The Weekly Round Up: Spring

I can't stop dreaming about spring- so much so that when I left my apartment in the rain this moring, I realized too late that I wasn't even wearing any stockings. Shocking- I know. With that in mind this week's round up is from a recent Interior's sale which seems to be on the same wavelength.

Andre Brasilier (b. 1929)
Chantal à New York
Sale 2138 Lot 20


A LOUIS XV STYLE PORCELAIN-MOUNTED GREEN TOLE PEINTE SIX-LIGHT CHANDELIER
Sale 2141 Lot 932

A PAIR OF FRENCH STAINED BEECH FAUTEUILS, PROBABLY 19TH CENTURY

Sale 2141 Lot 730

Valentine Lecomte (FRENCH, B. 1872)
Parmi les Fleurs
Sale 2141 Lot 108



A PAIR OF GERMAN SILVER TREES, MARK OF NERESHEIMER, 20TH CENTURY,
Sale 2141 Lot 281

Emma Fordyce MacRae (1887-1974)

Gloucester Garden

Sale 2142 Lot 176

A SET OF FIVE BOHEMIAN GLASSES PAINTED WITH FLORAL DECORATION, GLASHUTTE FRITZ HECKERT, LATE 19TH EARLY 20TH CENTURY
Sale 2136 Lot 477


Lawrence Mazzanovich (American, 1872-1959)
Verdant country landscape
Sale 2141 Lot 27

Weekly Round Up: Yves Saint Laurent

Christie's will be having a trully fabulous sale this February in Paris of the estate of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge. I simply cannot wait to see it all- but for now here are some highlights I've fallen in love with:

SIR EDWARD COLEY BURNE-JONES, BART., A.R.A., R.W.S. (BIRMINGHAM 1833 - 1898 LONDRES)

Luna

Sale 1209 Lot 91
Estimate: 300,000 - 500,000 Euros

SPHERE ARMILLAIRE SUPPORTEE PAR CHRONOS EN ARGENT ET VERMEIL

Sale 1209 Lot 157
Estimate: 200,000 - 300,000 Euros

EDOUARD VUILLARD (1868-1940)
Les Lilas

Sale 1209 Lot 11
Estimate: 300,000 - 400,000 Euros

CAMEE EN SARDOINE SCULPTEE REPRESENTANT UN SACRIFICE SUR L'AUTEL D'HYGIEIA

Sale 1209 Lot 415
Estimate: 5,000 - 8,000 Euros

SIR EDWARD COLEY BURNE-JONES, BART., A.R.A., R.W.S. (BIRMINGHAM 1833 - 1898 LONDRES)
Paradis, avec l'adoration de l'agneau

Sale 1209 Lot 91
Estimate: 500,000 - 700,000 Euros

The Weekly Roundup

A new feature here- I did it last week and thought I'd like to keep it up because I'm constantly browsing through all our new catalogues and jotting down my favorite pieces for no apparent reason. Now there's a reason! First up we have this whimsical sculpture. And I bet you can't guess the artist




Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)
L'escargot et l'ange
6,000 - 8,000 British pounds
Price Realized
11,250 British pounds
I would definitely want to use it as a doorstop into the bathroom ;)




Luo Brothers (b. 1963, b. 1964 & b. 1972)
Welcome to the World Famous Brand
Estimate
15,000 - 20,000 British pounds
Price Realized
Unsold
How wonderfully kitsch is this?!



Julian LaVerdiere (B. 1971)
First Attempted Trans Atlastic Telegraph Cable Crossing
1,000 - 1,500 U.S. dollars
Price Realized
1,625 U.S. dollars
There's something oddly tranquil about this sunken ship




A MAHOGANY COLLECTOR'S CABINET
1,500 - 2,000 British pounds
Price Realized
1,875 British pounds
What would you put in here? Pinned butterflies? Stamps? I think I would make it my jewellery box- I mean cabinet :P

ENGLAND, CIRCA 1940
A PONTREMOLI NEEDLEWORK CARPET
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 British pounds

And as far as carpets go- this one is pretty fabulous

The Weekly Roundup

A random assortment of items we're selling that have caught my eye:

Sale 7624 Lot 33

MARKO VUOKOLA (b.1967 Finnish)
The Seventh Wave 4, 2002
6,000 - 8,000 British pounds
I would love to have an entire room decorated around these photographs. They're obviously much nicer in person when their sheer size takes you right in.

Sale 7615 Lot 265

GUJARAT, INDIA, 17TH CENTURY
A MOTHER-OF-PEARL CHEST
40,000 - 60,000 British pounds
I think this chest would fit into the above room quite nicely...


Sale 2017 Lot 1213

20TH CENTURY,
A GILTWOOD AND UPHOLSTERED SALON SUITE,
1,500 - 2,500 U.S. dollars
(and sold for only $812!!!)


Sale 7615 Lot 230

PROBABLY GUJARAT, WEST INDIA, 18TH CENTURY
A GROUP OF SIX MUGHAL GILT GLASS BOTTLES
20,000 - 30,000 British pounds
Don't these look magical?!

