2006
2006 Landscape in Snow by Cui Ruzhuo
2014 SOLD for HK$ 184M by Poly
Cui Ruzhuo assembles polyptychs composed of vertical panels painted in line and wash on paper in his signature finger ink technique. A single monumental work may occupy a full wall in an exhibition.
The themes chosen by Cui appeal to the Chinese sensitivity. His favorite is the unlimited landscape of snowy mountains, eternally indifferent to men.
Landscape in snow, painted in 2006, was sold for HK $ 184M by Poly on April 7, 2014, lot 2017. This ink and color on paper is an unfragmented hand scroll 64 cm x 36 m plus a frontispiece.
On the theme of the lotus, a set of eight scrolls 247 x 123 cm each was sold at lot 2237 for HK $ 124M by Christie's on 29 November 2011. The lotus are drawn with distorted shapes. This work is dated from early summer xinmao year matching 2011 CE, a few months before its auction.
The themes chosen by Cui appeal to the Chinese sensitivity. His favorite is the unlimited landscape of snowy mountains, eternally indifferent to men.
Landscape in snow, painted in 2006, was sold for HK $ 184M by Poly on April 7, 2014, lot 2017. This ink and color on paper is an unfragmented hand scroll 64 cm x 36 m plus a frontispiece.
On the theme of the lotus, a set of eight scrolls 247 x 123 cm each was sold at lot 2237 for HK $ 124M by Christie's on 29 November 2011. The lotus are drawn with distorted shapes. This work is dated from early summer xinmao year matching 2011 CE, a few months before its auction.
2006 KOONS
1
Hanging Heart
2007 SOLD for $ 23.6M by Sotheby's
In 2006 the Koons workshop succeeds in producing complex shapes including the Hanging heart with its fragile ribbon.
On November 14, 2007, Sotheby's sold for $ 23.6M from a lower estimate of $ 15M the Hanging Heart Magenta / Gold 296 x 216 x 102 cm, lot 14. This piece is from a series in five versions in chromium stainless steel covered with a transparent colored coating. It is dated 1994-2006.
Despite its huge dimensions, that heart is designed to be hanged, and the apparent lightness of this monster makes it a technical feat. The heart is decorated with gilded brass knots that look a bit like a gift package.
On November 14, 2007, Sotheby's sold for $ 23.6M from a lower estimate of $ 15M the Hanging Heart Magenta / Gold 296 x 216 x 102 cm, lot 14. This piece is from a series in five versions in chromium stainless steel covered with a transparent colored coating. It is dated 1994-2006.
Despite its huge dimensions, that heart is designed to be hanged, and the apparent lightness of this monster makes it a technical feat. The heart is decorated with gilded brass knots that look a bit like a gift package.
2
Cracked Egg
2014 SOLD for £ 14M by Christie's
With his series of Celebrations designed in 1994, Jeff Koons is one of very few contemporary artists who have managed to express joy. The Balloon Dog is a perfect example.
In 2006 the Cracked egg split in two parts is the first installation. The overturned egg's top placed on the floor moves the artist who compares this work with the shell of the Birth of Venus by Botticelli.
Made in five units of different colors like all the works of this series, Cracked egg is one of the simplest, strongest and most universal symbols. It is the normal fate of an egg to be broken, if it remains intact it is useless. Koons dedicated to his young son that symbol of birth.
The two elements 165 x 159 x 159 cm and 100 x 159 x 159 cm are empty with a silvery inner surface. The cracked edges have irregular shapes that would match together without gaps. The thinness of the walls is visible, contrary to all the previous themes, adding an impression of delicacy. It was one of the most difficult to realize, first by the sawtooth edge of both elements, and mainly by the need to obtain a perfectly polished surface both outside (colored) and inside (silvered).
Completed in 2006, the magenta Cracked egg is as sumptuous as a gorgeous Easter egg. It was sold for £ 14M by Christie's on February 13, 2014.
In 2006 the Cracked egg split in two parts is the first installation. The overturned egg's top placed on the floor moves the artist who compares this work with the shell of the Birth of Venus by Botticelli.
Made in five units of different colors like all the works of this series, Cracked egg is one of the simplest, strongest and most universal symbols. It is the normal fate of an egg to be broken, if it remains intact it is useless. Koons dedicated to his young son that symbol of birth.
