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    • Posts Tagged ‘Lucian Freud’

    FREUD EXPLORATION AT IRISH MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

    Sunday, February 23rd, 2020

    Few artists spent as much time in the studio as Lucian Freud (1922-2011), regarded as one of the greatest realist painters of the 20th century.  He changed the way we see portraiture and the nude.  In its latest incarnation the Freud Project at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) has set out on an investigation into the relationship between the artist and their studio and the role of the studio  as a space for production. In all its forms the studio exerts a fascination as the physical and conceptual frame as an artist’s work progresses. The exhibition of 29 paintings and 16 works on paper is made possible by the IMMA Collection: Freud Project, a five year loan of 52 works by Lucian Freud to IMMA.  The programme of research will build  on existing ways of thinking about the studio and focus on the contemporary situation in Ireland. This is the fifth exhibition to be presented as part of the project and it will run until August 30.

    Lucian Freud standing on his head with his daughter Bella in his studio c1986 © Estate of Bruce Bernard, courtesy of Virginia Verran.

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    STILL TIME TO CATCH FREUD AND YEATS AT IMMA

    Saturday, January 4th, 2020

    If you have not yet managed to see it there is still time to catch a marvellous show at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin.  Life Above Everything brings together the work of Lucian Freud (1922-2011) and Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957).  Freud had a lifelong interest in the work of Yeats and admired its force and energy.  He did not cite Yeats as an influence but seems to have found common purpose with its originality and independence.  A pen and ink drawing by Yeats, The Dancing Stevedores, hung beside Freud’s bed forI over 20 years.  Unique to the show is a group of seven paintings by Yeats which Freud selected for a close friend, advising him which works to acquire.  Freud’s first visit to Ireland in 1948 has been described, at least in part, as a pilgrimage to the site of Yeats’ work.  They exhibited together only one in their lifetimes, at the inaugural show at the ICA in London in 1948. Freud’s work has been exhibited with that of other artists, but this is the first time that it is presented with a single other artist. The show runs until January 19.

    Girl with Roses by Lucian Freud from the Freud-Yeats show at IMMA. British Council, London, UK /  © The Lucian Freud Archive /  Bridgeman Images

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    DONEGAL MAN BY LUCIAN FREUD AT SOTHEBY’S

    Wednesday, August 14th, 2019

    Meet Donegal Man by Lucian Freud. The 2007 etching comes up at Sotheby’s Made in Britain sale in September. Signed with initials in pencil it is numbered 26/46 on Somerset wove paper. The total edition includes 12 artist’s proofs. It was with Acquavella Contemporary Art in New York and the present owner acquired it from Galerie Simon Blais in Montreal in March 2008. Lot 106 in the auction is estimated at £7,000-20,000. The live auction begins on Setpember 10.

    Lucian Freud – Donegal Man

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    CONTEMPORARY ART MAKES £93.2 MILLION AT SOTHEBY’S IN LONDON TONIGHT

    Tuesday, March 5th, 2019

    Lucian Freud – Head of a Boy 1956. UPDATE: THIS MADE £5.8 MILLION

    The Contemporary Art evening sale at Sotheby’s in London tonight brought in £93.2 million. Lucian Freud’s 1956 Head of a Boy, a portrait of Guinness heir Garech Browne, made £5.8 million.  It achieved the highest price for a work by the artist from the 1950s. The painting is fresh to the market, having remained in the collection of the Irish cultural patron  the Hon. Garech Browne since its execution.

    Apex by Jean Michel Basquiat made  £8.2 million and Juncture by Jenny Saville made £5.7 million. This represented an increase of over 1000% on the £457,250 achieved by this work a decade ago.

    The sale of 66 lots was 91% sold by lot and saw five works make over £5 million.  There were auction records for Adam Pendleton, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Rebecca Warren, and for a sculpture by Martin Kippenberger.

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    LUCIAN FREUD’S PORTRAIT OF GARECH BROWN TO MAKE AUCTION DEBUT

    Thursday, January 31st, 2019

    Lucian Freud – Head of a Boy 1956.  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £5,799,100

    Lucian Freud’s 1956 portrait of Garech Browne – Head of a Boy – will make its auction debut at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art evening sale in London on March 5. The portrait bespeaks the lifelong friendship between Lucian Freud and Garech Browne – dedicated patron of Irish music, poetry and culture, Guinness heir, and last custodian to the magical Luggala estate.

    Freud first visited Luggala in the 1940’s with his wife Kitty, before eloping with Garech’s cousin, Lady Caroline Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, in 1952. This painting of a young Garech was created at the Luggala estate during a potentially fractious moment in the course of Freud’s tempestuous second marriage; he and Caroline acrimoniously separated in 1957, barely a year after its execution.

