Current Art by Women (page in reconstruction)
Spider by BOURGEOIS
Intro
Louise Bourgeois desired to interpret her relationship with her own parents, generating a suffering that she appeased by her art at the borderline of sexual provocation. From 1951 to 1980 she tries a psychoanalysis. It is a failure : she considers that Freud does not propose anything for the artists.
She left many writings about her own art but it remains difficult to find the key. The relationship between sex and family, the position of the child within the family cell, are the highly traumatic guides to her creativity. Until 98 years old, she will be an activist in support to all the sexual minorities.
Within her old age, Louise Bourgeois remained hypersensitive to sexual ambiguity and sexual promiscuity. On October 15, 2015, Sotheby's sold for £ 1.2M a showcase realized in 2001 titled Mother and child, exhibiting a limp infant on the nude torso of a woman like some externalization of pregnancy. The carefully carved body of Bourgeois's spiders is a further female carnal symbol.
The world of a real spider is certainly of high complexity. It (she) is patient, steady in the center of her web which she builds and efficiently repairs after a destruction. The polygon of her eight legs offers a shelter for her loved ones, but she is also a fierce predator to the insects. Her small size makes her vulnerable but the artist will enlarge it to make her the towering star of a dehumanized parallel universe.
The spider is not a vertebrate and her behavioral psychology is inaccessible. The spider does not look like us, yet we share the planet with it. Good worker, it tirelessly endeavors to create its web. It disturbs us and has no face, and we interpret it as a threat. By choosing this beast as a symbol of motherhood, Louise Bourgeois is not an artist of animals but indeed a highly disturbing surrealist artist in the line of Wifredo Lam.
The spider symbolizes her own beloved nurturing mother. The high legs provide a shelter. Their slimness is a technical achievement, like the thread of the spider which is of extreme strength considering its size. Some of them have a dressed body, also recalling the memory of the mother whose job was to repair tapestries.
In 1994 she builds a small steel spider 28 cm high which carries marble eggs in a bag under its body. This sculpture, one of the first by Bourgeois on this theme, passed at Sotheby's on November 11, 2015.
In 1995, at the age of 84, she suddenly understands that the spider's maternal function will solve her fantasies. She sculpts new steel spiders and edits them in bronze, in various configurations : lowered body for climbing on the wall or raised on its tall thin legs.
The perimeter of the legs is the safety zone offered by the mother to her offspring. The comparison with the Lupa Capitolina suckling Romulus and Remus is relevant. The spiders of Louise Bourgeois personify her own mother, too frail but intensely protective.
The gigantic dimension of the sculptures, culminating in 1999 with a 10 m high Maman, solves this contradiction. Maman carries her eggs as in the original spider five years earlier.
She left many writings about her own art but it remains difficult to find the key. The relationship between sex and family, the position of the child within the family cell, are the highly traumatic guides to her creativity. Until 98 years old, she will be an activist in support to all the sexual minorities.
Within her old age, Louise Bourgeois remained hypersensitive to sexual ambiguity and sexual promiscuity. On October 15, 2015, Sotheby's sold for £ 1.2M a showcase realized in 2001 titled Mother and child, exhibiting a limp infant on the nude torso of a woman like some externalization of pregnancy. The carefully carved body of Bourgeois's spiders is a further female carnal symbol.
The world of a real spider is certainly of high complexity. It (she) is patient, steady in the center of her web which she builds and efficiently repairs after a destruction. The polygon of her eight legs offers a shelter for her loved ones, but she is also a fierce predator to the insects. Her small size makes her vulnerable but the artist will enlarge it to make her the towering star of a dehumanized parallel universe.
The spider is not a vertebrate and her behavioral psychology is inaccessible. The spider does not look like us, yet we share the planet with it. Good worker, it tirelessly endeavors to create its web. It disturbs us and has no face, and we interpret it as a threat. By choosing this beast as a symbol of motherhood, Louise Bourgeois is not an artist of animals but indeed a highly disturbing surrealist artist in the line of Wifredo Lam.
