Cities
See also : France Paris Los Angeles Monet George IV to Victoria UK II Turner Hockney Germany Germany II Richter Richter < 1986 US painting < 1940 USA by Warhol Groups Music and dance
Chronology : 19th century 1830-1839 1870-1879 1914 1934 1962 1968 1969 1980-1989 1980
Chronology : 19th century 1830-1839 1870-1879 1914 1934 1962 1968 1969 1980-1989 1980
1835 Turner over the Tiber
2014 SOLD for £ 30.3M including premium
Turner visited Rome twice, in 1819 and 1828. He was dazzled by that city which was trying to organize its modernity without denying its glorious past. During his first trip, he was concerned about illustration and drew hundreds of sketches of views and monuments. The goal of the second visit was to soak in the atmosphere for producing oils on canvas.
Turner had a friend as difficult as himself in his temper : Hugh Munro of Novar. It was the time of the watercolorist travelers and Munro would have liked to become an artist. Turner tried to help him but the younger man was not skilled. He was to become one of the greatest art collectors of his time.
When Turner returned from Rome, Munro commissioned him with a painting on which the city was to be shown with the greatest topographic truth. Turner reinspected his drawings. The oil on canvas showing the view of Rome from Mount Aventine, 93 x 126 cm, was completed in 1835.
In the morning light, this view is a masterpiece from that period of great maturity of the artist. The blurring by mist above the Tiber is a pre-impressionist feat. The drawing of the urban texture is of high detail all over the huge extent of the city and the animation is nice.
This work could be a pendant with a view from Capitoline hill purchased in 1839 by Munro. Passed in 1878 in the collection of the Earls of Rosebery, both paintings have remained in a fabulous condition. The view from the Capitol was sold for £ 29,7M including premium by Sotheby's on July 7, 2010.
The view over the Tiber is estimated £ 15M, for sale by Sotheby's in London on December 3, lot 44. I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's :
Turner had a friend as difficult as himself in his temper : Hugh Munro of Novar. It was the time of the watercolorist travelers and Munro would have liked to become an artist. Turner tried to help him but the younger man was not skilled. He was to become one of the greatest art collectors of his time.
When Turner returned from Rome, Munro commissioned him with a painting on which the city was to be shown with the greatest topographic truth. Turner reinspected his drawings. The oil on canvas showing the view of Rome from Mount Aventine, 93 x 126 cm, was completed in 1835.
In the morning light, this view is a masterpiece from that period of great maturity of the artist. The blurring by mist above the Tiber is a pre-impressionist feat. The drawing of the urban texture is of high detail all over the huge extent of the city and the animation is nice.
This work could be a pendant with a view from Capitoline hill purchased in 1839 by Munro. Passed in 1878 in the collection of the Earls of Rosebery, both paintings have remained in a fabulous condition. The view from the Capitol was sold for £ 29,7M including premium by Sotheby's on July 7, 2010.
The view over the Tiber is estimated £ 15M, for sale by Sotheby's in London on December 3, lot 44. I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's :
1839 Turner on the Roman Hills
2010 SOLD 29.7 M£ including premium
During his two trips to Rome in 1819 and 1828, Turner made studies of panoramas and monuments. The Eternal City has continued to fascinate him: in 1839, he gathers these travel memories to compose a large oil on canvas, 90 x 122 cm.
The artist has placed the easel of his memory at the top of Capitoline Hill. The city lies before him, fully bathed in a wonderful light that enhances the perspective. The foreground is animated with efficiency and discretion by goatherds and peasants.
Do not look for photographic truth in this image. According to the style of that time, the position of the buildings owes more to art than to reality. But it is no longer a capriccio, and ancient and pontifical monuments are finely drawn.
Such a piece on the art market is by itself an event. Its exceptional condition makes it one the most important auction lots of the year. The painting has kept its original freshness and frame. It had been previously only once on the art market, in 1878. The Earl of Rosebery paid 4,450 guineas for it, on the occasion of his honeymoon.
On July 7 in London, Sotheby's announce this masterpiece at 12 million pounds.
