Decade 1990-1999
See also : Women artists French sculpture Germany Richter Freud Doig UK II Lichtenstein Lichtenstein > 1965 Music and dance African diamonds Blue diamond
1990 Swamped by Doig
2021 SOLD for $ 40M by Christie's
Peter Doig applies a rich kaleidoscope of colors on large size canvases, assimilating the pictorial inputs of the top masters of his century including Klimt, Pollock and Richter, knowing to mingle figurative and abstract. Questioning and criticizing the role of humanity and its incongruous traces in nature, Doig states an admiration for Hopper.
He caught a prolific inspiration in a still from the 1980 film Friday the 13th, which turns out to have been a nightmare in the following of the story. The picture of the swamp in the moonlight just before or just after the crime already raises the question of humans physically lost within nature.
As for Monet's lily pond, the image includes both the shore and its reflection in water. The lone white empty canoe shifting on the tropical lagoon and its perfect reflection are too sparkling for their light to come only from the moon. This intense internal lighting is meaning that it is the last remaining element from some human civilization.
Swamped, oil on canvas 197 x 241 cm painted in 1990, was sold by Christie's for $ 26M on May 19, 2015, lot 5A, and for $ 40M on November 9, 2021, lot 9A.
On February 7, 2007, Sotheby's sold at lot 7 for £ 5.7M a painting of similar size dated 1990-1991 whose title White Canoe removes the hint to the movie inspiration of the series.
Relying in his own memory, Doig did not take references to other film images in his career. Having grown partly in Ontario, he was possibly also influenced in that canoe series by Tom Thomson's hallucinatory paintings in the Canadian wilderness and his mysterious death in 1917 by drowning in the so called Canoe Lake in that state.
He caught a prolific inspiration in a still from the 1980 film Friday the 13th, which turns out to have been a nightmare in the following of the story. The picture of the swamp in the moonlight just before or just after the crime already raises the question of humans physically lost within nature.
As for Monet's lily pond, the image includes both the shore and its reflection in water. The lone white empty canoe shifting on the tropical lagoon and its perfect reflection are too sparkling for their light to come only from the moon. This intense internal lighting is meaning that it is the last remaining element from some human civilization.
Swamped, oil on canvas 197 x 241 cm painted in 1990, was sold by Christie's for $ 26M on May 19, 2015, lot 5A, and for $ 40M on November 9, 2021, lot 9A.
On February 7, 2007, Sotheby's sold at lot 7 for £ 5.7M a painting of similar size dated 1990-1991 whose title White Canoe removes the hint to the movie inspiration of the series.
Relying in his own memory, Doig did not take references to other film images in his career. Having grown partly in Ontario, he was possibly also influenced in that canoe series by Tom Thomson's hallucinatory paintings in the Canadian wilderness and his mysterious death in 1917 by drowning in the so called Canoe Lake in that state.
Abstraktes Bild by RICHTER
1
1993 797-2
2021 SOLD for $ 33M by Sotheby's
Gerhard Richter admitted that the process for his abstract paintings included some unplanned effect to be offset by his ultimate inspection of his creation. In all cases, even in his sublimely chaotic and most sumptuous abstract works, chance followed a detailed preparation adapted for each opus.
The catalogue raisonné for 1993 begins with Grün Blau Rot, a series of no less than 126 oils on canvas 30 x 40 cm continuously numbered in two sub-series from 789-1 to 789-115 and from 789-a to 789-k.
This time consuming task was obviously intended to test the visual effects of detailed forms confronting three basic colors without changing the pigments. The Rot Blau Gelb of 1973, numbered 338-1 to 338-100 in rectangular format and 339-1 to 339-7 in square format, had been a similar experience.
The 1993 green blue red was immediately reused by the artist with the brushes as the background layer in seven large size square paintings. Random effects were added with the squeegee in the desired range of vibrant colors. Richter's tool has here a deconstructing role that cancels forever the intermediate states, same as the drippings for Pollock.
