Art by Women around 1960
1957-1958 Untitled by Joan Mitchell
2018 SOLD for $ 9.1M including premium by Christie's
1959 Endless White by Yayoi Kusama
2019 SOLD for HK$ 62M including premium
Yayoi Kusama arrives in New York City in June 1958, bringing therein her obsessions and her hallucinogenic visions. She is nothing but a small insignificant dot in the infinity of mankind, but she would like this dot to become highly visible.
In 1959 she covers her canvases with a network of regularly spaced dots in white paint, in a minimalist gesture that she reproduces without any other modification than thickness variations.
This work is never finished. She is able to perform it without resting during forty or fifty hours, satiating her body and subconscious mind in this repetitive task. Each of these identical dots was at one moment an achievement of her creation. When a canvas is entirely filled with that white proliferation, she begins another one that can be viewed as its extension.
She reaches her target of astonishing the New York arts community. Her art is the opposite of all tendencies : it does not offer the global effect of abstract expressionism, nor the gestural amplitude of action painting, nor the new figuration of pop art. Her monochrome white is not a sign of purity but a provocation. Donald Judd is amazed.
No. 2, 183 x 274 cm, which had belonged to Judd, was sold for $ 5.8M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2008. Interminable net # 3, 133 x 125 cm, was sold for $ 5.9M including premium by Sotheby's on May 12, 2015. Interminable net # 4, 144 x 109 cm, is estimated HK $ 50M for sale by Sotheby's in Hong Kong on April 1, lot 1144.
The creative act is a temporary therapy that does not solve her obsession against sex. Wanting to face it like Dali had done thirty years earlier, she will end her New York period in exhibitionism and pornography.
In 1959 she covers her canvases with a network of regularly spaced dots in white paint, in a minimalist gesture that she reproduces without any other modification than thickness variations.
This work is never finished. She is able to perform it without resting during forty or fifty hours, satiating her body and subconscious mind in this repetitive task. Each of these identical dots was at one moment an achievement of her creation. When a canvas is entirely filled with that white proliferation, she begins another one that can be viewed as its extension.
She reaches her target of astonishing the New York arts community. Her art is the opposite of all tendencies : it does not offer the global effect of abstract expressionism, nor the gestural amplitude of action painting, nor the new figuration of pop art. Her monochrome white is not a sign of purity but a provocation. Donald Judd is amazed.
No. 2, 183 x 274 cm, which had belonged to Judd, was sold for $ 5.8M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2008. Interminable net # 3, 133 x 125 cm, was sold for $ 5.9M including premium by Sotheby's on May 12, 2015. Interminable net # 4, 144 x 109 cm, is estimated HK $ 50M for sale by Sotheby's in Hong Kong on April 1, lot 1144.
The creative act is a temporary therapy that does not solve her obsession against sex. Wanting to face it like Dali had done thirty years earlier, she will end her New York period in exhibitionism and pornography.
1959 The Self Obliteration of Yayoi Kusama
2015 SOLD for $ 5.9M including premium
Since childhood, Yayoi Kusama is practicing drawing and painting to fight her anxiety. She sees in hallucination the motif which she is painting, infinitely repeated, and comes to assimilate it to the contradiction between individual and mankind.
In 1958, viewing the network of lights of New York from the top of the skyscrapers, she appreciates the mystical dimension of her own ailment. She expresses infinity, spending dozens of consecutive hours to tirelessly paint on the canvas the same tiny colorful pattern whose repetition cancels her discomfort.
Her art comes at the right time, when New York seeks to define a new style to supersede the expressionism. Searching for her psychic quietness through a process of annihilation, self obliteration in her own wording, she is supported by Donald Judd and the minimalists. The use of white in art is the concern of many other artists including Manzoni, Ryman, Uecker and the unlimited repeatability of her brush is comparable to Agnes Martin's.
On May 12 in New York, Sotheby's sells Interminable Net No. 3, one of the first works of her new style in New York. This oil on canvas 133 x 125 cm painted in 1959 is estimated $ 5M, lot 17. On 12 November 2014, Christie's sold for $ 7.1M including premium White No. 28, 148 x 111 cm painted in 1960.
This unprecedented therapy by abstract art may have temporarily relieved Yayoi Kusama but did not heal her. Her voluntary move to a mental home in Japan did not stop her creativity.