POST SALE COMMENT
The estimate had been underestimated but not the importance of this painting, well relayed by the press releases.
Result: £ 29.7 million including premium.
See below the video shared by Sotheby's and the image shared by Wikimedia :
The artist has placed the easel of his memory at the top of Capitoline Hill. The city lies before him, fully bathed in a wonderful light that enhances the perspective. The foreground is animated with efficiency and discretion by goatherds and peasants.
Do not look for photographic truth in this image. According to the style of that time, the position of the buildings owes more to art than to reality. But it is no longer a capriccio, and ancient and pontifical monuments are finely drawn.
Such a piece on the art market is by itself an event. Its exceptional condition makes it one the most important auction lots of the year. The painting has kept its original freshness and frame. It had been previously only once on the art market, in 1878. The Earl of Rosebery paid 4,450 guineas for it, on the occasion of his honeymoon.
On July 7 in London, Sotheby's announce this masterpiece at 12 million pounds.
POST SALE COMMENT
The estimate had been underestimated but not the importance of this painting, well relayed by the press releases.
Result: £ 29.7 million including premium.
See below the video shared by Sotheby's and the image shared by Wikimedia :
1876 Bal du Moulin de la Galette by Renoir
1990 SOLD for $ 78 M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
In 1863 Charles Gleyre admonishes Monet because he does not follow the model of the antique. Bringing with him three friends, Sisley, Renoir and Bazille, Monet slams the door and manages to paint outdoors.
Their temperaments are different. They are young and tempted by the good life of dancing balls. While Monet is overtaken by his wife, Renoir expresses the carefree joie de vivre of the groups to which he applies the impressionist style. Le Bal du Moulin de la Galette in 1876 and Le Déjeuner des Canotiers, exhibited in 1882, are among the most important masterpieces of painting.
Renoir painted two identical versions of the Moulin de la Galette. The largest, 131 x 175 cm, became the property of the French State through the Caillebotte bequest and is currently at the Musée d'Orsay.
The other version is an oil on canvas 78 x 114 cm damaged by folding. Coming from the Whitney collection, it was sold for $ 78M including premium by Sotheby's on May 17, 1990. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The buyer was a Japanese collector named Ryoei Saito, who had acquired the Portrait of Dr Gachet by Van Gogh two days earlier at Christies for $ 82M including premium. Saito creates some terror in the art world by announcing that at his death he will be cremated with the two paintings to avoid that enormous inheritance rights are required to his heirs.
Saito died in 1996. His threat was not carried out because his wealth had turned down and the artworks were sequestered by his creditors, but the two paintings were never seen again. The Van Gogh was reportedly located in 2007 in the collection of an Austrian financier who has since gone bankrupt.
Their temperaments are different. They are young and tempted by the good life of dancing balls. While Monet is overtaken by his wife, Renoir expresses the carefree joie de vivre of the groups to which he applies the impressionist style. Le Bal du Moulin de la Galette in 1876 and Le Déjeuner des Canotiers, exhibited in 1882, are among the most important masterpieces of painting.
Renoir painted two identical versions of the Moulin de la Galette. The largest, 131 x 175 cm, became the property of the French State through the Caillebotte bequest and is currently at the Musée d'Orsay.
The other version is an oil on canvas 78 x 114 cm damaged by folding. Coming from the Whitney collection, it was sold for $ 78M including premium by Sotheby's on May 17, 1990. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The buyer was a Japanese collector named Ryoei Saito, who had acquired the Portrait of Dr Gachet by Van Gogh two days earlier at Christies for $ 82M including premium. Saito creates some terror in the art world by announcing that at his death he will be cremated with the two paintings to avoid that enormous inheritance rights are required to his heirs.
Saito died in 1996. His threat was not carried out because his wealth had turned down and the artworks were sequestered by his creditors, but the two paintings were never seen again. The Van Gogh was reportedly located in 2007 in the collection of an Austrian financier who has since gone bankrupt.
.jpg)
1902 February in London
2015 SOLD for $ 40.5M including premium
During a brief stay in London in 1899 for family reasons, Claude Monet observed the Thames. He came back for painting on the late winter of the following year. His idea was to show the time of day as he had done for the poplars and for Rouen cathedral.
