Self Portrait 2nd page
not including Bacon and Warhol
See also : Self portrait Man and woman Flemish art Picasso Picasso 1900-1930 Austria Eastern Europe Chagall Germany II Orientalism Music and dance Paris
Chronology : 1640-1659 1850-1859 1870-1879 1900-1909 1909 1915 1920-1929 1928 1938 1988 1996 2006
See also : Self portrait Man and woman Flemish art Picasso Picasso 1900-1930 Austria Eastern Europe Chagall Germany II Orientalism Music and dance Paris
Chronology : 1640-1659 1850-1859 1870-1879 1900-1909 1909 1915 1920-1929 1928 1938 1988 1996 2006
1641 Van Dyck painted by Himself
2009 SOLD 8.3 M£ including premium
A native of Antwerp and pupil of Rubens, Van Dyck moved permanently to England in 1632. He got there one of the greatest successes in the history of painting as a portraitist of King Charles I and his court.
In 1641, a few months before his death, he made the self-portrait on canvas that Sotheby's is selling in London on December 9. He is a typical gentleman of the mid-seventeenth century, with long hair pulled back to clear the forehead, and abundant whiskers. He was shown almost in profile, in an oval format that is highlighted by a splendid frame.
The lower estimate announced by Sotheby's is £ 2 million, but the press retains only the higher estimate, £ 3 million. Recent results for paintings by Van Dyck can actually give hope that this price is reached.
In the same family for three centuries, this portrait was one of the stars of the Van Dyck exhibition at Tate Britain in London last spring.
Here are links to information provided by other sites that encourage sharing. You will access to the photo of the artwork, with in one of these pages the presence of an assistant who gives the scale. I wish you a pleasant visit.
Shared by Guardian
Shared by Bloomberg
Shared by Art Market Monitor
POST SALE COMMENT
This outstanding and attractive painting get one of the best results of this London sale session: £ 8.3 million including premium.
In 1641, a few months before his death, he made the self-portrait on canvas that Sotheby's is selling in London on December 9. He is a typical gentleman of the mid-seventeenth century, with long hair pulled back to clear the forehead, and abundant whiskers. He was shown almost in profile, in an oval format that is highlighted by a splendid frame.
The lower estimate announced by Sotheby's is £ 2 million, but the press retains only the higher estimate, £ 3 million. Recent results for paintings by Van Dyck can actually give hope that this price is reached.
In the same family for three centuries, this portrait was one of the stars of the Van Dyck exhibition at Tate Britain in London last spring.
Here are links to information provided by other sites that encourage sharing. You will access to the photo of the artwork, with in one of these pages the presence of an assistant who gives the scale. I wish you a pleasant visit.
Shared by Guardian
Shared by Bloomberg
Shared by Art Market Monitor
POST SALE COMMENT
This outstanding and attractive painting get one of the best results of this London sale session: £ 8.3 million including premium.
Self-portrait by Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) sold for $13.63 million in 2009. #NationalSelfieDay #art #auction pic.twitter.com/6uzblndHOB
— Maine Antique Digest (@AntiqueDigest) June 21, 2016
1855 A Dangerous Javanese Game
2018 SOLD for € 9M including premium
Nephew of a local prefect on the island of Java which was then part of the Dutch East Indies, Raden Saleh had early skills for the graphic arts. He left in 1829 to study art in Holland. His first Western paintings are portraits. After meeting a lion tamer, he executes hunting scenes whose exoticism is well suited to the curiosity of the period.
The action of a great violence involves ferocious beasts, together or confronted with hunters on horseback. His bestiary is too varied to be relying from personal Javanese memories : lions, tigers, deer, buffalo, boar.
The composition seems directly inspired by the hunting scenes painted by Rubens around 1620, with a swirling and vividly colored center in which the protagonists are intertwined up to the limit of readability. Men and animals express exacerbated feelings of panic and horror.
When he is in France, Raden Saleh is in touch with Horace Vernet but his more flexible lines are inspired by the Dutch landscape learned from Schelfhout. The similarity of his ardor with Delacroix's romantic orientalism is obvious, but the hunts by Raden Saleh were conceived long before the 1854 commission to Delacroix by the Beaux-Arts for a lion hunt.