In 1958, viewing the network of lights of New York from the top of the skyscrapers, she appreciates the mystical dimension of her own ailment. She expresses infinity, spending dozens of consecutive hours to tirelessly paint on the canvas the same tiny colorful pattern whose repetition cancels her discomfort.
Her art comes at the right time, when New York seeks to define a new style to supersede the expressionism. Searching for her psychic quietness through a process of annihilation, self obliteration in her own wording, she is supported by Donald Judd and the minimalists. The use of white in art is the concern of many other artists including Manzoni, Ryman, Uecker and the unlimited repeatability of her brush is comparable to Agnes Martin's.
On May 12 in New York, Sotheby's sells Interminable Net No. 3, one of the first works of her new style in New York. This oil on canvas 133 x 125 cm painted in 1959 is estimated $ 5M, lot 17. On 12 November 2014, Christie's sold for $ 7.1M including premium White No. 28, 148 x 111 cm painted in 1960.
This unprecedented therapy by abstract art may have temporarily relieved Yayoi Kusama but did not heal her. Her voluntary move to a mental home in Japan did not stop her creativity.
1960 Mitchell with or without Birds
2018 SOLD for $ 14M including premium
Joan Mitchell moved permanently to Paris in 1959, the year when she also began her affair with Riopelle. Her studio in rue Frémicourt is far from intellectual communities, perhaps to better preserve the authenticity and originality of her abstract creativity inspired by the colors of nature.
Despite the illusion of spontaneity close to the Action Painting, her art is the result of a meticulous preparation. Her style changes after she arrives in Paris. It brings her solution to the great ambition of the abstract expressionists to offer the visitor an infinite vision without frame : it gathers a multicolored centrifugal energy in the center of very large canvases whose edges are only reached by apparent splashes.
On November 13 in New York, Christie's sells a 296 x 200 cm oil on canvas painted in 1960, lot 14 B estimated $ 12M. An Untitled 240 x 204 cm painted in the same year and same style was sold for $ 12M including premium by Christie's on May 13, 2014.
Joan gave titles to the works which she considered the most evocative. The painting that comes on sale is named 12 Hawks at 3 O'Clock. The title in English cannot be linked to some Parisian surrealist poetry. The work also has no particularity at that time position on a clock dial.
In her attention to nature, Joan included the birds. 12 hawks at 3:00 is certainly referring to reserves for the protection of raptors in which birdwatchers recorded the flight of birds with that level of detail.
Joan had always stated a great admiration for Le Champ de Blé aux Corbeaux, considered as the ultimate and premonitory work by Vincent van Gogh. In the final phase of her life, she will paint a colorful composition inspired by this artwork, titled No Birds in a poignant effort to force optimism.
Despite the illusion of spontaneity close to the Action Painting, her art is the result of a meticulous preparation. Her style changes after she arrives in Paris. It brings her solution to the great ambition of the abstract expressionists to offer the visitor an infinite vision without frame : it gathers a multicolored centrifugal energy in the center of very large canvases whose edges are only reached by apparent splashes.
On November 13 in New York, Christie's sells a 296 x 200 cm oil on canvas painted in 1960, lot 14 B estimated $ 12M. An Untitled 240 x 204 cm painted in the same year and same style was sold for $ 12M including premium by Christie's on May 13, 2014.
Joan gave titles to the works which she considered the most evocative. The painting that comes on sale is named 12 Hawks at 3 O'Clock. The title in English cannot be linked to some Parisian surrealist poetry. The work also has no particularity at that time position on a clock dial.
In her attention to nature, Joan included the birds. 12 hawks at 3:00 is certainly referring to reserves for the protection of raptors in which birdwatchers recorded the flight of birds with that level of detail.
Joan had always stated a great admiration for Le Champ de Blé aux Corbeaux, considered as the ultimate and premonitory work by Vincent van Gogh. In the final phase of her life, she will paint a colorful composition inspired by this artwork, titled No Birds in a poignant effort to force optimism.
1960 The Grand Mourning of Lee Krasner
2019 SOLD for $ 11.7M including premium
Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock's wife, was an artist of great creativity. She managed to reveal the genius of her husband to himself and to the world while pushing him to work in an isolated barn, far away from the sterile temptations of the big city.
