Russia and Eastern Europe
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Kandinsky Abstract art II Man and woman Self portrait II Alps Soutine Chagall Sculpture Bust Brancusi Nobel medals Northern Europe
Chronology : 1910-1919 1910 1913 1914 1916 1920-1929 1922 1923 1928 1930-1939 1932 21st century 2020 to now 2021
See also : Kandinsky Abstract art II Man and woman Self portrait II Alps Soutine Chagall Sculpture Bust Brancusi Nobel medals Northern Europe
Chronology : 1910-1919 1910 1913 1914 1916 1920-1929 1922 1923 1928 1930-1939 1932 21st century 2020 to now 2021
BRANCUSI
1
1910 La Muse Endormie
2017 SOLD for $ 57M by Christie's
The art of Brancusi is too fundamental, too seminal and too personal to be associated with any artistic movement. Very gifted in his hands since his childhood, this son of poor Carpathian peasants arrived in Paris on foot in 1904. The period is exceptional : the artistic Parisian bubbling opens the way to his creativity.
He learns with Rodin that the human figure can be reduced to a single element. A head lying on a ground symbolizes the serenity. He appreciates from Gauguin that Oceanic tribal art can influence the modern universal art through its extreme simplification of forms. The skilled bearded strongman chooses the direct cut contrary to the practice of his time. He will influence Modigliani.
Brancusi began in 1907 to conceive his series of masterpieces. In Le Baiser he is the first artist who suggests a development of Cubism in sculpture.
In 1909 he creates the prototype of La Muse endormie in white marble. The lying head is an egg in which the facial features and the hair are only lightly incised. The nape of the neck is used as a support. Despite the stylization it is unquestionably a portrait of his model the baronne Frachon. The artist succeeded in the impossible synthesis between geometry and portraiture.
In 1910 Brancusi produces three plasters and six bronzes from his first Muse endormie. The bronzes are cast by Valsuani but the patina different in each of the bronzes is executed by the artist himself with a painstaking care.
One of the six bronzes, 27 cm long, was sold for $ 57M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Christie's on May 15, 2017, lot 32 A. This example has an exceptional matte and warm patina enhanced in places with gold leaf which is perfectly suited to the illusion of serenity desired by the artist. Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
He learns with Rodin that the human figure can be reduced to a single element. A head lying on a ground symbolizes the serenity. He appreciates from Gauguin that Oceanic tribal art can influence the modern universal art through its extreme simplification of forms. The skilled bearded strongman chooses the direct cut contrary to the practice of his time. He will influence Modigliani.
Brancusi began in 1907 to conceive his series of masterpieces. In Le Baiser he is the first artist who suggests a development of Cubism in sculpture.
In 1909 he creates the prototype of La Muse endormie in white marble. The lying head is an egg in which the facial features and the hair are only lightly incised. The nape of the neck is used as a support. Despite the stylization it is unquestionably a portrait of his model the baronne Frachon. The artist succeeded in the impossible synthesis between geometry and portraiture.
In 1910 Brancusi produces three plasters and six bronzes from his first Muse endormie. The bronzes are cast by Valsuani but the patina different in each of the bronzes is executed by the artist himself with a painstaking care.
One of the six bronzes, 27 cm long, was sold for $ 57M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Christie's on May 15, 2017, lot 32 A. This example has an exceptional matte and warm patina enhanced in places with gold leaf which is perfectly suited to the illusion of serenity desired by the artist. Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
2
1914-1917 Portrait de Mme LR
2009 SOLD for € 29M by Christie's
The Brancusi from the Saint-Laurent collection is titled Portrait de Madame LR. This wooden figure 1.20 m high has the global look of an African statuette. In focus, it is a geometrical construction where the figurative has almost disappeared. This work was done between 1914 and 1917. It was sold for € 29M from a lower estimate of € 15M by Christie's on February 23-25, 2009.
Then, the lines get longer and become pure forms. The Bird in Space of 1922-1923 is not a bird, excepted for the title of the work and the inspiration of the artist. In marble, one of those statues of 85 cm high, mounted on a stone base, has reached $ 27 million including expenses at Christie's in 2005. As Malevich, as Mondrian, Brancusi was able to free his art from any emotional aspect, to only retain shape and texture.
In 1920-1925, the work entitled Mademoiselle Pogany resumed some characteristics of the Danaid. Christie's sold a bronze for $ 7M in 1997.
