Women Artists
See also : Art by women ca 1960 Current art by women Eastern Europe Flowers Furniture 20th century furniture Modern French furniture Chairs and seats French sculpture Animals Dragon US painting before 1940
Chronology : 1920-1929 1920 1926 1927 1930-1939 1932 1960 1969 1990-1999 1997
Chronology : 1920-1929 1920 1926 1927 1930-1939 1932 1960 1969 1990-1999 1997
<1920 Yves Saint-Laurent in an Armchair ... made by Eileen Gray
2009 SOLD 21.9 M€ including premium
In the very large sale of the collection of the fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent, the furniture of the 20th century will be led by an armchair made by Eileen Gray.
It is a seat only 61 cm high. The sitting height is normal, but the back is small. It is large (91 cm), making it a comfortable chair. The press release from Christie's describes it as a Dragon armchair, certainly for the sculptures of its armrests. For this seat dating from about 1920-1922, prepare 2.5 million €.
In the work of Eileen Gray, other seats have generated one of the most remarkable results of auctions in recent years. On June 1, 2005 in Paris, Camard sold a set of six armchairs à la Sirène, for a total of nearly 9 million € charges included. Sold separately, these six lots were eventually divided between two buyers. They had belonged to Damia, the music hall singer woman with whom Eileen had a love affair. From a very different model from the chair of the Saint-Laurent collection, their sculpture of the women fish was enhanced by an open back.
Eileen Gray was renowned for the luxurious finish of her lacquered furniture.
The sale will be held at the Grand Palais in Paris from 23 to 25 February. It is jointly organized by Christie's and Pierre Bergé et Associés.
POST SALE COMMENT
This seat had it all. We imagine it perfectly in the middle of the living room of Yves Saint-Laurent, a famous person. It may equally be regarded as a work of art or as a piece of furniture.
Christie's has presented it as one of the top lots in the sale, from the first press release last September. The estimate probably took into account the results obtained at Drouot on the armchairs à la Sirène, remembered in my article above. Cautiously, the estimate had been made a little lower (2 M €) in the catalog than in the first releases.
As I have already written, the current crisis of confidence affects the sellers, not the buyers.
The chair of Yves Saint-Laurent by Eileen Gray was sold € 21.9 million including premium.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
It is a seat only 61 cm high. The sitting height is normal, but the back is small. It is large (91 cm), making it a comfortable chair. The press release from Christie's describes it as a Dragon armchair, certainly for the sculptures of its armrests. For this seat dating from about 1920-1922, prepare 2.5 million €.
In the work of Eileen Gray, other seats have generated one of the most remarkable results of auctions in recent years. On June 1, 2005 in Paris, Camard sold a set of six armchairs à la Sirène, for a total of nearly 9 million € charges included. Sold separately, these six lots were eventually divided between two buyers. They had belonged to Damia, the music hall singer woman with whom Eileen had a love affair. From a very different model from the chair of the Saint-Laurent collection, their sculpture of the women fish was enhanced by an open back.
Eileen Gray was renowned for the luxurious finish of her lacquered furniture.
The sale will be held at the Grand Palais in Paris from 23 to 25 February. It is jointly organized by Christie's and Pierre Bergé et Associés.
POST SALE COMMENT
This seat had it all. We imagine it perfectly in the middle of the living room of Yves Saint-Laurent, a famous person. It may equally be regarded as a work of art or as a piece of furniture.
Christie's has presented it as one of the top lots in the sale, from the first press release last September. The estimate probably took into account the results obtained at Drouot on the armchairs à la Sirène, remembered in my article above. Cautiously, the estimate had been made a little lower (2 M €) in the catalog than in the first releases.
As I have already written, the current crisis of confidence affects the sellers, not the buyers.
The chair of Yves Saint-Laurent by Eileen Gray was sold € 21.9 million including premium.
The low resolution image below is shared by Wikimedia for fair use :
1922 Painting-Secession by Georgia O'Keeffe
2016 SOLD for $ 13M including premium
The movement created by Stieglitz in 1902 as the Photo-Secession is much more than a group of friends. Modern photography is born in New York. The foregrounds, angles, contrasts and choice of themes escape the realism. With his camera, the photographer is like the painter : he expresses his feelings.
