Christie's New York
10 AM, November 14, 2019
Sale 17650
Lot 672, "Banc-Salon," by Jean Dubuffet, epoxy paint on polyurethane in ten parts, 78 by 59 by 24 inches overall, 1970
By
Carter B. Horsley
The November 14, 2019 morning auction of Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie's New York is highlighted by several works by Dubuffet and Warhol and good works by Noguchi, Gilliam, Frankenthaler, Hockney and Thiebaud.
Lot 672 is a ten-part epoxy paint on polyurethane sculpture by Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) entitled "Banc-Salon." It measures 78 by 59 by 24 inches overall and was created in 1970. It is from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. I. M. Pei. It has an estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. It sold for $915,000.
The November 14, 2019 morning auction of Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie's New York is highlighted by several works by Dubuffet and Warhol and good works by Noguchi, Gilliam, Frankenthaler, Hockney and Thiebaud.
Lot 672 is a ten-part epoxy paint on polyurethane sculpture by Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) entitled "Banc-Salon." It measures 78 by 59 by 24 inches overall and was created in 1970. It is from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. I. M. Pei. It has an estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. It sold for $915,000.
Lot 662, "Trois Figurettes," by Jean Dubuffet, epoxy polyurethane in three parts, the largest 9 3/4 inches high, 1972
Another
Dubuffet sculpture group from the Peis is Lot 662, "Trois
Figurettes." The largest if 9 3/4 inches high and the group
was created in 1972. The lot has an estimate of $100,000 to
$150,000. It sold for $699,000.
Lot 659, "Le signe du doigt," by Jean Dubuffet, oil on canvas, 39 1/2 by 31 3/4 inches, 1954
Lot
659 is another work by Dubuffet, an oil on canvas entitled "Le Signe du
doigt." It measures 39 1/2 by 31 3/4 inches and was painted in
1954. It has an estimate of $1,500,000 to $2,000,000. It sold for $1,395,000.
Lot 604, "Pac," by Sam Gilliam, acrylic on canvas, 106 by 132 by 2 1/2 inches, 1970
Lot 604 is a large abstract acrylic on
canvas by Sam Gilliam (b. 1933) entitled "Pac." Iemeasures 106 by
132 by 2 /12 inches and was painted in 1970.
The catalogue provides the following commentary:
The catalogue provides the following commentary:
"Recognized as a revolutionary figure of
Twentieth Century Post-War art, Sam Gilliam has helped define the
radical and influential Washington Color School movement. Pac, painted in 1970,
serves as an exquisite example of how he pushed the very genre of Color
Field painting to an unbridled extreme. Created at the turn of the
decade, two years before Gilliam would become the first American artist
to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale, Pac is a spectacular example
of Gilliam’s signature ‘beveled-edge’ paintings. These revolutionary
works, which the artist began making in 1967, were composed by pouring
and splashing acrylic paint and pigment directly onto unprimed canvas,
which was then folded and crumpled before being stretched over a
distinctive chamfered frame. Spanning almost nine feet wide, and
marbled with a glorious array of greens, blues, purples, pinks and
reds, Pac exemplifies
the exuberant color and monumental scale of the works Gilliam created
between 1967 and 1973, widely considered the greatest years of his
practice. The ‘beveled-edge’ paintings are closely related to the
series of ‘drape paintings’ Gilliam created in the same period, which
released the canvas from the stretcher frame entirely to interact with
their spatial context in radical new ways. Pushing the canvas out from
the wall into assertive, three-dimensional presence, the ‘beveled-edge’
works similarly emphasize their own objecthood. Gilliam blurred the
lines between painting and sculpture even as his Minimalist
contemporaries such as Donald Judd were seeking to reinforce that same
boundary. Moving beyond the ideas of the Washington Color School – a
movement with which artists such as Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland
were also associated – he reconceived painting as a performative,
theatrical act, and took his medium into thrilling new territory.