Then, the lines get longer and become pure forms. The Bird in Space of 1922-1923 is not a bird, excepted for the title of the work and the inspiration of the artist. In marble, one of those statues of 85 cm high, mounted on a stone base, has reached $ 27 million including expenses at Christie's in 2005. As Malevich, as Mondrian, Brancusi was able to free his art from any emotional aspect, to only retain shape and texture.
In 1920-1925, the work entitled Mademoiselle Pogany resumed some characteristics of the Danaid. Christie's sold a bronze for $ 7M in 1997.
3
1932 La Jeune Fille Sophistiquée
2018 SOLD for $ 71M by Christie's
Being a muse for Brancusi was not a difficult task. He had met Margit Pogany very briefly in 1910 but liked the shape of her head which inspired him until the mid-1920s.
The heads sculpted by Brancusi are not abstract. He considers that everything that overflows, mainly nose and ears, is inappropriate to express the deep reality of a portrait. He gradually reduces these growths to a surface carving up to removing them completely.
Around 1925 he made a wooden bust 55 cm high on the theme of La Jeune Fille Sophistiquée. He takes Nancy Cunard as a model, without telling her. The heiress of the Cunard shipowners, she has an eccentric life that symbolizes the roaring twenties in the Parisian literary and artistic circles. She is sexually liberated and anarchist, and her attires are inspired by Africa.
The almost abstract head is indeed a portrait. Comparing with the photos of the period, we recognize the bulging forehead and the receding chin, and the stiff neck from behind. This disturbing muse always offers in the photos an unpleasant pout that we imagine also through the rare incisions of the sculpture. The pinched bun is an evocation of her signature bunches.
Brancusi made a plaster in 1928 and a unique polished bronze in 1932. This bronze is still installed on the marble base designed by the artist, for a total height of 80 cm. It was sold for $ 71M at lot 19 A by Christie's on May 15, 2018. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Nancy Cunard discovered many years later that she had served as a model for this artwork. After hesitating in its interpretation as a bust or a torso, she expressed her admiration for the artist.
The heads sculpted by Brancusi are not abstract. He considers that everything that overflows, mainly nose and ears, is inappropriate to express the deep reality of a portrait. He gradually reduces these growths to a surface carving up to removing them completely.
Around 1925 he made a wooden bust 55 cm high on the theme of La Jeune Fille Sophistiquée. He takes Nancy Cunard as a model, without telling her. The heiress of the Cunard shipowners, she has an eccentric life that symbolizes the roaring twenties in the Parisian literary and artistic circles. She is sexually liberated and anarchist, and her attires are inspired by Africa.
The almost abstract head is indeed a portrait. Comparing with the photos of the period, we recognize the bulging forehead and the receding chin, and the stiff neck from behind. This disturbing muse always offers in the photos an unpleasant pout that we imagine also through the rare incisions of the sculpture. The pinched bun is an evocation of her signature bunches.
Brancusi made a plaster in 1928 and a unique polished bronze in 1932. This bronze is still installed on the marble base designed by the artist, for a total height of 80 cm. It was sold for $ 71M at lot 19 A by Christie's on May 15, 2018. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Nancy Cunard discovered many years later that she had served as a model for this artwork. After hesitating in its interpretation as a bust or a torso, she expressed her admiration for the artist.
KANDINSKY
1
1910 Murnau mit Kirche
2023 SOLD for £ 37M by Sotheby's
From his childhood Kandinsky was fascinated by colors. He settled in Munich in 1896 to integrate himself within the artistic avant-gardes that he will manage to regroup around him. From this first phase he is remarkably open to all the movements that escape classicism. The main themes of his personal art are the Bavarian landscapes and the rural legends of Russia.
After Cézanne and van Gogh he learns to shake the realism of the lines. After Gauguin, Matisse, the Fauvists and the post-Impressionists, he likes to exaggerate the colors and ceases to weaken them under a varnish. He follows his friend Jawlensky who was one of the first to systematically abandon the realism of colors. Attracted by mysticism, Kandinsky studies Goethe's theories on the psychological significance of colors.
Two summer stays at Murnau with Jawlensky and their companions Gabriele and Marianne are decisive for Kandinsky's career and for his role as a pioneer of modern art. In 1908 he experiments with new forms and new colors. In 1909 he revisits with blazing colors in thick layers his compositions of the previous year and prepares the theories of his new art.
Der blaue Berg is narrative. A group of riders travels in front of a mountain reduced to a triangular surface in an intense blue. Murnau - Studie zur Landschaft mit grünem Haus is an oil on board 33 x 45 cm painted in 1908.
