Modern Furniture
In addition to Lalanne.
See also : Furniture Art Deco Chairs and seats Modern tables Women artists
Chronology : 1920 1930
See also : Furniture Art Deco Chairs and seats Modern tables Women artists
Chronology : 1920 1930
1893 Coca-Cola Soda Fountain
2012 SOLD for $ 5.3 M$ by Richard Opfer
The nineteenth century saw the birth of a tremendously effective initiative: the world's expositions, where the public comes to see by themselves the qualities of industrial products. In Chicago in 1893, the World's Columbian Exposition enabled the triumph of the applications of electricity.
A booth made by the Liquid Carbonic Company for the Columbian has been preserved. This double marble and alabaster furniture is made of a heavily decorated back wall 6 meters long and of a counter to accommodate the drinkers. Two soda fountains, each one equipped with three valves, are positioned on the counter.
This piece is decorated with Coca-Cola ads that are not original but nevertheless mark the moods of that time.
The fetish American drink was indeed invented shortly before by a pharmacist, under the influence of temperance societies. The method of public distribution in vogue at that time is the fountain of carbonated water, believed to be favorable to health. The sales of bottled Coca-Cola will start only on the following year.
This booth witnessing the style of an obsolete era is the star lot of the second sale of the Schmidt Coca-Cola Museum, held on March 25 by Richard Opfer in Elizabethtown KY. It is estimated $ 75K and illustrated in the catalog shared by LiveAuctioneers.
POST SALE COMMENT
This piece of furniture was the highlight of the Schmidt collection devoted to Coca-Cola. It was contemporary with the beginnings of the brand and later decorated with early Coca-Cola ads. It has dramatically raised the biddings: $ 4.475 million hammer price (seen live on LiveAuctioneers).
The lot is in the background during the sale in this video shared by CokeConversations on YouTube.
A booth made by the Liquid Carbonic Company for the Columbian has been preserved. This double marble and alabaster furniture is made of a heavily decorated back wall 6 meters long and of a counter to accommodate the drinkers. Two soda fountains, each one equipped with three valves, are positioned on the counter.
This piece is decorated with Coca-Cola ads that are not original but nevertheless mark the moods of that time.
The fetish American drink was indeed invented shortly before by a pharmacist, under the influence of temperance societies. The method of public distribution in vogue at that time is the fountain of carbonated water, believed to be favorable to health. The sales of bottled Coca-Cola will start only on the following year.
This booth witnessing the style of an obsolete era is the star lot of the second sale of the Schmidt Coca-Cola Museum, held on March 25 by Richard Opfer in Elizabethtown KY. It is estimated $ 75K and illustrated in the catalog shared by LiveAuctioneers.
POST SALE COMMENT
This piece of furniture was the highlight of the Schmidt collection devoted to Coca-Cola. It was contemporary with the beginnings of the brand and later decorated with early Coca-Cola ads. It has dramatically raised the biddings: $ 4.475 million hammer price (seen live on LiveAuctioneers).
The lot is in the background during the sale in this video shared by CokeConversations on YouTube.
1915-1917 Enfilade by Eileen Gray
2009 SOLD for € 4M including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2018 before the sale of another piece by Artcurial (see below)
Eileen Gray had completed in Paris her art studies. She specializes in luxury furnishings. Sensitive and autonomous with a taste for exoticism, she innovates without worrying about pre-existing fashions. Seeking quality rather than series production, she prefers designing unique works.
She opens a workshop for lacquered wood in Paris in 1910 with the specialized Japanese craftsman Seijo Sugawara. They develop together new colors. In 1913 the refinement and originality of their Japan-inspired panels are praised by fashion designer Jacques Doucet, instantly making Eileen Gray a pioneer of the Parisian Art Déco.
During the war Gray and Sugawara work in London. In the auction of the Saint-Laurent Bergé collection in February 2009, Christie's sold for € 4M including premium a highly rare lacquered enfilade cabinet made in that transition period, lot 243. At the end of the war they restart the Parisian workshop.
