Still Life Study with Artist’s Materials on a Chair by Derek Hill comes up as lot 142 at the James Adam Irish Vernacular auction on April 12. The sale will be on view at Adams on April 7, 8 and 11 and the catalogue is online. This oil on canvas is estimated at €4,000-€6,000.
Art by Harry Kernoff, Hughie O’Donoghue and Rowan Gillespie will feature among a strong selection at Sotheby’s second Irish art sale in Paris in May. Highlights from the auction will be on view at Sotheby’s on Molesworth St. in Dublin on April 3, 4 and 5. Already consigned are works by William Leech, Roderic O’Conor, John Yeats, Louis le Brocquy, Sean Scully, Patrick Scott, Basil Blackshaw, Camille Souter, LM Hamilton, Jack Coulter, Maser and Richard Hearns.
In his painting La Place du Tertre, Montmartre Harry Kernoff discreetly places himself wearing his customary trilby hat in a cafe named Jeune Peinture. It is estimated at €40,000-€60,000. Hughie O’Donoghue’s Medusa III (€15,000-€20,000) is from a series in which he engages with the past using personal records of his father’s experience of World War II to create intense and emotionally powerful images. Given that the book was first published in Paris Ripples of Ulysses, Study, 1999 (€10,000-€15,000) by Rowan Gillespie is especially apt. It relates to two life sized James Joyce sculptures, one at the Merrion Hotel, Dublin the other at Regis University, Denver. The artist places Joyce at the centre of his masterpiece, Ulysses, the words of which ripple outwards in 18 concentric circles. The sculpture spins because it is never ending.
Incrementum 2020/2023 by Richard Hearns is estimated at €8,000-€12,000. Born in Beirut during the civil war and adopted as an infant by an Irish UN peacekeeper the Burren based painter has said his dual heritage has inspired his paintings. He is considered to be one of the most exciting abstract painters working in Ireland today by Sotheby’s.
The inaugural Irish art sale in Paris in May 2022 saw strong international bidding and a world record for a work on paper by Mainie Jellett. It also led to the return of many Irish artworks to this country. The success of that sale, which coincided with the centenary of the World Congress of the Irish Race in 1922, has spurred Sotheby’s on to repeat it in 2023. All international exposure of Irish art is to be welcomed. Bidding for this sale opens online on May 4 and runs until May 10. The auction will be on view at Sotheby’s, Paris on those dates.
This exceptional 18th century chinoiserie lacquered two door cabinet on stand will come up at Fonsie Mealy’s Borleagh Manor Country House Contents Sale on Tuesday, April 18. The sale is being conducted on the instructions of the executors of the estate of the late Malachy McDaniel Stone and other important clients. It will take place at the Amber Springs Hotel, Gorey, Co. Wexford, with viewing on the premises at Borleagh Manor on the two previous days.
The cabinet interior is fitted with an arrangement of eleven long and short drawers, decorated with landscape and river scenes with figures attending daily chores. The interior doors are decorated with birds, insects and flowers, the exterior with painted oval panels with figures under willow trees. The giltwood stand is profusely carved with scrolling foliage, flowers, cherubs and a central classical female figure. The estimate is €15,000-20,000.
A large-scale painting of a grim reaper figure riding in a carnival bumper car by Banksy entitled “Brace Yourself!” sold for $2,032,000 – over three times its original estimate of $600,000 – at Julien’s Auctions in Hollywood. It was the first time the work came to auction. The buyer was Miguel Garcia Larios, owner of vintage specialist RCNSTRCT Studio in Hollywhood. Banksy created the artwork in 2010 for a local British band known as “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” who shared the same name the artist wanted to use for his about to be released 2010 directorial debut film. To avoid any copyright issues, the band agreed to Banksy’s offer to create a unique painting for the group if they were to change their name to “Brace Yourself!” According to the original email correspondence, Banksy humorously offered to paint a smiley face on Death if the band felt the imagery was too dark. A portion of the proceeds from the sale will benefit MusiCares® the music charity.
Raval Rojo by Sean Scully comes up as lot 31 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online art sale on April 18 with an estimate of €400,000-€600,000. Just one day after the catalogue went online it has already received 25 bids and is currently standing at €105,000. It is signed by Scully and dated 9.04. It was purchased by the current owner at the Kerlin Gallery in Dublin in 2005. If memory serves me correctly it was displayed in that show to gobsmacking effect on the rear wall of the rectangular white space at Kerlin. In a catalogue note Aidan Dunne explains: “The Red Ravine referred to in the Catalan title, and the simmering palette of warm earth hues, relate the painting to his Barcelona studio”.
The sale offers many other fine examples of the work of prominent Irish and international artists.
