2005
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Twombly Banksy Lalanne Marshall Bradford
See also : Twombly Banksy Lalanne Marshall Bradford
2005 Bacchus by TWOMBLY
1
No. V
2017 SOLD for $ 46M by Christie's
Cy Twombly has always been hypersensitive to political violence whether it comes from myth or from current events. He lives in Gaeta which also houses a NATO naval base. The hypothesis that his series dedicated to Bacchus were triggered by Mediterranean maneuvers during the Iraq war can be considered.
His Bacchus are abstract paintings consisting of a tangle of vermilion loops on a light flesh-colored background. In 2004 the first set of six includes inscriptions from Greek attesting that Bacchus is not here the god of drinking and debauchery but is in his other role of personification of furious madness.
These lasso loops rise and fall between the top and bottom of the picture in endless spirals. Painted by the artist with a wide brush at the end of a long stick, they are not comparable with the proto-writing loops on his blackboards 35 years earlier. Thin vertical drippings give an idea of the sticky wetness of blood or wine.
Twombly does not immediately exhibit this first series because its vertical format 2.66 m high is not conducive enough to the burst of feelings and perhaps also because his art must be expressive by itself to get rid of the inscriptions. The opus V was sold for $ 15.4M by Sotheby's on May 11, 2016.
The artist makes the second series in 2005 in eight paintings that are immediately exhibited as a whole set by Gagosian in New York. The set is titled Bacchus Psilax Maimomenos, where Psilax meaning wings represents the repeated back and forth of the mind between pleasure and intoxication while maimomenos translates the raging.
The largest variant later numbered V, acrylic on canvas 325 x 494 cm, was sold for $ 46M by Christie's on November 15, 2017, lot 15 B.
In 2008 paintings V and VII from the 2005 group are judiciously positioned side by side during a temporary exhibition at the Tate Modern in London. The artist appreciates that he had not given a sufficient breadth to his own creation. He then executes a third series of six paintings. This ultimate series of Bacchus is not the apotheosis of a hostile god but the culmination of the effort of Cy Twombly's entire career for expressing through abstraction the blind rages of the real world.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 16, 2017
#AuctionUpdate Untitled, the largest example from Cy Twombly’s legendary Bacchus series, sells for $46,437,500.
His Bacchus are abstract paintings consisting of a tangle of vermilion loops on a light flesh-colored background. In 2004 the first set of six includes inscriptions from Greek attesting that Bacchus is not here the god of drinking and debauchery but is in his other role of personification of furious madness.
These lasso loops rise and fall between the top and bottom of the picture in endless spirals. Painted by the artist with a wide brush at the end of a long stick, they are not comparable with the proto-writing loops on his blackboards 35 years earlier. Thin vertical drippings give an idea of the sticky wetness of blood or wine.
Twombly does not immediately exhibit this first series because its vertical format 2.66 m high is not conducive enough to the burst of feelings and perhaps also because his art must be expressive by itself to get rid of the inscriptions. The opus V was sold for $ 15.4M by Sotheby's on May 11, 2016.
The artist makes the second series in 2005 in eight paintings that are immediately exhibited as a whole set by Gagosian in New York. The set is titled Bacchus Psilax Maimomenos, where Psilax meaning wings represents the repeated back and forth of the mind between pleasure and intoxication while maimomenos translates the raging.
The largest variant later numbered V, acrylic on canvas 325 x 494 cm, was sold for $ 46M by Christie's on November 15, 2017, lot 15 B.
In 2008 paintings V and VII from the 2005 group are judiciously positioned side by side during a temporary exhibition at the Tate Modern in London. The artist appreciates that he had not given a sufficient breadth to his own creation. He then executes a third series of six paintings. This ultimate series of Bacchus is not the apotheosis of a hostile god but the culmination of the effort of Cy Twombly's entire career for expressing through abstraction the blind rages of the real world.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 16, 2017
#AuctionUpdate Untitled, the largest example from Cy Twombly’s legendary Bacchus series, sells for $46,437,500.