The spider symbolizes her own beloved nurturing mother. The high legs provide a shelter. Their slimness is a technical achievement, like the thread of the spider which is of extreme strength considering its size. Some of them have a dressed body, also recalling the memory of the mother whose job was to repair tapestries.
In 1994 she builds a small steel spider 28 cm high which carries marble eggs in a bag under its body. This sculpture, one of the first by Bourgeois on this theme, passed at Sotheby's on November 11, 2015.
In 1995, at the age of 84, she suddenly understands that the spider's maternal function will solve her fantasies. She sculpts new steel spiders and edits them in bronze, in various configurations : lowered body for climbing on the wall or raised on its tall thin legs.
The perimeter of the legs is the safety zone offered by the mother to her offspring. The comparison with the Lupa Capitolina suckling Romulus and Remus is relevant. The spiders of Louise Bourgeois personify her own mother, too frail but intensely protective.
The gigantic dimension of the sculptures, culminating in 1999 with a 10 m high Maman, solves this contradiction. Maman carries her eggs as in the original spider five years earlier.
1
1996
2011 SOLD for $ 10.7M by Christie's
A large model made in bronze in 1996 by Louise Bourgeois was sold for $ 10.7M from a lower estimate of $ 4M by Christie's on November 8, 2011.
Its huge surface of 6.68 x 6.33 m for only 3.38 m high is providing a decidedly protective attitude.
Its huge surface of 6.68 x 6.33 m for only 3.38 m high is providing a decidedly protective attitude.
2
1997 3.26 m high 2/6
2019 SOLD for $ 32M by Christie's
A spider 3.26 m high on a 7.56 x 7.06 m overall perimeter designed in 1996 was sculpted in steel and cast in bronze in 1997 in six copies plus one artist's proof and one variant in bronze.
The 2/6 was sold for $ 32M from a lower is estimated $ 25M by Christie's on May 15, 2019, lot 21 B.
The 2/6 was sold for $ 32M from a lower is estimated $ 25M by Christie's on May 15, 2019, lot 21 B.
3
1997 3.26 m high 2/6
2015 SOLD for $ 28M by Christie's
On November 10, 2015, Christie's, sold for $ 28M the bronze 3/6 of the large variant 7.56 x 7.06 x 3.26 m, executed in 1997, lot 10B.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
4
Spider IV
2022 SOLD for HK$ 130M by Sotheby's
By realizing her spiders in bronze from 1995 Louise Bourgeois concretizes with an indestructible material her lifelong fantasies about the intrauterine relations. The cohort of these protective spiders form a deeply feminine surrealist universe. The bronzes are edited in six copies plus an artist's proof.
Spider I (127 x 117 x 31 cm) and II (185 x 185 x 57 cm) conceived in 1995 and Spider IV (203 x 180 x 53 cm) conceived in 1996 have a lowered body that invites to apply them on a wall. The right rear leg of Spider IV is folded simulating an upward walking. A Spider II edited in 1995 was sold for $ 11.6M by Christie's on November 15, 2017, lot 7 B.
Spider III (48 x 84 x 83 cm) designed in 1995 is raised on its legs and anticipates the gigantic bronzes of 1996 and 1997 that can be used as garden shelters. The culmination of this evolution is the 9.20 m high spider named Maman made in 1999 which can be used as a city monument.
The Spider IV number 2/6 from the 1997 original edition was sold by Sotheby's for $ 14.7M on November 16, 2017, lot 34 and for HK $ 130M on April 27, 2022, lot 1116. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Spider I (127 x 117 x 31 cm) and II (185 x 185 x 57 cm) conceived in 1995 and Spider IV (203 x 180 x 53 cm) conceived in 1996 have a lowered body that invites to apply them on a wall. The right rear leg of Spider IV is folded simulating an upward walking. A Spider II edited in 1995 was sold for $ 11.6M by Christie's on November 15, 2017, lot 7 B.
Spider III (48 x 84 x 83 cm) designed in 1995 is raised on its legs and anticipates the gigantic bronzes of 1996 and 1997 that can be used as garden shelters. The culmination of this evolution is the 9.20 m high spider named Maman made in 1999 which can be used as a city monument.