With this success, she had let her career vanish behind Jackson's glory. When he died in 1956, she knew how to demonstrate the originality of her personal art. Inspired by biomorphics, her style is closer to de Kooning than to Pollock.
The death of her mother in 1959 is an intolerable event for this hypersensitive woman. She returns in the barn studio for painting on very large canvases. Her works are unlimited like those of Pollock, with an angry energy like that of Joan Mitchell and an obsession with repetition like Yayoi Kusama.
Her psychological trauma makes her lose sleep. Throughout the night, she paints. She remembers her talent as a colorist and regrets having to work in the dark. She skillfully chooses neutral and nuanced hues that do not ask for being improved by daylight such as amber, cream, sienna. This series of 24 paintings executed from 1959 to 1961 is titled Umber, which means both shadow and sienna.
On May 16 in New York, Sotheby's sells a 234 x 487 cm oil on canvas painted in 1960, lot 29 estimated $ 10M. It is titled The Eye is the First Circle, which is a mystical quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson searching for the meaning of the world. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
With this success, she had let her career vanish behind Jackson's glory. When he died in 1956, she knew how to demonstrate the originality of her personal art. Inspired by biomorphics, her style is closer to de Kooning than to Pollock.
The death of her mother in 1959 is an intolerable event for this hypersensitive woman. She returns in the barn studio for painting on very large canvases. Her works are unlimited like those of Pollock, with an angry energy like that of Joan Mitchell and an obsession with repetition like Yayoi Kusama.
Her psychological trauma makes her lose sleep. Throughout the night, she paints. She remembers her talent as a colorist and regrets having to work in the dark. She skillfully chooses neutral and nuanced hues that do not ask for being improved by daylight such as amber, cream, sienna. This series of 24 paintings executed from 1959 to 1961 is titled Umber, which means both shadow and sienna.
On May 16 in New York, Sotheby's sells a 234 x 487 cm oil on canvas painted in 1960, lot 29 estimated $ 10M. It is titled The Eye is the First Circle, which is a mystical quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson searching for the meaning of the world. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1960 An Anger of Joan Mitchell
2011 SOLD 9.3 M$ including premium
Joan Mitchell settles in Paris in 1959 with Jean-Paul Riopelle. Welcomed by the artistic community, she manages to realize her violent temper, becoming one of the best artists of abstract expressionism.
From her training and beginnings in the United States, she learned the lesson of Jackson Pollock, with significant differences for the aesthetic effect of the art. Her pure colors are bright. Concentrated in the middle of the canvas, they provide the illusion of an explosion with many drips. Less spontaneous than Pollock, Mitchell reworked her paintings until reaching the desired balance between colors.
An oil painting of large size, 243 x 200 cm, made circa 1960 in her early Parisian life, was sold $ 3.2 million including premium at Christie's on May 16, 2007.
This work is now estimated $ 4M, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 9. Considering that its presentation at Christie's four years ago helped to better appreciate this particularly creative period in the career of Mitchell, this gain is reasonable.
POST SALE COMMENT
As in 2007, this painting is confirmed as a masterpiece of Joan Mitchell. Sold $ 9.3 million including premium, it demonstrates the dramatic and deserved evolution of the rating of this artist.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
From her training and beginnings in the United States, she learned the lesson of Jackson Pollock, with significant differences for the aesthetic effect of the art. Her pure colors are bright. Concentrated in the middle of the canvas, they provide the illusion of an explosion with many drips. Less spontaneous than Pollock, Mitchell reworked her paintings until reaching the desired balance between colors.
An oil painting of large size, 243 x 200 cm, made circa 1960 in her early Parisian life, was sold $ 3.2 million including premium at Christie's on May 16, 2007.
This work is now estimated $ 4M, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 9. Considering that its presentation at Christie's four years ago helped to better appreciate this particularly creative period in the career of Mitchell, this gain is reasonable.
POST SALE COMMENT
As in 2007, this painting is confirmed as a masterpiece of Joan Mitchell. Sold $ 9.3 million including premium, it demonstrates the dramatic and deserved evolution of the rating of this artist.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
1961 The Danger of the Sea
2018 SOLD for HK$ 56M including premium
Joan Mitchell is attracted by the beauty of the landscapes of France with its forests and seas. She admires Van Gogh's relationship with the ground and the Fauvist colors by Matisse.