Raden Saleh returned to Java in 1852, bringing with him the notoriety he acquired in Europe. Like Rubens, he is using very large formats. Like what tradition said of Rubens, he also likes to include his self-portrait in full activity among the hunters.
An oil on canvas 110 x 180 cm dated 1855 titled La Chasse au taureau sauvage Banteng (Banteng wild bull hunting) has just surfaced in Brittany, in a basement where the owners had hidden it for several decades because they were uncomfortable with its violence. Minor misses are reported. It is estimated € 150K for sale by Ruellan in Vannes on January 27, lot 1. Please watch the video shared by Interencheres.
The action of a great violence involves ferocious beasts, together or confronted with hunters on horseback. His bestiary is too varied to be relying from personal Javanese memories : lions, tigers, deer, buffalo, boar.
The composition seems directly inspired by the hunting scenes painted by Rubens around 1620, with a swirling and vividly colored center in which the protagonists are intertwined up to the limit of readability. Men and animals express exacerbated feelings of panic and horror.
When he is in France, Raden Saleh is in touch with Horace Vernet but his more flexible lines are inspired by the Dutch landscape learned from Schelfhout. The similarity of his ardor with Delacroix's romantic orientalism is obvious, but the hunts by Raden Saleh were conceived long before the 1854 commission to Delacroix by the Beaux-Arts for a lion hunt.
Raden Saleh returned to Java in 1852, bringing with him the notoriety he acquired in Europe. Like Rubens, he is using very large formats. Like what tradition said of Rubens, he also likes to include his self-portrait in full activity among the hunters.
An oil on canvas 110 x 180 cm dated 1855 titled La Chasse au taureau sauvage Banteng (Banteng wild bull hunting) has just surfaced in Brittany, in a basement where the owners had hidden it for several decades because they were uncomfortable with its violence. Minor misses are reported. It is estimated € 150K for sale by Ruellan in Vannes on January 27, lot 1. Please watch the video shared by Interencheres.
Retrouvez nous le 27 janvier 2018 pour la vente à Vannes de « La Chasse au taureau sauvage » de Raden Saleh datée et signée de 1855. #artist #Inde #chasse #Tigre #Taureau #auction #SaveTheDate https://t.co/4OqgLXxsMi pic.twitter.com/Eabe5zvVRO
— RUELLAN (@jpruellan) December 13, 2017
1878-1879 Monsieur Manet, Artist
2010 SOLD 22.4 M£ including premium
In 1878 or 1879, Edouard Manet painted two self-portraits, which were the only ones of his career. Perhaps he wanted to change the image that his contemporaries had of him, fifteen years after such powerful and scandalous progresses of modern art as were le Déjeuner sur l'herbe and Olympia.
Manet is not a rapin. This colloquial term used in Paris at that time applied to partygoer artists who courted easy milliners who were known as grisettes. Instead, his elegant jacket and hat, and his full and forked beard provided the image of a grand bourgeois.
The oil on canvas, 85 x 71 cm, for sale on June 22 by Sotheby's in London, reinforces the quest for respectability by including the professional attributes of the artist: his brushes and palette. There is however an obstacle to the social success of Manet : he stares into space, sadly. Aged 47, he is already sick.
Manet is often classified among the Impressionists, whom he was one of the first to support. He was rather a great experimenter of the artistic language, and each of his paintings is a bit unique. This one is among the most prestigious. It is estimated £ 20 million, and is the subject of a page with great detail in the Wikipedia.
POST SALE COMMENT
This painting so unusual in Manet's art was sold 22.4 million pounds including premium, meeting its estimate.
The file below is shared by Wikimedia :
Manet is not a rapin. This colloquial term used in Paris at that time applied to partygoer artists who courted easy milliners who were known as grisettes. Instead, his elegant jacket and hat, and his full and forked beard provided the image of a grand bourgeois.
The oil on canvas, 85 x 71 cm, for sale on June 22 by Sotheby's in London, reinforces the quest for respectability by including the professional attributes of the artist: his brushes and palette. There is however an obstacle to the social success of Manet : he stares into space, sadly. Aged 47, he is already sick.