A single owner collection with over four hundred lots of Twentieth Century editions is to be sold by Christie’s across a series of live and online sales in April. The sales on April 18-19 are anchored by an unprecedented selection of complete portfolios, including an exceptionally rare example of Barnett Newman’s Cantos ($2,000,000-3,000,000), David Hockney’s A Rake’s Progress ($250,000-3,50,000), and Andy Warhol’s Flowers ($2,000,000-3,000,000),. Modern highlights from the collection include Henri Matisse’s Jazz ($400,000-600,000), El Lissitzky’s Victory Over the Sun ($200,000 – 300,000) and a rich selection of prints by László Moholy-Nagy.
Other artists featured in depth include Donald Judd, Jasper Johns, Josef Albers, Blinky Palermo, Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinksy among many others. Assembled over decades many of these works are coming to market for the first time in several years. The collection of one of the most important selections of Prints and Multiples to ever be auctioned is billed by Christie’s as The Sale of the Century: An Important Corporate Collection of Prints and Multiples. The collection is expected to achieve more than $10,000,000.
Watching the Boats by Markey Robinson is lot number 8 at Whyte’s Spring online art auction which runs until April 3. The catalogue is online and viewing gets underway on Molesworth St. today. This is a sales designed to encourage both first time buyers and established collectors. The painting illustrated here is estimated at €500-€700.
The growing market for collectibles and memorabilia is reflected in an increasing number of sales by auctioneers across the board. A 17th/18th century Irish yew wood birthing stool will lead Sheppards Irish Vernacular Part II sale in Durrow on March 28. This rarity has an estimate of €5,000-€8,000. An 18th century Irish Penal Cross has a well carved figure with a skull and crossbones at the base and is estimated at €2,000-€3,000, as is an 18th century Irish mether, the sort of four handled Celtic friendship drinking vessel on which the design of the Liam McCarthy Cup is based. At Sheppards you can take your pick between an Irish jaunting side car or a classic Honda 50 cc motorcycle. Among the earlier examples of Irish life are an 18th century sycamore hedge chair, a cock fighting dugout stool and a dugout chair. All are conversation pieces.
There are flour bins, griddle pans, copper measures, a one legged milking stool, a metal bound milk churn, pine dressers and tables, bookshelves, plate racks and even an early Irish dugout food cupboard. More and more collectors are opting for objects like these, laden with memory and redolent of a vanished lifestyle or homeplace. Sheppards will offer 368 lots online from Durrow.
Further up the country, at Blacklion, Co. Cavan there is viewing today and tomorrow for a retirement sale at McNean antique and salvage which Aidan Foley will conduct online only on March 27 and 28 The catalogue, with 1,232 lots, is online and features lots of enamel signs, road signs, street signs, vintage car parts, pub signs, garden furniture and Victorian mahogany furniture. With everything from a home bar styled like the front of a VW camper van to a decorative dug out canoe to a larger than life unique sculptural carved teak figure of a bull this sale will be a draw. Part one of the auction at McNeans last year drew enormous interest from right around Ireland.
The top lot this time round is a 1970 Rover 3.5 litre V8 (€8,000-€10,000). There are enamel signs advertising Player’s Please and Will”s Capstan cigarettes, once ubiquitous in Ireland. A London Underground Boston Manor sign might do it for all the Irish who once lived in west London and managed to make it home, an antique cast iron clothes wringer might still function and save money for someone energetic and if you feel so inclined you could light up a dark corner with an Esso petrol pump globe. The selection on offer is memory jogging for all sorts of reasons and the market likes it.
In Dublin James Adam plan to hold their first Irish Vernacular sale on April 12. This is a new auction category for Adams and the sale will feature original furniture featured on the set of The Banshees of Inisherin.
Art by John Shinnors, Pauline Bewick, Carey Clarke, Tony O’Malley and William Crozier features at de Veres timed online March Irish art auction which runs until next Tuesday (March 28), There are 142 lots on this interesting catalogue, including three late 1950’s gouaches of scenes in France by the late Cork artist John O’Leary. The sale much to whet the appetite at across the board rates.Colourful watercolours by the late Pauline Bewick are full of the joy of spring, there is a particularly cheerful work titled Bog Cuts by Brian Bourke, an interesting Lake Study by John Luke, a watercolour of harbour boats in Spain by William Crozier, colourful works by Mary Theresa Keown and Desmond Carrick,, flower studies by Stella Steyn, Brigid Ganly, Carey Clarke, Phoebe Donovan and others, still lifes, abstractions and a collection of oils by Richard Kingston.
The Brave Bull by Patrick Collins is part of an exhibition called Dessel by Hermans at 10 Wicklow St. in Dublin from March 24-27. This is a show and auction of Modern and Contemporary Irish art. Taken from the old Irish word for sunwise, Dessel will feature a selection of works from Ireland’s most prominent and compelling artists, with established Irish art sharing wall space with the most contemporary works from fledgling artists.
Bidders are invited to view the works at Wicklow Street over the weekend. The auctions starts on Monday March 27 at 7 pm.