1998
1998 A McLaren F1 signed by Murray
2015 SOLD for $ 13.8M including premium
The McLaren F1 is the most prestigious production supercar of the 1990s. The project developed by Gordon Murray was to offer the most powerful model that still remained legal for the road. There are however some variations among the 106 vehicles produced from 1992 to 1998.
The F1 GTR is the version for the race. The F1 GT was created to demonstrate to the boards regulating the competitions that the concepts of GTR were consistent with the features of a grand tourer. It was not proposed in the commercial catalog but after the completion of the prototype two F1 chassis were upgraded to F1 GT on special orders from private clients.
The F1 LM is a lighter version of the F1 GTR. Intended for wealthy private clients, it was built in 1995 as one prototype and five units. It could reach 385 km/h through a modification of the engine that disqualified it against the competition regulations.
In 1998 the F1 series is going to its close out. The engineers from McLaren Special Operations are responsible for producing the most exciting car of this so successful series, somehow the ultimate F1 with all possible improvements, the best supercar of its time.
The 63th and penultimate F1 street legal chassis is equipped altogether with an engine meeting the LM specification and with the comfort provided to the wealthy clients of the GT. Aware of creating a masterpiece of contemporary automobile, Murray signed it on the transmission tunnel.
This extraordinary McLaren is for sale by RM Sotheby's in Monterey on August 13, lot 107. This car is exceptional without being unique: another F1 chassis was also equipped with a LM engine.
The F1 GTR is the version for the race. The F1 GT was created to demonstrate to the boards regulating the competitions that the concepts of GTR were consistent with the features of a grand tourer. It was not proposed in the commercial catalog but after the completion of the prototype two F1 chassis were upgraded to F1 GT on special orders from private clients.
The F1 LM is a lighter version of the F1 GTR. Intended for wealthy private clients, it was built in 1995 as one prototype and five units. It could reach 385 km/h through a modification of the engine that disqualified it against the competition regulations.
In 1998 the F1 series is going to its close out. The engineers from McLaren Special Operations are responsible for producing the most exciting car of this so successful series, somehow the ultimate F1 with all possible improvements, the best supercar of its time.
The 63th and penultimate F1 street legal chassis is equipped altogether with an engine meeting the LM specification and with the comfort provided to the wealthy clients of the GT. Aware of creating a masterpiece of contemporary automobile, Murray signed it on the transmission tunnel.
This extraordinary McLaren is for sale by RM Sotheby's in Monterey on August 13, lot 107. This car is exceptional without being unique: another F1 chassis was also equipped with a LM engine.
1998 Martin's Friend
2019 SOLD for £ 6M including premium
In the 1980s Martin Kippenberger and Albert Oehlen shared jazz and art with the same passion, the desire to live intensely, the opposition to any cultural, aesthetic, political and social convention. Martin manages his artistic career by shocking the bourgeois.
Albert is less visible, with less diversified techniques. Rejecting analyzes and theories, he paints at great speed, without a preconceived plan, to please himself. His works are often abstract, sometimes with the appearance of an incongruous figurative element.
Albert also enjoys the absurd. His holey bull which can be used as a modular construction, 188 x 377 cm diptych painted in 1986, was sold for £ 3.6M including premium by Christie's on October 4, 2018.
On June 26 in London, Sotheby's sells a self-portrait painted by Albert Oehlen in 1998, lot 15 estimated £ 4M. On this oil and acrylic on canvas 200 x 144 cm, the half-length character, shirtless, is larger than life. The gaze expresses the need for a fierce communication. The hands are joining and the fingers are disproportionately spread.
One of Martin's specialties was the abject or macabre self-portrait. Albert's self-portrait is in the style of the mocking self-portraits of his friend. The position of the fingers evokes the nailed legs of the crucified frogs carved by Martin. The hands are empty to show the absence of Martin, who had died in the previous year of liver cancer at 44 years old.
Albert is less visible, with less diversified techniques. Rejecting analyzes and theories, he paints at great speed, without a preconceived plan, to please himself. His works are often abstract, sometimes with the appearance of an incongruous figurative element.
