Abstract Art
See also : Abstract art II USA USA II Rothko Early Rothko Rothko 1957-70 Twombly Russia France China Modern China Zao Wou-Ki
Chronology : 1910-1919 1913 1916 1950-1959 1950 1954 1958 1960-1969 1961 1968 1970-1979 1970 1980-1989 1985
Chronology : 1910-1919 1913 1916 1950-1959 1950 1954 1958 1960-1969 1961 1968 1970-1979 1970 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.
1950 White Center by Rothko
2007 SOLD for $ 73M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
For Rothko, painting lies about the truth of an object but it can express a sensuality. Gradually from 1947 he stages his horizontal rectangular blocks. He is inspired by the relations of powers in Clyfford Still's abstractions, by the delicacy of Bonnard's colors and by the vibrations of Matisse's complementary colors.
In 1949 the block ceases to be a support for a pseudo-calligraphic message. Each element reaches its own purity without becoming monochrome : the meticulous application of colors brings an infinite variation, in particular at the borders of each block. Most of his compositions are in vertical format. Rothko does not yet have a studio : he works in his apartment and the dimensions of the canvases remain small.
Painted in 1950, White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) offers the whole subtlety of this new phase. For example, the background is reduced to a very narrow area around the blocks, but its orange-rose color is not uniform, as if it had been partially scratched at the lower side of the image.
The insertion of a very clear block brings an additional luminosity. Rothko will sometimes re-use this characteristic so that the viewer wraps himself more completely in the picture. Perceived as a floating skylight, this dazzling block makes the real position of the canvas disappear, reinforcing the feeling of an "unknown space" in the wording used by the artist.
White Center, oil on canvas 206 x 141 cm, was sold for $ 73M including premium by Sotheby's on May 15, 2007, lot 31, the highest price recorded at that time for a post-war painting. It was purchased at that auction by the Royal Family of Qatar.
In 1949 the block ceases to be a support for a pseudo-calligraphic message. Each element reaches its own purity without becoming monochrome : the meticulous application of colors brings an infinite variation, in particular at the borders of each block. Most of his compositions are in vertical format. Rothko does not yet have a studio : he works in his apartment and the dimensions of the canvases remain small.
Painted in 1950, White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) offers the whole subtlety of this new phase. For example, the background is reduced to a very narrow area around the blocks, but its orange-rose color is not uniform, as if it had been partially scratched at the lower side of the image.
The insertion of a very clear block brings an additional luminosity. Rothko will sometimes re-use this characteristic so that the viewer wraps himself more completely in the picture. Perceived as a floating skylight, this dazzling block makes the real position of the canvas disappear, reinforcing the feeling of an "unknown space" in the wording used by the artist.
White Center, oil on canvas 206 x 141 cm, was sold for $ 73M including premium by Sotheby's on May 15, 2007, lot 31, the highest price recorded at that time for a post-war painting. It was purchased at that auction by the Royal Family of Qatar.
1954 Red-Blue Shock by Rothko
2012 SOLD 75 M$ including premium
In 1954 Mark Rothko is invited by the Art Institute of Chicago to prepare a solo exhibition. He selects eight of his works. The event will have a huge impact on his reputation.
Since several years at that time, he organizes his paintings in confrontations of colors for which the composition in stacks of rectangular blocks is always present but is no longer the essential element.
1954 No. 1 (Royal Red and Blue) is one of the eight works presented in Chicago. It is already typical of the exceptional understanding of Rothko to achieve the maximum emotional level.
It is very large, 289 x 172 cm. Divided into several shades, the reds dominate. At the bottom of the canvas, the red hegemony is interrupted by an aggressive bright blue rectangle. This painting is estimated $ 35M, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 13. It is illustrated in the release shared by Artdaily.
In subsequent years, the reds will increasingly be the major actors in the artistic drama realized by Rothko, taking drama in its etymological meaning of theater. They will now have less need to rely on opponents like the blue of that No. 1.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
Sold $ 75M including premium, the Rothko has far exceeded its estimate.
It comes close to the 1961 Orange Red Yellow sold $ 87M including premium sold by Christie's on May 8, 2012, less tall but belonging to the culminating period of the emotional expression by Rothko.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
Since several years at that time, he organizes his paintings in confrontations of colors for which the composition in stacks of rectangular blocks is always present but is no longer the essential element.
1954 No. 1 (Royal Red and Blue) is one of the eight works presented in Chicago. It is already typical of the exceptional understanding of Rothko to achieve the maximum emotional level.
It is very large, 289 x 172 cm. Divided into several shades, the reds dominate. At the bottom of the canvas, the red hegemony is interrupted by an aggressive bright blue rectangle. This painting is estimated $ 35M, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 13. It is illustrated in the release shared by Artdaily.
In subsequent years, the reds will increasingly be the major actors in the artistic drama realized by Rothko, taking drama in its etymological meaning of theater. They will now have less need to rely on opponents like the blue of that No. 1.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
Sold $ 75M including premium, the Rothko has far exceeded its estimate.