When she establishes her studio permanently in Paris, her style changes. The lines of bright pure colors that made her practice compared with Pollock's are relegated to the edges of the image while the center becomes a violent bubbling.
The early 1960s is a difficult time for this hypersensitive artist who knows that her parents are seriously ill. Her explosions of colors are however not the result of a simple rage. The canvas is carefully prepared by a drawing defining the outlines that will guide her rapid movements, alternately centripetal and centrifugal.
The achievement of her art at that time is the expression of a location. With its cool colors, Atlantic Side, 222 x 220 cm painted in 1960-1961, is typical of these abstract landscapes that anticipate the paintings by de Kooning at Long Island. It was sold for $ 6.9M including premium by Sotheby's on November 13, 2013.
On September 30 in Hong Kong, Sotheby's sells Syrtis, oil on canvas 130 x 162 cm painted in 1961, lot 1080 estimated HK $ 50M.
In that year Joan spent the summer in Cap d'Antibes. Faced with the splendid colors of the French Riviera, she imagines the Mediterranean sea in the supreme expression of its hottest point, the Gulf of Sirte on the Libyan coast. Sirte has been an attractive place since antiquity with its abundant fish for which boats take the risk of running aground on the sandbanks.
By its title and exuberance, Syrtis reflects the anxieties of Joan Mitchell. Adding the reference to the distant past, this work joins the fantasies of another American who chose Europe, Cy Twombly, probably without consultation between the two artists.
When she establishes her studio permanently in Paris, her style changes. The lines of bright pure colors that made her practice compared with Pollock's are relegated to the edges of the image while the center becomes a violent bubbling.
The early 1960s is a difficult time for this hypersensitive artist who knows that her parents are seriously ill. Her explosions of colors are however not the result of a simple rage. The canvas is carefully prepared by a drawing defining the outlines that will guide her rapid movements, alternately centripetal and centrifugal.
The achievement of her art at that time is the expression of a location. With its cool colors, Atlantic Side, 222 x 220 cm painted in 1960-1961, is typical of these abstract landscapes that anticipate the paintings by de Kooning at Long Island. It was sold for $ 6.9M including premium by Sotheby's on November 13, 2013.
On September 30 in Hong Kong, Sotheby's sells Syrtis, oil on canvas 130 x 162 cm painted in 1961, lot 1080 estimated HK $ 50M.
In that year Joan spent the summer in Cap d'Antibes. Faced with the splendid colors of the French Riviera, she imagines the Mediterranean sea in the supreme expression of its hottest point, the Gulf of Sirte on the Libyan coast. Sirte has been an attractive place since antiquity with its abundant fish for which boats take the risk of running aground on the sandbanks.
By its title and exuberance, Syrtis reflects the anxieties of Joan Mitchell. Adding the reference to the distant past, this work joins the fantasies of another American who chose Europe, Cy Twombly, probably without consultation between the two artists.
1964 The Rocky Coast of Cornwall
2016 SOLD for £ 3.55M including premium
Barbara Hepworth becomes a sculptor at the time when Brancusi and Arp are purifying the forms. She is certainly the very first artist to want to express the landscape through the sculpture. She imagines to create abstract structures around human life size and to hollow them. She had a decisive influence on Henry Moore.
The war pushes her to a land's end, more precisely to St. Ives in Cornwall where a community of artists was established around Bernard Leach's pottery workshop.
A figure by Barbara Hepworth is foreseen for outdoor use, in harmony with the natural sculptures of the rocks by the ocean. Her garden adjoins her studio. She is responsive to the differentiated expression of each point of the seaside attacked by the waves and shaken by the wind. Hepworth knows that her creative ability is directly related to her feminine sensibility.
Her standing monuments can remain isolated or be grouped. Megaliths like in Brittany do not exist in Cornwall and did not influence Hepworth but her artistic language has a similar timeless quality.
In 1960 she tries the bronze. Her assistants help her to position the original plaster around the armature. Bronze is a robust material that does not weaken her void structures and allows the green-brown patina matching the real color of the rocks of the coast. A bronze 2.60 m high was sold for £ 4.2M including premium by Christie's on June 25, 2014.
On June 30 in London, Christie's sells a bronze 2.04 m high titled Sea Form (Atlantic), lot 22 estimated £ 3M, serial number 6 in an edition of 6 plus one artist's proof. This work was conceived in 1964 and cast in London between 1964 and 1966.
