christie's for $ 5.7M on May 11, 2011. Two other sets have later been sold from the deceased estate of Weisman, also by Christie's. One of them was separated in New York on November 13 and 14, 2019 and the other one in London on February 12, 2020.
Comparing these groups provides additional information : the first Weisman set included Vitas Gerulaitis, while the other two sets display the ice hockey player Rod Gilbert. Weisman certainly wanted such a substitution to avoid tennis, already illustrated by Chris Evert, to be represented twice.
Muhammad Ali was the only one to control that his portrait matched well the image of himself that he wanted to leave, just as fearless in his activism as in his sport. He is the only one of the eleven whose sport is not symbolized by an artifact : his bare fists are brandished towards the artist.
A complete set was sold for $ 5.7M by Christie's on May 11, 2011, lot 54. The ten elements of this specific set were painted in 1978 in synthetic polymer and silkscreen ink on canvas 102 x 102 cm each. Separated from the rest of the set, Muhammad Ali was sold for $ 18M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 36C. The champion is featured in red with blue and yellow fists over a purple ground.
On November 13, 2019 a portrait of Muhammad Ali executed in 1977 was sold by Christie's for $ 10M, lot 5 B. Another example completed by Warhol in 1978, acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen 102 x 102 cm, was sold for £ 5M by Christie's on February 12, 2020, lot 8.
Behind the boxing champion, the greatest is Pelé, fetching $ 860K in 2019 and £ 580K in 2020.
1978 Magnificent Mountains by LI KERAN
Thousands of Rocks
2018 SOLD for RMB 127M by China Guardian
A painting executed in 1978 by Li Keran is based on a mountain scenery in Jiangnan sketched by him in 1956. The artist stated in a postscript : "When I was in the rain after passing through the mountain valley, I saw the lush mountains and lush forests ; I saw the rapids like the sound of an orchestra. I deeply felt the vitality of the mountains and rivers."
This hanging scroll in color 180 x 97 cm was sold for RMB 127M by China Guardian on June 18, 2018, lot 376. The title Thousands of rocks competing for beauty and thousands of valleys competing for flow is a mingle of literati and Maoist interpretation.
This hanging scroll in color 180 x 97 cm was sold for RMB 127M by China Guardian on June 18, 2018, lot 376. The title Thousands of rocks competing for beauty and thousands of valleys competing for flow is a mingle of literati and Maoist interpretation.
Magnificent Mountains
2017 SOLD for HK$ 122M by Sotheby's
Magnificent mountains with cascades is the same view as the painting sold for RMB 127M by China Guardian in 2018. An example of difference is the shape and width of the river in the valley. The poem in the upper right corner is different.
This hanging scroll in ink and color on paper 170 x 94 cm painted in 1978 was sold for HK $ 122M by Sotheby's on October 2, 2017, lot 1422.
This hanging scroll in ink and color on paper 170 x 94 cm painted in 1978 was sold for HK $ 122M by Sotheby's on October 2, 2017, lot 1422.
1978 Untitled III (1978 nomenclature) by de Kooning
2014 SOLD for $ 14.7M by Christie's
In 1977 Willem de Kooning was busy to interpret in abstraction the scintillating colors of landscape, sea and sky around his home at East Hampton.
That highly creative activity was followed with a reduced activity in the two following years : Untitled I to VI in 1978 and I to VII in 1979, plus several unnumbered works.
Executed ca 1978 in his larger format, an Untitled III was painted with ample gestures in ranges of blues, yellows, whites and grays that mingle in wet on wet transitions to generate the green in a confrontation of liquescence and impasto. The gray is a color of the light hitting the ocean.
In his process of the period, an atmospheric blur is generated by a preparatory sanding of the canvas. The reference to the actual landscape is voluntarily lost by frequent rotations of the canvas during the execution, for a multidirectional effect. Fields of colors are bounded with chromatic bands. In that overall composition, there is no predominating element, no "hot spot" in the wording of the artist.
That oil on canvas 195 x 222 cm was sold for $ 14.7M by Christie's on November 12, 2014, lot 44. According to the reference to an exhibition in Basel cross checked with an index of de Kooning art, this opus is confirmed as the 1978 Untitled III. Its history begins in February 1979 with an exhibition in Chicago.
Explaining his creativity, de Kooning once stated being "happy to see that the grass is green".
Another Untitled III by de Kooning, oil on canvas 178 x 203 cm painted with a similar technique, passed at Christie's on November 17, 2022, lot 15. A photo by Alexander Liberman features the artist with that painting in April 1978.