Stieglitz is also linked with Europeans painters. In 1908 he exhibits at his gallery in New York some works by Picasso, Matisse, Braque and Cézanne. The early abstract drawings by Georgia O'Keeffe are sincere and authentic creations in which he sees the seed for an American art.
After meeting with Stieglitz, Georgia is occupied as a model for the photographer and her creative activity is slowing. Each summer they spend some time together in the Stieglitz family country house at Lake George in upper state New York. Still attentive to abstraction, Georgia observes how nature uses geometry to construct landscapes and flowers.
On May 19 in New York, Christie's sells Lake George Reflection, oil on canvas 147 x 86 cm probably painted during the summer of 1922, lot 14 estimated $ 8M.
The theme is a classic landscape whose colors are more expressive than realistic. Georgia conceived that a reflection of the mountain in the water can be perfect if the weather is fine. The shore of the lake separates the picture into two halves of identical width.
And Hop ! At its first exhibition in January 1923, the artist positions it as a vertical work. The observer sees what he wishes to see : a symmetrical abstraction, a New York street lined with skyscrapers, the inside of a flower revealing the pistil, or a sexual symbol. The double meaning is revealed by the title of the work : it is a view of Lake George.
In 1913, Kandinsky had promoted non-figurative art with his story of a watercolor viewed after a fall over. In 1912, the double meaning of the Octopus photograph by Coburn anticipated the surrealism by more than ten years. The image of Lake George by O'Keeffe is a reflection in water and a reflection on the artistic language.
Stieglitz is also linked with Europeans painters. In 1908 he exhibits at his gallery in New York some works by Picasso, Matisse, Braque and Cézanne. The early abstract drawings by Georgia O'Keeffe are sincere and authentic creations in which he sees the seed for an American art.
After meeting with Stieglitz, Georgia is occupied as a model for the photographer and her creative activity is slowing. Each summer they spend some time together in the Stieglitz family country house at Lake George in upper state New York. Still attentive to abstraction, Georgia observes how nature uses geometry to construct landscapes and flowers.
On May 19 in New York, Christie's sells Lake George Reflection, oil on canvas 147 x 86 cm probably painted during the summer of 1922, lot 14 estimated $ 8M.
The theme is a classic landscape whose colors are more expressive than realistic. Georgia conceived that a reflection of the mountain in the water can be perfect if the weather is fine. The shore of the lake separates the picture into two halves of identical width.
And Hop ! At its first exhibition in January 1923, the artist positions it as a vertical work. The observer sees what he wishes to see : a symmetrical abstraction, a New York street lined with skyscrapers, the inside of a flower revealing the pistil, or a sexual symbol. The double meaning is revealed by the title of the work : it is a view of Lake George.
In 1913, Kandinsky had promoted non-figurative art with his story of a watercolor viewed after a fall over. In 1912, the double meaning of the Octopus photograph by Coburn anticipated the surrealism by more than ten years. The image of Lake George by O'Keeffe is a reflection in water and a reflection on the artistic language.
1926 Reflection in the City
2018 SOLD for $ 13.3M including premium
Giving free rein to her sensibility while remaining tied to the avant-gardes through Stieglitz's circle, Georgia O'Keeffe is an authentic and pioneering artist. She had been one of the first to practice abstract art in America.
Her interest in geometry gives her an unprecedented vision for constructing a landscape. The reflection of the mountains in Lake George, painted in 1922, can be tilted orthogonally to become an abstract work centered in full symmetry. This painting was sold for $ 13M including premium by Christie's on May 19, 2016.
In 1925 Stieglitz and O'Keeffe move to the 30th floor of a brand new skyscraper in Manhattan. After some reticence about this unprecedented lifestyle, Georgia is captivated and begins to paint city views.
On November 14 in New York, Sotheby's sells a view titled A Street, oil on canvas 127 x 76 cm painted in 1926, lot 34 estimated $ 12M.