Albert also enjoys the absurd. His holey bull which can be used as a modular construction, 188 x 377 cm diptych painted in 1986, was sold for £ 3.6M including premium by Christie's on October 4, 2018.
On June 26 in London, Sotheby's sells a self-portrait painted by Albert Oehlen in 1998, lot 15 estimated £ 4M. On this oil and acrylic on canvas 200 x 144 cm, the half-length character, shirtless, is larger than life. The gaze expresses the need for a fierce communication. The hands are joining and the fingers are disproportionately spread.
One of Martin's specialties was the abject or macabre self-portrait. Albert's self-portrait is in the style of the mocking self-portraits of his friend. The position of the fingers evokes the nailed legs of the crucified frogs carved by Martin. The hands are empty to show the absence of Martin, who had died in the previous year of liver cancer at 44 years old.
1998 Glenn Brown, the Art Converter
2012 SOLD 5.2 M£ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
We have already met Glenn Brown in this column. In a previous article, I described the artist as post-modernist, without finding out if this attribution is academically correct. No matter : Brown is one of the first painters to rely on scanning techniques, and his approach is resolutely contemporary.
Yet his work is inseparable from the history of art. Brown is a converter of the masterpieces of the past which he transfers with a hyperrealist technique before shoving the image by a personal re-appropriation with a title as hermetic as a poem by Miro.
Thus, the preceding discussion in this column dealt with Declining Nude, a reinterpretation of the self-portrait by Pissarro, sold £ 1.27 million including premium by Sotheby's on February 15, 2011.
Brown's inspiration is universal. It was logical that he was interested in John Martin, the English romantic who wanted to show the Apocalypse.
The oil on canvas painted in 1998 for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 26 is monumental, as the art market loves them: 222 x 323 cm. Its title, The Tragic conversion: of Salvador Dali (after John Martin), indicates that Brown considers himself a follower of the creative thinking of the master of Figueras.
This work is estimated £ 2.2 M. I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
Sotheby's were right when they demonstrated the importance of this artwork. It was sold £ 5.2 million including premium.
We have already met Glenn Brown in this column. In a previous article, I described the artist as post-modernist, without finding out if this attribution is academically correct. No matter : Brown is one of the first painters to rely on scanning techniques, and his approach is resolutely contemporary.
Yet his work is inseparable from the history of art. Brown is a converter of the masterpieces of the past which he transfers with a hyperrealist technique before shoving the image by a personal re-appropriation with a title as hermetic as a poem by Miro.
Thus, the preceding discussion in this column dealt with Declining Nude, a reinterpretation of the self-portrait by Pissarro, sold £ 1.27 million including premium by Sotheby's on February 15, 2011.
Brown's inspiration is universal. It was logical that he was interested in John Martin, the English romantic who wanted to show the Apocalypse.
The oil on canvas painted in 1998 for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 26 is monumental, as the art market loves them: 222 x 323 cm. Its title, The Tragic conversion: of Salvador Dali (after John Martin), indicates that Brown considers himself a follower of the creative thinking of the master of Figueras.
This work is estimated £ 2.2 M. I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
Sotheby's were right when they demonstrated the importance of this artwork. It was sold £ 5.2 million including premium.
1998 A Porsche Supercar in the Street
2017 SOLD for $ 5.7M including premium
The FIA GT championship preceded by the short lived BPR Global GT Series throws on the track in the mid-1990s the precursors of today's supercars. These wonders are the McLaren F1 GTR, the Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR, the Ferrari F40 and the Porsche 911 GT1.
Anticipating some flexibility in the approval rules of the GT competition cars including the demonstration that their models are based on commercial vehicles, Porsche designs directly the 911 GT1 for racing.
The technology restarts in a fast development generating very small series of vehicles with similar designations but increasing performances. The Porsche 911 GT1-98 won the first two places at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1998.
Porsche does not forget however that some customers expect high-performance cars. Such a project is useful to the prestige of the brand even if the profitability is lost in advance. After two prototypes required in 1996 for road homologation, Porsche realizes the 911 GT1 Strassenversion in 20 units which are sold to customers selected in advance by the brand.