Manet is often classified among the Impressionists, whom he was one of the first to support. He was rather a great experimenter of the artistic language, and each of his paintings is a bit unique. This one is among the most prestigious. It is estimated £ 20 million, and is the subject of a page with great detail in the Wikipedia.
POST SALE COMMENT
This painting so unusual in Manet's art was sold 22.4 million pounds including premium, meeting its estimate.
The file below is shared by Wikimedia :
1901 Yo, Picasso by Pablo Picasso
1989 SOLD 48 M$ including premium by Sotheby's
The low resolution image is shared by Wikimedia for fair use.
1909 A Self Portrait in the Jugendstil
2016 SOLD for £ 7.2M including premium
The Viennese Jugendstil deserves its name: Gustav Klimt endeavors to reveal and protect young skilled artists. Egon Schiele is passionate about drawing since childhood and begins to paint on canvas. During the summer of 1909 he exhibits four paintings at the International Kunstschau promoting Klimt's Secessionist movement. Aged 19, he is still a student.
The advances by Klimt in the artistic language are revolutionary and effective. Schiele is inspired by them but early seeks to express his own personality. A self-portrait 74 x 30 cm painted by Egon in late 1909 was sold for £ 4.5 million including premium by Christie's in London on 6 February 2007. It is now estimated £ 6M for sale in the same auction room on February 2, lot 31.
Working a portrait in a narrow vertical format is one of Klimt's innovations. Egon reuses this idea while limiting the figuration to the head in the top right and the hands at the lower end of the image, over a dark background.
The young artist is ambitious. The insertion of the head into a gold frame on two and a half sides is an adaptation from the gilded left and right edges of Klimt's Judith. The left edge of Egon's image is decorated with small variously colored rectangles that mark his temporary allegiance to the Wiener Werkstätte.
Schiele's personality is complex. He wants to be recognized and his lively gazes undertakes communication, but his face is heavily rouged. The fingers which are the tool of his growing fame are wide open in a hermetic symbolism that can be a proposal, an explanation or a mime.
The advances by Klimt in the artistic language are revolutionary and effective. Schiele is inspired by them but early seeks to express his own personality. A self-portrait 74 x 30 cm painted by Egon in late 1909 was sold for £ 4.5 million including premium by Christie's in London on 6 February 2007. It is now estimated £ 6M for sale in the same auction room on February 2, lot 31.
Working a portrait in a narrow vertical format is one of Klimt's innovations. Egon reuses this idea while limiting the figuration to the head in the top right and the hands at the lower end of the image, over a dark background.
The young artist is ambitious. The insertion of the head into a gold frame on two and a half sides is an adaptation from the gilded left and right edges of Klimt's Judith. The left edge of Egon's image is decorated with small variously colored rectangles that mark his temporary allegiance to the Wiener Werkstätte.
Schiele's personality is complex. He wants to be recognized and his lively gazes undertakes communication, but his face is heavily rouged. The fingers which are the tool of his growing fame are wide open in a hermetic symbolism that can be a proposal, an explanation or a mime.
#Selbstbildnis von #EgonSchiele und weitere namhafte #Künstler am 2. Feb. bei @ChristiesInc. https://t.co/rvA9iHZonE pic.twitter.com/4523IJGcOC
— Barnebys.de (@Barnebysde) January 19, 2016
1915 The Tragic Embrace of Egon and Wally
2013 SOLD 7.9 M£ including premium
The world seen by Egon Schiele is unbearable, but the young man is trying to communicate. People are ugly. He shows his own ugliness in his many self-portraits. Life is probably meaningless: the art of Schiele has no limits, nor in provocation, or in derision, or in obscenity.
I do not know if another artist went as far as Schiele to show himself so unfriendly. He does not smile. The twisting of his body creates discomfort. His eyes, straight or angled, are too incisive for his communication to enable a response.
His muse Wally is also shown as an ageless figure. However, when they met in 1911, she was only 17 years old.
Schiele was also complicated and tormented within his private life. In 1915, he announces to Wally that he wants to marry, but especially not with her. Furious, she leaves. He then executes one of his most dramatic paintings, Death and the Maiden. The bending Death presses the kneeling girl. The stature of Egon and the face of Wally are recognizable in these two characters.
