David Hockney – L’Arbois, Sainte-Maxime. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £13,150,000
L’Arbois, Sainte-Maxime by David Hockney is among the highlights of Sotheby’s Contemporary evening auction in London on October 9. Executed in 1968 it is part of a celebrated series inspired by the South of France which represents his first serious use of his own photographs as inspiration. The estimate is £7 million to £10 million. The sale features artworks that capture the seismic shifts that occurred in art in the latter half of the 20th century and the artists that paved a radical new mode of art-making altering the course of art history.
Andy Warhol – Eggs. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £1,800,000
Monumental in scale and rigorous in conceptual wit, Andy Warhol’s Eggs from 1982 is a graphically impactful and cleverly inventive expression of the artist’s perpetual experimentation within his own unique brand of imagery. The estimate is £2.2 million – £3.2 million.
A work by Giacinto Bosco at the K Club Photograph: Patrick Browne
Art and Soul, an exhibition with over 300 works on display, is at the K Club in Co. Kildare until September 8. Hosted by Gormleys it includes a major outdoor exhibition of over 90 large sculptures and installations set throughout the 550-acre grounds of the luxury estate. There are international artists like Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst alongside leading Irish practitioners including sculptors Patrick O’Reilly, Ian Pollock, Eamonn Ceannt and Bob Quinn. The hotel’s interior will be further embellished with a display of over 100 artworks by some of the world’s best-known artists, including Damien Hirst, Giacinto Bosco, Patrick Rubinstein, Banksy, Keith Haring, and Julian Opie. Opening times are from 11 am to 7 pm daily and admission is free.
ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987) – FLOWERS WHICH SOLD FOR $35.5 MILLION
Flowers, a 1964 work by Andy Warhol, was the top lot at Christie’s evening sale in New York on May 16. It made $35.5 million in a sale with global participation which totalled $413.3 million. Other top lots included Vincent Van Gogh’s Coin de jardin avec papillons, which realised $33.2 million, David Hockney’s A Lawn Being Sprinkled, which made $28.6 million and Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture, Femme Leoni, which brought $22.3 million. Of the 58 works sold, 15 achieved prices above $10 million, with Georgia O’Keeffe and Joan Mitchell counted among the top ten.
Untitled 1984 by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat – the most significant collaboration painting at auction in a decade – will highlight Sotheby’s marquee contemporary art auction in New York in May. This large -scale example of a creative experiment that fused their distinctive visual languages and styles – Warhol’s signature use of screenprinting and mechanically produced imagery, such as corporate logos, coupled with Basquiat’s expressionistic, figurative scrawls in paintstick – to create one of the most singular bodies of work in 20th century art during their famed period of collaboration from 1983 – 1985. In the four decades since their creation, the Warhol-Basquiat collaboration paintings have only added to the mystique and legend of their creators, and stand out as daring testaments to their artistic partnership and friendship.
Coming to auction for the first time in nearly 15 years with an estimate in the region of $18 million, Untitled’s sale is set to mark a new benchmark price for the series.
An interior shot of Palazzo Volpi in Venice with contents to be sold by Sotheby’s in Paris.
Art mirrors life and the life it is currently mirroring is one of censorship and intolerable attacks on freedom of expression. The art world has not been immune as the Israeli-Hamas war has spawned a new wave of hidden and not so hidden persuaders who move to stifle anything other than total support for hardliners against humanity. Against this background of global uncertainty there is a pipeline of interesting international sales coming up in 2024. On offer already are a variety of covetable lots as diverse as the contents of a sumptuous Venetian palace on the Grand Canal to Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Archive to a Royal portrait by Velazquez and property from the life and career of Marilyn Monroe. We must assume that all this will be okay once there is nothing in these auctions – such as seeking a ceasefire in Gaza – that can be construed as anti-semitic.
