Current Art by Women (page in reconstruction)
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.
MARTIN
1
1999-2000
2022 SOLD for $ 6.1M by Christie's
A deteriorating health caused Agnes Martin to move to an assisted living facility in Taos in 1993, aged 81.
Restarting her experiments with faint colors, she was able to bring a deep impression of peace and happiness in her fully abstract paintings while maintaining her signature style of regular horizontal stripes drawn with the imperfections of hand application.
The uneven surface of a gesso ground imbues the paint with a unique spatial depth and luminosity. When her thinned acrylic is applied to the chalky white primer, the colors both absorb and reflect the light in an increased radiance, seeming to emit light from within.
She said : “The value of art is in the observer. When you find out what you like, you’re really finding out about yourself. Beethoven’s music is joyous. If you like his music, you know that you like to be joyful. People who look at my painting say that it makes them happy, like the feeling when you wake up in the morning. And happiness is the goal, isn’t it?”
She also said : "I want people, when they look at my paintings, to have the same feelings they experience when they look at a landscape so I never protest when they say my work is like a landscape. But it’s really about a feeling of beauty and freedom, that you experience in a landscape”.
An Untitled acrylic and graphite on canvas 152 x 152 cm painted ca 1999-2000 was made of broad diaphanous stripes, only discernable in close up inspection. For example, an innovative reddy-pink hue is created by mixing a blend of pink with a tinge of warmer orange.
It was sold for £ 2.84M by Sotheby's on October 15, 2015, lot 7 and for $ 6.1M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 18 in the sale of the Paul G. Allen collection.
Restarting her experiments with faint colors, she was able to bring a deep impression of peace and happiness in her fully abstract paintings while maintaining her signature style of regular horizontal stripes drawn with the imperfections of hand application.
The uneven surface of a gesso ground imbues the paint with a unique spatial depth and luminosity. When her thinned acrylic is applied to the chalky white primer, the colors both absorb and reflect the light in an increased radiance, seeming to emit light from within.
She said : “The value of art is in the observer. When you find out what you like, you’re really finding out about yourself. Beethoven’s music is joyous. If you like his music, you know that you like to be joyful. People who look at my painting say that it makes them happy, like the feeling when you wake up in the morning. And happiness is the goal, isn’t it?”
She also said : "I want people, when they look at my paintings, to have the same feelings they experience when they look at a landscape so I never protest when they say my work is like a landscape. But it’s really about a feeling of beauty and freedom, that you experience in a landscape”.
An Untitled acrylic and graphite on canvas 152 x 152 cm painted ca 1999-2000 was made of broad diaphanous stripes, only discernable in close up inspection. For example, an innovative reddy-pink hue is created by mixing a blend of pink with a tinge of warmer orange.
It was sold for £ 2.84M by Sotheby's on October 15, 2015, lot 7 and for $ 6.1M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 18 in the sale of the Paul G. Allen collection.
2
2001 Early Morning Happiness
2022 SOLD for $ 9.9M by Sotheby's
Agnes Martin never got rid of her creative meditation. In her old age, she manages to reach the deep meaning of nature and light through the merging of rich pale colors, without taking any care to the lines of a landscape. Her personal approach to Zen had for long cancelled the objects.
An acrylic on canvas 152 x 152 cm painted in 2001, joyfully titled Early Morning Happiness, was sold for $ 9.9M from a lower estimate of $ 2.5M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2022, lot 3. The use of a title describing her emotion is a rare come back to her early practice.
This opus is made of parallel horizontal bands alternating the pale yellow and clear blue of sand and sky in the New Mexico desert at dawn, painted on a luminescent white gesso ground. The supporting graphite lines are voluntarily imperfect.
Aged 89 at that time, she is a rare example of an artist who had been able to make the very long journey from mental disorder to a joyfully shared contemplative serenity. In her own words, happiness is the goal. The musical example is Beethoven.
An Untitled painted in 2003 in same technique and size in yellow, blue and rocky red was sold for $ 4.7M by Christie's on November 15, 2017, lot 14 B.
An acrylic on canvas 152 x 152 cm painted in 2001, joyfully titled Early Morning Happiness, was sold for $ 9.9M from a lower estimate of $ 2.5M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2022, lot 3. The use of a title describing her emotion is a rare come back to her early practice.
This opus is made of parallel horizontal bands alternating the pale yellow and clear blue of sand and sky in the New Mexico desert at dawn, painted on a luminescent white gesso ground. The supporting graphite lines are voluntarily imperfect.
Aged 89 at that time, she is a rare example of an artist who had been able to make the very long journey from mental disorder to a joyfully shared contemplative serenity. In her own words, happiness is the goal. The musical example is Beethoven.
An Untitled painted in 2003 in same technique and size in yellow, blue and rocky red was sold for $ 4.7M by Christie's on November 15, 2017, lot 14 B.
2002 Bend Sinister by Cecily Brown
2021 SOLD for $ 6.4M by Sotheby's
Link to lot 113.
2006 Infinity Nets by Yayoi Kusama
2022 SOLD for HK$ 53M by Christie's
After 14 years of overwork in New York Yayoi Kusama 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.
The artist never parted from her obsession. Nevertheless the achromatic Infinity Net (T.W.A.), acrylic on canvas 194 x 260 cm painted in 2000, provides an impression of appeasement with its clouds and flakes of differing grey hues based on a single intricate brushstroke circling dots throughout the surface. The repeated tiny gesture with the brush does not imply an instant view of the desired global infinity, providing the mirage of the clouds.
