1999
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Current art by women Northern Europe Blue diamond African diamonds Martin Watches II
See also : Current art by women Northern Europe Blue diamond African diamonds Martin Watches II
1999 Millennium by De Beers
2016 SOLD for HK$ 250M by Sotheby's
De Beers exhibited their finest diamonds at the Millennium Dome in London throughout the year 2000. The Millennium Star is an astonishing white diamond weighing 203.04 carats. Facing it in the cabinet, eleven blue diamonds are totaling 118 carats. All these wonders had been extracted from the Cullinan mine.
One of these blue diamonds was oval cut. Weighing 10.10 carats, it is not the largest of the eleven but it is indeed the most spectacular. It was certified Fancy Vivid Blue Flawless in 1999 by GIA with the designation De Beers Millennium Jewel 4. Mounted on a ring in a surrounding of small white diamonds, it was sold for HK $ 250M by Sotheby's on April 5, 2016, lot 1843.
This unprecedented treasure insured altogether for £ 350M excited high appetites during the show at the Dome. On November 7, 2000, a commando of four equipped with a ten ton earth digger, sledgehammers, smoke bombs, gas masks and bulletproof vests come into the Dome, ready to celebrate the new millennium with the biggest heist ever.
The gang was under surveillance and 200 police officers had been mobilized. The head of the counter operation had decided to let the robbers go up to the showcase window for security reasons because arrests are easier in a closed room.
Please watch the short video shared by Sotheby's to announce the sale of Jewel 4.
One of these blue diamonds was oval cut. Weighing 10.10 carats, it is not the largest of the eleven but it is indeed the most spectacular. It was certified Fancy Vivid Blue Flawless in 1999 by GIA with the designation De Beers Millennium Jewel 4. Mounted on a ring in a surrounding of small white diamonds, it was sold for HK $ 250M by Sotheby's on April 5, 2016, lot 1843.
This unprecedented treasure insured altogether for £ 350M excited high appetites during the show at the Dome. On November 7, 2000, a commando of four equipped with a ten ton earth digger, sledgehammers, smoke bombs, gas masks and bulletproof vests come into the Dome, ready to celebrate the new millennium with the biggest heist ever.
The gang was under surveillance and 200 police officers had been mobilized. The head of the counter operation had decided to let the robbers go up to the showcase window for security reasons because arrests are easier in a closed room.
Please watch the short video shared by Sotheby's to announce the sale of Jewel 4.
1999 Balloon Flower (Blue) by Koons
2010 SOLD for $ 17M by Christie's
The series of Celebrations conceived by Jeff Koons in 1994 is made of sub-series, each one in five color versions. The sizes are monumental. When a Celebration is exhibited, it is impossible to ignore it. The themes are simple and symbolic enough to be understood anywhere in the world regardless of the culture of the visitor.
The monochrome subjects, arguably less difficult to realize, were the first to be completed, in 1999 and 2000. They include the diamond, hanging heart, balloon flower and balloon dog.
Five Balloon Flowers 340 x 285 x 260 cm were built from 1995 onwards, each one with another color, and completed before 2000.
One of the earliest completed Celebrations was the Balloon Flower (Blue), supplied as early as 1999 to an artistic foundation managed by Daimler. It was sold for $ 17M on November 10, 2010 by Christie's from a lower estimate of $ 12M.
The quality of finish, and therefore the uniformity of color and beauty of reflection, were essential to appreciate this work. Made in chromium plated stainless steel, the Balloon Flower is coated with a transparent layer that generates a mirror effect and an intense reflectivity in a perfect smoothness of all the curves.. The blue specimen, delivered in 1999 to an artistic foundation managed by Daimler, had for ten years reflected the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin.
In 2010, it could not be sold as is, according to the standards of Jeff Koons. It spent six months in its original workshop, the Arnold factory in Germany, for being reworked at the initiative of Christie's and under the supervision of the artist. We are told that it became more beautiful than before, thanks to technological advances.
Completed in 2000. Balloon Flower (Magenta) was sold by Christie's for £ 12.9M on June 30, 2008.
The monochrome subjects, arguably less difficult to realize, were the first to be completed, in 1999 and 2000. They include the diamond, hanging heart, balloon flower and balloon dog.
Five Balloon Flowers 340 x 285 x 260 cm were built from 1995 onwards, each one with another color, and completed before 2000.
