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  • Posts Tagged ‘Andy Warhol’

    ARTISTIC FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION UNDER THREAT

    Saturday, January 13th, 2024
    An interior shot of Palazzo Volpi in Venice with contents to be sold by Sotheby’s in Paris.

    Art mirrors life and the life it is currently mirroring is one of censorship and intolerable attacks on freedom of expression.  The art world has not been immune as  the Israeli-Hamas war has spawned a new wave of hidden and not so hidden persuaders who move to stifle anything other than total support for hardliners against humanity. Against this background of global uncertainty there is a pipeline of interesting international sales coming up in 2024.  On offer already are a variety of covetable lots as diverse as the contents of a sumptuous Venetian palace on the Grand Canal to Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Archive to a Royal portrait by Velazquez and property from the life and career of Marilyn Monroe.  We must assume that all this will be okay once there is nothing in these auctions – such as seeking a ceasefire in Gaza – that can be construed as anti-semitic.

    A pair of stools or tabourets delivered to the Empress Josephine at Christie’s in New York

    Sotheby’s will offer 200 lots from Palazzo Volpi in Venice at an auction in Paris on February 28. The collection will include palatial Roman tables, ballroom banquettes, art panels in the style of Jacopo Sansovino, Wagner sofas and Venetian mirrors. Julien’s will offer contents from the Playboy archives and from Marilyn Monroe at a three day sale in Los Angeles on March 28, 29 and 30.  Highlights will include a Playboy Bunny silkscreen by Andy Warhol and a black and cellophane effect evening gown worn by Monroe in The Seven Year Itch.  The Velazquez portrait of Isabel de Borbon is at Sotheby’s in New York on February 1.

    A black and cellophane effect evening gown worn by Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch at Julien’s

    Elvis Presley’s Gretsch guitar from his Las Vegas residency is among the lots at Christie’s Exceptional Sale in New York on the same day along with a pair of c1800 tabourets or stools delivered to the Empress Josephine at Chateau de St. Cloud.

    It has the potential to be an exciting year with many records being broken at home and abroad.  Yet in 2024 there are well founded accusations of censorship in an art world that has never been noted for its lack of freedom of expression.  In New York board members and many art writers withdrew in protest after the editor of the prestigious Artforum magazine, David Valasco, was abruptly fired when a letter supporting Palestinian liberation was published which omitted to mention the victims of the Hamas attack on October 7.  Advertisers like gallerist David Zwirner and the Chanel culture fund threatened to withdraw.The Saarland Museum in Germany cancelled an exhibition by Candice Breitz, who is Jewish and has condemned Hamas, saying they would not show works by anyone who does not recognise Hamas terror as a rupture of civilisation.  The entire selection panel for the next curator of Documenta, a global art exhibition in 2027, resigned after disputes with administrators about the war. This mirrors the wider environment.  Think of resignations like that of Harvard President Claudine Gay in a campaign led by the Wall Street Jewish financier Bill Ackman whose wife is a former member of the IDF. You do not need to be a soothsayer to know there will be more resignations. UPDATE: The first American retrospective of Samia Halaby (87), regarded as one of the most important living Palestinian artists, has been cancelled by officials at Indiana University.

    Andy Warhol’s original Playboy Bunny at Julien’s.

    ANDY WARHOL THREE TIMES OUT IN DUBLIN’S HUGH LANE GALLERY

    Thursday, December 21st, 2023
     Andy Warhol,Campbell’s Soup I: Tomato (II.46), AP edition E/Z, 1968, screenprint, 35 x 23 in. Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. Image: Strode Photographic.© The AndyWarhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / ARS New York / IVARODublin, 2023

    Andy Warhol Three Times Out continues at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin until January 28. The exhibition of  paintings, prints, photographs, films and installations covers a range that spans four decades. It  includes more than 250 works on loan from museums and private collections in the US, Canada, Europe and the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. There is everything from the iconic Campbell’s Soup Cans, Flowers, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Kennedy and Chairman Mao, to his observations on identity and mortality in his multiple self-portraits, skulls, electric chairs and avant garde films Empire, Sleep, Kiss and Outer and Inner Space. In additionvisitors to the exhibition can experience Warhol’s immersive Silver Clouds sculpture.

