Abstract Art - 2nd page
In addition to Rothko
See also : Abstract art Art on paper USA II Still Pollock Twombly Léger Russia De Kooning China Modern China Zao Wou-Ki
Chronology : 1910-1919 1913 1916 1940-1949 1948 1949 1950-1959 1951 1960-1969 1961 1968 1970-1979 1970 1977 1980-1989 1985
See also : Abstract art Art on paper USA II Still Pollock Twombly Léger Russia De Kooning China Modern China Zao Wou-Ki
Chronology : 1910-1919 1913 1916 1940-1949 1948 1949 1950-1959 1951 1960-1969 1961 1968 1970-1979 1970 1977 1980-1989 1985
1913 The Analysis of Rhythm
2017 SOLD for $ 70M including premium
Under the watchful eye of Apollinaire the young artists are trying to define the pure painting. Fernand Léger is in the group. His creative desire is limitless. In 1910 with his large oil on canvas Nus dans la forêt, he applies to a landscape the solutions of analytical cubism.
Léger admires the advances made by Cézanne while wanting to escape his theories. Geometric construction is indeed no more than a technique. The introduction of movement in painting by the Futurists is promising but remains anecdotal. Painting needs nothing else than displaying pure lines, shapes and colors which will capture the interest of the viewer by their own rhythm.
Like Kandinsky in Murnau, Léger conducts in parallel his pictorial trials and his theoretical research. His Femme en Bleu painted in 1912 is the switch into abstraction of a cubist work based on a classic theme. Balancing on this border between narrative and abstraction, Léger manages immediately afterward a reverted move in which the forms of the woman reappear. This oil on canvas 130 x 97 cm was sold for $ 39M including premium by Sotheby's on May 7, 2008.
Léger goes much further than Kandinsky and precedes Mondrian and Malevich : art can be abstract without any need to rely on a figurative sketch. In 1913 and 1914 he achieves about fourteen abstract paintings under the generic title Contraste de Formes. A contract with Kahnweiler brings him stability in his living conditions. The support by this merchant also slows down his habit of destroying his own works when the artistic effect does not respond to his perfectionist desire.
On November 13 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 14A a Contraste de Formes painted in 1913, oil on burlap 92 x 73 cm.
The progress made by Léger is decisive but soon interrupted by the stupid war that will annihilate Apollinaire. He will give up abstraction, no doubt because the effort to reach his own target for perfection was too exhausting. After this ephemeral momentum towards pure painting he will become an original image maker of modern life.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
Léger admires the advances made by Cézanne while wanting to escape his theories. Geometric construction is indeed no more than a technique. The introduction of movement in painting by the Futurists is promising but remains anecdotal. Painting needs nothing else than displaying pure lines, shapes and colors which will capture the interest of the viewer by their own rhythm.
Like Kandinsky in Murnau, Léger conducts in parallel his pictorial trials and his theoretical research. His Femme en Bleu painted in 1912 is the switch into abstraction of a cubist work based on a classic theme. Balancing on this border between narrative and abstraction, Léger manages immediately afterward a reverted move in which the forms of the woman reappear. This oil on canvas 130 x 97 cm was sold for $ 39M including premium by Sotheby's on May 7, 2008.
Léger goes much further than Kandinsky and precedes Mondrian and Malevich : art can be abstract without any need to rely on a figurative sketch. In 1913 and 1914 he achieves about fourteen abstract paintings under the generic title Contraste de Formes. A contract with Kahnweiler brings him stability in his living conditions. The support by this merchant also slows down his habit of destroying his own works when the artistic effect does not respond to his perfectionist desire.
On November 13 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 14A a Contraste de Formes painted in 1913, oil on burlap 92 x 73 cm.
The progress made by Léger is decisive but soon interrupted by the stupid war that will annihilate Apollinaire. He will give up abstraction, no doubt because the effort to reach his own target for perfection was too exhausting. After this ephemeral momentum towards pure painting he will become an original image maker of modern life.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
1916 Purified Art by Malevich
2018 SOLD for $ 86M including premium
Boccioni had wanted a global art with a figuration blurred within many facets. Kandinsky, Léger and a little later Mondrian were still exploring the boundaries between figurative and emotional. Malevich is unquestionably the first to purify art by freeing it from any interpretation of subject or object.
