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Hawks Searching Corn by Tony O’Malley is lot number 14 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online sale of Irish and International Art on April 26. Viewing for this fascinating sale is now underway at the RDS in Dublin. The estimate for this painting is 5,000-7,000.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for April 16, 13 and 3, 2022)
THIS Victorian oak cased taxidermy display is lot 10 at the Library Collection sale at James Adam in Dublin on April 26. Viewing for this exciting sale with all kinds of everything thrown in gets underway in Dublin today. The display here depicts grey partridges in a rocky scrub setting. It is contained in a fine case on stand with spiral turned legs and stretcher and is estimated at 1,000-1,500. The catalogue is online.
This Merriman Tavern advertising poster for Ralph McTell and Clannad comes up as lot 57 at the online sale by Sean Eacrett of the entire contents of the Scarriff, Co. Clare tavern on April 23. It is estimated at 50-60. A total of 805 lots from the famed venue for performers from Christy Moore and Planxty to Clannad and The Chieftains will come under the hammer. The catalogue is online. UPDATE: This poster made 30 at hammer.
THE catalogue for a fine art auction at Sheppards in Durrow on April 28 is now online. The 217 lots include the studio contents from the artist Jerry Cahir. There is work by Mark O’Neill, Ivan Sutton, Mark Rode, Elizabeth Brophy, Robert Ryan, Martin Finnin and many other artists on offer.
A powerful example of Jackson Pollock’s celebrated drip paintings – Number 31, 1949 – will lead Christie’s 20th century evening sale in New York on May 12. Made of oil, enamel, aluminum paint and gesso on paper mounted on Masonite the estimate is in excess of $45 million. It has been featured in a number of important exhibitions, including the 1967 Jackson Pollock MoMA retrospective in addition to the 1998 retrospective mounted at MoMA and The Tate. Held in the same private collection for over two decades the work is fresh to market.
Alex Rotter, Christie’s Chairman of 20th and 21st Century Art, said: “In the late 1940s, Pollock’s drip paintings categorically redefined how we understand art. This moment saw the art world’s centre of gravity shift for the first time away from the museums and galleries of Paris and into the streets of New York. With his revolutionary new technique, Pollock effectively upended the existing framework of traditional painting practices. True drip paintings were—and still are—the ultimate in mid-century American avant-garde, and are rare to come across in the secondary market. Number 31 is a superb example. It is a fantastic, frenetic combination of rich hues—straight from the paint can.”
This 19th century bentwood prie dieu (€800-€1,400) by Thonet comes up as lot 789 at Victor Mee’s two day sale of decorative interiors on April 19 and 20 at 5 pm on each day. Michael Thonet, the inventor of bentwood furniture, set up his business in 1819 and is still in existence today. The online auction features a selection of garden pieces including a composition stone gazebo with a metal roof (lot 983 estimated at €3,000-€5,000) along with decor, furnishings and artwork.
From Paul Henry to Robert Ballagh, Colin Middleton to Tony O’Malley, not to mention Keith Haring and Ai Weiwei the upcoming sale of Irish and International Art by Morgan O’Driscoll is one of the most interesting auctions of the year to date. A quintessential Paul Henry – An Irish Bog – will highlight the April 26 online auction of 183 lots. Henry’s painting dates to 1939 and it featured on the cover of An Irish Journey by Sean O’ Faolain.
In the summer of 1939 the writer and the artist had toured Ireland together. Each had become the source of some disapproval in a country grown increasingly narrow minded. O’Faolain’s Bird Alone had been banned for indecency three years earlier and Henry, having separated from his wife Grace in 1930, was in a relationship with the painter Mabel Young. Undaunted, the author went on to found the literary magazine The Bell in 1940 and Paul Henry is now one of our most celebrated painters. An Irish Bog is estimated at €120,000-€180,000.In Ireland and elsewhere art and controversy are often intertwined. In the late 1970’s and early ’80’s the artist Robert Ballagh made a series of paintings around and inside his Broadstone home. In a nod to Duchamp one featured his wife Betty nude descending a spiral staircase, another has the artist clad only in socks and a tee shirt. Lot 68 in the auction, Inside No. 3 After Modernisation dates to 1982 and features Ballagh sitting at a table writing with a copy of Marx’s Das Kapital and a book on post modernism. The painting, which juxtaposes styles like Cubism, Art Deco, Abstract Expressionism and Punk, is estimated at €30,000-€50,000.
Calvary No. I (1983) by Tony O’Malley (€20,000-€30,000), from the estate of the late Charlie Hennessy of Cork, bears the inscription ‘After Picasso – Grunewald and O’Tunney’. This sombre work, regarded by some critics as among his most important, refers to the 16th century Irish memorial sculptor Rory O’Tunney from Callan. Picasso generally avoided religious subjects but he painted a crucifixion in 1930 and made a series of monochrome drawings inspired by Grunewalds 16th century masterpiece the Isenheim Altarpiece. Another O’Malley in the sale is a radiant view of hawks over a cornfield made when he was becoming an increasingly confident artist. Hawks Searching Corn dates to 1968.
Colin Middleton salutes Gauguin in an intensely coloured sun baked landscape from 1953. Castle Park is estimated at €20,000-€30,000. Keith Haring’s Best Buddies (1990), a silkscreen numbered 134 out of 200, is estimated at 50,000-70,000. River Crabs by world renowned Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei, a papercut from an edition of 250, is estimated at €3,000-€5,000. Andy Warhols Marilyn, published by Castelli Graphics, New York as an invitation to ‘Warhol – A Print Retrospective 1963-1981’ has an estimate of €4,000-€6,000.There is work by Louis le Brocquy, Hughie O’Donoghue, George Campbell, Sean McSweeney, Dan O’Neill, Jack B Yeats, Power O’Malley, Letitia Hamilton, Neil Shawcross, John Shinnors, May Guinness, John Doherty, Gwen O’Dowd, John Behan, Edward Delaney and F E McWilliam.There is Easter viewing in Skibbereen today, tomorrow and Monday and at the Minerva Suite at the RDS from next Friday until 4 pm on April 25.
The online auction at Hegarty’s in Bandon on April 19 offers a selection of antique furniture, art, jewellery and collectibles. From an Art Deco bracelet and a diamond ring to a view of Lake Maggiore by Eugenio Gignous and a Chippendale style glazed display cabinet the auction will give collectors plenty to think about. The catalogue is online.
Saint Dominic and the Stigmatisation of Saint Francis, recently featured in an exhibition at the Prado in Madrid, comes up at Christie’s sale of Masterworks from the Alana Collection in New York in June. The exceptionally rare small panel by Fra Angelico (c1395-1455) is estimated at $4 million – $6 million. It was originally part of a diptych. The second panel is the Madonna and Child with four angels and is in the Detroit Art Institute. The Alana Collection, owned by Chilean economist billionaire Alvaro Saieh and his wife Ana Guzman, is the most significant collection of Italian Old Master Paintings, Sculpture and Antiquities to be offered in New York in living memory. Other highlights include works by Orazio Gentileschi and El Greco.
One Small Step by Bridget Riley is lot number 7 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online sale of Irish and International Art on April 26. It is estimated at 2,500-3,500. There will be much interest in a sale that features works by Paul Henry, Colin Middleton, Tony O’Malley, Louis le Brocquy, Hughie O’Donoghue, F E McWilliam, Keith Haring, William Scott, Mr. Brainwash, Howard Hodgkin, Andy Warhol and many other artists. The sale is on view in Skibbereen from April 15-17 and at the RDS in Dublin from April 22-25. The catalogue is online.