One of the earliest completed Celebrations was the Balloon Flower (Blue), supplied as early as 1999 to an artistic foundation managed by Daimler. It was sold for $ 17M on November 10, 2010 by Christie's from a lower estimate of $ 12M.
The quality of finish, and therefore the uniformity of color and beauty of reflection, were essential to appreciate this work. Made in chromium plated stainless steel, the Balloon Flower is coated with a transparent layer that generates a mirror effect and an intense reflectivity in a perfect smoothness of all the curves.. The blue specimen, delivered in 1999 to an artistic foundation managed by Daimler, had for ten years reflected the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin.
In 2010, it could not be sold as is, according to the standards of Jeff Koons. It spent six months in its original workshop, the Arnold factory in Germany, for being reworked at the initiative of Christie's and under the supervision of the artist. We are told that it became more beautiful than before, thanks to technological advances.
Completed in 2000. Balloon Flower (Magenta) was sold by Christie's for £ 12.9M on June 30, 2008.
1996-1999 The Attendant by Marden
2022 SOLD for $ 13.6M by Christie's
The Attendant is a series of six paintings begun by Brice Marden in 1996 and exhibited together in 2000-2001 at the Serpentine Gallery in London. It displays a synthesis of the major phases in Marden's art.
The background reminds the rich monochrome flats in the Post and lintel series of the early 1970s.
The title and subtitles refer to Chinese culture but not through calligraphy and poetry as in the Cold Mountain series of the later 1980s. It now refers to Han funerary earthenware figures placed in tombs to accompany the deceased on their journey to eternity. These fully abstract musicalist lines stage the eternal loop of time.
In that new phase the lines in bright pure colors are fully sinuous instead of angular. The composition may echo the simplified abstract works by de Kooning in the 1980s.
The first opus is The Attendee. This oil on canvas 208 x 145 cm dated 1996-1999 was sold for $ 11M from a lower estimate of $ 7M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2013, lot 12, and for $ 13.6M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 39. The lines intersect one another in a sequence of red over yellow over green over white against a grey background.
The background reminds the rich monochrome flats in the Post and lintel series of the early 1970s.
The title and subtitles refer to Chinese culture but not through calligraphy and poetry as in the Cold Mountain series of the later 1980s. It now refers to Han funerary earthenware figures placed in tombs to accompany the deceased on their journey to eternity. These fully abstract musicalist lines stage the eternal loop of time.
In that new phase the lines in bright pure colors are fully sinuous instead of angular. The composition may echo the simplified abstract works by de Kooning in the 1980s.
The first opus is The Attendee. This oil on canvas 208 x 145 cm dated 1996-1999 was sold for $ 11M from a lower estimate of $ 7M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2013, lot 12, and for $ 13.6M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 39. The lines intersect one another in a sequence of red over yellow over green over white against a grey background.
1999 Nice 'n Easy by Currin
2016 SOLD for $ 12M by Christie's
John Currin loves working with images from the Renaissance masters to the point of replicating their errors in the proportions of the body. He assembles old heads on naked bodies. One of these postmenopausal and unfriendly women caught in back view, oil on canvas 122 x 91 cm painted in 1993, has enticed no buyer at Phillips de Pury on 13 November 2008.
It was beneficial for the artist and his work that he transferred his erotic impulses on a living muse. He falls in love in 1994 with the female sculptor Rachel Feinstein. Aged 23, she has a long body and small breasts like a Venus by Cranach and the wavy blonde hair of Botticelli's Venus. They marry in 1997.
Nice 'n Easy, oil on canvas 112 x 86 cm painted in 1999, was sold for $ 5.5M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2008 and for $ 12M by Christie's on November 15, 2016, lot 25 A.
Two women play a mannerist scene in full frontal nude. They have the same bodily features and the same porcelain skin but their attitude is opposed. The woman on the right is day dreaming, her mouth gently opened and a hand on a breast in a gesture of trust. The other woman shows an exuberant joy and extends a hand over the belly of her alter ego.
This quite mannerist gesture is a prediction of fertility to be compared with the hand of the duchesse de Villars on the nipple of Gabrielle d'Estrées in the famous painting of the Ecole de Fontainebleau. Nice 'n Easy is not a lesbian scene. It is the projection of a male artist who wanted to express with similar figures his erotic desire and its female incarnation.
