WILLIAM SCOTT, R.A. (1913-1989) – Frying Pan – Still Life, 1947. UPDATE; THIS MADE £756,000
Frying Pan – Still Life by William Scott at Christie’s Modern British and Irish Art evening sale in London on October 19 dates to 1947. It is emblematic of Scott’s approach to painting following the Second World War. At first glance, the simple arrangement of culinary objects speaks of the Northern Irish austerity that Scott experienced in his youth. Concurrently, however, the artist’s sophisticated exploration into the arrangement of colour, form and spatial geometry reflects a preoccupation that ensued throughout the artist’s celebrated career. According to the catalogue notes in this work Scott demonstrates a masterful approach to composition – the ovoid shapes that reverberate across the canvas work in harmony with the linear diagonals that permeate the scene. The alignment of the eggs, positioned carefully on the table-top, create a subtle dynamism as they lead the eye towards the frying pan, whose crisp silhouette against the rich yolk-yellow of the background foreshadows the use of the motif as the most recognisable icon of his later work. The estimate is £300,000-£500,000.
The sale will be led by L.S. Lowry’s Going to the Match, which is being offered by The Players Foundation. Estimated at £5,000,000-8,000,000, the painting is poised to set a new world auction record for the artist. The catalogue is online.
LAURENCE STEPHEN LOWRY, R.A. (1887-1976) – Going to the Match. UPDATE: THIS MADE £7,846,500 A NEW WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR LOWRY
Sean Scully – Wall of Light Red. UPDATE: THIS LOT WAS WITHDRAWN FROM THE AUCTION
One of the most outstanding paintings in Sean Scully’s Wall of Light series comes up at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art evening auction in London on October 14. Executed in 1998 it is one of the largest and earliest work within the series. It is estimated at £800,000-£1.2 million.
Large TIANQIUPING porcelain and polychrome enamel vase
This Chinese vase with an estimate of €1,500-€2,000 sold for €7.7 million at an auction in Fontainebleau near Paris on October 1. A bidding war by almost 30 Chinese bidders brought it to a hammer price of almost 4,000 times the estimated value. With fees the cost amounts to €9.12 million. Auctioneers Osenat said the vase had been consigned by a woman living in a French overseas territory who was left it by her mother. The seller had not seen the vase, which is 54 centimetres tall, and had arranged for it to be taken from her mother’s home in Brittany by the auctioneers. The vase had originally belonged to her grandmother, a Parisian collector. Tianqiuping means heavenly sphere. The auctioneers said that from the moment the catalogue was published it generated enormous interest, but that their expert considered the vase to be not old.
A set of 13 masquerade costumes by Harry Kernoff UPDATE: THIS MADE 9,000 AT HAMMER
Irish art sales continue their merry way at de Vere’s in Dublin on October 11. There is art by Sean McSweeney, Charles Brady, Tony O’Malley, Anne Yeats, Markey Robinson, Brian Maguire, Gerard Dillon and many others among 170 lots on the catalogue. A set of 13 masquerade costumes by Harry Kernoff is, at €8,000-€12,000 the most expensively estimated lot. A nude by Donald Teskey is estimated at €6,000-€9,000 and a landscape by Dan O’Neill is estimated at €5,000-€7,000. A wooden sculpture of an Irish dancer by Oisin Kelly is estimated at €1,000-€2,000. All price points are catered for and estimates range from €100-€12,000.
Irish Dancer by Oisin Kelly. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,700 AT HAMMER
Early Morning, Saint-Maxime by David Hockney. UPDATE: THIS MADE £20,899,500
A 1969 Hockney, a deeply personal painting by Tracey Emin, Gerhard Richter’s first Colour Chart and Francis Bacon’s Three Studies for a Portrait of Henrietta Moraes are among the offerings at the October London sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s Early Morning Saint Maxime by David Hockney will highlight Christie’s 20th/21st Century evening sale on October 13. The painting, which is radiant, is situated between his seminal Californian swimming pool art and the pioneering naturalistic double portraits and is estimated at £7 million – £9 million This is one of four paintings based on photographs taken during a trip to France with Hockney’s then partner Peter Schlesinger in autumn 1968. They became regular guests at the home of film director Tony Richardson near Saint Tropez. Richardsons home became the setting for Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) when the relationship between Hockney and Schlesinger ended in 1971. When this work sold for $90.3 million at Christie’s in New York in 2018 it set a then auction record for a work by a living artist.
Like a Cloud of Blood by Tracey Emin. UPDATE: THIS. MADE £2,322,000, A RECORD FOR THE ARTIST
Like a Cloud of Blood, one of the first paintings made by Tracey Emin following her cancer treatment, will be offered at the same sale with an estimate of £500,000-£700,000. Made this year the work is an intimate vision of her recent experience and marks a return to the creative process. The sale will raise funds for an innovative new artists studio complex in Margate set in a former bathhouse and mortuary. TKE Studios (the name is based on an abbreviation of her full name Tracey Karima Emin) the complex aims to foster talent with 12 subsidised professional studios, two year residencies, tutorials and lectures.
Gerhard Richter’s first Colour Chart – 192 Farben (1966), will headline the season at Sotheby’s Contemporary evening auction in London on October 14. The colour charts were among the first paintings not done in black and white by this globally significant artist and marked an important turning point in his career. Long before his prices reached stratospheric levels on the Richter scale the artist Gerhard Richter became intrigued by paint chips produced on an industrial scale. Richter relates the work to Pop Art.Three Studies for Portrait of Henrietta Moraes by Francis Bacon is another highlight at Sotheby’s. Henrietta Moraes and Bacon were close friends. One of his portraits of her made £21.3 million. in 2012. Sotheby’s has put together a stellar sale to coincide with the Frieze and Frieze Masters art fairs, when the global contemporary art world assembles in London. The sale will be preceded at Sotheby’s by the Now evening auction, a sale format established in March this year to address the outstanding demands for new and emerging artists.
192 Farben (192 Colours) by Gerhard Richter. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £18,287,800