"The expansive composition is comprised of vertical bands, each with varying concentrations of pigment, which result in a rich display of overlapping translucent chroma. The ‘all-over’ chromatics of Pac seem to echo the bravura brushwork of Willem de Kooning, as well as the staining technique of Helen Frankenthaler. The almost neon force of Gilliam’s hues, and the resplendent variety of their form, texture and depth – ‘the more far out the better’, as Gilliam has stated – gives his work a unique energy, evoking what he calls ‘the drama of music and the drama of colors coming together’ (T. Loos, ‘At 84, Sam Gilliam Fires Up His Competitive Spirit’, The New York Times, June 12 2018). There is a dialogue between control and chaos in his pouring and folding technique that lends the work an expressive vigor unmatched by even the ‘drips’ of Jackson Pollock. This rich and variegated surface is the result of the artist repeatedly folding the canvas while the paint is still wet, allowing the colors and geometries to dissolve into each other. Gilliam would begin the process by soaking the lightest colors of the composition, like the tans and pinks in the present work, into the raw, unprimed canvas before applying the darker greens, reds and blues. He would then fold the canvas repeatedly back and forth on itself before leaving it to dry overnight. As they were unfolded, the evocative abstract forms were revealed for the first time, appearing like mysterious Rorschach-like forms embedded directly into the canvas.
Coming of age during the social and political instability of the 1960s, Gilliam was interested in disrupting the traditional distinctions between art, architecture and sculpture, in addition to investigating the properties of physically combining his chosen medium and support. After time in the army, years of teaching, and meeting the Washington, D.C. Color Field artists, Gilliam realized that while his training was essential, it was not entirely representative of his lived experience. 'Ideas I was dealing with were mostly someone else’s. …What was most personal to me were the things I saw in my own environment—such as clotheslines filled with clothes with so much weight that they had to be propped up…' (Sam Gilliam quoted in D. Miller, 'Hanging Loose: An Interview with Sam Gilliam,' January 1973). Thus, he began to work with different types of non-traditional canvas, such as the beveled example of the present work, or his draped canvas—unstretched, unsupported works folding in on themselves after being saturated in luminous hues and hung from gallery walls. Such a convention drove the liberating ideas of Color Field to their natural, if unseen, conclusion: if the image could be obliterated, so too could its structure.
"Together with his Abstract Expressionist counterparts, Gilliam’s innovations with paint application and his radical transformation of the canvas support continuously expanded the possibilities for the future of abstract painting. Gilliam expanded and elaborated upon existing Color Field processes and aesthetics while turning on its heading the Greenbergian notions of the 'integrity of the picture plane,' in addition to disrupting the boundaries between the visual world of painting and the tangible world outside it. Particularly during an era when African American artists were expected by many to create figurative work explicitly addressing racial subject matter, Gilliam insisted on pursuing the development of a new formal language that celebrated the cultivation and expression of the individual voice and the power of nonobjective art to transcend cultural and political boundaries."
The lot has an estimate of $1,200,000 to $1,800,000. It sold for $1,405,00.
"The expansive composition is comprised of vertical bands, each with varying concentrations of pigment, which result in a rich display of overlapping translucent chroma. The ‘all-over’ chromatics of Pac seem to echo the bravura brushwork of Willem de Kooning, as well as the staining technique of Helen Frankenthaler. The almost neon force of Gilliam’s hues, and the resplendent variety of their form, texture and depth – ‘the more far out the better’, as Gilliam has stated – gives his work a unique energy, evoking what he calls ‘the drama of music and the drama of colors coming together’ (T. Loos, ‘At 84, Sam Gilliam Fires Up His Competitive Spirit’, The New York Times, June 12 2018). There is a dialogue between control and chaos in his pouring and folding technique that lends the work an expressive vigor unmatched by even the ‘drips’ of Jackson Pollock. This rich and variegated surface is the result of the artist repeatedly folding the canvas while the paint is still wet, allowing the colors and geometries to dissolve into each other. Gilliam would begin the process by soaking the lightest colors of the composition, like the tans and pinks in the present work, into the raw, unprimed canvas before applying the darker greens, reds and blues. He would then fold the canvas repeatedly back and forth on itself before leaving it to dry overnight. As they were unfolded, the evocative abstract forms were revealed for the first time, appearing like mysterious Rorschach-like forms embedded directly into the canvas.