    A section unique to the show focuses on collaborations both Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon had with acclaimed US artist and photographer Peter Beard, provoking new thinking on the status of these two titans of the 20th century.

    BIG NEW YORK SALES GET UNDERWAY THIS WEEK

    Sunday, November 5th, 2023
    Sixteen Jackies by Andy Warhol at Christie’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE $25.9 MILLION

    The 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F Kennedy this month is recalled through Andy Warhol’s Death and Disaster series in New York next week. Sixteen Jackies will lead Christie’s 20th century evening sale next Thursday (November 9). The 1964 painting, a grid of a repeated press image of First Lady Jackie Kennedy during her husband’s funeral procession is estimated at $25 – $35 million and is one of many highlights in the sales. Led by the Emily Fisher Landau collection of key masterwork examples sales at Sotheby’s showcase over a century of artistic production. There are seminal works by Picasso, Jasper Johns, Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Mark Rothko, Ed Ruscha and Andy Warhol.  This collection comes under the hammer at Sotheby’s next Wednesday and Thursday (November 8 and 9), followed by the Modern evening auction on November 13 and Now and Contemporary art sales on November 15.  At Christie’s the 21st Century evening sale is next Tuesday the 20th century sale is on Thursday, the Post War and Contemporary day sale is on November 10 and the Impressionist and Modern day sale takes place on November 11.

    Untitled XV 1983 by Willem de Kooning at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE $8.6 MILLION

    SIXTEEN JACKIES BY WARHOL AT CHRISTIE’S

    Monday, October 16th, 2023
    ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)Sixteen Jackies

    Sixteen Jackies by Andy Warhol will be featured as a leading highlight at Christie’s 20th Century evening sale inn New York on November 9. This 1964 painting depicts a 4×4 grid of a repeated press image of First Lady Jackie Kennedy taken during her husband’s funeral procession. The work will come to auction a week and a half shy of the day marking the 60th year anniversary of JFK’s death. A seminal work by the 20th century icon, Sixteen Jackies sits at the pinnacle of the group of artworks that became known as his Death and Disaster paintings. It is  estimated at $25 million – $35 million.

    BLOCKBUSTER WARHOL SHOW TO OPEN IN DUBLIN IN OCTOBER

    Monday, July 24th, 2023

    A blockbuster exhibition of Andy Warhol’s paintings, prints, photographs, films and installations opens at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin in October and will run until next January. Five years in the making it will include more than 250 works on loan from museums and private collections and from the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.  Work on show will range from iconic Campbell’s Soup Cans, Flowers, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Kennedy and Chairman Mau to self-portraits, skulls, electric chairs and avant garde films along with his immersive Silver Clouds sculpture.Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn became the most expensive 20th Century artwork ever sold at auction when it made $195 million at Christie’s in New York last year.

    SCORCHING SALE OF IRISH AND INTERNATIONAL ART

    Sunday, April 16th, 2023
    Still Life on White with Beans (1978) by William Scott. UPDATE: THIS MADE 160,000 AT HAMMER

    The high end of the art and antiques market continues to perform strongly and this augurs well for Morgan O’Driscoll’s scorching Irish and International online art sale which runs until the evening of April 18.  There is a wealth of desirable art in this, his most expensively estimated sale yet, on view at the RDS this weekend and on Monday. With 180 lots on the online catalogue headed by internationally acclaimed painters like Sean Scully, Bridget Riley, William Scott, Paul Henry, Andy Warhol  and Sir William Orpen this is an exciting sale. Plenty of internationally known names feature alongside Irish artists on the catalogue.

    Teddy Roosevelt by Andy Warhol  UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

    A 1986 screenprint of Teddy Roosevelt by Andy Warhol is estimated at €50,000-€70,000, Homage to Degas, an etching by Alex Katz, is estimated at €7,000-€10,000 and a woodcut in colours by Damien Hirst has an estimate of €8,000-€12,000.The most expensively estimated lot is a dramatic oil on linen by Sean Scully. Raval Rojo (€400,000-€600,000) is signed and dated 2004 and was purchased by the present owner at the Kerlin Gallery in 2005.  An oil on canvas by William Scott from 1978, Still Life on White with Beans is estimated at €100,000-€150,000 and Paul Henry’s brooding Western Landscape has an estimate of €80,000-€120,000. These three widely differing works demonstrate the broad range and creativity of Irish art at the highest levels.

