1993
1993 Abstraktes Bild 797-2 by Richter
2021 SOLD for $ 33M by Sotheby's
Gerhard Richter admitted that the process for his abstract paintings included some unplanned effect to be offset by his ultimate inspection of his creation. In all cases, even in his sublimely chaotic and most sumptuous abstract works, chance followed a detailed preparation adapted for each opus.
The catalogue raisonné for 1993 begins with Grün Blau Rot, a series of no less than 126 oils on canvas 30 x 40 cm continuously numbered in two sub-series from 789-1 to 789-115 and from 789-a to 789-k.
This time consuming task was obviously intended to test the visual effects of detailed forms confronting three basic colors without changing the pigments. The Rot Blau Gelb of 1973, numbered 338-1 to 338-100 in rectangular format and 339-1 to 339-7 in square format, had been a similar experience.
The 1993 green blue red was immediately reused by the artist with the brushes as the background layer in seven large size square paintings. Random effects were added with the squeegee in the desired range of vibrant colors. Richter's tool has here a deconstructing role that cancels forever the intermediate states, same as the drippings for Pollock.
The importance of this process is confirmed by the fact that one of these Abstrakte Bilder was representing Richter's abstractions in the severely selected Macklowe collection. This 797-2, oil on canvas 240 x 240 cm painted in 1993, was sold for $ 33M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 22.
The catalogue raisonné for 1993 begins with Grün Blau Rot, a series of no less than 126 oils on canvas 30 x 40 cm continuously numbered in two sub-series from 789-1 to 789-115 and from 789-a to 789-k.
This time consuming task was obviously intended to test the visual effects of detailed forms confronting three basic colors without changing the pigments. The Rot Blau Gelb of 1973, numbered 338-1 to 338-100 in rectangular format and 339-1 to 339-7 in square format, had been a similar experience.
The 1993 green blue red was immediately reused by the artist with the brushes as the background layer in seven large size square paintings. Random effects were added with the squeegee in the desired range of vibrant colors. Richter's tool has here a deconstructing role that cancels forever the intermediate states, same as the drippings for Pollock.
The importance of this process is confirmed by the fact that one of these Abstrakte Bilder was representing Richter's abstractions in the severely selected Macklowe collection. This 797-2, oil on canvas 240 x 240 cm painted in 1993, was sold for $ 33M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 22.
1993 Warm Spring in the Jade Pavilion by Chen Yifei
2017 SOLD for RMB 150M by China Guardian
Chen Yifei loved pretty women and beautiful clothes. Trained in oil painting by a Soviet artist, he abandons without regret the political themes after the Cultural Revolution but maintains a fully realistic line with shimmering colors.
Returning to Shanghai in 1990 after ten years in the United States, he observes that women are badly dressed. He will devote a considerable energy to remedy it while reviving ancient traditions.
He paints groups of beauties who would have their place in a fashion show. He also became a filmmaker, created the Layefe brand first for elegant and affordable clothing and then also for interior design, piloted a model agency and died of overwork in 2005.
In his paintings graceful women let themselves be quietly admired in the manner of the Japanese geishas.
Warm Spring in the Jade Pavilion was sold for RMB 150M by China Guardian on December 19, 2017. It was shared post sale by China Daily. This oil painting i170 x 244 cm executed in 1993 is depicting the life in Shanghai in the 1930s with many characters gathering around a tea table.
Returning to Shanghai in 1990 after ten years in the United States, he observes that women are badly dressed. He will devote a considerable energy to remedy it while reviving ancient traditions.
He paints groups of beauties who would have their place in a fashion show. He also became a filmmaker, created the Layefe brand first for elegant and affordable clothing and then also for interior design, piloted a model agency and died of overwork in 2005.
In his paintings graceful women let themselves be quietly admired in the manner of the Japanese geishas.
Warm Spring in the Jade Pavilion was sold for RMB 150M by China Guardian on December 19, 2017. It was shared post sale by China Daily. This oil painting i170 x 244 cm executed in 1993 is depicting the life in Shanghai in the 1930s with many characters gathering around a tea table.
