antiquesandartireland.com

Giacometti’s Grande tete de Diego will lead Sotheby’s evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in New York on November 6.  Estimated at $35-50 million this is the most ambitious in a series of innovative sculptures by the artist that personified the Existentialist movement during the Cold War.  The artist’s younger brother Diego served as model for this work.

Picasso”s Tete de femme from 1935, depicting his young lover and muse Marie-Therese Walter, is another highlight of the auction.  One of the most vibrant examples of his celebrated series depicting Marie-Therese it is estimated at $20-30 million.  Both pieces will travel to Hong Kong, London and Moscow this autumn before returning to New York. (Click on either image to enlarge).

Alberto Giacometti Grande tête mince (Grande tête de Diego) ($35-50 million)  UPDATE: IT MADE $50,005,000

Pablo Picasso Tête de femme ($20-30 million). UPDATE: IT MADE $39,925,000.

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) Coca-Cola [3] casein on cotton courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd. 2013. (Click to enlarge).  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $57,285,000

“What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca Cola, too. A coke is a coke and no amount of money can get you a better coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the cokes are the same and all the cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it.”  Andy Warhol .

“At a time when international top collectors are looking for blue-chip masterpieces, nothing is more iconic than the remarkable hand-painted Coca-Cola by the master of Pop Art, Andy Warhol. Coca Cola (3) is one of the artist’s earliest works which defines the Pop generation. This museum quality work has been in one of the most important Warhol collections for almost two decades”, declared Brett Gorvy, Christie’s International Head of Post-War & Contemporary Art.

UPDATE:  THIS SOLD FOR $57,285,000.

Sir John Lavery RA RSA RHA (1856-1941)
THE LADY PARMOOR, 1919 SOLD FOR 50,000 AT WHYTE’S

Sir John Lavery’s 1919 portrait The Lady Parmoor was the top lot at Whyte’s sale of Irish art in Dublin on September 30.  It sold at hammer for the top estimate of 50,000.  The subject, Marian Cripps would go on to lead the World YWCA and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.  At the end of her life she spoke out against the use of nuclear weapons.

Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958) AN ACHILL BOG, c.1928-1930 sold for 42,000

Her radicalism was a family tradition.  Her mother, Maria Rowtree, was from the eminent Quaker philanthropist dynasty from York.  The family’s philanthropy was a direct result of her uncle, Joseph Rowntree’s encounter at the age of 14 with victims of the Irish famine.

(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 22, 2013)

Roderic O’Conor RHA (1860-1940) The Farm Provence  sold for 170,000 at hammer.

Roderic O’Conor’s The Farm, Provence was the top lot at the James Adam sale of Irish art in Dublin on September 25.  It made a hammer price of 170,000 over an estimate of 150,000-250. Paul Henry’s The Lobster Fisher at Dusk sold for for an above estimate 160,000. The high estimate had been 150,000. A French Quayside by William John Leech sold for 90,000.  A view of Tangier by Sir John Lavery remained unsold.

Paul Henry RHA RUA (1876-1958) The Lobster Fisher at Dusk sold for 160,000 at hammer..