    Untitled (1972) by Bridget Riley UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

    An untitled 1972 gouache and pencil on paper by the acclaimed British artist Bridget Riley is estimated at €60,000-€90,000. A signed and numbered artist print by Andy Warhol of Teddy Roosevelt, number 31 from a run of 50 artist proofs,  is estimated at €50,000-€70,000.  There is a similar estimate on an oil on canvas by George Barret of A Landscape with Figures and Ruins of Melrose Abbey, Roxburghshire. There are classical works by Dan O’Neill, Donald Teskey, Evie Hone, Gerard Dillon and Sir William Orpen and some highly collectible work by artists from John Shinnors and Hughie O’Donoghue to Norah McGuinness, Evie Hone and Tony O’Malley. The sculpture section is headed by Seated Dog (1967) by the late British artist Lynn Chadwick (€20,000-€25,000) and there is work by Elisabeth Frink, Imogen Stuart, John Behan, F.E. McWilliam and others. Many of the works on offer, like a 1945 view of Glengarriff from Garnish Island by Letitia Marion Hamilton (€3,000-€5,000), Evening Field by William Crozier and Washing Line by Basil Blackshaw, each estimated at €4,000-€6,000  are more afffordable and would enhance any collection.

    ANDY WARHOL PORTRAIT OF GRACE KELLY AT DUBLIN FAIR

    Monday, September 19th, 2022
    Andy Warhol – Grace Kelly,

    A portrait of Grace Kelly by Andy Warhol will be offered by Gormley’s at Timeless, the Irish Antique Dealers’ Fair at the RDS in Dublin from September 23-25 with a preview on September 22. Warhol’s portrait of the actress is based on a still from her first film, Fourteen Hours, in 1951. Gormley’s has priced the screenprint at €200,000. The artist completed the edition in 1984 two years after the actress’s death, aged 52. 

    “Grace Kelly is extremely popular with collectors and investors as there are very few on sale at any one time,” Oliver Gormley said. “We sold one in 2019 for €136,000 and we expect this to sell for around €200,000 at Timeless, which reflects the appreciation in value for Warhol and high-end contemporary art”.

    CHRISTIE’S ACHIEVES $4.1 BILLION IN FIRST HALF OF 2022

    Wednesday, July 13th, 2022
    Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, painted in 1964, made a record $195 million at Christie’s.

    Global sales at Christie’s in the first half of 2022 reached $4.1 billion, made up from $3.5 billion in auction sales and $0.6 billion in private sales. This is the best performance since 2015 and even surpasses the first half year of 2018 when Christie’s sold the Rockefeller Collection. Andy Warhol’s Short Sage Blue Marilyn was the most valuable lot sold, at $195 million. There was remarkable results for major collections like those of Thomas and Doris Ammann, Anne H. Bass, Rosalind Gersten Jacobs and Melvin Jacobs and Hubert de Givenchy. The sell through rate across all auctions was 87%. A strong influx of new and younger clients was noted. In the half year so far 30% of all buyers are new to Christie’s, and 34% of these new buyers are millennials.

    Philanthropic sales raised nearly $440 million with $13.7 million in aid to Ukraine. The outlook for the autumn is good, led by the Ann and Gordon Getty Collection in New York.

    BIG GAME ART HUNTERS STILL OUT IN FORCE

    Saturday, May 14th, 2022
    Paul Cezanne – Clairiere (The Glade) at Sotheby’s in New York next Tuesday. UPDATE: THIS MADE $41,688,500

    THE big game hunters of the global art world are out in force right now.  There are rich pickings for the super rich in a stellar round of May sales in New York sales showcasing major artistic movements of the 20th and 21st centuries. At Christie’s last Monday evening Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn from the collection of Thomas and Doris Ammann of Zurich sold for a record $195 million (€184,421,250). The 40 square inch canvas became the most expensive 20th century artwork ever sold. In 1964 Warhol developed a time intensive new process and used it to create a limited number of portraits – including Shot Sage Blue Marilyn – before abandoning the technique.  The painting has been exhibited at galleries including the Guggenheim, New York, the Pompidou in Paris and Tate Modern in London. The 36 works from this collection realised $317.8 million (€300,610,198),  All proceeds will directly benefit the Ammann Foundation’s global efforts to create healthcare and education programmes for children.