    Embodying the sensational powers of observation which famously characterise Freud’s work, this is a remarkable example of portraiture executed when Freud was just 34 years of age.  Small in scale and yet boasting a remarkable emotional intensity, the 18 by 18cm work is at once testament to the artist’s masterful control over his subject, and a tremendous tribute to the sitter – the late Hon. Garech Browne.  The portrait hung adjacent to the fireplace in the grand sitting room at Luggala for over half a century.  It is estimated at £4.5-6.5 million.

    Garech, who founded Claddagh Records in 1959, became custodian of Luggala in 1970 and continued the legacy of legendary Guinness hospitality.  He relished live performances by musicians. The Luggala visitors’ book highlights the diversity of musicians who spent time at the house from 1970: singer Dolores Keane, composer Frederick May, singer Marianne Faithfull, Sting, Bono, The Rolling Stones, Mick and Bianca Jagger, and Michael Jackson.

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    BACON AND FREUD AT CHRISTIE’S FRIEZE WEEK AUCTIONS

    Thursday, September 6th, 2018

    A large and diverse selection of 12 works by Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud will come up for auction at Christie’s  this October during London’s Frieze Week.  The group is led by Francis Bacon’s Figure in Movement (1972), held for 41 years in the prestigious collection of Magnus Konow. The work is a poignant meditation on human existence, expressed through the memory of Bacon’s muse and lover George Dyer, whose tragic suicide took place less than thirty-six hours before the opening of Bacon’s career-defining retrospective at the Grand Palais. Within Bacon’s oeuvre, Figure in Movement sits at the centre of the black triptychs. In addition, a collection of some of the earliest works on record by Bacon, comprises six pieces including his earliest surviving large-scale work, Painted Screen (circa 1930), a precursor to his famed triptychs. On loan to Tate, London, since 2009, the collection bears an outstanding provenance that includes Bacon’s first patron Eric Allden and his early artistic mentor Roy de Maistre. In the 1940s, five of the works entered the family collection of Francis Elek, who met Allden around this time; he acquired the sixth following de Maistre’s death in 1968.

    Similarly, Lucian Freud’s early Man in a Striped Shirt (1942)(£1,000,000-1,500,000), created when the artist was 19, also from the collection of Magnus Konow, is presented alongside a still-life celebrating the artist’s love for his wife Caroline Blackwood, and a 1980 portrait of his friend and lover Susanna Chancellor. Two of the first studies of Francis Bacon Freud created in 1951 are also included. The sale will take place on October 4.

    Francis Bacon, Figure in Movement (1972)

    Left: Lucian Freud, Man in a Striped Shirt (1942, estimate: £1,000,000-1,500,000)
    Right: Lucian Freud, Still Life with Zimmerlinde (circa 1950, estimate: £400,000-600,000)

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    FREUD NUDE MAKES £22.5 MILLION, A RECORD FOR THE ARTIST IN LONDON

    Tuesday, June 26th, 2018

    Lucian Freud – Portrait on a White Cover

    One of Lucian Freud’s last great nudes, Portrait on a White Cover sold  for £22.5 million at Sotheby’s in London tonight.  It was the most valuable painting by the artist ever sold in London. The previous highest price for a London auction of the artist’s work was £16.1 million set by Pregnant Girl at Sotheby’s in February 2016.  Painted when the artist was 80 years old it represents the culmination of Freud’s lifelong engagement with the reclining nude. Alongside the self-portrait, the reclining nude was the defining leitmotif of Freud’s career. Across sixty years of painting, innumerable mutations of painterly style, and a multitude of sitters, he returned to this challenging subject time and again.

    Portrait on a White Cover depicts Sophie Lawrence, who worked for Tate publishing and was spotted by Freud whilst preparing for his Tate retrospective in 2002. This is her only known portrait and there is little written about her in the literature surrounding the artist’s work. Ahead of this sale, she shared her story of sitting for the artist: “I wouldn’t have done it for anyone else, but he is one of the best artists who has ever lived. It was incredibly intimidating, but he made me feel at ease. He was very good at building a rapport with people. I was very fond of him.”

    The artist painted only three further reclining nudes before his death in 2011. The painting which immediately preceded Portrait on a White Cover, Naked Portrait 2002 – depicting Kate Moss pregnant – set a new auction record for the artist at £7.3 million when it appeared at auction in 2005. Four of the top five prices for the artist at auction are for reclining nudes.

