1989
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Mitchell Maps Textiles Modern watches Cats
See also : Mitchell Maps Textiles Modern watches Cats
1989 RICHTER
1
687-4
2022 SOLD for $ 9.3M by Christie's
There is indeed a continuity in the artistic quest of Gerhard Richter. In 1989 the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen Rotterdam invited him to provide a context for his current work in relation to his past production.
The eminent colorist chose the grey as the threading theme. For the past, it included the blurred black and white photo-painting, the monochromatic Grau series begun in 1966 and the 1988 series titled October 18, 1977 referring to the death of the terrorists Baader, Ensslin and Raspe on their prison cells.
Richter prepared for that exhibition a series of four paintings referred as 687-1 to -4 confronting a dominant white with underlying colors.
687-4 looks like a glacial moraine of black and white in thick impasto with crevices revealing bright colors. This oil on canvas 112 x 102 cm was sold by Christie's for $ 9.1M on November 12, 2014, lot 5 and for $ 9.3M on November 9, 2022, lot 44.
The eminent colorist chose the grey as the threading theme. For the past, it included the blurred black and white photo-painting, the monochromatic Grau series begun in 1966 and the 1988 series titled October 18, 1977 referring to the death of the terrorists Baader, Ensslin and Raspe on their prison cells.
Richter prepared for that exhibition a series of four paintings referred as 687-1 to -4 confronting a dominant white with underlying colors.
687-4 looks like a glacial moraine of black and white in thick impasto with crevices revealing bright colors. This oil on canvas 112 x 102 cm was sold by Christie's for $ 9.1M on November 12, 2014, lot 5 and for $ 9.3M on November 9, 2022, lot 44.
2
687-3 Kind
2015 SOLD for $ 7.1M by Christie's
Painted by Richter in 1989 for the Rotterdam exhibition, the opus 687-3 is titled Kind in German and Child in English.
An austere upper veil of white is cascading down the full length of the picture, transparent enough to reveal the inner layers made of bright yellow, forest green and red glow. That veil is sheared at various places to provide a peep to the canceled picture beneath.
This oil on canvas 97 x 92 cm was sold for $ 7.1M by Christie's on May 13, 2015, lot 24 B.
An austere upper veil of white is cascading down the full length of the picture, transparent enough to reveal the inner layers made of bright yellow, forest green and red glow. That veil is sheared at various places to provide a peep to the canceled picture beneath.
This oil on canvas 97 x 92 cm was sold for $ 7.1M by Christie's on May 13, 2015, lot 24 B.
3
AB 709
2014 SOLD for £ 19.6M by Christie's
The abstract art by Gerhard Richter is a process of continuous improvement that is accelerating from the mid-1980s.
Technique, colors, increasing size are not a progression towards a single masterpiece but the various elements of a total control that will allow him throughout the following decade to generate a figurative emotion through totally abstract pictures.
On February 13, 2014, Christie's sold at lot 17 for £ 19.6M an Abstraktes Bild painted in 1989, oil on canvas 260 x 200 cm, which is a convincing demonstration of the technical possibilities of Richter's squeegee.
By twisting the tool Richter creates repeating patterns that are neither geometric nor linear. His virtuosity is so high that each of the many bright colors plays its score without conflicting.
The overview is a shimmering texture that can be compared to the iridescence of light in a waterfall or the impressive color of a molten lava. This monumental picture is however totally abstract. The fineness of detail provides the viewer with an endless wandering of his visual exploration.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
Technique, colors, increasing size are not a progression towards a single masterpiece but the various elements of a total control that will allow him throughout the following decade to generate a figurative emotion through totally abstract pictures.
On February 13, 2014, Christie's sold at lot 17 for £ 19.6M an Abstraktes Bild painted in 1989, oil on canvas 260 x 200 cm, which is a convincing demonstration of the technical possibilities of Richter's squeegee.
By twisting the tool Richter creates repeating patterns that are neither geometric nor linear. His virtuosity is so high that each of the many bright colors plays its score without conflicting.