The second exhibition of his group, from mid-December 1915 to mid-January 1916, includes his Black Square on White Background, the first great shock from this new art. Malevich's aim is aesthetic. He finds for this new approach the designation of Suprematism.
The Black Square is his first flagship but it is not enough. The emotion must not be brought only by the freedom of the elements but also by the colors. Painted in 1915, the 18th Composition is a stack of almost rectangular non-transparent shapes in various colors. This artwork already invites to rotate the canvas for an observation in the four possible orientations. It was sold for £ 21.5M including premium by Sotheby's on June 24, 2015.
After the closing of the exhibition 0.10 in January 1916, Malevich restarts his search for the ultimate expression of colors. Suprematist Composition, oil on canvas 89 x 71 cm painted in 1916, was sold for $ 60M including premium by Sotheby's on November 3, 2008, lot 6. It will be sold by Christie's in New York on May 15, lot 12 A.
I described and commented it as follows in 2008:
The painting for sale no longer produces an illusion : it is a composition based on about fifty colored beams spread over a white background. The size, the proportions and the colors are varied. The angular positions show an opposition between the big purple beam and most of the others.
Malevich has succeeded here in his approach to an art that completely escapes nature and feeling, to retain only the aesthetics of color and geometry. He wanted his art to be understandable in the same way in all countries.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The second exhibition of his group, from mid-December 1915 to mid-January 1916, includes his Black Square on White Background, the first great shock from this new art. Malevich's aim is aesthetic. He finds for this new approach the designation of Suprematism.
The Black Square is his first flagship but it is not enough. The emotion must not be brought only by the freedom of the elements but also by the colors. Painted in 1915, the 18th Composition is a stack of almost rectangular non-transparent shapes in various colors. This artwork already invites to rotate the canvas for an observation in the four possible orientations. It was sold for £ 21.5M including premium by Sotheby's on June 24, 2015.
After the closing of the exhibition 0.10 in January 1916, Malevich restarts his search for the ultimate expression of colors. Suprematist Composition, oil on canvas 89 x 71 cm painted in 1916, was sold for $ 60M including premium by Sotheby's on November 3, 2008, lot 6. It will be sold by Christie's in New York on May 15, lot 12 A.
I described and commented it as follows in 2008:
The painting for sale no longer produces an illusion : it is a composition based on about fifty colored beams spread over a white background. The size, the proportions and the colors are varied. The angular positions show an opposition between the big purple beam and most of the others.
Malevich has succeeded here in his approach to an art that completely escapes nature and feeling, to retain only the aesthetics of color and geometry. He wanted his art to be understandable in the same way in all countries.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1948 The Organic Abstraction of Jackson Pollock
2013 SOLD 58 M$ including premium
In 1946, Lee Krasner pushes Jackson Pollock to a secluded barn on Long Island. Thus freed from the bustle of the big city, Pollock has the luck to live his artistic Passion, in the strongest meaning of the word 'passion'.
He did not consider himself as an abstract artist. In the first months after his arrival in Long Island, he developed two series of paintings titled 'Sounds in the grass' and 'Accabonac Creek', reflecting his desire to commune with the earth for expressing its richness.
He then invented his own style so well known today but then so different from anything that existed before him. The surface to be painted is placed on the ground and not on an easel. He leaves his brushes to directly throw the liquid paint. There is no horizon and no framing even when the work is small, and there is also no longer a figuration.
The lines of pure colors of various widths form infinite and meticulous tangles. Sometimes, the start of the work is figurative before being hidden, but it is not the most important. The regularity of the final mesh is spectacular without being total, so that certain areas are breathing or vibrating such as an organic matter. Only Richter's rake will be able to generate similar effects.
On May 15 in New York, Christie's sells Number 19, 1948. This oil and enamel on paper mounted on canvas is small, 78 x 57 cm, but the fineness of the line is prodigious. Such a technical and artistic achievement deserves an estimate of $ 25M.
I invite you to watch the exciting video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
Despite its small size, Number 19-1948 is a masterpiece of Pollock by the extreme care of its realization. This painting was sold $ 58M including premium.
He did not consider himself as an abstract artist. In the first months after his arrival in Long Island, he developed two series of paintings titled 'Sounds in the grass' and 'Accabonac Creek', reflecting his desire to commune with the earth for expressing its richness.
