By Michele Leight
The Post-War & Contemporary Art evening sale on November 12, 2008 at Christie's includes two important self-portraits, one by Francis Bacon, and the other by Jean-Michel Basquiat, who committed suicide, (from the collection of Lars Ulrich) and an outstanding group of drawings by Post War artists Barnett Newman, Ashille Gorky and Willem de Kooning, from the collection of Kathy and Richard Fuld Jr.
Other artists whose work is well represented include Lucio Fontana, Gerhard Richter, Joan Mitchell, Louise Bourgeois, Agnes Martin, Brice Marden, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Subodh Gupta, and many others. The sale is expected to achieve between $227,000,000 to $321,000,000. Including the buyers' premium, the 51 of the 75 offered lots totaled $113,627,500.
A triptych by Francis Bacon set a world auction record last year, but a more intimate and unflinchingly introspective "Study for Self Portrait," Lot 27, a full-length, 1964 self-portrait, is bound to generate enormous interest despite its hefty price tag of $40,000,000. It was passed at $27,500,000. The portrait is a beautifully executed, typically distorted and troubled composition of the artist seated vulnerably on his bed. Like Rembrandt and Van Gogh whom he greatly admired, Bacon's most incisive portraits are of himself. The exquisite brushwork and the signature "twisted" torso express Bacon's inner tension. The "distortions" also nod to Picasso, who was an enormous influence on the artist.
It is impossible to look at a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat without thinking of Downtown Manhattan; not the new "downtown" of slick glass towers and ultra-modern dining parlors, wonderful as they are, but the grimy, wind blown, graffiti encrusted expanses of Houston and Delancey streets in the '80s, when artists exiting their drafty studios had to pass winos and drug addicts huddled in the doorways of dilapidated buildings, and the only place to get a good sandwich was Katz's Deli.
Lot 19, "Untitled (Boxer)" with an estimate of $12,000,000 to $15,000,000, is one of the most powerful Basquiats to come to auction, created at the height of his fame - at the ripe old age of 22 - which he described as his best painting ever. It is the cover illustration of the auction catalogue. It sold for $15,522,500. This powerful portrait is one of the most exuberant images in his repertoire, depicting a victorious heavyweight boxer, and is thought to be a self-portrait. Its primitivism blends with classical portraiture, offering an icon for Black America that was both hero and victim to Basquiat. After Barak Obama's ascendance to the American Presidency, the balance has hopefully shifted to that of the hero. The 1982 work is an acrylic and oil paint stick on linen that measures 79 by 94 inches.
Three exquisitely joyful paintings offer instant mood elevation in these troubled economic times. Mark Rothko's "Composition," Lot 3, a 1958 oil on paper laid down on board, 29 3/4 by 22 1/2 inches, has an estimate of $4,000,000 to $6,000,000. It sold for $3.666,500. Gerhard Richter's shimmering "Ozu," Lot 35, which has an estimate of $10,000,000 to $15,000,000, and a very bold and dazzling Joan Mitchell evoke nature's seasonal beauty and quality of light. Lot 35 was passed at $6,200,000.
Lot 34, "La Grande Vallee," by Joan Mitchell, with its exuberant swirls, cross hatching, and luscious palette-knifed pigmentation recall Van Gogh and Monet - through a magnifying glass, however. A photograph in Christie's catalog shows Joan Mitchell waist deep in yellow wildflowers, literally engulfed in nature that was such an inspiration to her, although as nueoted in the catalogue Mitchell's "allusions to landscape arise from feeling and personal remembrance rather than actual visual cues." Lot 34 has an estimate of $4,000,000 to $6,000,000. It is a diptych whose overall dimensions are 102 inches square it was created in 1983. It was passed at $2,200,000.
Lot 9, "Abstrakts Bild (710)" by Richter is more somber in tone than "Ozu," (not illustrated), but no less lush and visually uplifting. Richter describes the process involved in his "Abstracts" which he has returns to repeatedly despite forays into other, "un-painterly" styles:
The catalogue quotes Richter as stating that "Letting a thing come, rather than creating it - no assertions, constructions, formulations, inventions, ideologies - in order to gain access to all that is genuine, richer, more alive: to what is beyond my understanding."