Satisfied with the audacity of his study with the green house Kandinsky reuses the same composition in 1909 in a larger size with more saturated pure colors. Murnau - Landschaft mit grünem Haus, oil on board 70 x 96 cm, was sold for £ 21M by Sotheby's on June 21, 2017, lot 47.
After Cézanne and van Gogh he learns to shake the realism of the lines. After Gauguin, Matisse, the Fauvists and the post-Impressionists, he likes to exaggerate the colors and ceases to weaken them under a varnish. He follows his friend Jawlensky who was one of the first to systematically abandon the realism of colors. Attracted by mysticism, Kandinsky studies Goethe's theories on the psychological significance of colors.
Two summer stays at Murnau with Jawlensky and their companions Gabriele and Marianne are decisive for Kandinsky's career and for his role as a pioneer of modern art. In 1908 he experiments with new forms and new colors. In 1909 he revisits with blazing colors in thick layers his compositions of the previous year and prepares the theories of his new art.
Der blaue Berg is narrative. A group of riders travels in front of a mountain reduced to a triangular surface in an intense blue. Murnau - Studie zur Landschaft mit grünem Haus is an oil on board 33 x 45 cm painted in 1908.
Satisfied with the audacity of his study with the green house Kandinsky reuses the same composition in 1909 in a larger size with more saturated pure colors. Murnau - Landschaft mit grünem Haus, oil on board 70 x 96 cm, was sold for £ 21M by Sotheby's on June 21, 2017, lot 47.
Wassily Kandinsky is back in 1910 in Murnau where his companion Gabriele Münter had bought a summer home in the previous year. Kandinsky is completing his quest for the new art, divided into elaborate compositions and spontaneous improvisations, soon afterward released as On the Spiritual in Art.
At that stage Kandinsky is still a landscape painter, but colors and forms supersede the realism. Murnau's dazzling colors are the beloved lab of his researches, including the dark violet woods and the saturated green of the foliage.
He makes a further step forward by considering that the verticals, while required to recognize a landscape, may be tilted. A church steeple or a factory chimney can play this role. A consequence is the canceling of the perspective, supporting his desired domination of color over representational and going closer to his end goal to mingle painting with poetry and music as a new harmonic art.
Murnau mit Kirche I, oil on board 67 x 50 cm, is anchored by the tilted steeple, but the real verticals are re-established in the foreground fence and absent in the background.
Murnau mit Kirche II, oil on canvas 96 x 105 cm, achieves that new trend by tilting the village and the mountains in a unique angle all around the same steeple.
This groundbreaking picture comes to the market as a restitution from a Nazi spoliation after seven decades spent in a museum in Eindhoven. It was sold for £ 37M by Sotheby's on March 1, 2023, lot 115. The image is shared by Wikimedia. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
At that stage Kandinsky is still a landscape painter, but colors and forms supersede the realism. Murnau's dazzling colors are the beloved lab of his researches, including the dark violet woods and the saturated green of the foliage.
He makes a further step forward by considering that the verticals, while required to recognize a landscape, may be tilted. A church steeple or a factory chimney can play this role. A consequence is the canceling of the perspective, supporting his desired domination of color over representational and going closer to his end goal to mingle painting with poetry and music as a new harmonic art.
Murnau mit Kirche I, oil on board 67 x 50 cm, is anchored by the tilted steeple, but the real verticals are re-established in the foreground fence and absent in the background.
Murnau mit Kirche II, oil on canvas 96 x 105 cm, achieves that new trend by tilting the village and the mountains in a unique angle all around the same steeple.
This groundbreaking picture comes to the market as a restitution from a Nazi spoliation after seven decades spent in a museum in Eindhoven. It was sold for £ 37M by Sotheby's on March 1, 2023, lot 115. The image is shared by Wikimedia. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
2
1913 Bild mit weissen Linien
2017 SOLD for £ 33M by Sotheby's
The summers 1908 and 1909 spent by Kandinsky in Murnau are important for the evolution of his creative vision but are in fact only an intermediate phase. In reconstructing the figuration he is still in the wake of Cézanne. In using pure and bright colors he follows Matisse.
The anecdote that Kandinsky did not recognize one of his own paintings because it was turned on another side is often considered the founding act of abstract art. Reported much later by the artist this story is mainly symbolic and is not really dated. It marks the awareness by Kandinsky that the identification of the theme undermines the aesthetic appreciation of an artwork.