Coming of age during the social and political instability of the 1960s, Gilliam was interested in disrupting the traditional distinctions between art, architecture and sculpture, in addition to investigating the properties of physically combining his chosen medium and support. After time in the army, years of teaching, and meeting the Washington, D.C. Color Field artists, Gilliam realized that while his training was essential, it was not entirely representative of his lived experience. 'Ideas I was dealing with were mostly someone else’s. …What was most personal to me were the things I saw in my own environment—such as clotheslines filled with clothes with so much weight that they had to be propped up…' (Sam Gilliam quoted in D. Miller, 'Hanging Loose: An Interview with Sam Gilliam,' January 1973). Thus, he began to work with different types of non-traditional canvas, such as the beveled example of the present work, or his draped canvas—unstretched, unsupported works folding in on themselves after being saturated in luminous hues and hung from gallery walls. Such a convention drove the liberating ideas of Color Field to their natural, if unseen, conclusion: if the image could be obliterated, so too could its structure.
"Together with his Abstract Expressionist counterparts, Gilliam’s innovations with paint application and his radical transformation of the canvas support continuously expanded the possibilities for the future of abstract painting. Gilliam expanded and elaborated upon existing Color Field processes and aesthetics while turning on its heading the Greenbergian notions of the 'integrity of the picture plane,' in addition to disrupting the boundaries between the visual world of painting and the tangible world outside it. Particularly during an era when African American artists were expected by many to create figurative work explicitly addressing racial subject matter, Gilliam insisted on pursuing the development of a new formal language that celebrated the cultivation and expression of the individual voice and the power of nonobjective art to transcend cultural and political boundaries."
The lot has an estimate of $1,200,000 to $1,800,000. It sold for $1,405,00.
Lot 603, "(Bach's) Sacred Theater," by Helen Frankenthalter, acrylic on canvas, 120 by 94 inches, 1973
Lot
603 is a large acrylic on canvas by Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011)
entitled "(Bach's) Sacred Theater." It measures 120 by 94 inches
and was painted in 1973.
The catalogue provides the following commentary:
The catalogue provides the following commentary:
"A canvas of
impressive scale and distinction, Helen Frankenthaler’s (Bach’s)
Sacred Theater displays the luminous color, lyricism, beauty and
elegance that are the signature qualities of this important proponent
of abstraction. Expansive fields of paint occupy the entire pictorial
space, their liquid edges flowing across and through each other
creating porous boundaries of intermingled pink, light green and orange
cloud-shaped bursts. Thinly applied washes of acrylic paint flow across
the support surface, the color fields exhibiting rough edges and
irregular shapes defined by the liquid flow of Frankenthaler’s paint.
"An ode to Mark Rothko’s early Multiforms paintings, which bear witness to the steady germination of Rothko’s mature Abstract Expressionist style, here, Frankenthaler’s colors abandon their attachment to the natural world in favor of soaked layers of pure and vivid color. The contours of the color fields define the painting’s composition; form is constructed by color rather than by the act of drawing. The pigments both overlap and align along their boundary lines, without hard edges and precise margins. “The feeling-tone her paintings have projected has been the serene and beautiful, achieved by the insightful control over the elements of form: floating areas of color; occasional fountains, spurts, jets of color thrown against bare canvas; hard-edge panels or curtains of bright flat non-naturalistic color” (E. Munro, Originals: American Women Artists, New York, 2000, p. 208).
