antiquesandartireland.com

Liu Xiadong – Disobeying the Rules.

There were nine auction records at Sotheby’s Hong Kong Contemporary Asian Art evening sale which achieved US$78.91 million.  The top lot was Liu Xiadong’s Disobeying the Rules which made US$8.49 million, a world auction record for the artist.  Altogether nine world records were established.

Kevin Ching, Chief Executive Officer of Sotheby’s Asia, said: “Tonight’s Modern and Contemporary Asian Art – Evening Sale was a vibrant success, achieving well in excess of the high estimate.  Sotheby’s worldwide network had sourced appealing works from private European, American and Asian collections, many appearing on the market for the first time, and collectors responded with extraordinary enthusiasm.  Our highly-anticipated offering of works showcasing the rich diversity of Asian art across different periods and regions attracted hundreds of participants, many new to our business, not only in our very crowded saleroom and on the phones, but also online and via absentee bids, which resulted in numerous artist’s records in all categories offered this evening.  Among the many thrilling moments were the bidding wars for Zao Wou-Ki’s Debut d’Octobre (Beginning of October), which had been off the market for nearly 50 years, and for Fang Lijun’s Series 2 No. 4 from the collection of Guy and Myriam Ullens de Schooten, both of which nearly doubled their high estimates”.

Zao Wou-Ki’s Debut d’Octobre sold for US$7.6 million and Lee Man Fong’s Bali Life made US$4.32 million.

Jeff Koons – Balloon Monkey (Orange).  UPDATE: IT MADE $25,925,000.

A year after Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog (Orange) set the world auction record for any living artist Christie’s will offer Balloon Monkey (Orange) in New York in November. The monumental stainless steel sculpture with its impressive scale, fluid line, and immaculate mirror-like surfaces, will be one of  the highlights of the November evening sale of Post War and Contemporary Art on November 12.  New Yorkers are in for a treat as the 20 foot long sculpture will be presented at the entrance to Christie’s at 20 Rockefeller Plaza for six weeks before being sold.  The auction will follow on the heels of the Jeff Koons’ retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art which runs until October 19.  It will re-open in November at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and this will coincide with a display at the Louvre.

Seven years in the  making Koons subjected the idea for this sculpture to years of research modelling, computer rendering, milling, polishing, lacquering and polishing again before the final form was released.  It is one of five balloon monkeys (blue, magenta, orange, red and yellow).  The estimate for the piece is $20-30 million. Last November Balloon Dog Orange sold at Christie’s for $58,405,000, a world auction record for a living artist.

UPDATE: IT MADE $25,925,000.

Seán Keating PRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) Study after The Tipperary Hurler.

Tipp’s loss to Kilkenny at last Sunday’s All Ireland Hurling Final replay did not diminish the enduring appeal of the Tipperary Hurler at Adams last night. Sean Keating’s Study  after the  Tipperary Hurler sold for a hammer price of 9,200 over a top estimate of 5,000 at the James Adam Irish art sale in Dublin.   The original Tipperary Hurler – popular in the United States – was donated to the Municipal Gallery in Dublin (now the Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane) in 1957 by Patric Farrell of the Irish Art Rooms in New York. The work was completed for the Amsterdam Olympiad in 1928 and later sent to New York where it was exhibited to acclaim at the Helen Hackett Gallery and the Irish Art Rooms.  Here are some hammer price results from last night’s sale:  (See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 26, 2014).

Kathleen Fox (1880-1963) Ruins of the Four Courts (8,000)

George Campbell RHA RUA (1917-1979) Long Ago and Far Away (14,000).

Nathaniel Hone RHA (1831-1917) Driving Cattle Home through the Bend (21,000).

Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) A Rose (1936) (44,000).

Oisín Kelly RHA (1915-1981) The Flautist (1972) Bronze on a stone plinth (10,000).

Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901 – 1980) Flight over Mulroy (14,000).

William Conor RHA PRUA OBE (1884-1968) Fun at the Fair (15,000).

LE COURTISAN GROTESQUE (NO. 6) by Joan Miró

Sir John Lavery – LADY IN GREEN (MRS. CARA H)

Le Courtisan Grotesque, a 1965 watercolour, gouache, ink, pastel and pencil on paper by Joan Miro was the top lot at Whyte’s sale in Dublin on Monday.  Signed and numbered (6) on the lower right it sold for 68,000.  Sir John Lavery’s Lady in Green (Mrs. Cara H) sold for 30,000 and Andy Warhol’s Double Daisy made 27,000.  An oil on board by Dan O’Neill, Studio Interior, made 29,000 in an auction which saw strong results for both contemporary and traditional works.

(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 22, 2014).

Vincent van Gogh – Still Life with Daisies and Poppies.

A Still Life by Van Gogh, the finest to appear at auction in decades, will come up at Sotheby’s evening sale of Impressionist & Modern Art in New York on November 4. Vincent van Gogh’s Still Life, Vase with Daisies and Poppies was painted at the home of Dr. Paul Gachet just weeks before the end of Van Gogh’s life. The artist uses the richly-colored bouquet of wildflowers to convey his psychological state at the time – a hallmark of the Expressionist icon. The resulting composition teems with the intense energy, emotion and sensitivity of this creative genius at the height of his short but renowned career. Still Life is one of the few works that Van Gogh sold during his lifetime, one of only a handful of great works by the artist to appear at auction in recent decades. The estimate is $30-50 million.

It was painted in July of 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise, the town where he settled on his release from the asylum at St. Remy that May.  It was in a number of private collections in Germany before making its way to New York to become one of the earliest works by the artist to enter the United States. It was sold by the Knoedler Gallery in 1928 to A. Conger Goodyear, one of the principal founders of the Museum of Modern Art.

Still Life will be on view at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre from October 2-5 and in Sotheby’s London galleries from October 12-18, before returning to New York for exhibition in Sotheby’s York Avenue galleries beginning October 31.