It was beneficial for the artist and his work that he transferred his erotic impulses on a living muse. He falls in love in 1994 with the female sculptor Rachel Feinstein. Aged 23, she has a long body and small breasts like a Venus by Cranach and the wavy blonde hair of Botticelli's Venus. They marry in 1997.
Nice 'n Easy, oil on canvas 112 x 86 cm painted in 1999, was sold for $ 5.5M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2008 and for $ 12M by Christie's on November 15, 2016, lot 25 A.
Two women play a mannerist scene in full frontal nude. They have the same bodily features and the same porcelain skin but their attitude is opposed. The woman on the right is day dreaming, her mouth gently opened and a hand on a breast in a gesture of trust. The other woman shows an exuberant joy and extends a hand over the belly of her alter ego.
This quite mannerist gesture is a prediction of fertility to be compared with the hand of the duchesse de Villars on the nipple of Gabrielle d'Estrées in the famous painting of the Ecole de Fontainebleau. Nice 'n Easy is not a lesbian scene. It is the projection of a male artist who wanted to express with similar figures his erotic desire and its female incarnation.
1990-1999 Vertige Neigeux by Chu Teh-Chun
2016 SOLD for HK$ 92M by Christie's
The art of Chu Teh-Chun is devoted to the beauty and poetry of nature which he expresses in the form of abstract landscapes. He has retained both the subtlety of the brushes and wash of the Song artists and the sensory memory of Nicolas de Staël.
From a trip to the Alps in 1965, Chu sometimes introduces snow into his views. In December 1985 his train crosses a snow storm. Highly inspired by this unforeseen experience, he explores until 1990 the theme of the white winter.
Despite their geographical separation Chu had remained in close relationship with Wu Guanzhong whom he had known for nearly half a century. Wu is the great experimenter of the artistic synthesis between East and West. In 1983 he used the point and the line to construct a landscape.
Chu does the same to express the unlimited variety of snow. It is light or dense and floats in sunlight, and becomes mist or frost. It is the main actor of the scenery by masking the features of the landscape. The artist prepares the canvas with a bright wash that will provide an overall impression. If the effect of this texture pleases him, he paints his points and lines, more or less large and more or less dense.
He also appreciates the advantage of very large formats to express his poetic emotion but the lift of his building in the suburbs of Paris is too small to carry large canvases. For this reason his widest snow scenes are made as diptychs. Inspiration Hivernale, 195 x 260 cm, finished in 1990, was sold for HK $ 28.7M by Sotheby's on April 4, 2011.
Vertige Neigeux, 200 x 400 cm, is the ultimate achievement of this series. From 1990 to 1999 Chu meticulously modifies this painting until obtaining a perfect satisfaction. It was sold by Christie's for HK $ 45.5M on November 29, 2009 and for HK $ 92M on November 26, 2016, lot 2508.
From a trip to the Alps in 1965, Chu sometimes introduces snow into his views. In December 1985 his train crosses a snow storm. Highly inspired by this unforeseen experience, he explores until 1990 the theme of the white winter.
Despite their geographical separation Chu had remained in close relationship with Wu Guanzhong whom he had known for nearly half a century. Wu is the great experimenter of the artistic synthesis between East and West. In 1983 he used the point and the line to construct a landscape.
Chu does the same to express the unlimited variety of snow. It is light or dense and floats in sunlight, and becomes mist or frost. It is the main actor of the scenery by masking the features of the landscape. The artist prepares the canvas with a bright wash that will provide an overall impression. If the effect of this texture pleases him, he paints his points and lines, more or less large and more or less dense.
He also appreciates the advantage of very large formats to express his poetic emotion but the lift of his building in the suburbs of Paris is too small to carry large canvases. For this reason his widest snow scenes are made as diptychs. Inspiration Hivernale, 195 x 260 cm, finished in 1990, was sold for HK $ 28.7M by Sotheby's on April 4, 2011.
Vertige Neigeux, 200 x 400 cm, is the ultimate achievement of this series. From 1990 to 1999 Chu meticulously modifies this painting until obtaining a perfect satisfaction. It was sold by Christie's for HK $ 45.5M on November 29, 2009 and for HK $ 92M on November 26, 2016, lot 2508.
1999 DOIG
1
1999 Country Rock
2014 SOLD for £ 8.5M by Sotheby's
Peter Doig's pictures deal with the issues in the relationship between humans and their planet. His urban subjects show the time limited nature of constructions.