With its sequences of skyscrapers on both sides of the street, this composition is almost symmetrical, like the view of Lake George. The walls are geometric, plain without windows, with a pleasant variation of pastel shades,
The roadway is not visible but the curved top of a street light shows that it is not far below. This tiny element judiciously centered on the lower edge becomes an anchor point from which the gaze can make an incessant back and forth through the central breach of the sky.
In the same year Georgia's close-ups of flowers caused a sensation in New York's artistic circles by their possible interpretation as female organs. Georgia, cautiously, will comment little. Stieglitz who usually supported new trends is reluctant by the masculinity of his wife's cityscapes. Indeed if he flipped A Street up and down, he may have seen an opened pair of legs.
Her interest in geometry gives her an unprecedented vision for constructing a landscape. The reflection of the mountains in Lake George, painted in 1922, can be tilted orthogonally to become an abstract work centered in full symmetry. This painting was sold for $ 13M including premium by Christie's on May 19, 2016.
In 1925 Stieglitz and O'Keeffe move to the 30th floor of a brand new skyscraper in Manhattan. After some reticence about this unprecedented lifestyle, Georgia is captivated and begins to paint city views.
On November 14 in New York, Sotheby's sells a view titled A Street, oil on canvas 127 x 76 cm painted in 1926, lot 34 estimated $ 12M.
With its sequences of skyscrapers on both sides of the street, this composition is almost symmetrical, like the view of Lake George. The walls are geometric, plain without windows, with a pleasant variation of pastel shades,
The roadway is not visible but the curved top of a street light shows that it is not far below. This tiny element judiciously centered on the lower edge becomes an anchor point from which the gaze can make an incessant back and forth through the central breach of the sky.
In the same year Georgia's close-ups of flowers caused a sensation in New York's artistic circles by their possible interpretation as female organs. Georgia, cautiously, will comment little. Stieglitz who usually supported new trends is reluctant by the masculinity of his wife's cityscapes. Indeed if he flipped A Street up and down, he may have seen an opened pair of legs.
1927 The Sofa of the Roaring Twenties
2019 SOLD for $ 13.4M including premium
Tamara de Lempicka appreciated that success is the result of personal initiative. She began her career as a portrait artist in Paris, including a worldly escapade in Milan in 1925, while making clear statements on her bisexual desires. Some freedom brought by Hollywood made this kind of attitude already possible.
Her husband's name is Tadeusz Lempicki. Some of Tamara's early paintings are signed T. de Lempitzki, probably to mark her manly tendencies. She looks for the most beautiful women and invites them to pose on her couch, naked or dressed.
Tamara meets Rafaëla at the Bois de Boulogne. She will tell later that she had seen how passers-by stared at the young woman. Rafaëla is pretty and chubby, with her hair styled in the fashion of Louise Brooks. Her portraits by Tamara are carnal, in the signature neat lines of the artist, revealing a love empathy between the two women.
Le Rêve, oil on canvas 81 x 59 cm painted in 1927, is also titled Rafaëla sur fond vert. The shirtless model sits with her arms crossed over her chest and her head resting on the back of the sofa. Like the best nudes of Modigliani, she waits peacefully for the artist's instructions. It was sold for $ 8.5M including premium by Sotheby's on November 2, 2011.
On November 12 in New York, Sotheby's sells La Tunique rose, oil on canvas 73 x 116 cm painted in the same year, lot 43 estimated $ 6M. Reclining on the same green sofa, Rafaëla wears a little dress no more covering than a night suit. The expression is nice, with a contrast between the shadow on the eyes and the light on the red mouth.
Her husband's name is Tadeusz Lempicki. Some of Tamara's early paintings are signed T. de Lempitzki, probably to mark her manly tendencies. She looks for the most beautiful women and invites them to pose on her couch, naked or dressed.
Tamara meets Rafaëla at the Bois de Boulogne. She will tell later that she had seen how passers-by stared at the young woman. Rafaëla is pretty and chubby, with her hair styled in the fashion of Louise Brooks. Her portraits by Tamara are carnal, in the signature neat lines of the artist, revealing a love empathy between the two women.
