1998
See also : Hockney Japan Supercars British cars McLaren Porsche Modern watches Rolex Sport equipment Baseball
1998 Double East Yorkshire by Hockney
2018 SOLD for £ 11.3M including premium by Sotheby's
Link to catalogue.
1998 My Lonesome Cowboy by Murakami
2008 SOLD for $ 15.2M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
Otaku is the fake culture by which the Japanese indulge in manga and video games without limits, deliberately ignoring the real world. Takashi Murakami perceives a similarity of Otaku with American Pop Art, and especially with the pornographic drift of Warhol.
In 1996 Murakami creates a production business to publish his art. He names it the Hiropon Factory. Factory here is a direct reference to Warhol's workshop, and Hiropon is a Japanese slang for heroin (the drug). This company will be incorporated in 2001 as Kaikai Kiki.
Under the pretext of revealing the underlying sexuality of Otaku, Murakami immediately creates a triad of life-size fiberglass characters, each published in an edition of three plus one or two artist's proofs. Each unit is painted by the artist in oil and acrylic. Colors vary, as Koons does in his Celebrations. The influence of Jeff Koons' Pink Panther on this group looks obvious.
Miss ko² is the first to appear. She is welcoming, dressed as a maid from the Anna Miller restaurant chain. The title is enticing : Ko designates a future geisha before her sexual maturity. A copy was sold for $ 6.8M including premium by Phillips on November 8, 2010 and for $ 3.1M including premium by Sotheby's on November 14, 2019.
The triad is completed by the obscene Western couple, with milk and semen respectively lassoed around the body of the character. The almost naked woman with the enlarged breast is Hiropon. A copy was sold for $ 430K including premium by Christie's on May 15, 2002.
The nude man has no name but this 2.54 m high figure edited in 1998 is called My Lonesome Cowboy by reference to the pornographic film Lonesome Cowboys directed in 1968 by Warhol. A copy was sold for $ 15.2M including premium by Sotheby's on May 14, 2008 from a lower estimate of $ 3M, lot 9.
In 1996 Murakami creates a production business to publish his art. He names it the Hiropon Factory. Factory here is a direct reference to Warhol's workshop, and Hiropon is a Japanese slang for heroin (the drug). This company will be incorporated in 2001 as Kaikai Kiki.
Under the pretext of revealing the underlying sexuality of Otaku, Murakami immediately creates a triad of life-size fiberglass characters, each published in an edition of three plus one or two artist's proofs. Each unit is painted by the artist in oil and acrylic. Colors vary, as Koons does in his Celebrations. The influence of Jeff Koons' Pink Panther on this group looks obvious.
Miss ko² is the first to appear. She is welcoming, dressed as a maid from the Anna Miller restaurant chain. The title is enticing : Ko designates a future geisha before her sexual maturity. A copy was sold for $ 6.8M including premium by Phillips on November 8, 2010 and for $ 3.1M including premium by Sotheby's on November 14, 2019.
The triad is completed by the obscene Western couple, with milk and semen respectively lassoed around the body of the character. The almost naked woman with the enlarged breast is Hiropon. A copy was sold for $ 430K including premium by Christie's on May 15, 2002.
The nude man has no name but this 2.54 m high figure edited in 1998 is called My Lonesome Cowboy by reference to the pornographic film Lonesome Cowboys directed in 1968 by Warhol. A copy was sold for $ 15.2M including premium by Sotheby's on May 14, 2008 from a lower estimate of $ 3M, lot 9.
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 Frog Girl by Yoshitomo Nara
2021 SOLD for HK$ 96M by Sotheby's
Yoshitomo Nara populates the walls of his studio in Cologne with his signature big headed doll girls. Around 1998 his style changes. The heads of little girls are replaced by full length standing portraits. The outlines are less black and pastel hues soften the image.
On April 19, 2021, Sotheby's sold for HK$ 96M Frog girl, acrylic on canvas 120 x 111 cm, lot 1133 from a lower estimate of HK $ 40M. This title is a one-off in Nara's corpus and has not been satisfactorily explained.
The dress is light blue, a symbol of kindness in Nara's artistic grammar, and the straight lips give an expression of waiting. Frog Girl anticipates the Knife behind back of 2000, with the same drawing in a left-right reverse position and a totally opposite mood highlighted by only a few significant details.
On April 19, 2021, Sotheby's sold for HK$ 96M Frog girl, acrylic on canvas 120 x 111 cm, lot 1133 from a lower estimate of HK $ 40M. This title is a one-off in Nara's corpus and has not been satisfactorily explained.
The dress is light blue, a symbol of kindness in Nara's artistic grammar, and the straight lips give an expression of waiting. Frog Girl anticipates the Knife behind back of 2000, with the same drawing in a left-right reverse position and a totally opposite mood highlighted by only a few significant details.