On November 27, 2018, a lacquered console table passed at Artcurial from a lower estimate of € 1M. It had been made before 1920 with a 124 x 39 cm top and a total length of 169 cm including the retractable side shelves. It is entirely lacquered with various colors and the lacquer of the top is inlaid with silver powder.
The only known similar table, with slightly different dimensions, was also in the Saint-Laurent Bergé collection. In its auction already referred above, it was sold for € 2.3M including premium over a lower estimate of € 1M, lot 277.
She opens a workshop for lacquered wood in Paris in 1910 with the specialized Japanese craftsman Seijo Sugawara. They develop together new colors. In 1913 the refinement and originality of their Japan-inspired panels are praised by fashion designer Jacques Doucet, instantly making Eileen Gray a pioneer of the Parisian Art Déco.
During the war Gray and Sugawara work in London. In the auction of the Saint-Laurent Bergé collection in February 2009, Christie's sold for € 4M including premium a highly rare lacquered enfilade cabinet made in that transition period, lot 243. At the end of the war they restart the Parisian workshop.
On November 27, 2018, a lacquered console table passed at Artcurial from a lower estimate of € 1M. It had been made before 1920 with a 124 x 39 cm top and a total length of 169 cm including the retractable side shelves. It is entirely lacquered with various colors and the lacquer of the top is inlaid with silver powder.
The only known similar table, with slightly different dimensions, was also in the Saint-Laurent Bergé collection. In its auction already referred above, it was sold for € 2.3M including premium over a lower estimate of € 1M, lot 277.
<1920 Yves Saint-Laurent in an Armchair ... made by Eileen Gray
2009 SOLD 21.9 M€ including premium
In the very large sale of the collection of the fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent, the furniture of the 20th century will be led by an armchair made by Eileen Gray.
It is a seat only 61 cm high. The sitting height is normal, but the back is small. It is large (91 cm), making it a comfortable chair. The press release from Christie's describes it as a Dragon armchair, certainly for the sculptures of its armrests. For this seat dating from about 1920-1922, prepare 2.5 million €.
In the work of Eileen Gray, other seats have generated one of the most remarkable results of auctions in recent years. On June 1, 2005 in Paris, Camard sold a set of six armchairs à la Sirène, for a total of nearly 9 million € charges included. Sold separately, these six lots were eventually divided between two buyers. They had belonged to Damia, the music hall singer woman with whom Eileen had a love affair. From a very different model from the chair of the Saint-Laurent collection, their sculpture of the women fish was enhanced by an open back.
Eileen Gray was renowned for the luxurious finish of her lacquered furniture.
The sale will be held at the Grand Palais in Paris from 23 to 25 February. It is jointly organized by Christie's and Pierre Bergé et Associés.
POST SALE COMMENT
This seat had it all. We imagine it perfectly in the middle of the living room of Yves Saint-Laurent, a famous person. It may equally be regarded as a work of art or as a piece of furniture.
Christie's has presented it as one of the top lots in the sale, from the first press release last September. The estimate probably took into account the results obtained at Drouot on the armchairs à la Sirène, remembered in my article above. Cautiously, the estimate had been made a little lower (2 M €) in the catalog than in the first releases.
As I have already written, the current crisis of confidence affects the sellers, not the buyers.
The chair of Yves Saint-Laurent by Eileen Gray was sold € 21.9 million including premium.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
It is a seat only 61 cm high. The sitting height is normal, but the back is small. It is large (91 cm), making it a comfortable chair. The press release from Christie's describes it as a Dragon armchair, certainly for the sculptures of its armrests. For this seat dating from about 1920-1922, prepare 2.5 million €.