The drawing in gouache, watercolor and pencil for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 5 shows a similar scene. Wally, at mid-body, is by evidence standing on her knees, embracing the belt of her standing lover. This work is clearly identified as a self-portrait. Egon looks at Wally. The eyes of the young woman are distraught.
This drawing is estimated £ 6.5 M. It is illustrated in the article shared by Bloomberg.
POST SALE COMMENT
Two of the drawings presented in this sale are masterpieces by Schiele in his best specialty, the self-portrait.
The drawing of 1914, where he is alone, was sold £ 5.1 million including premium.
The drawing with Wally, described above, was sold £ 7.9 million including premium.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's, highlighting the three Schiele drawings available in this sale :
I do not know if another artist went as far as Schiele to show himself so unfriendly. He does not smile. The twisting of his body creates discomfort. His eyes, straight or angled, are too incisive for his communication to enable a response.
His muse Wally is also shown as an ageless figure. However, when they met in 1911, she was only 17 years old.
Schiele was also complicated and tormented within his private life. In 1915, he announces to Wally that he wants to marry, but especially not with her. Furious, she leaves. He then executes one of his most dramatic paintings, Death and the Maiden. The bending Death presses the kneeling girl. The stature of Egon and the face of Wally are recognizable in these two characters.
The drawing in gouache, watercolor and pencil for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 5 shows a similar scene. Wally, at mid-body, is by evidence standing on her knees, embracing the belt of her standing lover. This work is clearly identified as a self-portrait. Egon looks at Wally. The eyes of the young woman are distraught.
This drawing is estimated £ 6.5 M. It is illustrated in the article shared by Bloomberg.
POST SALE COMMENT
Two of the drawings presented in this sale are masterpieces by Schiele in his best specialty, the self-portrait.
The drawing of 1914, where he is alone, was sold £ 5.1 million including premium.
The drawing with Wally, described above, was sold £ 7.9 million including premium.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's, highlighting the three Schiele drawings available in this sale :
1928 Wonderful Love
2017 SOLD for $ 28.5M including premium
Marc and Bella are charming in their total empathy for one another. On November 14 in New York, Sotheby's sells Les Amoureux, oil on canvas 117 x 90 cm painted in 1928 by Chagall, lot 8 estimated $ 12M.
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 including premium 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 including premium 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.
1928 Under the Romantic Protection of the Eiffel Tower
2016 SOLD for £ 7M including premium
In his first long stay in Paris from 1910 to 1914, Marc Chagall admired the joyous city under the protection of its benefactor totem, the Eiffel Tower.
The following years were very hard, but his return to Paris in 1923 with his wife Bella opens to this hypersensitive artist the happiest period of his life. His little family now lives in comfort thanks to a contract with the dealer Bernheim-Jeune and to the projects of illustrations undertaken with Vollard.
Few figurative artists managed to express a perfect happiness. On February 2 in London, Christie's sells Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel, oil on canvas 90 x 117 cm painted in 1928, lot 24 estimated £ 4.8M.
The title is nice. Marc had married his muse thirteen years earlier but their couple in the lower right of the image retains the freshness of tenderly embraced newlyweds. Both gaze out towards the viewer while their daughter Ida aged 12 flies with her angel wings through a window to present to her parents a big bouquet of flowers.
Paris provided them the happiness and the colors are joyous. The Eiffel Tower is viewed beyond the gently animated green lawn of the Champ de Mars. The surrealism in the manner of Chagall is included : behind the Tower, trees float like clouds, bringing an additional lightness to this romantic composition.
The following years were very hard, but his return to Paris in 1923 with his wife Bella opens to this hypersensitive artist the happiest period of his life. His little family now lives in comfort thanks to a contract with the dealer Bernheim-Jeune and to the projects of illustrations undertaken with Vollard.
Few figurative artists managed to express a perfect happiness. On February 2 in London, Christie's sells Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel, oil on canvas 90 x 117 cm painted in 1928, lot 24 estimated £ 4.8M.
