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The catalogue for de Veres Art and Design auction on October 20 is now online. There is a mix of classic design furniture and Irish art in this timed online sale of around 200 lots. There are sideboards, cocktail tables, sofas, dining chairs, coffee tables, lighting, easy chairs, mirrors and sculpture. Among the artworks on offer is work by Tony O’Malley, Patrick Scott, Hughie O’Donoghue, Liam O’Neill and Colin Davidson.
Contents from recent house sales in Carrigaline and Bandon will come under the hammer at Woodwards in Cork on October 10). Among the main lots in this online auction are Evening Glandore by Arthur Maderson (€2,500-€3,000), a pair of fold-over tea tables (€1,500-€2,000), a Georgian walnut library table (€1,000-1,500), an Edwardian inlaid card table (€800-€1,200) and a Regency sofa table (€700-€1,000).The selection of furniture includes a satinwood sewing table, a set of six Cork style chairs, an Edwardian walnut cellarette, an Irish Georgian side table, a William IV card table and a demi-lune commode.
David Hockney’s Portrait of Sir David Webster comes up at Christie’s Post War and Contemporary evening auction on October 22. Estimated at £11-18 million it is being sold to raise funds for London’s Royal Opera House. Sir David is the former general administrator of the ROH. Painted in 1971, it depicts Webster in the artist’s studio sitting on a Mies van der Rohe ‘MR’ chair before a glass table. The painting is being offered by the ROH and proceeds will contribute toward funding required to alleviate the financial impact of coronavirus, the most serious crisis the organisation has had to face.
From 1975 until 1992, David Hockney would design sets for venues including Glyndebourne, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Royal Opera House. Inviting stylistic comparison with Hockney’s landmark double portraits produced between 1968 and 1975, Portrait of Sir David Webster demonstrates the meticulous exploration of space, perspective, lighting and compositional drama that would eventually come to inform his theatrical endeavours.
This 1875 painting of Master McGrath, the only greyhound to win the Waterloo Cup five times, by W. Allison is at the James Adam online Country House Collections Townley Hall sale which is now open for bidding. A note on the back of the oil on board reads: “Master McGrath was the only one to win the Waterloo Cup five times. This painting was commissioned by the owner and given to Bob Mush, trainer of the dog.” Day one of the sale is a timed online event which runs until October 12. Lot 109 is estimated at 400-600. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 1,600
A military cannon measuring nine feet in length is among the more unusual lots at Aidan Foley’s three day online sale from Sixmilebridge which gets underway on October 11. Viewing for this sale of 2,000 lots gets atarts next Friday. The auction will feature lots from houses on North Circular Road and Ennis Road in Limerick, a period Co. Kerry house and various other Munster properties.
From Mick McQuaid tobacco to a painted wooden advertisement for Seamus Murphy gentleman’s tailor, Foley St., Cork, Guinness toucans to 1950’s opaline pendant lights the Molly McCabe collection sale online by Victor Mee on October 5 and 6 is redolent of bygone days. There are enamel signs for Peek Freans cakes, ads for Double Diamond, Babycham, Labatt’s Pilsener, Colman’s Blue, Will’s Gold Flake, Capstan, Woodbines, Fry’s Cocoa, Horlick’s, ceramic whiskey dispensers, Harp, Smithwicks and whatever you are having yourself alongside items like cast iron shop scales on offer in a vast and inexpensive selection of 1,392 lots.The Co. Cavan auctioneer is offering contents gathered at Molly’s pub in Warrenpoint over 99 years. Previously owned by her father Edward, Molly left school at 14 and managed the pub which still bears her name all her life.
The top lot at Fonsie Mealy’s three day sale in Castlecomer this week was a set of four Killarney paintings by James Arthur O’Connor (1792 – 1841) which made a hammer price of 22,000. The oil on board works in matching gilt frames were commissioned by the Godfrey family in Co. Kerry and came to auction by direct family descent. A bronze figure of Cu Chulainn by Edward Delaney made 19,000. Other top lots included an early 19th century Korean storage cabinet (15,000), a mid 18th century Chinoiserie decorated and lacquered kneehole desk (12,000) and a 17th century Flemish tapestry (8,500). The sale realised just over one million euro on the hammer.
Hand (1971) is the title of this piece by Louis le Brocquy at Whyte’s autumn online art auction which continues until October 5. The lithograph on handmade paper, number 10 from an edition of 70, was exhibited at Gimpel and Weitzenhoffer, New York in 1971. It is estimated at 1,000-1,500. More than 260 lots are on offer in this timed sale, all at reasonable estimates. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 1,800 AT HAMMKER
Many leading US artists are angry at what they perceive as self-censorship by major museums. It follows the decision by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Tate Modern in London, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, to delay the presentation of a retrospective by Philip Guston until 2024. He is regarded as one of America’s most influential postwar painters.
The galleries don’t want trouble and Guston’s later paintings feature men in hoods reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan paintings were first exhibited in 1970 when Guston abandoned his earlier abstractions to face down the evils he first saw as a Jewish child in Los Angeles. They were shown without incident in the US and the UK in 2003-04.
The decision to postpone has been condemned in an open letter by nearly leading 100 artists, curators and writers, young and old, black and white. Among the signatories are Matthew Barney, Nicole Eisenman, Charles Gaines, Ellen Gallagher, Wade Guyton, Rachel Harrison, Joan Jonas, Ralph Lemon, Julie Mehretu, Adrian Piper, Pope.L, Martin Puryear, Amy Sillman, Lorna Simpson, Henry Taylor, Stanley Whitney and Christopher Williams.
The delay is to let the institutions rethink their presentation of his later figurative paintings. According to a spokesperson for the National Gallery spokesperson these risk being “misinterpreted” today.
Some of the most seismic artistic moments of the last 100 years, from Impressionist masters to Contemporary art, will be represented at Christie’s upcoming sales. The evening sale of 59 works of 20th century art on October 6 will be livestreamed from the Rockefeller Center in New York. The overall low estimate is more $300 million. The sale is led by Cy Twombly’s Untitled (Bolsena), 1969 ($35-45 million), formerly part of the Saatchi collection. Completed in the aftermath of the Apollo 11 mission works from the series fuse painting, drawing and writing into a lyrical thesis on time and space.
In assembling this October series at a strong moment in the art market the auction house has utilised its technology, insight into client demand and logistical agility to re-imagine the auction model for a rapidly evolving world. Christie’s will conduct livestreamed sales of Post War and Contemporary art on October 7 and Impressionist and Modern Art on October 8. The sales will offer a new collecting opportunity ahead of the traditional November marquee sale week in New York. Standouts include an early example of the revolutionary drip painting technique by Jackson Pollock and a superlative watercolour by Paul Cezanne by in addition to works by Rothko, de Kooning and Matisse.
Marc Porter, Chairman, Americas, remarked: “Building on the innovation of ONE, Christie’s live-streamed global auction in July, we set out to demonstrate great agility again, introducing a marquee week of exceptional quality works from across the 20th and 21st centuries, creating a singular opportunity for collectors well ahead of the traditional fall sale calendar.