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    FREE FREUD AT IMMA FOR HALLOWEEN

    Monday, October 23rd, 2017

    The Irish Museum of Modern Art is  extending its inaugural Lucian Freud exhibition until next January 7.  The museum is celebrating a successful first year of IMMA Collection: Freud Project with a two-week period of free entry to coincide with the October mid-term and Halloween Bank holiday. The exhibition features 50 works by Lucian Freud (1922 – 2011) on a five-year loan from a number of private collections.  All have been on display for the past year.

    This is the first instalment of a five-year educational and cultural initiative where IMMA will present a series of different Lucian Freud related exhibitions. A new exhibition  The Ethics of Scrutiny  will open in early February. This, and subsequent exhibitions, will include works and new commissions by other modern and contemporary artists in response to Freud.

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    THE £120,875 STRAWBERRY AND NIGHT OF FALLING RECORDS AT SOTHEBY’S

    Thursday, June 22nd, 2017

    Lucian Freud Strawberries – oil on copper

    The record for Kandinsky was broken twice in one night, there was a new record for Miro and Lucian Freud’s actual size strawberries made £120,875 per strawberry at a sterling night at Sotheby’s in London last night.  Three works made over £20 million for the first time in any London auction. The Actual Size and Impressionist and Modern evening sales brought in a combined total of £148.9 million. Kandinsky’s Murnau – Landschaft kit grunem Haus made a new record for the artist of £21 million followed just six lots later by Bild kit weissen Linien which sold for £33 million. Femme et oiseau by Joan Miro from his Constellation series sold for £24.6 million. A unique cast by Giacometti made £17.9 million. A small group of strawberries by Lucian Freud made £1.2 million.

    Helena Newman, Global Co-Head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Department & Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, said: “To have three landmarks in the development of 20th Century art by Kandinsky, Miró and Giacometti come to the market in a single sale tonight was momentous. These key works stand as turning points in the history of art, and tonight auction history was made when the record for Kandinsky broken not just once but twice and an unprecedented three works sold over £20m in a single London Evening Sale. The strength at the very highest level of the market was echoed across price points – and sizes. Collectors were out in force, participating from a record number of locations around the globe, with the level of Asian buyers as numerous as those from the US, underscoring the enduring importance of London as a key driver of the global art market.”

    Joan Miró’s Femme et oiseaux

    Helena Newman finds bids during the sale of Wassily Kandinsky’s Bild mit weissen Linien for £33 million.

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    A LANDMARK SALE OF BRITISH ART TO MARK CHRISTIE’S 250TH ANNIVERSARY

    Thursday, April 28th, 2016

    A landmark sale of major paintings and sculpture will mark Christie’s 250th anniversary in London on June 30. The focus will be on great works of British art.  Highlights will include an intimate family portrait by Lucian Freud painted in 1992.  At auction for the first time in 100 years is a pivotal example of British Aestheticism from 1864 by Frederic, Lord Leighton.  And there is an exquisite 1778 portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds which has never been on the market before.

    Building on the success of Christie’s pioneering series of curated evening sales including Looking Forward to the Past and The Artist’s Muse in 2015, the global auction house will celebrate four centuries of British artists with an evening sale on June 30 entitled  Defining British Art.    A loan exhibition with the same title will run from June 17 to July 15.  Highlights will be on view at Christie’s New York from May 6-12 and at Christie’s Hong Kong from May 26-30.

    Ever since James Christie first opened his doors for business in 1766, in St James’s London, where the headquarters remain today, Christie’s has championed British art and artists. Both Reynolds and Gainsborough were among the regular visitors to these salerooms.   Orlando Rock, Chairman, Christie’s UK said:  “A celebration of Britain’s artistic achievements, the Defining British Art Loan Exhibition and Evening Sale will break new ground for Christie’s, charting the evolution of British art over the last 400 years. A fitting launch to Christie’s 250th Anniversary celebrations in London and inspired by James Christie’s own innovative spirit, the sale and exhibition will create dynamic juxtapositions and, we hope, inspire artists and collectors of the future. Open to all, I would like to encourage not only those who are already friends of Christie’s but also those we have yet to welcome, to share in these celebrations and become part of our next chapter, looking ahead to the next 250 years and beyond.”

    LUCIAN FREUD (1922–2011) Ib and her husband (estimate c£18 million). Courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2018.

    LUCIAN FREUD (1922–2011)
    Ib and her husband (estimate c£18 million). Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2018.

    Frederic, Lord Leighton, P.R.A. (1830-1896) Golden Hours (£3-5 million). Courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2016

    Frederic, Lord Leighton, P.R.A. (1830-1896)
    Golden Hours (£3-5 million). Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2016

    Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. (1723-1792) Portrait of Lucy Long, Mrs George Hardinge (£2-3 million). Courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2016

    Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. (1723-1792)
    Portrait of Lucy Long, Mrs George Hardinge (£2-3 million). Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2016

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