Decade 2000-2009
See also : Jewels Pink diamond Africa Freud Sculpture Koons Twombly Modern Italian art Tabletop and still life Animals USA II UK II New Chinese painting British Royals
2000 Celebration and Joy with Jeff Koons
2013 SOLD 58 M$ including premium
The series of the "Celebrations" was designed by Jeff Koons in 1994. The first themes, in five monochrome sculptures each made in a different color, cover universal symbols. Their monumental size invites to exhibition in prestigious locations. The perfect mirror of the surface is a technical feat.
Two specimens of the Balloon Flower were auctioned : £ 12.9 million including premium for the magenta by Christie's on 30 June 2008, $ 16.9 million including premium for the blue on 10 November 2010 also by Christie's.
Same as for the Balloon Flower, the Balloon Dog is an assembly of rounded shapes that reflect their environment in all directions. Looking more like a toy than like the animal that could serve as a model, it appears as a symbol of happy childhood. The bright orange specimen is joyful.
Koons also wanted this series to be a break from traditional art and designated his Balloon Dog as a Trojan horse. Almost twenty years later, the prestige of the series shows that he was right.
Balloon Dog (Orange) is estimated $ 35M for sale by Christie 's in New York on November 12. Measuring 307 x 363 x 114 cm, this sculpture was completed in 2000.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This remarkably cheerful artwork was introduced by Christie's as an icon of contemporary art. It was sold for $ 58M including premium.
Two specimens of the Balloon Flower were auctioned : £ 12.9 million including premium for the magenta by Christie's on 30 June 2008, $ 16.9 million including premium for the blue on 10 November 2010 also by Christie's.
Same as for the Balloon Flower, the Balloon Dog is an assembly of rounded shapes that reflect their environment in all directions. Looking more like a toy than like the animal that could serve as a model, it appears as a symbol of happy childhood. The bright orange specimen is joyful.
Koons also wanted this series to be a break from traditional art and designated his Balloon Dog as a Trojan horse. Almost twenty years later, the prestige of the series shows that he was right.
Balloon Dog (Orange) is estimated $ 35M for sale by Christie 's in New York on November 12. Measuring 307 x 363 x 114 cm, this sculpture was completed in 2000.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This remarkably cheerful artwork was introduced by Christie's as an icon of contemporary art. It was sold for $ 58M including premium.
2000 Jeff Koons loves Flowers
2008 SOLD 12.9 M£ including premium
Jeff Koons loves flowers. I am not the only one to say it, this opinion is also available in the catalogue of Christie's, at the number 12 from the sale of June 30 in London. Accordingly, the artist expressed this view in 2003: "I have always enjoyed flowers."
Coming from a private collection of Dallas, here is a Balloon Flower (Magenta), dated 1995-2000, of towering dimensions (340 x 285 x 260 cm). The photo in the catalog shows this thing simply laying on water in a park. The work is currently visible in St. James's Square, until the day before the sale.
Jeff Koons does not enjoy flowers only. He also enjoys that his main works display symbolic forms unequivocally recognizable by fans of all countries. He certainly also loves money, and everyone knows that monumental works reach the highest prices by far. These are indeed even higher when their colors are bright to be violent, and when their surface is shiny.
He performs this type of work in several copies, each in a different single color.
On 14 November last year, Sotheby's has sold for $ 23.5 million fees included a Hanging Heart Magenta / Gold, a work of 296 x 216 x 102 cm executed in five versions and dated 1994-2006 in chromium stainless steel covered with a transparent colored coating. Despite its huge dimensions, that heart is designed to be hanged, and it is this lightness of a monster that had been admired by specialists of Sotheby's, in a remarkable video that preceded the sale. The heart is decorated with gilded brass knots that look a bit like a gift package. As a coincidence, Balloon Flower is made of similar materials and also in five colors.
The day before, November 13, 2007, Christie's had sold for $ 11.8 million fees included a Diamond (Blue) of similar dates and materials, measuring 198 x 220 x 220 cm.
Unless a violent speculative effect, our Balloon Flower, static and less embellished, will not reach the price of Hanging Heart. The catalogue does not provide estimate, but it was sufficient to open the press release of June 10 to know that it is expected in the region of £ 12 million. We may find curious that this work of an American artist belonging to an American owner comes in London for being sold. I am told that London is closer to the Russian buyers than New York.