Through his window at the Savoy Hotel, Claude watches Waterloo and Charing Cross bridges in the pink fog of the morning. On one of the first evenings he sees the sunset above the neo-Gothic buildings of the Houses of Parliament and the river. Like Constable, he will be an extraordinary interpreter of the English sky.
The best view is from the garden of St. Thomas's Hospital. The artist is already famous. He easily gets the authorization to work every day in this place. Every afternoon at 4:00, he leaves the hotel to retrieve or resettle his easels at the hospital.
The light changes at every moment with the clouds pushed by the wind and the instability of the fog. As for the poplars in 1892, Claude works on several paintings in parallel, finding and catching evening after evening the same tiny ephemeral details of the sunset light. His control is total and even his method for applying his brush varies depending on the desired effect.
This project is the most amazing in the history of painting. By considering the three motifs altogether (the two bridges and the Parliament), Claude maintains a hundred paintings during this 1900 stay. He leaves London before spring when the sun is now higher and the light has changed. He returns with his paintings in the following year but snow and cold prevent a new progress.
Claude finishes his paintings at Giverny and scrupulously notes the year of completion beside his signature. He considers the whole as inseparable until the 1904 exhibition by Durand-Ruel that gets a considerable success, anticipating his famous uncompromising attitude before the first exhibition of his Water Lilies series.
The subgroup of the Parliament from St. Thomas's consists of 19 oil paintings in a unique format 81 x 93 cm. One of them is estimated $ 35M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 11, lot 24A.
Dated 1902, this painting is one of the first that was completed by the artist, perhaps because the very expressive sky is particularly exciting. Despite the clouds, the sun plays behind the high tower and the same pink shades apply to the edges of the clouds and to the reflections in the river.
The image is shared by Wikimedia:
Through his window at the Savoy Hotel, Claude watches Waterloo and Charing Cross bridges in the pink fog of the morning. On one of the first evenings he sees the sunset above the neo-Gothic buildings of the Houses of Parliament and the river. Like Constable, he will be an extraordinary interpreter of the English sky.
The best view is from the garden of St. Thomas's Hospital. The artist is already famous. He easily gets the authorization to work every day in this place. Every afternoon at 4:00, he leaves the hotel to retrieve or resettle his easels at the hospital.
The light changes at every moment with the clouds pushed by the wind and the instability of the fog. As for the poplars in 1892, Claude works on several paintings in parallel, finding and catching evening after evening the same tiny ephemeral details of the sunset light. His control is total and even his method for applying his brush varies depending on the desired effect.
This project is the most amazing in the history of painting. By considering the three motifs altogether (the two bridges and the Parliament), Claude maintains a hundred paintings during this 1900 stay. He leaves London before spring when the sun is now higher and the light has changed. He returns with his paintings in the following year but snow and cold prevent a new progress.
Claude finishes his paintings at Giverny and scrupulously notes the year of completion beside his signature. He considers the whole as inseparable until the 1904 exhibition by Durand-Ruel that gets a considerable success, anticipating his famous uncompromising attitude before the first exhibition of his Water Lilies series.
The subgroup of the Parliament from St. Thomas's consists of 19 oil paintings in a unique format 81 x 93 cm. One of them is estimated $ 35M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 11, lot 24A.
Dated 1902, this painting is one of the first that was completed by the artist, perhaps because the very expressive sky is particularly exciting. Despite the clouds, the sun plays behind the high tower and the same pink shades apply to the edges of the clouds and to the reflections in the river.
The image is shared by Wikimedia:
1913-1914 Berliner Strassenszene by Kirchner
2006 SOLD 38 M$ including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2020
The Die Brücke movement was founded in Dresden in 1905 by four students who wanted to define a modern life based on freedom. From 1911 the lights, the pleasures and the opportunities of Berlin attract them like butterflies. The failure is total. The group explodes in January 1913.
Kirchner has to face the facts. Life in Berlin is not communal. Each individual is isolated in the crowd. At that time prostitutes were the queens of the Berlin sidewalk. They are recognizable by customers from odd signs which are not sufficient to make them intercepted by the police of morals : the high feather on the hat, the tight dresses in too bright colors.