After 1909 Kandinsky suppressed the classical perspective in favor of tilted sceneries for which his preparatory sketches were figurative. He copies the positions, the proportions and the masses from the sketch into the final work. The figurative details disappear and the title suggests that it was an abstract conception from the beginning. The loss of the perspective gives the artist the opportunity to reinforce the musicalist interpretation of the colors. The balance of the masses becomes a symphony.
On June 21, 2017, Sotheby's sold for £ 33M Bild mit weissen Linien, oil on canvas 120 x 110 cm painted in 1913, lot 53.
A sketch in watercolor and ink for this work is known, dated from the same year. The towers of a Russian city are clearly visible along with a red bridge over the river and two harnessed horses. The comparison is obvious when we watch simultaneously the sketch and the painting. When we only see the ultimate image it is a brilliantly colored amalgam forming an oblique mass.
After his return to Russia, Kandinsky continues to proceed with a similar method. In 1916 Moskau I is a tilted sketch where some features of the big city are recognizable. Moskau II is closer to abstraction and requires an effort of interpretation. This oil on canvas 53 x 38 cm was sold for £ 6.3M by Sotheby's on February 3, 2015.
The anecdote that Kandinsky did not recognize one of his own paintings because it was turned on another side is often considered the founding act of abstract art. Reported much later by the artist this story is mainly symbolic and is not really dated. It marks the awareness by Kandinsky that the identification of the theme undermines the aesthetic appreciation of an artwork.
After 1909 Kandinsky suppressed the classical perspective in favor of tilted sceneries for which his preparatory sketches were figurative. He copies the positions, the proportions and the masses from the sketch into the final work. The figurative details disappear and the title suggests that it was an abstract conception from the beginning. The loss of the perspective gives the artist the opportunity to reinforce the musicalist interpretation of the colors. The balance of the masses becomes a symphony.
On June 21, 2017, Sotheby's sold for £ 33M Bild mit weissen Linien, oil on canvas 120 x 110 cm painted in 1913, lot 53.
A sketch in watercolor and ink for this work is known, dated from the same year. The towers of a Russian city are clearly visible along with a red bridge over the river and two harnessed horses. The comparison is obvious when we watch simultaneously the sketch and the painting. When we only see the ultimate image it is a brilliantly colored amalgam forming an oblique mass.
After his return to Russia, Kandinsky continues to proceed with a similar method. In 1916 Moskau I is a tilted sketch where some features of the big city are recognizable. Moskau II is closer to abstraction and requires an effort of interpretation. This oil on canvas 53 x 38 cm was sold for £ 6.3M by Sotheby's on February 3, 2015.
Big Bang of Modern art: #Kandinsky’s explosive canvas marks breakthrough moment, heading to NY and #London this June https://t.co/E6qgytSkzF pic.twitter.com/oaVJ18ngLa
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) June 2, 2017
MALEVICH
1
masterpiece
1915 Black Square on White Background
Tretyakov Gallery
Suprematism comes in the wake of Futurism, with the same target of glorifying the work of man. The Futurists express speed, linked to the improvement of techniques. Malevich's work on non-figuration is not inspired by Kandinsky's emotional and semiotic abstraction.
The seminal work of non-figuration is the stage set made in 1913 by Malevich in St. Petersburg for the Russian Futurist opera Victory over the Sun.
The new language is a construction of colored quadrangles on a white background which expresses purity and infinity and anticipates Mondrian. They overlap or coincide without a perspective effect and without transparency, often in a globally rising or falling movement that offers the confidence into the progress.
Some of the early constructions retain titles such as Automobile and Lady or Aircraft in flight that do not score an incentive to a figurative reading but rather a recognition by the artist of his Futurist inspiration.
Boccioni had wanted a global art with a figuration blurred within many facets. Kandinsky, Léger and a little later Mondrian were still exploring the boundaries between figurative and emotional. Malevich is unquestionably the first to purify art by freeing it from any interpretation of subject or object.
A few years later, Rodchenko's constructivism was a follow-up to Malevich's suprematism, adding a desire to create useful structures for architecture and furnishings. Malevich did not need to follow Rodchenko : independently from Mondrian he had been one of the very first artists to offer a vision of the universe free from any thematic reference.
Painted in 1915, the 18th Composition is a stack of almost rectangular non-transparent shapes. The emotion must not be brought only by the freedom of the elements but also by the colors.