Christie's has provided a guarantee to the seller.
POST SALE COMMENT
Those who say that the market for contemporary art is unpredictable are wrong. Our Balloon Flower was sold £ 12.9 million charge included. This result is extremely close to the confidential estimate that I had the pleasure to tell you!
There is a much more interesting fact: Christie's says that this price is $ 25.6 million. In the 10% range, this price is the same as the Hanging Heart. I had shown above that these two works had many common features.
Coming from a private collection of Dallas, here is a Balloon Flower (Magenta), dated 1995-2000, of towering dimensions (340 x 285 x 260 cm). The photo in the catalog shows this thing simply laying on water in a park. The work is currently visible in St. James's Square, until the day before the sale.
Jeff Koons does not enjoy flowers only. He also enjoys that his main works display symbolic forms unequivocally recognizable by fans of all countries. He certainly also loves money, and everyone knows that monumental works reach the highest prices by far. These are indeed even higher when their colors are bright to be violent, and when their surface is shiny.
He performs this type of work in several copies, each in a different single color.
On 14 November last year, Sotheby's has sold for $ 23.5 million fees included a Hanging Heart Magenta / Gold, a work of 296 x 216 x 102 cm executed in five versions and dated 1994-2006 in chromium stainless steel covered with a transparent colored coating. Despite its huge dimensions, that heart is designed to be hanged, and it is this lightness of a monster that had been admired by specialists of Sotheby's, in a remarkable video that preceded the sale. The heart is decorated with gilded brass knots that look a bit like a gift package. As a coincidence, Balloon Flower is made of similar materials and also in five colors.
The day before, November 13, 2007, Christie's had sold for $ 11.8 million fees included a Diamond (Blue) of similar dates and materials, measuring 198 x 220 x 220 cm.
Unless a violent speculative effect, our Balloon Flower, static and less embellished, will not reach the price of Hanging Heart. The catalogue does not provide estimate, but it was sufficient to open the press release of June 10 to know that it is expected in the region of £ 12 million. We may find curious that this work of an American artist belonging to an American owner comes in London for being sold. I am told that London is closer to the Russian buyers than New York.
Christie's has provided a guarantee to the seller.
POST SALE COMMENT
Those who say that the market for contemporary art is unpredictable are wrong. Our Balloon Flower was sold £ 12.9 million charge included. This result is extremely close to the confidential estimate that I had the pleasure to tell you!
There is a much more interesting fact: Christie's says that this price is $ 25.6 million. In the 10% range, this price is the same as the Hanging Heart. I had shown above that these two works had many common features.
2001 The Traitor with the Yellow Tie
2013 SOLD 180 MHK$ including premium
The mask in the series of paintings by Zeng Fanzhi is used to express what is artificial in the integration of young Chinese into globalization.
The mask is worn by a single character or by all characters in a group. In the latter case, the political message of the artist becomes stronger and more readable.
On 24 May 2008, Christie's sold HK $ 75M including premium Mask Series 1996 No. 6, oil on canvas 200 x 360 cm. Eight Chinese are aligned and facing the viewer as happy members of a winning sports team. The smile is an effect brought by the mask, but the red scarf recalls the harsh realities of their social condition.
On October 5 in Hong Kong, Sotheby's sells The Last Supper. This oil on canvas was painted in 2001 in large format, 220 x 400 cm. This is in some way the political and artistic culmination of the entire Mask series, and the auction house expects more than HK $ 80M. The artwork comes from the Ullens collection. It is illustrated on the release shared by ArtDaily.
It is a remake of Leonardo's Last Supper. Behind the masks, the thirteen characters are young Chinese, still recognizable by their red scarves. The traitor has no scarf but a golden tie. He has already decided to imitate the West and sell himself to capitalists.
The next step could be a question: who is right between the twelve traditionalists and the traitor, regarding the development of contemporary Chinese civilization?
POST SALE COMMENT
Introduced as the culmination of the first part of Zeng's career, this painting was sold for HK $ 180M including premium.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
The mask is worn by a single character or by all characters in a group. In the latter case, the political message of the artist becomes stronger and more readable.