The abstract figures by Barbara Hepworth meet a growing interest in the art market. A sculpture 59 cm high executed in 1946 with its inside walls painted in sky blue was sold for $ 5.4M including premium by Christie's on May 12, 2016 over a lower estimate of $ 1.2M.
The war pushes her to a land's end, more precisely to St. Ives in Cornwall where a community of artists was established around Bernard Leach's pottery workshop.
A figure by Barbara Hepworth is foreseen for outdoor use, in harmony with the natural sculptures of the rocks by the ocean. Her garden adjoins her studio. She is responsive to the differentiated expression of each point of the seaside attacked by the waves and shaken by the wind. Hepworth knows that her creative ability is directly related to her feminine sensibility.
Her standing monuments can remain isolated or be grouped. Megaliths like in Brittany do not exist in Cornwall and did not influence Hepworth but her artistic language has a similar timeless quality.
In 1960 she tries the bronze. Her assistants help her to position the original plaster around the armature. Bronze is a robust material that does not weaken her void structures and allows the green-brown patina matching the real color of the rocks of the coast. A bronze 2.60 m high was sold for £ 4.2M including premium by Christie's on June 25, 2014.
On June 30 in London, Christie's sells a bronze 2.04 m high titled Sea Form (Atlantic), lot 22 estimated £ 3M, serial number 6 in an edition of 6 plus one artist's proof. This work was conceived in 1964 and cast in London between 1964 and 1966.
The abstract figures by Barbara Hepworth meet a growing interest in the art market. A sculpture 59 cm high executed in 1946 with its inside walls painted in sky blue was sold for $ 5.4M including premium by Christie's on May 12, 2016 over a lower estimate of $ 1.2M.
1965 Orange Grove by Agnes Martin
2016 SOLD for $ 10.7M including premium by Christie's
1965 Agnes Martin caught by the Desert
2007 SOLD for $ 4.7M including premium by Christie's
2010 UNSOLD
PRE 2010 SALE DISCUSSION
One can hardly imagine an artistic language simpler than that of Agnes Martin. She covers her canvases with a layer of monochrome acrylic, and she finishes the work by a regular grid in pencil. Like Rothko, it reaches the supremacy of abstract art: a painting by Agnes Martin must be for real, no reproduction can approach the effect offered by the original.
Qualifying herself to abstract expressionist, Martin wanted to express the perfection and eternity of nature. In 1965, while living in New York, she created The Desert, 183 x 183 cm, light beige. This woman from Saskatchewan had long taught in New Mexico. Fleeing New York, she will settle as early as 1967 in Taos, this small paradise for artists where we recently discussed a work by Fechin.
On May 12, Sotheby's sells the Desert in New York, with an estimate of $ 4 million. It had been sold for $ 4.7 million by Christie's on May 16, 2007.
Canada is proud to have given birth to Agnes Martin. Information about this lot was shared by the Montreal Gazette and by CBC News.
POST SALE COMMENT
Among the top lots, The Desert is the only disappointment of this extraordinary sale: unsold.
Yet in the same sale, a small painting from 1962 (27 x 27 cm) titled Kyrie has been sold $ 2.2 million including premium on a $ 600 K estimate. The grid clearly visible and reinforced with nails is a good example of the art of Agnes Martin.
One can hardly imagine an artistic language simpler than that of Agnes Martin. She covers her canvases with a layer of monochrome acrylic, and she finishes the work by a regular grid in pencil. Like Rothko, it reaches the supremacy of abstract art: a painting by Agnes Martin must be for real, no reproduction can approach the effect offered by the original.
Qualifying herself to abstract expressionist, Martin wanted to express the perfection and eternity of nature. In 1965, while living in New York, she created The Desert, 183 x 183 cm, light beige. This woman from Saskatchewan had long taught in New Mexico. Fleeing New York, she will settle as early as 1967 in Taos, this small paradise for artists where we recently discussed a work by Fechin.
On May 12, Sotheby's sells the Desert in New York, with an estimate of $ 4 million. It had been sold for $ 4.7 million by Christie's on May 16, 2007.
Canada is proud to have given birth to Agnes Martin. Information about this lot was shared by the Montreal Gazette and by CBC News.
POST SALE COMMENT
Among the top lots, The Desert is the only disappointment of this extraordinary sale: unsold.