The Strassenszene series, begun at the end of 1913 and interrupted by the war, marks Kirchner's attempt to interpret this city life which he did not want. An oil on canvas 122 x 91 cm painted in 1913 or 1914 was sold for $ 38M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2006 over a lower estimate of $ 18M, lot 37. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Two cocottes walk together in the middle of a dense crowd. The characters around them go in all directions, like in a whirlwind, without any interaction between them. Two men are in the foreground, not without arrogance. They are pimps or customers. In the background, the panel of the tram 15 enables to locate the scene in the heart of the big city.
This anxiety-provoking atmosphere is also perfectly transposed by Kirchner in his wood engravings. A Strassenszene with formidably unfriendly characters passed at Sotheby's on October 23, 2017. Fünf Kokotten, a grotesque interpretation of this weird fashion, was sold for CHF 920K before fees by Kornfeld on June 15, 2012.
Kirchner has to face the facts. Life in Berlin is not communal. Each individual is isolated in the crowd. At that time prostitutes were the queens of the Berlin sidewalk. They are recognizable by customers from odd signs which are not sufficient to make them intercepted by the police of morals : the high feather on the hat, the tight dresses in too bright colors.
The Strassenszene series, begun at the end of 1913 and interrupted by the war, marks Kirchner's attempt to interpret this city life which he did not want. An oil on canvas 122 x 91 cm painted in 1913 or 1914 was sold for $ 38M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2006 over a lower estimate of $ 18M, lot 37. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Two cocottes walk together in the middle of a dense crowd. The characters around them go in all directions, like in a whirlwind, without any interaction between them. Two men are in the foreground, not without arrogance. They are pimps or customers. In the background, the panel of the tram 15 enables to locate the scene in the heart of the big city.
This anxiety-provoking atmosphere is also perfectly transposed by Kirchner in his wood engravings. A Strassenszene with formidably unfriendly characters passed at Sotheby's on October 23, 2017. Fünf Kokotten, a grotesque interpretation of this weird fashion, was sold for CHF 920K before fees by Kornfeld on June 15, 2012.
1934 Suburbs for Sale
2013 SOLD 40.5 M$ including premium
The house is for Hopper the theme that ensures the continuity of civilization. It symbolizes the past by surviving after the move or death of its residents. The 1929 crisis could only exacerbate his reluctant vision of the modern world.
Hopper is the most famous car user in the history of art. He tirelessly revisits the same places to perform sketches which he then reworks in his workshop in the form of large oil paintings.
Painted in 1934, East Wind over Weehawken, 86 x 128 cm, shows houses viewed from a small crossing of streets in suburban New Jersey. This place should support life but the streets are empty. These houses are promoted to the rank of major characters in the drama and wait for who knows what.
In the foreground, a tall unsightly city lamp divides the picture as if it were the keeper of nothingness. Seeking other marks, we see a sign at the limit of readability announcing For Sale. The moment before or after can reveal life. Two very small spots on far left edge are characters. Or not. Mankind does not matter.
This painting is estimated $ 22M, for sale by Christie 's in New York on December 5.
POST SALE COMMENT
The pessimistic view of civilization expressed by Hopper in the 1930s is still relevant. This outstanding example of his art has been sold for $ 40.5 million including premium.
The image is shared in Wikimedia :
Hopper is the most famous car user in the history of art. He tirelessly revisits the same places to perform sketches which he then reworks in his workshop in the form of large oil paintings.
Painted in 1934, East Wind over Weehawken, 86 x 128 cm, shows houses viewed from a small crossing of streets in suburban New Jersey. This place should support life but the streets are empty. These houses are promoted to the rank of major characters in the drama and wait for who knows what.
In the foreground, a tall unsightly city lamp divides the picture as if it were the keeper of nothingness. Seeking other marks, we see a sign at the limit of readability announcing For Sale. The moment before or after can reveal life. Two very small spots on far left edge are characters. Or not. Mankind does not matter.
This painting is estimated $ 22M, for sale by Christie 's in New York on December 5.
