USA
See also : US painting < 1940 USA II Painting Rothko Rothko 1957-70 Lichtenstein Warhol USA by Warhol Celebrities by Warhol Basquiat Abstract art Abstract art II The Woman The Man Groups Animals Sculpture Koons
Chronology : 20th century 1920-1929 1929 1954 1960-1969 1961 1963 1964 1980-1989 1982 1983 1986
Chronology : 20th century 1920-1929 1929 1954 1960-1969 1961 1963 1964 1980-1989 1982 1983 1986
1929 Confrontation with the Modern Life
2018 SOLD for $ 92M including premium
Very francophile after a stay in Paris, Edward Hopper observes on his return to New York the differences in the art of living between the two continents. Everything is changing very quickly in the United States in the 1920s around a new organization of work that better incorporates women, respects their individuality better and gives them some freedom.
Hopper is taciturn and traditionalist. He very well appreciates that he cannot oppose these changes, just as he cannot do anything about the collapse of abandoned houses. His art is realistic but he builds his own universe like a surrealist.
Automat, painted in 1927, is a portrait of his wife Jo having a break in a self-service cafe. She is alone, pensive and a little tired, sitting in front of a round table in the back of a room without decoration.
Chop Suey, oil on canvas 81 x 96 cm painted in 1929, stages the same young woman in another cheap restaurant, seated in front of another woman who is seen from behind. Sitting at another table in the background, a couple chats.
The theme is definitely not narrative despite its appearances. We will not know who these characters are, why they are together. These Chinese cafes that then proliferate in the United States are a symbol of a new everyday life with new forms of banalities and also with the attractiveness and the threat of internationalization and depersonalization.
In new urban spaces, geometry becomes omnipresent. Chop Suey seduced the young Mark Rothko and much later influenced his division of surfaces into color fields.
Chop Suey is estimated $ 70M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 13, lot 12 B. The low resolution image is shared by Wikimedia for fair use. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Hopper is taciturn and traditionalist. He very well appreciates that he cannot oppose these changes, just as he cannot do anything about the collapse of abandoned houses. His art is realistic but he builds his own universe like a surrealist.
Automat, painted in 1927, is a portrait of his wife Jo having a break in a self-service cafe. She is alone, pensive and a little tired, sitting in front of a round table in the back of a room without decoration.
Chop Suey, oil on canvas 81 x 96 cm painted in 1929, stages the same young woman in another cheap restaurant, seated in front of another woman who is seen from behind. Sitting at another table in the background, a couple chats.
The theme is definitely not narrative despite its appearances. We will not know who these characters are, why they are together. These Chinese cafes that then proliferate in the United States are a symbol of a new everyday life with new forms of banalities and also with the attractiveness and the threat of internationalization and depersonalization.
In new urban spaces, geometry becomes omnipresent. Chop Suey seduced the young Mark Rothko and much later influenced his division of surfaces into color fields.
Chop Suey is estimated $ 70M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 13, lot 12 B. The low resolution image is shared by Wikimedia for fair use. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1961 The Vibrant Vermilion of Mark Rothko
2012 SOLD 87 M$ including premium
The art of Mark Rothko reached the top of its power in 1961.
The dimensions of his canvases have increased and are standardized. The rectangles occupy almost all the available surface, over a negligible neutral background. Most significantly, the preferred color of the artist is now the most vibrant of them : red.
On May 8 in New York, Christie's sells an oil on canvas, 236 x 206 cm, titled Orange, Red, Yellow. It is dominated by a bright vermilion, omnipresent, whose perfect monochromy is the result of a meticulous brushwork.
This painting was owned since 1967 by a demanding collector who considered it as one of the most successful pieces in Rothko's art. Its estimate, $ 35M, is consistent with the results already discussed in this column for his works of the same year.
POST SALE COMMENT
The demanding collector had a good taste. 45 years later, his vermilion Rothko is enshrined as one of the masterpieces of the artist. It was sold $ 87M including premium.