The two elements 165 x 159 x 159 cm and 100 x 159 x 159 cm are empty with a silvery inner surface. The cracked edges have irregular shapes that would match together without gaps. The thinness of the walls is visible, contrary to all the previous themes, adding an impression of delicacy. It was one of the most difficult to realize, first by the sawtooth edge of both elements, and mainly by the need to obtain a perfectly polished surface both outside (colored) and inside (silvered).
Completed in 2006, the magenta Cracked egg is as sumptuous as a gorgeous Easter egg. It was sold for £ 14M by Christie's on February 13, 2014.
2006 Love is in the Air by BANKSY
Intro
The street artist behind the Banksy pseudonym is not identified but that does not prevent him to promote worldwide his disobedient political message. In August 2005 a few new stenciled images appear on walls in the Palestinian territories doomed by war, guerrilla and violence for decades.
Love is in the air is one of them. It illustrated the cover page of Banksy's book Wall and Piece, dated 2005.
A contester is in the position of throwing a Molotov cocktail in a strong and determined gesture. What he holds is not a weapon but a bouquet of flowers, in the follow of the Hippie anti Vietnam war flower power movement of the 1960s.
A few replicas were made in oil and spray paint on canvas 90 x 90 cm, displaying the bright colors of the blooms.
Love is in the air is one of them. It illustrated the cover page of Banksy's book Wall and Piece, dated 2005.
A contester is in the position of throwing a Molotov cocktail in a strong and determined gesture. What he holds is not a weapon but a bouquet of flowers, in the follow of the Hippie anti Vietnam war flower power movement of the 1960s.
A few replicas were made in oil and spray paint on canvas 90 x 90 cm, displaying the bright colors of the blooms.
1
06/05/05
2021 SOLD for $ 13M by Sotheby's
An example is dated 06/05/05 which is tentatively read as May 5, 2006, not as June 5, 2005 that would precede the original on the Palestinian wall. Other identical piece are dated April and May 2006.
It was sold for $ 13M from a lower estimate of $ 3M by Sotheby's on May 12, 2021, lot 104.
It was sold for $ 13M from a lower estimate of $ 3M by Sotheby's on May 12, 2021, lot 104.
2
13/15
2021 SOLD for $ 8.1M by Sotheby's
The 13/15 dated May 2006 was sold for $ 8.1M from a lower estimate of $ 4M by Sotheby's on November 18, 2021, lot 12.
The 5/15 of the 2006 Love is in the air, oil and spray on canvas 91 x 91 cm dated 24/4/2006, was sold for HK $ 51M by Sotheby's on April 27, 2022, lot 1126. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The 5/15 of the 2006 Love is in the air, oil and spray on canvas 91 x 91 cm dated 24/4/2006, was sold for HK $ 51M by Sotheby's on April 27, 2022, lot 1126. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
2005-2006 Runaway Nurse by Prince
2021 SOLD for HK$ 94M by Sotheby's
Most of the earliest Nurses by Richard Prince were gently appealing from behind their mask.
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 made in 2005 was sold for £ 4.1M by Sotheby's on June 28, 2017, lot 11.
The life size Runaway Nurse realized in 2005-2006 widely opened her blouse over a luxury lingerie with bare shoulders. It is indeed one of the most erotic in that series, not far from sadomasochism. This inkjet and acrylic on canvas 280 x 168 cm was sold for $ 9.7M by Christie's on May 10, 2016, lot 38 B and for HK $ 94M by Sotheby's on June 18, 2021, lot 8.
Richard Prince executed in 2006 a smaller version 203 x 132 cm of his Runaway Nurse, numbered # 2. It was sold for $ 6.8M by Phillips on November 7, 2011, lot 18.
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 made in 2005 was sold for £ 4.1M by Sotheby's on June 28, 2017, lot 11.
The life size Runaway Nurse realized in 2005-2006 widely opened her blouse over a luxury lingerie with bare shoulders. It is indeed one of the most erotic in that series, not far from sadomasochism. This inkjet and acrylic on canvas 280 x 168 cm was sold for $ 9.7M by Christie's on May 10, 2016, lot 38 B and for HK $ 94M by Sotheby's on June 18, 2021, lot 8.
Richard Prince executed in 2006 a smaller version 203 x 132 cm of his Runaway Nurse, numbered # 2. It was sold for $ 6.8M by Phillips on November 7, 2011, lot 18.
2006 Woldgate Woods by Hockney
2016 SOLD for $ 11.7M by Sotheby's
David Hockney lives between England and California. He began his artistic career at the time of Pop Art and showed private residences in Los Angeles with their swimming pools and their owners.