Le Rêve, oil on canvas 81 x 59 cm painted in 1927, is also titled Rafaëla sur fond vert. The shirtless model sits with her arms crossed over her chest and her head resting on the back of the sofa. Like the best nudes of Modigliani, she waits peacefully for the artist's instructions. It was sold for $ 8.5M including premium by Sotheby's on November 2, 2011.
On November 12 in New York, Sotheby's sells La Tunique rose, oil on canvas 73 x 116 cm painted in the same year, lot 43 estimated $ 6M. Reclining on the same green sofa, Rafaëla wears a little dress no more covering than a night suit. The expression is nice, with a contrast between the shadow on the eyes and the light on the red mouth.
1932 The Devil's Snare
2014 SOLD for $ 44.4M including premium
The beauty of nature was the main inspiration for Georgia O'Keeffe. Painter amidst the circle of photographers led by her husband Alfred Stieglitz, she wanted to see everything from larger landscapes to tiniest details. From 1929 she regularly visited the wonderful site of Taos.
She is not a botanist but there is no need to be a scientist for being fascinated by the datura, a wild herb that is particularly abundant in New Mexico. Its trumpet flowers appear at the cool of the evening with subtle shades of colors on a white background. A powerful hallucinogen, this plant is locally called Jimson weed and most commonly Devil's snare.
Painted in 1932, Jimson weed - white flower No.1 is a beautiful portrait of a flower. Inspired by macrophotography, it is an invitation to enter full front into the intimate secrets of a disproportionately enlarged datura. This oil on canvas is measuring 122 x 107 cm, a large format for the artist at that time.
This painting is estimated $ 10 million, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 20, lot 11. It is deaccessioned by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe NM with the consent of the donor.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
She is not a botanist but there is no need to be a scientist for being fascinated by the datura, a wild herb that is particularly abundant in New Mexico. Its trumpet flowers appear at the cool of the evening with subtle shades of colors on a white background. A powerful hallucinogen, this plant is locally called Jimson weed and most commonly Devil's snare.
Painted in 1932, Jimson weed - white flower No.1 is a beautiful portrait of a flower. Inspired by macrophotography, it is an invitation to enter full front into the intimate secrets of a disproportionately enlarged datura. This oil on canvas is measuring 122 x 107 cm, a large format for the artist at that time.
This painting is estimated $ 10 million, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 20, lot 11. It is deaccessioned by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe NM with the consent of the donor.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
1960 Mitchell with or without Birds
2018 SOLD for $ 14M including premium
Joan Mitchell moved permanently to Paris in 1959, the year when she also began her affair with Riopelle. Her studio in rue Frémicourt is far from intellectual communities, perhaps to better preserve the authenticity and originality of her abstract creativity inspired by the colors of nature.
Despite the illusion of spontaneity close to the Action Painting, her art is the result of a meticulous preparation. Her style changes after she arrives in Paris. It brings her solution to the great ambition of the abstract expressionists to offer the visitor an infinite vision without frame : it gathers a multicolored centrifugal energy in the center of very large canvases whose edges are only reached by apparent splashes.
On November 13 in New York, Christie's sells a 296 x 200 cm oil on canvas painted in 1960, lot 14 B estimated $ 12M. An Untitled 240 x 204 cm painted in the same year and same style was sold for $ 12M including premium by Christie's on May 13, 2014.
Joan gave titles to the works which she considered the most evocative. The painting that comes on sale is named 12 Hawks at 3 O'Clock. The title in English cannot be linked to some Parisian surrealist poetry. The work also has no particularity at that time position on a clock dial.
In her attention to nature, Joan included the birds. 12 hawks at 3:00 is certainly referring to reserves for the protection of raptors in which birdwatchers recorded the flight of birds with that level of detail.
Joan had always stated a great admiration for Le Champ de Blé aux Corbeaux, considered as the ultimate and premonitory work by Vincent van Gogh. In the final phase of her life, she will paint a colorful composition inspired by this artwork, titled No Birds in a poignant effort to force optimism.