The title is nice. Marc had married his muse thirteen years earlier but their couple in the lower right of the image retains the freshness of tenderly embraced newlyweds. Both gaze out towards the viewer while their daughter Ida aged 12 flies with her angel wings through a window to present to her parents a big bouquet of flowers.
Paris provided them the happiness and the colors are joyous. The Eiffel Tower is viewed beyond the gently animated green lawn of the Champ de Mars. The surrealism in the manner of Chagall is included : behind the Tower, trees float like clouds, bringing an additional lightness to this romantic composition.
1938 Self Portrait with Horn by Max Beckmann
2001 SOLD 22.5 M$ including premium by Sotheby's
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
1979 The Twilight of the Painter
2017 SOLD for $ 12.6M including premium
Philip Guston had been one of the best painters of the abstract expressionism, displaying explosions of colors from the center of his canvases. Painted in 1958, To Fellini was sold for $ 26M including premium by Christie's on May 15, 2013.
Guston is however tormented by the question of the role of art. When he moves to Woodstock NY in 1967 he completely changes his approach to the detriment of his own career.
He no longer understands what is the purpose of juxtaposing bright colors. He will now show ordinary objects of his time in a drawing imitating cartoons with poor or lugubrious colors.
On May 17 in New York, Christie's sells Painter at night, oil on canvas 172 x 203 cm painted in 1979, lot 11 B estimated $ 8M. This artwork bearing symbols from his whole life appears as his artistic testament. Did this chain smoker feel that his health was threatened ? He died in the next year of a heart attack.
The unshaved artist with dirty hair turns his back on the viewer. In his dignity as a creator, he is not embarrassed to look like a tramp. He holds his brush and looks at the smoke of his cigarette. The scene is barely lit by a small lamp that symbolized the suicide of his father in his teenager's drawings. Framed in a television it is only a picture in the picture : once again art did not express a reality.
Misunderstood in his later career during his lifetime, Guston has become the forerunner of a movement which does not yet have a name seeking to express the existentialist difficulty and the brutality of current life.
Guston is however tormented by the question of the role of art. When he moves to Woodstock NY in 1967 he completely changes his approach to the detriment of his own career.
He no longer understands what is the purpose of juxtaposing bright colors. He will now show ordinary objects of his time in a drawing imitating cartoons with poor or lugubrious colors.
On May 17 in New York, Christie's sells Painter at night, oil on canvas 172 x 203 cm painted in 1979, lot 11 B estimated $ 8M. This artwork bearing symbols from his whole life appears as his artistic testament. Did this chain smoker feel that his health was threatened ? He died in the next year of a heart attack.
The unshaved artist with dirty hair turns his back on the viewer. In his dignity as a creator, he is not embarrassed to look like a tramp. He holds his brush and looks at the smoke of his cigarette. The scene is barely lit by a small lamp that symbolized the suicide of his father in his teenager's drawings. Framed in a television it is only a picture in the picture : once again art did not express a reality.
Misunderstood in his later career during his lifetime, Guston has become the forerunner of a movement which does not yet have a name seeking to express the existentialist difficulty and the brutality of current life.
1988 Self Portrait of Kippenberger in Picasso Underpants
2014 SOLD for $ 22.6M including premium
Regarding painting, the time of Martin Kippenberger could have been a lost generation. He admires Picasso as the ultimate artist who summarizes the art of the twentieth century. He likes the photo made by Duncan in 1962 where Picasso is shirtless, wearing only white underpants.
In 1988, Kippenberger is activist, ambitious and worldly. Coming to Vienna for business, he unintentionally arrives in a grubby hotel because all the others are full. He stages himself in Picasso pants and looks in the mirror. He sees how much he is ugly.
Kippenberger's self-portraits in Picasso underwears display an unpleasant bearded man with a beer belly. He is 35 years old. This series not only shows the beginning of the inexorable physical decline of the artist, but it mostly questions the future of artistic expression in the classis form of painting.
On November 12 in New York, Christie's sells an oil on canvas 242 x 202 cm, lot 40 estimated 15M. In an arrogant attitude opposite to Picasso's, the man without legs is placed on a shelf as if he were a pottery.
Another painting of same size was sold for $ 18.6M including premium by Christie's on May 12, 2014. The man is seen through a buttocks-shaped keyhole. His attitude is so abject that he prefers hiding his head in a blue drop.
