antiquesandartireland.com

Information about Art, Antiques and Auctions in Ireland and around the world
  • ABOUT
  • About Des
  • Contact
  • Archive for October, 2020

    TEFAF DIGITAL NEW YORK FAIR OPEN TO ALL

    Saturday, October 31st, 2020

    The world of auctions, local, national and international, has moved fairly seamlessly to an online model of auctions.   Art and antique fairs have a more particular problem, but as the pandemic progresses and large gatherings remain an impossibility new forms are emerging. With fabulous fairs in New York and Maastricht The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF), the daddy of them all, is not something us average punters get to visit  every time. The good news is that the digital model is available in our own homes. The inaugural digital New York Fair runs from November 1-4 with a private preview day today. Each one of the almost 300 participating exhibitors from across the global community has been challenged to present a single masterpiece in their collection. The result is a selection of artworks in the top segment of the market in one place which offers all of us a chance to look and learn. Did you know, for instance, that in the last two years of his life the artist Georges Braque, became fascinated with the idea of designing jewellery? It gave him a chance to continue with art while experiencing ill health. Jewellers Didier Ltd. will highlight a Poseidon necklace designed by Braque in 1962-62. An Ancient Egyptian head of Min, God of fertility and harvest,  is at Axel Vervoordt.  Among the other rarities to be found is Gokei Monju, a Japanese temple sculpture of the bodhisattva of transcendent wisdom at Asian art specialists Sydney L. Moss. Guests who are moved to purchase will be afforded the option of interaction with exhibitors.  It is possible to pre-register online at https://www.tefaf.com/visitors/sign_up.

    Poseidon, a necklace in gold, platinum and diamonds by Georges Braque (1882-1963)

    AFFORDABLE IRISH ART AT UPCOMING ONLINE SALE

    Friday, October 30th, 2020

    THERE is an Edwardian feel to this Interior by the late Co. Wicklow artist Liam Treacy (1934-2004). It comes up at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online art auction on November 2 with an estimate of 600-900. There is a wide variety of affordable art by Maurice Wilks, Gladys McCabe, Basil Blackshaw, George Gillespie, John Butler Yeats, Evie Hone, John Kingerlee and many others on offer. The catalogue is online. UPDATE: THIS MADE 850 AT HAMMER

    ARCHIVE AIB MATERIAL MAKES £122,815 FOR CHARITY

    Friday, October 30th, 2020

    A collection of archive material from AIB (formerly First Trust Bank) made £122,815 at Dix Noonan Webb in aid of charity. The archival material offered a wide range of proofs, specimens, sheets and issued notes dating from 1954 to 2012 from the Provincial Bank through to AIB and First Trust Bank. All lots had been offered in three sales over the past seven months and the proceeds will be split between Age NI and the Alzheimer’s Society.

    With buyers from all over the world the 330 lots were 100% sold. The top lot – a booklet containing an official De Le Rue proposal for a polymer £10 ‘2017 New Series’, featuring two completely different proposed designs, that were never adopted fetched £8,500 – 14 times it’s pre-sale estimate of £400-600. It went to a private buyer.

    (See post on antiquesandartireland.com for March 7, 2020)

    A booklet with the De La Rue proposal for a polymer £10 note.

    DONALD JUDD AT TEFAF ONLINE

    Thursday, October 29th, 2020

    Donald Judd’s Untitled (1988) is a Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac highlight at TEFAF online New York from October 30-November 4. One of the most influential artists of the post-war period, Judd (1928–1994) radically transformed notions of the ‘visible’, developing a rigorous visual vocabulary that emphasises simple, mathematical proportions and openness of form. Untitled belongs to one of Judd’s principle and best-known bodies of work – the ‘stacks’, which he first created in galvanised iron in 1965.

    This is TEFAF’s first virtual fair, which will provide attendees with direct, live access to its community of world-renowned dealers. Each of nearly 300 specialist exhibitors will present one masterpiece representing their respective areas of expertise. In TEFAF’s long tradition of presenting quality works, TEFAF Online provides the most thorough vetting procedure possible within a digital context.? TEFAF Online will afford attendees an extraordinary journey through 7,000 years of art history.

    Donald Judd – Untitled

    WHITE GLOVE LIVE STREAMED SALE AT SOTHEBY’S

    Thursday, October 29th, 2020

    Sotheby’s scored a white glove live streamed Impressionist and Modern Art auction from New York last night. Specialists in New York, London and Hong Kong took bids and interacted with auctioneer Oliver Barker. All lots were sold and the evenings auctions realised $284 million.

    The Impressionist and Modern sale totalled $141.1 million and was led by Giacometti’s Femme Leon which sold for $25.9 million. There was a new auction record for Giorgio de Chirico when Ariadne’s Afternoon made $15.8 million.