Yet in the same sale, a small painting from 1962 (27 x 27 cm) titled Kyrie has been sold $ 2.2 million including premium on a $ 600 K estimate. The grid clearly visible and reinforced with nails is a good example of the art of Agnes Martin.
1967 Seven Years of Meditation
2015 SOLD for $ 6.3M including premium
Agnes Martin expresses the ground, after Pollock, and agrees to be considered among the artists of abstract expressionism. Inspired by Zen and Buddhism, she permeates into quietness and beauty.
Her technique is perfectionist: on a canvas painted in monochrome oil, superseded after 1964 by acrylic, she draws a set of colored lines in a single repeating pattern from top to bottom, too thin for the naked eye but endlessly bringing a renewed richness of texture. This practice based on the parallels is somehow reminiscent of the highly aesthetic weaving of the primitive Navajo blankets.
The titles of her most accomplished works express the landscape. The Beach, 190 x 190 cm, painted in 1964, was sold for $ 6.5 million at Sotheby's on November 13, 2013. Desert, painted in 1965, was sold for $ 4.7 million by Christie's on May 16, 2007. Mountain II, painted in 1966, was sold for $ 4.5 million by Christie's at the same sale. These prices include the premium.
Agnes was active up to that point in the artistic life of New York, but 1967 marks a challenge to her fragile mental health. The fame that is reaching her is not suitable for her aspiration to discretion. The building where she has her studio is scheduled to be destroyed and her artistic mentor, Ad Reinhardt, younger to her by one year, dies unexpectedly.
Agnes Martin, aged 55, takes the road for a wandering life according to the hippie mood that will soon lead her to settle permanently in Taos. She stops painting for seven years.
On November 10 in New York, Christie's sells an acrylic, graphite and ink on canvas 183 x 183 cm painted in 1967, lot 13B estimated $ 5M. The title, Happy Valley, indicates a feeling and thus marks her need to resume her lost peace of mind. Although the exact day is not known and the artwork is not located, it is probably one of the last paintings made by Agnes Martin before her grand start to the unknown.
Her technique is perfectionist: on a canvas painted in monochrome oil, superseded after 1964 by acrylic, she draws a set of colored lines in a single repeating pattern from top to bottom, too thin for the naked eye but endlessly bringing a renewed richness of texture. This practice based on the parallels is somehow reminiscent of the highly aesthetic weaving of the primitive Navajo blankets.
The titles of her most accomplished works express the landscape. The Beach, 190 x 190 cm, painted in 1964, was sold for $ 6.5 million at Sotheby's on November 13, 2013. Desert, painted in 1965, was sold for $ 4.7 million by Christie's on May 16, 2007. Mountain II, painted in 1966, was sold for $ 4.5 million by Christie's at the same sale. These prices include the premium.
Agnes was active up to that point in the artistic life of New York, but 1967 marks a challenge to her fragile mental health. The fame that is reaching her is not suitable for her aspiration to discretion. The building where she has her studio is scheduled to be destroyed and her artistic mentor, Ad Reinhardt, younger to her by one year, dies unexpectedly.
Agnes Martin, aged 55, takes the road for a wandering life according to the hippie mood that will soon lead her to settle permanently in Taos. She stops painting for seven years.
On November 10 in New York, Christie's sells an acrylic, graphite and ink on canvas 183 x 183 cm painted in 1967, lot 13B estimated $ 5M. The title, Happy Valley, indicates a feeling and thus marks her need to resume her lost peace of mind. Although the exact day is not known and the artwork is not located, it is probably one of the last paintings made by Agnes Martin before her grand start to the unknown.
1969 Blueberry by Joan Mitchell
2018 SOLD for $ 16.6M including premium by Christie's
1970 The Pierced Family of Barbara Hepworth
2016 SOLD for £ 3.75M including premium
Henry Moore deconstructed and reconstructed the human body. Lynn Chadwick populated his own world with surrealist characters in bronze who enjoyed to gather on English lawns. Meanwhile the sculpture by Barbara Hepworth is resolutely abstract, inspired by sea spray on the megaliths of Cornwall.
Hepworth returns to figuration in 1970, in her own way. After all, a menhir and a standing human have similarities of forms. Same as Chadwick she does not look for recognizable details. She builds her characters like her totems by including holes that become more expressive than their surrounding material.
