Art by Women around 1960
See also : Women artists Japan and Korea Canada Central and South Americas
Chronology : 1958 1959 1960 1965 1967 1969 1970 1972
Chronology : 1958 1959 1960 1965 1967 1969 1970 1972
1957-1958 Untitled by Joan Mitchell
2018 SOLD for $ 9.1M including premium by Christie's
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 Abstract painting by Joan Mitchell
2014 SOLD for $ 12M including premium by Christie's
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.
1960 White No. 28 by Yayoi Kusama
2014 SOLD for $ 7.1M including premium by Christie's
1960 Hacia la Torre by Remedios Varo
2014 SOLD for $ 4.3M including premium by Sotheby's
Link to Artvalue.
1961 The United Nations of Barbara Hepworth
2013 SOLD 2.4 M£ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
In 1961, Barbara Hepworth expects to live the consecration of her career. She arranges a large workshop where she can execute the monumental bronzes required by public institutions.
She specialized in the Single Forms series of sculptures with perfect geometrical curves centered with a hole symbolizing the opening to landscape or to infinity.
She had for long a very good customer and friend, Dag Hammarskjöld, who became Secretary General of the UnitedNations. He considered that artists should play an important role in social communities without losing their individuality. Together they undertake the project of a monument for the United Nations.
Curved form (Bryher II) is one of the artworks preparing this project. The 2.12 m high bronze is decorated with copperwires, some of which are passing above the hole like strings on a musical instrument. Bryher is an island at the end of the world ashore of that Cornwall deeply loved by Hepworth.
Bryher II was edited in seven copies. One of them is estimated £ 1M, for sale by Christie's in London on July 10.
Fortunately, the project for the United Nations has not been interrupted by the unexpected death of the Secretary General in a plane crash during the same year. 6.40 m high, the Single Form of the United Nations is the largest sculpture made by Hepworth.
POST SALE COMMENT
This outstanding sculpture was obviously worth better than its estimate. It was sold for £ 2.4M including premium.
In 1961, Barbara Hepworth expects to live the consecration of her career. She arranges a large workshop where she can execute the monumental bronzes required by public institutions.
She specialized in the Single Forms series of sculptures with perfect geometrical curves centered with a hole symbolizing the opening to landscape or to infinity.
She had for long a very good customer and friend, Dag Hammarskjöld, who became Secretary General of the UnitedNations. He considered that artists should play an important role in social communities without losing their individuality. Together they undertake the project of a monument for the United Nations.
Curved form (Bryher II) is one of the artworks preparing this project. The 2.12 m high bronze is decorated with copperwires, some of which are passing above the hole like strings on a musical instrument. Bryher is an island at the end of the world ashore of that Cornwall deeply loved by Hepworth.
Bryher II was edited in seven copies. One of them is estimated £ 1M, for sale by Christie's in London on July 10.
Fortunately, the project for the United Nations has not been interrupted by the unexpected death of the Secretary General in a plane crash during the same year. 6.40 m high, the Single Form of the United Nations is the largest sculpture made by Hepworth.
POST SALE COMMENT
This outstanding sculpture was obviously worth better than its estimate. It was sold for £ 2.4M including premium.
1962 Fairy Drinkers in Mexico City
2015 SOLD for $ 3.3M including premium
Remedios Varo, born in Spain, early joined surrealism and was at one time the wife of the poet Benjamin Péret. Pushed away from Europe by the war, she moved to Mexico City. Her paintings depict fantastic creatures in a medieval atmosphere with a sense of humor which is one of the most subtle in art history but not often easy to fully decode.
Her consecration at the top of the art market is very recent. On 24 November 2014, Sotheby's sold Hacia la torre for $ 4.3 million including premium over a lower estimate of $ 2.5M. This oil on masonite 123 x 100 cm painted in 1960 shows a gang of nuns on fragile tricycles outgoing from a castle behind a peasant and an austere abbess.
Remedios Varo liked to show young women with a stereotyped face that is a self-portrait recognizable through her short chin. The catalog was telling that one of these women had escaped, symbolizing freedom. I did not understand that comment and I did not discuss the artwork in this chronicle to prevent against any misinterpretation.
On May 27 in New York, Christie's sells Vampiros vegetarianos, oil on canvas 86 x 60 cm painted in 1962, lot 22estimated $ 1.5M.
Three Vampyrs recognizable by their bat wings are perched on high stools around a guéridon. With long straws, they drink directly in beautiful fruit reminiscent of the Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch. Two pet roosters with bodies and legs of dogs add another fairy element to the scene.
The Vampiros Mexicanos are cocktails based on tequila and sangrita, this latter word being a diminutive for 'blood' designating some juice of red fruit. This drink was appreciated in the Mexican surrealist group!
