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.
Robilant + Voena will present Piglet Goes Shopping by Keith Haring at TEFAF New York from May 6-10. A first look at the fair has just been released, with 15 works from the upcoming event offering a glimpse into the quality, breadth, and depth of artworks available from 91 dealers. Among them is work by Modigliani, Picasso, Giorgio Morandi, Richard Diebenkorn, Kehinde Wiley, Pierre Soulages, Francois-Xavier Lalanne and Cy Twombly. The fair, at the Park Avenue Armoury, has been widely recognised for introducing new ways of looking at, thinking about, and experiencing art.
THE RED CROSS DIAMOND. UPDATE: THIS MADE CHF14,181,250 / $14,320,624 / €13,554,068
An historically important fancy intense yellow, cushion-shaped diamond of 205.07 carat known as the Red Cross diamond will come up at Christie’s magnificent jewels sale in Geneva on May 11. Part of the price it makes will be donated to the International Committee of the Red Cross. The original rough stone was found in 1901 in a De Beers South African mine and is said to have weighed some 375 carats. Besides ranking amongst the largest diamonds in the world, a striking feature of the stone is its pavilion, which is faceted in the shape of a Maltese cross.
“This is the third time in over 100 years for Christie’s to present this extraordinary canary yellow diamond of 205.07 carats. This is a very special bond and tremendous honour. Part of the proceeds of the sale will benefit the International Committee of the Red Cross, for a cause that is even more poignant in the midst of current events.”, said François Curiel, Chairman of Christie’s Europe and Head of the Luxury Department.
The Long Affair by Conor Cruise O’Brien signed; The Great Melody by Conor Cruise O’Brien; The same Age As the State by Máire Cruise O’Brien; Memoir by Conor Cruise O’Brien; First In Peace By Conor Cruise O’Brien UPDATE: THIS LOT MADE €40 AT HAMMER
These five books come up at lot 102 at the sale by Purcell Auctioneers of Birr of the libraries of Conor Cruise O’Brien, his wife Maire Mhac an tSaoi and her father Sean MacEntee on April 27. The estimate for the lot is 40-80. There will be 608 lots in total and the catalogue is online. The sale kicks off with a set of four volumes of The Annals of Ulster, followed by The LIfe and Work of Sigmund Freud.
Property from the life and eight decade spanning career of legendary actress Betty White comes up live and online at Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills on September 23, 24 and 25. On offer is a collection of over 1,500 lots featuring awards, scripts, wardrobe and memorabilia from iconic television shows and films, as well as furnishings, artwork, fine jewellery, household and personal items from her homes in Brentwood and Carmel, California. Irish fans of the actress who died just short of her 100th birthday last December 31 will have a chance to see the collection at the Museum of Style Icons at Newbridge, Co. Kildare from August 1 to September 11.
Highlights include White’s original director chair from The Golden Girls set; the first draft script, a production script used for the finale of the series signed by Betty White, Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, a large number of production scripts from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, a goodbye plaque from the cast and crew of The Betty White Show and numerous awards and nomination certificates including Emmy award nomination certificates for The Golden Girls, Saturday Night Live and Hot in Cleveland.
UPDATE: THIS WAS A WHITE GLOVE AUCTION IN WHICH EVERY LOT SOLD. A director’s chair used by Betty White during the production of The Golden Girls sold for an incredible $76,800, seventy-six times its original estimate of $1,000.
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.
Waste Not Want Not (€80-€100). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Memories of a pre-digital age, a time when devices like the phone had just one function, will be stirred by a two day sale of vintage advertising and printed ephemera at Sheppards in Durrow onApril 12 and 13. The collection of over 600 lots from a world when less was thrown away before plastic became ubiquitous, on view from today in Durrow, is instructive too. Lot 186, for instance, dates to a time before the baby of recycling was thrown out with the bathwater of progress. Waste not want not is the stern instruction on a vintage drinks advertising showcard from the Irish soft drinks and bottling industry – an appeal for the return of empty bottles.
Nothing promotes the husbanding of resources better than scarcity and price, as we are all rapidly coming to know again now. In those not so distant days all resources were seen as precious. The practice of recycling as we understand it was widespread then even if recycling in that world most likely meant re-tracing a route taken on a bicycle to recover what had been inadvertently dropped. A bright enamel sign advertises an agent for McKechnie’s Cork, Dyers, Cleaners and Hat Renovators (who knew you could get your hat renovated?). Lot 378 comes with an estimate of €400-€600.In a world where wonder was fuelled by nature a poster for J. Marsh of Oxford advertised: “A Great Novelty!! (Which May Be Seen Alive!!)”. A wonderfully large pig – the largest pig ever seen – which has won numerous prizes was temporarily billeted at the Star Yard. Admission to view this creature was 2d, or 1 d for children and schools. The poster on card is estimated at €100-€150.
A set of five graduated pewter measures by Austin of Cork (€200-€300). UPDATE: THESE MADE 170 AT HAMMER
On a slightly similar theme lot 294 is three vintage plexiglass signs for Bacon Rolls, Teas and Coffee. This was the world before the heart stopping jumbo breakfast roll had been invented. More than a century later it will come as news to many of us, courtesy of lot 124 a circa 1900 poster for Morrogh’s Tweeds, Douglas Mills, Cork, that this was the first tweed mill to make Irish Volunteers uniforms. In the days before so many businesses were swallowed up by mergers and takeovers breweries and distilleries were numerous throughout Ireland. There are advertising mirrors for many forgotten Irish enterprises. One of the more expensively estimated lots is an advertising mirror for the Phoenix Brewery special porter and O’Connells Dublin Ale. Enclosed in a mahogany bar back it is estimated at €2,500-€3,500. Lot 84 is a set of five antique pewter measures by Austin and Co. Cork (€200-€300). Sheppards sale with all its memories of the way we were is divided into three sessions and the catalogue is online.
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)