It is gratifying to note that this fabulous price rewards a work from the best years of maturity of the master. The oil on canvas with more varied colors which was sold $ 73M including premium by Sotheby's on May 15, 2007 was made in 1950, 11 years before.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
The dimensions of his canvases have increased and are standardized. The rectangles occupy almost all the available surface, over a negligible neutral background. Most significantly, the preferred color of the artist is now the most vibrant of them : red.
On May 8 in New York, Christie's sells an oil on canvas, 236 x 206 cm, titled Orange, Red, Yellow. It is dominated by a bright vermilion, omnipresent, whose perfect monochromy is the result of a meticulous brushwork.
This painting was owned since 1967 by a demanding collector who considered it as one of the most successful pieces in Rothko's art. Its estimate, $ 35M, is consistent with the results already discussed in this column for his works of the same year.
POST SALE COMMENT
The demanding collector had a good taste. 45 years later, his vermilion Rothko is enshrined as one of the masterpieces of the artist. It was sold $ 87M including premium.
It is gratifying to note that this fabulous price rewards a work from the best years of maturity of the master. The oil on canvas with more varied colors which was sold $ 73M including premium by Sotheby's on May 15, 2007 was made in 1950, 11 years before.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
1961 The Existential Abstraction of Barnett Newman
2014 SOLD 84 M$ including premium
Barnett Newman was a mystical atheist inspired by the creation of monotheism. His search for a non-figurative authenticity was intuitive and emotional. His art is rare, with long periods of interruption in his creative process.
The Onement series symbolizing the creation of the world includes only six paintings made from 1948 to 1953. The monochromatic surface is the result of a careful application of additional layers of paint as Rothko was doing. The only element of picture is a thin vertical central strip named the zip which shows that the homogeneity of the universe is an illusion.
In 1957, Newman suffers his first heart attack which generates a mystical crisis on the abandonment of man facing mortality. Despite his atheism, he takes his inspiration in the Calvary of Christ. The color is replaced by a deep black occupying the entire surface excepted some vertical strips of raw canvas. He finished the series of Stations in 1966.
Newman's psychological crisis worsens with the sudden death of his younger brother in 1961. Black Fire I, in the same technique as the Stations, manages to express in a single canvas the whole existential tragedy. The growth of the black area from left to right is blocked by a vertical zip. The right side is not painted.
The title of the work is a reference to the Judaic magma of mystical material anticipating the Torah.
This oil on canvas 290 x 213 cm is for sale by Christie's in New York on May 13. This outstanding work has no recent antecedent on the auction market and the price is unpredictable. I invite you to play the audio shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This highly emotional abstract painting was sold for $ 84M including premium.
The Onement series symbolizing the creation of the world includes only six paintings made from 1948 to 1953. The monochromatic surface is the result of a careful application of additional layers of paint as Rothko was doing. The only element of picture is a thin vertical central strip named the zip which shows that the homogeneity of the universe is an illusion.
In 1957, Newman suffers his first heart attack which generates a mystical crisis on the abandonment of man facing mortality. Despite his atheism, he takes his inspiration in the Calvary of Christ. The color is replaced by a deep black occupying the entire surface excepted some vertical strips of raw canvas. He finished the series of Stations in 1966.
Newman's psychological crisis worsens with the sudden death of his younger brother in 1961. Black Fire I, in the same technique as the Stations, manages to express in a single canvas the whole existential tragedy. The growth of the black area from left to right is blocked by a vertical zip. The right side is not painted.
The title of the work is a reference to the Judaic magma of mystical material anticipating the Torah.
This oil on canvas 290 x 213 cm is for sale by Christie's in New York on May 13. This outstanding work has no recent antecedent on the auction market and the price is unpredictable. I invite you to play the audio shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This highly emotional abstract painting was sold for $ 84M including premium.
1963 The Disaster of America
2013 SOLD 105 M$ including premium
The American dream is not enough to express the world. Very early, Andy Warhol wants to confront death. Death and Disaster is the generic name he gave to this new artistic theme. The news spread by the magazines are horrible. In 1963, Andy rescreened the images of their most terrible car accidents.