The Spider IV number 2/6 from the 1997 original edition was sold by Sotheby's for $ 14.7M on November 16, 2017, lot 34 and for HK $ 130M on April 27, 2022, lot 1116. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1997 The Bodies of Jenny Saville
2016 SOLD for £ 6.8M including premium
The second half of the twentieth century saw the separation of aesthetics and art. The greatest artists are those who express with strength and originality their intimate view on world and life.
Seen by women, the nude body is a concrete theme. Jenny Saville, Cecily Brown, Marilyn Minter and Marlene Dumas observe it. They cancelled their potential inhibitions up to the limits of pornography. Each one in her own style, these women provide answers to the tragic question of Diane Arbus on the meaning of life seen through abnormalities and through physical or social deviances.
Jenny Saville is a woman. She therefore can not become a transgender. She imagines another hybridization. She painted in 1993 her self-portrait with the naked body of an obese woman. The belly is rigged of lines mapping for a cosmetic surgery of deflation. Saatchi has included this work entitled Plan in his third exhibition of the Young British Artists in 1994. At the same time Lucian Freud explores the naked obesity of Sue.
Saatchi was closely following the progress of Saville. During the preparation of his Sensation exhibition in 1997, he visited Saville in her studio when the artist was finishing Shift. Saatchi is seduced by this new vision of a monumental stack of nude women proposed by Saville, influenced by the parallel position of the girls in the square composition of the Demoiselles d'Avignon.
The artist tells today about Shift an inspiration derived from the emotional wrapping of the viewer by Rothko within large size paintings. She wanted that this non-narrative accumulation of flesh pushes art to offer to the viewer a tactile sensation and an illusion of smell. Shift also follows the experiences by De Kooning on the expression of a woman's body through an abstract technique.
By bringing in Sensation all the darings of which some can still now be considered as socially unacceptable, Saatchi has restarted an interest of the public in contemporary art while simultaneously promoting 42 Young British Artists including Damien Hirst and Chris Ofili. 300,000 persons visited that exhibition. It is to the credit of the Royal Academy for hosting this event despite the obvious risk of scandal and of violent reaction.
Shift, oil on canvas 330 x 330 cm dated 1996-1997, is estimated £ 1.5M for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 28, lot 25.
Seen by women, the nude body is a concrete theme. Jenny Saville, Cecily Brown, Marilyn Minter and Marlene Dumas observe it. They cancelled their potential inhibitions up to the limits of pornography. Each one in her own style, these women provide answers to the tragic question of Diane Arbus on the meaning of life seen through abnormalities and through physical or social deviances.
Jenny Saville is a woman. She therefore can not become a transgender. She imagines another hybridization. She painted in 1993 her self-portrait with the naked body of an obese woman. The belly is rigged of lines mapping for a cosmetic surgery of deflation. Saatchi has included this work entitled Plan in his third exhibition of the Young British Artists in 1994. At the same time Lucian Freud explores the naked obesity of Sue.
Saatchi was closely following the progress of Saville. During the preparation of his Sensation exhibition in 1997, he visited Saville in her studio when the artist was finishing Shift. Saatchi is seduced by this new vision of a monumental stack of nude women proposed by Saville, influenced by the parallel position of the girls in the square composition of the Demoiselles d'Avignon.
The artist tells today about Shift an inspiration derived from the emotional wrapping of the viewer by Rothko within large size paintings. She wanted that this non-narrative accumulation of flesh pushes art to offer to the viewer a tactile sensation and an illusion of smell. Shift also follows the experiences by De Kooning on the expression of a woman's body through an abstract technique.
By bringing in Sensation all the darings of which some can still now be considered as socially unacceptable, Saatchi has restarted an interest of the public in contemporary art while simultaneously promoting 42 Young British Artists including Damien Hirst and Chris Ofili. 300,000 persons visited that exhibition. It is to the credit of the Royal Academy for hosting this event despite the obvious risk of scandal and of violent reaction.