On 24 May 2008, Christie's sold HK $ 75M including premium Mask Series 1996 No. 6, oil on canvas 200 x 360 cm. Eight Chinese are aligned and facing the viewer as happy members of a winning sports team. The smile is an effect brought by the mask, but the red scarf recalls the harsh realities of their social condition.
On October 5 in Hong Kong, Sotheby's sells The Last Supper. This oil on canvas was painted in 2001 in large format, 220 x 400 cm. This is in some way the political and artistic culmination of the entire Mask series, and the auction house expects more than HK $ 80M. The artwork comes from the Ullens collection. It is illustrated on the release shared by ArtDaily.
It is a remake of Leonardo's Last Supper. Behind the masks, the thirteen characters are young Chinese, still recognizable by their red scarves. The traitor has no scarf but a golden tie. He has already decided to imitate the West and sell himself to capitalists.
The next step could be a question: who is right between the twelve traditionalists and the traitor, regarding the development of contemporary Chinese civilization?
POST SALE COMMENT
Introduced as the culmination of the first part of Zeng's career, this painting was sold for HK $ 180M including premium.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
2001 Him Again !
2016 SOLD for $ 17.2M including premium
Maurizio Cattelan has no lack of humor when he shows his statuettes in unlikely situations. The public enjoys his child-sized self-portraits. He is also a social activist, fervently denouncing the hypocrisies.
His mockery of Catholicism comes in the following of the crucified frogs of Kippenberger. In 1999, he exhibited a life-size figure of Pope John Paul II crushed by a meteorite. The title, La Nona Ora, is a direct reference to the theology of Christ's death.
His most provocative work is Him, edited in 2001 in three units plus an artist's proof in wax, human hair, suit, polyester and pigments.
The kneeling character in a position of prayer has the size of a child but wears the gray suit of an adult in the outdated fashion of the 1930s. It is displayed for being at first viewed from behind. When reaching the front side, we recognize the figure of Hitler with his signature forelock and mustache. The viewer who had been tempted to laugh is now caught with the memory of the horrors of Nazism, which remains for many a taboo subject despite so many years.
The statements made by Cattelan unambiguously confirm that Him is an alert and not an apology. The attitude of this small Hitler looking like a penitent of Canossa does not eliminate the danger of racism and totalitarianism. For 15 years, Him has been widely viewed and discussed. The success of an exhibition in 2013 in the former Warsaw ghetto further indicates that this work must be perceived as a poignant request for peace.
The artist's proof is estimated $ 10M, for sale by Christie's in New York on May 8, lot 39 A. The essay of the catalog is significantly signed by a rabbi. The video shared by Christie's follows the correct way to show the work to reveal only at the ultimate moment the unsustainable and yet terribly current message.
His mockery of Catholicism comes in the following of the crucified frogs of Kippenberger. In 1999, he exhibited a life-size figure of Pope John Paul II crushed by a meteorite. The title, La Nona Ora, is a direct reference to the theology of Christ's death.
His most provocative work is Him, edited in 2001 in three units plus an artist's proof in wax, human hair, suit, polyester and pigments.
The kneeling character in a position of prayer has the size of a child but wears the gray suit of an adult in the outdated fashion of the 1930s. It is displayed for being at first viewed from behind. When reaching the front side, we recognize the figure of Hitler with his signature forelock and mustache. The viewer who had been tempted to laugh is now caught with the memory of the horrors of Nazism, which remains for many a taboo subject despite so many years.
The statements made by Cattelan unambiguously confirm that Him is an alert and not an apology. The attitude of this small Hitler looking like a penitent of Canossa does not eliminate the danger of racism and totalitarianism. For 15 years, Him has been widely viewed and discussed. The success of an exhibition in 2013 in the former Warsaw ghetto further indicates that this work must be perceived as a poignant request for peace.
The artist's proof is estimated $ 10M, for sale by Christie's in New York on May 8, lot 39 A. The essay of the catalog is significantly signed by a rabbi. The video shared by Christie's follows the correct way to show the work to reveal only at the ultimate moment the unsustainable and yet terribly current message.