That highly creative activity was followed with a reduced activity in the two following years : Untitled I to VI in 1978 and I to VII in 1979, plus several unnumbered works.
Executed ca 1978 in his larger format, an Untitled III was painted with ample gestures in ranges of blues, yellows, whites and grays that mingle in wet on wet transitions to generate the green in a confrontation of liquescence and impasto. The gray is a color of the light hitting the ocean.
In his process of the period, an atmospheric blur is generated by a preparatory sanding of the canvas. The reference to the actual landscape is voluntarily lost by frequent rotations of the canvas during the execution, for a multidirectional effect. Fields of colors are bounded with chromatic bands. In that overall composition, there is no predominating element, no "hot spot" in the wording of the artist.
That oil on canvas 195 x 222 cm was sold for $ 14.7M by Christie's on November 12, 2014, lot 44. According to the reference to an exhibition in Basel cross checked with an index of de Kooning art, this opus is confirmed as the 1978 Untitled III. Its history begins in February 1979 with an exhibition in Chicago.
Explaining his creativity, de Kooning once stated being "happy to see that the grass is green".
Another Untitled III by de Kooning, oil on canvas 178 x 203 cm painted with a similar technique, passed at Christie's on November 17, 2022, lot 15. A photo by Alexander Liberman features the artist with that painting in April 1978.
1978 Paper Pool by HOCKNEY
Piscine de Medianoche
2018 SOLD for $ 11.7M by Sotheby's
In 1978 David Hockney returned to California to settle there on a lasting basis. Passing through New York, he worked for six weeks with Ken Tyler to experiment artistic creation with colored pulp of paper that this papermaker-printer had invented for Ellsworth Kelly.
The artist uses a ladle to pour the wet pulp in metal molds partitioned to create simple figures. The work is adjusted by hand after removing the molds, before being pressed flat. Each image is unique, like the monotypes of the old days.
Hockney executed two series of paper pulps with Tyler. The earlier, to try the technique, is on the theme of sunflowers. Then the Paper Pools, for which he juxtaposes several shades of blue, are displaying swimming pools, most often with a springboard. Steps with shadow (Paper Pool 2), 130 x 85 cm, appears to be still experimental. It was sold for $ 2.4M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2019, lot 140.
He designs his Paper Pools as assemblies of independently prepared elements. The junctions are visible. With this technique, he produced two large format artworks with twelve elements, the Paper Pools 18 and 27, 183 x 434 cm each.
Piscine de Medianoche, Paper Pool 30, in 6 elements in format 183 x 217 cm overall, was sold for $ 11.7M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018, lot 11.
The Paper Pool series was edited in high quantities in lithography in 1980.
After his 1978 session with Tyler, Hockney will not reuse paper pulp but the fragmentation will certainly inspire his gigantic landscapes in oil on canvas of the 2000s, composed of elements adjusted by computer.
The artist uses a ladle to pour the wet pulp in metal molds partitioned to create simple figures. The work is adjusted by hand after removing the molds, before being pressed flat. Each image is unique, like the monotypes of the old days.
Hockney executed two series of paper pulps with Tyler. The earlier, to try the technique, is on the theme of sunflowers. Then the Paper Pools, for which he juxtaposes several shades of blue, are displaying swimming pools, most often with a springboard. Steps with shadow (Paper Pool 2), 130 x 85 cm, appears to be still experimental. It was sold for $ 2.4M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2019, lot 140.
He designs his Paper Pools as assemblies of independently prepared elements. The junctions are visible. With this technique, he produced two large format artworks with twelve elements, the Paper Pools 18 and 27, 183 x 434 cm each.
Piscine de Medianoche, Paper Pool 30, in 6 elements in format 183 x 217 cm overall, was sold for $ 11.7M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018, lot 11.
The Paper Pool series was edited in high quantities in lithography in 1980.
After his 1978 session with Tyler, Hockney will not reuse paper pulp but the fragmentation will certainly inspire his gigantic landscapes in oil on canvas of the 2000s, composed of elements adjusted by computer.
Day Pool with Three Blues
2019 SOLD for $ 10.5M by Christie's
Day Pool with Three Blues, Paper Pool 7, in 6 small and 3 larger elements in format 183 x 217 cm overall, was sold for $ 10.5M by Christie's on May 15, 2019, lot 24 B.
Sprungbrett mit Schatten, Paper Pool 14, in 6 elements in format 183 x 217 cm overall, was sold for $ 7.3M by Christie's on November 15, 2018, lot 14 C.