    The Contemporary Art sale brought in $142.8 million. A trio of Alfa Romeo concept cars led the sale and sold for $14.8 million. This was first in Contemporary evening art auction history. Italian architect and designer Carlo Mollino’s dining table caused a three-continent bidding battle. It eventually sold for $6.2 million, a record for any work of Italian design. It was from the collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

    ALBERTO GIACOMETTI, FEMME LEON, CONCEIVED IN 1947

    GREAT RESULTS AT MORGAN O’DRISCOLL’S €2 MILLION ART SALE

    Wednesday, October 28th, 2020

    Andy Warhol’s  portraits of Mohammed Ali made €210,000 at hammer at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International art sale last night.  With bidders from Ireland, the US, the UK and mainland Europe the online auction grossed €2 million.   The Ali portrait went to an Irish collector. Among the other hammer prices were Dan O’Neill’s Summer (€125,000); Bridget Riley R2114 (€100,000);  Sean Scully, 9.2.89 (€85,000); Jack Butler Yeats, A Hooker and a Nobbie (€70,000):  Banksy, Morons (Sepia) (€68,000);  Dan O’Neill, Girl with Flower (€60,000); Basil Blackshaw, Grey Mare (€36,000); Louis le Brocquy, Orange (€29,000);  Andy Warhol, The Nun from Ingrid Bergman (€28,000) and Harry Kernoff, The Twelve Pins, Renvyle, Connemara (€25,000).

    DANIEL O’NEILL (1920-1974). Summer sold for 125,000 at hammer

    RELICS OF THE COLD WAR HIT AUCTION BLOCK AT JULIEN’S

    Monday, October 26th, 2020

    More than 400 artefacts used by American astronauts, Cuban revolutionaries and Soviet spies will come under the hammer at Julien’s Auctions in Hollywood next year. The Cold War Relics Auction on February 13, 2021 will feature the entire collection from the KGB Espionage Museum in New York City. Lots on offer include clandestine operative cameras, counter-intelligence detectors, morse code machines, airplane radars, voice recorders and official government documents. Highlights include a gun designed to look like a tube of lipstick ($800-$1,200), a secret hotel-room listening device or “bug” from 1964 ($300-$500); a Soviet version of the Enigma code cipher machine known as the Fialka ($8,000-$12,000) and a replica of the deadly syringe umbrella believed to have been used to carry out the assassination of Bulgarian author Georgie Markov on a London street in 1978 ($2,000-$3,000).

    This collection was procured by historian, collector and museum curator, Julius Urbaitis, who worked as the consultant for the 2019 Emmy and Golden Globe award winning HBO series, Chernobyl.

    A gun designed to look like a tube of lipstick

    TWO DAY ONLINE SALE BY VICTOR MEE

    Monday, October 26th, 2020

    The Palace Collection is the title of a two day online only sale by the Co. Cavan auctioneer Victor Mee on October 28 and 29.   Lot 642 is a 17th century North Italian coffer on stand from Waterford Castle, lot 330 is a French giltwood and gesso side table with marble top. There is a collection of books by John Millington Synge from the Synge family home and an Irish mahogany coffer once owned by the Synge family.  Lot 772 is a 19th century revenue officials probing tool in a leather case. This was designed to find illicit poitin in haystacks.

    North Italian coffer. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,300 AT HAMMER

    AMERICAN ABSTRACTION AT SOTHEBY’S ON OCTOBER 28

    Sunday, October 25th, 2020

    THE story of American abstraction in these two works by Clyfford Still and Brice Marden at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art evening sale in New York on October 28.

    IRISH AND INTERNTIONAL ART AT MORGAN O’DRISCOLL ONLINE SALE

    Sunday, October 25th, 2020

    The Irish and International art online auction by Morgan O’Driscoll on October 27 has aroused significant interest at home and abroad.  The international selection, headed by Warhol’s portraits of Mohammed Ali, is strong and includes work by Banksy, Bridget Riley, Howard Hodgkin, Ai Weiwei, Damien Hirst, Sol Lewitt and others. With 176 lots in total there is a good representation of leading Irish artists including Sean Scully, Louis le Brocquy, Jack Butler Yeats, William Crozier, John Butler Yeats, Sir William Orpen, Mainie Jellett, Kenneth Webb, Barry Castle, Tony O’Malley, Patrick Graham, Pauline Bewick and many more. There is sculpture by John Behan,  Sandra Bell,  Orla de Bri, F.E. McWilliam and others.

    BANKSY (20TH/21ST CENTURY) BRITISH – Morons (Sepia), 2007 (20,000-30,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 68,000 AT HAMMER