Another one, sold for $ 4.1M including premium by Sotheby's on May 12, 2009, had been discussed in this column. Showing the man bending as for vomiting, it is the most realistic of these three artworks.
In 1988, Kippenberger is activist, ambitious and worldly. Coming to Vienna for business, he unintentionally arrives in a grubby hotel because all the others are full. He stages himself in Picasso pants and looks in the mirror. He sees how much he is ugly.
Kippenberger's self-portraits in Picasso underwears display an unpleasant bearded man with a beer belly. He is 35 years old. This series not only shows the beginning of the inexorable physical decline of the artist, but it mostly questions the future of artistic expression in the classis form of painting.
On November 12 in New York, Christie's sells an oil on canvas 242 x 202 cm, lot 40 estimated 15M. In an arrogant attitude opposite to Picasso's, the man without legs is placed on a shelf as if he were a pottery.
Another painting of same size was sold for $ 18.6M including premium by Christie's on May 12, 2014. The man is seen through a buttocks-shaped keyhole. His attitude is so abject that he prefers hiding his head in a blue drop.
Another one, sold for $ 4.1M including premium by Sotheby's on May 12, 2009, had been discussed in this column. Showing the man bending as for vomiting, it is the most realistic of these three artworks.
1996 The Final Drift of Kippenberger
2018 SOLD for £ 8.4M including premium
Martin Kippenberger has always questioned civilization. His offbeat art centered on repulsive self-portraits assesses that he cannot get an answer. Society does not prevent disasters. Sometimes it provokes them, causing scandals.
In 1996 he exhibited in Copenhagen his installation entitled The Happy End of Franz Kafka's Amerika. Beside his own work he sees The Raft of the Medusa.
This drifting Radeau painted by Géricault in 1818-1819 ensured the transition between classicism and romanticism, between official obsequious art and political protest. The monumental size of the original, 491 x 716 cm, makes it the equivalent of a modern installation. This painting based on a real fact intertwines the living, the dying and the corpses. Unlike classical painting there is no hero but the lookout sailor who dominates this terrible scene is a black man.
Kippenberger is sick. Cancer attacks his liver and pancreas and he refuses the healing. He is at the age at which Mapplethorpe had died, 43 years old. His wife Elfie photographed him in the positions of Géricault's characters. He produced a large series of paintings, drawings and lithographs on the theme of the Raft, centered on a rug displaying the empty flat raft.
On June 27 in London, Phillips sells as lot 8 an oil on canvas 150 x 180 cm painted in 1996. This self-portrait is staged in the position of the corpse close to falling into the sea at the bottom right of Géricault's raft. The dark blue stripe shading the left side of the image accentuates the idea that death is inescapable, somehow like Barnett Newman's sinister abstract Black Fire.
In 1996 he exhibited in Copenhagen his installation entitled The Happy End of Franz Kafka's Amerika. Beside his own work he sees The Raft of the Medusa.
This drifting Radeau painted by Géricault in 1818-1819 ensured the transition between classicism and romanticism, between official obsequious art and political protest. The monumental size of the original, 491 x 716 cm, makes it the equivalent of a modern installation. This painting based on a real fact intertwines the living, the dying and the corpses. Unlike classical painting there is no hero but the lookout sailor who dominates this terrible scene is a black man.
Kippenberger is sick. Cancer attacks his liver and pancreas and he refuses the healing. He is at the age at which Mapplethorpe had died, 43 years old. His wife Elfie photographed him in the positions of Géricault's characters. He produced a large series of paintings, drawings and lithographs on the theme of the Raft, centered on a rug displaying the empty flat raft.
On June 27 in London, Phillips sells as lot 8 an oil on canvas 150 x 180 cm painted in 1996. This self-portrait is staged in the position of the corpse close to falling into the sea at the bottom right of Géricault's raft. The dark blue stripe shading the left side of the image accentuates the idea that death is inescapable, somehow like Barnett Newman's sinister abstract Black Fire.
2006 Untitled (After Sam) by Rudolf Stingel
2017 SOLD for $ 10.6M including premium by Christie's
Link to catalogue.