He is an unsatisfied photographer. The wide-angle lens distorts reality and breaks the grandeur of a landscape. He restores his emotional perception with photomontages of multiple elements.
In 2005 Hockney retrieves his childhood memories in East Yorkshire, a rural area little affected by modernism. He reinspects Constable and Monet. For nearly four years, he puts his easel at a crossing of roads and observes the changes of the seasons. This series of paintings of Woldgate Woods includes nine opus each one consisting of two rows of three panels, with another vantage point in the middle of each panel.
On November 17, 2016, Sotheby's sold for $ 11.7M the autumn scenery painted from 24 to 26 October 2006 under a blue sky, an assembly of oils on canvas for an overall 183 x 366 cm, lot 43.
The spring 2006 opus numbered Woldgate Woods II was painted by Hockney on 16 and 17 May in the same six part format as the autumn example above, with exactly the same view but with a white sky. It passed at Sotheby's on June 29, 2022, lot 15. The 2006 summer view was painted on July 26, 27 and 30 and the winter view from December 4 to 6.
This rejection of the laws of perspective culminates in 2007 with the monumental Bigger Trees near Warter, also in Yorkshire, measuring 457 x 1219 cm in 50 panels.
These gigantic mural reconstructions of a landscape as seen through windows in a showroom appeal to the public. A snowy mountain 300 x 873 cm painted in 2013 in eight panels by Cui Ruzhuo was sold for HK $ 306M by Poly on April 4, 2016.
He is an unsatisfied photographer. The wide-angle lens distorts reality and breaks the grandeur of a landscape. He restores his emotional perception with photomontages of multiple elements.
In 2005 Hockney retrieves his childhood memories in East Yorkshire, a rural area little affected by modernism. He reinspects Constable and Monet. For nearly four years, he puts his easel at a crossing of roads and observes the changes of the seasons. This series of paintings of Woldgate Woods includes nine opus each one consisting of two rows of three panels, with another vantage point in the middle of each panel.
On November 17, 2016, Sotheby's sold for $ 11.7M the autumn scenery painted from 24 to 26 October 2006 under a blue sky, an assembly of oils on canvas for an overall 183 x 366 cm, lot 43.
The spring 2006 opus numbered Woldgate Woods II was painted by Hockney on 16 and 17 May in the same six part format as the autumn example above, with exactly the same view but with a white sky. It passed at Sotheby's on June 29, 2022, lot 15. The 2006 summer view was painted on July 26, 27 and 30 and the winter view from December 4 to 6.
This rejection of the laws of perspective culminates in 2007 with the monumental Bigger Trees near Warter, also in Yorkshire, measuring 457 x 1219 cm in 50 panels.
These gigantic mural reconstructions of a landscape as seen through windows in a showroom appeal to the public. A snowy mountain 300 x 873 cm painted in 2013 in eight panels by Cui Ruzhuo was sold for HK $ 306M by Poly on April 4, 2016.
2006 Untitled (After Sam) by Stingel
2017 SOLD for $ 10.6M by Christie's
The role of the artist is changing. With Felix Gonzalez-Torres and later with Rudolf Stingel the viewer interacts with the creation. We remember a Gonzalez-Torres carpet of candies from which a young child innocent of art took some samples.
In an early series Stingel displays on the floor the carpets in which the visitors of his exhibitions leave the mark of their footsteps. The effect is improved when the boots are previously dipped in lacquer.
Stingel uses to state that all art is autobiographical. In 2005, aged 49, he stages himself for a series of photographical portraits by Sam Samore. His melancholy of a mid life crisis brings a reflection about his own future and death.
His gray and white hyperrealistic paintings from these photos are titled Untitled (After Sam), not identifying that the artist is the displayed character. This series somehow retrieves the signature photographic banality of Gerhard Richter.
An oil on canvas 39 x 53 cm painted in 2005 was sold for $ 900K by Phillips on November 8, 2010, lot 3. Stingel reclines on a bed with an evasive gaze.
In 2006 the Untitled (After Sam) series includes four monumental self portraits in oil on canvas. One of them, 335 x 460 cm, raising his head over hunched shoulders with a sad pensive face, was sold for $ 10.6M by Christie's on May 17, 2017, lot 35 B.
In an early series Stingel displays on the floor the carpets in which the visitors of his exhibitions leave the mark of their footsteps. The effect is improved when the boots are previously dipped in lacquer.
Stingel uses to state that all art is autobiographical. In 2005, aged 49, he stages himself for a series of photographical portraits by Sam Samore. His melancholy of a mid life crisis brings a reflection about his own future and death.
