An unpublished recording is among a valuable Rory Gallagher archive at Whyte’s timed online Eclectic Collector sale which runs until Saturday May 13. Relating to his time with the Fontana Showband from Cork it includes a reel to reel tape by Kingsway Recording, London with tracks titled All the Time, I Want You to be Happy, Slow Down, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean and Valley of Tears along with a CD copy. There are original passport photos taken in a booth in the early 1960’s, promotional cards, Evening Echo news cuttings, a New Spotlight magazine from June 1965, Rory’s harmonica and his sunglasses. Lot 540 is estimated at €15,000-€20,000. The sale offers historical artefacts, manuscripts, 1916 Rising medals, a bible which belonged to Michael Collins, sporting memorabilia, a 1916-1923 film archive, signed Beatles photographs and cinema posters. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Dining table and ten chairs by Joseph Walsh UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A dining suite and a cabinet by Joseph Walsh will lead Sheppards four day sale live and online from Durrow, Co. Laois from next Tuesday to Friday (May 9-12). Walsh is celebrated globally and there will be international interest in lots 2039 and 2040, the last objects to be offered in this large auction of contents from Pouldrew House, located between Kilmeaden and Portlaw in Co. Waterford, as well as from other sources. The suite comprising a black walnut and silver dining table and ten black walnut chairs with sycamore backs created at the Joseph Walsh Studio in Riverstock in 2001 is estimated at €80,000-€120,000. Walshs cabinet on stand dating from the 2001-2003 period, with a walnut case and sycamore interior, comes with an estimate of €35,000-€55,000.
Pouldrew House, home from 1992 to the late Dr. Jan Mohamed who came from Singapore to work at Waterford Regional Hospital (now University Hospital, Waterford), was a magical setting for furniture, art and collectibles acquired over the years in Asia and at country house sales in Ireland. Priscilla Presley and her daughter Lisa-Marie (who died in January) came here several times for acupuncture as a result of a recommendation from the artist Gottfried Helnwein, who lives and works in Ireland and Los Angeles. Given that today is the coronation day of Charles III there might be some extra interest in decorative letters on vellum from Charles II (1630-1685) dated 1667 granting 2,400 acres in seven towns and villages in Waterford to Thomas Brightwell. The estimate is €8,000-€12,000. (Charles I was executed in 1649, but this is an aside).
Chinese yellow glazed bowl. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
The many Oriental lots are headed by two Chinese Qing Dynasty hardwood palace cabinets, each estimated at €20,000-€30,000. A magnificent Zhengde yellow glazed bowl (€10,000-€15,000), a Qianlong celadon plate (€8,000-€10,000) and a decorated Chinese lacquered 12 panel palace folding screen (€3,000-€5,000) are feature pieces too.Among many collectibles and conversation pieces is a 19th century Venetian walnut throne chair (€4,000-€6,000), a late 17th century Flemish tapestry (€5,000-€8,000), an 18th century leather panelled sedan chair (€5,000-€8,000), a c1830 monumental American carved wood eagle (€3,000-€5,000) and a signed 1945 World War II war crimes investigation team pewter tankard from Singapore (€500-€800). Leading jewellery lots include a 3.70 carat three stone diamond ring (€20,000-€30,000), a four stone diamond ring (€12,000-€14,000), Colombian emerald and diamond earrings (€8,000-€12,000), a diamond cluster ring (€8,000-€12,000) and an emerald and diamond ring (€6,000-€9,000). The most expensively estimated painting is a Donegal watercolour landscape by Percy French (€5,000-€8,000). There are two mid 20th century Donegal carpets and a good selection of Oriental rugs, runners and carpets in a sale with much interest for all sorts of collectors. The auction is on view in Durrow today, tomorrow and Monday. The catalogue is online and around 500 lots will be sold on each day.
17th century Flemish tapestry. UPDATE: THIS MADE €4,300 AT HAMMER
GAETANO PESCE (B.1939) – ‘Up-5 Donna’ armchair with ‘Up-6 Donna’ ottoman. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Originally designed in 1969 this arresting armchair and ottoman by Gaetano Pesce comes up as lot 37 at Adams Mid-Century Modern sale on May 9. It is estimated at 4,000-6,000. Viewing for this timed online auction gets underway in Dublin today and continues over the weekend. The catalogue is online.