1993 Cold Beer Beautiful Girls by Ruscha
2022 SOLD for $ 19M by Sotheby's
The signature letter art by Ed Ruscha is a new language in the follow of Pop art.
That minimalist style can express feelings and fun. Executed in 1993, the large scale COLD BEER BEAUTIFUL GIRLS brings a double word message of happiness in clean white block letters emerging from a nice background of blue sky loaded with dynamic white clouds underlined by a narrow land edge.
This acrylic on canvas 193 x 252 cm was sold for $ 19M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2022, lot 106.
It had been sold for $ 540K by Christie's on November, 2002, lot 39. The catalogue quoted Hamlet : Words without thoughts never to heaven go. Sotheby's 2022 catalogue reported a surrealist statement by the artist : Taking things out of context is a useful tool to an artist.
Another painting from the same period states that Irresistible Singles Win Incredible Dates.
That minimalist style can express feelings and fun. Executed in 1993, the large scale COLD BEER BEAUTIFUL GIRLS brings a double word message of happiness in clean white block letters emerging from a nice background of blue sky loaded with dynamic white clouds underlined by a narrow land edge.
This acrylic on canvas 193 x 252 cm was sold for $ 19M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2022, lot 106.
It had been sold for $ 540K by Christie's on November, 2002, lot 39. The catalogue quoted Hamlet : Words without thoughts never to heaven go. Sotheby's 2022 catalogue reported a surrealist statement by the artist : Taking things out of context is a useful tool to an artist.
Another painting from the same period states that Irresistible Singles Win Incredible Dates.
DOIG
1
1993 Cabin Boiler House
2020 SOLD for £ 14M by Christie's
After the war, it was necessary to rebuild. Le Corbusier offers a new concept with a social vocation, the Unité d'Habitation, better known as Cité Radieuse. The first example, the Maison du Fada in Marseille, is immediately famous.
On the same principle of building bars housing more than 300 apartments, Le Corbusier constructs from 1959 in the middle of the forest the Unité d'Habitation of Briey, for enabling a housing solution to the influx of workers in Lorraine. The recession of the mining basin and various construction defects led to the final evacuation of the building in 1983.
Le Corbusier is the symbol of social modernism. His frontages with a too strict geometry evoke the compositions of Mondrian. In 1991, the Unité of Briey is left as nothing more than an abandoned work of art 110 meters long, 56 meters high and 19 meters wide. Peter Doig visits the site with a group solicited to propose a restoration and takes some photos through the trees.
For the young artist, the Unité of Briey is a memory which reconstructs a bygone past. The theme combines art, modernism, the reconquest of the site by nature. He begins his series of nine large-format paintings titled Concrete Cabins. Through the dark trees, the bar has no perspective, in a dynamic overview in the manner of Cézanne. The mingle of pictorial techniques is influenced by Richter.
One of the nine opus shows another view. 300 meters from the main structure, the boiler house had anticipated the disuse of the rest of the Unité. We no longer use coal heating. The two-level facade is decrepit and the windows are gaping. The chimneys look like two horns above this haggard dwelling even more sinister or pitiful in the bright daylight.
Cabin Boiler House, oil on canvas 200 x 275 cm painted in 1993, was sold for £ 14M by Christie's on October 22, 2020, lot 110.
The building bar and the boiler house have both been listed in the inventory of the French historical monuments with the label of Patrimoine du XXème siècle, respectively in 1993 and 2007
On the same principle of building bars housing more than 300 apartments, Le Corbusier constructs from 1959 in the middle of the forest the Unité d'Habitation of Briey, for enabling a housing solution to the influx of workers in Lorraine. The recession of the mining basin and various construction defects led to the final evacuation of the building in 1983.