- The artwork "Untitled" from Cy Twombly’s Bacchus series, sold for $46.4 million in 2017, reflects the abstract expressionism movement's peak, which shifted the art world's center from Paris to New York post-WWII, a transition backed by studies like those in the Journal of Cultural Economics showing a 300% rise in American art auction prices between 1945 and 1960.
- Twombly’s use of chaotic red loops draws from mythology, specifically Bacchus (Roman god of wine), symbolizing chaos and ecstasy, a theme explored in his later works after moving to Italy, where he absorbed classical influences, challenging the notion that abstract art lacks narrative depth.
- The high sale price contrasts with public skepticism (seen in replies comparing it to child’s drawings), highlighting a 2017 Artprice report noting a 15% annual growth in contemporary art market value, driven by elite collectors, not mass appeal, suggesting a disconnect between market trends and public perception.
2
2022 SOLD for $ 42M by Phillips
The second largest opus in the 2005 Bacchus series by Twombly is an acrylic on canvas 325 x 494 cm. It was sold for $ 42M by Phillips on November 15, 2022, lot 8.
It appears as a twin to the Bacchus V of the same series, sold for $ 46M by Christie's in 2017. The goal of the series is to express the rage of an antique god, but the similarity of the loops and even the drippings in both artworks demonstrates that their extreme turbulence had been carefully conceived in the smallest details with no place to chance.
Asking Grok to compare the opus sold by Phillips on November 15, 2022 with the Bacchus V sold by Christie's on Niovember 15, 2017.
Grok thought :
Both artworks are from Cy Twombly's Bacchus series, specifically the 2005 subset titled Bacchus Psilax Mainomenos (comprising eight landscape-format paintings). This series explores themes of ecstasy, rage, intoxication, and madness inspired by the god Bacchus/Dionysus, created amid the US invasion of Iraq and reflecting cyclical forces of rising and falling energy. The paintings feature large-scale vermilion red looping forms with drips suggesting blood or wine, executed using a brush attached to a long pole for physical, performative application. They are often described as "twins" due to their stylistic and thematic similarities, representing a culmination of Twombly's looping motifs from earlier works like his 1960s "blackboard" paintings.
The piece sold by Christie's, known as Untitled V (Bacchus) in exhibition contexts, is the largest in the 2005 series.
Sale Outcomes: Christie's fetched about $4.8 million more, possibly due to market conditions in 2017 vs. 2022 (the latter showing signs of a cooling market) or its "largest" status.
Compositional Nuances: While both feature spiraling drips, descriptions suggest subtle variations—Phillips emphasizes a "wild red spiral" evoking the Iliad's violence, while Christie's highlights a "tumultuous web" with philosophical ties to Nietzsche and mysticism.
It appears as a twin to the Bacchus V of the same series, sold for $ 46M by Christie's in 2017. The goal of the series is to express the rage of an antique god, but the similarity of the loops and even the drippings in both artworks demonstrates that their extreme turbulence had been carefully conceived in the smallest details with no place to chance.
Asking Grok to compare the opus sold by Phillips on November 15, 2022 with the Bacchus V sold by Christie's on Niovember 15, 2017.
Grok thought :
Both artworks are from Cy Twombly's Bacchus series, specifically the 2005 subset titled Bacchus Psilax Mainomenos (comprising eight landscape-format paintings). This series explores themes of ecstasy, rage, intoxication, and madness inspired by the god Bacchus/Dionysus, created amid the US invasion of Iraq and reflecting cyclical forces of rising and falling energy. The paintings feature large-scale vermilion red looping forms with drips suggesting blood or wine, executed using a brush attached to a long pole for physical, performative application. They are often described as "twins" due to their stylistic and thematic similarities, representing a culmination of Twombly's looping motifs from earlier works like his 1960s "blackboard" paintings.
The piece sold by Christie's, known as Untitled V (Bacchus) in exhibition contexts, is the largest in the 2005 series.