The overview is a shimmering texture that can be compared to the iridescence of light in a waterfall or the impressive color of a molten lava. This monumental picture is however totally abstract. The fineness of detail provides the viewer with an endless wandering of his visual exploration.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
1989-1994 Le Chat au Miroir by Balthus
2021 SOLD for RMB 167M by Yongle
In 1977 Balthus moved permanently with his Japanese wife to a chalet in the canton de Vaud. His paintings then represent a synthesis of his signature themes, fancies and enigmas. He works in parallel on many compositions but completes few of them, sometimes after several years, progressing slowly in an anti-modernist mood.
Le Chat au miroir is a series of three completed works from that period of semi retirement.
The main character is a girl seated on a sofa. On the other side a cat is watching. The girl turns her eyes to look at the pet through a translucent hand mirror held by her stretched arm.
The peeping cat is featuring the artist himself since the 1935 roi des chats. The awkward pre-adolescent girl is reminiscent of the series started in 1936 with an 11 year old Thérèse. The mirror between them is both a helper and a liar, reminding Alice's Wonderland.
In Le Chat au miroir I, painted in 1980, the smiling girl is nude excepted an underwear on an arm. The cat is ready for an attack with its raised ears and mewing mouth. In the opus II, painted in 1986, the barefoot girl is clothed in a tight shirt revealing the torso with the growing breast.
The opus III is the culmination of the series and even of the career of the artist. Started in 1989, it is considered as his latest finished large work, completed five years later in 1994 when he was 86 years old.
The still barefoot girl is now fully clothed in saturated colors. The dark cat with piercing eyes is more threatening than ever. The Japanese words reading cat and mirror constitute a title in nearly imperceptible blue lines.
Le Chat au miroir III was sold for RMB 167M by Yongle on December 3, 2021, lot 2035. Please watch the video shared in 2018 by VernissageTV during its exhibition by Fondation Beyeler at Martigny.
Le Chat au miroir is a series of three completed works from that period of semi retirement.
The main character is a girl seated on a sofa. On the other side a cat is watching. The girl turns her eyes to look at the pet through a translucent hand mirror held by her stretched arm.
The peeping cat is featuring the artist himself since the 1935 roi des chats. The awkward pre-adolescent girl is reminiscent of the series started in 1936 with an 11 year old Thérèse. The mirror between them is both a helper and a liar, reminding Alice's Wonderland.
In Le Chat au miroir I, painted in 1980, the smiling girl is nude excepted an underwear on an arm. The cat is ready for an attack with its raised ears and mewing mouth. In the opus II, painted in 1986, the barefoot girl is clothed in a tight shirt revealing the torso with the growing breast.
The opus III is the culmination of the series and even of the career of the artist. Started in 1989, it is considered as his latest finished large work, completed five years later in 1994 when he was 86 years old.
The still barefoot girl is now fully clothed in saturated colors. The dark cat with piercing eyes is more threatening than ever. The Japanese words reading cat and mirror constitute a title in nearly imperceptible blue lines.
Le Chat au miroir III was sold for RMB 167M by Yongle on December 3, 2021, lot 2035. Please watch the video shared in 2018 by VernissageTV during its exhibition by Fondation Beyeler at Martigny.
1989 Untitled by Mitchell
2022 SOLD for $ 14M by Christie's
Joan Mitchell once stated : "All I wanted to do was paint". She never gave up.
She was first diagnosed with a cancer in 1984, aged 59. Her health further deteriorated with hip dysplasia and disabling arthritis.
Clearly feeling that her life and art would come to an end, she did not stop working, increasing her quest for the processing of colors by the greatest masters of the past : van Gogh, Monet, Kandinsky, Matisse. She felt like a dying sunflower. She said : "I become the sunflower, the lake, the tree. I no longer exist".
She restarted her former style of color bursts on white background, but without the desperate centrifugal explosion of her Paris period.