Green Pool with Diving Board and shadow, Paper Pool 3-L from a series of fifteen unique variants, 127 x 82 cm, was sold for $ 2.9M by Christie's on November 16, 2018, lot 697.
Sprungbrett mit Schatten, Paper Pool 14, in 6 elements in format 183 x 217 cm overall, was sold for $ 7.3M by Christie's on November 15, 2018, lot 14 C.
Green Pool with Diving Board and shadow, Paper Pool 3-L from a series of fifteen unique variants, 127 x 82 cm, was sold for $ 2.9M by Christie's on November 16, 2018, lot 697.
1978 Register by Ryman
2026 SOLD for $ 9.8M by Christie's
Register, oil on linen with four painted metal fasteners and square bolts 160 x 152 cm painted in 1978 by Ryman, was sold for $ 9.8M by Christie's on May 18, 2026, lot 30A.
Robert Ryman (1930–2019) is one of the most rigorous and influential painters of the postwar era, celebrated for his lifelong exploration of white (or near-white) paintings. Often grouped with Minimalism, he stands apart as a dedicated painter who treated white not as absence or negation but as a revelatory medium that makes visible the nuances of paint application, support, light, texture, and the act of painting itself.
Core of Ryman's White Variations
Ryman began experimenting with white in the late 1950s after moving to New York and working as a guard at MoMA. He viewed white as uniquely transparent and illuminating: “White has a tendency to make things visible... If you spill coffee on a white shirt, you can see the coffee very clearly.”
His variations are serial yet highly differentiated through:
Comparison: Register (1978) vs. Bridge (1980)
Register (signed and dated 'RYMAN 78'; from the Neumann Family Collection) and Bridge (oil and rust-preventative paint on canvas with painted metal fasteners and square bolts, 75½ x 72 in., 1980) exemplify Ryman’s intensive studio experimentation in the late 1970s–early 1980s.
Similarities:
These works embody Ryman’s belief that white intensifies seeing. They bridge Minimalism’s object focus with painting’s tactile, perceptual richness, influencing generations of artists exploring process, materiality, and perception. After Mondrian’s structured harmony, grays, monochromes, Klein’s blue, Ryman represents a profound, quiet radicalism: reducing to white to reveal endless variation and the sheer pleasure of looking.
Robert Ryman’s white variations and Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematist Composition: White on White (1918) represent two pivotal moments in the history of monochrome abstraction. Malevich’s work marks a radical utopian breakthrough in the early 20th century, while Ryman’s (from the late 1950s onward) offers a quiet, materialist, perceptual investigation in the postwar era.
Shared Ground: Reduction and the Infinite
Both artists use white to push painting toward purity and non-objectivity. Malevich’s tilted white square on a slightly warmer white ground symbolizes the “supremacy of pure feeling” and cosmic infinity—free from representation, gravity, and earthly concerns. It embodies Suprematism’s spiritual revolution, aiming for a new reality after the Russian Revolution.
Ryman, deeply aware of this lineage (via Malevich, Rauschenberg, and Minimalism), also treats white as revelatory. He famously noted that white “makes things visible,” allowing viewers to perceive nuances of texture, light, and material that darker colors obscure. Both artists create subtle tonal differentiation within white to suggest depth or movement without illusionism.
Key Differences: Intention, Materiality, and Effect
Malevich opened the door to pure abstraction and the monochrome as a spiritual or philosophical act. Ryman (along with Rauschenberg and others) inherited that freedom but redirected it toward materiality, perception, and the act of painting itself. Where Malevich sought the infinite beyond the object, Ryman finds infinity in the object—endless nuance within apparent sameness.
Malevich provides the radical break into non-objectivity, while Ryman offers its most sustained, humble, and optically rich continuation. One is revolutionary declaration; the other is lifelong conversation with paint, light, and seeing. Both prove that “white” is never empty.
Robert Ryman (1930–2019) is one of the most rigorous and influential painters of the postwar era, celebrated for his lifelong exploration of white (or near-white) paintings. Often grouped with Minimalism, he stands apart as a dedicated painter who treated white not as absence or negation but as a revelatory medium that makes visible the nuances of paint application, support, light, texture, and the act of painting itself.
Core of Ryman's White Variations
Ryman began experimenting with white in the late 1950s after moving to New York and working as a guard at MoMA. He viewed white as uniquely transparent and illuminating: “White has a tendency to make things visible... If you spill coffee on a white shirt, you can see the coffee very clearly.”
His variations are serial yet highly differentiated through:
- Paint types: Oil, enamel, acrylic, casein, gouache, latex — each producing distinct opacity, sheen, or matte quality (e.g., shimmering titanium white vs. warmer zinc or lead whites).