Sale Outcomes: Christie's fetched about $4.8 million more, possibly due to market conditions in 2017 vs. 2022 (the latter showing signs of a cooling market) or its "largest" status.
Compositional Nuances: While both feature spiraling drips, descriptions suggest subtle variations—Phillips emphasizes a "wild red spiral" evoking the Iliad's violence, while Christie's highlights a "tumultuous web" with philosophical ties to Nietzsche and mysticism.
2004-2005 The Painter Surprised by a Naked Admirer by Freud
2025 for sale on November 17 by Christie's
The Painter Surprised by a Naked Admirer, oil on canvas 137 x 107 cm executed by Lucian Freud in 2004-2005, is estimated $ 15M for sale by Christie's on November 17, 2025, lot 33A.
Asking Grok to define its significance in the career of the artist.
Grok thought :
Lucian Freud's The Painter Surprised by a Naked Admirer (2004-2005) is a large-scale oil on canvas self-portrait that captures the octogenarian artist in his Holland Park studio, brush in hand and appearing somewhat befuddled, while a young nude female model—identified as Alexi Williams-Wynn, with whom Freud had a romantic relationship during the year-long sittings—clings rapturously to his leg. The composition includes a recursive element: a painting-within-the-painting of the scene itself, created by Freud alternating between observing their reflections in a mirror and working from memory on the canvas. This work, currently from the collection of Elaine Wynn and slated for auction at Christie's 20th Century Evening Sale on November 17, 2025, holds notable significance in Freud's seven-decade career as a culminating example of his late-period obsessions with self-portraiture, the nude figure, and the dynamics of the artistic process.
Created at age 82, just six years before his death in 2011, the painting represents one of Freud's final major contributions to the self-portrait genre, which comprised nearly a third of his output and evolved from early surrealist-influenced pieces (like Man with a Feather, 1943) to intensely naturalistic explorations of identity and vulnerability. It was the last work he completed in his longstanding Holland Park studio—a sixth-floor space encrusted with layers of scraped paint symbolizing decades of labor—before relocating, underscoring a transitional moment in his late career amid growing awareness of mortality. Freud's rigorous schedule of seven-day-a-week sittings for this piece reflects his enduring vigor and drive to produce ambitious, psychologically charged compositions in his final years, prioritizing "intensified reality" through meticulous observation over sentimentality or idealization.
Thematically, it exemplifies Freud's mature style: a blend of personal intimacy, biographical undertones (everything in his art was "biographical and a self-portrait," as he claimed), and the master-muse relationship, with the nude's adoring pose highlighting themes of vulnerability, power dynamics, and artistic creation. Unlike his earlier, crisper works or mid-career shifts toward looser brushwork influenced by Francis Bacon, this late painting showcases his fully developed technique of building flesh-like textures with thick impasto, emphasizing psychological depth and the body's raw physicality. It also introduces a rare note of humor—evident in the wry title and the "surprised" scenario—which Freud infrequently attempted but which critics have noted as adding a layer of self-celebratory heroism to the scene. However, not all receptions were glowing; some viewed it as one of his less successful "ideas" pictures, critiquing its arch vanity and forced interaction between figures as failing to cohere, contrasting with his stronger portraits that thrive on isolation and essence over contrived narrative.
Exhibited almost immediately upon completion at London's National Portrait Gallery in 2005 and subsequently in major venues like Venice's Museo Correr and Paris's Centre Pompidou, the work has been featured in key retrospectives and catalogues raisonnés, cementing its role in documenting Freud's legacy as a figurative master who pushed portraiture toward unflinching, often unflattering honesty. In the broader arc of his career—from post-war British realism to international acclaim—it stands as a testament to his unyielding commitment to the human form, even in old age, bridging his personal life (romantic entanglements, studio rituals) with universal themes of creation and desire.
Asking Grok to define its significance in the career of the artist.