In the work of Eileen Gray, other seats have generated one of the most remarkable results of auctions in recent years. On June 1, 2005 in Paris, Camard sold a set of six armchairs à la Sirène, for a total of nearly 9 million € charges included. Sold separately, these six lots were eventually divided between two buyers. They had belonged to Damia, the music hall singer woman with whom Eileen had a love affair. From a very different model from the chair of the Saint-Laurent collection, their sculpture of the women fish was enhanced by an open back.
Eileen Gray was renowned for the luxurious finish of her lacquered furniture.
The sale will be held at the Grand Palais in Paris from 23 to 25 February. It is jointly organized by Christie's and Pierre Bergé et Associés.
POST SALE COMMENT
This seat had it all. We imagine it perfectly in the middle of the living room of Yves Saint-Laurent, a famous person. It may equally be regarded as a work of art or as a piece of furniture.
Christie's has presented it as one of the top lots in the sale, from the first press release last September. The estimate probably took into account the results obtained at Drouot on the armchairs à la Sirène, remembered in my article above. Cautiously, the estimate had been made a little lower (2 M €) in the catalog than in the first releases.
As I have already written, the current crisis of confidence affects the sellers, not the buyers.
The chair of Yves Saint-Laurent by Eileen Gray was sold € 21.9 million including premium.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
1930-1936 Les Palmiers by Dunand
2021 SOLD for £ 3.3M by Phillips
Jean Dunand was one the most typical leaders of the Art Déco of the 1920s, associating the simplest decoration patterns with the most exquisite materials including lacquer. In the 1925 Exposition des Arts Décoratifs he exhibited a full set of boiseries constituting a fumoir (smoking room) conceived as the most cosy place of an apartment.
From 1930 Dunand is very busy with the Art Déco furnishings of the ocean liners Atlantique and Normandie. He nevertheless accepts orders from private customers. The preparation of the fumoir of Colette Aboucaya will last from 1930 to 1936.
The theme of the Aboucaya fumoir is Les Palmiers, a forest of palm trees providing an illusion of exoticism. The size of the room is 390 x 620 cm, for a total perimeter of about 20 m. The set constituting the four walls is composed of 27 panels 344 cm high plus two double doors, a pair of sliding doors and one opening. The wood pieces are lacquered in exquisite low contrasting grays.
Miss Aboucaya was a very private person. Whatever the reason she never used her fumoir. When she died at age 101, nobody in her family had ever entered in that room. Her estate sale by François de Ricqlès in 1997 included in the condition of a time capsule the Dunand boiseries, a matching rug by Da Silva Bruhns, and the furniture conceived by Gérard Mille and lacquered by Katsu Hamanaka. Other rooms had been furnished with works by Leleu, Prou, Baguès and Bernard Dunand.
The full set of boiseries was later sold by Christie's in Paris on March 29, 2011 for € 2.2M, lot 25. Considered in period as a French treasure, it has been authorized to leave France and was sold for £ 3.3M by Phillips on June 30, 2021, lot 33. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The next lot, 34, in the Phillips sale is a 3 m long banquette (daybed) from the same fumoir, was sold for £ 400K. It is signed by Hamanaka in 1932 for the black lacquer and in 1935 for the frame.
From 1930 Dunand is very busy with the Art Déco furnishings of the ocean liners Atlantique and Normandie. He nevertheless accepts orders from private customers. The preparation of the fumoir of Colette Aboucaya will last from 1930 to 1936.
The theme of the Aboucaya fumoir is Les Palmiers, a forest of palm trees providing an illusion of exoticism. The size of the room is 390 x 620 cm, for a total perimeter of about 20 m. The set constituting the four walls is composed of 27 panels 344 cm high plus two double doors, a pair of sliding doors and one opening. The wood pieces are lacquered in exquisite low contrasting grays.