POST SALE COMMENT
The pessimistic view of civilization expressed by Hopper in the 1930s is still relevant. This outstanding example of his art has been sold for $ 40.5 million including premium.
The image is shared in Wikimedia :
1962 The Blurred Image of Liberty
2012 SOLD 43.7 M$ including premium
For Warhol, in 1962, all experiences, all messages are possible. His artistic language is entirely new.
The use of silkscreen ink applied to the enlargement of a trivial photograph is the decisive creative invention of Warhol. It allows the endless repetition of the same image, with a speed of execution that quickly diversifies the catalog of the artist. It is not to be considered as a print due to the variants from a completed artwork to another and also because of the finish with spray enamel and graphite.
But what does exactly want this former designer of ads? Present to the world a publicity for America, or deride its consumer society? Exalt the hope of a sheltered life, or exacerbate the futility of politics?
If there were only stars and soup cans, Warhol's message is simple. Disasters, electric chairs, car crashes put everything into question. Executed in 1962, Warhol's Statue of Liberty anticipates all the social gnashing of his art. In our world, everything is false.
The symbol is present, as in reality, off Manhattan. Warhol well knows that the multiplicity of images kills emotion. Thanks to his screen printing technique, he kills the hope of Liberty by aligning 4 rows of 6 identical images.
Warhol knows that painting is an illusory representation of the three-dimensional reality of the world. Each of the 24 units of Miss Liberty is treated in green and red like an anaglyph, but the two views are from one single postcard. The viewer with his stereoscopic glasses marvels at a false illusion of 3D due to inequality of the finish.
This canvas 198 x 206 cm is for sale by Christie's on November 14 in New York. The logics would be that it is acknowledged as one of the key works of Warhol, in excess of $ 35M. The auction house has not published an estimate. Here is the link to the catalog.
I invite you to play the video featured by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This surprising artwork provides a final denial to whoever thinks that the art, personality and ambition of Warhol are simple to decode. This Statue of Liberty is one of the masterpieces of the first great year of the artist, as well as the 200 One Dollar Bills, sold exactly for the same price at Sotheby's in 2009: $ 43.7 million including premium.
The use of silkscreen ink applied to the enlargement of a trivial photograph is the decisive creative invention of Warhol. It allows the endless repetition of the same image, with a speed of execution that quickly diversifies the catalog of the artist. It is not to be considered as a print due to the variants from a completed artwork to another and also because of the finish with spray enamel and graphite.
But what does exactly want this former designer of ads? Present to the world a publicity for America, or deride its consumer society? Exalt the hope of a sheltered life, or exacerbate the futility of politics?
If there were only stars and soup cans, Warhol's message is simple. Disasters, electric chairs, car crashes put everything into question. Executed in 1962, Warhol's Statue of Liberty anticipates all the social gnashing of his art. In our world, everything is false.
The symbol is present, as in reality, off Manhattan. Warhol well knows that the multiplicity of images kills emotion. Thanks to his screen printing technique, he kills the hope of Liberty by aligning 4 rows of 6 identical images.
Warhol knows that painting is an illusory representation of the three-dimensional reality of the world. Each of the 24 units of Miss Liberty is treated in green and red like an anaglyph, but the two views are from one single postcard. The viewer with his stereoscopic glasses marvels at a false illusion of 3D due to inequality of the finish.
This canvas 198 x 206 cm is for sale by Christie's on November 14 in New York. The logics would be that it is acknowledged as one of the key works of Warhol, in excess of $ 35M. The auction house has not published an estimate. Here is the link to the catalog.
I invite you to play the video featured by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This surprising artwork provides a final denial to whoever thinks that the art, personality and ambition of Warhol are simple to decode. This Statue of Liberty is one of the masterpieces of the first great year of the artist, as well as the 200 One Dollar Bills, sold exactly for the same price at Sotheby's in 2009: $ 43.7 million including premium.
1968 Richter invents the Hyperrealistic Blur
2013 SOLD 37 M$ including premium
Gerhard Richter is the true rebel of art. Some artists before him including Rauschenberg had introduced disgust as a variant of artistic impression. Richter goes much further. He debases the art to reveal its profound nature.