Grok thought :
Lucian Freud's The Painter Surprised by a Naked Admirer (2004-2005) is a large-scale oil on canvas self-portrait that captures the octogenarian artist in his Holland Park studio, brush in hand and appearing somewhat befuddled, while a young nude female model—identified as Alexi Williams-Wynn, with whom Freud had a romantic relationship during the year-long sittings—clings rapturously to his leg. The composition includes a recursive element: a painting-within-the-painting of the scene itself, created by Freud alternating between observing their reflections in a mirror and working from memory on the canvas. This work, currently from the collection of Elaine Wynn and slated for auction at Christie's 20th Century Evening Sale on November 17, 2025, holds notable significance in Freud's seven-decade career as a culminating example of his late-period obsessions with self-portraiture, the nude figure, and the dynamics of the artistic process.
Created at age 82, just six years before his death in 2011, the painting represents one of Freud's final major contributions to the self-portrait genre, which comprised nearly a third of his output and evolved from early surrealist-influenced pieces (like Man with a Feather, 1943) to intensely naturalistic explorations of identity and vulnerability. It was the last work he completed in his longstanding Holland Park studio—a sixth-floor space encrusted with layers of scraped paint symbolizing decades of labor—before relocating, underscoring a transitional moment in his late career amid growing awareness of mortality. Freud's rigorous schedule of seven-day-a-week sittings for this piece reflects his enduring vigor and drive to produce ambitious, psychologically charged compositions in his final years, prioritizing "intensified reality" through meticulous observation over sentimentality or idealization.
Thematically, it exemplifies Freud's mature style: a blend of personal intimacy, biographical undertones (everything in his art was "biographical and a self-portrait," as he claimed), and the master-muse relationship, with the nude's adoring pose highlighting themes of vulnerability, power dynamics, and artistic creation. Unlike his earlier, crisper works or mid-career shifts toward looser brushwork influenced by Francis Bacon, this late painting showcases his fully developed technique of building flesh-like textures with thick impasto, emphasizing psychological depth and the body's raw physicality. It also introduces a rare note of humor—evident in the wry title and the "surprised" scenario—which Freud infrequently attempted but which critics have noted as adding a layer of self-celebratory heroism to the scene. However, not all receptions were glowing; some viewed it as one of his less successful "ideas" pictures, critiquing its arch vanity and forced interaction between figures as failing to cohere, contrasting with his stronger portraits that thrive on isolation and essence over contrived narrative.
Exhibited almost immediately upon completion at London's National Portrait Gallery in 2005 and subsequently in major venues like Venice's Museo Correr and Paris's Centre Pompidou, the work has been featured in key retrospectives and catalogues raisonnés, cementing its role in documenting Freud's legacy as a figurative master who pushed portraiture toward unflinching, often unflattering honesty. In the broader arc of his career—from post-war British realism to international acclaim—it stands as a testament to his unyielding commitment to the human form, even in old age, bridging his personal life (romantic entanglements, studio rituals) with universal themes of creation and desire.
2005 Crude Oil by BANKSY
Intro
Banksy uses the recovery of images to castigate the consumerism which is destroying the environment. Most often, he overpaints chromos, as Duchamp had done for LHOOQ.
His Crude Oils solo exhibition is held in London in October 2005 in an abandoned shop. Admission is free, except that visitors must sign before entering their acceptance of the presence of the 164 rats that roam freely in the premises. These rodents had been hired by the artist to a theatrical prop company.
The title Crude Oils is a pun explicitly mingling capitalism and painting, irreverently criticizing the diversion of art by capitalism. The subtitle is a manifesto of Banksy's iconoclasm : A Gallery of Re-mixed Masterpieces, Vandalism and Vermin.
Departing from the spray techniques of street art, some of the works were entirely hand painted on canvas.
Warhol's Marilyn with the face of Kate Moss was unveiled at this exhibition.
His Crude Oils solo exhibition is held in London in October 2005 in an abandoned shop. Admission is free, except that visitors must sign before entering their acceptance of the presence of the 164 rats that roam freely in the premises. These rodents had been hired by the artist to a theatrical prop company.