This T.W.A. opus was sold for $ 4.1M by Christie's on November 10, 2022, lot 105.
She continues in a similar style. The triptych Infinity Nets (TWHOQ), acrylic on canvas 194 x 390 cm overall, was painted in 2006 in gold loops around vermilion dots, a combination that may evoke the warmth of the sun..
This TWHOQ opus was sold for HK $ 53M from a lower estimate of HK $ 28M by Christie's on November 30, 2022, lot 18.
The artist never parted from her obsession. Nevertheless the achromatic Infinity Net (T.W.A.), acrylic on canvas 194 x 260 cm painted in 2000, provides an impression of appeasement with its clouds and flakes of differing grey hues based on a single intricate brushstroke circling dots throughout the surface. The repeated tiny gesture with the brush does not imply an instant view of the desired global infinity, providing the mirage of the clouds.
This T.W.A. opus was sold for $ 4.1M by Christie's on November 10, 2022, lot 105.
She continues in a similar style. The triptych Infinity Nets (TWHOQ), acrylic on canvas 194 x 390 cm overall, was painted in 2006 in gold loops around vermilion dots, a combination that may evoke the warmth of the sun..
This TWHOQ opus was sold for HK $ 53M from a lower estimate of HK $ 28M by Christie's on November 30, 2022, lot 18.
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 ?
Pumpkin by Yayoi KUSAMA
Intro
The pumpkin became a major element of Yayoi Kusama's hallucinations in her childhood. Visiting a harvesting ground with her grandfather, she noticed a specimen on the size of a human head. The vegetable then began to speak to her friendly, counterbalancing the nasty flowers and dogs of her visions. The pumpkin provides a feeling of abundance and joy, enabling to cancel her desire of self obliteration.
She featured it repetitively from the 1990s as a support to reach a peaceful infinity. The vegetable painted in its natural golden orange on canvases and sculptures appealed to the public. They were decorated with tight patterns of her signature polka dots.
At the Venice biennale in 1993 she exhibited her pumpkin sculptures in a mirror walled room while immersing herself on live amidst the infinity of the vegetables in a polka dotted attire of the same colors. This happening restarted her career after two decades of oblivion. From then the pumpkin, which does not have the abstract austerity of nets and curtains, became her inseparable alter ego.
A similar mirror room of pumpkins had been exhibited in 1991 in a Japanese museum.
She featured it repetitively from the 1990s as a support to reach a peaceful infinity. The vegetable painted in its natural golden orange on canvases and sculptures appealed to the public. They were decorated with tight patterns of her signature polka dots.
At the Venice biennale in 1993 she exhibited her pumpkin sculptures in a mirror walled room while immersing herself on live amidst the infinity of the vegetables in a polka dotted attire of the same colors. This happening restarted her career after two decades of oblivion. From then the pumpkin, which does not have the abstract austerity of nets and curtains, became her inseparable alter ego.
A similar mirror room of pumpkins had been exhibited in 1991 in a Japanese museum.
1
2010 acrylic on canvas TWPOT
2019 SOLD for HK$ 54M by Sotheby's
The Pumpkin reference TWPOT is an acrylic on canvas 130 x 162 cm painted in 2010. The background is an infinite pattern knotted like a fishing net in yellow lines over black.
It was sold for HK $ 54M from a lower estimate of HK $ 12M by Sotheby's on April 1, 2019, lot 1138.
It was sold for HK $ 54M from a lower estimate of HK $ 12M by Sotheby's on April 1, 2019, lot 1138.
2
2013 acrylic on canvas LPASG
2021 SOLD for HK$ 63M by Christie's
The Pumpkin reference LPASG, acrylic on canvas 130 x 130 cm painted in 2013, was sold for HK $ 63M from a lower estimate of HK $ 45M by Christie's on December 1, 2021, lot 52.
Compared with the opus TWPOT narrated above, the canvas is square and the patterns of dots are tighter.
The Pumpkin reference SKLO, acrylic on canvas 130 x 162 cm painted in 2013, was sold for HK $ 51M by Christie's on May 24, 2021, lot 59.
Compared with the opus TWPOT narrated above, the canvas is square and the patterns of dots are tighter.
The Pumpkin reference SKLO, acrylic on canvas 130 x 162 cm painted in 2013, was sold for HK $ 51M by Christie's on May 24, 2021, lot 59.
3
2014 bronze
2022 SOLD for $ 6.5M by Sotheby's
The Pumpkin reference M is a bronze 187 x 187 x 182 cm edited in 2014. The number 8/8 was sold for $ 6.5M from a lower estimate of $ 3.5M by Sotheby's on November 16, 2022, lot 15.
In the style of the Op art, the polka dots are displayed in lines of decreasing sizes on each side of the vertical ribs of the pumpkin.
In the style of the Op art, the polka dots are displayed in lines of decreasing sizes on each side of the vertical ribs of the pumpkin.
4
2017 sculpture
2021 SOLD for HK$ 55M by Christie's
A Pumpkin 215 x 180 x 180 cm made in 2017 in fiberglass reinforced plastic and urethane was sold for HK $ 55M from a lower estimate of HK $ 28M by Christie's on December 1, 2021, lot 72.
Its shape and graphic style are similar to the M bronze narrated above, excepted that the grooves are empty of polka dots.
Its shape and graphic style are similar to the M bronze narrated above, excepted that the grooves are empty of polka dots.
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.