An Untitled diptych, oil on canvas 195 x 260 cm overall painted in 1989, was sold for $ 14M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Christie's on November 17, 2022, lot 46.
The multi-colored abstract floating bouquet is well centered on the canvas without reaching the edges. Paint drippings provide some gravitation to the image.
She was first diagnosed with a cancer in 1984, aged 59. Her health further deteriorated with hip dysplasia and disabling arthritis.
Clearly feeling that her life and art would come to an end, she did not stop working, increasing her quest for the processing of colors by the greatest masters of the past : van Gogh, Monet, Kandinsky, Matisse. She felt like a dying sunflower. She said : "I become the sunflower, the lake, the tree. I no longer exist".
She restarted her former style of color bursts on white background, but without the desperate centrifugal explosion of her Paris period.
An Untitled diptych, oil on canvas 195 x 260 cm overall painted in 1989, was sold for $ 14M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Christie's on November 17, 2022, lot 46.
The multi-colored abstract floating bouquet is well centered on the canvas without reaching the edges. Paint drippings provide some gravitation to the image.
1988-1989 Cold Mountain by Marden
2010 SOLD for $ 9.6M by Sotheby's
In 1984, Brice Marden visited an exhibition devoted to the masters of Japanese calligraphy. For this artist in love with Asian culture, it was a revelation. He began a new career.
Before that, he had been a follower of the minimalists, inspired by Jasper Johns, making paintings in oil and beeswax composed of colored stripes of equal size strictly juxtaposed.
After four years of preparation, he integrates the artistic language of Pollock's dripping, and realizes in 1988 or 1989 a work on canvas entitled Path, 270 x 360 cm, the first of a series which will have six. He gives the name of Cold Mountain to these opus. Cold Mountain was the nickname of Han Shan, a legendary Tang poet.
Taking the principle of juxtaposition, the artist wrote the artwork in eight vertical columns of gray lines on white background, a hybrid between gestural art and calligraphy. 'Path' was sold for $ 9.6M by Sotheby's on May 12, 2010. The image is shared by Art Market Monitor.
There is no doubt that the synthesis of American art and Far East philosophy is attractive for the art market. In our age of globalization, it is worth to note that the new Marden approach comes in parallel of the calligraphic trend of Islamic painting.
Before that, he had been a follower of the minimalists, inspired by Jasper Johns, making paintings in oil and beeswax composed of colored stripes of equal size strictly juxtaposed.
After four years of preparation, he integrates the artistic language of Pollock's dripping, and realizes in 1988 or 1989 a work on canvas entitled Path, 270 x 360 cm, the first of a series which will have six. He gives the name of Cold Mountain to these opus. Cold Mountain was the nickname of Han Shan, a legendary Tang poet.
Taking the principle of juxtaposition, the artist wrote the artwork in eight vertical columns of gray lines on white background, a hybrid between gestural art and calligraphy. 'Path' was sold for $ 9.6M by Sotheby's on May 12, 2010. The image is shared by Art Market Monitor.
There is no doubt that the synthesis of American art and Far East philosophy is attractive for the art market. In our age of globalization, it is worth to note that the new Marden approach comes in parallel of the calligraphic trend of Islamic painting.
1989 Martin, into the Corner by Kippenberger
2021 SOLD for $ 9.5M by Christie's
Martin Kippenberger is a post-punk artist from the wounded post war Germany. His art is so versatile that he defies conventions and classifications. We live only once. Martin and his friends want to catch the best of it, including jazz and happenings.
The major thread of Martin's art is himself. He is so an ordinary man, damaged by abuses, that he deserves his self-abasement, at a point never reached by another artist. His series of self-portraits in Picasso underpants, in 1988, is a double statement on the true nature of art. At age 34, he displays himself as an ugly anybody man who cannot any more be compared with Helmut Berger.
He was born a petit bourgeois and his art is a merciless critics of his class. His irreverence is limitless and highly creative. In his quest for a more intense life, he enjoys being hated.