The title Crude Oils is a pun explicitly mingling capitalism and painting, irreverently criticizing the diversion of art by capitalism. The subtitle is a manifesto of Banksy's iconoclasm : A Gallery of Re-mixed Masterpieces, Vandalism and Vermin.
Departing from the spray techniques of street art, some of the works were entirely hand painted on canvas.
Warhol's Marilyn with the face of Kate Moss was unveiled at this exhibition.
1
Sunflowers from Petrol Station
2021 SOLD for $ 14.6M by Christie's
Sunflowers from Petrol Station was prepared by Banksy in 2005 for the Crude Oils.
The former Van Gogh's flamboyant plant has been killed by modern life. Stems are bowing, flowers are dry and dead petals lie around the pot. Banksy's signature supersede Vincent's on the left side of the pot.
This oil on canvas 103 x 88 cm was sold for $ 14.6M from a lower estimate of $ 12M by Christie's on November 9, 2021, lot 17A.
The real Van Gogh's Tournesols at the 1987 Christie's auction was from 2006 the subject of Banksy's Morons series turned against the art market.
The former Van Gogh's flamboyant plant has been killed by modern life. Stems are bowing, flowers are dry and dead petals lie around the pot. Banksy's signature supersede Vincent's on the left side of the pot.
This oil on canvas 103 x 88 cm was sold for $ 14.6M from a lower estimate of $ 12M by Christie's on November 9, 2021, lot 17A.
The real Van Gogh's Tournesols at the 1987 Christie's auction was from 2006 the subject of Banksy's Morons series turned against the art market.
2
Show me the Monet
2020 SOLD for £ 7.6M by Sotheby's
Made in 2005 for Crude Oils, Show me the Monet, is an oil on canvas in an artist's frame 143 x 143 cm,
Like the Sunflowers, it is a re-mixing of a major artwork in an uncompromising recuperation for the protest against environmental damages and vandalism.
Symbols of modern vermin and vandalism have been added in front of Monet's Japanese bridge. In the foreground, a fluorescent orange cone signals that the garbage from modern life is polluting the most idyllic sites. Two shopping trollies are stranded amidst the water lilies.
Show me the Monet was sold for £ 7.6M from a lower estimate of £ 3M on October 21, 2020 by Sotheby's, lot 106. The auction house stated that no rats are expected in their display. Reminding the 2018 Love is in the Bin happening, they predicted that the artist's frame was not rigged, but its thickness is not indicated in the catalog.
Grok thought :
Quote
AFP News Agency @AFP Oct 21, 2020
VIDEO: Banksy 'Show me the Monet', an oil on canvas transforming Claude Monet's famous 'Water Lilies pond' into a modern-era fly-tipping spot, is exhibited at Sotheby's where it will be auctioned on October 21, for an estimated price of 3 to 5 million pounds
Like the Sunflowers, it is a re-mixing of a major artwork in an uncompromising recuperation for the protest against environmental damages and vandalism.
Symbols of modern vermin and vandalism have been added in front of Monet's Japanese bridge. In the foreground, a fluorescent orange cone signals that the garbage from modern life is polluting the most idyllic sites. Two shopping trollies are stranded amidst the water lilies.
Show me the Monet was sold for £ 7.6M from a lower estimate of £ 3M on October 21, 2020 by Sotheby's, lot 106. The auction house stated that no rats are expected in their display. Reminding the 2018 Love is in the Bin happening, they predicted that the artist's frame was not rigged, but its thickness is not indicated in the catalog.
Grok thought :
Quote
AFP News Agency @AFP Oct 21, 2020
VIDEO: Banksy 'Show me the Monet', an oil on canvas transforming Claude Monet's famous 'Water Lilies pond' into a modern-era fly-tipping spot, is exhibited at Sotheby's where it will be auctioned on October 21, for an estimated price of 3 to 5 million pounds
- Banksy's "Show Me the Monet" (2005) reimagines Claude Monet's iconic "Water Lilies" pond as a polluted dump site with shopping trolleys and trash, critiquing modern environmental degradation and consumerism in a rare hand-painted oil on canvas.