2001 A Friend of Big Sue
2014 SOLD for $ 17M including premium
In 1995, Lucian Freud painted the image of the big Sue. The oil on canvas 151 x 219 cm entitled Benefits Supervisor sleeping was sold for $ 33,6M including premium at Christie's on May 13, 2008.
Sue is a lifesize nude on a Freudian couch. The artist is not a psychiatrist. He does not need to communicate with the model, and it does not disturb him when the woman is sleeping peacefully. His sessions are endless. Freud wants to explore all the details of the flesh considered as an animal border.
It should not be so rude to show off one's nudity for Freud: a friend of Sue named Julie gets in turn such a favor. She also falls asleep during a sitting.
On November 12 in New York, Christie's sells an oil on canvas 122 x 152 cm painted in 2001 and titled Julie and Martin, lot 51 estimated $ 15M.
The old artist is not jealous of the young naked woman who is sleeping confidently with her head resting on a hip of her lover Martin. The fully dressed man is softly caressing the breast of the woman.
As for Sue, the flesh dominates over any aesthetics that does not concern Freud. With their serene and innocent presence, these two characters provide an intimate portrait of a modern couple.
Sue is a lifesize nude on a Freudian couch. The artist is not a psychiatrist. He does not need to communicate with the model, and it does not disturb him when the woman is sleeping peacefully. His sessions are endless. Freud wants to explore all the details of the flesh considered as an animal border.
It should not be so rude to show off one's nudity for Freud: a friend of Sue named Julie gets in turn such a favor. She also falls asleep during a sitting.
On November 12 in New York, Christie's sells an oil on canvas 122 x 152 cm painted in 2001 and titled Julie and Martin, lot 51 estimated $ 15M.
The old artist is not jealous of the young naked woman who is sleeping confidently with her head resting on a hip of her lover Martin. The fully dressed man is softly caressing the breast of the woman.
As for Sue, the flesh dominates over any aesthetics that does not concern Freud. With their serene and innocent presence, these two characters provide an intimate portrait of a modern couple.
2003 The Pink Star
2013 recorded 76 MCHF including premium, UNPAID
2017 SOLD for HK$ 550M including premium
The Pink Star is unquestionably and by far the greatest polished diamond that ever hit the auction market. It should have fetched CHF 76M including premium at Sotheby's on November 13, 2013 but the buyer was unable to pay and its sale was cancelled.
Its come back was eagerly awaited by all the fans of highest jewelry and of auction history. It will be sold by Sotheby's in Hong Kong on April 4, lot 1801. It is estimated in excess of HK$ 468M currently worth US$ 60M, according to the press release of March 20.
The essay below is based on my 2013 discussion :
Its subtle color, Fancy Vivid Pink, is the best graded among diamond colors. Internally Flawless means a perfect clarity. Its weight, 59.60 carats, is the highest recorded for finished flawless diamonds of that color. Its oval shape and its polish are the perfect result of two years of work executed by Steinmetz Diamonds.
It comes from a rough gem of 142.5 carats unearthed in 1999 by De Beers somewhere in Africa, which is currently the best location for new fabulous diamonds. Its mixed cut had required more than 50 subsequent models from epoxy casts. It was unveiled to the public in 2003.
It exceeds in all its features the Graff Pink, sold for CHF 45.4 million including premium by Sotheby's on 16 November 2010, which had 24.78 carats, a VVS2 clarity and a fancy intense pink color slightly lower in theory than the fancy vivid but indeed highly striking in this specimen.
The Pink Star is expected beyond US $ 60M, a suitable and even conservative estimate when we consider that it is "only" US$ 1M per carat, but nevertheless ambitious because no other gem has ever reached such a price at auction. (Note that this expected value has been kept unchanged before the 2017 sale).
Please watch the videos shared by Sotheby's : the 2013 pre sale video and the short video introducing the next auction :
Its come back was eagerly awaited by all the fans of highest jewelry and of auction history. It will be sold by Sotheby's in Hong Kong on April 4, lot 1801. It is estimated in excess of HK$ 468M currently worth US$ 60M, according to the press release of March 20.