"Frankenthaler creates shades-within-shades, myriad lighter and darker pinks, jades and orange-yellow within each color category. Planes of color build the architecture of work, the pigment applied with varying degrees of density, from light washes, and even the occasional splash of pigment, to deeper, more heavily built up areas. Frankenthaler’s paint technique produced waves of color, her paint not resting on top of the canvas but rather soaking into the very weave of the material, mingling with and becoming part of it.
"Although painted in acrylic, (Bach’s) Sacred Theater expresses the aqueous quality so characteristic of the watercolor medium, an effect Frankenthaler deliberately sought. 'She gained what watercolorists had always had—freedom to make her gesture live on the canvas with stunning directness' (E. Munro, Originals: American Women Artists, New York, 2000, p. 218). Translucence, luminosity and opacity are qualities typically associated with watercolor, but are all on brilliant display here. Setting these off, several harder-edged lines—perhaps applied with a brush rather than poured or washed across the surface—create eye-popping fissures that provide a counterpoint to the otherwise soft, and fluid contours of the color planes.
"Emerging out of Abstract Expressionism, Frankenthaler became one of the most significant painters of the second half of the 20th century, defining a new style characterized by a de-emphasis on brushstroke and gesture in favor of areas of unbroken surface made up of large flat areas of solid color. She opened up new possibilities for abstract painting, while using her unique style to also make reference to figuration and landscape. A restless experimenter and innovator, '…[over] more than half a century, Frankenthaler remained a fearless explorer in the studio, investigating a remarkable range of media. She adopted acrylic paint, on canvas and paper, early on, reveling in its intensity even when thinned' (K. Wilkin, "Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011),” American Art, Vol. 26, No. 3, 2012, p. 103). Her work stands as an essential bridge between Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism, offering both a new way to define and use color and new forms of nonrepresentational expression.
Frankenthaler’s work asks the viewer to focus their attention towards the very nature of paint on canvas. The surface of the canvas – and play of colors across it – are Frankenthaler’s true subject. 'The feeling-tone her paintings have projected has been the serene and beautiful achieved by the insightful control over the elements of form: floating areas of color; occasional fondatins, spurts, jets of color thrown against bare canvas; hard edged-panels or curtains of bright flat non-naturalistic color' (E. Munro, Originals: American Women Artists, New York, 2000, p. 208)."
The lot has an estimate of $1,500,000 to $2,000,000. It sold for $2.535,000.
Lot 697, "Chair with a Mind of its Own," by David Hockney, oil on cnnvas, 24 inches square, 1988
Lot
697 is a good oil on canvas by David Hockney (b. 1937) that is entitled
"Chair with a Mind of its Own." It measures 24 inches square and
was painted in 1988.
The catalogue provides the following commentary:
The catalogue provides the following commentary:
"Throughout his extraordinary career,
David Hockney has demonstrated a deep admiration for aesthetic
traditions of the past, while simultaneously pushing the boundaries of
modern art through his own unique and creative vision. Painted in 1988,
the same year as the artist’s first, critically acclaimed U.S.
retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Chair with a Mind of Its Own is
the perfect union between the artist’s continuous homage to the past
and his uncanny eye towards space and perspective. Simultaneously
embracing tradition and continuously innovating, Hockney remains
celebrated for imbuing his works with his unique use of color, space
and brushstroke.
"Chair with a Mind of Its Own wonderfully demonstrates Hockney’s admiration for the masters of the art historical canon, ranging from Piero della Francesca to Vincent van Gogh, whilst retaining his own direct sensibility for form, color and space for which he is acclaimed. The importance of referring to art history, and Hockney’s deep knowledge of the necessity of looking back, in order to have the ability to move forward and innovate, is clarified by his constant referral to the Old Masters, in both subject matter, and their approach to depicting space. Hockney stated, 'What I wanted to do, what I was struggling to do, was to make a very clear space, a space you felt clear in. That is what deeply attracts me to Piero, why he interests me much more than Caravaggio: this clarity in space that seems so real' (D. Hockney, quoted in exhibition catalogue, David Hockney. A Retrospective, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1988, p. 83)."