Her consecration at the top of the art market is very recent. On 24 November 2014, Sotheby's sold Hacia la torre for $ 4.3 million including premium over a lower estimate of $ 2.5M. This oil on masonite 123 x 100 cm painted in 1960 shows a gang of nuns on fragile tricycles outgoing from a castle behind a peasant and an austere abbess.
Remedios Varo liked to show young women with a stereotyped face that is a self-portrait recognizable through her short chin. The catalog was telling that one of these women had escaped, symbolizing freedom. I did not understand that comment and I did not discuss the artwork in this chronicle to prevent against any misinterpretation.
On May 27 in New York, Christie's sells Vampiros vegetarianos, oil on canvas 86 x 60 cm painted in 1962, lot 22estimated $ 1.5M.
Three Vampyrs recognizable by their bat wings are perched on high stools around a guéridon. With long straws, they drink directly in beautiful fruit reminiscent of the Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch. Two pet roosters with bodies and legs of dogs add another fairy element to the scene.
The Vampiros Mexicanos are cocktails based on tequila and sangrita, this latter word being a diminutive for 'blood' designating some juice of red fruit. This drink was appreciated in the Mexican surrealist group!
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.
1965 Vija Celmins in Los Angeles
2014 SOLD for $ 3.4M including premium
Vija Celmins comes out of the mists of Latvia from where she is moved at the age of two with her parents by the Soviet occupation. From 1962 to 1965, she achieves her art studies in Los Angeles at the very time when Pop Art operates the great return to figurative art based on common objects.
The young artist is keen to show the originality of her personality. The disapproval of war is a common theme of the period in America exacerbated by the Vietnam events. She does not want to be dazzled by the sun of California and finds an influence in the monotonous use of dull colors in the still lifes of Morandi.
She attends the circle of Joni Gordon, a young self taught woman who takes the role of an incubator of contemporary art in Los Angeles and later will operate an avant-garde gallery. From the deceased estate of Gordon, three artworks for sale by Sotheby's in New York on September 24 enable a complete review of the early career of Celmins.
Her varied techniques almost always rely on a photographic original in a hyperrealistic approach. Burning Plane, oil on canvas 36 x 62 cm painted in 1965, reproduces in grisaille a newspaper photo of a war drama that made eleven dead. The smoke creates the same visual effect as the blurring of the military aircraft by Richter two years earlier. This painting is estimated $ 900K, lot 6.
The preferred technique of Celmins is graphite on paper. Clouds No. 2 is a very large drawing, 67 x 99 cm, made between 1965 and 1967. This theme of hyperrealism in an unrecognizable place anticipates her Oceans. An Ocean in graphite on acrylic background 36 x 48 cm made in 1968 sold for $ 1.7M including premium at Christie's on 13 November 2013. Clouds is estimated $ 400K, lot 7. The series of paintings by Richter on the same theme is later.
Pink Pearl Eraser is an acrylic on balsa wood 17 x 50 x 8 cm made in 1966-1967, estimated $ 180K, lot 8, of pure Pop Art inspiration while symbolizing the art of drawing.
I have not found any evidence of a reciprocal influence of Celmins and Richter despite the similarity of their art at that time.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM
Burning plane (oil on canvas) : $ 3.4M
Clouds No 2 (charcoal on paper) : $ 1.56M
Pink Pearl eraser (acrylic on balsa wood) : $ 1.56M
The young artist is keen to show the originality of her personality. The disapproval of war is a common theme of the period in America exacerbated by the Vietnam events. She does not want to be dazzled by the sun of California and finds an influence in the monotonous use of dull colors in the still lifes of Morandi.
She attends the circle of Joni Gordon, a young self taught woman who takes the role of an incubator of contemporary art in Los Angeles and later will operate an avant-garde gallery. From the deceased estate of Gordon, three artworks for sale by Sotheby's in New York on September 24 enable a complete review of the early career of Celmins.
Her varied techniques almost always rely on a photographic original in a hyperrealistic approach. Burning Plane, oil on canvas 36 x 62 cm painted in 1965, reproduces in grisaille a newspaper photo of a war drama that made eleven dead. The smoke creates the same visual effect as the blurring of the military aircraft by Richter two years earlier. This painting is estimated $ 900K, lot 6.
The preferred technique of Celmins is graphite on paper. Clouds No. 2 is a very large drawing, 67 x 99 cm, made between 1965 and 1967. This theme of hyperrealism in an unrecognizable place anticipates her Oceans. An Ocean in graphite on acrylic background 36 x 48 cm made in 1968 sold for $ 1.7M including premium at Christie's on 13 November 2013. Clouds is estimated $ 400K, lot 7. The series of paintings by Richter on the same theme is later.
Pink Pearl Eraser is an acrylic on balsa wood 17 x 50 x 8 cm made in 1966-1967, estimated $ 180K, lot 8, of pure Pop Art inspiration while symbolizing the art of drawing.