His gray and white hyperrealistic paintings from these photos are titled Untitled (After Sam), not identifying that the artist is the displayed character. This series somehow retrieves the signature photographic banality of Gerhard Richter.
An oil on canvas 39 x 53 cm painted in 2005 was sold for $ 900K by Phillips on November 8, 2010, lot 3. Stingel reclines on a bed with an evasive gaze.
In 2006 the Untitled (After Sam) series includes four monumental self portraits in oil on canvas. One of them, 335 x 460 cm, raising his head over hunched shoulders with a sad pensive face, was sold for $ 10.6M by Christie's on May 17, 2017, lot 35 B.
2006 TWOMBLY
1
2015 SOLD for £ 8M by Phillips
Until the end of his life, Twombly explored his original communication process. The lines became nervous, thick and messy with a violent color, and drips made the message looking like a liquid tag on a wall.
Painted in 2006, an acrylic on canvas 215 x 168 cm displays three monumental lines of irregular hectic lasso loops below an aborted upper line. The dripping appearing from all these lines are red brown, as for the lines themselves. The lines are eroded at some points.
This Untitled was sold for $ 9M by Phillips de Pury on November 7, 2011, lot 20 and by Phillips for £ 8M on October 14, 2015, lot 20 and for $ 8.6M on May 18, 2022, lot 29. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
It is a bloody scream, though we cannot guess against whom or against what such a disapproval is expressed. Perhaps against the whole world.
Painted in 2006, an acrylic on canvas 215 x 168 cm displays three monumental lines of irregular hectic lasso loops below an aborted upper line. The dripping appearing from all these lines are red brown, as for the lines themselves. The lines are eroded at some points.
This Untitled was sold for $ 9M by Phillips de Pury on November 7, 2011, lot 20 and by Phillips for £ 8M on October 14, 2015, lot 20 and for $ 8.6M on May 18, 2022, lot 29. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
It is a bloody scream, though we cannot guess against whom or against what such a disapproval is expressed. Perhaps against the whole world.
2
2014 SOLD for $ 10.2M by Sotheby's
Cy Twombly retrieves his signature theme of the lasso loops in 2004 with his Bacchus series. The vermilion red figures evoking violence and wine go beyond the semi-automatic proto-writing to become a magma. The use of large brushes increases the width of the line. He adds drippings which demonstrate the liquid phase of his raw paint.
The ageing artist enters with these Bacchus in a frenzy of creativity that will last until 2008, working on each painting up to the physical exhaustion.
The opus V of the first Bacchus series, 266 x 200 cm, was sold for $ 15.4M by Sotheby's on May 11, 2016. A giant opus of the second Bacchus series painted in 2005, 325 x 494 cm, with a better separation of the loops, was sold for $ 46M by Christie's on November 15, 2017.
In 2006 Twombly reconsiders the shape of the loops. A 215 x 168 cm painting with uneven and jerky red loops was sold for £ 8M by Phillips in 2015.
An Untitled painted at the end of 2006 brings an additional refinement by associating the decrepitude of the loops with the black and white monochrome blackboards which made his fame 35 years earlier. The new thickness of the line brings a dazzling white modulated by variations in intensity that give a depth effect to the loops.
This acrylic on canvas 215 x 166 cm was sold for $ 10.2M by Sotheby's on May 14, 2014 and for $ 9.7M by Christie's on November 13, 2019, lot 19 B.
The ageing artist enters with these Bacchus in a frenzy of creativity that will last until 2008, working on each painting up to the physical exhaustion.
The opus V of the first Bacchus series, 266 x 200 cm, was sold for $ 15.4M by Sotheby's on May 11, 2016. A giant opus of the second Bacchus series painted in 2005, 325 x 494 cm, with a better separation of the loops, was sold for $ 46M by Christie's on November 15, 2017.
In 2006 Twombly reconsiders the shape of the loops. A 215 x 168 cm painting with uneven and jerky red loops was sold for £ 8M by Phillips in 2015.
An Untitled painted at the end of 2006 brings an additional refinement by associating the decrepitude of the loops with the black and white monochrome blackboards which made his fame 35 years earlier. The new thickness of the line brings a dazzling white modulated by variations in intensity that give a depth effect to the loops.
This acrylic on canvas 215 x 166 cm was sold for $ 10.2M by Sotheby's on May 14, 2014 and for $ 9.7M by Christie's on November 13, 2019, lot 19 B.