A parallel between some of his work and the art of Hopper may be considered despite more than a half-century between them. Both artists question the ephemeral architecture. They work in the studio, Hopper from sketches of abandoned houses made during his car trips between New York and Cape Cod, and Doig with specially collected images.
The highway has become an inevitable part in our civilization. A surprisingly surrealist painting made by Hopper in 1939 shows three horse riders rushing at full speed into a tunnel in an uninteresting suburb. It was sold for $ 10.4M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2012.
On a six-lane highway near Toronto, a teenager girl died in a car crash in 1972. In memoriam her 16 year old boyfriend painted in the vicinity a rainbow around an insignificant tunnel passing under a railway. This signal for road safety will be acknowledged much later as a work of art, repainted in 2012 from a grant by the City of Toronto..
Doig painted this scenery around 1999 in a group of three paintings titled Country Rock. In his strictly horizontal composition, an ugly white security barrier separates the banal road from the unpleasant suburb. In the center, partly hidden behind the barrier, the rainbow borders the black hole of the tunnel.
One of these three paintings adds to the mystery an element that Hopper would have liked : the wing mirror, only visible piece of a vehicle passing in front of the tunnel at full speed and in total indifference. This oil on canvas 195 x 270 cm painted in 1999 was sold by Sotheby's for £ 8.5M on June 30, 2014, lot 27, and for HK $ 75M on October 7, 2022, lot 1214. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's in 2014.
A parallel between some of his work and the art of Hopper may be considered despite more than a half-century between them. Both artists question the ephemeral architecture. They work in the studio, Hopper from sketches of abandoned houses made during his car trips between New York and Cape Cod, and Doig with specially collected images.
The highway has become an inevitable part in our civilization. A surprisingly surrealist painting made by Hopper in 1939 shows three horse riders rushing at full speed into a tunnel in an uninteresting suburb. It was sold for $ 10.4M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2012.
On a six-lane highway near Toronto, a teenager girl died in a car crash in 1972. In memoriam her 16 year old boyfriend painted in the vicinity a rainbow around an insignificant tunnel passing under a railway. This signal for road safety will be acknowledged much later as a work of art, repainted in 2012 from a grant by the City of Toronto..
Doig painted this scenery around 1999 in a group of three paintings titled Country Rock. In his strictly horizontal composition, an ugly white security barrier separates the banal road from the unpleasant suburb. In the center, partly hidden behind the barrier, the rainbow borders the black hole of the tunnel.
One of these three paintings adds to the mystery an element that Hopper would have liked : the wing mirror, only visible piece of a vehicle passing in front of the tunnel at full speed and in total indifference. This oil on canvas 195 x 270 cm painted in 1999 was sold by Sotheby's for £ 8.5M on June 30, 2014, lot 27, and for HK $ 75M on October 7, 2022, lot 1214. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's in 2014.
2
1999 Old San Juan
2014 SOLD for £ 4.6M by Christie's
Peter Doig is, after Diebenkorn, one of the artists who took advantage of abstract expressionism for a return to figurative. His impeccable control in mixing liquid colors made him the best landscape painter of our time.
Despite this success, the themes of landscape and architecture do not adequately express modern life. In the late 1990s, Doig discovers how the geometry is an inevitable component in the vision of the contemporary world.
His series of Country rocks, around 1999, is the expression of new contrasts : between the linear structure of the highway and the amorphous look of the suburbs ; between the greyness of the surroundings and the rainbow of the memorial tunnel. An oil on canvas 195 x 270 cm was sold for £ 8.5M by Sotheby's in 2014.
On October 16, 2014, Christie's sold for £ 4.6M The Heart of Old San Juan, oil on canvas 250 x 195 cm painted in 1999, lot 58. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The inspiration for this painting may be compared with the Country rocks. Localized this time in Puerto Rico, its main element is a basketball court which offers its abstract geometry of lines, circles and panels in a rigorous bird-view perspective. The setting sun is an excuse for bringing a shimmering dimension to the green shades of the field.
Man is absent but his industry globally changed the scenery everywhere, including in the tropics. The refusal of the anecdotes does not prevent the immersion of the artist in this world where aesthetic shapes have been cleared by utilitarianism.
Despite this success, the themes of landscape and architecture do not adequately express modern life. In the late 1990s, Doig discovers how the geometry is an inevitable component in the vision of the contemporary world.