Sale 2253 Lot 1100

AN IMPRESSIVE AMETHYST, DIAMOND AND TURQUOISE NECKLACE, BY CARTIER
60,000 - 80,000 U.S. dollars

And in that room I could wear this necklace with something completely understated. Like jogging pants.

Another Badass Portrait

PHILIPPE HALSMAN (1906-1979)
Dali and Rhinoceros, 1981

Estimate: £1,000 - 1,500
Sale 5435 Lot 55

Picasso

A bit of a badass...





IRVING PENN (B. 1917)
Picasso (B), Cannes, 1957

Estimate: 60,000 - 80,000 U.S. dollars
Sale 2106 Lot 324

platinum-palladium print, flush-mounted on aluminum, printed January 1985
signed, initialed in ink, titled, dated, numbered '14/47', 'Penn/Condé Nast' copyright credit reproduction limitation edition stamps and typed edition label affixed (on the reverse of the flush-mount)
18½ x 18½in. (47 x 47cm.)

Oh Damian....

Damien Hirst
With Dead Head
Estimate: £30,000 - 40,000
Sale 7619 Lot 352

From the catalogue:
Damien Hirst's photograph With Dead Head is one of the most iconic images of the artist ever taken. Hirst, currently on the path to becoming one of the rare mega artists who are a living legend during a considerable amount of time in their lives, is known to have a rather non conformist relationship with death. "I think I've got an obsession with death, but I think it's like a celebration of life, rather than something morbid. You can't have one without the other" (D. Hirst in interview with G. Burn, reproduced in "On the Way to Work", in The Guardian, 6 October 2001, interview date 1992). Hirst about the photograph: "It's me and a dead head. Severed head. In the morgue. Human. I'm sixteen. If you look at my face , I'm actually going 'Quick. Quick. Take the photo.' I wanted to show my friends, but I couldn't take all my friends there, to the morgue in Leeds. I'm absolutely terrified. I'm grinning, but I'm expecting the eyes to open and for it to go 'Grrrraaaaagh!' I was doing anatomy drawing. I took some photos when I shouldn't have done. To me, the smile and everything seemed to sum up this problem between life and death."

Jonathan Yeo

Just came across an article about Jonathan Yeo who has gathered a bit of blogosphere fame recently for his collage portrait of Bush using photographs from porn magazines.


Although my first thought was to dismiss this as a gimick, reading this article may have convinced me. Plus I love the idea of what he's working on now:

"Currently, there are photographs of women's naked torsos pinned to his studio wall, evidence of Yeo's next project – painting the before and after of plastic surgery operations. "People will look back at this time in horror. I will paint torsos or faces, but not together. The dismembered bodies will be a nod to classical sculpture: it's a way of exploring an area that is current while painting straight-forward classical portraits. I'll call it You're Only Young Twice."

Update on the Bag portrait

My incredibly knowledgeable colleague Colin pointed out that the Bag portrait by Hendrik Kersten is a play on this painting which is in the National Gallery, London:

Robert Campin. Portrait of A Woman. c. 1430.

If anything- I love it even more now.

Just a quick word

To say that I love this portrait which has been shorlisted for the National Portrait Gallery's 2008 Prize.

Bag by Hendrik Kersten

Beautiful Inside My Head Forever

Doesn't that title alone make you go "ick"? Doesn't it sound slightly pompous and self-involved? Well it's the title of the sale of work by Damien Hirst organized at Sotheby's this week. The event was split into an evening sale and a day sale featuring about 200 items overall and from what I can tell, all made within the last year. That's one busy artist. *furrows brow*

I mean, look at him up there. Kinda smug, non? Almost like he knows he's full of shit. I didn't really know what to expect having never seen his stuff first hand. We've all heard about his pickled sharks, the diamond crusted skull, the spin art etc. but finally seeing them in the flesh made it all very clear to me. Hirst is a businessman.

Although the butterfly works were breathtakingly complex and delicate, all I really saw was the effort behind it. Hirst has a studio of slaves. A factory full of artists at his disposal. I can't even fathom what it must have been like to be given a doodle, several thousand butterflies and some paint and told to put it all together with minute precision.

Hirst believes that Art is in the conception, not the execution- which I respect to a point. One of my biggest "Ah ha!" moments was understanding the concept behind Mondrian's work as it related to the war and bringing the world back to basics: primary colors and straight lines at 90 or 180 degrees. But Hirst seems to pluck his concepts out of already established ideas. Case and point: his Midas pieces. Seriously- how ground breaking is that? Diamonds and gold to symbolize the materialistic society we've become. Throw is some butterflies to tie it into the other works- it's more like designing for Target. One small and reasonably priced piece had been executed in about 8 different colors, giving the budding collector a chance to own a "real" Hirst in his favorite hue. Hirst might as well be printing his own money. I can just imagine him getting a call from Sotheby's saying that this piece would have been great as a pair flanking the doorway and Hirst saying he could just whip up another one. *ka-ching* that's another £60,000.

