JACKSON POLLOCK (1912-1956) – Number 31 signed and dated ‘Jackson Pollock 49’ (upper left). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $54.2 MILLION
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.
Best Buddies (1990) by Keith Haring UPDATE: THIS MADE €56,000 AT HAMMER
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.
Inside No. 3 After Modernisation by Robert Ballagh. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
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.
Fra Angelico (c1395-1455) – Saint Dominic and the Stigmatization of Saint Francis UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $4,740,000
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.
BRIDGET RILEY (B.1931) BRITISH – One Small Step (2009). UPDATE: THIS MADE €5,800 AT HAMMER
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.
Portrait of Musical Chairs, Shotgun on Record Player, by Stephen Johnston Photo credit: Robert Malone Photography
An exhibition by the Northern Ireland artist Stephen Johnston runs until April 30 at Gormley’s fine art in Belfast. He places familiar objects in unfamiliar locations in a style that is modern and surrealistic. Thrones is an experimental body of work in preparation for the past four years.
Reaction to the Daniel O’Neill exhibition at the Farmleigh Gallery in Dublin has been highly positive. The first retrospective in 70 years by this highly regarded Belfast born artist, curated by art historian Karen Reihill who has written the first monograph dedicated to the artist, was to have coincided in 2020 with the centenary of his birth. It has gone ahead now following two years of postponements due to Covid. Most of the works in the show are from private collections and there are contributions too from IMMA, the University of Limerick and the Ulster Museum. O’Neill is an enduring and popular Irish artist (he died in 1974 aged 54) whose Girl with a Flower made a hammer price of €38,000 at the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin last week. Daniel O’Neill: Romanticism and Friendships, presented by the OPW at Farmleigh until June 6 features paintings by his friends and fellow artists Gerard Dillon, Colin Middleton and George Campbell and others.
BANKSY Diamond In The Rough – spray paint on truck door – CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2022
Banksy’s Diamond In The Rough, 2010 ($3,000,000 – 5,000,000) comes up as a highlight at Christie’s 21st Century evening sale in New York City next May. A brilliant combination of readymade surfaces and Banksy’s instantly recognisable style it leverages perceived notions of rebelliousness attached to street art. Its ingenuity lies both in the artist’s seemingly simple choice of subject matter and its ability to spark conversation about the art form as a whole. A cultural statement itself Diamond In The Rough stands as testament to the place of street art in the canon juxtaposed with society’s inability to completely extract it from its perceived history.
Painted on a steel and glass truck door the artwork employs extant graffiti as the backdrop for a young girl rendered in Banksy’s signature stencil mode, positioned at the bottom of the frame. Her hand cradles a glowing gem with shine lines emanating on all sides, reminiscent of the playful compositions of Keith Haring. A direct predecessor of Banksy, Haring also famously engaged public transit as his canvas decades prior, prefiguring some of Banksy’s own work.
This bronze by the Irish Ukrainian artist Vadim Tuzov made a hammer price of 4,800 over a top estimate of 3,000 at the white glove James Adam sale of collectors and artists for Ukraine organised by Suzanne MacDougald in Dublin today. All 36 lots sold and made over €90,000. When some generous cash donations are added the sale generated €116,000 for the Irish Red Cross Ukrainian Appeal.
The top lot of the day was another piece of sculpture, ‘Liffey Oar Boat’ made and donated by John Behan RHA. It made €10,000. Rowan Gillespie’s diminutive ‘Kneeling Girl’, a bronze from 1982 and donated by a Co. Meath collector, sold for €6,500 while Orla de Brí’s ‘Cross Bearer’ made €4,600.
The top price for a painting was shared by two works – Colin Davidson’s ‘Study of Seamus Heaney’ and Markey Robinson’s West of Ireland Landscape, both of which made €6,500.
(See post on antiqueandartireland.com for March 31, 2022)