He then invented his own style so well known today but then so different from anything that existed before him. The surface to be painted is placed on the ground and not on an easel. He leaves his brushes to directly throw the liquid paint. There is no horizon and no framing even when the work is small, and there is also no longer a figuration.
The lines of pure colors of various widths form infinite and meticulous tangles. Sometimes, the start of the work is figurative before being hidden, but it is not the most important. The regularity of the final mesh is spectacular without being total, so that certain areas are breathing or vibrating such as an organic matter. Only Richter's rake will be able to generate similar effects.
On May 15 in New York, Christie's sells Number 19, 1948. This oil and enamel on paper mounted on canvas is small, 78 x 57 cm, but the fineness of the line is prodigious. Such a technical and artistic achievement deserves an estimate of $ 25M.
I invite you to watch the exciting video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
Despite its small size, Number 19-1948 is a masterpiece of Pollock by the extreme care of its realization. This painting was sold $ 58M including premium.
1949 Clyfford Still in Denver
2011 SOLD 62 M$ including premium
With Clyfford Still, the American art changed forever. A pioneer of abstract expressionism, he taught from 1946 to 1950 at the California Institute of Fine Arts. His art made of thick material is an explosion of colors that may symbolize life. Like Rothko, he wants to offer a total art, a vision with no frame. His vivid colors make him a precursor to the psychedelic art.
Yet Still's work is poorly understood. His paintings were exhibited but he did not search to sell and was angry with the artistic establishment. His will, well seconded by his widow, was that almost all his work is held in a unique museum which would be totally dedicated.
The city of Denver won this so special art competition. The Still museum will own about 96% of the artistic output of the master. In a highly original approach, four works are put on the market to pay for the development of the museum. Sotheby's won the bargain by offering a guarantee of $ 25M. The sale will be held in New York on November 9.
These painting are illustrated in the article shared by Art Market Monitor. I will indicate the sizes later. The two most outstanding belong to the most creative period: 1947-Y-No-2 is estimated $ 15M, and 1949-A-No.1 is estimated $ 25M.
These prices are consistent with those obtained in the extremely rare auctions of similar works. 1947-R-No.1, 175 x 165 cm, was sold $ 21M including premium by Christie's on November 15, 2006. A painting made in 1946 numbered PH-182, 154 x 111 cm, was sold $ 14M including premium by Christie's on May 13, 2008.
POST SALE COMMENT
The operation was well organized and well publicized. Knowing now the result, we can consider this sale as superb.
For introducing the many works to be displayed by them, the city of Denver had found Sotheby's as a great helper. The four lots fetched altogether $ 114M including premium, more than doubling the lower estimate, and art lovers are now familiar with three periods of Still's career.
The two paintings from the period of glory received very high prices: $ 62 million for 1949-A-No.1, 236 x 200 cm, and $ 31.5 million for 1947-Y-No.2, 177 x 150 cm.
Sold $ 19.7 million, a painting of 1976, 237 x 210 cm, was from the secret period of the artist.
The formative years were represented by a painting of 1940, 104 x 95 cm, sold $ 1.25 M.
These results include premium.
I invite you to play the video shared on the web by Sotheby's.
Yet Still's work is poorly understood. His paintings were exhibited but he did not search to sell and was angry with the artistic establishment. His will, well seconded by his widow, was that almost all his work is held in a unique museum which would be totally dedicated.
The city of Denver won this so special art competition. The Still museum will own about 96% of the artistic output of the master. In a highly original approach, four works are put on the market to pay for the development of the museum. Sotheby's won the bargain by offering a guarantee of $ 25M. The sale will be held in New York on November 9.
These painting are illustrated in the article shared by Art Market Monitor. I will indicate the sizes later. The two most outstanding belong to the most creative period: 1947-Y-No-2 is estimated $ 15M, and 1949-A-No.1 is estimated $ 25M.
These prices are consistent with those obtained in the extremely rare auctions of similar works. 1947-R-No.1, 175 x 165 cm, was sold $ 21M including premium by Christie's on November 15, 2006. A painting made in 1946 numbered PH-182, 154 x 111 cm, was sold $ 14M including premium by Christie's on May 13, 2008.