Nine Figures on a Hill, later renamed The Family of Man, is an assembly of nine separate sculptures that symbolize the phases of growth and maturity of the human being like in a surrealist wedding : Young Girl, Youth, Bride, Bridegroom, Parent I, Parent II, Ancestor I, Ancestor II and Ultimate Form. The number of stacked components varies from child to adult, from two to four.
The Family of Man was made in bronze in two complete sets plus four copies of each of the nine individual figures.
According to the artist, Parent I is the universal mother who may have given life to about twenty children. At nearly 2.70 cm high, she dominates the scenery while remaining opulent with her flexible lines. A bronze of Parent I is estimated £ 2M for sale by Sotheby's in London on November 22, lot 13.
Hepworth returns to figuration in 1970, in her own way. After all, a menhir and a standing human have similarities of forms. Same as Chadwick she does not look for recognizable details. She builds her characters like her totems by including holes that become more expressive than their surrounding material.
Nine Figures on a Hill, later renamed The Family of Man, is an assembly of nine separate sculptures that symbolize the phases of growth and maturity of the human being like in a surrealist wedding : Young Girl, Youth, Bride, Bridegroom, Parent I, Parent II, Ancestor I, Ancestor II and Ultimate Form. The number of stacked components varies from child to adult, from two to four.
The Family of Man was made in bronze in two complete sets plus four copies of each of the nine individual figures.
According to the artist, Parent I is the universal mother who may have given life to about twenty children. At nearly 2.70 cm high, she dominates the scenery while remaining opulent with her flexible lines. A bronze of Parent I is estimated £ 2M for sale by Sotheby's in London on November 22, lot 13.
1971 The Mental Landscape of Joan Mitchell
2019 SOLD for $ 13.3M including premium
New York City did not suit the creativity of Jackson Pollock. It is the same for Joan Mitchell in Paris where she set up her studio in 1959. Yet she develops an original style based on the centrifugal explosion of bright colors on a white background, which ensures her fame.
She reacts in 1964. Her art is too violent. By exploiting her own anger, she forgets her main theme which is the expression of the colors of nature. The title, sometimes topographical, barely guides the viewer to understand what she wanted to do.
She finds the solution in 1968 by settling in Vétheuil, this village on a bend of the Seine where Monet had lived before Giverny. Her workshop in an old farm building enables to increase the width of the paintings while maintaining the towering height that had been her specialty in Paris.
Her style changes totally. The surface is completely filled. The endless ground is composed of blocks as if seen from the air, with shimmering colors that express the various crops. She does not want to copy a landscape but to express her feeling. Paradoxically, she finds in Vétheuil the memory of the unlimited cornfields of her childhood between Saskatchewan and the Great Lakes.
Blueberry, oil on canvas 200 x 150 cm painted in 1969, already announces this transition. It was sold for $ 16.6M including premium by Christie's on May 17, 2018 over a lower estimate of $ 5M.
Plowed Field, painted in 1971, is a culmination of this phase of meditative tranquility, with a great diversity of warm colors in the blocks that simulate the imaginary fields. This triptych of oils on canvas of total size 285 x 540 cm is estimated $ 12M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 13, lot 25 B.
She reacts in 1964. Her art is too violent. By exploiting her own anger, she forgets her main theme which is the expression of the colors of nature. The title, sometimes topographical, barely guides the viewer to understand what she wanted to do.
She finds the solution in 1968 by settling in Vétheuil, this village on a bend of the Seine where Monet had lived before Giverny. Her workshop in an old farm building enables to increase the width of the paintings while maintaining the towering height that had been her specialty in Paris.
Her style changes totally. The surface is completely filled. The endless ground is composed of blocks as if seen from the air, with shimmering colors that express the various crops. She does not want to copy a landscape but to express her feeling. Paradoxically, she finds in Vétheuil the memory of the unlimited cornfields of her childhood between Saskatchewan and the Great Lakes.
Blueberry, oil on canvas 200 x 150 cm painted in 1969, already announces this transition. It was sold for $ 16.6M including premium by Christie's on May 17, 2018 over a lower estimate of $ 5M.
Plowed Field, painted in 1971, is a culmination of this phase of meditative tranquility, with a great diversity of warm colors in the blocks that simulate the imaginary fields. This triptych of oils on canvas of total size 285 x 540 cm is estimated $ 12M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 13, lot 25 B.