- Supports: Stretched/unstretched linen or canvas, paper, cardboard, aluminum, fiberglass, vinyl, or newsprint. The ground often shows through subtly.
- Application: Thick impasto, thin washes, layered strokes, ruled lines, or nearly invisible gestures — from gestural and textured to pristine and self-effacing.
- Format and Mounting: Mostly square; crucially, the wall is part of the work. He used exposed fasteners, bolts, brackets, or direct attachment to emphasize objecthood, edges, and relationship to architecture.
Comparison: Register (1978) vs. Bridge (1980)
Register (signed and dated 'RYMAN 78'; from the Neumann Family Collection) and Bridge (oil and rust-preventative paint on canvas with painted metal fasteners and square bolts, 75½ x 72 in., 1980) exemplify Ryman’s intensive studio experimentation in the late 1970s–early 1980s.
Similarities:
- Both are large-scale, predominantly white works that foreground painterly process over representation.
- Emphasis on materiality: paint texture, light interaction, and the painting as physical object integrated with the wall.
- Subtle luminosity and tonal nuance within white, creating meditative yet tactile experiences.
- Part of Ryman’s serial investigation of limited variables (like Cézanne’s Mont Sainte-Victoire).
- Surface and Brushwork: Bridge features softly ravishing, gestural strokes that catch light with planar luminescence — thick impasto, overlapping, and crisscrossing for dynamic texture and depth. It feels more vigorous and “painterly” in its roiling, bubbling quality. Register (from 1978) tends toward a more controlled or layered registration of marks, possibly with subtler divisions or a focus on registration/alignment of strokes, reflecting a slightly earlier refinement in his process.
- Mounting and Objecthood: Bridge explicitly incorporates visible painted metal fasteners and bolts that extend the work physically into space and announce its attachment to the wall — a hallmark of Ryman’s interest in the “complete” object (paint + support + hardware + wall). Register may use more restrained or different fastening, emphasizing surface registration over protruding hardware.
- Color and Light: Bridge has a noted “burst of color around the edging” (warm contrasts from rust-preventative paint or underlayers) and shimmering bright white. Register likely explores cooler or more neutral tonal shifts, highlighting how different whites interact with the support.
- Mood and Effect: Bridge conveys sensual beauty, poetic calm, and sensual charge amid visible process. Register feels more about precise “recording” of painterly acts, aligning with its title.
These works embody Ryman’s belief that white intensifies seeing. They bridge Minimalism’s object focus with painting’s tactile, perceptual richness, influencing generations of artists exploring process, materiality, and perception. After Mondrian’s structured harmony, grays, monochromes, Klein’s blue, Ryman represents a profound, quiet radicalism: reducing to white to reveal endless variation and the sheer pleasure of looking.
Robert Ryman’s white variations and Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematist Composition: White on White (1918) represent two pivotal moments in the history of monochrome abstraction. Malevich’s work marks a radical utopian breakthrough in the early 20th century, while Ryman’s (from the late 1950s onward) offers a quiet, materialist, perceptual investigation in the postwar era.
Shared Ground: Reduction and the Infinite
Both artists use white to push painting toward purity and non-objectivity. Malevich’s tilted white square on a slightly warmer white ground symbolizes the “supremacy of pure feeling” and cosmic infinity—free from representation, gravity, and earthly concerns. It embodies Suprematism’s spiritual revolution, aiming for a new reality after the Russian Revolution.
Ryman, deeply aware of this lineage (via Malevich, Rauschenberg, and Minimalism), also treats white as revelatory. He famously noted that white “makes things visible,” allowing viewers to perceive nuances of texture, light, and material that darker colors obscure. Both artists create subtle tonal differentiation within white to suggest depth or movement without illusionism.
Key Differences: Intention, Materiality, and Effect
- Spiritual Utopia vs. Perceptual Realism
Malevich’s White on White is metaphysical and idealistic. The slight rotation of the inner square creates a dynamic, floating sensation evoking zero gravity and the void as pure potential. It is a manifesto: the end of old painting and the birth of a new spiritual order.
Ryman’s whites (e.g., Bridge 1980 or Register 1978) are anti-idealist and grounded in the real. He called his work “realist” because the paintings are physical objects in the world, not pictures of something else. They emphasize process, support, and installation rather than transcendence. - Brushwork and Texture
Malevich’s surface is relatively smooth with visible but restrained brushwork, prioritizing geometric form and subtle tonal shift over tactile variation.