Shift, oil on canvas 330 x 330 cm dated 1996-1997, is estimated £ 1.5M for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 28, lot 25.
1999 Suddenly Last Summer by Cecily Brown
2018 SOLD for $ 6.8M by Sotheby's
Link to catalogue.
1999 Spree by Cecily Brown
2021 SOLD for $ 6.6M by Sotheby's
Link to lot 112.
2002 Bend Sinister by Cecily Brown
2021 SOLD for $ 6.4M by Sotheby's
Link to lot 113.
2006-2008 The Festival of Yesteryear
2020 SOLD for £ 4.9M including premium
Cecily Brown observes that painting has not fundamentally changed since the Renaissance : with oil colors on a canvas, artists express feelings and passions. Released by her growing fame from a sort of obligation to offer sexual scenes, she turns to the great masters of the past.
She feels affinities with the abounding style of Bosch and Bruegel. She has also interpreted Michelangelo and loves Titian and Delacroix.
Thus the Battle between Carnival and Lent, oil on wood 118 x 165 cm painted by Bruegel in 1559, is only displaying a Flemish festival which stages crowds of variegated characters in picturesque and obsolete occupations, and nobody cares any more about the moralizing purposes of yesteryear.
On July 10 in London, Christie's sells Carnival and Lent, oil on linen 246 x 262 cm painted by Cecily Brown in 2006-2008, lot 45 estimated £ 4M.
The artist obviously took great pleasure in this work. She copied the circular suite of characters of the two groups from a plunging perspective. Some details including heads emerge from her signature abstract luxuriance. The color balance is also inspired by the original.
A "real" Carnival and Lent, oil on canvas 119 x 171 cm painted by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, was sold for £ 6.9M including premium by Christie's on December 6, 2011. Who will win the auction battle between the Ancients and the Moderns ?
She feels affinities with the abounding style of Bosch and Bruegel. She has also interpreted Michelangelo and loves Titian and Delacroix.
Thus the Battle between Carnival and Lent, oil on wood 118 x 165 cm painted by Bruegel in 1559, is only displaying a Flemish festival which stages crowds of variegated characters in picturesque and obsolete occupations, and nobody cares any more about the moralizing purposes of yesteryear.
On July 10 in London, Christie's sells Carnival and Lent, oil on linen 246 x 262 cm painted by Cecily Brown in 2006-2008, lot 45 estimated £ 4M.
The artist obviously took great pleasure in this work. She copied the circular suite of characters of the two groups from a plunging perspective. Some details including heads emerge from her signature abstract luxuriance. The color balance is also inspired by the original.
A "real" Carnival and Lent, oil on canvas 119 x 171 cm painted by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, was sold for £ 6.9M including premium by Christie's on December 6, 2011. Who will win the auction battle between the Ancients and the Moderns ?
2010 Pumpkin by Yayoi Kusama
2019 SOLD for HK$ 54M including premium by Sotheby's
2013 Pumpkin by Yayoi Kusama
2021 SOLD for HK$ 63M by Christie's
Link to lot 62.
2017 Elevator by Dana Schutz
2020 SOLD for HK$ 50M including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2021
Dana Schutz lives in Brooklyn. She observes the apocalypse of the contemporary world, overcrowded like the metro at rush hour. Her characters are capable of brute acts, from brawl to self-harm.
Her vision is political. Trump descending an escalator, oil on canvas 224 x 190 cm painted in 2017, was sold for £ 690K including premium by Phillips on October 20, 2020, lot 7. Recently elected as President of the United States at that time, the character seen from front is out of balance and his tiny hands will not help him avoid the fall.
In the same year, Open Casket caused a scandal. Its theme is the corpse of a black teenager lynched in Mississippi in 1955. This event happened twenty years before the artist's birth, but the sensitivity remains keen. Dana Schutz, a white artist, was accused of commercial recuperation by African-American activists.
In 2015 a solo exhibition was held at the Petzel Gallery under the title Fight in an Elevator. An oil on canvas 345 x 430 cm painted in 2017, more simply titled Elevator, was sold by Christie's on December 2, 2020 for HK $ 50M including premium from a lower estimate of HK $ 15M, lot 11.