POST SALE COMMENT
The operation was well organized and well publicized. Knowing now the result, we can consider this sale as superb.
For introducing the many works to be displayed by them, the city of Denver had found Sotheby's as a great helper. The four lots fetched altogether $ 114M including premium, more than doubling the lower estimate, and art lovers are now familiar with three periods of Still's career.
The two paintings from the period of glory received very high prices: $ 62 million for 1949-A-No.1, 236 x 200 cm, and $ 31.5 million for 1947-Y-No.2, 177 x 150 cm.
Sold $ 19.7 million, a painting of 1976, 237 x 210 cm, was from the secret period of the artist.
The formative years were represented by a painting of 1940, 104 x 95 cm, sold $ 1.25 M.
These results include premium.
I invite you to play the video shared on the web by Sotheby's.
1951 Black Pouring by Pollock
2021 SOLD for $ 61M by Sotheby's
The signature style of Jackson Pollock was to express the rhythmic motion of his body while he poured paint on the floor. The successive use of many colors on a same support led to an impression that he expressed the rich soil of Long Island, just as Monet had done in Giverny.
This achievement must nevertheless consider that one of his basic inspirations had been the marks left in the sand by the dance of the Navajo Indians.
He was right in considering that his creativity owed as much to the dance than to colors. In 1951 he starts a series of monochrome paintings by pouring a saturated deep black liquid paint on the canvas again laid across the floor.
As a consequence the mingling of the colors was superseded by patterns of curves, dots and smears which could lead him back to the weird automatic figuration of his beginnings.
A typical example is the opus Number 5 of 1951, black oil paint 147 x 141 cm, sold for $ 11.4M by Christie's on May 13, 2014, lot 30, titled Elegant Lady by his gallerist.
Black and White Painting III, enamel on canvas 140 x 125 cm also painted in 1951, features a human form with stretched arms and is tentatively interpreted as a crucifixion. It was sold for $ 5.2M by Sotheby's on November 4, 2015, lot 38.
The opus 17 of the same year did not reach such an enigmatic figuration, remaining a pure expression of Pollock's wrist mingling thick intense lines and angel's hair. This black enamel on canvas 150 x 150 cm was sold for $ 61M from a lower estimate of $ 25M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 11.
Despite the commercial failure of a first exhibition, Pollock persevered up to a total of 33 black paintings. Were they indeed more than a refined form of Rorschach blots ?
This achievement must nevertheless consider that one of his basic inspirations had been the marks left in the sand by the dance of the Navajo Indians.
He was right in considering that his creativity owed as much to the dance than to colors. In 1951 he starts a series of monochrome paintings by pouring a saturated deep black liquid paint on the canvas again laid across the floor.
As a consequence the mingling of the colors was superseded by patterns of curves, dots and smears which could lead him back to the weird automatic figuration of his beginnings.
A typical example is the opus Number 5 of 1951, black oil paint 147 x 141 cm, sold for $ 11.4M by Christie's on May 13, 2014, lot 30, titled Elegant Lady by his gallerist.
Black and White Painting III, enamel on canvas 140 x 125 cm also painted in 1951, features a human form with stretched arms and is tentatively interpreted as a crucifixion. It was sold for $ 5.2M by Sotheby's on November 4, 2015, lot 38.
The opus 17 of the same year did not reach such an enigmatic figuration, remaining a pure expression of Pollock's wrist mingling thick intense lines and angel's hair. This black enamel on canvas 150 x 150 cm was sold for $ 61M from a lower estimate of $ 25M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 11.
Despite the commercial failure of a first exhibition, Pollock persevered up to a total of 33 black paintings. Were they indeed more than a refined form of Rorschach blots ?
1961 The Existential Abstraction of Barnett Newman
2014 SOLD 84 M$ including premium
Barnett Newman was a mystical atheist inspired by the creation of monotheism. His search for a non-figurative authenticity was intuitive and emotional. His art is rare, with long periods of interruption in his creative process.
The Onement series symbolizing the creation of the world includes only six paintings made from 1948 to 1953. The monochromatic surface is the result of a careful application of additional layers of paint as Rothko was doing. The only element of picture is a thin vertical central strip named the zip which shows that the homogeneity of the universe is an illusion.