The importance of this process is confirmed by the fact that one of these Abstrakte Bilder was representing Richter's abstractions in the severely selected Macklowe collection. This 797-2, oil on canvas 240 x 240 cm painted in 1993, was sold for $ 33M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 22.
The catalogue raisonné for 1993 begins with Grün Blau Rot, a series of no less than 126 oils on canvas 30 x 40 cm continuously numbered in two sub-series from 789-1 to 789-115 and from 789-a to 789-k.
This time consuming task was obviously intended to test the visual effects of detailed forms confronting three basic colors without changing the pigments. The Rot Blau Gelb of 1973, numbered 338-1 to 338-100 in rectangular format and 339-1 to 339-7 in square format, had been a similar experience.
The 1993 green blue red was immediately reused by the artist with the brushes as the background layer in seven large size square paintings. Random effects were added with the squeegee in the desired range of vibrant colors. Richter's tool has here a deconstructing role that cancels forever the intermediate states, same as the drippings for Pollock.
The importance of this process is confirmed by the fact that one of these Abstrakte Bilder was representing Richter's abstractions in the severely selected Macklowe collection. This 797-2, oil on canvas 240 x 240 cm painted in 1993, was sold for $ 33M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 22.
2
1994 809-4
2022 SOLD for $ 36.5M by Christie's
The Abstraktes Bild 809-4 was sold for £ 21.3M by Sotheby's on October 12, 2012, lot 15, and for $ 36.5M by Christie's on May 10, 2022, lot 8 B.
This oil on canvas 225 x 200 cm was painted in 1994 in the period of greater maturity in the abstract art of Gerhard Richter, when his technique of squeegee was fully developed.
With always different and often subtle colors, the horizontal movement of the rake comes in opposition with large vertical streaks. However, the shock of colors is not actually geometric or cleverly dispositioned or allusive of forms. Richter renewed the abstract art without imitating Rothko, or Zao Wou-ki, or Still, and Pollock not either.
Richter's magic is to provide an impression of spontaneity in paintings extensively worked until reaching the emotion intended by the artist. The wording proposed in Sotheby's catalogue of an "exuberant cacophony" is not enough. For the balance of colors and shapes, Richter has indeed the absolute eye.
The abstract world of Richter is the chaos of current time. Musicians enjoy Richter as they enjoy Basquiat. In 2012, 809-4 had been brought to auction by Eric Clapton.
This oil on canvas 225 x 200 cm was painted in 1994 in the period of greater maturity in the abstract art of Gerhard Richter, when his technique of squeegee was fully developed.
With always different and often subtle colors, the horizontal movement of the rake comes in opposition with large vertical streaks. However, the shock of colors is not actually geometric or cleverly dispositioned or allusive of forms. Richter renewed the abstract art without imitating Rothko, or Zao Wou-ki, or Still, and Pollock not either.
Richter's magic is to provide an impression of spontaneity in paintings extensively worked until reaching the emotion intended by the artist. The wording proposed in Sotheby's catalogue of an "exuberant cacophony" is not enough. For the balance of colors and shapes, Richter has indeed the absolute eye.
The abstract world of Richter is the chaos of current time. Musicians enjoy Richter as they enjoy Basquiat. In 2012, 809-4 had been brought to auction by Eric Clapton.
Benefits Supervisor by FREUD
1
1994 Resting
2015 SOLD for $ 56M by Christie's
Relying on his knowledge of art history, Lucian Freud is not like everyone else. His considerations on others are not based on the expression of faces or attitudes but on the smallest details of entirely naked bodies, male and female, which he observes endlessly like a zoologist who has to describe a rare specimen.
Leigh Bowery has been one of his male models since 1988. Leigh is a post-punk dancer, stylist and creator of night clubs. He outrageously exhibits his homosexuality with exuberant make-up, high heels and latex body tights.