Le Corbusier is the symbol of social modernism. His frontages with a too strict geometry evoke the compositions of Mondrian. In 1991, the Unité of Briey is left as nothing more than an abandoned work of art 110 meters long, 56 meters high and 19 meters wide. Peter Doig visits the site with a group solicited to propose a restoration and takes some photos through the trees.
For the young artist, the Unité of Briey is a memory which reconstructs a bygone past. The theme combines art, modernism, the reconquest of the site by nature. He begins his series of nine large-format paintings titled Concrete Cabins. Through the dark trees, the bar has no perspective, in a dynamic overview in the manner of Cézanne. The mingle of pictorial techniques is influenced by Richter.
One of the nine opus shows another view. 300 meters from the main structure, the boiler house had anticipated the disuse of the rest of the Unité. We no longer use coal heating. The two-level facade is decrepit and the windows are gaping. The chimneys look like two horns above this haggard dwelling even more sinister or pitiful in the bright daylight.
Cabin Boiler House, oil on canvas 200 x 275 cm painted in 1993, was sold for £ 14M by Christie's on October 22, 2020, lot 110.
The building bar and the boiler house have both been listed in the inventory of the French historical monuments with the label of Patrimoine du XXème siècle, respectively in 1993 and 2007
2
1993-1994 Cabin Essence Black
2015 SOLD for £ 9.6M by Christie's
The man leaves sometimes within nature the grandiose remains of his desires and of his abandoned projects. Peter Doig is an explorer of such lost sites that emit an intense emotion. He is also a contemporary painter with an impeccable technique who readily acknowledges the influence of the masters onto his art.
His large size paintings provide a fascinating effect. His bold compositions are inspired by Cézanne, who knew to incorporate foregrounds in a scenery without hiding the majesty of the background while also avoiding to cheat against the laws of perspective. The achievement is the impression of an approachable infinity.
In his imaginary scenes with empty canoes in a wild forest, Doig achieved this effect by the reflection in the water and the disappearance of the horizon. Swamped, painted in 1990, was sold for $ 26M by Christie's on May 11, 2015.
The artist visited in 1991 Le Corbusier's cité in Briey-en-Forêt, emptied fifteen years before. He was influenced by its architectural style that is linked to the abstract expression of nature by Mondrian. Above all, the view of this ghost urbanization through the dense network of trees provided one of these post-Cézannian themes which were the thread of his own research. He began the series entitled Concrete Cabins.
Painted in 1991, the Architect's home in the ravine is a daylight view of a site near Toronto. The house is gradually covered by the trees same as when Pollock covered his canvases with colors. This oil on canvas 200 x 250 cm was sold for £ 14.4M by Sotheby's on March 7, 2018.
On October 16, 2015, Christie's sold for £ 9.6M Cabin Essence Black, oil on canvas 230 x 350 cm dated 1993-1994, lot 11.
The large building in the night, inspired from Briey, seems very near with its many lights filtered through the dark trees. Doig was probably influenced by the latest expressionist researches of Richter. The result is a sumptuous effect of shine and shadow that may be seen as an echo to the Isle of the dead by Böcklin.
His large size paintings provide a fascinating effect. His bold compositions are inspired by Cézanne, who knew to incorporate foregrounds in a scenery without hiding the majesty of the background while also avoiding to cheat against the laws of perspective. The achievement is the impression of an approachable infinity.
In his imaginary scenes with empty canoes in a wild forest, Doig achieved this effect by the reflection in the water and the disappearance of the horizon. Swamped, painted in 1990, was sold for $ 26M by Christie's on May 11, 2015.
The artist visited in 1991 Le Corbusier's cité in Briey-en-Forêt, emptied fifteen years before. He was influenced by its architectural style that is linked to the abstract expression of nature by Mondrian. Above all, the view of this ghost urbanization through the dense network of trees provided one of these post-Cézannian themes which were the thread of his own research. He began the series entitled Concrete Cabins.
Painted in 1991, the Architect's home in the ravine is a daylight view of a site near Toronto. The house is gradually covered by the trees same as when Pollock covered his canvases with colors. This oil on canvas 200 x 250 cm was sold for £ 14.4M by Sotheby's on March 7, 2018.