The essay below is based on my 2013 discussion :
Its subtle color, Fancy Vivid Pink, is the best graded among diamond colors. Internally Flawless means a perfect clarity. Its weight, 59.60 carats, is the highest recorded for finished flawless diamonds of that color. Its oval shape and its polish are the perfect result of two years of work executed by Steinmetz Diamonds.
It comes from a rough gem of 142.5 carats unearthed in 1999 by De Beers somewhere in Africa, which is currently the best location for new fabulous diamonds. Its mixed cut had required more than 50 subsequent models from epoxy casts. It was unveiled to the public in 2003.
It exceeds in all its features the Graff Pink, sold for CHF 45.4 million including premium by Sotheby's on 16 November 2010, which had 24.78 carats, a VVS2 clarity and a fancy intense pink color slightly lower in theory than the fancy vivid but indeed highly striking in this specimen.
The Pink Star is expected beyond US $ 60M, a suitable and even conservative estimate when we consider that it is "only" US$ 1M per carat, but nevertheless ambitious because no other gem has ever reached such a price at auction. (Note that this expected value has been kept unchanged before the 2017 sale).
Please watch the videos shared by Sotheby's : the 2013 pre sale video and the short video introducing the next auction :
Sotheby’s Brings ‘Pink Star’ Diamond to Hong Kong https://t.co/D5Lo7D6NIX pic.twitter.com/yk5ph7cUhn
— Art Market Monitor (@artmarket) March 20, 2017
WATCH: World's most valuable cut diamond, the 59.60-carat "Pink Star," could fetch a record $60 million at auction: https://t.co/JsYfyHq5H8 pic.twitter.com/mLNLyhUhBY
— Good Morning America (@GMA) March 20, 2017
2003-2004 The Soul of a British Officer
2015 SOLD for $ 35M including premium
Before he retired in 1994, the figure of Andrew Parker Bowles often appeared in news photos but he remained anonymous despite his imposing posture. Colonel commanding the Household Cavalry before his promotion to the honorary rank of Brigadier, he assured the bodyguard to Queen Elizabeth II.
This aristocrat had previously shared the royal children's passion for horses and polo. The Prince of Wales will much later marry Camilla newly divorced from the Brigadier. The hero attended the wedding without resentment.
Lucian Freud was fond of horses, too, and a longtime friend of Andrew Parker Bowles. He painted his portrait in 2003-2004. During 18 months at a rate of three times a week and four hours per session, the Brigadier came to sit in the artist's studio.
Lucian's process is unique in the history of portrait painting. He rushed to the face of his model to inspect a tiny detail that provoked an equally abrupt return to save it on the canvas. Then he saturated his guest in an endless chatter before being ready to proceed with another detail. Lucian was very witty, which was quite necessary to maintain the patience of his models.
The obsession of the artist was to create lifelike works at the opposite of the dryness of a photograph. His method totally different from Bacon's led also to a strong emotion but Lucian managed to keep the realistic features of his characters. The Brigadier is still admiring today his portrait by Freud, better than life even in the glare of the medals.
The officer is not Sue Tilley. Lucian had not imposed an acrobatic attitude to this dignified sexagenarian who was indeed required to take the same position again at each new session. The result looks like a classic military portrait excepted that it is extraordinary in its psychological rendering.
This oil on canvas 224 x 138 cm is featured in Christie's evening sale in New York on November 10, lot 31B. I invite you to watch the video shared by the auction house, in which this piece is discussed by Brett Gorvy.
This aristocrat had previously shared the royal children's passion for horses and polo. The Prince of Wales will much later marry Camilla newly divorced from the Brigadier. The hero attended the wedding without resentment.
Lucian Freud was fond of horses, too, and a longtime friend of Andrew Parker Bowles. He painted his portrait in 2003-2004. During 18 months at a rate of three times a week and four hours per session, the Brigadier came to sit in the artist's studio.
Lucian's process is unique in the history of portrait painting. He rushed to the face of his model to inspect a tiny detail that provoked an equally abrupt return to save it on the canvas. Then he saturated his guest in an endless chatter before being ready to proceed with another detail. Lucian was very witty, which was quite necessary to maintain the patience of his models.
The obsession of the artist was to create lifelike works at the opposite of the dryness of a photograph. His method totally different from Bacon's led also to a strong emotion but Lucian managed to keep the realistic features of his characters. The Brigadier is still admiring today his portrait by Freud, better than life even in the glare of the medals.