In 1957, Newman suffers his first heart attack which generates a mystical crisis on the abandonment of man facing mortality. Despite his atheism, he takes his inspiration in the Calvary of Christ. The color is replaced by a deep black occupying the entire surface excepted some vertical strips of raw canvas. He finished the series of Stations in 1966.
Newman's psychological crisis worsens with the sudden death of his younger brother in 1961. Black Fire I, in the same technique as the Stations, manages to express in a single canvas the whole existential tragedy. The growth of the black area from left to right is blocked by a vertical zip. The right side is not painted.
The title of the work is a reference to the Judaic magma of mystical material anticipating the Torah.
This oil on canvas 290 x 213 cm is for sale by Christie's in New York on May 13. This outstanding work has no recent antecedent on the auction market and the price is unpredictable.
POST SALE COMMENT
This highly emotional abstract painting was sold for $ 84M including premium.
The Onement series symbolizing the creation of the world includes only six paintings made from 1948 to 1953. The monochromatic surface is the result of a careful application of additional layers of paint as Rothko was doing. The only element of picture is a thin vertical central strip named the zip which shows that the homogeneity of the universe is an illusion.
In 1957, Newman suffers his first heart attack which generates a mystical crisis on the abandonment of man facing mortality. Despite his atheism, he takes his inspiration in the Calvary of Christ. The color is replaced by a deep black occupying the entire surface excepted some vertical strips of raw canvas. He finished the series of Stations in 1966.
Newman's psychological crisis worsens with the sudden death of his younger brother in 1961. Black Fire I, in the same technique as the Stations, manages to express in a single canvas the whole existential tragedy. The growth of the black area from left to right is blocked by a vertical zip. The right side is not painted.
The title of the work is a reference to the Judaic magma of mystical material anticipating the Torah.
This oil on canvas 290 x 213 cm is for sale by Christie's in New York on May 13. This outstanding work has no recent antecedent on the auction market and the price is unpredictable.
POST SALE COMMENT
This highly emotional abstract painting was sold for $ 84M including premium.
1968 Rhythm and Loop
2015 SOLD for $ 71M including premium
Life is not expressed in figuration. Cy Twombly tries the rhythm in a musicalist approach. His long stays in Italy provide the model of the antique graffiti, interesting for several reasons: their juxtaposition let imagine some shapes and movements, details can be pornographic, and their fast and furtive execution is an example of a graphical application of the subconscious.
An automatic writing can be done in pencil on paper, but modern art appeals for large formats. From 1966, Twombly painted canvases in a uniform gray on which he was drawing with a wax crayon the figures of his mind. This series will be identified under the generic name of Blackboards.
The first tests combine the jerky action of the hand, expressing the reflex, with geometric figures that make a link with the former graffiti of the artist. This mixed meaning blurs his intention to express life. His Blackboards do not need to rely on the persistence of ancient impulses. The most interesting Blackboards will be performed in New York.
One of them, 173 x 216 cm, painted in 1968, has been sold for $ 8.7M including premium by Sotheby's on 9 November 2005. An oblique line of high jerky and irregular eight shaped loops runs throughout the width.
About that time, Twombly improves his approach like a proto-writing. The shape of the loop has a graphological value and will vary depending on the mood of the artist at the time of its creation.
On November 11 in New York, Sotheby's sells at lot 18 a 173 x 269 cm blackboard painted by Twombly also in 1968, but later in its maturity than the example discussed above.
The line consists in an entanglement of proto-writings in repetitive loops forming six thick horizontal lines within very regular limits. These lines that become wider from top to bottom of the canvas generate an illusion of perspective.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
An automatic writing can be done in pencil on paper, but modern art appeals for large formats. From 1966, Twombly painted canvases in a uniform gray on which he was drawing with a wax crayon the figures of his mind. This series will be identified under the generic name of Blackboards.
The first tests combine the jerky action of the hand, expressing the reflex, with geometric figures that make a link with the former graffiti of the artist. This mixed meaning blurs his intention to express life. His Blackboards do not need to rely on the persistence of ancient impulses. The most interesting Blackboards will be performed in New York.
One of them, 173 x 216 cm, painted in 1968, has been sold for $ 8.7M including premium by Sotheby's on 9 November 2005. An oblique line of high jerky and irregular eight shaped loops runs throughout the width.