On November 13 in New York, Sotheby's sells Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster), 267 x 416 cm. It is a diptych, estimated $ 60M. It is illustrated on the blog post shared by Sotheby's.
On the left, the image is repeated fifteen times in three columns and five rows, with some variations in the shades of gray. On the right, the area is empty, as if the horrific scene had an extension inviting for the destruction of other lives and other cars. Warhol made a similar use of the diptych in some pictures of Liz.
Another accident of the same year based on two different images became famous in the history of auctions when Christie's sold Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I), 229 x 203 cm, for $ 72M including premium on 16 May 2007 from a lower estimate of $ 25M showing that the tragic dimension of Warhol's art had not yet been appreciated at its fair value .
The pale green of the Burning car and the apparent incompleteness of its sequence in the bottom right corner put this image in the direct continuity of the Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster).
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This highly important Warhol was sold for $ 105M including premium.
The low resolution mage below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
On November 13 in New York, Sotheby's sells Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster), 267 x 416 cm. It is a diptych, estimated $ 60M. It is illustrated on the blog post shared by Sotheby's.
On the left, the image is repeated fifteen times in three columns and five rows, with some variations in the shades of gray. On the right, the area is empty, as if the horrific scene had an extension inviting for the destruction of other lives and other cars. Warhol made a similar use of the diptych in some pictures of Liz.
Another accident of the same year based on two different images became famous in the history of auctions when Christie's sold Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I), 229 x 203 cm, for $ 72M including premium on 16 May 2007 from a lower estimate of $ 25M showing that the tragic dimension of Warhol's art had not yet been appreciated at its fair value .
The pale green of the Burning car and the apparent incompleteness of its sequence in the bottom right corner put this image in the direct continuity of the Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster).
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This highly important Warhol was sold for $ 105M including premium.
The low resolution mage below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
1963 The King and the Bad Boy
2014 SOLD for $ 82M including premium
After exploiting the adoration of the public for two actresses, Marilyn and Liz, Andy Warhol looked at the male actors. OnNovember 12 in New York, Christie's sells two of his most outstanding works in this theme, the Triple Elvis (Ferus Type) and the Quadruple Marlon. Both men, each in his own way, embodied the rebellion of the younger generation.
The 1963 exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles gave an opportunity for the artist to prepare multiple images of the King on a silver background that evoked the movie screen. On 9 May 2012, Sotheby's sold for $ 37M including premium a Double Elvis (Ferus Type), 208 x 122 cm, for which the inequality of density of the two identical figures brings a feeling of frenzy.
For the Triple Elvis, lot 9 of the next sale, 208 x 173 cm, the three overlapping figures are of equal density but the momentum is provided by their unequal interval.
To honor Marlon in 1966, Andy uses an untreated canvas that enhances the brilliance. On most images, rarer than Elvis, the Bad Boy is a rebel confined to the right side of the canvas.
A Double Marlon 213 x 243 cm, was sold for $ 32M including premium at Christie's on 13 May 2008. The Four Marlons, lot 10 of the next sale, 206 x 165 cm, is the only in this series for which the image occupies the entire surface in two rows of two pictures.
Both lots, to be sold separately, come from a German collection built for decorating a casino. The press release of September 10 announced a global estimate in the region of $ 130M for the two lots.
I invite you to play the two videos shared by Christie's: Elvis andMarlon.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM
Triple Elvis : 82M
Four Marlons : 70M
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
The 1963 exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles gave an opportunity for the artist to prepare multiple images of the King on a silver background that evoked the movie screen. On 9 May 2012, Sotheby's sold for $ 37M including premium a Double Elvis (Ferus Type), 208 x 122 cm, for which the inequality of density of the two identical figures brings a feeling of frenzy.
For the Triple Elvis, lot 9 of the next sale, 208 x 173 cm, the three overlapping figures are of equal density but the momentum is provided by their unequal interval.