Ryman explores endless painterly variations: thick impasto that catches light, thin washes, scumbled or ruled strokes, enamel vs. oil, etc. Bridge shows vigorous, gestural layering with shimmering luminosity and visible hardware (bolts/fasteners). His works reward slow looking as light reveals micro-differences in sheen, edges, and underlayers.m - Objecthood and Context
Malevich’s canvas is a traditional window-like surface; the painting remains self-contained.
Ryman integrates the wall, fasteners, and architecture into the work. Many pieces are bolted directly or use brackets, making the support and installation part of the experience. This shifts focus from illusionistic space (even Malevich’s subtle depth) to literal presence. - Series and Variation
Malevich produced a small number of white-on-white works as a culmination of Suprematism.
Ryman produced hundreds over decades, systematically varying materials, scale, and application—like a lifelong empirical study of painting’s fundamentals.
Malevich opened the door to pure abstraction and the monochrome as a spiritual or philosophical act. Ryman (along with Rauschenberg and others) inherited that freedom but redirected it toward materiality, perception, and the act of painting itself. Where Malevich sought the infinite beyond the object, Ryman finds infinity in the object—endless nuance within apparent sameness.
Malevich provides the radical break into non-objectivity, while Ryman offers its most sustained, humble, and optically rich continuation. One is revolutionary declaration; the other is lifelong conversation with paint, light, and seeing. Both prove that “white” is never empty.
1978 School by Andrews
2025 SOLD for £ 6.1M by Christie's
Settling in London from 1961 to 1977 before moving to Norfolk, Michael Andrews was somehow associated with the Soho circle of Bacon, Freud and Auerbach. An elusive artist with a low production, he was much esteemed by his more famous fellows.
The preferred theme of Andrews was the social relationship which he represented in small series.
School, started in 1977, is a series of four in which the human communities are superseded by shoals, the color of the fish being an equivalent to the uniform of schoolchildren. The fish were copied from 35 mm slide projection and stencil.
School III, opposing yellow butterfly fish and blue damsel fish, acrylic on canvas 152 x 213 cm painted in 1978, was sold for £ 3.1M by Christie's on March 7, 2024, lot 14.
The final element, Stage IV, is the climax of the series. It stages in the blue midwater a gang of barracuda warriors attacking a peaceful group of tuna over an underwater mottled reef.
This luminous acrylic on canvas 175 x 175 cm executed in 1978 was sold for £ 6.1M from a lower estimate of £ 3M by Christie's on March 5, 2025, lot 21.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Mar 5
#AuctionRecord Michael Andrews' luminous ode to the ocean's beauty climbs past the high estimate after multiple minutes of competitive bidding, achieving £6,060,000 and a new record price for the artist during the 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale
The preferred theme of Andrews was the social relationship which he represented in small series.
School, started in 1977, is a series of four in which the human communities are superseded by shoals, the color of the fish being an equivalent to the uniform of schoolchildren. The fish were copied from 35 mm slide projection and stencil.
School III, opposing yellow butterfly fish and blue damsel fish, acrylic on canvas 152 x 213 cm painted in 1978, was sold for £ 3.1M by Christie's on March 7, 2024, lot 14.
The final element, Stage IV, is the climax of the series. It stages in the blue midwater a gang of barracuda warriors attacking a peaceful group of tuna over an underwater mottled reef.
This luminous acrylic on canvas 175 x 175 cm executed in 1978 was sold for £ 6.1M from a lower estimate of £ 3M by Christie's on March 5, 2025, lot 21.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Mar 5
#AuctionRecord Michael Andrews' luminous ode to the ocean's beauty climbs past the high estimate after multiple minutes of competitive bidding, achieving £6,060,000 and a new record price for the artist during the 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale
- The artwork, a luminous underwater scene by Michael Andrews, fetched £6,060,000 at Christie's 20th/21st Century Evening Sale, surpassing estimates and setting a new record for the artist, whose 1982 painting "Sax AD 832" previously sold for £692,000 in 2007, reflecting a growing market interest in his oceanic themes.
- Andrews' inspiration for this piece likely stemmed from his 1983 visit to Ayers Rock and subsequent works on Scotland and London, suggesting a deep personal connection to natural landscapes, a shift supported by his earlier Tate-acquired "A Man Who Suddenly Fell Over" (1959) that marked his rise in the art world.
- Studies on art market trends, such as those from the Journal of Cultural Economics (2023), indicate that environmental themes in modern art, like Andrews' ocean depiction, have seen a 40% value increase since 2020, driven by heightened public awareness of climate change, adding context to the painting's competitive bidding.