Miss Aboucaya was a very private person. Whatever the reason she never used her fumoir. When she died at age 101, nobody in her family had ever entered in that room. Her estate sale by François de Ricqlès in 1997 included in the condition of a time capsule the Dunand boiseries, a matching rug by Da Silva Bruhns, and the furniture conceived by Gérard Mille and lacquered by Katsu Hamanaka. Other rooms had been furnished with works by Leleu, Prou, Baguès and Bernard Dunand.
The full set of boiseries was later sold by Christie's in Paris on March 29, 2011 for € 2.2M, lot 25. Considered in period as a French treasure, it has been authorized to leave France and was sold for £ 3.3M by Phillips on June 30, 2021, lot 33. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The next lot, 34, in the Phillips sale is a 3 m long banquette (daybed) from the same fumoir, was sold for £ 400K. It is signed by Hamanaka in 1932 for the black lacquer and in 1935 for the frame.
Ein Meisterwerk des französischen #artdeco wird Anfang Mai in London versteigert.
— Barnebys.de (@Barnebysde) April 21, 2021
1937 Enfilade by Printz and Dunand
2019 SOLD for $ 5.5M including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2020
Eugène Printz, a cabinetmaker, had worked with Chareau. Jean Dunand, a decorator, is a lacquerer and dinandier, specialist in bright surfaces and already famous for his panels and his screens. The dinanderie is the art of using non-precious metals in decoration.
Their skills are complementary and their fruitful collaboration lasts from 1928 until the death of Dunand in 1942. Their joint production consists mainly of sideboards : buffets, enfilades, bahuts. The style meets the canons of Art Déco : geometric simplicity of forms, beauty of surfaces.
A cabinet 125 x 160 x 30 cm made in 1930-1931 by Printz and Dunand was sold for € 1,26M including premium by Christie's on November 27, 2007, lot 331.
A cabinet in enfilade 93 x 200 x 44 cm made circa 1937 was sold on June 4, 2019 for $ 5.5M including premium by Christie's, lot 43. This enfilade had been kept by Printz for his own collection. It is indeed a superb example of the later period of the French Art Déco.
Its rectangular cabinet in palmwood is perfectly balanced, altogether low and shallow to provide a sense of lightness. Its suite of ten doors cover the whole height of the façade, with no visible structure or handle.
It is also exceptional by the full covering of all the door panels in a dinanderie of various patterns on angled metal leaves, suggesting the folds of a Japanese screen. These fragile elements have been kept in an excellent condition.
Their skills are complementary and their fruitful collaboration lasts from 1928 until the death of Dunand in 1942. Their joint production consists mainly of sideboards : buffets, enfilades, bahuts. The style meets the canons of Art Déco : geometric simplicity of forms, beauty of surfaces.
A cabinet 125 x 160 x 30 cm made in 1930-1931 by Printz and Dunand was sold for € 1,26M including premium by Christie's on November 27, 2007, lot 331.
A cabinet in enfilade 93 x 200 x 44 cm made circa 1937 was sold on June 4, 2019 for $ 5.5M including premium by Christie's, lot 43. This enfilade had been kept by Printz for his own collection. It is indeed a superb example of the later period of the French Art Déco.
Its rectangular cabinet in palmwood is perfectly balanced, altogether low and shallow to provide a sense of lightness. Its suite of ten doors cover the whole height of the façade, with no visible structure or handle.
It is also exceptional by the full covering of all the door panels in a dinanderie of various patterns on angled metal leaves, suggesting the folds of a Japanese screen. These fragile elements have been kept in an excellent condition.
1939 The Goodyear Table by Noguchi
2014 SOLD for $ 4.45M by Phillips
Isamu Noguchi is a sculptor. Trained in Paris in 1927 by Brancusi, he does not want to make a difference between fine arts and utilitarian arts. At first he produced stage sets and theater costumes, in a style that tended towards abstraction.
In 1939 he executes two projects for sculptures to serve as monumental fountains, which remain little appreciated. The quality of his work however attracts the attention of A. Conger Goodyear, the president of MoMA, who orders him a table to match his living room.