    With everyone from Monet and Degas to Balthus and Wayne Thibaud Christie’s delivered in style this week. At this stage the running total for their Marquee Week spring sales is $1.36 billion. The Post War and Contemporary art day sale yesterday achieved $97 million.

    Next it is the turn of Sotheby’s.  Their six sales with 800 lots carry a combined estimate of over $1 billion (€950,800,000) on a level with their record setting season last November.  Then the Macklowe Collection of 35 artworks made $676 million (€642.9 million) after real estate mogul Harry Macklowe and his wife Linda were ordered by a judge to sell their collection and split the proceeds during their 2018 divorce trial. Another 30 works from their collection come up next Monday evening with artists like Mark Rothko, Cy Twombly, Sigmar Polke, Donald Judd, Cy Twombly, Gerhard Richter, Jeff Koons, Anselm Kiefer, Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti and Andy Warhol.

    The Modern evening auction on Tuesday is the most expensively estimated in the category at Sotheby’s for 15 years.   It will feature one of Monet’s finest Venetian works, a 1932 portrait of Marie Therese Walter by Picasso and The Glade by Paul Cezanne.  These three works alone are expected to bring in around $150 million (€142.6 million).

    On Thursday the Now evening auction and the Contemporary evening auction will bring this months series of marquee evening auctions to a close.  The Now sale will open the evening with ten consecutive works by women artists including Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Christina Quarles, Jennifer Packer and Tracey Emin.
    Highlights of the Contemporary evening auction are Study for Red Pope 1962, 2nd version 1971 by Francis Bacon, Cy Twombly’s large scale Untitled from 1969, a silkscreen of Elvis by Andy Warhol and Cold Beer Beautiful Girls, a quintessential text painting by Ed Ruscha.  Who could ask for anything more?

    Francis Bacon Study of Red Pope 1962, 2nd version, 1971 at Sotheby’s, New York next Thursday evening. UPDATE: THIS MADE $46,284,500.

    THE MOST EXPENSIVE 20TH CENTURY ARTWORK EVER SOLD

    Tuesday, May 10th, 2022
    Shot Sage Blue Marilyn by Andy Warhol

    Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn made $195 million to become the most expensive 20th century artwork ever sold at Christie’s in New York last night. The painting was the final lot of the single-owner Thomas and Doris Ammann Collection which featured 36 lots and totalled $317.8 million.

    Proceeds from the entire sale of this Zurich collection will benefit charities providing urgent medical and educational services to children. The buyer of Warhol’s Marilyn has been invited to partner with the Ammann Foundation and play an active role in fulfilling its global mission for children’s aid, with the opportunity to nominate the charities to which 20% of the work’s proceeds will be allocated, subject to the Foundation’s final approval.

    Warhol’s colourful reproductions of Monroe’s photo portrait — originally a publicity still from her 1953 movie “Niagara” — are among his most recognisable works. Warhol first began creating silkscreens of Marilyn Monroe following her death in August 1962. He would create reproductions of her visage multiple times in bright colours, often with the features somewhat askew. In 1964, he developed a more refined and time-intensive screen printing technique, antithetical to the mass production he was best known for, and created a limited number of portraits of the Hollywood legend of which Shot Sage Blue Marilyn is one. This technique was so difficult that he never returned to it again.

    Bloomberg is reporting that it was bought by the art dealer Larry Gagosian. The previous record price for a piece of American artwork was $110.5m for a skull painting created in 1982 by Jean-Michael Basquiat. The previous record for a 20th Century work of art was set in 2015 when a 1955 painting by Pablo Picasso – Les Femmes d’Alger (Version O) – sold for $179.4m, including fees.