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Aria 2 by Mark Francis is lot 5 at the James Adam Mid Century Modern sale online on May 11. The oil on acrylic on canvas laid on board is estimated at €6,000-8,000. The sale of 164 lots offers a collection of furniture, art, paintings and collectibles. UPDATE: THIS MADE 7,000 AT HAMMER
Here is a video on Killoughter House, Ashford, Co. Wicklow. Fonsie Mealy will conduct an online auction of contents from the house on May 18. The website allows a client to register, view and bid through the company’s own platform.
This Man of Aran is a self portrait by the artist Sean Keating (1889-1978). The stained glass artist Harry Clarke introduced Sean Keating to the Aran Islands in 1912. They had met at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art the previous year and became firm friends. In the years leading up to Ireland’s Treaty of Independence the Aran Islands became the place of Keating’s artistic and political identity. As early as 1915 Keating began to portray himself on the islands, wearing typical island clothing. This charcoal drawing is a study for a painting, possibly I Fein (Me Myself) exhibited at the RHA in 1924. It comes up as Lot 98 at Dolan’s timed online auction of 360 lots of art and antiques with an estimate of 9,000-12,000. The auction runs to the evening of May 10. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 9,000 AT HAMMER
This large 19th century French gilt console table at Fonsie Mealy’s Killoughter House online sale on May 18 has a distinctive provenance. The triple breakfront table, measuring 102 inches wide and with white veined marble top, came from the Sir Alfred Chester Beatty estate sale at Clonmannon House near Rathnew in Co. Wicklow in 1968. That sale was conducted by James Adam, Dublin. This time around the table is lot 382 and is estimated at €4,000-€6,000. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,800 AT HAMMER
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A rare and early rugby painting by L S Lowry comes up at Sotheby’s inaugural British Art: Modern/ Contemporary live-stream auction in London on June 29. Painted in 1928, Going to the Match is among the earliest known depiction of one of Lowry’s most iconic and timeless subjects – that of spectators thronging to a sporting occasion. Famed for his images of football, it is significant that it is a rugby match he chose to paint first, no doubt testament to the importance of the Rugby League to Northern communities. The red flag seen flying by the ground, as well as the red scarves worn by several of the crowd members, hints at the Salford Red Devils – Lowry’s local team. It is estimated at £2-£3 million.