There was also no political limits. His German foes took not without arguments his flirt with Neo-Nazism for fighting his social and religious cynicism mingled with childishness.
Appealed by such a hostility, he conceives in 1989 a selfie standing sculpture slightly shorter than life in foam with head and hands in wood. He clothes it in the most awkward garment that a German wears, including the suspenders of his trousers over his white shirt. Some casts have been made in other materials.
It is a one figure installation to be positioned facing a wall corner like a punished schoolboy after a fault, but with no dunce cap. The title is clear : Martin, ab in die Ecke und schäm dich (Martin, Into the Corner and Have Shame of Yourself). The head is slightly bowed in repentance and the arms are crossed behind the back.
The original figure was sold for $ 9.5M by Christie's on May 11, 2021, lot 18 A. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The major thread of Martin's art is himself. He is so an ordinary man, damaged by abuses, that he deserves his self-abasement, at a point never reached by another artist. His series of self-portraits in Picasso underpants, in 1988, is a double statement on the true nature of art. At age 34, he displays himself as an ugly anybody man who cannot any more be compared with Helmut Berger.
He was born a petit bourgeois and his art is a merciless critics of his class. His irreverence is limitless and highly creative. In his quest for a more intense life, he enjoys being hated.
There was also no political limits. His German foes took not without arguments his flirt with Neo-Nazism for fighting his social and religious cynicism mingled with childishness.
Appealed by such a hostility, he conceives in 1989 a selfie standing sculpture slightly shorter than life in foam with head and hands in wood. He clothes it in the most awkward garment that a German wears, including the suspenders of his trousers over his white shirt. Some casts have been made in other materials.
It is a one figure installation to be positioned facing a wall corner like a punished schoolboy after a fault, but with no dunce cap. The title is clear : Martin, ab in die Ecke und schäm dich (Martin, Into the Corner and Have Shame of Yourself). The head is slightly bowed in repentance and the arms are crossed behind the back.
The original figure was sold for $ 9.5M by Christie's on May 11, 2021, lot 18 A. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1989-1991 Mappa by Boetti
2022 SOLD for $ 8.8M by Sotheby's
In the later 1980s, Alighiero Boetti's colors of the Mappe converge to blue seas, which effectively offer a nice contrast with the other colors.
A 128 x 230 cm embroidery on linen executed in Afghanistan was sold for £ 2.3M by Christie's on October 15, 2021, lot 17. Oceans are cyan.
It is dated in Persian script 1360 AH matching 1988-1989 CE and bears on the border among other inscriptions a motto of the artist revealing his desire to control the time despite the unstable contours of the political countries : a tempo, in tempo, con tempo, il temporale.
Another Persian inscription regrets the recent history of the beautiful Afghanistan which was had been no more accessible to his business for a few years after the 1984 Soviet invasion.
The tapestries would take from a few months to several years to complete. In the above example, the flags and borders keep their 1988 figures before the 1989 termination of the Cold War.
A 116 x 217 cm Mappa was sold for £ 1.83M by Christie's on June 30, 2010, lot 10. This embroidered tapestry was executed in 1989 in Peshawar by Afghan refugees from the communist backed regime.
Its deep blue oceans distinguish it from the other examples. It is inscribed in Farsi in its border with a quote from the medieval poet Sa'di whose English translation is 'Of One Essence is the Human Race, Thusly has Creation put the Base', accompanied by a temporal Italian statement by the artist.
This encounter of mankind and time and of East and West reflects a new hope for the world as the termination of the Cold War is in view, to be formally assessed by Gorbachev and Bush in December of that year.
In this specific Mappa the written instructions of the artist for the colors have been incorporated by its makers into the woven design of each flag.
A monumental Mappa 260 x 585 cm by Alighiero Boetti was sold for $ 8.8M by Sotheby's on November 16, 2022, lot 129.