The lot has an estimate of $600,000 to $800,000. It sold for $735,000.
"Chair with a Mind of Its Own wonderfully demonstrates Hockney’s admiration for the masters of the art historical canon, ranging from Piero della Francesca to Vincent van Gogh, whilst retaining his own direct sensibility for form, color and space for which he is acclaimed. The importance of referring to art history, and Hockney’s deep knowledge of the necessity of looking back, in order to have the ability to move forward and innovate, is clarified by his constant referral to the Old Masters, in both subject matter, and their approach to depicting space. Hockney stated, 'What I wanted to do, what I was struggling to do, was to make a very clear space, a space you felt clear in. That is what deeply attracts me to Piero, why he interests me much more than Caravaggio: this clarity in space that seems so real' (D. Hockney, quoted in exhibition catalogue, David Hockney. A Retrospective, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1988, p. 83)."
The lot has an estimate of $600,000 to $800,000. It sold for $735,000.
Group of athlete portraits by Andy Warhol from the collection of Richard Weisman in lobby in Christie's
Lot 648, "Chris Evert," by Andy Warhol, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas in 16 parts, each 10 inches square, 1977
Lot 648 is a group
of 16 acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas by Andy Warhol
(1928-1987). Each is 10 inches square and they were painted in
1977.
The catalogue provides the following commentary:
The catalogue provides the following commentary:
"In
a 1977 diary entry, Andy Warhol recalled a studio visit by Richard
Weisman: 'He was in a nervous mood, and when he saw that I was doing a
new style of painting, he got upset, he didn't like that I did the Chrissie Evert in lots of little
pictures instead of big ones' (A. Warhol quoted in N. Printz and S.
King-Nero, eds., The Andy Warhol
Catalogue Raisonne: Paintings 1976-1978, vol. 5A, New York,
2018, p. 405). But when Weisman saw a group of the 10-inch paintings,
assembled in a sixteen-part grid that collectively measured 40 by 40
inches, his concerns dissipated. The effect of the repetition,
presented in Warhol’s standard portrait size, captured the essence of
the seriality of Pop Art.
"Warhol ultimately produced two of these sets of sixteen paintings, one of which includes the present lot. Each set was initially assembled into a complete work—photographs from Warhol’s studio feature Evert, as well as Michael and Barbara Heizer, posing in front of one of these sets as illustrative proof—and while both sets were later disassembled, 'they can be reconstructed as Warhol originally assembled them' (Ibid, p. 405). The present lot, presented as the complete set as Warhol originally intended it to be, is a rare and desirable opportunity."
It has an estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. It sold for $423,000.
"Warhol ultimately produced two of these sets of sixteen paintings, one of which includes the present lot. Each set was initially assembled into a complete work—photographs from Warhol’s studio feature Evert, as well as Michael and Barbara Heizer, posing in front of one of these sets as illustrative proof—and while both sets were later disassembled, 'they can be reconstructed as Warhol originally assembled them' (Ibid, p. 405). The present lot, presented as the complete set as Warhol originally intended it to be, is a rare and desirable opportunity."
It has an estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. It sold for $423,000.
Lot 614, "Terrine Vague," by Joan Mitchell, oil on canvas, 45 1/2 by 34 3/4 inches, 1965
Lot 614 is a strong oil on canvas b Joan
Mitchell (1925-1992). Entitled "Terrain Vague," it measures 45 by
34 3/4 inches and was painted in 1965.
It is the catalogue's cover illustration.
It is the catalogue's cover illustration.
"Residing in the same private collection
for the last 50 years, Joan Mitchell’s Terrain Vague is a
jewel-like painting that shows the extraordinary skill and virtuosity
of one the most influential figures of Abstract Expressionism. Painted
in 1965 at the height of her artistic powers, Mitchell’s energetic use
of line and color can be seen across the entire surface of this canvas.