About that time, Twombly improves his approach like a proto-writing. The shape of the loop has a graphological value and will vary depending on the mood of the artist at the time of its creation.
On November 11 in New York, Sotheby's sells at lot 18 a 173 x 269 cm blackboard painted by Twombly also in 1968, but later in its maturity than the example discussed above.
The line consists in an entanglement of proto-writings in repetitive loops forming six thick horizontal lines within very regular limits. These lines that become wider from top to bottom of the canvas generate an illusion of perspective.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
1970 Cy Twombly in Quest of Writing
2014 SOLD for $ 70M including premium
Cy Twombly was projecting in his art his initial training in cryptology and his aesthetic feelings. In his first Roman period, he imagines that the colored patches that he positions on the canvas are reminiscent of messages too erased for being understood but opening an access to mythical meanings.
From 1966 Twombly continues his semiotic research towards psychoanalysis. On the black canvas that resembles the board of infant schools, he draws in white his messages which are indecipherable in direct reading but speak to the mind of the viewer.
The comparison between two canvases painted in 1970 show that the artist is seeking to express the diversity of humanity as well as his own creativity. Now inspired by graphology, Twombly's art describes and interprets the range of human characters in the fundamental and formative phase of early childhood.
One of these Blackboards, located in New York City, 144 x 178 cm, was sold for $ 17.5M including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012. The writing is nervous, with angles and backtracking.
Another example, 156 x 190 cm, is not located in the title but has been painted after the return to Rome of the artist. It is estimated $ 35M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 12, lot 20.
Here, the fake writing is made of very regular loops as if they came from an intelligent and quiet schoolchild, but their four lines form a tangled hair which widens from top to bottom in a false perspective.
From 1966 Twombly continues his semiotic research towards psychoanalysis. On the black canvas that resembles the board of infant schools, he draws in white his messages which are indecipherable in direct reading but speak to the mind of the viewer.
The comparison between two canvases painted in 1970 show that the artist is seeking to express the diversity of humanity as well as his own creativity. Now inspired by graphology, Twombly's art describes and interprets the range of human characters in the fundamental and formative phase of early childhood.
One of these Blackboards, located in New York City, 144 x 178 cm, was sold for $ 17.5M including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012. The writing is nervous, with angles and backtracking.
Another example, 156 x 190 cm, is not located in the title but has been painted after the return to Rome of the artist. It is estimated $ 35M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 12, lot 20.
Here, the fake writing is made of very regular loops as if they came from an intelligent and quiet schoolchild, but their four lines form a tangled hair which widens from top to bottom in a false perspective.
1977 Contemplation in Long Island
2016 SOLD for $ 66M including premium
Willem de Kooning was a lover of women and a heavy drinker. His artistic career is uneven, marked by breaks and restarts. The beauty of Long Island offers him a late redemption in his seventies.
De Kooning buys a piece of land near Springs in 1958, two years after Pollock's death. Pollock had his studio in the same village where he was imbued with the richly colorful nature facing the sea. It took 17 years to de Kooning to start a creativity of similar inspiration.
In 1975 the old artist is happy. His art is acclaimed. He is pleased with his young girlfriend Mimi Kilgore. His wife Elaine of whom he had never divorced comes back to him in the following year. He finally takes time to contemplate the nature through observations of very long duration ending in a sudden rush on his canvas, colors and brushes.
The bright colors that cover the entire surface of the canvas were not spontaneous at all. They are made of mixed layers varying from impasto to flowing paint. The visionary artist knows in advance which result he desires and has no doubt that he will succeed. Once finished he considers that what he achieved is impossible to repeat. And he starts again with another canvas.
All these Untitled paintings are different because they are based on other contemplations. Sometimes a figure or a tree arises beyond abstraction by a careful observation. Pollock also was upset when his art was considered abstract.
This new creativity of de Kooning reaches its highest maturity in 1977 and will be immediately followed by his inevitable relapse. Untitled XXV, oil on canvas 196 x 224 cm painted in 1977, was sold for $ 27M by Christie's in New York on 15 November 2006. It returns in the same auction room on November 15, 2016, exactly ten years later, lot 8 A. The press release of September 29 announces an estimate in the region of $ 40M.
De Kooning buys a piece of land near Springs in 1958, two years after Pollock's death. Pollock had his studio in the same village where he was imbued with the richly colorful nature facing the sea. It took 17 years to de Kooning to start a creativity of similar inspiration.