This embroidery on fabric is dated 1989, 90 and 91 and inscribed Peshawar Pakistan by Afghan People on the overlap. These three years saw the fall of the Berlin wall, in November 1989, the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 and the deletion of the iron curtain in Eastern Europe. This Mappa is indeed a swan song of the sickle and hammer as a national symbol.
A 128 x 230 cm embroidery on linen executed in Afghanistan was sold for £ 2.3M by Christie's on October 15, 2021, lot 17. Oceans are cyan.
It is dated in Persian script 1360 AH matching 1988-1989 CE and bears on the border among other inscriptions a motto of the artist revealing his desire to control the time despite the unstable contours of the political countries : a tempo, in tempo, con tempo, il temporale.
Another Persian inscription regrets the recent history of the beautiful Afghanistan which was had been no more accessible to his business for a few years after the 1984 Soviet invasion.
The tapestries would take from a few months to several years to complete. In the above example, the flags and borders keep their 1988 figures before the 1989 termination of the Cold War.
A 116 x 217 cm Mappa was sold for £ 1.83M by Christie's on June 30, 2010, lot 10. This embroidered tapestry was executed in 1989 in Peshawar by Afghan refugees from the communist backed regime.
Its deep blue oceans distinguish it from the other examples. It is inscribed in Farsi in its border with a quote from the medieval poet Sa'di whose English translation is 'Of One Essence is the Human Race, Thusly has Creation put the Base', accompanied by a temporal Italian statement by the artist.
This encounter of mankind and time and of East and West reflects a new hope for the world as the termination of the Cold War is in view, to be formally assessed by Gorbachev and Bush in December of that year.
In this specific Mappa the written instructions of the artist for the colors have been incorporated by its makers into the woven design of each flag.
A monumental Mappa 260 x 585 cm by Alighiero Boetti was sold for $ 8.8M by Sotheby's on November 16, 2022, lot 129.
This embroidery on fabric is dated 1989, 90 and 91 and inscribed Peshawar Pakistan by Afghan People on the overlap. These three years saw the fall of the Berlin wall, in November 1989, the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 and the deletion of the iron curtain in Eastern Europe. This Mappa is indeed a swan song of the sickle and hammer as a national symbol.
1989 Calibre 89 by Patek Philippe
2004 SOLD for CHF 6.6M by Antiquorum (worth US $ 5M at that time)
The best wristwatches are highly sophisticated masterpieces of miniaturization. Pocket watches, not limited by the size of the wrist, can do even better in terms of cumulated complications.
In 1989 Patek Philippe celebrates its 150th anniversary with the Calibre 89, which had required more nine years of design, manufacturing and assembly. According to the brand at that time, it is the "most complicated watch in the world": double open faced with a dial for solar time and a dial for sidereal time, 33 complications, 24 hands, 1,728 components. They fit in a case 89 mm in diameter and 41 mm thick weighing 1,100 grams.
The Calibre 89 was produced in only four copies, respectively in yellow gold, white gold, pink gold and platinum.
The working prototype of the Calibre 89 was completed in July 1988 and the yellow gold specimen was released only nine month afterward. It was immediately offered in Geneva in a themed auction devoted to 'The Art of Patek Philippe' : that brand new watch fetched the equivalent of US$ 3.2M at Habsburg Feldman on April 9, 1989 which was at that time a world auction record for a watch.
This unit was sold for CHF 5.1M on November 14, 2009 by Antiquorum successor to Habsburg Feldman, lot 364. It passed at Sotheby's on May 14, 2017, lot 171.
On April 24, 2004, Antiquorum sold the white gold watch for CHF 6.6M then worth US$ 5M. That sale celebrated the 30th anniversary of the auction house.
The Calibre 89 is now overcome in complexity by the Vacheron Constantin reference 57260, a unique pocket watch made in 2015 for a private customer.
