A military cannon measuring nine feet in length is among the more unusual lots at Aidan Foley’s three day online sale from Sixmilebridge which gets underway on October 11. Viewing for this sale of 2,000 lots gets atarts next Friday. The auction will feature lots from houses on North Circular Road and Ennis Road in Limerick, a period Co. Kerry house and various other Munster properties.
The top lot at Fonsie Mealy’s three day sale in Castlecomer this week was a set of four Killarney paintings by James Arthur O’Connor (1792 – 1841) which made a hammer price of 22,000. The oil on board works in matching gilt frames were commissioned by the Godfrey family in Co. Kerry and came to auction by direct family descent. A bronze figure of Cu Chulainn by Edward Delaney made 19,000. Other top lots included an early 19th century Korean storage cabinet (15,000), a mid 18th century Chinoiserie decorated and lacquered kneehole desk (12,000) and a 17th century Flemish tapestry (8,500). The sale realised just over one million euro on the hammer.
Hand (1971) is the title of this piece by Louis le Brocquy at Whyte’s autumn online art auction which continues until October 5. The lithograph on handmade paper, number 10 from an edition of 70, was exhibited at Gimpel and Weitzenhoffer, New York in 1971. It is estimated at 1,000-1,500. More than 260 lots are on offer in this timed sale, all at reasonable estimates. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 1,800 AT HAMMKER
Many leading US artists are angry at what they perceive as self-censorship by major museums. It follows the decision by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Tate Modern in London, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, to delay the presentation of a retrospective by Philip Guston until 2024. He is regarded as one of America’s most influential postwar painters.
The galleries don’t want trouble and Guston’s later paintings feature men in hoods reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan paintings were first exhibited in 1970 when Guston abandoned his earlier abstractions to face down the evils he first saw as a Jewish child in Los Angeles. They were shown without incident in the US and the UK in 2003-04.
The decision to postpone has been condemned in an open letter by nearly leading 100 artists, curators and writers, young and old, black and white. Among the signatories are Matthew Barney, Nicole Eisenman, Charles Gaines, Ellen Gallagher, Wade Guyton, Rachel Harrison, Joan Jonas, Ralph Lemon, Julie Mehretu, Adrian Piper, Pope.L, Martin Puryear, Amy Sillman, Lorna Simpson, Henry Taylor, Stanley Whitney and Christopher Williams.
The delay is to let the institutions rethink their presentation of his later figurative paintings. According to a spokesperson for the National Gallery spokesperson these risk being “misinterpreted” today.
Some of the most seismic artistic moments of the last 100 years, from Impressionist masters to Contemporary art, will be represented at Christie’s upcoming sales. The evening sale of 59 works of 20th century art on October 6 will be livestreamed from the Rockefeller Center in New York. The overall low estimate is more $300 million. The sale is led by Cy Twombly’s Untitled (Bolsena), 1969 ($35-45 million), formerly part of the Saatchi collection. Completed in the aftermath of the Apollo 11 mission works from the series fuse painting, drawing and writing into a lyrical thesis on time and space.
In assembling this October series at a strong moment in the art market the auction house has utilised its technology, insight into client demand and logistical agility to re-imagine the auction model for a rapidly evolving world. Christie’s will conduct livestreamed sales of Post War and Contemporary art on October 7 and Impressionist and Modern Art on October 8. The sales will offer a new collecting opportunity ahead of the traditional November marquee sale week in New York. Standouts include an early example of the revolutionary drip painting technique by Jackson Pollock and a superlative watercolour by Paul Cezanne by in addition to works by Rothko, de Kooning and Matisse.
Marc Porter, Chairman, Americas, remarked: “Building on the innovation of ONE, Christie’s live-streamed global auction in July, we set out to demonstrate great agility again, introducing a marquee week of exceptional quality works from across the 20th and 21st centuries, creating a singular opportunity for collectors well ahead of the traditional fall sale calendar.
No less than 33 works by Phoebe Anna Traquair, a pioneering Irish born artist in the Arts and Crafts Movement, come up at Bonhams Scottish sale in Edinburgh on October 14. Born in Kilternan, County Dublin, she studied at the School of Design at the Royal Dublin Society between 1869 and 1872. At the age of 22 the artist moved to Edinburgh. In 1920 she became the first woman to be elected to the Royal Scottish Academy. She was also a muralist with work in four Edinburgh buildings: the two successive chapels for the Sick Children’s Hospital (1885-86, 1896-98), the Song School of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral (1888-92) and Mansfield Place Church (today’s Mansfield Traquair Centre, 1893-1901). As the National Gallery of Scotland’s director James Caw wrote in 1900, she breathed extraordinary ‘visions of life and beauty upon dead walls’. Her work rarely appears on the market and this is a private collection from a direct descendant.
A Cork Republican Silver strawberry dish made a hammer price of 7,000 over a top estimate of 3,000 at Fonsie Mealy’s sale in Castlecomer today. It was described by the auctioneer as rare and important. The dish has a lobed rim and beaten surface and the W.E. (William Egan) punch. Cork Republican silver refers to silverware produced in the city during the Civil War. Only about 60-80 pieces are known to have survived. At the height of the war it was impossible for silversmiths Egans to send their pieces for assay to Dublin and so they devised their own hallmark based on the Arms of Cork. This depicts a two masted left facing ship with a single towered castle on either side. These marks were destroyed once the silver could once again be sent to Dublin.
There is to be a celebration of Jack B. Yeats at the National Gallery of Ireland next year. Jack B. Yeats: Painting & Memory which opens on September 4, 2021, exhibits the work of one of Ireland’s pre-eminent artists drawn from public and private collections in Ireland and abroad. The show will explore the role of memory in Yeats’ life and work. Memories of childhood in Sligo, observations of humanity and his reflections on life and loss feature in many of Yeats’ oil paintings.
This 18th century embroidered silk panel sold for a hammer price of 8,500 at Fonsie Mealy’s Chatsworth autumn fine art sale at Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny today. The large panel, which depicts a mythical scene with figures and birds by a rocky stream with two figures riding on birds in the clouds, had been estimated at 600-800. The live online sale continues until September 30.
These exceptional George III gilt bronze commodes date to the early 1760’s and are attributed to the celebrated English cabinet makers William Vile and John Cobb. After Thomas Chippendale they were arguably the most accomplished cabinet makers of the mid Georgian period, a golden age of carved mahogany furniture. On the open market for the first time since 1955 they come up at the Exceptional Sale at Christie’s in New York on October 14 from the collection of Abby and George O’Neill. Their passion for the arts was a tradition begun by Abby’s grandparents John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. Selected works from the collection will be offered at various sales at Christie’s in coming months. The commodes are estimated at $150,000-$250,000.
