Art by Women from 1957 to 1965
See also : Women artists Martin
1957 Re-Echo by Lee Krasner
2020 SOLD for $ 9M including premium by Sotheby's
Link to catalogue.
1957-1958 Untitled by Joan Mitchell
2018 SOLD for $ 9.1M including premium by Christie's
1959 Interminable Net 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.
1960 White by Yayoi Kusama
2014 SOLD for $ 7.1M by Christie's
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, 2015, Sotheby's sold for $ 5.9M Interminable Net No. 3, lot 17. Painted in 1959, this oil on canvas 133 x 125 cm is one of the first works of her new style in New York.
On November 12, 2014, Christie's sold for $ 7.1M from a lower estimate of $ 1.5M White No. 28, oil on canvas 148 x 111 cm painted in 1960, lot 8.
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, 2015, Sotheby's sold for $ 5.9M Interminable Net No. 3, lot 17. Painted in 1959, this oil on canvas 133 x 125 cm is one of the first works of her new style in New York.
On November 12, 2014, Christie's sold for $ 7.1M from a lower estimate of $ 1.5M White No. 28, oil on canvas 148 x 111 cm painted in 1960, lot 8.
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.
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.
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 Untitled by Joan Mitchell
2014 SOLD for $ 12M by Christie's
An oil on canvas 250 x 204 cm painted in 1960 by Joan Mitchell was sold for $ 12M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Christie's on May 13, 2014, lot 32.
This Untitled is an early example of the signature multicolored style of her stay in Paris with a centrifugal energy made of vibrant stains and ribbons that vanes into a thin translucent halo in the outer edges of the picture.
The highly gestural execution required a full involvement of her body including raising on her tiptoes to reach the upper border of the canvas, up to the completion of her pre-conceived work for the desired effect from the distance.
This Untitled is an early example of the signature multicolored style of her stay in Paris with a centrifugal energy made of vibrant stains and ribbons that vanes into a thin translucent halo in the outer edges of the picture.
The highly gestural execution required a full involvement of her body including raising on her tiptoes to reach the upper border of the canvas, up to the completion of her pre-conceived work for the desired effect from the distance.
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.
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.
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.
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.
1961-1962 Miss Mitchell in the City
2020 SOLD for $ 11M including premium
Joan Mitchell is passionate about the colors of landscapes, and the treatment of color by the great masters such as Turner, Monet and Van Gogh. Like Pollock, she expresses her feeling for nature through abstraction. This involvement by a woman in abstract expressionism surprised art critics : they referred to her as Miss Mitchell.
Joan is appealed by European art and by the landscapes of France where she makes frequent stays before setting up her workshop in Paris in 1959, in a remote district to avoid unwanted influences on her creativity.
However times are difficult for Joan, very affected by the poor health of her parents. She supersedes the impressions of nature by an abstraction of great violence. She will remember it later as a period of great anger.
In fact her anger was under control. The artworks, often very large, remain the object of a meticulous preparation. The gestures that create the illusion of an explosion do not extend beyond the preliminary sketch. Unlike other abstract painters, she uses all the techniques to obtain the desired effect on the canvas : wash, impasto, throwing, fine brush strokes, and probably also the fingers. Green remains her favorite color.
During this Parisian period, the titles of the works are defined afterwards, only when necessary and most often without a real meaning. Some confirm the artist's taste for poetry.
An Untitled 250 x 204 cm painted in 1960 was sold for $ 12M including premium by Christie's on May 13, 2014. Painted in the same year, 12 Hawks at 3 O'Clock, 296 x 200 cm, whose title is a sponsoring for the protection of raptors in an American nature reserve, was sold for $ 14M including premium by Christie's on November 13, 2018.
Noël, 205 x 200 cm painted in 1961 or 1962, is estimated $ 9.5M to be sold by Phillips in New York on July 2, lot 5. Garden Party, 165 x 130 cm painted in the same time range, is estimated $ 4M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on June 29, lot 7.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM :
Phillips ; SOLD for $ 11M
Sotheby's : SOLD for $ 7.9M
Joan is appealed by European art and by the landscapes of France where she makes frequent stays before setting up her workshop in Paris in 1959, in a remote district to avoid unwanted influences on her creativity.
However times are difficult for Joan, very affected by the poor health of her parents. She supersedes the impressions of nature by an abstraction of great violence. She will remember it later as a period of great anger.
In fact her anger was under control. The artworks, often very large, remain the object of a meticulous preparation. The gestures that create the illusion of an explosion do not extend beyond the preliminary sketch. Unlike other abstract painters, she uses all the techniques to obtain the desired effect on the canvas : wash, impasto, throwing, fine brush strokes, and probably also the fingers. Green remains her favorite color.