Lot 9, "Abstraktes Bild (710)" by Gerhard Richter (b. 1932) has an estimate upon request. It sold for $14,866,500. Like many other great paintings offered this season, it was priced earlier this year, when the market for Post War and Contemporary artworks was at its peak and the stock market was buoyant. It is a 1989 oil on canvas that measures 102 1/2 by 78 3/4 inches.
Takashi Murakami (b. 1962) has two amusing works. Lot 67 is entitled "Jellyfish Eyes" and the five-part, winsome 2001 work has an estimate of $1,000,000 to $2,000,000. It was passed at $750,000. It and the marvelously garish "DOB in the Strange Forest (Red DOB)," Lot 7, are strangely compelling, the latter causing people to stop in Christie's lobby to gaze joyfully despite themselves at an impossibly cute pink "hello kitty" character surrounded by a ring of psychedelic mushrooms with bizarre eyes. Lot 7, which measures 60 by 120 by 120 inches, has an estimate of $5,000,000 to $7,000,000. It sold for $3,000,000. It is one from an edition of threee plus two artist's proofs. The fiber-reinforced plastic, resin, fiberglass, acrylic and iron work was executed in 1999.
Lot 14 is an extremely lyrical and colorful abstraction by Brice Marden. An oil on linen, it measures 82 by 57 inches and was executed in 1996-9. It is entitled "Attendant 5" and the catalogue illustrates five related works by Marden. It has an estimate of $10,000,000 to $15,000,000. It was passed at $7,500,000.
In "Cheap Rice," Lot 5, by Subodh Gupta (b. 1964), brass and metal lotas used to carry holy water for the wealthy and not so wealthy respectively weigh down the humblest form of transport in India - the rickshaw - "pedaled" by the rickshaw rider, who earns a bowl of cheap rice for his hard labor. At its best, Gupta's work becomes a vehicle for powerful social commentary for issues as diverse as caste and religious tensions, exploitation and discrimination, the effects of globalization and industrialization, and rampant consumerism that is now impacting in India as it is in China. He explores the conflicted crossroads of an awesomely ascendant India that promises a new lease on the future for many, while others are still left in the gutter. The lot, which is from an edition of three created in 2006, has an estimate of $900,000 to $1,200,000. It sold for $842,500.
Lot 40, "Circles and Angles," by David Smith, stainless steel, 26 by 41 by 8 3/4 inches, 1959
David Smith's beautiful, richly textured, stainless steel "Circles and Angles," Lot 40, estimate $6,000,000 to $8,000,000 - a miniature version of his epically scaled 1959 sculpture - is shown here with Agnes Martin's minimalist horizontal grids, It was passed at $4,600,000. "Untitled #6," in the background. Both artworks draw their inspiration from nature, yet are expressed so differently. The Martin painting, Lot 61, has an estimate of $1,500,000 to $2,500,000. It sold for $1,202,500.
Lot 4, Roy Lichtenstein's masterful Pop Art "Self-Portrait" kicks things up a notch with contemporary flair, keeping pace with the heavyweight self-portraits on offer this season. The 1976 oil and magna on canvas measures 52 by 36 inches. It has an estimate of $3,000,000 to $4,000,000. It sold for $2,658,500.
The crisp Pop Art outlines of Roy Lichtenstein's "Two Nude," Lot 30, estimate $3,500,000 to $4,500,000 is shown here with an idealized painting of a house in a wilderness setting by the contemporary artist Peter Doig, "Pine House (Rooms for Rent)," which was included in a show at Tate Britain earlier this year, estimate $4,500,000 to $6,500,000, Richard Prince's eerie, pulp fiction inspired "Lake Resort Nurse," Lot 10, $5,000,000 to $7,000,000, and "Ostrich," a fine spindly, immobile sculpture by Alexander Calder executed in 1941, Lot 22, estimate $600,000 to $800,000. Lot 30 was passed at $2,700,000. Lot 28 was passed at $2,700,000. Lot 10 sold for $3,330,500. Lot 22 sold for $1,500,000.
