antiquesandartireland.com

Information about Art, Antiques and Auctions in Ireland and around the world
  • ABOUT
  • About Des
  • Contact

    • PATRICK HENNESSY, CAROL RAMA EXHIBITIONS AT IMMA

    March 24th, 2016

    Solo exhibitions from Irish artist Patrick Hennessy and Italian artist Carol Rama opened today at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA). Born in the same decade both were neglected by the official art circles of their time. One a realist painter the other not faithful to any particular movement Hennessy and Rama explore human sexuality, gender and identity while challenging the political and social culture of their time.

    Patrick Hennessy De Profundis is the first major exhibition of his work since 1981. Re-examining and repositioning Hennessy’s work as part of the IMMA Modern Irish Masters Series this exhibition reflects on what Hennessy’s work might mean to audiences today. At a time when gay men were subject to social and legal persecution for the simple fact of their sexual orientation, Hennessy and his lifelong partner Henry Robertson-Craig bravely chose to exhibit works that clearly marked them as homosexual. They have almost no peers in Irish art, but Hennessy’s late work demonstrates an engagement with the emerging international queer-art movement of the 1970s. The Hennessy show runs to July 24.

    The Passion According to Carol Rama is an exhibition of almost 200 works – the largest exhibition of the artist’s work to date. It comes to Dublin following exhibitions in MACBA, Barcelona, Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, and EMMA, Finland. Ignored for decades by official art history, Carol Rama is now recognised as essential for understanding developments within contemporary art. Her influence can be seen in the work of a later generation of artists such as Cindy Sherman, Kara Walker, Sue Williams, Kiki Smith and Elly Strik. Rama was belatedly recognised in 2003, receiving the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, one of the most prestigious international art exhibitions. Divided into four thematic sections this exhibition is a guide through Rama’s many creative moments.  This exhibition runs to August 1.

    Carol Rama (1918-2015) Appassionata, 1939. Private Collection. © Photo: Studio Dario & Carlos Tettamanzi © Archivio Carol Rama, Torino

    Carol Rama (1918-2015) Appassionata, 1939. Private Collection. © Photo: Studio Dario & Carlos Tettamanzi © Archivio Carol Rama, Torino

    Patrick Hennessy (1915-80) Kassim by the Sea, 1978. Image courtesy of Whytes, © The Artist’s Estate

    Patrick Hennessy (1915-80) Kassim by the Sea, 1978. Image courtesy of Whytes, © The Artist’s Estate

     

    Tags: , ,
    Posted in ART | No Comments »

    A CONNEMARA VILLAGE BY PAUL HENRY SELLS FOR 119,000 AT HAMMER

    March 24th, 2016
    A Connemara Village by Paul Henry

    A Connemara Village by Paul Henry

    A Connemara Village by Paul Henry was the top lot at the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin last night.  It sold for a hammer price of 119,000 over a top estimate of 100,000.  Four telephone bidders hotly pursued the work, which measures just 14 x 15 ¾”.  A smaller work by Paul Henry (five by six and a quarter inches) Cumulus Clouds, Dugort with a top estimate of 10,000 sold for 15,000 on the hammer with no less than eight bidders in pursuit, including one in Abu Dhabi.

    In fact very few lots at this auction had only one bidder, which is indicative of a continuing pick up in the Irish art market. The sale realised 855,000 with premium with a sell through rate of 81%.

    (See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for January 8 and March 16, 2016).

    Tags: ,
    Posted in ART, AUCTIONS | No Comments »

    RARE IRISH £50 NOTE FROM 1928 AT DIX NOONAN WEBB

    March 23rd, 2016
    The Irish 1928 £50 note.

    The Irish 1928 £50 note.

    A rare Irish 1928 £50 note – one of only about 20 examples available to collectors – comes up at Dix Noonan Webb in London on April 11.  Estimated at £14,000-18,000  it highlights a strong selection of 100 Irish banknotes.  After the 1922 establishment of the Irish Free State a currency commission was set up to advise the government of a monetary system.    The first series of notes – with denominations from ten shillings to £100 – was issued on September 10, 1928. Only 10,000 of the £50 notes were issued and it is the most difficult to find. Around 20 of them are thought to have survived outside public collections.  The print run for the first £100 note was lower, but many more of them are known to have survived.

    Lady Hazel Lavery, wife of the artist Sir John Lavery, appears on all the notes. The new currency was linked to sterling.  Other rarities include a Royal Bank of Ireland £10 note from 1929 (£4,000-5,000), and two Central Bank of Ireland £1 notes from 1943.  During the Second World War Irish notes were printed in England and sent to Ireland. They were stamped with code letters so that they were easy to remonetize if the ship was attacked or the cash captured.