In 1989 Patek Philippe celebrates its 150th anniversary with the Calibre 89, which had required more nine years of design, manufacturing and assembly. According to the brand at that time, it is the "most complicated watch in the world": double open faced with a dial for solar time and a dial for sidereal time, 33 complications, 24 hands, 1,728 components. They fit in a case 89 mm in diameter and 41 mm thick weighing 1,100 grams.
The Calibre 89 was produced in only four copies, respectively in yellow gold, white gold, pink gold and platinum.
The working prototype of the Calibre 89 was completed in July 1988 and the yellow gold specimen was released only nine month afterward. It was immediately offered in Geneva in a themed auction devoted to 'The Art of Patek Philippe' : that brand new watch fetched the equivalent of US$ 3.2M at Habsburg Feldman on April 9, 1989 which was at that time a world auction record for a watch.
This unit was sold for CHF 5.1M on November 14, 2009 by Antiquorum successor to Habsburg Feldman, lot 364. It passed at Sotheby's on May 14, 2017, lot 171.
On April 24, 2004, Antiquorum sold the white gold watch for CHF 6.6M then worth US$ 5M. That sale celebrated the 30th anniversary of the auction house.
The Calibre 89 is now overcome in complexity by the Vacheron Constantin reference 57260, a unique pocket watch made in 2015 for a private customer.
1989 A Case for an Angel by Gormley
2017 SOLD for £ 5.3M by Christie's
Like many other artists Antony Gormley questions the mystery of human life. In an early phase the sculptor lengthens some organs of the body.
He then creates in 1989 a hybrid built on a plaster cast from his own body in which he replaces the arms by wings extended up to the limits of equilibrium. The plaster is covered with a sheet of lead adjusted by hand. A straight line passes through the body from head to feet for accentuating the impression of symmetry. The upper edge of the wings forms a horizon.
This 197 x 858 x 46 cm creature in the shape of a vertical airplane taking flight is no longer human. The artist names it A case for an Angel in an invitation to transcendental meditation that has no religious intention. Case here means both the didactic argument and the carnal carapace. This monumental sculpture of an unprecedented figuration was sold for £ 5.3M by Christie's on October 6, 2017, lot 14.
Two additional examples are made in 1990 with the same title. The culmination of this theme comes in 1998 after four years of preparation when Angel of the North is installed on top of a hill in northeastern England. This sculpture measuring 20 m high and 54 m wingspan and weighing 110 metric tons is anchored on 165 metric tons of concrete.
In 1996 the model of Angel of the North 200 x 533 x 33 cm displaying the central human body in life size was edited in five cast iron copies. Two of them were sold at auction : £ 2,3M by Sotheby's on July 1, 2008, and £ 3,4M by Christie's on October 14, 2011.
The British know how to highlight their artists. Gormley was knighted in 2014.
He then creates in 1989 a hybrid built on a plaster cast from his own body in which he replaces the arms by wings extended up to the limits of equilibrium. The plaster is covered with a sheet of lead adjusted by hand. A straight line passes through the body from head to feet for accentuating the impression of symmetry. The upper edge of the wings forms a horizon.
This 197 x 858 x 46 cm creature in the shape of a vertical airplane taking flight is no longer human. The artist names it A case for an Angel in an invitation to transcendental meditation that has no religious intention. Case here means both the didactic argument and the carnal carapace. This monumental sculpture of an unprecedented figuration was sold for £ 5.3M by Christie's on October 6, 2017, lot 14.
Two additional examples are made in 1990 with the same title. The culmination of this theme comes in 1998 after four years of preparation when Angel of the North is installed on top of a hill in northeastern England. This sculpture measuring 20 m high and 54 m wingspan and weighing 110 metric tons is anchored on 165 metric tons of concrete.
In 1996 the model of Angel of the North 200 x 533 x 33 cm displaying the central human body in life size was edited in five cast iron copies. Two of them were sold at auction : £ 2,3M by Sotheby's on July 1, 2008, and £ 3,4M by Christie's on October 14, 2011.
The British know how to highlight their artists. Gormley was knighted in 2014.