Noguchi had never created furniture. The Goodyear table is therefore his masterpiece in the etymological sense of the wording. He interlocks two pieces in rosewood carved with somewhat biomorphic abstract curves, on which he places a glass top.
The Goodyear table, 73 x 210 x 87 cm, has retained its original glass. It was sold on December 16, 2014 by Phillips for $ 4.45M including premium over a lower estimate of $ 2M, lot 12.
The end of the war allowed to start new projects. In 1948 the Herman Miller company edited the Noguchi table, a 40 x 127 x 91 cm coffee table directly inspired by the Goodyear table. The base is now made up of two identical elements in opposite positions. The success is considerable : the Noguchi table has been in the Herman Miller catalog for 72 years, with only two interruptions between 1973 and 1984.
In 1939 he executes two projects for sculptures to serve as monumental fountains, which remain little appreciated. The quality of his work however attracts the attention of A. Conger Goodyear, the president of MoMA, who orders him a table to match his living room.
Noguchi had never created furniture. The Goodyear table is therefore his masterpiece in the etymological sense of the wording. He interlocks two pieces in rosewood carved with somewhat biomorphic abstract curves, on which he places a glass top.
The Goodyear table, 73 x 210 x 87 cm, has retained its original glass. It was sold on December 16, 2014 by Phillips for $ 4.45M including premium over a lower estimate of $ 2M, lot 12.
The end of the war allowed to start new projects. In 1948 the Herman Miller company edited the Noguchi table, a 40 x 127 x 91 cm coffee table directly inspired by the Goodyear table. The base is now made up of two identical elements in opposite positions. The success is considerable : the Noguchi table has been in the Herman Miller catalog for 72 years, with only two interruptions between 1973 and 1984.
1950 The Skeleton Tables of Carlo Mollino
2020 SOLD for $ 6.2M including premium
Architect and interior designer, Carlo Mollino has led his career as a synthesis of his exuberant passions : high-flying, skiing, photography, women. After the war, independently of each other, Mollino and Noguchi design the furniture of the future.
The architect observes the solidity of the construction of the human skeleton. The structure of his tables and chairs takes the forms of rib cage and spine. Mollino thus brings sensuality to his furniture, which does not need an additional ornament. Above this openwork, the table top is in transparent glass.
On June 9, 2005, Christie's sold for $ 3.8M including premium from a lower estimate of $ 150K a 73 x 157 x 86 cm oak dining table designed by Mollino in 1948 and manufactured in 1949 by Apelli e Varesio in Turin.
After the war, Italy looked for new solutions for its reconstruction. An exhibition entitled Italy at Work is dedicated by a consortium of US museums to the renaissance of Italian design. Mollino is invited to prepare the furnishings for an all purpose room.
The main piece of furniture for Mollino's participation in Italy at Work is a dining table, 77 x 250 x 80 cm, designed in 1949 and made in 1950 in plywood, maple and brass by Apelli e Varesio. The technical feat adds to the artistic novelty : his use of large-scale molded plywood is unprecedented in the history of furniture.
The table returns in 1954 to the Brooklyn Museum after the traveling exhibition by a gift from the Italian government. It is estimated $ 2M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on October 28, lot 16, for the support of the museum's collections. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The architect observes the solidity of the construction of the human skeleton. The structure of his tables and chairs takes the forms of rib cage and spine. Mollino thus brings sensuality to his furniture, which does not need an additional ornament. Above this openwork, the table top is in transparent glass.
On June 9, 2005, Christie's sold for $ 3.8M including premium from a lower estimate of $ 150K a 73 x 157 x 86 cm oak dining table designed by Mollino in 1948 and manufactured in 1949 by Apelli e Varesio in Turin.
After the war, Italy looked for new solutions for its reconstruction. An exhibition entitled Italy at Work is dedicated by a consortium of US museums to the renaissance of Italian design. Mollino is invited to prepare the furnishings for an all purpose room.