- The artwork, from Banksy's "Crude Oils" exhibition mocking the fine art market, was auctioned at Sotheby's on October 21, 2020, exceeding its £3-5 million estimate by selling for £7.55 million, then Banksy's second-highest auction price.
- As a satirical bridge between street art and gallery culture, it highlights Banksy's evolution from urban graffiti to high-value commentary, with the 2020 sale reflecting surging demand for his politically charged works amid global eco-concerns.
2005 Cosmic Eyes (in the Milky Lake) by Nara
2025 SOLD for £ 9M by Sotheby's
The little girls by Yoshitomo Nara never play. The source of the otherworldly attitude of his childish characters is certainly a reference to the death at childbirth of a sister one year before he was born. His parents had believed that he would be a girl for passing her lost sensitivity to him.
The young girl repetitively appears standing half submerged in a rippling puddle.
Painted in 1998, Haze Days is an early example, with a concerned face and the pink attire of a nice girl. A pink bandage wraps the head like an Easter egg, most likely as a reference to van Gogh's painful self portrait with bandaged ear. The luminous puddle-pond is an appeasing pastel cream. Please watch the video shared by the auction house before it was withdrawn from sale by Sotheby's on May 19, 2023, lot 12.
Painted in 2005, Cosmic Eyes (in the Milky Lake) blurs the gaze with kaleidoscopic elements that may evoke an expanding galaxy, inviting the viewer to enter in her soul. The girl is nice and serene, with a pleasant color of the skin. The milky lake is here matching the Milky Way.
This acrylic and glitter on canvas 162 x 130 cm was sold for £ 9M from a lower estimate of £ 6M f by Sotheby's on March 4, 2025, lot 10. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In that period Nara indeed re-concentrates on the gaze for expressing the emotions. An example features the young girl with a sad mouth, seated behind a table. The only visible eye is oversized and mesmerizing and filled with galaxies while the other eye is hidden under the hair. This untitled acrylic on canvas 162 x 145 cm was sold for HK $ 54M by Christie's on May 24, 2021, lot 53.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Mar 4
#AuctionUpdate: Yoshitomo Nara’s ‘Cosmic Eyes (in the Milky Lake)’ achieved £9M after 4 bidders online and in the room battled it out at #SothebysLondon tonight. #SothebysContemporary
The young girl repetitively appears standing half submerged in a rippling puddle.
Painted in 1998, Haze Days is an early example, with a concerned face and the pink attire of a nice girl. A pink bandage wraps the head like an Easter egg, most likely as a reference to van Gogh's painful self portrait with bandaged ear. The luminous puddle-pond is an appeasing pastel cream. Please watch the video shared by the auction house before it was withdrawn from sale by Sotheby's on May 19, 2023, lot 12.
Painted in 2005, Cosmic Eyes (in the Milky Lake) blurs the gaze with kaleidoscopic elements that may evoke an expanding galaxy, inviting the viewer to enter in her soul. The girl is nice and serene, with a pleasant color of the skin. The milky lake is here matching the Milky Way.
This acrylic and glitter on canvas 162 x 130 cm was sold for £ 9M from a lower estimate of £ 6M f by Sotheby's on March 4, 2025, lot 10. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In that period Nara indeed re-concentrates on the gaze for expressing the emotions. An example features the young girl with a sad mouth, seated behind a table. The only visible eye is oversized and mesmerizing and filled with galaxies while the other eye is hidden under the hair. This untitled acrylic on canvas 162 x 145 cm was sold for HK $ 54M by Christie's on May 24, 2021, lot 53.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Mar 4
#AuctionUpdate: Yoshitomo Nara’s ‘Cosmic Eyes (in the Milky Lake)’ achieved £9M after 4 bidders online and in the room battled it out at #SothebysLondon tonight. #SothebysContemporary
- The artwork "Cosmic Eyes (in the Milky Lake)" by Yoshitomo Nara, sold for £9M at Sotheby's London, reflects his mature style blending childhood innocence with surreal elements, a shift noted in a 2021 peer-reviewed study in Art Journal linking his work to post-war Japanese identity exploration.