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 Grand Canyon by Hockney
2017 SOLD for £ 6M including premium by Sotheby's
Link to catalogue.
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 Automatic Luxury
2021 SOLD for HK$ 24.4M by Sotheby's
In 1988 Rolex modernizes the Daytona Oyster Perpetual with the 16520 series with automatic winding. They use the 4030 caliber which is directly derived from the Zenith 400 El Primero created in 1969. In 2000 the 4030 is replaced by the 4130 which is the first automatic caliber entirely designed by Rolex.
The success is immediate. In 1991 Rolex, tempted to return to the luxury watch market, creates the 16518 in yellow gold, soon followed by the 16519 in white gold. The 16518 also introduces the Racing dial with Arabic numerals.
At the end of the decade, Rolex assembles a few platinum specimens under the reference 16516, with unique dials in different colors, to test the effect. The population is estimated at 4 or 5. Sotheby's knows three of them.
One of them, dated 1998, has a turquoise blue lacquer dial. It was sold for HK $ 24.4M on April 23, 2021, lot 2154.
Another one, with a case number adjacent to the previous example, was assembled in 1999 with a lapis lazuli dial. It was sold on July 11, 2020 for HK $ 25.4M including premium from a lower estimate of HK $ 4M, lot 2236.
The third example, assembled in 1999 with a mother-of-pearl dial, was sold for HK $ 6.8M including premium on October 2, 2018, lot 2265. Then recently discovered, this watch had been reported in the catalog as the only known platinum Daytona.
The success is immediate. In 1991 Rolex, tempted to return to the luxury watch market, creates the 16518 in yellow gold, soon followed by the 16519 in white gold. The 16518 also introduces the Racing dial with Arabic numerals.
At the end of the decade, Rolex assembles a few platinum specimens under the reference 16516, with unique dials in different colors, to test the effect. The population is estimated at 4 or 5. Sotheby's knows three of them.
One of them, dated 1998, has a turquoise blue lacquer dial. It was sold for HK $ 24.4M on April 23, 2021, lot 2154.
Another one, with a case number adjacent to the previous example, was assembled in 1999 with a lapis lazuli dial. It was sold on July 11, 2020 for HK $ 25.4M including premium from a lower estimate of HK $ 4M, lot 2236.
The third example, assembled in 1999 with a mother-of-pearl dial, was sold for HK $ 6.8M including premium on October 2, 2018, lot 2265. Then recently discovered, this watch had been reported in the catalog as the only known platinum Daytona.
1998 Mark McGwire 70th home run ball
1999 SOLD for $ 3.05M including premium by Guernsey's
narrated in 2019 before the sale of a Barry Bonds Homer Ball by Goldin (see below)
The home run is the feat around which the rules of baseball were established. In the modern history of that sport, the two most important records have been broken.
The highest number of homers in a single season was 61 by Roger Maris in 1961. Mark McGwire broke this record at 70 homers in 1998 and Barry Bonds at 71 homers in 2001.
The largest number of homers scored in the major leagues during a career was 755 by Hank Aaron in 1976. Barry Bonds equaled and then exceeded this record in August 2007. On September 5, 2007, Bonds scores his 762nd and last major league homer. He is suspected of doping and cannot get a contract for the next year.
The 70th homer ball of 'Big Mac' was sold for $ 3.05M including premium by Guernsey's on January 12, 1999. It was reported post sale by CBS News.
Combined in one auction despite different provenances, the baseballs of Bonds' 755th and 756th homers were sold respectively for $ 187K and $ 750K including premium by SCP on September 15, 2007. The ball from Bonds' 762nd homer was auctioned by SCP on April 12, 2008, possibly unpaid, and sold by Goldin on May 11, 2019 for $ 283K including premium.
These two players were not elected at the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 2010 McGwire confirmed that he had used doping substances for most of his career. Bonds always denied a similar practice.
The highest number of homers in a single season was 61 by Roger Maris in 1961. Mark McGwire broke this record at 70 homers in 1998 and Barry Bonds at 71 homers in 2001.
The largest number of homers scored in the major leagues during a career was 755 by Hank Aaron in 1976. Barry Bonds equaled and then exceeded this record in August 2007. On September 5, 2007, Bonds scores his 762nd and last major league homer. He is suspected of doping and cannot get a contract for the next year.
The 70th homer ball of 'Big Mac' was sold for $ 3.05M including premium by Guernsey's on January 12, 1999. It was reported post sale by CBS News.
Combined in one auction despite different provenances, the baseballs of Bonds' 755th and 756th homers were sold respectively for $ 187K and $ 750K including premium by SCP on September 15, 2007. The ball from Bonds' 762nd homer was auctioned by SCP on April 12, 2008, possibly unpaid, and sold by Goldin on May 11, 2019 for $ 283K including premium.
These two players were not elected at the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 2010 McGwire confirmed that he had used doping substances for most of his career. Bonds always denied a similar practice.
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.