Love Bite: Autumn, 2008- £58,850 /Love Child: Winter, 2008- £73,250/ Love Bite: Spring, 2008- £73,250

What I'm really saying is that we often ask ourselves the question: "Is this really Art?" and we turn to the critics for assurance. I think Hirst managed to fool the critics early on and has stopped trying to produce anything worthwhile. It's either a re-hash of an old idea or something akin to the art at Habitat. I think Hirst knows that his work is bullshit and he's loving it.

Skimra lamp shade, Ikea- $6

The two day sale made over £110 million- of which Hirst is donating a whopping £1.4 million to a children's hospital. I honestly believe he's only doing this so people don't judge him and his millions. To sum it all up- Although I really like the below painting (which was surely painted by an intern) I can't think of anyone who makes me roll my eyes more than Damien Hirst.

Yeah, We Sold That. The Look-a-Like Edition

So this is just a couple items that struck my eye for one reason or another- well that's a lie isnt it? These are all pairs of works that either rip each other off or just happen to look strickingly similar.

It may be a gimick, but I always love art that acts as a tribute to another famous piece. Like this work by Dubossarsky & Vinogradov- someone is photoshopping Las Meninas....



Ordinateur (série Dans l'Atelier de l'Artiste)
Estimate: £25,000 - £35,000
Unsold

Diego Velazquez

Las Meninas

This oil by Signac was advertised to death during the run up to the Impressionist and Modern Evening sale.

Paul Signac
Collioure. Les Balancelles
Estimate: £1,800,000 - 2,500,000

Sold for: £2,953,250

So I guess it's no surprise that I instantly recognized the location in this "cheaper" painting by Lauge:

Achille Lauge

Bateaux à Collioure

Estimate: £18,000 - 25,000

Sold for: £31,200

Now who can honestley tell me that they don't instantly think of suntan products when they see this:

Josepg Gott
An English Statuary Marble group of a boy and dog
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000

The following painting is another example of over-advertising. This lovely lady was everywhere for the couple months running up to a 19th European Art sale. We even had a large than life reproductiong hanging in a street window and that's when it hit me- She looks a lot like a famous starlet... can you guess which one? You may not agree... maybe you had to see it in the flesh...

William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Boucles d'oreilles: The earrings
Estimate: £300,000 - 500,000

Speaking of flesh....

Scarlett Johanson- barely contained.

Do you see the resemblence? Or am I just crazy?

Yeah, We sold that- The Art History Edition

Some of you might be aware that a couple weeks ago, a Lucien Freud painting was sold for almost 34 million dollars making it a world record price for any living artist sold at auction. Although we could spend hours debating whether this painting is worth that much money or is even pleasant to look at, what shocked me was when I came the world record for a living female artist

Lucien Freud

Benefit Supervisor Sleeping

Sold for: $33, 641,000

World record for any living artist

Louise Bourgeois

Spider
Sold for: €2.888.250
World record for any living female artist

And in the category of "Works to make you scratch your head" we have:

PAUL MCCARTHY

Bear and Rabbit on a Rock
mascot heads, acrylic fur, metal armature, foam rubber, formica pedestal106 3/8 x 74¾ x 51 1/8 in. (270 x 190 x 130 cm.) Executed in 1992.

Sold for: $1,496,000

RICHARD SERRA

8th

paintstick on Belgian linen 102 5/8 x 45 in. (260.5 x 114.5 cm.)

Executed in 1977

Sold for: $132,000

MARTIN CREED

Work no. 200: half the air in a given space

12 inch white balloons and air dimensions variable: Choose a space. Calculate the volume of the space. Using air, blow up white 12 inch balloons until they occupy half the volume of the space.Executed in 1998.

(IE: You're not physically buying anything)

Sold for: $90,000

PIERO MANZONI

Merda d'artista no. 19

signed and stamped with the number 'Piero Manzoni 19' (on the lid of the tin)sealed tin and printed paper label height: 1 7/8 in. (4.8 cm.) diameter: 2½ in. (6.5 cm.)Executed in 1961. This work is number nineteen from an edition of ninety.

Sold for: $96,000

Maybe these items make more sense if I tell you that they were all part of a sale called: "BEYOND- Selections from the collection of Pierre Huber" and that I just HAD to keep a copy of that catalogue; because, COME ON! No one would believe that some of these things can be considered Art! But the piece that started that started it all is this:

Constantin Brancusi
Oiseau dans l'espace
Sold for: $27,456,000

From what I remember from my Art from 1945 class in college, this sculpture caused the first debate on "What is Art" when it was being brought through customs. Apparently, there are no taxes to be paid on Art going through customs, but these customs officers saw the sculpture as a piece of machinery and definitely not art. I think the debate actually ended up in court (although a quick google search won't pull up any evidence to that effect....) and the jury voted that Oiseau dans l'espace was indeed art. A small triumph for humanity, I'd say.