To honor Marlon in 1966, Andy uses an untreated canvas that enhances the brilliance. On most images, rarer than Elvis, the Bad Boy is a rebel confined to the right side of the canvas.
A Double Marlon 213 x 243 cm, was sold for $ 32M including premium at Christie's on 13 May 2008. The Four Marlons, lot 10 of the next sale, 206 x 165 cm, is the only in this series for which the image occupies the entire surface in two rows of two pictures.
Both lots, to be sold separately, come from a German collection built for decorating a casino. The press release of September 10 announced a global estimate in the region of $ 130M for the two lots.
I invite you to play the two videos shared by Christie's: Elvis andMarlon.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM
Triple Elvis : 82M
Four Marlons : 70M
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
1964 The New Blondes
2015 SOLD for $ 95M including premium
The American pop movement that develops around Castelli in the early 1960s is pushing popular themes into major art. At the same time, the status of women is undergoing profound transformations, along with the debates that will soon change forever the legal aspects of contraception and abortion.
Roy Lichtenstein is clever and subtle. His reuse of pictures from comics associated with his recreation of color in carefully painted patterns similar as printing dots maintains his characters within a fantasy world. His young blondes become an ersatz of the new modern woman. They occupy a dominant position in his art from the first Crying girl of 1963.
On November 9 in New York, Christie's sells Nurse, oil and acrylic on canvas 122 x 122 cm painted in 1964, lot 13A. The press release of October 16 indicates an estimate in the region of $ 80M.
The blonde is nervous : closed fist, open mouth, looking sideways, uncombed hair. It is obvious that something is going wrong for this young woman in a nurse's uniform. She is not pretty with her thin cheeks and big eyes. She is an ordinary woman subjected to intense passions. She has problems just like you and me.
The artist has liberated his scenes from the cells of the comics by removing the texts. He is right: the empathy with the character is strengthened by this mystery that can be closed out by looking into the original comics. The disarray of the nurse is due to a discussion in the next room between the doctor whom she attempted to seduce and her rival who calls her a liar.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's, including voiced sequences with the artist.
The image below is shared by Wikimedia with attribution : By © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein [CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Roy Lichtenstein is clever and subtle. His reuse of pictures from comics associated with his recreation of color in carefully painted patterns similar as printing dots maintains his characters within a fantasy world. His young blondes become an ersatz of the new modern woman. They occupy a dominant position in his art from the first Crying girl of 1963.
On November 9 in New York, Christie's sells Nurse, oil and acrylic on canvas 122 x 122 cm painted in 1964, lot 13A. The press release of October 16 indicates an estimate in the region of $ 80M.
The blonde is nervous : closed fist, open mouth, looking sideways, uncombed hair. It is obvious that something is going wrong for this young woman in a nurse's uniform. She is not pretty with her thin cheeks and big eyes. She is an ordinary woman subjected to intense passions. She has problems just like you and me.
The artist has liberated his scenes from the cells of the comics by removing the texts. He is right: the empathy with the character is strengthened by this mystery that can be closed out by looking into the original comics. The disarray of the nurse is due to a discussion in the next room between the doctor whom she attempted to seduce and her rival who calls her a liar.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's, including voiced sequences with the artist.
The image below is shared by Wikimedia with attribution : By © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein [CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
1964 It was America
2019 SOLD for $ 89M including premium
Real life is a collection of disparate elements that sometimes arise simultaneously. Robert Rauschenberg wants to express this complexity. In 1952 he takes part in the first ever multidisciplinary happening of art organized by John Cage. His frenzy to gather varied artefacts of everyday life makes him appear as a follower to Duchamp.
Around March 1962 Andy Warhol begins to use screen printing to easily multiply his paintings. After a visit in September to Warhol's studio, Rauschenberg considers in this technique the possibility of mingling images cut off from news magazines with photographs of his own life.
