Dan Flavin (1933 – 1996) – untitled (for Fredericka and Ian) 3
An exhibition dedicated to the work of Dan Flavin (1933-1996), one of the leading exponents of minimalism and a pioneer of installation art, runs at Ordovas at Saville Row in London until April 25. The chronological show begins with an installation entitled four red horizontals (to Sonia). It was conceived in 1963, the pivotal year when Flavin first started using his signature fluorescent light bulbs, turning an everyday object into a work of art and exploring the ways in which light sculpts space. At Ordovas there is work from the 1960’s, ’70’s and ’80’s.
Antique Mahal rug from west Persia from the Peter Linden collection at Adams. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,600 AT HAMMER
With no less than three online sales next week James Adam will offer a selection to suit many tastes. Emeralds, diamonds, topaz, sapphires, pearls, gold, coral, lapis lazuli and aquamarine will feature in various settings at The Jewellery Box sale of 275 lots from 11 am on March 11.
The Peter Linden rug collection comes under the hammer on Wednesday. Sadly Ireland’s leading specialist in antique carpets, kilims, rugs and tapestries, who established his business here in 1980, died in 2024. His collection will be headed by a semi-antique Kashan carpet with an estimate of €5,000-€8,000. Estimates at the timed online sale which starts to close at 2 pm on March 12 are from €50 up
An online picture sale at James Adam next Thursday will include works from the studio of Fergus O’Ryan along with artists like Rowland Hill, Cathy Carman, William Conor, Harry Kernoff, Anne Yeats, Basil Blackshaw, Barbara Warren, Muriel Brandt and Tony O’Malley. All catalogues are online and there is viewing across the weekend and next week at Adams, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin.
The Scarecrow by Fergus O’Ryan (1911-1989). UPDATE: THIS MADE 110 AT HAMMER
A pair of George III Waterford mirrors. UPDATE: THESE MADE 9,000 AT HAMMER
A pair of George III Waterford oval mirrors of a type prized by collectors with alternating blue and clear crystal faceted cabochons will feature three days of sales at Sheppards in Durrow from March 18-20. True collectors items like this don’t come cheap and the estimate is €15,000-€25,000.
Viewing for the Paradigms and the Unexpected sale gets underway in Durrow on March 15. The most expensively estimated of over 1700 lots is a south Dublin collection of luxury watches headed by a recently serviced Rolex day date president with square cut diamonds representing the hour marks (€25,000-€35,000). There is a similar estimate on a Franck Muller conquistador watch. Both of these will come up on Wednesday, the mirrors on Tuesday afternoon.
The most expensive paintings in the sale, with top estimates of €15,000, are Sea Green Mood by Nano Reid, Boats in the Bay, Greatmans Bay, Galway by Charles Lamb and Bathers by the Pier, Waterfoot, Antrim by James Humbert Craig. Among the many artists represented are Sean Keating, John Behan, William Crozier, Gerard Dillon, Anthony Scott, Grace Henry, Kenneth Webb, Mainie Jellett, Percy French and there is a complete set of Malton Views of Dublin.
A private collection of guitars will include Canadian rocker Fred (C.F.) Turner’s 1968 Fender Precision green bass guitar (€5,000-€8,000). Other collectibles include a 1999 Late Late Show music script signed by Gay Byrne on his last show (€1,500-€2,500) and an Everlast boxing glove signed by Mohammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, Ken Norton, Riddick Bowe, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis and George Foreman (€4,000-€6,000) and selections of Chinese and Japanese ceramics.
Among a large selection of furniture is a Black Forest hat and coat tree, a Killarney work table, Dublin furniture by Hicks, Art Deco mirrored pieces, a signed Maple and Co. kneehole desk, a 17th century Tibetan monastery trunk and an Irish Vernacular tree dugout cabinet.