The main piece of furniture for Mollino's participation in Italy at Work is a dining table, 77 x 250 x 80 cm, designed in 1949 and made in 1950 in plywood, maple and brass by Apelli e Varesio. The technical feat adds to the artistic novelty : his use of large-scale molded plywood is unprecedented in the history of furniture.
The table returns in 1954 to the Brooklyn Museum after the traveling exhibition by a gift from the Italian government. It is estimated $ 2M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on October 28, lot 16, for the support of the museum's collections. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1952 The Primordial Chandelier
2018 SOLD for £ 7.6M including premium
In 1947 and 1948 Alberto Giacometti defined his existentialist pantheon with his primordial trinity and some accessories including the cage.
For their friends the Giacometti brothers also remain the pre-war decorators who created models of furnishing for Frank. Diego continues in this specialty and Alberto still accepts some private orders. A plaster chandelier with geometric figures made by Alberto in 1954 for the Tériade apartment was sold for £ 2.05M including premium by Phillips on April 26, 2017.
Louis Broder was a Swiss publisher. For his Paris apartment he commissioned in 1948 to Alberto a chandelier adorned with his new characters. The original plaster, 60 cm high and 136 cm in diameter, was supplied in 1949 or 1950 to Broder and donated in 1983 by Berggruen to the Centre Pompidou.
This private work is an interesting synthesis of Giacometti's metaphysics. The central position is a gloriette in which the Femme debout opens her arms, holding two side columns as if she was ready to go out for discovering the world. She has the main role, superseding the ephemeral Homme au doigt.
The Homme qui marche starts away from the cage in a centrifugal force that ignores the existence of the woman. Smaller than her, he does not have the importance he would like to have. The trinity is completed on the other side by a bird. The four lights are installed in crocus flowers.
In 1952 Alberto made three bronzes of this chandelier, also for Broder. One of them is estimated £ 6M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 28, lot 4.
For their friends the Giacometti brothers also remain the pre-war decorators who created models of furnishing for Frank. Diego continues in this specialty and Alberto still accepts some private orders. A plaster chandelier with geometric figures made by Alberto in 1954 for the Tériade apartment was sold for £ 2.05M including premium by Phillips on April 26, 2017.
Louis Broder was a Swiss publisher. For his Paris apartment he commissioned in 1948 to Alberto a chandelier adorned with his new characters. The original plaster, 60 cm high and 136 cm in diameter, was supplied in 1949 or 1950 to Broder and donated in 1983 by Berggruen to the Centre Pompidou.
This private work is an interesting synthesis of Giacometti's metaphysics. The central position is a gloriette in which the Femme debout opens her arms, holding two side columns as if she was ready to go out for discovering the world. She has the main role, superseding the ephemeral Homme au doigt.
The Homme qui marche starts away from the cage in a centrifugal force that ignores the existence of the woman. Smaller than her, he does not have the importance he would like to have. The trinity is completed on the other side by a bird. The four lights are installed in crocus flowers.
In 1952 Alberto made three bronzes of this chandelier, also for Broder. One of them is estimated £ 6M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 28, lot 4.
1966-1969 Bibliothèque by Diego Giacometti
2017 SOLD for $ 6.3M by Sotheby's
In the opposite of his beloved brother Alberto, Diego Giacometti ever remained a designer and maker of furniture. Freed in 1966 by Alberto's death from his collaboration including the preparation of bronzes, he managed his own career in a simple, practical and solid style.
Made on commission in wood, metal and bronze between 1966 and 1969 for a private apartment in Paris, the Bibliothèque de l'Ile Saint-Louis is a rare monumental bookcase in two perpendicular parts, 330 cm high for a 430 x 360 cm overall floor surface.
The artist had transferred to these book shelves the signature grecques of his tables and chairs, in an elegant alternation of open and closed shelvings. The furniture is framed by an undulating gold patinated bronze. Life size birds were placed as sentinels on the top edge at each junction of the structural elements plus a single tiny tree at the top angle of the two furniture wings.
