Pablo Picasso – Femme a la Montre (Woman with a Watch)
Picasso’s Femme a la Montre became the most valuable painting sold at auction this year when it was knocked down for $139 million at Sotheby’s in New York last night. This was the second highest price ever achieved for a Picasso after Les Femmes d’Alger (Women of Algiers) which made $179.3m at Christie’s in 2015. Femme a la Montre was previously owned by the late art collector Emily Fisher Landau, who bought it in 1968, and has been purchased by an anonymous buyer. It depicts Marie-Therese Walter, the lover of the Spanish artist and subject of many of his artworks. Known as Picasso’s “golden muse”, Walter was 17 when she met the 45-year-old Picasso in Paris, and the pair later entered into a secret relationship while he was still married to Olga Khokhlova, a Ukrainian ballerina.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 13, 2023)
One of Pablo Picasso’s most unique still lifes, containing coded references to his famed “Golden muse,” Marie-Thérèse Walter at a time when their clandestine affair remained a secret, comes up at Sotheby’s Modern evening auction in New York on November 13. Compotier et guitare was completed the day before Valentine’s Day while in the throes of his secretive affair with Marie-Thérèse. It was not until later in 1932 with the opening of Picasso’s celebrated retrospective at the Galeries Georges Petit in Paris that their affair would become public. Selected by Picasso to star in this exhibition (the first and only time he installed his own work), Compotier et guitare’s veiled portrait was exhibited alongside numerous portraits of Marie-Thérèse, announcing to the world that she was his muse. It is estimated in the region of $25 million, placing it among the most valuable still lifes by the artist at auction.
Pablo Picasso’s La fenêtre ouverte (1929) made £16,319,500
The Shanghai to London sale series at Christie’s established a pioneering cultural dialogue between two of the art market’s major hubs and made a total of £249,070,155. Sell-through rates of 90% by lot and 93% by value demonstrated the confidence of the market, building on the successes we witnessed in 2021. Across the three sales, registered bidders from 34 countries and 5 continents reflect the strength of global demand, with 21% of buyers from Americas, 31% APAC and 49% EMEA. Millennial collectors accounted for 28% of registrants.
Shanghai to London led with museum quality paintings by Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Franz Marc, and Pablo Picasso: Franz Marc’s The Foxes (Die Füchse) sold for £42,654,500, setting a new world auction record for the artist and the highest price ever achieved in Europe for a restituted work of art. Francis Bacon’s Triptych 1986-7 made £38,459,206 and Lucian Freud’s Girl with Closed Eyes (1986-87) made £15,174,500.
Pablo Picasso – Mousquetaire a la pipe II at Christie’s UPDATE: THIS MADE $34,710,000
In the era of shredded Banksy’s the New York sales over the next two weeks art will be presented in an innovative way that has broken away from traditional sale categories like Impressionism and Contemporary Art. Artists from Banksy and Basquiat to Peter Doig and El Anatsui to Cindy Sherman and Arcadia will kick off the non traditional art sale season in New York at Christie’s 21st century evening sale on November 9. Arcadia is an NFT – non fungible tokens allow people to buy the rights to online art – by contemporary visual artist Andres Reisinger, Grammy award winning musician RAC and poet Arch Hades. Combining music, visual art and poetry this is the first collaborative interdisciplinary NFT to come to auction. RAC, who was born in 1985, is the oldest of the three. UPDATE: Arcadia sold for $525,000.
A year ago few of us had heard of NFT’s – now they are big business. In March US artist Beeple (aka Mike Winklemann born 1981) made worldwide headlines when an NFT of his digital artwork “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days” sold for $63.9 million. Beeple is back at Christie’s on November 9 with an NFT called Human One. By September Christie’s had shattered the $100 million dollar barrier for NFT sales. UPDATE: HUMAN ONE SOLD FOR $28,985,000.