This oil on canvas 53 x 53 cm already invites to rotate the canvas for an observation in the four possible orientations. It was sold for £ 21.5M by Sotheby's on June 24, 2015, lot 18. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
An exhibition of avant-garde Russian paintings is held in Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg) in March 1915 at the initiative of the very young Ivan Puni. Its aim is to promote a synthesis between cubism and futurism. The title Tramway V is an allusion to the progress of mechanical locomotion that symbolizes the new century for the Futurists.
Malevich participates in Tramway V but is already somehow a rebel. He introduces his own works with a comment which is indeed a profession of faith for an abstract art : "the author ignores the contents of these paintings".
The scandal of Tramway V meets the expectations of its organizers and another exhibition will be managed before the end of the year.
Malevich understands that his time has come : he will be the prophet of the subject-less art. To be pure, art should excite feelings without the support of a message. It is neither figurative nor religious nor political.
His new grammar is reduced to three basic filled shapes, simple enough to escape a semiotic interpretation : rectangle, oval and cross, invariably on a white background.. The perfect rectangle and oval are the square and the circle.
Malevich reaches in May the ultimate expression of this new artistic grammar, the black square.
The second exhibition of his group, from mid-December 1915 to mid-January 1916, is hermetically titled Zero-Ten. Malevich enters 39 paintings offering various degrees of reconstruction, physically dominated in their hanging by the Black Square on White Background. The loss of meaning allows the artist to change the position of the paintings. He is a precursor of the modern installation.
That Black Square, altogether dense, symmetrical and balanced, is the first great shock from this new art. Malevich's aim is aesthetic. Centered on a canvas where it fills most of the available surface, the square becomes a flying artifact independently from its supporting fabric and generates a mesmerizing feeling. He coins for this new approach the designation of Suprematism.
Aware of the promising importance of this invention, Malevich returns to build complex compositions expressing the forces of the universe by the opposition of colors circumscribed in strictly geometrical forms.
A Composition of three forms was sold for $ 21M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2017, lot 32. This oil on canvas 53 x 53 cm is a convincing demonstration of the first level of the suprematist reconstruction at such a point that it was undoubtedly made for the preparation of Zero-Ten.
It is dominated by a very saturated dark yellow truncated triangle which is the projection of a sloping rectangle onto the surface of the canvas. A group of two small rectangles partially masking the yellow form can be viewed in space as co-planar with its upper edge.
The seminal work of non-figuration is the stage set made in 1913 by Malevich in St. Petersburg for the Russian Futurist opera Victory over the Sun.
The new language is a construction of colored quadrangles on a white background which expresses purity and infinity and anticipates Mondrian. They overlap or coincide without a perspective effect and without transparency, often in a globally rising or falling movement that offers the confidence into the progress.
Some of the early constructions retain titles such as Automobile and Lady or Aircraft in flight that do not score an incentive to a figurative reading but rather a recognition by the artist of his Futurist inspiration.
Boccioni had wanted a global art with a figuration blurred within many facets. Kandinsky, Léger and a little later Mondrian were still exploring the boundaries between figurative and emotional. Malevich is unquestionably the first to purify art by freeing it from any interpretation of subject or object.
A few years later, Rodchenko's constructivism was a follow-up to Malevich's suprematism, adding a desire to create useful structures for architecture and furnishings. Malevich did not need to follow Rodchenko : independently from Mondrian he had been one of the very first artists to offer a vision of the universe free from any thematic reference.
Painted in 1915, the 18th Composition is a stack of almost rectangular non-transparent shapes. The emotion must not be brought only by the freedom of the elements but also by the colors.
This oil on canvas 53 x 53 cm already invites to rotate the canvas for an observation in the four possible orientations. It was sold for £ 21.5M by Sotheby's on June 24, 2015, lot 18. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
An exhibition of avant-garde Russian paintings is held in Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg) in March 1915 at the initiative of the very young Ivan Puni. Its aim is to promote a synthesis between cubism and futurism. The title Tramway V is an allusion to the progress of mechanical locomotion that symbolizes the new century for the Futurists.
Malevich participates in Tramway V but is already somehow a rebel. He introduces his own works with a comment which is indeed a profession of faith for an abstract art : "the author ignores the contents of these paintings".
The scandal of Tramway V meets the expectations of its organizers and another exhibition will be managed before the end of the year.
Malevich understands that his time has come : he will be the prophet of the subject-less art. To be pure, art should excite feelings without the support of a message. It is neither figurative nor religious nor political.