It comes close to the 1961 Orange Red Yellow sold $ 87M including premium sold by Christie's on May 8, 2012, less tall but belonging to the culminating period of the emotional expression by Rothko.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
1958 The Transcending Color of Mark Rothko
2015 SOLD for $ 82M including premium
In 1958, Mark Rothko is famous and unhappy. He is unhappy because he is famous and because he sees the public admiring the game of balance between the bright colors of his signature blocks. He targeted to show the variety of emotions from mystical to profane but is he more than just a designer?
He accepts at first a huge order for the future restaurant in Seagram's building but this step forward certainly increases his confusion. In an extraordinary burst of creativity, he rejects the vivid colors. Rembrandt knew how to throw the light out of the shadow, there is no reason that could prevent Rothko to do it.
On May 15, 2013 in New York, Christie's sold for $ 27M including premium a Black on Maroon 183 x 114 cm that participates in that momentum and is not yet a symptom of the tragic depression of the artist in the following decade.
On May 13 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 35B the No 10 (1958), oil on canvas 239 x 176 cm. An infinite variety of colors predominantly brown interweaves within the rectangles whose structure is superseded by a magnificent halo effect.
When he broke with Seagram's, Rothko said not without wickedness that he wanted to cut hunger to the restaurant's guests. With this No. 10 contemporary of that failed project, the frustrated artist wanted to replace the sensational by the sublime but his art was to become increasingly elitist.
The video shared by Christie's shows the key importance of that year in the creative process of this highly temperamental artist.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
He accepts at first a huge order for the future restaurant in Seagram's building but this step forward certainly increases his confusion. In an extraordinary burst of creativity, he rejects the vivid colors. Rembrandt knew how to throw the light out of the shadow, there is no reason that could prevent Rothko to do it.
On May 15, 2013 in New York, Christie's sold for $ 27M including premium a Black on Maroon 183 x 114 cm that participates in that momentum and is not yet a symptom of the tragic depression of the artist in the following decade.
On May 13 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 35B the No 10 (1958), oil on canvas 239 x 176 cm. An infinite variety of colors predominantly brown interweaves within the rectangles whose structure is superseded by a magnificent halo effect.
When he broke with Seagram's, Rothko said not without wickedness that he wanted to cut hunger to the restaurant's guests. With this No. 10 contemporary of that failed project, the frustrated artist wanted to replace the sensational by the sublime but his art was to become increasingly elitist.
The video shared by Christie's shows the key importance of that year in the creative process of this highly temperamental artist.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
1961 The Vibrant Vermilion of Mark Rothko
2012 SOLD 87 M$ including premium
The art of Mark Rothko reached the top of its power in 1961.
The dimensions of his canvases have increased and are standardized. The rectangles occupy almost all the available surface, over a negligible neutral background. Most significantly, the preferred color of the artist is now the most vibrant of them : red.
On May 8 in New York, Christie's sells an oil on canvas, 236 x 206 cm, titled Orange, Red, Yellow. It is dominated by a bright vermilion, omnipresent, whose perfect monochromy is the result of a meticulous brushwork.
This painting was owned since 1967 by a demanding collector who considered it as one of the most successful pieces in Rothko's art. Its estimate, $ 35M, is consistent with the results already discussed in this column for his works of the same year.
POST SALE COMMENT
The demanding collector had a good taste. 45 years later, his vermilion Rothko is enshrined as one of the masterpieces of the artist. It was sold $ 87M including premium.
It is gratifying to note that this fabulous price rewards a work from the best years of maturity of the master. The oil on canvas with more varied colors which was sold $ 73M including premium by Sotheby's on May 15, 2007 was made in 1950, 11 years before.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
The dimensions of his canvases have increased and are standardized. The rectangles occupy almost all the available surface, over a negligible neutral background. Most significantly, the preferred color of the artist is now the most vibrant of them : red.
On May 8 in New York, Christie's sells an oil on canvas, 236 x 206 cm, titled Orange, Red, Yellow. It is dominated by a bright vermilion, omnipresent, whose perfect monochromy is the result of a meticulous brushwork.
This painting was owned since 1967 by a demanding collector who considered it as one of the most successful pieces in Rothko's art. Its estimate, $ 35M, is consistent with the results already discussed in this column for his works of the same year.
POST SALE COMMENT
The demanding collector had a good taste. 45 years later, his vermilion Rothko is enshrined as one of the masterpieces of the artist. It was sold $ 87M including premium.
It is gratifying to note that this fabulous price rewards a work from the best years of maturity of the master. The oil on canvas with more varied colors which was sold $ 73M including premium by Sotheby's on May 15, 2007 was made in 1950, 11 years before.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
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. I invite you to play the audio shared by Christie's.
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. I invite you to play the audio shared by Christie's.
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.
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.