The officer is not Sue Tilley. Lucian had not imposed an acrobatic attitude to this dignified sexagenarian who was indeed required to take the same position again at each new session. The result looks like a classic military portrait excepted that it is extraordinary in its psychological rendering.
This oil on canvas 224 x 138 cm is featured in Christie's evening sale in New York on November 10, lot 31B. I invite you to watch the video shared by the auction house, in which this piece is discussed by Brett Gorvy.
2004 Three Tons of Tulips by Koons
2012 SOLD 33.7 M$ including premium
The turning point in the work of Jeff Koons is around 1995. After exploiting the stupidity of the contemporary symbols conveyed by the popular imaging, he then began his great series of Celebrations, particularly appreciated now by the market.
The earliest were also the first to be auctioned: balloon flower, hanging heart, diamond. These works of monumental dimensions in stainless steel with a finish of pure color interact with their environment through an intense mirror effect for which the artist seeks perfection. Each model is produced in five variants, each variant in a different color.
Then we saw at auction the Easter eggs with their ribbons. On November 14 in New York, Christie's sells a copy of Tulips, which is an even more complex step in the development of the art of Koons.
The subject, a bouquet of seven flowers placed on a surface, is simple and universally recognizable, like all other themes in the Celebrations. The artwork, completed in 2004, can not go unnoticed: 203 x 457 x 520 cm. It weighs 3 tons. Here is the link to the catalog.
The tulips within the bouquet are of different colors, so that the interaction of their reflections covers the entire spectrum of light. The work was carried out in five copies with different arrangements of colors, extrapolating the logics of the previous Celebrations, and the reflection of the surroundings and of the public remains an essential element of the exhibition of the artwork.
I invite you to play the video featured by Christie's, in which Koons himself introduces this artwork.
POST SALE COMMENT
Koons's art is easy to see, but highly complex to implement. This technological feat was sold $ 33.7 million including premium.
The earliest were also the first to be auctioned: balloon flower, hanging heart, diamond. These works of monumental dimensions in stainless steel with a finish of pure color interact with their environment through an intense mirror effect for which the artist seeks perfection. Each model is produced in five variants, each variant in a different color.
Then we saw at auction the Easter eggs with their ribbons. On November 14 in New York, Christie's sells a copy of Tulips, which is an even more complex step in the development of the art of Koons.
The subject, a bouquet of seven flowers placed on a surface, is simple and universally recognizable, like all other themes in the Celebrations. The artwork, completed in 2004, can not go unnoticed: 203 x 457 x 520 cm. It weighs 3 tons. Here is the link to the catalog.
The tulips within the bouquet are of different colors, so that the interaction of their reflections covers the entire spectrum of light. The work was carried out in five copies with different arrangements of colors, extrapolating the logics of the previous Celebrations, and the reflection of the surroundings and of the public remains an essential element of the exhibition of the artwork.
I invite you to play the video featured by Christie's, in which Koons himself introduces this artwork.
POST SALE COMMENT
Koons's art is easy to see, but highly complex to implement. This technological feat was sold $ 33.7 million including premium.
2005 Confrontation with Bacchus
2017 SOLD for $ 46M including premium
Cy Twombly has always been hypersensitive to political violence whether it comes from myth or from current events. He lives in Gaeta which also houses a NATO naval base. The hypothesis that his series dedicated to Bacchus were triggered by Mediterranean maneuvers during the Iraq war can be considered.
His Bacchus are abstract paintings consisting of a tangle of vermilion loops on a light flesh-colored background. In 2004 the first set of six includes inscriptions from Greek attesting that Bacchus is not here the god of drinking and debauchery but is in his other role of personification of furious madness.
These lasso loops rise and fall between the top and bottom of the picture in endless spirals. Painted by the artist with a wide brush at the end of a long stick, they are not comparable with the proto-writing loops on his blackboards 35 years earlier. Thin vertical drippings give an idea of the sticky wetness of blood or wine.