On October 16, 2015, Christie's sold for £ 9.6M Cabin Essence Black, oil on canvas 230 x 350 cm dated 1993-1994, lot 11.
The large building in the night, inspired from Briey, seems very near with its many lights filtered through the dark trees. Doig was probably influenced by the latest expressionist researches of Richter. The result is a sumptuous effect of shine and shadow that may be seen as an echo to the Isle of the dead by Böcklin.
1993 Beauty Examined by Kerry James Marshall
2022 SOLD for $ 13.5M by Sotheby's
Kerry James Marshall started by confronting the black and the white. Painted in 1991, Nat Shango displays an African American activist holding an ax, resolutely turning his back to a wall of blonde pin up posters. This mixed media on linen 187 x 142 cm was sold for $ 7.5M by Christie's on May 11, 2021, lot 12 A.
Executed in the same year in a similar format, another opus displays a similar background with the blondes in a lower contrast. Titled You must suffer if you want to be beautiful, it displays a standing Lady whose eyes are the only discernable detail in a typical silhouette of an African woman. It was sold for $ 2.3M by Christie's on May 17, 2018, lot 54 B.
In the follow, Beauty Examined is still more politically corrosive. The silhouetted woman is lying on her back like a corpse in a morgue. A rolled up sleeve provides a visibility on bones and veins of the arm in the taste of Basquiat's anatomical transparencies.
The dead beauty is indeed in a display in a dissection room, as confirmed by the labels Exhibit and Anatomical Axiom, and by the caption detailing the age, race and weight of that female subject. The wall is covered with anatomical figures and with three portraits of blacks, arguably from the medical staff. A motto Beauty is only skin deep reinforces the social statement.
No white figure is visible. The artist does not need them any more to shout his message about the unacceptable condition of the African Americans in the USA.
This acrylic and collage on canvas 215 x 250 cm painted in 1993 was sold for $ 13.5M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2022, lot 11, for the benefit of an Adventist medical research center.
It had been sold in April 1993 through a gallery in Los Angeles. The artist moved to Chicago in the same year.
Executed in the same year in a similar format, another opus displays a similar background with the blondes in a lower contrast. Titled You must suffer if you want to be beautiful, it displays a standing Lady whose eyes are the only discernable detail in a typical silhouette of an African woman. It was sold for $ 2.3M by Christie's on May 17, 2018, lot 54 B.
In the follow, Beauty Examined is still more politically corrosive. The silhouetted woman is lying on her back like a corpse in a morgue. A rolled up sleeve provides a visibility on bones and veins of the arm in the taste of Basquiat's anatomical transparencies.
The dead beauty is indeed in a display in a dissection room, as confirmed by the labels Exhibit and Anatomical Axiom, and by the caption detailing the age, race and weight of that female subject. The wall is covered with anatomical figures and with three portraits of blacks, arguably from the medical staff. A motto Beauty is only skin deep reinforces the social statement.
No white figure is visible. The artist does not need them any more to shout his message about the unacceptable condition of the African Americans in the USA.
This acrylic and collage on canvas 215 x 250 cm painted in 1993 was sold for $ 13.5M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2022, lot 11, for the benefit of an Adventist medical research center.
It had been sold in April 1993 through a gallery in Los Angeles. The artist moved to Chicago in the same year.
1993 WOOL
1
P174
2022 SOLD for $ 9M by Christie's
After his letter art of 1988-1992 in his signature enamel on aluminum, Christopher Wool re-used that painting technique in another theme in a triple reference to Warhol.
The silkscreen is now superseding the stencil. The repeated picture of a flower is Warholian, and the symmetry of the ink spot reminds Warhol's Rorschach series of 1984. Christopher's father was a psychiatrist.
The opus P174 230 x 176 cm painted in 1993 nearly cancels the flowers within the density of the black pigment, reminding Pollock's hidden figures. It was sold for $ 9M by Christie's on November 17, 2022, lot 118.