Sir William Orpen R.A., R.H.A. – The Normandy Cider Press. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR €36,100
This 1900 oil on canvas by Sir William Orpen comes up as lot 12 at Sotheby’s Irish art sale in Paris. The sale is on view in Paris. It opens for bidding today and runs online until May 10. This painting was once in the collection of Oliver St. John Gogarty, who acquired it from the artist. It is estimated at €30,000-50,000.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for April 2, 2023)
This Chinese lacquered palace folding screen with 12 gilded panels comes up at Sheppards four day sale of contents from Pouldrew House, Co. Waterford and other clients in Durrow from May 9-12. Decorated with exotic birds among blossums Lot 25 is estimated at 3,000-5,000. It is from the collection of the late Dr. Jan Mohamed. Around 2000 lots are to be offered, with 500 coming under the hammer on each day. The catalogue is online. Viewing in Durrow gets underway on May 6 and the catalogue is online. UPDATE: THIS MADE €2,900 AT HAMMER
This large scale 1932 portrait of Marie-Therese Walter will highlight Christie’s 20th century evening sale in New York on May 11. Nature morte a la fenetre was painted during a pivotal year for Picasso, who reached an extraordinary peak of creativity in 1932. Marie-Therese came to dominate every aspect of his output in the early 1930’s. This is one of the first works of an exceptional series devoted to her. One of them, Femme assise pres d’une fenetre (Marie-Therese), sold for $103 million in 2021. The painting here was shown at the Picasso retrospective in Paris in the summer of 1932 after which it was exhibited at his inaugural museum show in Zurich. It remained in his personal collection for the rest of his life, hidden from public view until the 1980’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $41,810,000
Haze Days by Yoshitomo Nara at Sotheby’s. THIS WAS UNSOLD
The explosion of creativity in the art world in the first two decades of the 20th century has not been matched in the 21st. and it is interesting to speculate about why. A century ago the world was newly enriched by Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Abstraction, Suprematism and the rest. In the global village of today, development of the shock of the new in art does not seem to have occurred at the hectic pace of technology and other groundbreaking disciplines. Are artists stupefied by the pace of change in the world all around them? In a world where wonder is taken for granted is visual surprise and delight degraded?
Geniuses like David Hockney have demonstrated the infinite possibilities of digital art but it is not as yet a significant art market sector. It looks as if NFT’s have gone the way of cryptocurrency for now. The most innovative market focus is on overlooked women artists, non western art, ethnic, tribal and minority groups but art needs innovation, not political correctness. The impressive selection of Impressionist, Modern, Post-Modern and Contemporary art will come under the hammer at the big New York spring sales in May are mostly of the 20th century. Highly significant art from major collections like Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, legendary Condé Nast co owner S.I. Newhouse and Warner Bros. Records executive Mo Ostin, among whose signings were The Kinks, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Joni Mitchell, R.E.M. and Madonna, will boost these sales.
L’Empire des Lumieres by Rene Magritte from the Mo Ostin collection at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE$42,273,000
All the big names, from Picasso, Matisse and Magritte to Georgia O’Keeffe, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama and Jean Michel Basquiat are here along with less well known but seriously doing well relative newcomers like Wayne Thiebaud and Yoshitomo Nara. But the art of today, which both auction houses have been busily promoting, is represented by just 51 lots, 27 at the 21st Century evening sale at Christie’s on May 15 and 24 at the Now evening sale at Sotheby’s on May 18.
Pumpkin by Yayoi Kusama at Christie’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $4,890,000
The Christie’s auction will be headed up by a Basquiat (born in 1960, died in 1986). There is a pumpkin by Yayoi Kusama (born in 1929), a box of ten photographs by Diane Arbus (1923-1971), a take on a Velazquez painting by Jeff Koons (born 1955), Prophet by El Anatsui (born 1944) and Untitled (We will no longer be your favourite disappearing act) by Barbara Kruger (born 1945). Art in this sale by Cecily Brown, Rashid Johnson, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and other younger artists like Vojtek Kovarik and Louis Fratino (both born in 1993) will definitely reward serious study but seems rooted in the 20th century. A powerful 1998 work by Yoshito Nara titled Haze Days will highlight the Now auction at Sotheby’s. This monumental rendering of a bandaged child – furious, foreboding and wonderfully appealing – embodies the contradictions of our culture and ourselves. The eyes have it and it is no surprise that these angst laden paintings sell for many millions of dollars. There is arresting art by Simone Leigh, Jonas Wood, Matthew Wong, Julien Nguyen, Mark Grotjahn, Kerry James Marshall, Mark Bradford, Rudolf Stingel and other names that might not yet be so well known. With this sale Sotheby’s has set out to offer heightened visibility and a relevant art historical context for a new generation of younger artists but it is the artists themselves who need to forge new paths.