During this Parisian period, the titles of the works are defined afterwards, only when necessary and most often without a real meaning. Some confirm the artist's taste for poetry.
An Untitled 250 x 204 cm painted in 1960 was sold for $ 12M including premium by Christie's on May 13, 2014. Painted in the same year, 12 Hawks at 3 O'Clock, 296 x 200 cm, whose title is a sponsoring for the protection of raptors in an American nature reserve, was sold for $ 14M including premium by Christie's on November 13, 2018.
Noël, 205 x 200 cm painted in 1961 or 1962, is estimated $ 9.5M to be sold by Phillips in New York on July 2, lot 5. Garden Party, 165 x 130 cm painted in the same time range, is estimated $ 4M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on June 29, lot 7.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM :
Phillips ; SOLD for $ 11M
Sotheby's : SOLD for $ 7.9M
1961-1962 Garden Party by Joan Mitchell
2020 SOLD for $ 7.9M including premium by Sotheby's
Link to catalogue.
1962 Untitled by Lee Krasner
2021 SOLD for $ 7.2M by Christie's
Link to catalogue.
MARTIN
1
1964 The Beach
2013 SOLD for $ 6.5M by Sotheby's
Agnes Martin expresses the unlimited ground, after Pollock, and agrees to be considered among the artists of abstract expressionism. Inspired by Zen and Buddhism, she transfers her meditation and contemplation of quietness and beauty. Her quest for the sublime may also be confronted with the minimalism of Donald Judd or Robert Ryman.
She later commented : "The value of art is in the observer. People who look at my painting say that it makes them happy. And happiness is the goal, isn’t it ?".
Her technique is repetitive and meticulous : on a canvas painted in monochrome oil, superseded after 1964 by acrylic, she draws a set of colored rectangles in a single repeating pattern from top to bottom, too thin at a distance 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 art of Agnes Martin is formless without being simple. The difficulty for this demanding artist was to avoid what she names a dissonance between the aligned position of the grid and the strictly square format of the canvas. She brings her human touch in the irregularities of density of the pencil lines, drawn, paused and resumed by hand with a mere straight edge.
On May 12, 2010, Sotheby's sold for $ 2.2M a small painting from 1962, 27 x 27 cm, titled Kyrie in which the grid clearly visible and reinforced with nails.
The Beach, oil and pencil on canvas 190 x 190 cm painted in 1964, was sold for $ 6.5M from a lower estimate of $ 2.5M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2013, lot 17. This work simulates the light blues, grays, browns and cream white of a sand beach seaside.
She later commented : "The value of art is in the observer. People who look at my painting say that it makes them happy. And happiness is the goal, isn’t it ?".
Her technique is repetitive and meticulous : on a canvas painted in monochrome oil, superseded after 1964 by acrylic, she draws a set of colored rectangles in a single repeating pattern from top to bottom, too thin at a distance 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 art of Agnes Martin is formless without being simple. The difficulty for this demanding artist was to avoid what she names a dissonance between the aligned position of the grid and the strictly square format of the canvas. She brings her human touch in the irregularities of density of the pencil lines, drawn, paused and resumed by hand with a mere straight edge.
On May 12, 2010, Sotheby's sold for $ 2.2M a small painting from 1962, 27 x 27 cm, titled Kyrie in which the grid clearly visible and reinforced with nails.
The Beach, oil and pencil on canvas 190 x 190 cm painted in 1964, was sold for $ 6.5M from a lower estimate of $ 2.5M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2013, lot 17. This work simulates the light blues, grays, browns and cream white of a sand beach seaside.
2
1965 Orange Grove
2016 SOLD for $ 10.7M by Christie's
The titles of Agnes Martin's most accomplished works of the mid-1960s express the diversity of the landscapes.
On May 16, 2007, Christie's sold for $ 4.7M Desert, painted in 1965 with a light beige dominance, and for $ 4.5M Mountain II, painted in 1966.
Orange Grove, painted in 1965, was sold for $ 10.7M from a lower estimate of $ 6.5M by Christie's on May 10, 2016, lot 25 B. This oil and graphite on her signature 183 x 183 cm six footer canvas is painted with a grid of pale orange horizontal lines grouped in four stacked cells.
On May 16, 2007, Christie's sold for $ 4.7M Desert, painted in 1965 with a light beige dominance, and for $ 4.5M Mountain II, painted in 1966.
Orange Grove, painted in 1965, was sold for $ 10.7M from a lower estimate of $ 6.5M by Christie's on May 10, 2016, lot 25 B. This oil and graphite on her signature 183 x 183 cm six footer canvas is painted with a grid of pale orange horizontal lines grouped in four stacked cells.
