This Queen Anne style walnut chest on stand comes up at Hegarty’s sale in Bandon on May 9. It is estimated at €1,700-2,000. The online auction features a selection of antique furniture, jewellery, ceramics, garden furniture including cast iron seats and planters, a c1760 Irish silver salver by James Warren and a variety of collectible items including an August 1920 handwritten letter to Pauline Henley from a sister of Terence McSwiney who was by then on hunger strike in Brixton Prison. UPDATE: The walnut chest made 1,850 at hammer, the silver salver made 1,000 and the handwritten letter was unsold.
Here is a video on Richard Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park No. 40 from 1971. From the collection of Anne Marion it comes up at Sotheby’s in New York this month. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $27,265,500
The international art market is increasingly evolving towards the now. Developments happening at breakneck pace are reflected in the annual May New York sales of big league international art, livestreamed of course, and available to view around the world. Christie’s has torn up the rule book to create an entirely new category of turn of the 21st century contemporary art. Established contemporaries like Gerhard Richter and Christopher Wool will be offered alongside newcomer artists like Jordan Casteel.
Two tables with floral pattern by Jonas Wood (born 1977) at Christies. Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2021. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $6,510,000
This follows the discovery of a growing appetite for masterpieces by a new generation of artists reported by Christie’s in 2020. The auction house recorded no less than seven new auction records by 21st century artists in the livestreamed Hong Kong to New York evening sale last December. Many of these artists are unknown to those of us familiar with the glorious range of art from Monet to Hockney and beyond. The 21st century evening sale at Christie’s on May 11 will be led by work from artists like Martin Kippenberger, Jordan Casteel and Gerhard Richter. Mark Rothko’s Untitled, painted in 1970 during the final months of his life, will highlight the 20th century evening sale on May 13.
Femme assise près d’une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse) by Pablo Picasso at Christie’s. Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2021 (estimate in the region of $55 million). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $103,410,000
Even though there are growing numbers of new kids on the block there will be no shortage of names that are familiar. Sotheby’s Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art sales will include highlights from Jean-Michel Basquiat, Clyfford Still, Warhol, Hockney, Willem de Kooning, Alexander Calder, Childe Hassan, Degas, Monet, Picasso and more. An exquisite example of Monet’s Waterlilies series will highlight Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern sale and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Versus Medici will take centre stage at the Contemporary Art evening auction. Both sales will be livestreamed on May 12. Contemporary auctions reflect the response of todays artists to our changing world and offer a fascinating glimpse of the development of abstract and figurative art from the Post-War period to the present day. To further mark the changes Sotheby’s will hold its first auction entirely devoted to women artists across the centuries later this month.
Le Bassin aux nympheas by Claude Monet at Sothebys on May 12. ($40-$60 million). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $70,353,000
The future beckons and it looks exciting. The mix of online and live sales is here to stay. We will not go back to what was there before Covid. If a signpost to the future can be discerned it points in the direction of a more diverse and multicultural art market focused on gender equality, the rights of minorities and masterpieces waiting to be discovered by artists yet largely unknown.
Versus Medici by Jean Michel Basquiat at Sothebys on May 12 ($35-$50 million). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $50,820,000
Artists like John Shinnors, Markey Robinson, Mark O’Neill, Brian Ballard, Ken Hamilton, Charles McAuley, Clement McAleer, Hughie O’Donoghue, Martin Mooney and Comhghall Casey are among those whose work can be found at Gormleys online Irish art evening auction on May 11. There are 274 lots on the catalogue.
Charles McAuley – River Bank Games (£1,800-£2,200). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £2,100
This painting of The Yard at Ross Castle, Connemara in May is from an exhibition composed of previously unexhibited works by Luke Dillon-Mahon (1917-1997) at Panter and Hall, Pall Mall, London until May 21. On graduation from Cambridge the artist studied at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art and after serving in the war joined the advertising agency Mather and Crowther in London. He returned to Ireland in 1954 to help establish the Arks advertising agency. On the death of his mother Luke Dillon-Hall took over the family estate at Clonbrock, Co. Galway, moved there permanently in the 1970’s, and downsized to a home near Moycullen in 1976. Instrumental in forming the Galway branch of The Samaritans he became its Irish director. After moving to Galway he painted more but few of his works were exhibited. The artist Derek Hill saw a number of them in the 1990’s and offered to arrange an exhibition, but this idea was rejected. Since 2011 there has been several successful exhibitions in the UK, including one at the Star Gallery organised by the Sir Denis Mahon Foundation. The late renowned art historian Denis Mahon was his cousin.