Sotheby’s has launched twice yearly sales of NFT’s. The jury is out on whether this is merely a temporary craze or a more permanent feature of the art market. The buyers of NFT’s, including cyber punks and crypto currency gazillionaires, tend towards the non traditional.
Christie’s say their global 20th/21st century auction series reflects evolving market demands and collecting habits. It is also helping to discover new works, physical and digital. The sale on Tuesday offers 39 lots with established contemporaries like Richard Prince and Christopher Wool being sold alongside new market darlings like Nicolas Party, Harold Ancart and Xinyi Cheng.
On November 11 Christie’s will offer The Cox Collection: The Story of Impressionism. With masterpieces by Caillebotte, Cezanne and Van Gogh this is billed as one of the greatest American collections ever to appear on the market. Dallas based Edwin Cox, who died aged 99 a year ago, spent his career in oil and gas exploration and was ceo of his own investment company. The auction will be followed immediately by the 20th Century evening sale. This ranges from Impressionism in Paris in 1880’s to Pop Art in New York in 1980’s with masterpieces by Picasso and Monet and a Warhol portrait of Jean Michel Basquiat.
Untitled IV by William de Kooning at Sotheby’s in New York on November 15. UPDATE: THIS MADE $18,935,250
On November 15 Sotheby’s will offer the Part One of the Macklowe Collection which they describe as one of the most important collections of any kind ever to appear on the market. The sale will include masterworks by Alberto Giacometti, Mark Rothko, Cy Twombly and Andy Warhol. The Macklowes are a spectacularly rich warring New York couple in their ’80’s. A judge has ordered the sale of the collection as part of their protracted divorce proceedings. Sotheby’s Modern evening auction is to take place on November 16 and this will be followed two nights later by an evening auction called Now focusing on art made in the last 20 years.
The eleven Picasso masterworks from the MGM Resorts collection made a total of $108,873,350 at a Sotheby’s sale in Las Vegas last night which was livestreamed around the world. Femme au beret rouge orange which features Picasso’s lover and muse Marie-Thérèse Walter made $40,479,000 over a top estimate of $30 million. Homme et enfant made $24,393,000 and Nature Morte au panier de fruits et aux fleurs made $16,637,350. The Sotheby’s auction was held at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas, where the works had been on display in the Picasso Restaurant for years. Picasso was born on October 25 exactly 140 years ago. MGM Resorts plans to diversity its collection to include more art from women, people of colour and emerging nations as well as from LGBTQ artists and artists with disabilities.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for August 11, 2021)
In a major push to focus on diversity and inclusion MGM Resorts plans to sell its Picasso’s. MGM Resorts and Sotheby’s will present a one of a kind marquee evening sale of Picasso masterworks worth millions live from Bellagio in Las Vegas on October 23. The world renowned entertainment company plans to re-shape its public art portfolio. The unique collaboration between Sotheby’s and MGM represents the first time Sotheby’s has hosted a marquee sale in North America outside its signature New York venue. It will feature a recreated version of the New York saleroom in Las Vegas. The sale will be broadcast around the world via a livestream viewable on Sothebys.com
Featuring 11 works that showcase the range and breadth of Pablo Picasso’s celebrated career, the auction includes a highly curated selection of paintings, works on paper, and ceramics that span more than 50 years of artistic output from 1917 to 1969. The highlight of the collection is Femme au béret rouge-orange ($20/30 million), one of Picasso’s defining portraits of Marie-Thérèse Walter. The artist’s muse and lover inspired many of his most iconic portraits of the 1930’s.
PABLO PICASSO – L’ÉTREINTE (The Hug) SOLD FOR £14,697,000 courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2021
PICASSO’S L’ÉTREINTE was the top lot at Christie’s 20th/21st Century London to Paris evening sale. It made £14.6 million in an auction which realised £153,592,611 and marked the best summer season since 2017. The livestreamed sale attracted bidders from 32 countries and five continents. Christie’s say it demonstrated the depth of the European market. The second highest price paid was for Alberto Giacometti’s Homme qui Chavire which sold for £13.7 million. The auction was sold 90% by lot and 96% by value.