I have not found any evidence of a reciprocal influence of Celmins and Richter despite the similarity of their art at that time.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM
Burning plane (oil on canvas) : $ 3.4M
Clouds No 2 (charcoal on paper) : $ 1.56M
Pink Pearl eraser (acrylic on balsa wood) : $ 1.56M
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 13Bestimated $ 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 13Bestimated $ 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.
1967 Stripes of Colors by Bridget Riley
2014 SOLD 2.9 M£ including premium
Early in her career, Bridget Riley experimented with optical effects. Her paintings in black and white sometimes supplemented with shades of gray generate illusions that hide the actual distance to the canvas. This research is similar to Vasarely"s.
Suddenly in 1967 she shows us the color. Chant 2 is one of the first paintings of this second phase, and perhaps the earliest in which she completely gave up the use of black.
The image is an immutable alternating of narrow blue-red-blue and red-blue-red vertical stripes, these color stripes being separated by white stripes of same width. Like all the compositions by Riley, it is endless.
The colors by Riley are as pure as Mondrian's but the optical access to infinity is offered through larger surfaces. Chant 2 is an oil on canvas 231 x 231 cm.
Chant 2 was already known in this column when Sotheby's sold it for £ 2.5 million including premium on 1 July 2008. It is now for sale by Christie's in London on February 13. It is estimated £ 2.5 million, lot 13 in the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
Slight gain compared with the 2008 sale : £ 2.9M including premium.
Suddenly in 1967 she shows us the color. Chant 2 is one of the first paintings of this second phase, and perhaps the earliest in which she completely gave up the use of black.
The image is an immutable alternating of narrow blue-red-blue and red-blue-red vertical stripes, these color stripes being separated by white stripes of same width. Like all the compositions by Riley, it is endless.
The colors by Riley are as pure as Mondrian's but the optical access to infinity is offered through larger surfaces. Chant 2 is an oil on canvas 231 x 231 cm.
Chant 2 was already known in this column when Sotheby's sold it for £ 2.5 million including premium on 1 July 2008. It is now for sale by Christie's in London on February 13. It is estimated £ 2.5 million, lot 13 in the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
Slight gain compared with the 2008 sale : £ 2.9M including premium.
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.
1972 Farewell to New York by Yayoi Kusama
2017 SOLD for HK$ 42M including premium
In 1958 Yayoi Kusama brings to New York City the visual elements of her hallucination. The world is an unlimited net or curtain. Mankind is nothing more than undifferentiated tiny spots distributed evenly throughout that network. The basic element is a polka dot but it can also take other forms.
The very long stay of the artist in New York is a continuous attempt to escape the common fate. She imagines and realizes many happenings at the extreme limits of decency and even beyond.
She is in contact with the avant-gardes. Donald Judd is enthusiastic about her graphic minimalism. She admires the use of ordinary objects of chance by Joseph Cornell who manages an exception to his lonely habits for maintaining with her a daily and platonic relationship which is beneficial to the creativity of both artists. Yayoi Kusama covers with her dots various artefacts as well as the naked bodies of the participants of her performances and uses mirrors to display the infinity.
On September 30 in Hong Kong, Sotheby's sells an oil on canvas 107 x 92 cm painted by Yayoi Kusama in 1972, lot 1067estimated HK $ 32M. This artwork is an unexpected return to her obsession with the infinity nets but can also be considered as a new prototype by its use of multiple colors.
After 14 years of overwork in New York the artist is exhausted. The sudden death of Cornell on December 29, 1972 completes the ruin of her fragile world. She returns to Japan in the following year. Her voluntary residence since 1977 in a hospital for the mentally ill protects her against her desire for excessive performance without reducing her graphic creativity.
Yayoi Kusama succeeded in making the public enjoy her offbeat vision of the universe.
The very long stay of the artist in New York is a continuous attempt to escape the common fate. She imagines and realizes many happenings at the extreme limits of decency and even beyond.
She is in contact with the avant-gardes. Donald Judd is enthusiastic about her graphic minimalism. She admires the use of ordinary objects of chance by Joseph Cornell who manages an exception to his lonely habits for maintaining with her a daily and platonic relationship which is beneficial to the creativity of both artists. Yayoi Kusama covers with her dots various artefacts as well as the naked bodies of the participants of her performances and uses mirrors to display the infinity.
On September 30 in Hong Kong, Sotheby's sells an oil on canvas 107 x 92 cm painted by Yayoi Kusama in 1972, lot 1067estimated HK $ 32M. This artwork is an unexpected return to her obsession with the infinity nets but can also be considered as a new prototype by its use of multiple colors.
After 14 years of overwork in New York the artist is exhausted. The sudden death of Cornell on December 29, 1972 completes the ruin of her fragile world. She returns to Japan in the following year. Her voluntary residence since 1977 in a hospital for the mentally ill protects her against her desire for excessive performance without reducing her graphic creativity.
Yayoi Kusama succeeded in making the public enjoy her offbeat vision of the universe.
