Surrealism burst onto the British scene in June 1936 with the International Surrealist Exhibition in London. Ninety years on Treasure House Fair will commemorate that seminal show with a display of forty masterpieces from Southampton City Art Gallery, rarely shown together until now. London’s flagship summer fair is at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea from June 25-30. No less than 60 galleries have convened on the grounds for a fair spanning millennia and continents, from a 25,000 year old woolly mammoth head to the iconic coloured photograph of earth taken from Apollo 8 in 1968. The exhibition on Surrealism will bring together celebrated figures such as Paul Delvaux and Giorgio de Chirico, alongside prominent British Surrealists, many of whom took part in the landmark 1936 exhibition. It will feature Roland Penrose, Paul Nash, John Banting, Sam Haile, Conroy Maddox, Reuben Mednikoff, Desmond Morris and Peter Rose Pulham.
DAVID HOCKNEY (B. 1937), Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), acrylic on canvas, painted in 1972 sold for $90.3 million at Christie’s in November 2018. Photo: courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd.
THE art world is in mourning today over the death of David Hockney. He was one month short of his 89th birthday. In a career that spanned seven decades Hockney was always innovative, forward looking, open to new ideas and new ways of seeing. His vivid work, which he continued right to the end, influenced a whole generation of artists. He has been the subject of fascinating retrospectives in major world museums. In Britain the Tate said they would continue to work with Hockney’s team to stage two planned projects next year.
The Hockney exhibition at Tate in 2017 was the most visited exhibition in the museums history.
Announcing his death today Hockney’s representatives said: “The celebrated British artist David Hockney, one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries, passed away peacefully at home on 11 June 2026, one month short of his 89th birthday.”
The statement added that his “enduring legacy reflects his underlying enthusiasm for life, his outstanding sense of humour, his immense generosity, and his investigative curiosity encapsulated by his signature phrase: Love Life”.
David Hockney, Autour de la maison, été (2019). Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2026. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
David Hockney’s monumental Autour de la maison, été (2019) measuringan astonishing 12 metres in length will headline Christie’s Contemporary Edition London sale from March 17-31. The estimate is £200,000-300,000. Printed on a single sheet of paper, it is one of the largest works ever created by the artist, and his largest editioned print. It depicts Hockney’s home in Normandy, France, with his garden in the height of summer, the vibrant greens of the grass, trees and hedgerows in contrast with the architecture of the medieval barns and contemporary elements such as a swing set, treehouse and parked vehicles.
Le Loing at Sundown by Roderic O’Conor. UPDATE: THIS MADE €245,000 AT HAMMER
From Roderic O’Conor to David Hockney and Paul Henry to Ciaran Clear the Irish and International art sale at Whyte’s on March 9 offers many exciting opportunities for collectors.
The museum quality Le Loing at Sundown by O’Conor leads an auction of 129 lots with a combined estimate of in excess of one million euro. Painted around 1902 it is the catalogue cover lot and carries an estimate of €150,000-€200,000.
O’Conor revisited Montigny, a small town on the edge of the forest of Fontainebleau in the autumn of 1902 where he captured the mysterious half light with the sun setting low on the horizon. The art historian Jonathan Benington recounts how the works executed at this time were; “characterised by a highly painterly handling of the oil medium, from translucent stains to textured scumblings and thick calligraphic strokes”. This approach, radical at that time, can be traced back to O’Conor’s friendship with Gauguin and allegiances with Van Gogh in the early 1890’s.
Pool Made with Paper and Blue Ink for Book by David Hockney. UPDATE: THIS MADE €38,000 AT HAMMER
David Hockney’s Pool Made with Paper and Blue Ink for Book was similarly radical when it was made in 1980. It reflects his long-standing fascination with pools, light and the California lifestyle, transforming an everyday subject into a vivid study of colour, surface and perception. The artist uses simplified lines and fluid forms to evoke the movement and shimmer of water. This signed lithograph from an edition of 1,000 is a highly sought after example from his inspirational swimming pools paintings and is estimated at €25,000-€35,000.
A holiday in Kerry brought inspiration back to Paul Henry. By the early 1930’s, after a fraught and financially troubled time in his life during which he had separated from his wife, the celebrated artist had settled into a new life in Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow with his partner Mabel Young RHA, later his second wife. By September 1934 he was legally separated and his thirst for inspiration had returned following a holiday in Co. Kerry. This renewed passion for his surroundings is evident in the lightened palette of his Landscape, Connemara (1932-35) which comes up as lot 17 with an estimate of €120,000-€150,000.