Muscular sweeps of her paint-laden brush happily co-exist alongside
delicate, almost calligraphic, trails of pigment, and together with her
inclusion of electric blues and greens along with the subtlest hints of
off-white pinks, and purples, the full scale of her chromatic range can
be seen here. Following her darker canvases from earlier in the decade,
Mitchell’s 1965 canvases exploded with chromatic vitality, a quality
that resonated with scholars and critics alike. Writing of this period,
her biographer captured the excitement and fervor of these particular
canvases, '…her paint never stops metamorphosing from landscape to
pigment to landscape again,' she explains. 'Large yet less athletic,
less expansive, than what came before, the work at times feels elegiac'
(P. Albers, Joan Mitchell Lady
Painter, New York, 2011, p. 303-304).
"Evoking the landscape of her beloved France, Terrain Vague captures the deep emotional connection that Joan Mitchell had with her adopted home. This affiliation can be seen in the breadth of her painterly virtuosity; from the delicate washes of atmospheric color that occupy the outer edges of the canvas, to the highly-concentrated and energetic brushwork that dominates the active center, the achievement of Mitchell’s highly skillful brushwork is much in evidence. The artist’s compositional skill can be seen in her highly successful navigation of placing delicate trails of paint next to bold swathes of heavily impastoed pigment, without either getting swamped by its neighbor. Her highly adept use of color as a compositional force is also highly in evidence, as atmospheric pools of greens and browns happily coexist alongside vibrant, almost electric, rivers of blues, pinks and green. In a lesser artist’s hands, this complex painting style could risk dissolving into chaos, but in Terrain Vague, Mitchell masterfully reins in any risk of excess to produce a work of quiet beauty.
"In contrast to her darker hued canvases of 1964, Terrain Vague employs a variety of lighter and more variegated pigments and brushwork to open up the surface of the canvas for a more effervescent display—a quality that would become characteristic of her paintings from this period. “Joan’s paintings of the mid-sixties,” writes her biographer Patricia Albers, “oppose scruffy atmospheric whiteish areas to hovering of thalo greens, dusty silver greens, cerulean blues, and red violets. Emphatically tactile, they evoke dusk-strangled terrains where light sensuously clings to a green, liquifies a blue, untarnishes a silver. The whole weight of some paintings hangs to one side. Edges are complicated. Here and there heavy bright whites sidle up to greens or blues as if to infringe upon them, yet, for once in Joan’s work, the relationship between figure and ground feels unambivalent” (P. Albers, Joan Mitchell Lady Painter, New York, 2011, p. 303).
"1965 was a banner year for Mitchell in that a major exhibition of her most recent paintings was organized by the Stable Gallery in New York, and to accompany the show, the poet John Ashbery published a perceptive essay on her work in the April edition of ArtNews. In it, he discouraged viewers from demanding 'semi-recognizable forms' from her paintings (P. Albers, ibid., p. 304). Instead, he proffered that they offered 'an unhurried meditation on bits of landscape and air…' in which memory, 'remains the dominating force of the painting' (J. Ashbery, “An Expressionist in Paris,” ARTNews, April 1965, via http://www.artnews.com/2015/07/17/an-expressionist-in-paris-john-ashbery-on-joan-mitchell-in-1965/ [accessed 9/9/2019]. These new paintings proved popular with collectors and critics alike. At the opening of the Stable Gallery show, landscape painter John Button was heard to exclaim that he was 'covered with goose-flesh—so thrilled and moved that I couldn’t participate in the usual ‘socializing’… those large, scribbled, green-black places are noble and tragic and cool. When an artist uses color that way… it is almost too much' (J. Button, quoted by P. Albers, ibid.).
