Following the major retrospective dedicated to Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957) at the Centre Pompidou, Paris last year a selection of his photographic work, spanning 1906 to 1938 is at Thaddaeus Ropac Paris Marais until December 23. The Romanian artist’s photography was an integral part of his artistic practice and evolved alongside his sculpture from early in his career. In 1956 Brancusi bequeathed his entire studio to the French State, including a number of photographs, which were the subject of a focused exhibition running alongside the artist’s first retrospective in France at the Centre Pompidou in 1995.
Brancusi began experimenting with the medium following his arrival in Paris in 1904. He immersed himself in the photographic and cinematographic avant-gardes and befriended numerous photographers including Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz and Man Ray. Brancusi notably accompanied Steichen to take nocturnal shots of Rodin’s Balzac sculpture – a formative event that fostered his experimental approach to photography. In 1917, Brancusi met Irish American lawyer John Quinn, one of the most important collectors of modern and avant garde art of his generation. Quinn would become one of his most prominent collectors and, crucially, acquired most of his sculptures from photographs. In 1913, five of Brancusi’s sculptures were displayed in the seminal Armory Show in New York.
U2 musician Adam Clayton with guitars from his personal collection. Brian McEvoy/Julien’s Auctions. UPDATE: THE ENTIRE COLLECTION SOLD OUT
Adam Clayton’s personal collection of 18 bass guitars will come under the hammer as part of Julien’s Played Worn & Torn sale in Nashville on November 20 and 21. The live and online sale will be held at the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum. Meantime a three-week exhibition celebrating the collection of the U2 bassist and this collection opens today at The Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge, Co Kildare. It runs until November 9.
Highlights include his 2014 Sherwood Green Fender Adam Clayton signature Jazz Bass, played during U2’s Innocence + Experience tour in 2015. Notable stops were in Dublin, Belfast, Paris, Glasgow, London, Koln, Antwerp, Barcelona, Berlin, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Turin, NYC, Boston, Toronto, Chicago, Montreal, Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose, and Vancouver (estimate: $40,000-$60,000); his 200 Lakland Joe Osborn J sunburst bass, played during the U2’s Vertigo Tour for their classic hit “One,” notably in Dublin on August 27, 2005 (estimate: $20,000-$40,000); a 2010 Gold Sparkle Fender Adam Clayton Precision Bass deemed a “mistake” by Clayton’s guitar technician due to the Jazz Bass decaled headstock (estimate: $40,000-$60,000); Clayton’s stunning U2 360 Tour 2010 Warwick Gold Reverso electric basses (estimate each: $20,000-$40,000) and Clayton’s prized Fender Jazz Basses ranging from the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Adam Clayton “Achtung Baby” Era Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust Wristwatch made $16,000, more than eight times the estimate. A portion of the proceeds will benefit MusiCares
Apples and Pear by Roderic O’Conor (1860-1940) UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £171,450
The gem like Apples and Pear by Roderic O’Conor at Christie’s Modern British and Irish art evening sale in London on October 22 epitomises his use of colour, texture and strong stripes. The painting featured at the O’Conor retrospective at the National Gallery in 2018. It dates to around 1893 and Christie’s say that opportunities to acquire a work so emblematic of its period and of O’Conor’s oeuvre arise infrequently. The estimate is £120,000-£180,000 (€137,900-€206,890).
Flowers by the Window by Norah McGuinness. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,600 AT HAMMER
From Patrick Collins and Donald Teskey to Andy Warhol and John Behan the sale by Morgan O’Driscoll which runs until October 21 is brimful of colourful interest. This Irish and International online art auction kicks off with a Percy French watercolour of a bog landscape with gorse (€1,500-€2,500) and has an estimate range from €500 to €120,000-€160,000 for Cottages on Achill Sound, an oil on canvas by Paul Henry.
There are 1980’s screenprints of Ingrid Bergman and Jane Fonda by Andy Warhol and a study towards an image of Federico Garcia Lorca by Louis le Brocquy among the leading lots. A View of Fez by Sir John Lavery dates to 1919 and is estimated at €70,000-€100,000. The selection of sculpture is headed by John Behan’s Bantry Famine Ship (€15,000-€25,000) and offers work by Jacob Epstein, Ian Pollock, Michael Foley, Rory Breslin and Liam Flynn. The sale, with 155 lots in total, is on view at the RDS in Dublin on today, tomorrow and Monday and the catalogue is online.
Jane Fonda (1982) by Andy Warhol. UPDATE: THIS MADE 28,000 AT HAMMER
Petalas coffee table in jacaranda by Jorge Zalszupin at Adams. UPDATE: THIS MADE 10,000 AT HAMMER
Interiors created by architect designers like William Morris, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Frank Lloyd Wright, Cesar Manrique and Jorge Zalszupin have a seductive appeal that withstands the constant ebb and flow of fashion and is timeless.
Auctions underway in Ireland right now challenge chic antique home designers to build their own timeless lnteriors in genres that range from Mid Century Modern at James Adam to Irish Vernacular by Victor Mee, silver and collectibles at Woodwards and the contents of Cork antique shop Salvagem by Mitchelstown based Ray Alley Auctioneering.
The pickings are rich and mostly affordable, though it must be said that you will not come across objects like Zalszupin’s Petalas coffee table in Jacaranda every day. At €10,000-€15,000 it is among the most expensively estimated lots at Adams in Dublin on October 21. The noted Jewish Polish Brazilian architect designer, who died aged 98 in 2000, founded L’Atelier in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1959. The iconic Petalas table captures many of his core concerns like minimal ornament, excellence in material, structural innovation and an approach to modernism that is lyrical.