    A pair of war coded 1943 £1 notes.

    A pair of war coded 1943 £1 notes.

    A Royal Bank of Ireland £10 note

    A Royal Bank of Ireland £10 note from 1929.

    Tags: ,
    Posted in AUCTIONS, COLLECTIBLES | No Comments »

    A SKELETON CLOCK AT MEALY’S IN CASTLECOMER

    March 21st, 2016
    A skeleton clock, pewter, an early depiction of Waterford city and a set of 17 mahogany dining chairs from Cork Chamber of Commerce will all feature at Mealy’s Spring Fine Art sale in Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny on March 22 and 23.  The auction includes one of Ireland’s largest private collections of clocks and timepieces and the pewter collection of the late Geoffrey O’Connor of Co. Kerry. The catalogue cover is a 19th century brass skeleton mantel clock in the form of the Sir Walter Scott monument in Edinburgh from the collection of Michael Guerin, who died in 2015. It is estimated at 700-1,000.There are unique Irish clocks including both long case and a double fusee wall clock with an intricate case carving by Chancellor and Son of Dublin as well as English, French and German clocks.

    An early watercolour View of Reginald’s Tower in Waterford by John George Mulvany (1766-1838) is certain to arouse local interest (1,200-1,800).  The pewter collection includes work by the highly collectible Austen and Son of North Main St., Cork.

    (See post on antiquesandartireland.com for March 14, 2016)

    A skeleton clock (700-1,000).

    A skeleton clock (700-1,000).  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 1,180

    An early watercolour of Waterford, A view of Reginald's Tower by John George Mulvany (1766-1838) (1,200-1,800)

    An early watercolour of Waterford, A view of Reginald’s Tower by John George Mulvany (1766-1838) (1,200-1,800)  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 6,000

    A set of five Irish pewter hay stack measures by Austen and Son, North Main St., Cork (400-600).

    A set of five Irish pewter hay stack measures by Austen and Son, North Main St., Cork (400-600).

    A Killarney davenport (5,000-6,000).

    A Killarney davenport (5,000-6,000).  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 5,400

    Tags: , ,
    Posted in ART, AUCTIONS, COLLECTIBLES, FURNITURE | No Comments »

    THE SHOES OF ANDY WARHOL

    March 19th, 2016

    A complete portfolio of hand-coloured lithographs of shoe designs by Andy Warhol – À la recherche du shoe perdu – together with Shoe and Leg, produced c1955 comes up at Sotheby’s in London on March 22. Warhol was a commercial illustrator for fashion magazines and advertising agencies, and in 1955 he was appointed the sole illustrator of the I. Miller shoe campaign. Warhol made new drawings of shoes each week for advertisements in The New York Times and À la recherche du shoe perdu links directly to his work for I. Miller. Shoes became Warhol’s signature product. In the early 1960s, he moved to the more commercial Pop imagery with which he is now associated.

    The hand-colouring was done by Warhol and his friends – with Dr. Martin’s aniline watercolour dyes – often during ‘colouring parties’. As such, each print is unique. It has been estimated that approximately 100 of each illustration were produced. The captions were written by American poet, Ralph Pomeroy, and transcribed in distinctive calligraphy by Warhol’s mother, Julia Warhola. The text often directly references popular culture, whether Alfred Hitchcock (‘Dial M for Shoe’), Gertrude Stein (‘The Autobiography of Alice B. Shoe’) or Marcel Proust – the title of the portfolio is a riff on Proust’s famous novel À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time, or Remembrance of Things Past).  The portfolio of 18 prints is estimated at £100,000-150,000.  They come up at Sotheby’s sale of Prints and Multiples.

    UPDATE: The Warhol portfolio made £293,000 in a sale which realised £3.2 million.

    ANDY WARHOL 1928 - 1987 A LA RECHERCHE DU SHOE PERDU; AND SHOE AND LEG

    ANDY WARHOL
    1928 – 1987
    A LA RECHERCHE DU SHOE PERDU; AND SHOE AND LEG

    ANDY WARHOL 1928 - 1987

    ANDY WARHOL
    1928 – 1987

     

    Tags: ,
    Posted in AUCTIONS, COLLECTIBLES | No Comments »

    A LANDMARK SALE OF SHAKESPEARE’S FIRST FOLIOS AT CHRISTIE’S

    March 18th, 2016
    Shakespeare - The First Editions

    Shakespeare – The First Editions

    A landmark sale of the first four folios, the first four editions of Shakespeare’s  collected works takes place at Christie’s in London in May. The Folios will be offered in a four-lot auction commemorating 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) on May 25.  The sale is led by an unrecorded copy of the First Folio, the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, widely considered the most important literary publication in the English language. The First Folio contains 36 plays, 18 of which had not previously been printed and would have otherwise been lost forever. It is estimated at £800,000-1.2 million.