The bibliothèque was sold for $ 6.3M from a lower estimate of $ 2M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2017, lot 38.
Made on commission in wood, metal and bronze between 1966 and 1969 for a private apartment in Paris, the Bibliothèque de l'Ile Saint-Louis is a rare monumental bookcase in two perpendicular parts, 330 cm high for a 430 x 360 cm overall floor surface.
The artist had transferred to these book shelves the signature grecques of his tables and chairs, in an elegant alternation of open and closed shelvings. The furniture is framed by an undulating gold patinated bronze. Life size birds were placed as sentinels on the top edge at each junction of the structural elements plus a single tiny tree at the top angle of the two furniture wings.
The bibliothèque was sold for $ 6.3M from a lower estimate of $ 2M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2017, lot 38.
1980 Diego in the Style of Alberto
2017 SOLD for € 4.2M including premium
Diego Giacometti was thirteen months younger than Alberto. Decorators and sculptors, they establish their studio together in Montparnasse. The pieces of furnishing that they realize in the 1930s in particular for Jean-Michel Frank appeal by their modernism.
The war separates them temporarily. At that moment their art takes very different directions. While Alberto expresses existentialism by relying on surrealism, Diego does not leave decoration and realism. He meets the desires of his customers with his nice and humorous themes where animal figures come to perch on the struts or to huddle in the table legs.
Circa 1978, twelve years after the death of Alberto, Diego designs and executes for a customer a bronze table in the shape of a regular octagon 170 cm wide. The top is carried by eight legs in front of which the artist dispositions in the extension of each horizontal bar a standing figure in the threadlike style of Alberto.
This late synthesis of the art of the Giacometti brothers is scarce and unexpected. The table was sold for $ 3.8M including premium by Sotheby's on November 15, 2016 over a lower estimate of $ 300K.
In 1970 Hubert de Givenchy is seduced by the simple and effective creations by Diego with which he will populate his manor. The collection of the works executed by Diego for Givenchy is dispersed by Christie's in Paris on March 6.
This set includes three examples in bronze and wood of the octagonal table "aux caryatides et atlantes". A table 162 cm in diameter made circa 1980 is estimated € 600K, lot 16. Two tables 190 cm in diameter were made circa 1983. Each of them is estimated € 800K, lot 7 and lot 11.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM
Lot 16 (1980) : € 4.2M
Lot 7 (1983) : € 3.8M
Lot 11 (1983) : € 3.3M
The war separates them temporarily. At that moment their art takes very different directions. While Alberto expresses existentialism by relying on surrealism, Diego does not leave decoration and realism. He meets the desires of his customers with his nice and humorous themes where animal figures come to perch on the struts or to huddle in the table legs.
Circa 1978, twelve years after the death of Alberto, Diego designs and executes for a customer a bronze table in the shape of a regular octagon 170 cm wide. The top is carried by eight legs in front of which the artist dispositions in the extension of each horizontal bar a standing figure in the threadlike style of Alberto.
This late synthesis of the art of the Giacometti brothers is scarce and unexpected. The table was sold for $ 3.8M including premium by Sotheby's on November 15, 2016 over a lower estimate of $ 300K.
In 1970 Hubert de Givenchy is seduced by the simple and effective creations by Diego with which he will populate his manor. The collection of the works executed by Diego for Givenchy is dispersed by Christie's in Paris on March 6.
This set includes three examples in bronze and wood of the octagonal table "aux caryatides et atlantes". A table 162 cm in diameter made circa 1980 is estimated € 600K, lot 16. Two tables 190 cm in diameter were made circa 1983. Each of them is estimated € 800K, lot 7 and lot 11.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM
Lot 16 (1980) : € 4.2M
Lot 7 (1983) : € 3.8M
Lot 11 (1983) : € 3.3M