This road legal model created high desires by its limited series, by its very high performance worthy of a winner of Le Mans and by the fact that it has never been offered new on the open market. A Strassenversion made in 1998 with less than 5,000 miles from new is for sale on March 10 by Gooding at Amelia Island, lot 042. Here is the link to the press release.
Its price is difficult to anticipate. A 1997 911 GT1 Evo competition car was sold for € 2,8M including premium by RM Sotheby's on May 14, 2016. Also keep in mind the $ 8.5M including premium recorded on August 17, 2013 by Gooding on a 1997 road legal McLaren F1 with less than 14,000 miles from new.
Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Anticipating some flexibility in the approval rules of the GT competition cars including the demonstration that their models are based on commercial vehicles, Porsche designs directly the 911 GT1 for racing.
The technology restarts in a fast development generating very small series of vehicles with similar designations but increasing performances. The Porsche 911 GT1-98 won the first two places at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1998.
Porsche does not forget however that some customers expect high-performance cars. Such a project is useful to the prestige of the brand even if the profitability is lost in advance. After two prototypes required in 1996 for road homologation, Porsche realizes the 911 GT1 Strassenversion in 20 units which are sold to customers selected in advance by the brand.
This road legal model created high desires by its limited series, by its very high performance worthy of a winner of Le Mans and by the fact that it has never been offered new on the open market. A Strassenversion made in 1998 with less than 5,000 miles from new is for sale on March 10 by Gooding at Amelia Island, lot 042. Here is the link to the press release.
Its price is difficult to anticipate. A 1997 911 GT1 Evo competition car was sold for € 2,8M including premium by RM Sotheby's on May 14, 2016. Also keep in mind the $ 8.5M including premium recorded on August 17, 2013 by Gooding on a 1997 road legal McLaren F1 with less than 14,000 miles from new.
Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1998 In the Privacy of Tracey Emin
2014 SOLD 2.55 M£ including premium
Provoking and feminist, Tracey Emin has shaken the language of contemporary art. She early realized that much of the public is accessible through voyeurism. In 1993, aged 30, she exhibits trivial ready mades and sordid details of her personal life.
Her first major work, in 1997, is titled Everyone I have ever slept with. The viewer must get inside a tent to discover the names of her bedfellows, including those of her infancy which obviously do not have a sexual connotation. The ambiguity of the message regarding her relationships generated the success of that work which was destroyed by an accidental fire in 2004.
In 1998, Tracey lived several days of suicidal depression after a disappointment in love. Waking up dazed after the fourth day, she observes the condition of total mess of her bed. She decides that the unmade bed reflecting her intense emotion is a work of art and brings around the furniture many orgiastic, sexual and intimate garbage from her four morbid days.
My Bed is estimated £ 800K, for sale by Christie's in London on July 1, lot 19.
Tracey Emin is a versatile artist, using alternately materials as diverse as neon, photography or textile. She is lucky to be British : London is the best place in the world to support a true artist beyond scandal. Member of the Royal Academy of Arts, she is the second woman in two and a half centuries to have become a professor in this institution.
POST SALE COMMENT
This installation has the great merit of being completely out of the traditional artistic language. It was sold for £ 2.55 million including premium.
Her first major work, in 1997, is titled Everyone I have ever slept with. The viewer must get inside a tent to discover the names of her bedfellows, including those of her infancy which obviously do not have a sexual connotation. The ambiguity of the message regarding her relationships generated the success of that work which was destroyed by an accidental fire in 2004.
In 1998, Tracey lived several days of suicidal depression after a disappointment in love. Waking up dazed after the fourth day, she observes the condition of total mess of her bed. She decides that the unmade bed reflecting her intense emotion is a work of art and brings around the furniture many orgiastic, sexual and intimate garbage from her four morbid days.
My Bed is estimated £ 800K, for sale by Christie's in London on July 1, lot 19.