The sale at Adams offers furniture by Eileen Gray, Finn Juhl, Arne Jacobsen, Niels Otto Muller, Arne Vodder, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand, Gerrit Rietveld, le Corbusier, Charles Eames, Monika Graffeo and a range of illustrious designers. There is art by Anselm Kiefer, Alexander Calder, Gerard Byrne, John Boyd, Patrick Graham, Merlin James, Picasso, Georges Rouault, Elizabeth Magill, Liam Belton, Sean Scully and others along with a selection of rugs, lighting and collectible objects.
A silver freedom box at Woodwards sale today. UPDATE: THIS MADE 5,250 AT HAMMER
Irish and English silver, art, militaria and various collectibles will come under the hammer online at Woodwards from 10 am today. The sale is headed by an 1808 silver freedom box by Kean Mahony of Cork with Dublin assay marks (€8,000-€12,000) and a large Birds in Flight bronze by John Behan (€6,000-€10,000). There is Cork and Irish silver including a pair of c1760 salvers by William Reynolds, Cork, a large silver bowl by Padraig O Mathuna with Dublin hallmarks for 1974, a pair of c1780 serving spoons by Maurice Fitzgerald, Limerick and a London silver tea set.
Collectors will find everything from an early 19th century Irish settle bench and a scumbled pine kitchen cupboard to spongeware, a dug out chair, painted pine dressers and hand cut limestone troughs at Victor Mee’s Irish vernacular sale on October 19. These were staples of rural Irish homes made by local people using materials to hand.
A 19th century painted pine dresser from Co. Clare at Victor Mee. UPDATE: THIS MADE 900 AT HAMMER
Irish spongeware pottery made from clay is loved for its colourful decoration and the sale offers a selection of Irish and French pieces. There are floor candle holders and a rare rush light holder from Co. Fermanagh, kitchen tables, chairs, milking stools, a cast iron skillet pot, banks of drawers, wall racks and a 19th century pine washboard in a selection of over 700 lots calculated to stir many old memories of an Ireland that is now vanished.
Antique furniture, rugs, collectibles and lighting from Salvagem, the McCurtain St., Cork antique shop which closed last month, will be auctioned today at the Metropole Hotel in Cork and online by Ray Alley Auctioneering of Mitchelstown. Estimates are very reasonable and the catalogue is online. Salvagem operated since 2020 in an era when many antique shops have been lost. Salvagem owner Michael Wall hopes to continue with an online shop.
A Cork Regency sofa table at the sale of contents from Salvagem antique shop today. UPDATE: THIS MADE 300 AT HAMMER
Paul Henry (1876-1958) – Cottages on Achill Sound. UPDATE: THIS MADE 120,000 AT HAMMER
Cottages on Achill Sound by Paul Henry is the leading lot at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online art sale which runs until October 21. From a private Dublin collection it is estimated at €120,000-€160,000. Viewing for this auction with 155 lots gets underway today at the Minerva Suite at the RDS in Dublin and continues until October 20. The catalogue is online.
JANE O’MALLEY (1944-2023) – GULL EVENING, 1996. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 750
Gull Evening, an oil on board by Jane O’Malley, is lot 152 at Whyte’s autumn online art sale which runs until October 20. The oil and gesso on board is estimated at €800-€1,200. The sale of 277 affordable lots is on view at Molesworth St. over the coming weekend.
Peter Doig – Ski Jacket (1994) sold for €16,381,960
The highest total for a Frieze Week sale in London in seven years was achieved last night when Christie’s London evening sale made £106,925,400. Peter Doig’s Ski Jacket was the top lot of the evening making £16.3 million against an estimate of £6/8million and there was world records for Paula Rego, Suzanne Valadon, Annie Morris and Esben Weile Kjær. Peter Doig’s Country Rock made £9.2 million, Lucian Freud’s Self Portrait fragment made £7.6 million, Gerhard Richter’s Tulpen made £6.1 million and Cezanne’s Maison de Bellevue et pigeonnier made £5.5 million.
PAULA REGO (1935-2022) – Dancing Ostriches from Walt Disney’s Fantasia made £3.4 million.
CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2024. UPDATE: THIS SOLD ONLINE FOR €850,000
The most desirable copy imaginable of Salomé by Oscar Wilde will highlight an online sale of books and manuscripts by Christie’s Paris from October 22-November 5. Wilde’s own copy is illuminated with original ink drawings by the English essayist, parodist and caricaturist Max Beerbohm — several depicting the author himself — created especially for him. Wilde later gave this copy to his lover Robert Ross with a signed autograph inscription.
The play is enriched with an original autograph poem by the Pierre Louÿs, the French novelist and poet renowned for expressing pagan sensuality with stylish perfection. Christie’s say that this copy brings together all the qualities sought after by a true bibliophile: an original edition of the text, first published in French in 1893, having been censored in England; an association copy with perfect provenance, from the author to his lover; and additional original drawings making the copy even more unique. In this instance, Oscar Wilde himself acts as a bibliophile, transforming this copy into a unique and singular work.
CIRCLE OF JOHN WOOTTON (1682-1764) – A Race on the Beacon Course at Newmarket Races with the Prince of Wales and other Noblemen in the Foreground
A rare officer’s dress sword with gold and diamonds was the top lot at the James Adam Country House Collections sale at Townley Hall. The sword was Presented by the East India Company to Lt. Col. Barry Close (1756-1813) and made a hammer price of €280,000. A painting of a race at Newmarket from the Circle of John Wootton made €55,000; an American silver gilt dinner service made €36,000: a painting of the Hawkesbury River in Australia by Girolamo Nerli (1860-1926) made €32,000; A Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World by John Speed made €18,000 and a Louis XV style bureau made €16,000.