Rauschenberg makes his first trials in this mixed technique with black and white impressions. He uses quadrichromy from the spring of 1963. Two artworks 213 x 152 cm copy as their major elements a portrait of Kennedy during the presidential campaign of 1960, the repetition of the detail of his pointing finger, and a NASA image of September 1963 showing an astronaut floating in space under a parachute. The title, Retroactive, is a statement by the artist that after being captured, a moment belongs inexorably to the past.
Kennedy dies in November 1963, plunging even deeper into the past. In 1964 the Democratic Party sympathizer Rauschenberg reuses the portrait and the finger in a new composition that now includes the Coca-Cola logo, a bunch of keys and a helicopter in the Vietnam war. Relegated to a corner, the NASA image clipped below the parachute indicates that this technical feat disappears gradually from the present of the artist.
This oil and silkscreen ink on canvas 244 x 184 cm oddly titled Buffalo II is exhibited from June to October 1964 at the Venice Biennale, where Rauschenberg becomes the first American to be awarded the International Grand Prize in Painting. Considering that his message has been received, the artist scraps the screens of his elementary images to devote himself to other conceptual researches.
Buffalo II is estimated $ 50M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 15, lot 5 B. Please watch the video prepared by Christie's in which this artwork is commented by the son of the artist.
Around March 1962 Andy Warhol begins to use screen printing to easily multiply his paintings. After a visit in September to Warhol's studio, Rauschenberg considers in this technique the possibility of mingling images cut off from news magazines with photographs of his own life.
Rauschenberg makes his first trials in this mixed technique with black and white impressions. He uses quadrichromy from the spring of 1963. Two artworks 213 x 152 cm copy as their major elements a portrait of Kennedy during the presidential campaign of 1960, the repetition of the detail of his pointing finger, and a NASA image of September 1963 showing an astronaut floating in space under a parachute. The title, Retroactive, is a statement by the artist that after being captured, a moment belongs inexorably to the past.
Kennedy dies in November 1963, plunging even deeper into the past. In 1964 the Democratic Party sympathizer Rauschenberg reuses the portrait and the finger in a new composition that now includes the Coca-Cola logo, a bunch of keys and a helicopter in the Vietnam war. Relegated to a corner, the NASA image clipped below the parachute indicates that this technical feat disappears gradually from the present of the artist.
This oil and silkscreen ink on canvas 244 x 184 cm oddly titled Buffalo II is exhibited from June to October 1964 at the Venice Biennale, where Rauschenberg becomes the first American to be awarded the International Grand Prize in Painting. Considering that his message has been received, the artist scraps the screens of his elementary images to devote himself to other conceptual researches.
Buffalo II is estimated $ 50M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 15, lot 5 B. Please watch the video prepared by Christie's in which this artwork is commented by the son of the artist.
1982 The Energy of a Skull
2017 SOLD for $ 110M including premium
The participation of Jean-Michel Basquiat in a collective exhibition in February 1981 attracted the attention of three merchants who will separately have a leading role in the start of his career : Emilio Mazzoli, Annina Nosei and Bruno Bischofberger.
It is to the honor of Annina Nosei to have convinced Jean-Michel that her basement was more appropriate than the streets of New York to let his skills explode. This close collaboration during which the artist can finally work regularly on very large canvases lasted from September 1981 to November 1982.
During that first year Jean-Michel mostly displays characters in full length, apostles of negritude whose transparency of the flesh reveals the skeleton. His perfectly mastered technique with acrylic, spray and oilstick and his fast and accurate stroke bring the expression of an activism unprecedented in art.
A new year begins, with new advances in his artistic language. On May 18 in New York, Sotheby's sells at lot 24 a painting 183 x 173 cm executed in January 1982 for the Nosei Gallery. The April 19 press release announces an estimate over $ 60M.
Like many opus by Jean-Michel, it is untitled. The theme is limited to a huge head to which bright colors and aggressive teeth provide an angry expression. By its transparency, it is a skull or perhaps a mask. Without neck or body, it floats before a blue sky that is perhaps only a gap in a tagged wall.
