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Untitled (Pope) by Francis Bacon at Sotheby’s. (Click on image to enlarge).  UPDATE: IT MADE $29.7 MILLION.

A Screaming Pope by Francis Bacon painted in 1954 will feature at Sotheby’s contemporary art evening sale in New York on November 13. The vision of screaming Popes emerged from the desolate shadows of the Second World War as humanity tried to make sense of the horrors that had been committed during those years. This version is closely related to the artist’s Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X, the seminal masterpiece now housed in the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa. It has been in the same private collection since 1975.
The Papal imagery and its inspiration first started to appear in Bacon’s work in the late 1940’s. This version is more closely allied to a cycle of eight Study for Portraits from 1953 created for an exhibition at Durlacher Brothers in New York. The series is based upon the 1649 state portrait of Pope Innocent X by Diego Velázquez, court painter to King Phillip IV of Spain. Velázquez dutifully portrays Innocent as the most powerful man in the world surrounded by the luxurious trappings of his office, yet also as a fallible mortal who must face the burdens and pitfalls of his position. In Untitled (Pope) Bacon removes the idiosyncrasies of the grand state portrait. They are replaced by a more intimate depiction of pain and suffering inspired by the screaming nurse figure in Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 movie The Battleship Potemkin and the clenched fist from Edweard Muybridge’s photograph Striking a Blow with the Right Hand. It had been thought that Bacon had not seen the Velázquez original when he painted this circa 1954 work. New research suggests that he could have been familiar with another version of the Innocent X painting. A smaller rendering belonged to the Duke of Wellington and was housed at Apsley House in London, just a short walk from Bacon’s studio at the Royal College of Art.
Untitled (Pope) is estimated to fetch $18/25 million.  UPDATE: IT MADE $29.7 MILLION.

le Brocquy’s Procession with Lilies made 320,000 at James Adam. (Click on image to enlarge).

The sale of  Procession with Lilies for an above estimate 320,000 at James Adam last night demonstrates that even in a deep recession a good, big Louis le Brocquy is cherished by the market.  This one was large and it had all the wow factor that major works by the Irish artist who died last April possess.

No less than three bidders chased the work, which had elicited an enthusiastic response from viewers at the auction, beyond the high estimate of 250,000. One was from the UK, another was a Dublin collector and the third and eventual winner was an Irish collector who is not based in the capital.  It was the top lot in a sale where more than 75% of the paintings on offer found buyers.  Procession with Lilies was the most important piece of the art in the corporate collection of Independent News and Media which was sold.

(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for August 21, 2012).

Mark Rothko No. 1 (Royal Red and Blue), 1954. Sotheby’s Contemporary sale in New York on November 13. ($35-50 million). (Click on image to enlarge).

Pablo Picasso Femme à la fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse) 1936. Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern sale in New York on November 5. (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE  $17,218,500

ROTHKO and Picasso will highlight Sotheby’s art selling season in New York. A seminal large scale masterpiece by Mark Rothko – No.1 (Royal Red and Blue) – will be offered on November 13 and an exuberant example of Pablo Picasso’s acclaimed portraits of his lover Marie-Thérèse Walter – Femme à la fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse) – will come under the hammer on November 5.
This Rothko work was painted in 1954 and was one of eight he hand picked for a landmark solo show that year at the Art Institute of Chicago. This was his first one man show at a major American museum. No.1 (Royal Red and Blue) is estimated at $35-50 million.
Picasso’s Femme à la fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse) was painted in the spring of 1936. The work followed the birth of his daughter Maya the previous autumn with Marie-Thérèse, as well as his separation from his wife Olga and the beginnings of a passionate affair with another important muse, Dora Maar. It is estimated at $15-20 million.

Yeats, Henry, le Brocquy and the corporate collection of Independent News and Media will feature at the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin on September 26.  The catalogue, which is on-line, features more than 220 lots. Here is a small selection. You can click on any image to enlarge it.  (See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for September 11 and August 21, 2012).

Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) The Boat Builder, 1923 (70,000-100,000).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 62,000

Paul Henry (1876-1858) In the Wicklow Mountains 1933-4 (60,000-80,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 64,000.

Martin Gale RHA (b.1949) August Storm (5,000-8,000).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 7,000

Flora Mitchell (1890-1973) Kennan & Sons, Fishamble Street. Signed and inscribed ‘No. 20 Fishamble St., Dublin, Handel’s “Messiah” produced here 1742’. (500-700).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 850

Patrick Hennessy RHA (1915-1980) Heat (4,000-6,000).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 7,400

John Doherty (b.1949) ‘In Passing’ (3,000-4,000).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,000

Martin Kippenberger (1953-1997) Ohne Titel (Untitled) (£2,500,000-3,500,000). Image courtesy of Christies Images Ltd., 2012. (Click to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE £3,117,250

Martin Kippenberger (1953-1997) Ohne Titel (Untitled) c1972. (£30,000-40,000). Image courtesy of Christies Images Ltd., 2012. (Click to enlarge).

AN important collection of Martin Kippenberger (1953-1997) self-portraits, including thirteen works on paper and the seminal oil on canvas, Ohne Titel (Untitled) will feature at Christie’s in London on October 11 and 12.  From the  1992 series Hand-Painted Pictures the Untitled work illustrated on the left is estimated at £2,500,000-3,500,000. It was exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris in 1993, Tate Modern, London in 2006, MoCA, Los Angeles and MoMA, New York in 2009. Charismatic and irreverent, Martin Kippenberger is remembered for his conceptual and expressive transformation of the 1980s and 1990s art scene.  Assembled over the course of a twenty-five year friendship the collection belongs to someone who knew the artist well.

UPDATE: THE  auctions of Post-War & Contemporary Art and The Italian Sale realised a combined total of £41,183,300.  The top price was paid for Martin Kippenberger’s Untitled which made £3,117,25,  a world record price for the artist at auction.