    The plays of Shakespeare, preserved for posterity in these volumes, define our knowledge of Shakespeare the man, the playwright, the poet and the actor. The Four Folios will tour to New York from 1 to 8 April 1 to April 8 and go on public display in London from April 20 to 28 April to celebrate Shakespeare’s 400thanniversary on April 23.

    Margaret Ford, International Head of Books & Manuscripts, says: “The universality and timelessness of Shakespeare’s insight into human nature continues to engage and enthrall audiences the world over. Even four centuries after his death, his plays touch and transform lives and continue to be read and performed from Albania to Zambia. It is deeply moving to handle the first printed record of his collected plays and to be reminded of their tremendous impact. Especially exhilarating is bringing a newly recorded copy of the First Folio to public attention, and to be able to offer a set of the Four Folios in this important anniversary year.”

    Tags: , ,
    Posted in AUCTIONS, COLLECTIBLES | No Comments »

    AN OPTIMISTIC FRANCIS BACON SELF-PORTRAIT FOR ST. PATRICK’S DAY

    March 17th, 2016
    Francis Bacon - Two Studies for a Self-Portrait (1970)

    Francis Bacon – Two Studies for a Self-Portrait (1970)

    A rare optimistic Francis Bacon self-portrait will lead Sotheby’s sale of Contemporary Art in New York on May 11. Two Studies for a Self-Portrait (1970) is at auction for the first time with an estimate of $22-30 million.  It has been in the same private collection since soon after it was painted.   While Bacon is renowned for capturing the tortured psychological depths of human existence in his portraits, the overwhelming positivity of Two Studies for a Self-Portrait renders this work almost unique in the artist’s oeuvre. Here we see an elated Francis Bacon on the cusp of his career-defining retrospective at the Grand Palais in 1971 (Bacon was only the second living artist, after Picasso, to be afforded this honour), and in the throes of his relationship with George Dyer, whose suicide a year later was to haunt Bacon (and shape his art) for decades to come.

    It was exhibited twice: at the acclaimed 1971 Grand Palais retrospective and at the Marlborough Fine Art Small Portrait Studies exhibition in London in 1993.  Its iconic status lies in the fact it was chosen to adorn the cover of Milan Kundera and France Borel’s definitive book Francis Bacon: Portraits and Self-Portraits, confirming its position at the absolute zenith of Francis Bacon’s most significant and enduring body of work. Oliver Barker of Sotheby’s is fulsome about the work:  “Two Studies for a Self-Portrait goes straight in at number one of all the paintings I’ve handled in my career. Discovering a work such as this is like finding gold dust. To my mind, the painting is worthy of a place alongside the very finest self-portraits of Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Picasso. It’s certainly among the greatest self-portraits ever offered at auction.”

    Bacon created only two other self-portraits in this dual format. One of them, Two Studies for a Self-Portrait (1977) sold at Sotheby’s in February 2015 for £14.7m ($22.4m). The year 2016 is set to be a red-letter year for Francis Bacon.  There are upcoming exhibitions at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco (sponsored by Sotheby’s), at Tate Liverpool, and at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The most significant publication on the artist for 30 years, Francis Bacon: Catalogue Raisonné, edited by Martin Harrison, will be released in the next few months and is expected to reveal no fewer than 100 unseen works by the artist.

    Tags: ,
    Posted in ART, AUCTIONS | No Comments »

    JAPANESE ART AT CHRISTIE’S IN PARIS

    March 16th, 2016

    A personal collection of Japanese art reflecting the taste of four generations of experts and collectors comes up in Paris on June 21.  The Portier family, major figures of the Asian art market in France, will offer 90 lots at Hotel Drout through Beaussant Lefèvre in association with Christie’s.  Highlights include 8 exceptional Japanese stamps from the Edo period. They are mainly okubi-e (portraits of actors) by masters  Toshusai Sharaku (active between 1794 and 1795), Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806), Kitagawa Kunimasa (1773-1810) and Utagawa Toyokuni (1769-1825). Each piece was acquired by Henri Portier and his son André (1886-1963), great-grandfather and grandfather to Patrick, Thierry and Emeric Portier, through various auctions held at Drouot in the 1900’s.

    With the exception of three exhibitions where some stamps were shown (Utamaro in 1976 and Sharaku, portraits d’acteurs at the Huguette Bérès Gallery, Paris and Toulouse-Lautrec and Utamaro in 1980 at the Mitsukoshi museum, Tokyo), these works have remained out of the public eye since their acquisition over a century ago.