A completely different take on a similar subject is evident in Ciaran Clear’s Moonrise, Connemara Shore (€4,000-€6,000) with its silvery sea, figures on a beach looking out to sea, dark sails and shadowy rocks.
A bust of James Barry by Joseph Panzetta UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A coade stone bust of the Cork born artist James Barry (1741-1806) by Joseph Panzetta dates to 1818 and is probably based on an engraving by Picart in Fryer’s two volume catalogue of Barry’s work in 1809. It is one of four busts, others being held by the Crawford in Cork and by St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. The estimate is €5,000-€7,000. Three Roses by Patrick Hennessy, complete with a Guildhall Galleries, Chicago label, is similarly estimated.
The artist L S Lowry was proud of his Irish roots and The Cart from 1959 is a possible memory of a jaunting car during one of his visits to Ireland. Other international artists in the sale are Mr. Brainwash, Sir Frank Bowling, Maurice Poirson and Josef Herman.
A rare 1921 artist’s proof set of two lithographs by Sir John Lavery of Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith, each signed by both artist and sitter, is estimated at €8,000-€10,000. They were gifted to the previous owner by Arthur Griffith.
The Shuggleshoo by William Conor (€18,000-€22,000) was exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1951. Child Playing with Dice by Dan O’Neill (€12,000-€18,000) was acquired from the George Waddington Galleries in Montreal. This gallery held solo exhibitions of O’Neill in 1959, 1960, 1962, 1963 and 1965. The sale features a selection of watercolours by Percy French and art by Walter Osborne, Evie Hone, Maurice MacGonigal, Tony O’Malley, Mainie Jellett, Jack Yeats, Rowan Gillespie, Siobhan Bulfin, Kenneth Webb, Arthur Maderson and Elizabeth Cope. Viewing gets underway at Whyte’s next Monday and the catalogue is online.
Moonrise, Connemara Shore by Ciaran Clear. UPDATE: THIS WAS WITHDRAWN
David Hockney – The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) – 4 January UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £304,800
The Arrival of Spring is the title of the David Hockey sale at Sotheby’s in London on October 17. There are 17 limited edition iPad drawings printed in colours on wove paper on offer ranging from January to June of that year. Estimates are from £80,000-£180,000.
ED RUSCHA (B. 1937) – Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half sold for $68.2 million
Led by record-breaking Magritte and Ruscha masterpieces, Christie’s 20th/21st Century art week in New York achieved $486 million on night one. Magritte’s L’empire des lumières became the most valuable work of Surrealist art ever sold at auction. Seven records were set across Mica: The Collection of Mica Ertegun Part I and the 20th Century evening sale. Together they totalled $485,922,600, selling 83 per cent by lot, 92 per cent by value, and 120% hammer and premium against low estimate. The top lot – René Magritte’s L’empire des lumières – made $121,160,000, a world-record price for a Surrealist work at auction. Seven records were set, including artist records for Magritte, Ed Ruscha, Christian Schad, Susan Rothenberg and Amedee Ozenfant. Magritte and Roy Lichtenstein also set records for works on paper. There were bidders from around the world and 1.25 million viewers watched the sales across Christie’s global platform.
David Hockney’s Still Life on a Glass Table (1971) made $19,040,000. The painting was made after the end of his romance with Peter Schlesinger and is a tribute to the beauty, pain and fragility of love. Its nine objects — many associated with Schlesinger — are rendered with crystalline intimacy producing a dynamic work which was in major retrospectives including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1988) and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2017).
DAVID HOCKNEY – Still Life on a glass table (1971) sold for $19,040,000
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.
The Italian Version of Popeye Has no Pork in His Diet by Jean-Michel Basquiat at Christie’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $32 MILLION
The Italian Version of Popeye Has no Pork in His Diet, a lawn being sprinkled, a haunting portrait of a lover and muse, scientific literature and Irish and Mexican myth getting the surreal treatment all feature at the big art sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in New York this month.
The 20th/21st Century series at Christie’s and masterworks spanning more than a century of production at Sotheby’s underline the glorious diversity of Modern, Contemporary and Post-War Art and the boundary pushing art of now.
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s arresting 1982 work The Italian Version of Popeye has no Pork in His Diet will be a highlight at Christie’s 21st Century evening sale on May 14. Peppered with figures, numbers, shapes and crossed out words it mixes symbols, text and portraiture and is estimated to achieve around $30 million (€28.03 million). It is part of a series featuring tied together wooden supports on which a canvas has been mounted.