In 1990 Leigh invites Lucian to meet Sue Tilley who is benefits supervisor in an employment agency and cashier of one of his clubs in Piccadilly. Sue is 33 years old and weighs about 137 kg. She is an interesting specimen : Lucian considers that her flesh without muscle has generated an unusual texture of the skin, of which he observes all the folds and shadows. In real life her obesity is less visible because the body is held by her clothing.
The first painting had been done in 1993. Sue was lying naked on the floor. Lucian appreciates that this uncomfortable position is not conducive for achieving his goal. He will set a sofa on which Sue can now keep and retrieve a serene position. The repetitive sitting sessions occupy every Saturday and Sunday and sometimes more for several months in a row. The small precise movement of the brush follows a systematic observation of the model, without impulse or emotion, for many hours.
Freud used Sue's professional occupation as a nickname. The second painting, Benefits Supervisor resting, was executed in 1994. This oil on canvas 151 x 161 cm was sold for $ 56M from a lower estimate of $ 30M by Christie's on May 13, 2015, lot 31B. The artist has succeeded. The body is the only subject of this nude painting The folded legs accentuate the swellings. The head head thrown backwards has no other role than to ensure the stability of the attitude.
Leigh Bowery has been one of his male models since 1988. Leigh is a post-punk dancer, stylist and creator of night clubs. He outrageously exhibits his homosexuality with exuberant make-up, high heels and latex body tights.
In 1990 Leigh invites Lucian to meet Sue Tilley who is benefits supervisor in an employment agency and cashier of one of his clubs in Piccadilly. Sue is 33 years old and weighs about 137 kg. She is an interesting specimen : Lucian considers that her flesh without muscle has generated an unusual texture of the skin, of which he observes all the folds and shadows. In real life her obesity is less visible because the body is held by her clothing.
The first painting had been done in 1993. Sue was lying naked on the floor. Lucian appreciates that this uncomfortable position is not conducive for achieving his goal. He will set a sofa on which Sue can now keep and retrieve a serene position. The repetitive sitting sessions occupy every Saturday and Sunday and sometimes more for several months in a row. The small precise movement of the brush follows a systematic observation of the model, without impulse or emotion, for many hours.
Freud used Sue's professional occupation as a nickname. The second painting, Benefits Supervisor resting, was executed in 1994. This oil on canvas 151 x 161 cm was sold for $ 56M from a lower estimate of $ 30M by Christie's on May 13, 2015, lot 31B. The artist has succeeded. The body is the only subject of this nude painting The folded legs accentuate the swellings. The head head thrown backwards has no other role than to ensure the stability of the attitude.
2
1995 Sleeping
2008 SOLD for $ 33.6M by Christie's
Benefits Supervisor sleeping, oil on canvas 151 x 219 cm painted in 1995, was sold for $ 33.6M by Christie's on May 13, 2008, lot 37.
The body is reclining on the sofa with an acceptable head position on a cushion, probably at the request of the model, bringing a better impression of quiet intimacy. Please watch Christie's interview with Sue Tilley beside this painting before the sale.
Leigh Bowery had died of AIDS in December 1994. Sue Tilley will publish a biography of him in 1997.
The body is reclining on the sofa with an acceptable head position on a cushion, probably at the request of the model, bringing a better impression of quiet intimacy. Please watch Christie's interview with Sue Tilley beside this painting before the sale.
Leigh Bowery had died of AIDS in December 1994. Sue Tilley will publish a biography of him in 1997.
1994 Intimate Music
2020 SOLD for $ 46M including premium
Roy Lichtenstein appropriates images edited or painted by others. By transforming them, he brings another meaning that can be the opposite. The enlargement from a comic maintains the simplicity of the lines which was important for the legibility of the tiny original. He reaches the basics of art, without verbiage and without losing his humor.
Roy also offers his vision of art history. He likes the pure lines of the naked bodies in La Danse by Matisse. Painted in 1974, Artist's Studio - The Dance exhibits that masterpiece of the other artist on the back wall, behind a big mess. On the right side, a truncated image shows some musical notes on a stave.