His new grammar is reduced to three basic filled shapes, simple enough to escape a semiotic interpretation : rectangle, oval and cross, invariably on a white background.. The perfect rectangle and oval are the square and the circle.
Malevich reaches in May the ultimate expression of this new artistic grammar, the black square.
The second exhibition of his group, from mid-December 1915 to mid-January 1916, is hermetically titled Zero-Ten. Malevich enters 39 paintings offering various degrees of reconstruction, physically dominated in their hanging by the Black Square on White Background. The loss of meaning allows the artist to change the position of the paintings. He is a precursor of the modern installation.
That Black Square, altogether dense, symmetrical and balanced, is the first great shock from this new art. Malevich's aim is aesthetic. Centered on a canvas where it fills most of the available surface, the square becomes a flying artifact independently from its supporting fabric and generates a mesmerizing feeling. He coins for this new approach the designation of Suprematism.
Aware of the promising importance of this invention, Malevich returns to build complex compositions expressing the forces of the universe by the opposition of colors circumscribed in strictly geometrical forms.
A Composition of three forms was sold for $ 21M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2017, lot 32. This oil on canvas 53 x 53 cm is a convincing demonstration of the first level of the suprematist reconstruction at such a point that it was undoubtedly made for the preparation of Zero-Ten.
It is dominated by a very saturated dark yellow truncated triangle which is the projection of a sloping rectangle onto the surface of the canvas. A group of two small rectangles partially masking the yellow form can be viewed in space as co-planar with its upper edge.
2
1916 Suprematist Composition
2018 SOLD for $ 86M by Christie's
After the closing of the exhibition 0.10 in January 1916, Malevich restarts his search for the ultimate expression of colors. Suprematist Composition, oil on canvas 89 x 71 cm painted in 1916, was sold for $ 60M by Sotheby's on November 3, 2008, lot 6 and for $ 86M by Christie's on May 15, 2018, lot 12 A. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The painting no longer produces an illusion : it is a composition based on about fifty colored beams spread over a white background. The size, the proportions and the colors are varied. The angular positions show an opposition between the big purple beam and most of the others.
Malevich has succeeded here in his approach to an art that completely escapes nature and feeling, to retain only the aesthetics of color and geometry. He wanted his art to be understandable in the same way in all countries.
The painting no longer produces an illusion : it is a composition based on about fifty colored beams spread over a white background. The size, the proportions and the colors are varied. The angular positions show an opposition between the big purple beam and most of the others.
Malevich has succeeded here in his approach to an art that completely escapes nature and feeling, to retain only the aesthetics of color and geometry. He wanted his art to be understandable in the same way in all countries.
3
masterpiece
1918 Suprematist Composition, white on white
MoMA
The Suprematism by Malevich begins in 1915 with the breakthrough exhibition in Petrograd. The white on white of 1918 comes in the follow.
The boldness of the White square on white background opens the way to modern abstract art calling for the variations in texture instead of form or color.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The boldness of the White square on white background opens the way to modern abstract art calling for the variations in texture instead of form or color.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
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4
1920-1922 Mystic Suprematism
2015 SOLD for $ 38M by Sotheby's
In the early phase of Suprematism, other works by Malevich still make concessions to competing movements. His cohorts of stripes more or less parallel in various colors seek to express the movement as in the Futurism in an assembly which appears hand made as in the Synthetic Cubism or in the Constructivism.
On November 5, 2015, Sotheby's sold for $ 38M Mystic Suprematism, oil on canvas 100 x 59 cm painted between 1920 and 1922, lot 8.
A black cross is flying in front of a deep red oval. The pole of the cross and the oval are coaxial. The pole is a quadrangle that slightly tapers downward, bringing an effect of forward tilting. The additional small black line that runs across the lower part of the pole is used for balancing, allowing the viewer to decide if that indefinable abstract object is or not about to fall.
Suprematism is already announcing the major trends of abstract art of the second half of its century, which will use the expressive role of the colors. It is unfortunate that Malevich did not experience the importance of large size. To go further than Suprematism, wait for Rothko.
On November 5, 2015, Sotheby's sold for $ 38M Mystic Suprematism, oil on canvas 100 x 59 cm painted between 1920 and 1922, lot 8.
A black cross is flying in front of a deep red oval. The pole of the cross and the oval are coaxial. The pole is a quadrangle that slightly tapers downward, bringing an effect of forward tilting. The additional small black line that runs across the lower part of the pole is used for balancing, allowing the viewer to decide if that indefinable abstract object is or not about to fall.