In a market that is weaker than latter years Basquiat continues to exert strong pulling power. A highlight at Sotheby’s Contemporary Auction in New York on May 13 is one of the most significant paintings created jointly by Basquiat and Andy Warhol during their famed period of collaboration from 1983 – 1985. “Andy would start one and put something very recognizable on it, or a product logo, and I would sort of deface it” Basquiat said once, while Warhol credited Basquiat with getting him into painting differently. Untitled (1984), a large scale example of this collaborative series, is estimated in the region of $18 million (€16.82 million).
Now aged 86 David Hockney continues to make great art today (he says he does not feel his age when in the studio). Hockney’s mesmerising A Lawn being Sprinkled at Christie’s dates to 1967 and is estimated at $25 million – $35 million (€23.36 million – €32.7 million). It is from the Los Angeles collection of legendary screenwriter, producer and activist Norman Lear and his wife Lyn Davis Lear.
Portrait of George Dyer Crouching by Francis Bacon at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $27,735,000
Francis Bacon’s Portrait of George Dyer Crouching at Sotheby’s Contemporary evening auction on May 13 dates to 1966 and is the first of a cycle of ten monumental portraits of Dyer created between 1966 and 1968. It offers a haunting glimpse of Dyer – who died from a drugs and drink overdose in Paris two days before the opening of the Francis Bacon Retrospective at the Grand Palais in 1971 – both as hero and a figure of vulnerability. The estimate is $30 million – $50 million (€28.03 million – €46.72 million).
Les Distractions de Dagobert by Leonora Carrington at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $28,485,000
Born in 1917 to an upper class Catholic family in rural north west England Leonora Carrington’s childhood was shaped on one hand by rigid social structures and on the other by magical myths from her Irish grandmother and nanny. She returned often to Irish legends, especially in works like Les Distractions de Dagobert which is rife with Celtic imagery. Following a rebellious youth, a brief sojourn with the Parisian Surrealist group and a harrowing flight from war torn Europe Carrington painted this tour de force at the age of 28. The centrepiece at her first retrospective exhibition at the Pierre Matisse gallery in New York in 1948 it is at Sotheby’s Modern evening auction on May 15 with an estimate of $12 million – $18 million.
Christie’s Global President and Auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen selling David Hockney’s Early Morning, Saint-Maxime for £20,899,500
David Hockney’s Early Morning, Sainte-Maxime led Christie’s 20th/21st Century evening sale in London last night. It sold for £20,899,500 in a 47 lots sale that brought in £72.5 million and was 100% sold. Hockney more that doubled the pre-sale estimate of £10 million. Tracey Emin’s Like a Cloud of Blood was sold by the artist to raise funds for her pioneering TKE studio complex in Margate. Setting a record for a painting by Emin, it realised £2,322,000, a new record for the artist.Gerhard Richter, Wolkenstudie (grün-blau) (Study for Clouds (Green-blue)): £11,167,000 / $12,361,869 / €12,719,213 [first time at auction having remained in the same private collection since 1982, it was also the first time on public display]
Study for Clouds (Green-blue) by Gerhard Richter made £11,167,000 and Painting, 1990 by Francis Bacon made £7,102,250. Female artists performed well against the estimate. Praise I by Bridget Riley made £2,202,000 and there was a world record for Sandra Ball whose Untitled (AC16) made £94,500.
A Place with No Name: Works from the Sina Jina Collection was led by Lynette Yiadon-Boakye’s Highpower which made £1,482,000. The combined total of both sales, which attracted bidders from 25 countries, was £75,494,334.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for August 24 and October 1, 2022)
David Hockney, Early Morning, Sainte-Maxime (1969). UPDATE: THIS MADE £20,899,500
David Hockney’s Early Morning, Sainte-Maxime (1969) will highlight Christie’s 20th / 21st Century evening sale in London on October 13. Depicting a sublime view in the South of France it is a tribute to Hockney’s emotional state at the height of his relationship with Peter Schlesinger and anticipates some of the artist’s greatest works. The estimate is £7,000,000-10,000,000.
This is one of four paintings based on photographs taken during a trip to France with Hockney’s then partner in autumn 1968. It was at this time that the pair first spent time in the home of the film director, Tony Richardson, near Saint Tropez. They became regular guests at the lavish parties Richardson threw at ‘Le Nid du Duc’, set in the mountains just outside Le Garde-Freinet. Hockney had returned to London in 1968 after spending four years in California. The South of France became an instant draw for him and Schlesinger and would come to play a central role in their relationship. It was Richardson’s home that became the setting for his masterpiece Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) when the relationship ended in 1971.