Despite the illusion of spontaneity close to the Action Painting, her art is the result of a meticulous preparation. Her style changes after she arrives in Paris. It brings her solution to the great ambition of the abstract expressionists to offer the visitor an infinite vision without frame : it gathers a multicolored centrifugal energy in the center of very large canvases whose edges are only reached by apparent splashes.
On November 13 in New York, Christie's sells a 296 x 200 cm oil on canvas painted in 1960, lot 14 B estimated $ 12M. An Untitled 240 x 204 cm painted in the same year and same style was sold for $ 12M including premium by Christie's on May 13, 2014.
Joan gave titles to the works which she considered the most evocative. The painting that comes on sale is named 12 Hawks at 3 O'Clock. The title in English cannot be linked to some Parisian surrealist poetry. The work also has no particularity at that time position on a clock dial.
In her attention to nature, Joan included the birds. 12 hawks at 3:00 is certainly referring to reserves for the protection of raptors in which birdwatchers recorded the flight of birds with that level of detail.
Joan had always stated a great admiration for Le Champ de Blé aux Corbeaux, considered as the ultimate and premonitory work by Vincent van Gogh. In the final phase of her life, she will paint a colorful composition inspired by this artwork, titled No Birds in a poignant effort to force optimism.
1969 Blueberry by Joan Mitchell
2018 SOLD for $ 16.6M including premium by Christie's
1971 The Mental Landscape of Joan Mitchell
2019 SOLD for $ 13.3M including premium
New York City did not suit the creativity of Jackson Pollock. It is the same for Joan Mitchell in Paris where she set up her studio in 1959. Yet she develops an original style based on the centrifugal explosion of bright colors on a white background, which ensures her fame.
She reacts in 1964. Her art is too violent. By exploiting her own anger, she forgets her main theme which is the expression of the colors of nature. The title, sometimes topographical, barely guides the viewer to understand what she wanted to do.
She finds the solution in 1968 by settling in Vétheuil, this village on a bend of the Seine where Monet had lived before Giverny. Her workshop in an old farm building enables to increase the width of the paintings while maintaining the towering height that had been her specialty in Paris.
Her style changes totally. The surface is completely filled. The endless ground is composed of blocks as if seen from the air, with shimmering colors that express the various crops. She does not want to copy a landscape but to express her feeling. Paradoxically, she finds in Vétheuil the memory of the unlimited cornfields of her childhood between Saskatchewan and the Great Lakes.
Blueberry, oil on canvas 200 x 150 cm painted in 1969, already announces this transition. It was sold for $ 16.6M including premium by Christie's on May 17, 2018 over a lower estimate of $ 5M.
Plowed Field, painted in 1971, is a culmination of this phase of meditative tranquility, with a great diversity of warm colors in the blocks that simulate the imaginary fields. This triptych of oils on canvas of total size 285 x 540 cm is estimated $ 12M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 13, lot 25 B.
She reacts in 1964. Her art is too violent. By exploiting her own anger, she forgets her main theme which is the expression of the colors of nature. The title, sometimes topographical, barely guides the viewer to understand what she wanted to do.
She finds the solution in 1968 by settling in Vétheuil, this village on a bend of the Seine where Monet had lived before Giverny. Her workshop in an old farm building enables to increase the width of the paintings while maintaining the towering height that had been her specialty in Paris.
Her style changes totally. The surface is completely filled. The endless ground is composed of blocks as if seen from the air, with shimmering colors that express the various crops. She does not want to copy a landscape but to express her feeling. Paradoxically, she finds in Vétheuil the memory of the unlimited cornfields of her childhood between Saskatchewan and the Great Lakes.
Blueberry, oil on canvas 200 x 150 cm painted in 1969, already announces this transition. It was sold for $ 16.6M including premium by Christie's on May 17, 2018 over a lower estimate of $ 5M.
Plowed Field, painted in 1971, is a culmination of this phase of meditative tranquility, with a great diversity of warm colors in the blocks that simulate the imaginary fields. This triptych of oils on canvas of total size 285 x 540 cm is estimated $ 12M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 13, lot 25 B.