Suprematism is already announcing the major trends of abstract art of the second half of its century, which will use the expressive role of the colors. It is unfortunate that Malevich did not experience the importance of large size. To go further than Suprematism, wait for Rothko.
Kazimir Malevich’s “Mystic Suprematism” represents the artist at his most radical and powerful http://t.co/ZVK8UCMZxo pic.twitter.com/9iGywjP92q
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) September 18, 20151923 Le Boeuf by Soutine
2015 SOLD for $ 28M by Christie's
Despite his difficult and secretive behavior, Chaïm Soutine was not isolated in the Parisian art world. He had been a drinking companion of Modigliani and interested Zborowski. He decomposed the landscapes to better express the violence of colors, to the detriment not only of perspective but also of balance.
Visiting Paris in 1923, Barnes was overwhelmed by the highly original expressive approach of the young painter, but Soutine never reacts like everyone else. After this unexpected success, he moved his studio and rushed to La Villette and bought a beef carcass.
The series of images of carcasses, beef and afterwards other animals, is not a victory of the artist against hunger. He was indeed already threatened by his stomach ulcer that will kill him twenty years later.
The haunting red of blood and meat is the exacerbation of a child's nightmare. Soutine had been shocked by the contrast between the tragedy of the dead animal and the satisfaction of the butcher to offer a choice piece. His carcasses defy the balancing traditions of still life painting in a logical continuation of his compositions of landscapes.
Meat rots on its hook, offering new colors to the artist and alerting the neighbors who called the police but failed to halt this remarkable creative impulse. An oil on canvas 81 x 60 cm showing a beef carcass in close up view was sold for $ 28M from a lower estimate of $ 20M for sale by Christie's on May 11, 2015, lot 30A.
The views of a beef carcass are indeed an experience by the artist for expressing the colors of flesh and blood. The example above is a close up. Displaying the same carcass in full view including the hooks and the surrounding of his new studio, Le Boeuf écorché looks like a crucifixion with its stretched limbs. This specific composition composition closely follows a slaughtered ox painted by Rembrandt. This large size oil on canvas 130 x 75 cm painted ca 1924 was sold for £ 7.8M by Christie's on February 6, 2006, lot 68.
Visiting Paris in 1923, Barnes was overwhelmed by the highly original expressive approach of the young painter, but Soutine never reacts like everyone else. After this unexpected success, he moved his studio and rushed to La Villette and bought a beef carcass.
The series of images of carcasses, beef and afterwards other animals, is not a victory of the artist against hunger. He was indeed already threatened by his stomach ulcer that will kill him twenty years later.
The haunting red of blood and meat is the exacerbation of a child's nightmare. Soutine had been shocked by the contrast between the tragedy of the dead animal and the satisfaction of the butcher to offer a choice piece. His carcasses defy the balancing traditions of still life painting in a logical continuation of his compositions of landscapes.
Meat rots on its hook, offering new colors to the artist and alerting the neighbors who called the police but failed to halt this remarkable creative impulse. An oil on canvas 81 x 60 cm showing a beef carcass in close up view was sold for $ 28M from a lower estimate of $ 20M for sale by Christie's on May 11, 2015, lot 30A.
The views of a beef carcass are indeed an experience by the artist for expressing the colors of flesh and blood. The example above is a close up. Displaying the same carcass in full view including the hooks and the surrounding of his new studio, Le Boeuf écorché looks like a crucifixion with its stretched limbs. This specific composition composition closely follows a slaughtered ox painted by Rembrandt. This large size oil on canvas 130 x 75 cm painted ca 1924 was sold for £ 7.8M by Christie's on February 6, 2006, lot 68.
This beef painting is selling for the cost of about 400,000 rib-eyes http://t.co/Zcs8LR5a2C pic.twitter.com/MW7KxVGDEh
— Bon Appetit Magazine (@bonappetit) May 6, 20151928 Les Amoureux by Chagall
2017 SOLD for $ 28.5M by Sotheby's
Marc and Bella Chagall are charming in their total empathy for one another. On November 14, 2017, Sotheby's sold for $ 28.5M from a lower estimate of $ 12M Les Amoureux, oil on canvas 117 x 90 cm painted by Marc in 1928, lot 8.
The theme of lovers portraying his own couple is recurrent in the art of Chagall but this work is especially touching by the attitudes, the realism of the very recognizable faces and some discretion of the surrealist attributes.