In 1962, he considers that a bad photo does not lie because it is too ugly to deserve retouching. It expresses real life, the reality of a fleeting moment which had probably been important for its author.
The anti-art by Richter consists to disproportionately enlarge black and white photos, blurry and often without any interest but in a great variety, by using a hyperrealistic technique already perfectly controlled.
One of his earliest works is the image of an airplane in flight, magnified as an oil on canvas up to 130 x 200 cm. Made in 1963, it was sold for $ 11.2 million including premium by Christie's on November 13, 2007.
The strength of the anti-artistic message of Richter is so great and so new that he finds customers. Domplatz Mailand, an oil on canvas 275 x 290 cm painted in 1968, was commissioned by the Milanese offices of Siemens.
The image is a masterpiece of ugliness with a particularly unpleasant blur. The original photo was lost, thankfully! This photo by an unidentified tourist may be repeated by anyone, without blurring motion, with a more relevant composition than truncating both the cathedral on the right and the buildings on the left.
With this quality and its very large size, Mailand Domplatz is the culmination of the first period of Richter. On the following year, he managed to radically shake the established tradition of landscape painting.
Domplatz Mailand is estimated $ 30M, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 14. It is illustrated in a very interesting blog post shared by the auction house.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This large painting is a technical feat of the first style of Richter, playing altogether on the easy identification of the subject and on the difficulty of reading it. It was sold $ 37M including premium.
In 1962, he considers that a bad photo does not lie because it is too ugly to deserve retouching. It expresses real life, the reality of a fleeting moment which had probably been important for its author.
The anti-art by Richter consists to disproportionately enlarge black and white photos, blurry and often without any interest but in a great variety, by using a hyperrealistic technique already perfectly controlled.
One of his earliest works is the image of an airplane in flight, magnified as an oil on canvas up to 130 x 200 cm. Made in 1963, it was sold for $ 11.2 million including premium by Christie's on November 13, 2007.
The strength of the anti-artistic message of Richter is so great and so new that he finds customers. Domplatz Mailand, an oil on canvas 275 x 290 cm painted in 1968, was commissioned by the Milanese offices of Siemens.
The image is a masterpiece of ugliness with a particularly unpleasant blur. The original photo was lost, thankfully! This photo by an unidentified tourist may be repeated by anyone, without blurring motion, with a more relevant composition than truncating both the cathedral on the right and the buildings on the left.
With this quality and its very large size, Mailand Domplatz is the culmination of the first period of Richter. On the following year, he managed to radically shake the established tradition of landscape painting.
Domplatz Mailand is estimated $ 30M, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 14. It is illustrated in a very interesting blog post shared by the auction house.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This large painting is a technical feat of the first style of Richter, playing altogether on the easy identification of the subject and on the difficulty of reading it. It was sold $ 37M including premium.
1969 Curator and Partner
2019 SOLD for £ 38M including premium
Looking for sexual freedom, David Hockney arrives in California in 1964. The easy life nevertheless does not answer his questioning about communication within a couple.
Between 1968 and 1977 he makes double portraits in very large format, 214 x 305 cm. He alternates between homosexual and heterosexual couples and ends the series with his own parents, clearly assessing that his concern is no longer sex but dialogue. The sitters are most often identified in the title and are very recognizable.
Invariably the two characters are distant from each other with a deliberately orthogonal gazing. In this strange intimacy, the painter is an invisible social voyeur.
Installed again in London in 1968, he does not neglect America. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is preparing a major exhibition that will reveal post-war American art to the general public. The curator of this important cultural operation is the highly influential Henry Geldzahler.
Hockney arrives in Geldzahler's living room in Manhattan with his sketchbook, polaroid camera and flu. Back in his studio in London, he paints in 1969 'Henry Geldzahler and Christopher Scott'. This acrylic on canvas will be sold by Christie's in London on March 6, lot 8. The December 17 press release announces an estimate in excess of £ 30M.