Burning gas station by Ed Ruscha at Christie’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $22,260,000
Stage Costumes, handwritten lyrics, fine and decorative arts, Japanese art, precious objects and a trove of Freddy Mercury’s personal belongings will be sold by Sotheby’s this summer. While Mercury captivated audiences across the globe, it was at his beloved home – Garden Lodge in Kensington, West London – where he fashioned his own private world, assembling a collection that reflected and fired his expansive imagination.
For some 30 years, Garden Lodge has remained almost entirely as Mercury left it, complete with the many works of art that spoke to him so deeply: from Victorian paintings and striking works on paper by the greatest artists of the 20th century, to the finest examples of the glass maker’s art (a medium he loved beyond measure) and other beautiful objects; and from the exceptional fabrics and fine works he would seek out on trips to Japan, to the smaller, more personal items that were such an important part of his daily life. All complemented by defining objects from his more public life: a number of never-before-seen drafts of the immortal song lyrics, along with some of the riotous costumes that were the hallmark of Mercury’s signature style.
Freddy Mercury’s Martin D35 acoustic guitar
This summer, the contents of Garden Lodge, all lovingly cherished and cared for over the last three decades, will be revealed to the public for the first time in a dedicated month-long exhibition at Sotheby’s in London, which will see every inch of the company’s 16,000 square foot gallery space dedicated to celebrating Mercury’s rich and multi-faceted life and passions, culminating in six dedicated sales in September, each one devoted to a different aspect of his life, both public and private.
Pablo Picasso, Jaqueline au Chapeau Noir (1962
Mary Austin, one of Mercury’s closest and most trusted friends, has treasured and cared for his home and everything in it for the last thirty years.
The month-long exhibition at Sotheby’s this summer will see all 1,500 or so items from Garden Lodge displayed in a sequence of specially designed immersive galleries, each one devoted to a different aspect of Mercury’s rich and varied life. The exhibition will open on August 4, and close on what would have been his 77th birthday, September 5. Prior to the exhibition highlights from will tour to New York, London, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong in June.
The six dedicated auctions which follow will kick off with a live evening sale on September 6 with a cross-section of the most significant items.
Louise Bourgeois – Spider UPDATE: THIS MADE $32,804,500
Spider by Louise Bourgeois from 1996 comes up at Sotheby’s Contemporary evening auction in New York on May 18 with an estimate of $30-$40 million. The most ambitious embodiment of her signature motif her towering Spiders stand among the most iconic sculptures of the twentieth century. This is one of just four monumental spiders ever to appear at auction and is number one from an edition of six plus in bronze one artists proof in steel.
Bourgeois imbues the delicate curves and needle-like limbs of her Spiders with memories of her mother, a tapestry weaver. Achieving a lithe grace that belies its towering scale, Spider is emblematic of the deeply personal visual lexicon that defines her artistic practice. One of just 42 known monumental Spiders represented through 11 distinct forms — and over a third of which are in museum collections — the present work emerges from the Instituto Itaú Cultural, having resided in the prestigious museum’s collection in São Paulo for over twenty-five years. It is being sold to benefit the foundation.
HENRI ‘LE DOUANIER’ ROUSSEAU (1844-1910) – Les Flamants. UPDATE: THIS MADE $43,535,000
Les Flamants by Henri Rousseau is poised to make a new auction record for the artist when it comes up at Christie’s 20th century evening sale in New York on May 15. Estimated at $20,000,000–30,000,000. – far exceeding the current record of $4.4 million set three decades ago at Christie’s in London – Les Flamants is from the estate of Payne Whitney Middleton. It has been in the family since 1949.
Max Carter, Christie’s Vice Chairman, 20th and 21st Century Art, said: “A legend among the Parisian avant-garde, Henri Rousseau is perhaps the rarest major artist of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Of the fewer than 240 attributed oils in the definitive catalogues by Dora Vallier and Henry Certigny, the number of privately owned paintings with provenance traced to Rousseau can be counted on two hands. Among them there is only one monumental jungle vision, Les Flamants, which hung for many years in Joan Whitney Payson’s living room opposite Van Gogh’s Irises. In 1954, five years after the family acquired Les Flamants, Rousseau’s The Dream reportedly became the most expensive acquisition in MoMA’s history. At the time, one of Rousseau’s masterpieces appearing on the market was an event. Today it is once-in-a-lifetime.”