A pair of stools or tabourets delivered to the Empress Josephine at Christie’s in New York
Sotheby’s will offer 200 lots from Palazzo Volpi in Venice at an auction in Paris on February 28. The collection will include palatial Roman tables, ballroom banquettes, art panels in the style of Jacopo Sansovino, Wagner sofas and Venetian mirrors. Julien’s will offer contents from the Playboy archives and from Marilyn Monroe at a three day sale in Los Angeles on March 28, 29 and 30. Highlights will include a Playboy Bunny silkscreen by Andy Warhol and a black and cellophane effect evening gown worn by Monroe in The Seven Year Itch. The Velazquez portrait of Isabel de Borbon is at Sotheby’s in New York on February 1.
A black and cellophane effect evening gown worn by Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch at Julien’s
Elvis Presley’s Gretsch guitar from his Las Vegas residency is among the lots at Christie’s Exceptional Sale in New York on the same day along with a pair of c1800 tabourets or stools delivered to the Empress Josephine at Chateau de St. Cloud.
It has the potential to be an exciting year with many records being broken at home and abroad. Yet in 2024 there are well founded accusations of censorship in an art world that has never been noted for its lack of freedom of expression. In New York board members and many art writers withdrew in protest after the editor of the prestigious Artforum magazine, David Valasco, was abruptly fired when a letter supporting Palestinian liberation was published which omitted to mention the victims of the Hamas attack on October 7. Advertisers like gallerist David Zwirner and the Chanel culture fund threatened to withdraw.The Saarland Museum in Germany cancelled an exhibition by Candice Breitz, who is Jewish and has condemned Hamas, saying they would not show works by anyone who does not recognise Hamas terror as a rupture of civilisation. The entire selection panel for the next curator of Documenta, a global art exhibition in 2027, resigned after disputes with administrators about the war. This mirrors the wider environment. Think of resignations like that of Harvard President Claudine Gay in a campaign led by the Wall Street Jewish financier Bill Ackman whose wife is a former member of the IDF. You do not need to be a soothsayer to know there will be more resignations. UPDATE: The first American retrospective of Samia Halaby (87), regarded as one of the most important living Palestinian artists, has been cancelled by officials at Indiana University.
Andy Warhol Three Times Out continues at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin until January 28. The exhibition of paintings, prints, photographs, films and installations covers a range that spans four decades. It includes more than 250 works on loan from museums and private collections in the US, Canada, Europe and the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. There is everything from the iconic Campbell’s Soup Cans, Flowers, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Kennedy and Chairman Mao, to his observations on identity and mortality in his multiple self-portraits, skulls, electric chairs and avant garde films Empire, Sleep, Kiss and Outer and Inner Space. In addition, visitors to the exhibition can experience Warhol’s immersive Silver Clouds sculpture.
A section unique to the show focuses on collaborations both Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon had with acclaimed US artist and photographer Peter Beard, provoking new thinking on the status of these two titans of the 20th century.
Sixteen Jackies by Andy Warhol at Christie’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE $25.9 MILLION
The 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F Kennedy this month is recalled through Andy Warhol’s Death and Disaster series in New York next week. Sixteen Jackies will lead Christie’s 20th century evening sale next Thursday (November 9). The 1964 painting, a grid of a repeated press image of First Lady Jackie Kennedy during her husband’s funeral procession is estimated at $25 – $35 million and is one of many highlights in the sales. Led by the Emily Fisher Landau collection of key masterwork examples sales at Sotheby’s showcase over a century of artistic production. There are seminal works by Picasso, Jasper Johns, Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Mark Rothko, Ed Ruscha and Andy Warhol. This collection comes under the hammer at Sotheby’s next Wednesday and Thursday (November 8 and 9), followed by the Modern evening auction on November 13 and Now and Contemporary art sales on November 15. At Christie’s the 21st Century evening sale is next Tuesday the 20th century sale is on Thursday, the Post War and Contemporary day sale is on November 10 and the Impressionist and Modern day sale takes place on November 11.