Tracey Emin is a versatile artist, using alternately materials as diverse as neon, photography or textile. She is lucky to be British : London is the best place in the world to support a true artist beyond scandal. Member of the Royal Academy of Arts, she is the second woman in two and a half centuries to have become a professor in this institution.
POST SALE COMMENT
This installation has the great merit of being completely out of the traditional artistic language. It was sold for £ 2.55 million including premium.
1998 Sister and Child
2019 SOLD for £ 2.17M including premium
Hurvin Anderson was born in Birmingham to Jamaican parents. In 1998 he was finishing his studies at the Royal College of Art in London. Like his teacher Peter Doig, he had personal or family ties with the Caribbean and Canada.
Anderson receives a photo sent from Canada by his sister who had emigrated there. He transposes this image into two oils on canvas 260 x 190 cm. Each item stages the sister with a young child in warm winter clothes, standing life-size on a frozen lake in Alberta.
Each painting reproduces exactly the position and gestures of the characters. The colors are opposite. The features of the faces are indistinguishable. The child is black in both cases. The woman is black on one painting and bright yellow on the other. The two views of the frozen lake are different and their details are probably imaginary. The influence of Doig is flagrant.
At that time Anderson did not know Canada yet. These views are not related to a personal memory. The confrontation of the two elements brings a social interpretation : races are interchangeable in their attitudes and their feelings.
Mount Royal (Lac des Castors) was sold for £ 1.57M including premium by Christie's on October 6, 2017 over a lower estimate of £ 400K. Beaver Lake is estimated £ 1.5M for sale by Phillips in London on October 2, lot 11.
Anderson receives a photo sent from Canada by his sister who had emigrated there. He transposes this image into two oils on canvas 260 x 190 cm. Each item stages the sister with a young child in warm winter clothes, standing life-size on a frozen lake in Alberta.
Each painting reproduces exactly the position and gestures of the characters. The colors are opposite. The features of the faces are indistinguishable. The child is black in both cases. The woman is black on one painting and bright yellow on the other. The two views of the frozen lake are different and their details are probably imaginary. The influence of Doig is flagrant.
At that time Anderson did not know Canada yet. These views are not related to a personal memory. The confrontation of the two elements brings a social interpretation : races are interchangeable in their attitudes and their feelings.
Mount Royal (Lac des Castors) was sold for £ 1.57M including premium by Christie's on October 6, 2017 over a lower estimate of £ 400K. Beaver Lake is estimated £ 1.5M for sale by Phillips in London on October 2, lot 11.
1998 Ofili's Tribute to Orgena
2010 SOLD 1.9 M£ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Artist from Nigerian origin, Chris Ofili is a tireless interpreter of Black modernity. His work entitled Orgena, 182 x 124 cm, is dated 1998, the year of his glory when he was awarded the prestigious Turner prize. He was 30.
This tribute to Black womanhood shows a beautiful woman whose eyes and lips illuminate the face. The title, Orgena, is simply "A Negro" written backwards. The mixed material is very elaborate, with rich colors. His use, among other materials, of pieces of dried dung of elephant has a value of cultural reference and managed to shock the bourgeoisie.
This artist is strengthening his position on the contemporary art market. Orgena is for sale by Christie's in London on June 30. It is estimated £ 700K.
POST SALE COMMENT
I applaud this result, without limitation: £ 1.9 million including premium. Just as the elephant of Bharti Kher sold two days earlier by Sotheby's, Chris Ofili's Orgena is a well-balanced mix of art and culture.
Artist from Nigerian origin, Chris Ofili is a tireless interpreter of Black modernity. His work entitled Orgena, 182 x 124 cm, is dated 1998, the year of his glory when he was awarded the prestigious Turner prize. He was 30.
This tribute to Black womanhood shows a beautiful woman whose eyes and lips illuminate the face. The title, Orgena, is simply "A Negro" written backwards. The mixed material is very elaborate, with rich colors. His use, among other materials, of pieces of dried dung of elephant has a value of cultural reference and managed to shock the bourgeoisie.