The monumental heads painted in 1982 are the culmination of the art of Jean-Michel. The devil's head on a canvas 239 x 500 cm painted in March in Modena for Mazzoli was sold for $ 57M including premium by Christie's on May 10, 2016. Pairs of characters also appear : Dustheads was sold for $ 49M including premium on 15 May 2013, also by Christie's.
It is to the honor of Annina Nosei to have convinced Jean-Michel that her basement was more appropriate than the streets of New York to let his skills explode. This close collaboration during which the artist can finally work regularly on very large canvases lasted from September 1981 to November 1982.
During that first year Jean-Michel mostly displays characters in full length, apostles of negritude whose transparency of the flesh reveals the skeleton. His perfectly mastered technique with acrylic, spray and oilstick and his fast and accurate stroke bring the expression of an activism unprecedented in art.
A new year begins, with new advances in his artistic language. On May 18 in New York, Sotheby's sells at lot 24 a painting 183 x 173 cm executed in January 1982 for the Nosei Gallery. The April 19 press release announces an estimate over $ 60M.
Like many opus by Jean-Michel, it is untitled. The theme is limited to a huge head to which bright colors and aggressive teeth provide an angry expression. By its transparency, it is a skull or perhaps a mask. Without neck or body, it floats before a blue sky that is perhaps only a gap in a tagged wall.
The monumental heads painted in 1982 are the culmination of the art of Jean-Michel. The devil's head on a canvas 239 x 500 cm painted in March in Modena for Mazzoli was sold for $ 57M including premium by Christie's on May 10, 2016. Pairs of characters also appear : Dustheads was sold for $ 49M including premium on 15 May 2013, also by Christie's.
1983 In this Case by Basquiat
2021 SOLD for $ 93M by Christie's
There is a tragic turning point in the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat after his two wonder years. As early as January 1983, he tells Geldzahler that his art is now 80 % anger.
In the first phase, the skull viewed through the head or in place of it was a mere artefact, just like the bones viewed through the skin. The two monumental "skull" views of 1982, one sold for $ 110M by Sotheby's in 2017 and the other for $ 57M by Christie's in 2016, use the skull for featuring a terrible and playful demon. Both paintings are untitled.
Also in 1982, an acrylic, oilstick and collage on canvas is titled Red Skull. It displays around that new theme Jean-Michel's signature explosions of seven bright colors. This painting 152 x 152 cm was sold for £ 16.5M by Christie's on October 6, 2017, lot 8.
The game becomes serious. On May 11, 2021, Christie's sold at lot 8 A for $ 93M In this case, acrylic and oilstick on canvas 198 x 187 cm painted in 1983. The April 26 press release had announced an estimate of $ 50M. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The skull occupies now the whole surface of the canvas, without a reference to a skin. A half of it is missing, evidencing the post death decay. The surrounding color is a very violent red. The cheek embeds a one-hand clock ticking the disaster of time and the precarity of black men in the US society. The single eye is yellow and the teeth are green.
This opus is considered convincingly as a tribute to the street artist Michael Stewart, beaten to death in September 1983 by the police while attempting to tag in the New York subway. The young African-American graffiti artist was a close friend of Jean-Michel of whom he was dating a previous girlfriend.
The title is a pun, of course. It does not refer to the trivial phrase nor to the cranial case but to the coffin of the friend, while also forwarding a desire of Jean-Michel to go to court against the brutality of the cops.
In the first phase, the skull viewed through the head or in place of it was a mere artefact, just like the bones viewed through the skin. The two monumental "skull" views of 1982, one sold for $ 110M by Sotheby's in 2017 and the other for $ 57M by Christie's in 2016, use the skull for featuring a terrible and playful demon. Both paintings are untitled.
Also in 1982, an acrylic, oilstick and collage on canvas is titled Red Skull. It displays around that new theme Jean-Michel's signature explosions of seven bright colors. This painting 152 x 152 cm was sold for £ 16.5M by Christie's on October 6, 2017, lot 8.