In 1994 Roy restarts one of his signature themes : the young woman copied from a comic panel, colored with dots that mimic printing patterns. Henceforth the woman is nude, sometimes in the presence of another naked woman, never with a man.
On July 10 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 58 Nude with Joyous Painting, oil and acrylic 178 x 135 cm painted in 1994. The press release of May 15 announces an estimate in the region of $ 30M. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In the comic book, the pretty blonde had a love sorrow. Now she is naked and the explanatory text is no longer available : she is simply waiting for something undefined which is probably not a partner. She may be finishing her washing after putting a headband.
The joyous painting announced by the title is the image of a musical stave in volutes, as in the pastiche of La Danse. This musical symbol brings a nice atmosphere of innocent intimacy.
Roy also offers his vision of art history. He likes the pure lines of the naked bodies in La Danse by Matisse. Painted in 1974, Artist's Studio - The Dance exhibits that masterpiece of the other artist on the back wall, behind a big mess. On the right side, a truncated image shows some musical notes on a stave.
In 1994 Roy restarts one of his signature themes : the young woman copied from a comic panel, colored with dots that mimic printing patterns. Henceforth the woman is nude, sometimes in the presence of another naked woman, never with a man.
On July 10 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 58 Nude with Joyous Painting, oil and acrylic 178 x 135 cm painted in 1994. The press release of May 15 announces an estimate in the region of $ 30M. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In the comic book, the pretty blonde had a love sorrow. Now she is naked and the explanatory text is no longer available : she is simply waiting for something undefined which is probably not a partner. She may be finishing her washing after putting a headband.
The joyous painting announced by the title is the image of a musical stave in volutes, as in the pastiche of La Danse. This musical symbol brings a nice atmosphere of innocent intimacy.
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 and repair its web. It disturbs us and has no face, and we interpret it as a threat. This is unfair : the spider protects our health by catching and eating the mosquitoes.
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 who had died six decades earlier. 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. Louise's mother was indeed a weaver, like a spider.
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 and repair its web. It disturbs us and has no face, and we interpret it as a threat. This is unfair : the spider protects our health by catching and eating the mosquitoes.
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 who had died six decades earlier. 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. Louise's mother was indeed a weaver, like a spider.
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
2023 SOLD for $ 33M by Sotheby's
Largest Bourgeois's spiders have a remarkable feature : this figurative sculpture can be viewed from inside by a tall standing person. He or she admires its graceful arches. An abstract precedent was with Calder's monumental stabiles.
A Spider 340 x 670 x 630 cm was cast in bronze in six copies. Its artist's proof is in steel. One of the eight leg's ends is curved as to catch a prey.
The number 1/6 was cast in January 1996. and immediately exhibited in a San Francisco gallery. It was sold for $ 33M by Sotheby's on May 18, 2023, lot 105. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
A Spider 340 x 670 x 630 cm was cast in bronze in six copies. Its artist's proof is in steel. One of the eight leg's ends is curved as to catch a prey.
The number 1/6 was cast in January 1996. and immediately exhibited in a San Francisco gallery. It was sold for $ 33M by Sotheby's on May 18, 2023, lot 105. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
2
1997 Spider by Bourgeois
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.
1996 A Nice Blonde with the Old Roy
2013 SOLD 31.5 M$ including premium
In 1993, when Roy Lichtenstein focuses on the female nude, he actually starts two different lines of images. In one of them, the woman is nude in her apartment, busy in her daily activities. The other set shows her in bust, centered in a bold close-up composition where the frame is cutting hair, arms and lower breast.
Same as Munch, Lichtenstein is a great picture maker who prepares prints. Prints from his later career, after almost twenty years, regularly appear on the market. A printed copy of the 1994 nude with blue hair, 130 x 80 cm, was sold for $ 320K including premium by Christie's on October 30, 2013.
The paintings on this theme are still rare at auction. A Seductive Girl painted on canvas in 1996, 127 x 183 cm, is estimated $ 22M , for sale by Christie's in New York on November 12.