The silkscreen is now superseding the stencil. The repeated picture of a flower is Warholian, and the symmetry of the ink spot reminds Warhol's Rorschach series of 1984. Christopher's father was a psychiatrist.
The opus P174 230 x 176 cm painted in 1993 nearly cancels the flowers within the density of the black pigment, reminding Pollock's hidden figures. It was sold for $ 9M by Christie's on November 17, 2022, lot 118.
2
P183
2014 SOLD for $ 8.9M by Christie's
Painted in 1993, the opus P183 displays in its center an accumulation of kitsch daisies obtained from multiple layers of silkscreen. It is an example of new experiences by Wool toward a decorative effect in which the black ink cancels the natural colored beauty of the flowers, re-interpreting the early black and white screen prints of flowers by Warhol.
This enamel on aluminum 230 x 152 cm was sold for $ 8.9M from a lower estimate of $ 7M by Christie's on November 12, 2014, lot 39.
Painted in 1995, the P209, titled Feet don't fail me now after a 1982 album of rock song by Utopia, mingles several stenciled floral patterns. This enamel on aluminum 274 x 183 cm retrieves the usual monumental size of the 1990 letter art. It was sold for $ 8.9M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2018, lot 5.
This enamel on aluminum 230 x 152 cm was sold for $ 8.9M from a lower estimate of $ 7M by Christie's on November 12, 2014, lot 39.
Painted in 1995, the P209, titled Feet don't fail me now after a 1982 album of rock song by Utopia, mingles several stenciled floral patterns. This enamel on aluminum 274 x 183 cm retrieves the usual monumental size of the 1990 letter art. It was sold for $ 8.9M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2018, lot 5.
1993 The Second Elder Brother
2012 SOLD 52 MHK$ including premium
narrated again in 2020 before a private auction
Zhang Xiaogang was born in 1958, a few years before the Cultural Revolution. He began his career with symbolist themes such as the meaning of mankind. In 1989 the massacre of intellectuals in Tiananmen Square opened a new period of Chinese art.
In 1992 Zhang spent three months in Germany. Confused by the venality of European art, he decided to devote his art to a deeper expression of contemporary China. He will however be influenced by the re-use of banal photos by Richter.
When he returned to China, he found family photos of his childhood at his parents' house. In 1993 he produced a first painting showing his eldest brother between his parents. The face is light red. The family tie is made by two thin blood-red threads which link the baby to each of his parents. The incoherent lighting of the faces maintains a fantasy that is a tribute to Magritte.
The second opus is conceptually and politically more ambitious although the composition is similar. The baby with a bright yellow face is here the second elder brother. If the one-child policy in force in 1993 had been applicable in their childhood, that infant and also the artist himself should not have existed. The red threads become more visible. The baby brings no joy. Zhang managed to display an ugly being whose cross eyed do not match the original photo.
After these two works, Zhang defines the title of this new series as Bloodline - Big Family, to extend it to a global representation of the Chinese people who apply with a docile indifference the too strict rules of the new society.
The second opus thus becomes Bloodline - Big Family: Family No 2. This oil on canvas 110 x 130 cm was sold for HK $ 52M including premium by Sotheby's on April 2, 2012, lot 810. I narrated it in this column before that sale. It will be sold by Sotheby's in a silent auction in Hong Kong on May 23, lot 6002. The result of the auction will remain confidential.
In 1992 Zhang spent three months in Germany. Confused by the venality of European art, he decided to devote his art to a deeper expression of contemporary China. He will however be influenced by the re-use of banal photos by Richter.
When he returned to China, he found family photos of his childhood at his parents' house. In 1993 he produced a first painting showing his eldest brother between his parents. The face is light red. The family tie is made by two thin blood-red threads which link the baby to each of his parents. The incoherent lighting of the faces maintains a fantasy that is a tribute to Magritte.