The two men could not be more dissimilar and yet their life as a couple is sustainable. Robust and confident in himself, Geldzahler is comfortably seated in the middle of a beautiful sofa worthy of the greatest Art Deco collections. On the right, his young partner is standing, dressed in a raincoat too big for him and as stiff as the floor lamp. The scene is located by the skyscrapers beyond the small window.
Between 1968 and 1977 he makes double portraits in very large format, 214 x 305 cm. He alternates between homosexual and heterosexual couples and ends the series with his own parents, clearly assessing that his concern is no longer sex but dialogue. The sitters are most often identified in the title and are very recognizable.
Invariably the two characters are distant from each other with a deliberately orthogonal gazing. In this strange intimacy, the painter is an invisible social voyeur.
Installed again in London in 1968, he does not neglect America. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is preparing a major exhibition that will reveal post-war American art to the general public. The curator of this important cultural operation is the highly influential Henry Geldzahler.
Hockney arrives in Geldzahler's living room in Manhattan with his sketchbook, polaroid camera and flu. Back in his studio in London, he paints in 1969 'Henry Geldzahler and Christopher Scott'. This acrylic on canvas will be sold by Christie's in London on March 6, lot 8. The December 17 press release announces an estimate in excess of £ 30M.
The two men could not be more dissimilar and yet their life as a couple is sustainable. Robust and confident in himself, Geldzahler is comfortably seated in the middle of a beautiful sofa worthy of the greatest Art Deco collections. On the right, his young partner is standing, dressed in a raincoat too big for him and as stiff as the floor lamp. The scene is located by the skyscrapers beyond the small window.
1980 Pleasure of the Road
2020 SOLD for $ 41M including premium
David Hockney could not do any more without Los Angeles. In 1978 he moves there permanently. The workshop is downside, in the plain of Santa Monica. The residence is up, in the Hollywood Hills. Everyday, morning and evening, his journey passes through Nichols Canyon. The environment is idyllic : swimming pools, palm trees, blue sky, bright colors.
The road is both winding and wide. It was built in 1925 to give the megalopolis a comfortable road escape to the north. David knows all its twists and turns. He drives with musical gestures. The melody he sings compensates for his increasing deafness.
David is not a professional musician. He is a pictorial artist. To express the pleasure of his journey, he paints in 1980 Nichols Canyon, acrylic on canvas 213 x 152 cm, with colors inspired by the vibrant exaggerations of the Fauvistes.
The musical meanders of the road cross all the space. It is a real road : its shortened name, Nichols Cyn Rd, is inscribed like on a road map. The STOP at the place where the road leaves the hills, in the foreground, marks the exit from that paradise. The red dot in the middle of the route symbolizes the artist's Mercedes-Benz.
Nichols Canyon will be sold by Phillips in New York on December 7, lot 10. The October 26 press release announces an estimate in the region of $ 35M. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
David had pleasure in communicating in this work his musical style of driving in the hills. Painted ten years later with the same inspiration in a more spectacular perspective, Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica, oil on canvas 198 x 305 cm, was sold for $ 28.5M including premium by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018.
The road is both winding and wide. It was built in 1925 to give the megalopolis a comfortable road escape to the north. David knows all its twists and turns. He drives with musical gestures. The melody he sings compensates for his increasing deafness.
David is not a professional musician. He is a pictorial artist. To express the pleasure of his journey, he paints in 1980 Nichols Canyon, acrylic on canvas 213 x 152 cm, with colors inspired by the vibrant exaggerations of the Fauvistes.
The musical meanders of the road cross all the space. It is a real road : its shortened name, Nichols Cyn Rd, is inscribed like on a road map. The STOP at the place where the road leaves the hills, in the foreground, marks the exit from that paradise. The red dot in the middle of the route symbolizes the artist's Mercedes-Benz.
Nichols Canyon will be sold by Phillips in New York on December 7, lot 10. The October 26 press release announces an estimate in the region of $ 35M. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
David had pleasure in communicating in this work his musical style of driving in the hills. Painted ten years later with the same inspiration in a more spectacular perspective, Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica, oil on canvas 198 x 305 cm, was sold for $ 28.5M including premium by Sotheby's on May 16, 2018.