The view is structured by two oblique lines which separate the vividly colored claustrophobic chaos from its insignificant exteriors. The angle of these lines gives the impression of an upward movement. Almost all humanoids are packaged. The foreground is infested with various insects.
Her vision is political. Trump descending an escalator, oil on canvas 224 x 190 cm painted in 2017, was sold for £ 690K including premium by Phillips on October 20, 2020, lot 7. Recently elected as President of the United States at that time, the character seen from front is out of balance and his tiny hands will not help him avoid the fall.
In the same year, Open Casket caused a scandal. Its theme is the corpse of a black teenager lynched in Mississippi in 1955. This event happened twenty years before the artist's birth, but the sensitivity remains keen. Dana Schutz, a white artist, was accused of commercial recuperation by African-American activists.
In 2015 a solo exhibition was held at the Petzel Gallery under the title Fight in an Elevator. An oil on canvas 345 x 430 cm painted in 2017, more simply titled Elevator, was sold by Christie's on December 2, 2020 for HK $ 50M including premium from a lower estimate of HK $ 15M, lot 11.
The view is structured by two oblique lines which separate the vividly colored claustrophobic chaos from its insignificant exteriors. The angle of these lines gives the impression of an upward movement. Almost all humanoids are packaged. The foreground is infested with various insects.
2019 The Dazzling Music of Anna Hu
2019 SOLD for HK$ 45M including premium
In the last century, Cartier had understood that a gemstone must be assembled in an environment that highlights it. Contemporary designers have a similar approach.
Born in Taiwan and working in New York, Anna Hu has a global vision of art and its history. She had to give up a cellist career because of an accident, and brings to her jewelry creations an intense musical inspiration. A brooch named Côte d'Azur was sold for CHF 4.2M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2013 over a lower estimate of CHF 2.35M.
In a coordinated operation with Sotheby's, Anna Hu created five new jewels which will be sold individually in Hong Kong on October 7. She introduces these works and her art in the video shared by the auction house.
The most important piece in terms of carats is the Dunhuang Pipa Necklace, lot 1713 estimated HK $ 40M. It is built around a fancy intense yellow diamond, internally flawless, weighing 100.02 carats. The diamond is an almost rectangular cushion centered on a bed of small white diamonds that takes the shape of a traditional Chinese lute. The necklace of diamonds is detachable, allowing the use of the pipa as a brooch or an earring.
A fancy intense yellow cannot reach the $ 200K per carat of a flawless fancy vivid yellow. A fancy intense yellow of perfect clarity weighing 43.51 carats was sold for $ 2.85M including premium, $ 66K per carat, on September 8, 2011 in Cleveland at a police auction. It had been seized to a gangster who had enjoyed its saturated canary color.
Born in Taiwan and working in New York, Anna Hu has a global vision of art and its history. She had to give up a cellist career because of an accident, and brings to her jewelry creations an intense musical inspiration. A brooch named Côte d'Azur was sold for CHF 4.2M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2013 over a lower estimate of CHF 2.35M.
In a coordinated operation with Sotheby's, Anna Hu created five new jewels which will be sold individually in Hong Kong on October 7. She introduces these works and her art in the video shared by the auction house.
The most important piece in terms of carats is the Dunhuang Pipa Necklace, lot 1713 estimated HK $ 40M. It is built around a fancy intense yellow diamond, internally flawless, weighing 100.02 carats. The diamond is an almost rectangular cushion centered on a bed of small white diamonds that takes the shape of a traditional Chinese lute. The necklace of diamonds is detachable, allowing the use of the pipa as a brooch or an earring.
A fancy intense yellow cannot reach the $ 200K per carat of a flawless fancy vivid yellow. A fancy intense yellow of perfect clarity weighing 43.51 carats was sold for $ 2.85M including premium, $ 66K per carat, on September 8, 2011 in Cleveland at a police auction. It had been seized to a gangster who had enjoyed its saturated canary color.