(SEE posts on antiquesandartireland.com for June 23, April 28 and April 29, 2021)
THE 49 lots at Christie’s 20th century evening sale in New York last night achieved a total of $480,111,000. Picasso’s Femme assise pres d’une fenetre (Marie Therese) made $103,410,000, Waterloo Bridge, effet en brouillard by Claude Monet made $48,450,000, Untitled by Mark Rothko made $38,145,000, Femme dans un fauteuil by Picasso made $17,191,500, Le Pont du Trinquetaille by Vincent van Gogh made $37,400,000, Two Marilyns by Andy Warhol made $15,817,500, 10.2.81 by Zao Wou-Ki made $3,030,000, Composition No. 2 by Piet Mondrian made $26,122,500, Interior, Perfect Pitcher by Roy Lichtenstein made $21,500,000, La Flutiste by Marc Chagall made $1,590,000 and Scierie aux environs d Paris by Henri Rousseau (Le Douanier) made $1,050,000.
The international art market is increasingly evolving towards the now. Developments happening at breakneck pace are reflected in the annual May New York sales of big league international art, livestreamed of course, and available to view around the world. Christie’s has torn up the rule book to create an entirely new category of turn of the 21st century contemporary art. Established contemporaries like Gerhard Richter and Christopher Wool will be offered alongside newcomer artists like Jordan Casteel.
Two tables with floral pattern by Jonas Wood (born 1977) at Christies. Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2021. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $6,510,000
This follows the discovery of a growing appetite for masterpieces by a new generation of artists reported by Christie’s in 2020. The auction house recorded no less than seven new auction records by 21st century artists in the livestreamed Hong Kong to New York evening sale last December. Many of these artists are unknown to those of us familiar with the glorious range of art from Monet to Hockney and beyond. The 21st century evening sale at Christie’s on May 11 will be led by work from artists like Martin Kippenberger, Jordan Casteel and Gerhard Richter. Mark Rothko’s Untitled, painted in 1970 during the final months of his life, will highlight the 20th century evening sale on May 13.
Femme assise près d’une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse) by Pablo Picasso at Christie’s. Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2021 (estimate in the region of $55 million). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $103,410,000
Even though there are growing numbers of new kids on the block there will be no shortage of names that are familiar. Sotheby’s Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art sales will include highlights from Jean-Michel Basquiat, Clyfford Still, Warhol, Hockney, Willem de Kooning, Alexander Calder, Childe Hassan, Degas, Monet, Picasso and more. An exquisite example of Monet’s Waterlilies series will highlight Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern sale and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Versus Medici will take centre stage at the Contemporary Art evening auction. Both sales will be livestreamed on May 12. Contemporary auctions reflect the response of todays artists to our changing world and offer a fascinating glimpse of the development of abstract and figurative art from the Post-War period to the present day. To further mark the changes Sotheby’s will hold its first auction entirely devoted to women artists across the centuries later this month.
Le Bassin aux nympheas by Claude Monet at Sothebys on May 12. ($40-$60 million). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $70,353,000
The future beckons and it looks exciting. The mix of online and live sales is here to stay. We will not go back to what was there before Covid. If a signpost to the future can be discerned it points in the direction of a more diverse and multicultural art market focused on gender equality, the rights of minorities and masterpieces waiting to be discovered by artists yet largely unknown.
Versus Medici by Jean Michel Basquiat at Sothebys on May 12 ($35-$50 million). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $50,820,000
Picasso’s Femme assise près d’une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse), 30 October 1932 (estimate in the region of $55 million) will highlight Christie’s 20th century evening sale in New York on May 11. One of the extraordinary series of iconic portraits that Picasso painted of his golden-haired muse during this landmark year, this monumental work is among the most stately and impressive depictions of Marie-Thérèse that the artist painted.