- The auction's competitive bidding, involving four participants online and in-person, aligns with a 2025 Artsy report showing a 15% rise in digital art sales, challenging the traditional auction dominance and highlighting a growing collector preference for virtual access.
- Nara’s previous sale, "The Knife Behind Back" for $25M in 2019, suggests a potential market correction or evolving taste, as economic analyses from the 2023 Journal of Cultural Economics indicate art prices can fluctuate with global economic uncertainty, possibly influenced by the 2025 recession signals.
2005 Snowy Mountains by Cui Ruzhuo
2013 SOLD for HK$ 77M by Christie's
The themes by Cui Ruzhuo appeal to the Chinese sensitivity. His favorite is the unlimited landscape of snowy mountains, eternally indifferent to men.
A set of eight panels made in 2005 for a total size of 202 x 988 cm was sold for HK $ 77M from a lower estimate of HK $ 50M by Christie's on May 28, 2013, lot 1347.
A set of eight panels made in 2005 for a total size of 202 x 988 cm was sold for HK $ 77M from a lower estimate of HK $ 50M by Christie's on May 28, 2013, lot 1347.
2005 Léopard by Lalanne
2021 SOLD for € 8.3M by Sotheby's
In the early art of François-Xavier Lalanne, animals were integrated as pieces of furniture. The monkey sitting on a shelf as an edge decoration did not prevent the use of the supporting piece for practical furnishing.
The reclining leopards can do better as their legs can also lazily hang. From that early conception dated from 1974, a pair of drawings dated 1994 fetched € 5,300 at Sotheby's in the second day of the sale of the collection of Dorothée Lalanne, lot 33. One foreleg is posed and the other three legs are hanging
If the beast occupies the full surface of a narrow shelf, the table loses its practical use. Léopard I, executed in eight copies in 2005, features the same animal in exactly the same position as in the example above, perched on an empty wood frame. Its spots are made by a double patina on the bronze and the support is in tinted ash for an overall size of 145 x 127 x 40 cm.
On November 4, 2021 in the same auction as above, Sotheby's sold the 5/8 for € 8.3M from a lower estimate of € 400K, lot 41.
A 75 cm high Singe cast in 1999 with gold patina was sold for $ 4M by Sotheby's on July 30, 2020, lot 129. The squatting animal let its tail hanging so that it can only be placed on the edge of a furniture. The decorator takes care of the distance between tail's end and floor.
The reclining leopards can do better as their legs can also lazily hang. From that early conception dated from 1974, a pair of drawings dated 1994 fetched € 5,300 at Sotheby's in the second day of the sale of the collection of Dorothée Lalanne, lot 33. One foreleg is posed and the other three legs are hanging
If the beast occupies the full surface of a narrow shelf, the table loses its practical use. Léopard I, executed in eight copies in 2005, features the same animal in exactly the same position as in the example above, perched on an empty wood frame. Its spots are made by a double patina on the bronze and the support is in tinted ash for an overall size of 145 x 127 x 40 cm.
On November 4, 2021 in the same auction as above, Sotheby's sold the 5/8 for € 8.3M from a lower estimate of € 400K, lot 41.
A 75 cm high Singe cast in 1999 with gold patina was sold for $ 4M by Sotheby's on July 30, 2020, lot 129. The squatting animal let its tail hanging so that it can only be placed on the edge of a furniture. The decorator takes care of the distance between tail's end and floor.
2005 Vignette by Marshall
2024 SOLD for $ 7.5M by Sotheby's
Kerry James Marshall correctly considered that the social life of African Americans is underrepresented in a graphic art monopolized for centuries by white people. Vignette is the title for his theme of the happy love between a boy and a girl going about the joys of life uninhibited by white racism.
The couple is still in childhood in an early example painted in 2003. They race innocently in full nudity against one another in a private lawn closed by a fence, as in a run for freedom in a Garden of Eden. This acrylic on fiberglass 210 x 300 cm was sold for $ 540K by Sotheby's on November 15, 2007, lot 454.