1997 Maman Long Legs
2019 SOLD for $ 32M including premium
Louise Bourgeois desired to interpret her relationship with her own parents, generating a suffering that she appeased by her art at the borderline of sexual provocation. From 1951 to 1980 she tries a psychoanalysis. It is a failure : she considers that Freud does not propose anything for the artists.
In 1994 she builds a small steel spider 28 cm high which carries marble eggs in a bag under its body. This symbol of maternity breaks with the artist's earlier assimilation of the spider with a prostitute. This sculpture, one of the first by Bourgeois on this theme, passed at Sotheby's on November 11, 2015 against a lower estimate of $ 4M.
In the following year, at the age of 84, she suddenly understands that the spider's maternal function will solve her fantasies. She sculpts new steel spiders and edits them in bronze, in various configurations : lowered body for climbing on the wall or raised on its tall thin legs.
The perimeter of the legs is the safety zone offered by the mother to her offspring. The comparison with the Lupa Capitolina suckling Romulus and Remus is relevant. The spiders of Louise Bourgeois personify her own mother, too frail but intensely protective. The gigantic dimension of the sculptures, culminating in 1999 with a 10 m high Maman, solves this contradiction. Maman carries her eggs as in the original spider five years earlier.
A spider 3.26 m high on a 7.56 x 7.06 m overall perimeter designed in 1996 was sculpted in steel and cast in bronze in 1997 in six copies plus one artist's proof and one variant in bronze. The number 3/6 was sold for $ 28M including premium by Christie's on November 10, 2015. The 2/6 is estimated $ 25M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 15, lot 21 B.
In 1994 she builds a small steel spider 28 cm high which carries marble eggs in a bag under its body. This symbol of maternity breaks with the artist's earlier assimilation of the spider with a prostitute. This sculpture, one of the first by Bourgeois on this theme, passed at Sotheby's on November 11, 2015 against a lower estimate of $ 4M.
In the following year, at the age of 84, she suddenly understands that the spider's maternal function will solve her fantasies. She sculpts new steel spiders and edits them in bronze, in various configurations : lowered body for climbing on the wall or raised on its tall thin legs.
The perimeter of the legs is the safety zone offered by the mother to her offspring. The comparison with the Lupa Capitolina suckling Romulus and Remus is relevant. The spiders of Louise Bourgeois personify her own mother, too frail but intensely protective. The gigantic dimension of the sculptures, culminating in 1999 with a 10 m high Maman, solves this contradiction. Maman carries her eggs as in the original spider five years earlier.
A spider 3.26 m high on a 7.56 x 7.06 m overall perimeter designed in 1996 was sculpted in steel and cast in bronze in 1997 in six copies plus one artist's proof and one variant in bronze. The number 3/6 was sold for $ 28M including premium by Christie's on November 10, 2015. The 2/6 is estimated $ 25M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 15, lot 21 B.
1997 The Female Spider
2015 SOLD for $ 28M including premium
Louise Bourgeois left many writings about her own art but it remains difficult to find the key. The relationship between sex and family, the position of the child within the family unit, are the highly traumatic guides to her creativity. Until 98 years old, she will be an activist in support to all the sexual minorities.
She is already an octogenarian when she develops the theme of the spider. By entitling Maman her most mesmerizing spiders, she seems to clarify her most intimate desire but in reality she blurs it with complacency.
The world of a real spider is certainly of high complexity. It (she) is patient, steady in the center of her web which she builds and efficiently repairs after a destruction. The polygon of her eight legs offers a shelter for her loved ones, but she is also a fierce predator to the insects. Her small size makes her vulnerable but the artist will enlarge it to make her the towering star of a dehumanized parallel universe.
The spider is not a vertebrate and her behavioral psychology is inaccessible. She amazed those who approached her since the mythological times. By choosing this beast as a symbol of motherhood, Louise Bourgeois is not an artist of animals but indeed a highly disturbing surrealist artist in the line of Wifredo Lam.
Within her old age, Louise Bourgeois remained hypersensitive to sexual ambiguity and sexual promiscuity. On October 15, 2015, Sotheby's sold for £ 1.2M including premium a showcase realized in 2001 titled Mother and child, exhibiting a limp infant on the nude torso of a woman like some externalization of pregnancy. The carefully carved body of Bourgeois's spiders is certainly another female carnal and Freudian symbol.