The game becomes serious. On May 11, 2021, Christie's sold at lot 8 A for $ 93M In this case, acrylic and oilstick on canvas 198 x 187 cm painted in 1983. The April 26 press release had announced an estimate of $ 50M. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The skull occupies now the whole surface of the canvas, without a reference to a skin. A half of it is missing, evidencing the post death decay. The surrounding color is a very violent red. The cheek embeds a one-hand clock ticking the disaster of time and the precarity of black men in the US society. The single eye is yellow and the teeth are green.
This opus is considered convincingly as a tribute to the street artist Michael Stewart, beaten to death in September 1983 by the police while attempting to tag in the New York subway. The young African-American graffiti artist was a close friend of Jean-Michel of whom he was dating a previous girlfriend.
The title is a pun, of course. It does not refer to the trivial phrase nor to the cranial case but to the coffin of the friend, while also forwarding a desire of Jean-Michel to go to court against the brutality of the cops.
1986 A Carrot Eater
2019 SOLD for $ 91M including premium
Jeff Koons began his artist's career by gathering casts and ready-mades in solo and group exhibitions. In 1979 Inflatables assembles vinyl flowers with mirrors. He exhibits Equilibrium in 1983 and Luxury and Degradation including the Jim Beam train in 1986.
With Statuary in 1986 and Banality in 1988, Koons pushes kitsch to the rank of a major art : his unlimited exploitation of the consumer society is ultra-modernist, in the wake of the everyday objects hugely increased by Oldenburg.
Statuary includes ten stainless steel sculptures. The terrible banality of this group is broken by the two highest pieces in a total opposition of style : a bust of Louis XIV 117 cm high and a rabbit 104 cm high. With this Rabbit, Koons makes a great promotion for his own art. The closest antecedent is the unique Bunny which had slipped into his previous series of inflatable flowers.
The new rabbit has smooth forms and no face. It brings up to the position of its mouth a carrot in which some visitors see a sexual symbol, an impression reinforced by the information that the steel had been molded over an inflatable doll. The spectators satisfy their own ego by contemplating themselves in the mirror-like surface of the rabbit. The artist's statements complacently maintain all these ambiguities.
After this great success of his rabbit, Koons appreciates that other figures or toys much stylized and disproportionately enlarged will have a considerable impact on the public. His Celebrations, designed from 1994 in a range of colors, will offer a similar mirror effect.
Rabbit was edited in three units plus one artist's proof. Number 2/3 is estimated $ 50M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 15, lot 15 B. The Louis XIV artist's proof was sold for $ 10.8M including premium by Christie's on May 13, 2015.
With Statuary in 1986 and Banality in 1988, Koons pushes kitsch to the rank of a major art : his unlimited exploitation of the consumer society is ultra-modernist, in the wake of the everyday objects hugely increased by Oldenburg.
Statuary includes ten stainless steel sculptures. The terrible banality of this group is broken by the two highest pieces in a total opposition of style : a bust of Louis XIV 117 cm high and a rabbit 104 cm high. With this Rabbit, Koons makes a great promotion for his own art. The closest antecedent is the unique Bunny which had slipped into his previous series of inflatable flowers.
The new rabbit has smooth forms and no face. It brings up to the position of its mouth a carrot in which some visitors see a sexual symbol, an impression reinforced by the information that the steel had been molded over an inflatable doll. The spectators satisfy their own ego by contemplating themselves in the mirror-like surface of the rabbit. The artist's statements complacently maintain all these ambiguities.
After this great success of his rabbit, Koons appreciates that other figures or toys much stylized and disproportionately enlarged will have a considerable impact on the public. His Celebrations, designed from 1994 in a range of colors, will offer a similar mirror effect.
Rabbit was edited in three units plus one artist's proof. Number 2/3 is estimated $ 50M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 15, lot 15 B. The Louis XIV artist's proof was sold for $ 10.8M including premium by Christie's on May 13, 2015.