The second opus is conceptually and politically more ambitious although the composition is similar. The baby with a bright yellow face is here the second elder brother. If the one-child policy in force in 1993 had been applicable in their childhood, that infant and also the artist himself should not have existed. The red threads become more visible. The baby brings no joy. Zhang managed to display an ugly being whose cross eyed do not match the original photo.
After these two works, Zhang defines the title of this new series as Bloodline - Big Family, to extend it to a global representation of the Chinese people who apply with a docile indifference the too strict rules of the new society.
The second opus thus becomes Bloodline - Big Family: Family No 2. This oil on canvas 110 x 130 cm was sold for HK $ 52M including premium by Sotheby's on April 2, 2012, lot 810. I narrated it in this column before that sale. It will be sold by Sotheby's in a silent auction in Hong Kong on May 23, lot 6002. The result of the auction will remain confidential.
(1959) - 1993 The Acoustic Grunge
2020 SOLD for $ 6M including premium
In the 1990s, young people wanted to have an authentic and relaxed life, opposed to the orthodoxy of their elders. Their main subculture is the grunge, a mixture of hard rock and heavy metal for music, and of hippie and punk for a deliberately offbeat clothing.
This trend ensures the fame for the group Nirvana, created in 1987, and its leader, singer, guitarist and co-founder Kurt Cobain. The grunge is often named the Seattle music.
In 1989 the musical television channel MTV created Unplugged, a series of programs in which groups were invited to reinterpret their best songs while leaving all electronic equipment except microphones.
Nirvana accepts MTV's invitation for a recording to be made on November 18, 1993. They need this program for boosting the sales of their album In Utero, which had not the expected success. Kurt Cobain is excessively nervous during the preparation phase, probably feeling a risk of recuperation of his art by the establishment. He imposes his solutions on the MTV team, including a morbid setting.
For the show, Nirvana plays fourteen songs in one take. In accordance with his commitment, Cobain uses an acoustic guitar. He chose a Martin D18-E from 1959. This instrument is one of the stars of the show : in the last sequence, Cobain places it reverently on its stand and leaves the stage.
Kurt was an irreducible perfectionist. He could not bring himself to offer an exclusively acoustic sound in this program. A hidden pickup was used in the Martin for at least one of the songs.
The record titled MTV Unplugged in New York released a year later is one of Nirvana's greatest hits, posthumously for Cobain. The Martin is estimated $ 1M in the sale organized by Julien's in Beverly Hills on June 19 and 20, lot 742. The olive green cardigan worn by the blond singer in this show was sold for $ 334K including premium on October 25, 2019 by the same auction house.
This trend ensures the fame for the group Nirvana, created in 1987, and its leader, singer, guitarist and co-founder Kurt Cobain. The grunge is often named the Seattle music.
In 1989 the musical television channel MTV created Unplugged, a series of programs in which groups were invited to reinterpret their best songs while leaving all electronic equipment except microphones.
Nirvana accepts MTV's invitation for a recording to be made on November 18, 1993. They need this program for boosting the sales of their album In Utero, which had not the expected success. Kurt Cobain is excessively nervous during the preparation phase, probably feeling a risk of recuperation of his art by the establishment. He imposes his solutions on the MTV team, including a morbid setting.
For the show, Nirvana plays fourteen songs in one take. In accordance with his commitment, Cobain uses an acoustic guitar. He chose a Martin D18-E from 1959. This instrument is one of the stars of the show : in the last sequence, Cobain places it reverently on its stand and leaves the stage.
Kurt was an irreducible perfectionist. He could not bring himself to offer an exclusively acoustic sound in this program. A hidden pickup was used in the Martin for at least one of the songs.
The record titled MTV Unplugged in New York released a year later is one of Nirvana's greatest hits, posthumously for Cobain. The Martin is estimated $ 1M in the sale organized by Julien's in Beverly Hills on June 19 and 20, lot 742. The olive green cardigan worn by the blond singer in this show was sold for $ 334K including premium on October 25, 2019 by the same auction house.