This artist is strengthening his position on the contemporary art market. Orgena is for sale by Christie's in London on June 30. It is estimated £ 700K.
POST SALE COMMENT
I applaud this result, without limitation: £ 1.9 million including premium. Just as the elephant of Bharti Kher sold two days earlier by Sotheby's, Chris Ofili's Orgena is a well-balanced mix of art and culture.
1998 The Skyline of Los Angeles
2017 SOLD for £ 1.7M including premium
The art of Andreas Gursky is unique for his technique and his achievements. His photos displaying an unlimited scenery are formed of a dense pattern of hundreds of elements different from each other even when he uses a digital processing. The observer who moves closer or away from the image has a continuously changing vision like a link between the cosmic world and everyday life.
A student to Bernd and Hilla Becher from 1980 to 1987 at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf where he also teaches since 2010, Gursky uses a large format for the shooting and implements his pictures with an impeccable geometric rigor. Like his mentors he deals with different subjects under similar viewing angles that invite for comparisons.
He is the leading artist for the photographic printing in very large sizes. In chronological order Los Angeles, Cibachrome print 158 x 316 cm prepared in 1998 and exhibited in 1999, is a step between the Rhein-I 146 x 181 cm of 1996 and the Rhein II 185 x 364 cm of 1999. The number 1/6 of Rhein II was sold for $ 4.3M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2011.
Los Angeles is a bird's-eye view encompassing the entire conurbation at night as a galactic form illuminated from the ground by the human activity and upper-lined by an orange pollution halo that simulates the rotundity of the Earth. Three wide linear avenues join at the horizon in a perfectly symmetrical figure. This bright stripe of the city separates the foreground and the sky made in a same deep black.
Los Angeles was edited in six copies. The number 3/6 was sold for £ 1,48M including premium by Sotheby's on February 27, 2008. Mounted in an author's frame and protected by a Plexiglas, 4/6 is estimated £ 1,4M for sale by Phillips in London on October 6, lot 24.
Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
A student to Bernd and Hilla Becher from 1980 to 1987 at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf where he also teaches since 2010, Gursky uses a large format for the shooting and implements his pictures with an impeccable geometric rigor. Like his mentors he deals with different subjects under similar viewing angles that invite for comparisons.
He is the leading artist for the photographic printing in very large sizes. In chronological order Los Angeles, Cibachrome print 158 x 316 cm prepared in 1998 and exhibited in 1999, is a step between the Rhein-I 146 x 181 cm of 1996 and the Rhein II 185 x 364 cm of 1999. The number 1/6 of Rhein II was sold for $ 4.3M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2011.
Los Angeles is a bird's-eye view encompassing the entire conurbation at night as a galactic form illuminated from the ground by the human activity and upper-lined by an orange pollution halo that simulates the rotundity of the Earth. Three wide linear avenues join at the horizon in a perfectly symmetrical figure. This bright stripe of the city separates the foreground and the sky made in a same deep black.
Los Angeles was edited in six copies. The number 3/6 was sold for £ 1,48M including premium by Sotheby's on February 27, 2008. Mounted in an author's frame and protected by a Plexiglas, 4/6 is estimated £ 1,4M for sale by Phillips in London on October 6, lot 24.
Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1998 The Race of the Supercars
2015 SOLD for £ 1.5M including premium
Mercedes-Benz is one of the leaders in the industry of the supercars. Developed from 1990 to 1995 on a private commission in cooperation with the Lotec company, a unique specimen reached 1,000 horsepower, 431 km / h (in theory) and $ 3.4 million at its price tag.
To prepare for the 1997 season, Mercedes-Benz is interested in the new FIA rules in the Grand Touring category. To be approved for these competitions, the model must also be available to private clients for road use. For this reason, Mercedes-Benz built 25 CLK GTR coupes at 600 hp.
This model has a follower in 1998 in the prestigious CLK GTR roadster with open top, at 640 hp. Built in 6 units, this model capable of reaching 320 km / h (in theory) immediately overcomes a world record that will be exceeded in 2005, that of the most expensive commercially available road car, slightly over $ 1.5 million.