Untitled XV 1983 by Willem de Kooning at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE $8.6 MILLION
Sixteen Jackies by Andy Warhol will be featured as a leading highlight at Christie’s 20th Century evening sale inn New York on November 9. This 1964 painting depicts a 4×4 grid of a repeated press image of First Lady Jackie Kennedy taken during her husband’s funeral procession. The work will come to auction a week and a half shy of the day marking the 60th year anniversary of JFK’s death. A seminal work by the 20th century icon, Sixteen Jackies sits at the pinnacle of the group of artworks that became known as his Death and Disaster paintings. It is estimated at $25 million – $35 million.
A blockbuster exhibition of Andy Warhol’s paintings, prints, photographs, films and installations opens at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin in October and will run until next January. Five years in the making it will include more than 250 works on loan from museums and private collections and from the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. Work on show will range from iconic Campbell’s Soup Cans, Flowers, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Kennedy and Chairman Mau to self-portraits, skulls, electric chairs and avant garde films along with his immersive Silver Clouds sculpture.Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn became the most expensive 20th Century artwork ever sold at auction when it made $195 million at Christie’s in New York last year.
Still Life on White with Beans (1978) by William Scott. UPDATE: THIS MADE 160,000 AT HAMMER
The high end of the art and antiques market continues to perform strongly and this augurs well for Morgan O’Driscoll’s scorching Irish and International online art sale which runs until the evening of April 18. There is a wealth of desirable art in this, his most expensively estimated sale yet, on view at the RDS this weekend and on Monday. With 180 lots on the online catalogue headed by internationally acclaimed painters like Sean Scully, Bridget Riley, William Scott, Paul Henry, Andy Warhol and Sir William Orpen this is an exciting sale. Plenty of internationally known names feature alongside Irish artists on the catalogue.
Teddy Roosevelt by Andy Warhol UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A 1986 screenprint of Teddy Roosevelt by Andy Warhol is estimated at €50,000-€70,000, Homage to Degas, an etching by Alex Katz, is estimated at €7,000-€10,000 and a woodcut in colours by Damien Hirst has an estimate of €8,000-€12,000.The most expensively estimated lot is a dramatic oil on linen by Sean Scully. Raval Rojo (€400,000-€600,000) is signed and dated 2004 and was purchased by the present owner at the Kerlin Gallery in 2005. An oil on canvas by William Scott from 1978, Still Life on White with Beans is estimated at €100,000-€150,000 and Paul Henry’s brooding Western Landscape has an estimate of €80,000-€120,000. These three widely differing works demonstrate the broad range and creativity of Irish art at the highest levels.
Untitled (1972) by Bridget Riley UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
An untitled 1972 gouache and pencil on paper by the acclaimed British artist Bridget Riley is estimated at €60,000-€90,000. A signed and numbered artist print by Andy Warhol of Teddy Roosevelt, number 31 from a run of 50 artist proofs, is estimated at €50,000-€70,000. There is a similar estimate on an oil on canvas by George Barret of A Landscape with Figures and Ruins of Melrose Abbey, Roxburghshire. There are classical works by Dan O’Neill, Donald Teskey, Evie Hone, Gerard Dillon and Sir William Orpen and some highly collectible work by artists from John Shinnors and Hughie O’Donoghue to Norah McGuinness, Evie Hone and Tony O’Malley. The sculpture section is headed by Seated Dog (1967) by the late British artist Lynn Chadwick (€20,000-€25,000) and there is work by Elisabeth Frink, Imogen Stuart, John Behan, F.E. McWilliam and others. Many of the works on offer, like a 1945 view of Glengarriff from Garnish Island by Letitia Marion Hamilton (€3,000-€5,000), Evening Field by William Crozier and Washing Line by Basil Blackshaw, each estimated at €4,000-€6,000 are more afffordable and would enhance any collection.