His series of Country rocks, around 1999, is the expression of new contrasts : between the linear structure of the highway and the amorphous look of the suburbs ; between the greyness of the surroundings and the rainbow of the memorial tunnel. An oil on canvas 195 x 270 cm was sold for £ 8.5M by Sotheby's in 2014.
On October 16, 2014, Christie's sold for £ 4.6M The Heart of Old San Juan, oil on canvas 250 x 195 cm painted in 1999, lot 58. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The inspiration for this painting may be compared with the Country rocks. Localized this time in Puerto Rico, its main element is a basketball court which offers its abstract geometry of lines, circles and panels in a rigorous bird-view perspective. The setting sun is an excuse for bringing a shimmering dimension to the green shades of the field.
Man is absent but his industry globally changed the scenery everywhere, including in the tropics. The refusal of the anecdotes does not prevent the immersion of the artist in this world where aesthetic shapes have been cleared by utilitarianism.
1999 Typewriter Eraser by Oldenburg and van Bruggen
2022 SOLD for $ 8.4M by Christie's
In the best tradition of pop art, the Swedish born Claes Oldenburg makes monumental enlargements of familiar objects for shop windows from 1961 and for public outdoor installations from 1964. He works from 1977 in co-operation with the Dutch sculptor Coosje van Bruggen whom he marries in 1979.
The now obsolete typewriter eraser had been an effective small and humble instrument that remained in Oldenburg's memory from his boyhood playing in father's office.
The number 3/3 eraser from a 1976 edition in painted aluminum, stainless steel, ferroconcrete and bronze 227 x 203 x 178 cm was sold for $ 2.2M by Christie's on May 13, 2009, lot 10. The giant disk-shaped eraser has just reached the ground, the bristles of its brush turned upwards.
The number 3/3 from a 1999 Scale X edition by Oldenburg and van Bruggen in stainless steel, fiberglass and acrylic polyurethane paint 59 x 36 x 36 cm was sold for $ 8.4M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Christie's on November 10, 2022, lot 124 in the day sale of the Paul G. Allen collection.
The now obsolete typewriter eraser had been an effective small and humble instrument that remained in Oldenburg's memory from his boyhood playing in father's office.
The number 3/3 eraser from a 1976 edition in painted aluminum, stainless steel, ferroconcrete and bronze 227 x 203 x 178 cm was sold for $ 2.2M by Christie's on May 13, 2009, lot 10. The giant disk-shaped eraser has just reached the ground, the bristles of its brush turned upwards.
The number 3/3 from a 1999 Scale X edition by Oldenburg and van Bruggen in stainless steel, fiberglass and acrylic polyurethane paint 59 x 36 x 36 cm was sold for $ 8.4M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Christie's on November 10, 2022, lot 124 in the day sale of the Paul G. Allen collection.
1999 Suddenly Last Summer by Cecily Brown
2018 SOLD for $ 6.8M by Sotheby's
to be narrated later
Link to catalogue.
1999 Spree by Cecily Brown
2021 SOLD for $ 6.6M by Sotheby's
to be narrated later
Link to lot 112.
1999-2000 Untitled by Martin
2022 SOLD for $ 6.1M by Christie's
A deteriorating health caused Agnes Martin to move to an assisted living facility in Taos in 1993, aged 81.
Restarting her experiments with faint colors, she was able to bring a deep impression of peace and happiness in her fully abstract paintings while maintaining her signature style of regular horizontal stripes drawn with the imperfections of hand application.
The uneven surface of a gesso ground imbues the paint with a unique spatial depth and luminosity. When her thinned acrylic is applied to the chalky white primer, the colors both absorb and reflect the light in an increased radiance, seeming to emit light from within.
She said : “The value of art is in the observer. When you find out what you like, you’re really finding out about yourself. Beethoven’s music is joyous. If you like his music, you know that you like to be joyful. People who look at my painting say that it makes them happy, like the feeling when you wake up in the morning. And happiness is the goal, isn’t it?”
She also said : "I want people, when they look at my paintings, to have the same feelings they experience when they look at a landscape so I never protest when they say my work is like a landscape. But it’s really about a feeling of beauty and freedom, that you experience in a landscape”.
An Untitled acrylic and graphite on canvas 152 x 152 cm painted ca 1999-2000 was made of broad diaphanous stripes, only discernable in close up inspection. For example, an innovative reddy-pink hue is created by mixing a blend of pink with a tinge of warmer orange.