"Although she came from a wealthy Chicago industrial family, Mitchell gravitated toward the artist’s lifestyle, forming a quick coterie of friends, writers and artists from the moment she arrived in New York with her husband, Barney Rosset, at the end of 1949. She met Willem de Kooning shortly thereafter, having viewed Attic, 1949 (now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art) when it was exhibited in one of the Whitney’s Annuals. In seeking him out, Mitchell ended up at Franz Kline’s apartment instead, where she saw many of his black and white paintings strewn about the floor. She considered them 'the most beautiful thing' she’s ever seen (J. Mitchell, quoted in op. cit., p. 146). Her early work captures some of the raw energy of the action painters, whom she counted as friends, and who had dominated the American avant-garde. She had been included in the now-famous Ninth Street Show and could be found along with Jackson Pollock and others at The Club as well as the Cedar Tavern. But, by the mid-1950s, she had moved to France where she joined the circle around Pierre Soulages, Georges Mathieu, and Jean-Paul Riopelle. Here, while retained the exuberance of her Abstract Expressionist roots, her paintings began to open up, and—reflecting the famed light of her new French home—began to express a chromatically rich new seam of inventiveness.
"Terrain Vague has been in the same private collection for the past 50 years. It was acquired in 1969 by the businesswomen, collector and patron of the arts in Southern California, Jacqueline Littlefield. Originally from San Francisco, Ms. Littlefield developed a reputable as a formidable entrepreneur as the owner of San Diego’s Spreckels Theater, the 1912 historic performance space that was once considered to be the finest theater west of the Mississippi (San Diego Union-Tribune, January 9, 2019). Her father—originally a distribution manager for Hollywood studios—acquired a lease on the theater in 1931. He made numerous attempts to buy the building outright, something which he never completed, yet in 1962 his daughter, achieved what her father could not. Despite the rapidly changing nature of the entertainment industry, and attempts by various city fathers to ‘redevelop’ downtown San Diego, Jacqueline Littlefield rebuffed many offers to buy the building, insisting it was 'my family’s project, and it’s not for sale.' A former arts critic of the San Diego Union-Tribune once recalled that, 'when the downtown establishment was all men, they tried to pat her on the head and make her go away, and she wouldn’t' (J. Wilkins, 'Jacqueline Littlefield, longtime owner of historic Spreckels Theater, dies at 96,' San Diego Unioin-Tribune, January 9, 2019, via www.sandiegouniontribune.com [accessed 9/9/2019]). The theater become the centerpiece of Littlefield’s artistic patronage, which included such ventures as the San Diego Theater League, Arts Tix, the San Diego International Fringe Festival, and Mainly Mozart amongst many others. Indeed, such was a mark of Jacqueline Littlefield’s generosity, for the last decade, Terrain Vague had been on long term loan to the San Diego Museum of Art.
"Now regarded as one of the most celebrated Abstract Expressionist painters, Joan Mitchell’s Terrain Vague is an exemplary canvas that embodies the exuberance of the age. Energetic and expressive brushwork, combined with a rich color palette, results in a canvas that embodies the essential tenets of the first truly American art movement. As such, it marks an important juncture in the artist’s career, marking the moment when she finally emerges from the shadows of her male counterparts and begins to instill her own, unique form of artistic expression, and presenting us with a tantalizing glimpse of the breadth of her range and of what was still to come."
"Evoking the landscape of her beloved France, Terrain Vague captures the deep emotional connection that Joan Mitchell had with her adopted home. This affiliation can be seen in the breadth of her painterly virtuosity; from the delicate washes of atmospheric color that occupy the outer edges of the canvas, to the highly-concentrated and energetic brushwork that dominates the active center, the achievement of Mitchell’s highly skillful brushwork is much in evidence. The artist’s compositional skill can be seen in her highly successful navigation of placing delicate trails of paint next to bold swathes of heavily impastoed pigment, without either getting swamped by its neighbor. Her highly adept use of color as a compositional force is also highly in evidence, as atmospheric pools of greens and browns happily coexist alongside vibrant, almost electric, rivers of blues, pinks and green. In a lesser artist’s hands, this complex painting style could risk dissolving into chaos, but in Terrain Vague, Mitchell masterfully reins in any risk of excess to produce a work of quiet beauty.