    Kitagawa Utamaro (1753 ? -1806) Deeply Hidden Love (Fukaku shinobu koi), from the series Anthology of Poems: The Love Section (Kasen koi no bu), with pink mica ground Oban tate-e (80,000-100,000). © CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LIMITED 2016

    Kitagawa Utamaro (1753 ? -1806)
    Deeply Hidden Love (Fukaku shinobu koi), from the series Anthology of Poems: The Love Section (Kasen koi no bu), with pink mica ground
    Oban tate-e (80,000-100,000). © CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LIMITED 2016

    oshusai Sharaku (active circa 1794-1795) The actor Segawa Tomisaburo II as Yadorigi, the wife of Ogishi Kurando, with dark grey mica ground Oban tate-e: (50,000-70,000) © CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LIMITED 2016

    Toshusai Sharaku (active circa 1794-1795)
    The actor Segawa Tomisaburo II as Yadorigi, the wife of Ogishi Kurando, with dark grey mica ground
    Oban tate-e: (50,000-70,000) © CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LIMITED 2016

    Tags: , ,
    Posted in ART, AUCTIONS | No Comments »

    YEATS, O’CONOR, LE BROCQUY, HENRY AT JAMES ADAM

    March 16th, 2016

    Louis le Brocquy, Jack Butler Yeats, Roderic O’Conor, Colin Middleton, Dan O’Neill, Barrie Cooke, Patrick Collins, John Luke, Gladys MacCabe, Markey Robinson, Arthur Maderson, Harry Kernoff, Maurice Wilks, Percy French, all feature at the sale of Important Irish Art at James Adam in Dublin on March 23.  The cover lot is A Connemara Village by Paul Henry (70,000-100,000).  The catalogue, which lists 211 lots, is online.  Here is a small selection. This being Cheltenham Week we have included a couple of horse images:

    (See post on antiquesandartireland.com for January 8, 2016)

    Louis le Brocquy (1916-2012) Being, watercolour (10,000-15,000)

    Louis le Brocquy (1916-2012) Being, watercolour (10,000-15,000)  UPDATE: THIS MADE 17,000 AT HAMMER

    Man Reading by Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1947) - (60,000-90,000).

    Man Reading by Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1947) – (60,000-90,000).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 92,000 AT HAMMER

    Nassau Blair Brown (1867-1940) - Charmer, Skipaway and Skipoker, a set of three from 1913 (3,000-5,000)

    Nassau Blair Brown (1867-1940) – Charmer, Skipaway and Skipoker, a set of three from 1913 (3,000-5,000)  UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,800 AT HAMMER

    Roderic O'Conor, Nu Brun Assis (8,000-12,000)

    Roderic O’Conor, Nu Brun Assis (8,000-12,000)  UPDATE: THIS MADE 30,000 AT HAMMER

    Liam O'Neill (b 1954) Hometurn (4,000-6,000)

    Liam O’Neill (b 1954) Hometurn (4,000-6,000)  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 8,000 AT HAMMER

    Tags: , , , ,
    Posted in ART, AUCTIONS | No Comments »

    A KINSALE SILVER BOWL WITH ALMOST MYTHICAL STATUS

    March 15th, 2016
    The Kinsale Silver bowl

    The Kinsale Silver bowl

    A Kinsale silver bowl with an almost mythical status has surfaced with well known silver dealer William Crofton of L and W Duvallier, Dublin and London. A second generation dealer of 40 years standing Crofton said the piece – made by Robert Armstrong around 1750 – is the rarest provincial bowl he has ever had.

    “It is very hard to describe the feeling you get when you see such a fantastic piece out of the blue. I believe only enthusiast’s or collectors regardless of what they collect can truly relate to it” he said.  “As I turned the bowl over it was like time stood still and it took me an extra couple of seconds for my brain to workout exactly what I was looking at. It is the only time I have ever come across this maker in real life in nearly 40 years”.
    There are less than six pieces known to have been made by Robert Armstrong. The definitive work on Cork Silversmiths by John Bowen with Conor O’Brien makes the point that Kinsale’s ancient significance derived from its position as the most important sea port on the southern coast of Ireland. A nearly identical bowl by Robert Armstrong is illustrated in Irish Georgian Silver by Douglas Bennett.  Bowls of this type of different sizes were made throughout Ireland in the first half of the 18th century as speciality items.  This one is on offer with a price tag of around 45,000 euro.

    Tags: , ,
    Posted in COLLECTIBLES | No Comments »

    « Older Entries
    Newer Entries »