In their beatitude the lovers are floating. The young man with closed eyes is resting his head between the cheek and the shoulder of the woman. She gently welcomes this enthusiastic impulse but her eyes wide open indicate the lucidity with which she guides in real life this innocent husband.
Paris is their nest. In that same year Marc painted Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel where their dear little Ida is disguised as a floating angel to present the bouquet. This oil on canvas 90 x 117 cm was sold for £ 7M by Christie's on February 2, 2016.
Let's go back to our Amoureux. Marc does not miss to express his gratitude to his host country. The tricolor dress of Bella ends with a blue in which is transposed the sky centered by a dazzling sun. In this sky a tiny bird comes to offer its auspices to the embraced couple. Leaves and flowers bring their frame to this ethereal scene.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's in which the love of Marc and Bella is commented by one of their granddaughters.
The theme of lovers portraying his own couple is recurrent in the art of Chagall but this work is especially touching by the attitudes, the realism of the very recognizable faces and some discretion of the surrealist attributes.
In their beatitude the lovers are floating. The young man with closed eyes is resting his head between the cheek and the shoulder of the woman. She gently welcomes this enthusiastic impulse but her eyes wide open indicate the lucidity with which she guides in real life this innocent husband.
Paris is their nest. In that same year Marc painted Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel where their dear little Ida is disguised as a floating angel to present the bouquet. This oil on canvas 90 x 117 cm was sold for £ 7M by Christie's on February 2, 2016.
Let's go back to our Amoureux. Marc does not miss to express his gratitude to his host country. The tricolor dress of Bella ends with a blue in which is transposed the sky centered by a dazzling sun. In this sky a tiny bird comes to offer its auspices to the embraced couple. Leaves and flowers bring their frame to this ethereal scene.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's in which the love of Marc and Bella is commented by one of their granddaughters.
2021 Dmitry Muratov Nobel Peace Prize
2022 SOLD for $ 103.5M by Heritage
In 1993 Mikhail Gorbachev used the money from his 1990 Nobel Peace prize to help founding an independent Russian newspaper, the Novaya Gazeta. The key personality for this operation is Dmitry Muratov, editor in chief from 1995 excepted a two year hiatus from 2017.
It is indeed not a comfortable task. From 2000 to 2009 six of its journalists including two women have been killed in a direct following of their professional investigations.
The 2021 Nobel Peace prize was shared between the Filipino journalist Maria Ressa and Muratov "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace."
During the Russian-Ukrainian war, Muratov decided on March 22, 2022 to sell his medal to support UNICEF's humanitarian response for children in Ukraine and neighboring countries.
It was sold for $ 103.5M in a single lot auction operated by Heritage on June 20 which is also the World Refugee Day. The bidding was opened on June 1 which is Children's Day in Ukraine. The event is approved by the Norwegian Nobel Institute as a "generous act of humanitarianism very much in the spirit of Alfred Nobel". Please watch the video of an interview of Muratov about that project, shared by the auction house.
A precedent is the sale by Niels Bohr of his Nobel Prize in Physics medal to benefit Finnish relief during the Second World War.
The Russian edition of the Novaya Gazeta was suspended on March 28, 2022 after two warnings from the Russian agency in charge of the control of the communication. Muratov was subsequently splashed by an assailant in the eyes with a mixture of red paint and acetone.
It is indeed not a comfortable task. From 2000 to 2009 six of its journalists including two women have been killed in a direct following of their professional investigations.
The 2021 Nobel Peace prize was shared between the Filipino journalist Maria Ressa and Muratov "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace."
During the Russian-Ukrainian war, Muratov decided on March 22, 2022 to sell his medal to support UNICEF's humanitarian response for children in Ukraine and neighboring countries.
It was sold for $ 103.5M in a single lot auction operated by Heritage on June 20 which is also the World Refugee Day. The bidding was opened on June 1 which is Children's Day in Ukraine. The event is approved by the Norwegian Nobel Institute as a "generous act of humanitarianism very much in the spirit of Alfred Nobel". Please watch the video of an interview of Muratov about that project, shared by the auction house.
A precedent is the sale by Niels Bohr of his Nobel Prize in Physics medal to benefit Finnish relief during the Second World War.
The Russian edition of the Novaya Gazeta was suspended on March 28, 2022 after two warnings from the Russian agency in charge of the control of the communication. Muratov was subsequently splashed by an assailant in the eyes with a mixture of red paint and acetone.