This pretty blonde on her bed is a sister of the young women painted by Roy thirty years earlier after copying images in the comic books. Her texture is also composed of colored dots more or less densely arranged for bringing the perspective.
Unlike her former friends, she is naked. As usual with Roy, this modern young woman establishes a communication with the viewer, but for once she is not troubled but troubling. She gently seduces the old Roy.
This creative impulse was unfortunately stopped in the following year by the sudden death of Roy, aged 74.
POST SALE COMMENT
This great example of creativity at the end of Lichtenstein's career was sold for $ 31.5 million including premium.
Same as Munch, Lichtenstein is a great picture maker who prepares prints. Prints from his later career, after almost twenty years, regularly appear on the market. A printed copy of the 1994 nude with blue hair, 130 x 80 cm, was sold for $ 320K including premium by Christie's on October 30, 2013.
The paintings on this theme are still rare at auction. A Seductive Girl painted on canvas in 1996, 127 x 183 cm, is estimated $ 22M , for sale by Christie's in New York on November 12.
This pretty blonde on her bed is a sister of the young women painted by Roy thirty years earlier after copying images in the comic books. Her texture is also composed of colored dots more or less densely arranged for bringing the perspective.
Unlike her former friends, she is naked. As usual with Roy, this modern young woman establishes a communication with the viewer, but for once she is not troubled but troubling. She gently seduces the old Roy.
This creative impulse was unfortunately stopped in the following year by the sudden death of Roy, aged 74.
POST SALE COMMENT
This great example of creativity at the end of Lichtenstein's career was sold for $ 31.5 million including premium.
1999 A Fistful of Blue Diamonds
2016 SOLD for HK$ 250M including premium
De Beers exhibited their finest diamonds at the Millennium Dome in London throughout the year 2000. The Millennium Star is an astonishing white diamond weighing 203.04 carats. Facing it in the cabinet, eleven blue diamonds are totaling 118 carats. All these wonders had been extracted from the Cullinan mine.
One of these blue diamonds was oval cut. Weighing 10.10 carats, it is not the largest of the eleven but it is indeed the most spectacular. It was certified Fancy Vivid Blue Flawless in 1999 by GIA with the designation De Beers Millennium Jewel 4. Mounted on a ring in a surrounding of small white diamonds, it is estimated HK $ 235M for sale by Sotheby's in Hong Kong on April 5, lot 1843.
This unprecedented treasure insured altogether for £ 350M excited high appetites during the show at the Dome. On November 7, 2000, a commando of four equipped with a ten ton earth digger, sledgehammers, smoke bombs, gas masks and bulletproof vests come into the Dome, ready to celebrate the new millennium with the biggest heist ever.
The gang was under surveillance and 200 police officers had been mobilized. The head of the counter operation had decided to let the robbers go up to the showcase window for security reasons because arrests are easier in a closed room.
I invite you to watch the short video shared by Sotheby's to announce the sale of Jewel 4.
One of these blue diamonds was oval cut. Weighing 10.10 carats, it is not the largest of the eleven but it is indeed the most spectacular. It was certified Fancy Vivid Blue Flawless in 1999 by GIA with the designation De Beers Millennium Jewel 4. Mounted on a ring in a surrounding of small white diamonds, it is estimated HK $ 235M for sale by Sotheby's in Hong Kong on April 5, lot 1843.
This unprecedented treasure insured altogether for £ 350M excited high appetites during the show at the Dome. On November 7, 2000, a commando of four equipped with a ten ton earth digger, sledgehammers, smoke bombs, gas masks and bulletproof vests come into the Dome, ready to celebrate the new millennium with the biggest heist ever.
The gang was under surveillance and 200 police officers had been mobilized. The head of the counter operation had decided to let the robbers go up to the showcase window for security reasons because arrests are easier in a closed room.
I invite you to watch the short video shared by Sotheby's to announce the sale of Jewel 4.