It was sold for £ 2.84M by Sotheby's on October 15, 2015, lot 7 and for $ 6.1M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 18 in the sale of the Paul G. Allen collection.
Restarting her experiments with faint colors, she was able to bring a deep impression of peace and happiness in her fully abstract paintings while maintaining her signature style of regular horizontal stripes drawn with the imperfections of hand application.
The uneven surface of a gesso ground imbues the paint with a unique spatial depth and luminosity. When her thinned acrylic is applied to the chalky white primer, the colors both absorb and reflect the light in an increased radiance, seeming to emit light from within.
She said : “The value of art is in the observer. When you find out what you like, you’re really finding out about yourself. Beethoven’s music is joyous. If you like his music, you know that you like to be joyful. People who look at my painting say that it makes them happy, like the feeling when you wake up in the morning. And happiness is the goal, isn’t it?”
She also said : "I want people, when they look at my paintings, to have the same feelings they experience when they look at a landscape so I never protest when they say my work is like a landscape. But it’s really about a feeling of beauty and freedom, that you experience in a landscape”.
An Untitled acrylic and graphite on canvas 152 x 152 cm painted ca 1999-2000 was made of broad diaphanous stripes, only discernable in close up inspection. For example, an innovative reddy-pink hue is created by mixing a blend of pink with a tinge of warmer orange.
It was sold for £ 2.84M by Sotheby's on October 15, 2015, lot 7 and for $ 6.1M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 18 in the sale of the Paul G. Allen collection.
1999 Eclipse by Zao Wou-Ki
2023 SOLD for HK$ 49M by Sotheby's
Zao Wou-Ki had a lifelong quest for infinity represented by the asters in the sky. Pierre Matisse, his New York dealer and agent in the 1980s, managed to inspire him also from his figurative predecessors at the border of abstraction.
While his own work remained abstract, he introduced arched framings in front of his unlimited brawls of elements. In 1986 an Hommage à Henri Matisse is more precisely inspired from La Fenêtre Ouverte à Collioure. Henri Matisse was Pierre's father. His art also became brighter after he met Zhang Daqian in Taipei in 1983.
Then went Monet, both for his impressionist touch and for his theme of La Porte d'Aval in Etretat, the spectacular rocky arch that frames the view onto the Aiguille. 29.02.88, oil on canvas 162 x 130 cm, is such an acbstract arch and sky composition. It was sold for HK $ 50M by Sotheby's on July 8, 2020, lot 1016. The monumental triptych Hommage à Claude Monet, 194 x 480 cm painted in 1991, is the culmination of that trend.
11.08.99, subtitled Eclipse, was painted in 1999 after the return of sunlight from behind the moon in a total solar eclipse, interpreting the special light of that astronomical event in a pointillist application of bluish purple on pale green. The left part of the arch is prolongated by pseudo-calligraphic figures.
This monumental oil on canvas 250 x 200 cm was sold for HK $ 49M from a lower estimate of HK $ 30M by Sotheby's on April 5, 2023, lot 1024. Please watch the video shared by the auction house, also introducing a slightly earlier painting.
While his own work remained abstract, he introduced arched framings in front of his unlimited brawls of elements. In 1986 an Hommage à Henri Matisse is more precisely inspired from La Fenêtre Ouverte à Collioure. Henri Matisse was Pierre's father. His art also became brighter after he met Zhang Daqian in Taipei in 1983.
Then went Monet, both for his impressionist touch and for his theme of La Porte d'Aval in Etretat, the spectacular rocky arch that frames the view onto the Aiguille. 29.02.88, oil on canvas 162 x 130 cm, is such an acbstract arch and sky composition. It was sold for HK $ 50M by Sotheby's on July 8, 2020, lot 1016. The monumental triptych Hommage à Claude Monet, 194 x 480 cm painted in 1991, is the culmination of that trend.
11.08.99, subtitled Eclipse, was painted in 1999 after the return of sunlight from behind the moon in a total solar eclipse, interpreting the special light of that astronomical event in a pointillist application of bluish purple on pale green. The left part of the arch is prolongated by pseudo-calligraphic figures.
This monumental oil on canvas 250 x 200 cm was sold for HK $ 49M from a lower estimate of HK $ 30M by Sotheby's on April 5, 2023, lot 1024. Please watch the video shared by the auction house, also introducing a slightly earlier painting.