Twombly does not immediately exhibit this first series because its vertical format 2.66 m high is not conducive enough to the burst of feelings and perhaps also because his art must be expressive by itself to get rid of the inscriptions. The opus V was sold for $ 15.4M including premium by Sotheby's on May 11, 2016.
The artist makes the second series in 2005 in eight paintings that are immediately exhibited as a whole set by Gagosian in New York. The largest variant later numbered V, acrylic on canvas 325 x 494 cm, will be sold by Christie's in New York as lot 15 B on November 15.
In 2008 paintings V and VII from the 2005 group are judiciously positioned side by side during a temporary exhibition at the Tate Modern in London. The artist appreciates that he had not given a sufficient breadth to his own creation. He then executes a third series of six paintings. This ultimate series of Bacchus is not the apotheosis of a hostile god but the culmination of the effort of Cy Twombly's entire career for expressing through abstraction the blind rages of the real world.
His Bacchus are abstract paintings consisting of a tangle of vermilion loops on a light flesh-colored background. In 2004 the first set of six includes inscriptions from Greek attesting that Bacchus is not here the god of drinking and debauchery but is in his other role of personification of furious madness.
These lasso loops rise and fall between the top and bottom of the picture in endless spirals. Painted by the artist with a wide brush at the end of a long stick, they are not comparable with the proto-writing loops on his blackboards 35 years earlier. Thin vertical drippings give an idea of the sticky wetness of blood or wine.
Twombly does not immediately exhibit this first series because its vertical format 2.66 m high is not conducive enough to the burst of feelings and perhaps also because his art must be expressive by itself to get rid of the inscriptions. The opus V was sold for $ 15.4M including premium by Sotheby's on May 11, 2016.
The artist makes the second series in 2005 in eight paintings that are immediately exhibited as a whole set by Gagosian in New York. The largest variant later numbered V, acrylic on canvas 325 x 494 cm, will be sold by Christie's in New York as lot 15 B on November 15.
In 2008 paintings V and VII from the 2005 group are judiciously positioned side by side during a temporary exhibition at the Tate Modern in London. The artist appreciates that he had not given a sufficient breadth to his own creation. He then executes a third series of six paintings. This ultimate series of Bacchus is not the apotheosis of a hostile god but the culmination of the effort of Cy Twombly's entire career for expressing through abstraction the blind rages of the real world.
2006 Landscape in Snow by Cui Ruzhuo
2014 SOLD 184 MHK$ including premium by Poly
Shared by Blouin Artinfo Hong Kong.
2006 Celebration of the Broken Egg
2014 SOLD 14 M£ including premium
With his series of Celebrations designed in 1994, Jeff Koons is one of very few contemporary artists who have managed to express joy. The Balloon Dog is a perfect example.
Made in five units of different colors like all the works of this series, Cracked egg is one of the simplest, strongest and most universal symbols. It is the normal fate of an egg to be broken, if it remains intact it is useless. Koons dedicated to his young son that symbol of birth.
The broken egg is opened and the removed piece is placed besides. It is monumental, of course : 169 x 159 x 159 cm and 100 x 159 x 159 cm. It was one of the most difficult to realize, first by the sawtooth edge of both elements, and mainly by the need to obtain a perfectly polished surface both outside (colored) and inside (silvered).
Completed in 2006, the magenta version is as sumptuous as a gorgeous Easter egg. It is estimated £ 10M for sale by Christie's in London on February 13.
I invite you to play the audio shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This highly interesting example of the Celebrations by Koons was sold for £ 14M including premium.
Made in five units of different colors like all the works of this series, Cracked egg is one of the simplest, strongest and most universal symbols. It is the normal fate of an egg to be broken, if it remains intact it is useless. Koons dedicated to his young son that symbol of birth.
The broken egg is opened and the removed piece is placed besides. It is monumental, of course : 169 x 159 x 159 cm and 100 x 159 x 159 cm. It was one of the most difficult to realize, first by the sawtooth edge of both elements, and mainly by the need to obtain a perfectly polished surface both outside (colored) and inside (silvered).
Completed in 2006, the magenta version is as sumptuous as a gorgeous Easter egg. It is estimated £ 10M for sale by Christie's in London on February 13.
I invite you to play the audio shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This highly interesting example of the Celebrations by Koons was sold for £ 14M including premium.