In 1975 the old artist is happy. His art is acclaimed. He is pleased with his young girlfriend Mimi Kilgore. His wife Elaine of whom he had never divorced comes back to him in the following year. He finally takes time to contemplate the nature through observations of very long duration ending in a sudden rush on his canvas, colors and brushes.
The bright colors that cover the entire surface of the canvas were not spontaneous at all. They are made of mixed layers varying from impasto to flowing paint. The visionary artist knows in advance which result he desires and has no doubt that he will succeed. Once finished he considers that what he achieved is impossible to repeat. And he starts again with another canvas.
All these Untitled paintings are different because they are based on other contemplations. Sometimes a figure or a tree arises beyond abstraction by a careful observation. Pollock also was upset when his art was considered abstract.
This new creativity of de Kooning reaches its highest maturity in 1977 and will be immediately followed by his inevitable relapse. Untitled XXV, oil on canvas 196 x 224 cm painted in 1977, was sold for $ 27M by Christie's in New York on 15 November 2006. It returns in the same auction room on November 15, 2016, exactly ten years later, lot 8 A. The press release of September 29 announces an estimate in the region of $ 40M.
1985 Pei and Zao at Raffles City
2018 SOLD for HK$ 510M including premium
The architect I.M. Pei has considerably influenced the style of the great modern cities. When his fame becomes international, he revisits his native China. In the 1970s the Far East no longer wants its urbanism to follow the West. They always desire higher, more spectacular, more functional. Pei is building an office skyscraper 198 meters high in Singapore.
Zao Wou-Ki also made his own return to his sources. In the 1980s the originality of his abstract paintings inspired by East and West met with great success in the Far East.
Pei is creating in Singapore a complex named Raffles City based on a tower and two hotels, and incorporating a shopping center and a convention center. In 1985 the project is advanced enough to anticipate the interior design. Zao is traveling in the Far East. Pei makes him visit the Raffles site and commissions him a gigantic painting for adorning the grand lobby of the main building alongside abstractions by Ellsworth Kelly and Kenneth Noland in the minimalist taste of the architect.
Back in France, Zao prepares this work with a passion comparable to Monet opening with the Grandes Décorations the ultimate phase of his career. The result is a triptych of oils on canvas, 2.80 m x 10 m overall, which is installed in 1986 as planned and will remain there until 2005. Contrary to Zao's usual practice, the title is not a mere date but a period, Juin-Octobre 1985, thus confirming the prolonged attention given by the artist in its execution.
Juin-Octobre 1985 is the most monumental artwork in Zao's entire career. According to his inspiration in that decade, it evokes the mystical unicity between nature and the infinite. The incandescent center is seen beyond a dark curtain accented by strident blue. It will be sold by Sotheby's in Hong Kong on September 30, lot 1004. The press release of September 7 indicates that this painting is expected beyond HK $ 350M.
Zao Wou-Ki also made his own return to his sources. In the 1980s the originality of his abstract paintings inspired by East and West met with great success in the Far East.
Pei is creating in Singapore a complex named Raffles City based on a tower and two hotels, and incorporating a shopping center and a convention center. In 1985 the project is advanced enough to anticipate the interior design. Zao is traveling in the Far East. Pei makes him visit the Raffles site and commissions him a gigantic painting for adorning the grand lobby of the main building alongside abstractions by Ellsworth Kelly and Kenneth Noland in the minimalist taste of the architect.
Back in France, Zao prepares this work with a passion comparable to Monet opening with the Grandes Décorations the ultimate phase of his career. The result is a triptych of oils on canvas, 2.80 m x 10 m overall, which is installed in 1986 as planned and will remain there until 2005. Contrary to Zao's usual practice, the title is not a mere date but a period, Juin-Octobre 1985, thus confirming the prolonged attention given by the artist in its execution.
Juin-Octobre 1985 is the most monumental artwork in Zao's entire career. According to his inspiration in that decade, it evokes the mystical unicity between nature and the infinite. The incandescent center is seen beyond a dark curtain accented by strident blue. It will be sold by Sotheby's in Hong Kong on September 30, lot 1004. The press release of September 7 indicates that this painting is expected beyond HK $ 350M.