Black Forest hat and coat tree. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Louis Le Brocquy (1916-2012) – Playboy of the Western World. UPDATE: THESE MADE 850 AT HAMMER
This set of six lithographs by Louis le Brocquy of The Playboy of the Western World comes up as lot 18 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current off the wall online art auction. Framed as one they are estimated at €700-€1,000. Synge’s Playboy of the Western World is one of a number of plays produced during the period of the Anglo-Irish revival which has as a theme the rejection by the people of a deliverer from oppression. It has been described as the most vigorous dialogue written for the stage since Shakespeare. The play met with a storm of protest culminating in the Playboy Riots which took place in Dublin in 1908 and received similar treatment in the theatres of New York and Philadelphia. The auction runs until March 10 and the catalogue is online.
Maria van Oosterwijck (1630-1693) – Vanitas Still Life, c. 1690
This work by Maria van Oosterwijck, one of the most important Dutch women painters of the 17th century, is now on display in the Gallery of Honour at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Renowned for her flower still lifes the religious connotations of this painting make it one of the artist’s most deeply personal works. For Van Oosterwijck, the still life was a testament to her faith. Acquired in 2023 it has since been examined and restored.
Paintings by Maria van Oosterwijck are exceptionally rare because of the limited body of work that she left to posterity. Only some 30 works by the artist have survived to the present day, and this acquisition means that two are now in Dutch ownership. The general director of the Rijksmuseum Taco Dibbits said: “We are delighted that, with this painting, we can offer her the place of honour that she deserves.”
With Judith Leyster and Rachel Ruysch, Maria van Oosterwijck was one of the few 17th-century Dutch artists to achieve international fame during her lifetime. Her impressive roster of clients included the ‘Sun King’ Louis XIV of France, King Jan III Sobieski of Poland, Cosimo III de’ Medici of Tuscany, and Emperor Leopold of Austria.
19th century giltwood mirror by R.W. Clarke, Cork. UPDATE: THIS MADE 440 AT HAMMER
With everything from a circular giltwood mirror by Clarkes of Cork, an Irish bureau gifted by Winston Churchill and a set of lithographs of Egypt and Nubia to antique pottery from the Della Robia Studio, Birkenhead, a modern home bar and an ebonised Italian dining set Fonsie Mealy’s two day sale in Castlecomer on March 5 and 6 is of wide appeal. UPDATE: THE SALE HAS BEEN RE-SCHEDULED TO MARCH 18-20.
More than 700 lots will come under the hammer over two days. The 19th century bureau (€1,000-€1,500) was, by family tradition, a gift from Churchill to General Sir Bindon Blood. Churchill served under Blood at the North West Frontier in 1897 and dedicated his first non fiction book – The Story of the Malakand Field Force – to him. There will be local interest in a 19th century circular leaf decorated mirror and original plate by R W Clarke of Cork (€200-€300) and collectors will be taken by three terracotta blue and white relief panels attributed to the Harold Rathbone Della Robia Studio in Birkenhead (€800-€1,000).
Collectors of a different sort have lots to choose from like a modern formica glazed and padded home bar, matching shelves and four high stools (€500-€700); a five piece ebonised Italian dining set by Molteni (€1,500-€2,000); four leather armchairs by Rolf Benz (€800-€1,000) and a modern L shaped designer couch (€500-€600).
The excitement surrounding the discovery of the tomb of King Thutmose II in the Valley of the Kings – the first finding of a Pharaoh’s tomb since Tutankhamun over a century ago – adds interest to lot 542, a set of 20 lithographs of Egypt and Nubia (€800-€1,200). These are by Louis Haghe, maple framed in landscape and portrait form and dated 1838. The selection of art includes work by Sean Keating and Fergus O’Ryan and there is a selection of antique furniture and collectibles,
Viewing continues in Castlecomer next Monday and Tuesday from 9.30 am to 5 pm on each day and the catalogue is online.
A modern J shaped home bar. UPDATE: THIS MADE 420 AT HAMMER
Sean Scully – Raval 7 (1996) (€3,000-5,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,000 AT HAMMER
The Fishing Village by Colin Middleton leads Morgan O’Driscoll’s online sale which ends from 6.30 pm next Tuesday. It is estimated at €10,000-€15,000. There is art by Liam O’Neill, Felim Egan, Stephen McKenna, Arthur Maderson, Sean Scully, Mark O’Neill, Graham Knuttel, Kenneth Webb, Dan O’Neill and a wide variety of other popular artists.