The couple is older but still in an age of play in the Vignette # 5. The girl is seated in the ground in front of a tree behind which the hidden boy manages to stir her attention. This acrylic on plexiglas 183 x 152 cm painted in 2005 was sold for $ 970K by Sotheby's on May 11, 2016, lot 19.
Things are going to idyl with the Vignette # 6, also painted in 2005. They share a bliss beside an Arcadian garden's stone wall on which the girl is seated. Light red love hearts float between them within the otherwise grisaille composition. Butterflies dance in the daffodils and a sparrow attends like a peeping tom. This acrylic on plexiglas 190 x 167 cm was sold for $ 7.5M by Sotheby's on May 13, 2024, lot 7.
The couple is still in childhood in an early example painted in 2003. They race innocently in full nudity against one another in a private lawn closed by a fence, as in a run for freedom in a Garden of Eden. This acrylic on fiberglass 210 x 300 cm was sold for $ 540K by Sotheby's on November 15, 2007, lot 454.
The couple is older but still in an age of play in the Vignette # 5. The girl is seated in the ground in front of a tree behind which the hidden boy manages to stir her attention. This acrylic on plexiglas 183 x 152 cm painted in 2005 was sold for $ 970K by Sotheby's on May 11, 2016, lot 19.
Things are going to idyl with the Vignette # 6, also painted in 2005. They share a bliss beside an Arcadian garden's stone wall on which the girl is seated. Light red love hearts float between them within the otherwise grisaille composition. Butterflies dance in the daffodils and a sparrow attends like a peeping tom. This acrylic on plexiglas 190 x 167 cm was sold for $ 7.5M by Sotheby's on May 13, 2024, lot 7.
2005 Nurse on Trial by Prince
2024 SOLD for $ 6.7M by Sotheby's
Nurse on Trial, acrylic and inkjet on canvas 190 x 132 cm painted in 2005 by Richard Prince, was sold for $ 6.7M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Sotheby's on November 20, 2024, lot 9. Please watch the short video shared by the auction house.
Most of the early Nurses by Richard Prince were gently appealing from behind their mask. The mask protects her anonymity but also defaces and silences her.
For these girls the worst was still to come. They become naughty and increasingly macabre. The bleeding mouth of the School Nurse is visible through her diaphanous mask along with the drippings. This Nurse 178 x 125 cm executed in 2005 was sold for £ 4.1M by Sotheby's on June 28, 2017, lot 11.
Most of the early Nurses by Richard Prince were gently appealing from behind their mask. The mask protects her anonymity but also defaces and silences her.
For these girls the worst was still to come. They become naughty and increasingly macabre. The bleeding mouth of the School Nurse is visible through her diaphanous mask along with the drippings. This Nurse 178 x 125 cm executed in 2005 was sold for £ 4.1M by Sotheby's on June 28, 2017, lot 11.
2005 Black Venus by Bradford
2018 SOLD for $ 6.1M by Phillips
In 2004 Mark Bradford managed to apply his collage techniques in large scale, sourcing his tiny paper material in the streets.
Black Venus follows in 2005. The title is questioning the race of the beloved goddess. This mixed media collage 315 x 460 cm was sold for $ 6.1M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Phillips on May 17, 2018, lot 11. The regular rectangular elements mimic the view of buildings from the sky. The shape of the overall figure may look biomorphic.
In 2006 the dark Scorched Earth, 240 x 300 x 5.7 cm, currently in the Broad Museum, directly warns for a collapse of social life.
Black Venus follows in 2005. The title is questioning the race of the beloved goddess. This mixed media collage 315 x 460 cm was sold for $ 6.1M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Phillips on May 17, 2018, lot 11. The regular rectangular elements mimic the view of buildings from the sky. The shape of the overall figure may look biomorphic.
In 2006 the dark Scorched Earth, 240 x 300 x 5.7 cm, currently in the Broad Museum, directly warns for a collapse of social life.