A spider 6.68 x 6.33 m for 3.38 m high cast in 1996 was sold for $ 10.7 million including premium by Christie's in New York on November 8, 2011. On November 10, the same auction house offers another even wider variant also in bronze, 7.56 x 7.06 x 3.26 m, executed in 1997, lot 10B.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's.
She is already an octogenarian when she develops the theme of the spider. By entitling Maman her most mesmerizing spiders, she seems to clarify her most intimate desire but in reality she blurs it with complacency.
The world of a real spider is certainly of high complexity. It (she) is patient, steady in the center of her web which she builds and efficiently repairs after a destruction. The polygon of her eight legs offers a shelter for her loved ones, but she is also a fierce predator to the insects. Her small size makes her vulnerable but the artist will enlarge it to make her the towering star of a dehumanized parallel universe.
The spider is not a vertebrate and her behavioral psychology is inaccessible. She amazed those who approached her since the mythological times. By choosing this beast as a symbol of motherhood, Louise Bourgeois is not an artist of animals but indeed a highly disturbing surrealist artist in the line of Wifredo Lam.
Within her old age, Louise Bourgeois remained hypersensitive to sexual ambiguity and sexual promiscuity. On October 15, 2015, Sotheby's sold for £ 1.2M including premium a showcase realized in 2001 titled Mother and child, exhibiting a limp infant on the nude torso of a woman like some externalization of pregnancy. The carefully carved body of Bourgeois's spiders is certainly another female carnal and Freudian symbol.
A spider 6.68 x 6.33 m for 3.38 m high cast in 1996 was sold for $ 10.7 million including premium by Christie's in New York on November 8, 2011. On November 10, the same auction house offers another even wider variant also in bronze, 7.56 x 7.06 x 3.26 m, executed in 1997, lot 10B.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Christie's.
1997 Spiders on the Wall
2017 SOLD for $ 14.7M including premium
By realizing her spiders in bronze from 1995 Louise Bourgeoisconcretizes with an indestructible material her lifelong fantasies about the intrauterine relations. The cohort of these protective spiders form a deeply feminine surrealist universe. The bronzes are edited in six copies plus an artist's proof.
Spider I (127 x 117 x 31 cm) and II (185 x 185 x 57 cm) conceived in 1995 and Spider IV (203 x 180 x 53 cm) conceived in the following year have a lowered body that invites to apply them on a wall. The right rear leg of Spider IV is folded simulating an upward walking.
Spider III (48 x 84 x 83 cm) designed in 1995 is raised on its legs and anticipates the gigantic bronzes of 1996 and 1997 that can be used as garden shelters. The culmination of this evolution is the 9.20 m high spider named Maman made in 1999 which can be used as a city monument.
Two of these bronzes are estimated $ 10M each in the upcoming New York evening sales. On November 15, Christie's sells a Spider II edited in 1995, lot 7 B. On November 16, Sotheby's sells a Spider IV from the 1997 original edition, lot 34.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM
Spider II at Christie's : $ 11.6M
Spider IV at Sotheby's : $ 14.7M
Spider I (127 x 117 x 31 cm) and II (185 x 185 x 57 cm) conceived in 1995 and Spider IV (203 x 180 x 53 cm) conceived in the following year have a lowered body that invites to apply them on a wall. The right rear leg of Spider IV is folded simulating an upward walking.
Spider III (48 x 84 x 83 cm) designed in 1995 is raised on its legs and anticipates the gigantic bronzes of 1996 and 1997 that can be used as garden shelters. The culmination of this evolution is the 9.20 m high spider named Maman made in 1999 which can be used as a city monument.
Two of these bronzes are estimated $ 10M each in the upcoming New York evening sales. On November 15, Christie's sells a Spider II edited in 1995, lot 7 B. On November 16, Sotheby's sells a Spider IV from the 1997 original edition, lot 34.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
RESULTS INCLUDING PREMIUM
Spider II at Christie's : $ 11.6M
Spider IV at Sotheby's : $ 14.7M