The auction kicks off with an untitled (1973) gouache on paper by Tony O’Malley. Vividly coloured it is estimated at €1,000-€1,500. This is followed by a gouache of a Lily Pond by Mainie Jellett (€1,200-€1,800).
Colin Middleton (1910-1983) – The Fishing Village. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Mary Swanzy – La Route UPDATE: THIS MADE 36,000 AT HAMMER
A total of 129 lots of Irish art, headed by a trio of works from Paul Henry, will lead Whyte’s sale of Important Irish Art at Freemason’s Hall, Molesworth St., Dublin next Monday evening (March 3). The top lot is Lake and Mountains, Connemara (€250,000-€350,000), described by Whyte’s as an exceptional example of Henry’s later work. It dates to 1933-36.
West of Ireland Landscape (€150,000-€200,000) is thought to be of Moyteogue and Achill head from the Keel to Dooagh road. Cottages Connemara (€80,000-€120,000) is a fine illustration of the harsh reality of life in the locality during the era when Henry was painting.
In the 1920’s the celebrated Irish artist Mary Swanzy was fortunate to be not overburdened with financial constraints. She travelled widely to central and eastern Europe, Canada, Hawaii and Samoa, returning to Paris to exhibit. La Route at Whyte’s is similar to other French 1920’s scenes by Swanzy. With flattened perspective re-enforced by the road it shows the influence of Cezanne. The work was included in her celebrated 2018-19 retrospective in Ireland and is estimated at €20,000-€30,000.
Yoshitomo Nara – Cosmic Eyes (in the Milky Lake) at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £9,027,500
Van Gogh, Calder, Tamara de Lempica, Leonora Carrington and Francis Bacon are among the wide range of celebrated artists whose work will come under the hammer at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in London next week.
At all levels of the market the offerings locally, nationally and internationally are appetising as the art selling season gets seriously underway.
Featured in no less than 17 international exhibitions Francis Bacon’s Portrait of a Man with Glasses III from 1963 is among the highlights at Christie’s 20th/21st evening sale next Wednesday (March 5). It is at auction for the first time.
An arresting portrait of the bacteriologist Dr. Boucard by Tamara de Lempicka is another highlight of an auction with work by Modigliani, Monet, Twombly and Polke and other luminaries.
A small and intricate stabile by Alexander Calder, blending movement, balance and colour, is among the standouts at Sotheby’s contemporary day auction on the same day.
Yoshitomo Nara’s Cosmic Eyes (in the Milky Lake) is a highlight at Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary evening auction next Tuesday. Nara will be the subject of a retrospective at the Hayward Gallery in London from next June.
The evening sale features art by Gerhard Richter, Constantin Brancusi, a pen and ink drawing of a public garden in Arles by Van Gogh, a charcoal on paper portrait by Matisse and art by Lucio Fontana, Picasso, Rodin and Roy Lichtenstein.
Magritte, Leonora Carrington, Paul Delvaux, Max Ernst and Giorgio de Chirico are among the artists in the Art of the Surreal sale at Christie’s on Wednesday evening. Sacrament at Minos by Carrington testifies to her engagement with a myriad of cultures and their ideologies.
A pair of late 18th Century Delft Apothecary Jars. UPDATE: THESE MADE 200 AT HAMMER
This pair of 18th century Deflt apothecary jars feature at Fonsie Mealy’s Spring antiques and collectibles sale at Castlecomer on March 5 and 6. Viewing for the sale gets underway at Castlecomer today and continues on March 3 and 4. One of the blue and white wet drug jars and covers is for A Cucumeris, the other for O Camoemeli. Each has a short spot and the estimate is €300-400. Viewing is at the Kilkenny Road showrooms, the live auction will be at The Avalon House Hotel. The catalogue for this sale of 714 lots of paintings, ceramics, glassware, affordable antique and modern furniture and collectibles is online.