Mercedes-Benz had kept until 2014 the first of these six roadsters, which was revised by them before being sold to an investor who did not intend to use it. This beautiful black car with only 8 km from new is estimated £ 1.4M for sale by Bonhams at Goodwood on June 26, lot 340.
After an interlude with the CLK LM, Mercedes-Benz's ambitions in this class of competition are destroyed in 1999 by the disastrous instability of the next model, the CLR, along with a further change in the rules of the FIA.
To prepare for the 1997 season, Mercedes-Benz is interested in the new FIA rules in the Grand Touring category. To be approved for these competitions, the model must also be available to private clients for road use. For this reason, Mercedes-Benz built 25 CLK GTR coupes at 600 hp.
This model has a follower in 1998 in the prestigious CLK GTR roadster with open top, at 640 hp. Built in 6 units, this model capable of reaching 320 km / h (in theory) immediately overcomes a world record that will be exceeded in 2005, that of the most expensive commercially available road car, slightly over $ 1.5 million.
Mercedes-Benz had kept until 2014 the first of these six roadsters, which was revised by them before being sold to an investor who did not intend to use it. This beautiful black car with only 8 km from new is estimated £ 1.4M for sale by Bonhams at Goodwood on June 26, lot 340.
After an interlude with the CLK LM, Mercedes-Benz's ambitions in this class of competition are destroyed in 1999 by the disastrous instability of the next model, the CLR, along with a further change in the rules of the FIA.
1998 The Green Silence
2018 SOLD for INR 11.5 crores (worth US $ 1.85M) including premium
At the end of his life V.S. Gaitonde no longer differentiates between his own existence and his artistic creation. His painting exalts the silence to the best of his pictorial technique that reaches a Zen-inspired ecstatic perfection. The world around him is secondary and he does not seek to maintain his notoriety or to identify how his art is appreciated by others.
On September 13, 2017 Christie's sold for $ 4.1M including premium an oil on canvas 140 x 102 cm painted in 1996. This abstract work looks like an explosion of yellow and orange signs over a vermilion background, a gathering of colors rare for Gaitonde which may appear as the ultimate liberation of an incandescent energy.
His technique of superposition of translucent layers applied with a roller had anticipated Richter. A monochrome painting by Gaitonde remains of a great variety by the variations of the light.
1998 is his final creative year. An oil on canvas also 140 x 102 cm in hues of green is an invitation to follow geometric symbols. Four spindles perpendicular one another create halos in a slight bias. One of them directed downward is prolonged by another symbol which opens like a liberation of forces. Four dots generate a virtual inner frame.
Like all the later works by Gaitonde this opus did not receive a title. It was sold for INR 6.6 crores including premium by Christie's on December 11, 2014. It is estimated INR 10 crores equivalent to US $ 1.6M for sale online from Mumbai by AstaGuru, lot 30. The auction closes on March 27. Here is the link to the website of the auction house.
Please watch the video shared by AstaGuru.
On September 13, 2017 Christie's sold for $ 4.1M including premium an oil on canvas 140 x 102 cm painted in 1996. This abstract work looks like an explosion of yellow and orange signs over a vermilion background, a gathering of colors rare for Gaitonde which may appear as the ultimate liberation of an incandescent energy.
His technique of superposition of translucent layers applied with a roller had anticipated Richter. A monochrome painting by Gaitonde remains of a great variety by the variations of the light.
1998 is his final creative year. An oil on canvas also 140 x 102 cm in hues of green is an invitation to follow geometric symbols. Four spindles perpendicular one another create halos in a slight bias. One of them directed downward is prolonged by another symbol which opens like a liberation of forces. Four dots generate a virtual inner frame.
Like all the later works by Gaitonde this opus did not receive a title. It was sold for INR 6.6 crores including premium by Christie's on December 11, 2014. It is estimated INR 10 crores equivalent to US $ 1.6M for sale online from Mumbai by AstaGuru, lot 30. The auction closes on March 27. Here is the link to the website of the auction house.
Please watch the video shared by AstaGuru.