Lot 1 is an excellent "Study for Great American Nude #20" by Tom Wesselman (1931-2004). A pastel and charcoal on paper, it measures 60 by 47 1/2 inches and was executed in 1961. It is property from the collection of Robert and Jean Shoenberg. It has an estimate of $600,000 to $800,000. It sold for $986,500.
There are several paintings by Andy Warhol at his sale, including a scaled down, punchy "Mao," Lot 33, who was recently the subject of a major show at The Asia Society in New York. It is interesting how Warhol's bright, populist iconography creates instant nostalgia for those halcyon days when the world seemed a far less complicated place - this spring, last year, the '60s and '70s - but Warhol would be the first to suggest we are deluding ourselves. Lot 33, which is a synthetic polymer, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, measures 26 1/4 by 22 1/8 inches. Executed in 1973, it has an estimate of $4,500,000 to $6,500,000. It was passed at $3,200,000.
Two monochromatic, "vertical," masterpieces are illustrated. Lot 51, "Untitled," is a stellar, small-scaled drawing in ink on paper by Barnett Newman, estimate $2,000,000 to $3,000,000, from the collection of Kathy and Richard Fuld Jr., while Franz Kline's "Mars Black and White," Lot 37, estimate $4,000,000 to $6,000,000, is powerful enough to dominate any space. Lot 51 sold for $2,994,500. Lot 37 sold for $5,122,500. Grabbing the viewer's attention evolved from Kline's early ambitions to become an illustrator, and his love of comic book imagery, which cut across all divides. The epic quality of this painting is inspired by the gritty, teeming metropolis that surrounded him - New York - its nightlife, speed, bars, and the music he loved, Jazz. In the lead article November 2, 2008 of the Arts & Leisure section of the Sunday New York Times, Carol Vogel wrote that Mrs. Fuld, a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art, and Mr. Fuld, the former chief executive of Lehman Brothers, are selling 16 works on paper in this auction and indicated that the auction house may have given them a guarantee for all the works of about $20 million. In the same article, Ms. Vogel noted that Jennifer Stockman, the president of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation was the consignor for Peter Doig's "Pine House (Rooms for Rent" and Richard Prince's "Last Resort Nurse." The article quoted Ms. Stockman as stating that the consignment of the Doig got a guarantee from the auction house: "it became almost impossible not to take advantage of the sale."
All eyes are on the auction houses this season after the downturn on Wall Street and the global financial markets. While some buyers may have decided that the best place to stash their money is under the mattress, it is to be hoped that real collectors will not let the best works of art pass them by. Sadly, some extraordinary works of art may be endangered by high price tags assigned at the peak of the art market in the summer.
It remains to be seen whether buyers will meet prices that sellers have grown accustomed to receiving for top quality works based on past season's unprecedented results. Perhaps the time has come to restore perspective and re-calibrate the monetary value of high-end works of art - their estimates - that will not compromise their artistic value and worth. Art, after all, is not a commodity like any other.
It is only in New York that a sale may be considered to be less than stellar - some even calling it a flop - when it generates around $200 million dollars, as was the case last week with both Sotheby's and Christie's Impressionist and Modern Art evening sales. Almost half a billion dollars of art was sold in one week at both auction houses, enough to feed a sizeable segment of the population of some nations for a while - a remarkable achievement considering Wall Street's performance the same week.
A French journalist was understandably confused by the chorus of negative comments in the New York press about the results of Sotheby's and Christie's Impressionist and Modern Art sales:
"We are happy in Paris if a sale achieves $70 million, so what is the problem?"
Amy Cappellazo did not let a very special accolade go unrecognized in the quagmire of lots sold and dollars achieved for the evening's sale; "It is wonderful to be standing in front of a painting that is a world auction record for a living woman artist; that is really something," she said, all smiles. Yayoi Kusama's "No.2" oil on canvas is behind Amy and Brett Gorvy. Too elated to eat or drink at the press preview, Miki Shoji, an art dealer from Tokyo Japan said: "Kusama is a very active lady, very well known and highly regarded in Japan. She has been painting for many years." I asked how old she was. "Seventy eight," he replied.