"In contrast to her darker hued canvases of 1964, Terrain Vague employs a variety of lighter and more variegated pigments and brushwork to open up the surface of the canvas for a more effervescent display—a quality that would become characteristic of her paintings from this period. “Joan’s paintings of the mid-sixties,” writes her biographer Patricia Albers, “oppose scruffy atmospheric whiteish areas to hovering of thalo greens, dusty silver greens, cerulean blues, and red violets. Emphatically tactile, they evoke dusk-strangled terrains where light sensuously clings to a green, liquifies a blue, untarnishes a silver. The whole weight of some paintings hangs to one side. Edges are complicated. Here and there heavy bright whites sidle up to greens or blues as if to infringe upon them, yet, for once in Joan’s work, the relationship between figure and ground feels unambivalent” (P. Albers, Joan Mitchell Lady Painter, New York, 2011, p. 303).
"1965 was a banner year for Mitchell in that a major exhibition of her most recent paintings was organized by the Stable Gallery in New York, and to accompany the show, the poet John Ashbery published a perceptive essay on her work in the April edition of ArtNews. In it, he discouraged viewers from demanding 'semi-recognizable forms' from her paintings (P. Albers, ibid., p. 304). Instead, he proffered that they offered 'an unhurried meditation on bits of landscape and air…' in which memory, 'remains the dominating force of the painting' (J. Ashbery, “An Expressionist in Paris,” ARTNews, April 1965, via http://www.artnews.com/2015/07/17/an-expressionist-in-paris-john-ashbery-on-joan-mitchell-in-1965/ [accessed 9/9/2019]. These new paintings proved popular with collectors and critics alike. At the opening of the Stable Gallery show, landscape painter John Button was heard to exclaim that he was 'covered with goose-flesh—so thrilled and moved that I couldn’t participate in the usual ‘socializing’… those large, scribbled, green-black places are noble and tragic and cool. When an artist uses color that way… it is almost too much' (J. Button, quoted by P. Albers, ibid.).
"Although she came from a wealthy Chicago industrial family, Mitchell gravitated toward the artist’s lifestyle, forming a quick coterie of friends, writers and artists from the moment she arrived in New York with her husband, Barney Rosset, at the end of 1949. She met Willem de Kooning shortly thereafter, having viewed Attic, 1949 (now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art) when it was exhibited in one of the Whitney’s Annuals. In seeking him out, Mitchell ended up at Franz Kline’s apartment instead, where she saw many of his black and white paintings strewn about the floor. She considered them 'the most beautiful thing' she’s ever seen (J. Mitchell, quoted in op. cit., p. 146). Her early work captures some of the raw energy of the action painters, whom she counted as friends, and who had dominated the American avant-garde. She had been included in the now-famous Ninth Street Show and could be found along with Jackson Pollock and others at The Club as well as the Cedar Tavern. But, by the mid-1950s, she had moved to France where she joined the circle around Pierre Soulages, Georges Mathieu, and Jean-Paul Riopelle. Here, while retained the exuberance of her Abstract Expressionist roots, her paintings began to open up, and—reflecting the famed light of her new French home—began to express a chromatically rich new seam of inventiveness.
"Terrain Vague has been in the same private collection for the past 50 years. It was acquired in 1969 by the businesswomen, collector and patron of the arts in Southern California, Jacqueline Littlefield. Originally from San Francisco, Ms. Littlefield developed a reputable as a formidable entrepreneur as the owner of San Diego’s Spreckels Theater, the 1912 historic performance space that was once considered to be the finest theater west of the Mississippi (San Diego Union-Tribune, January 9, 2019). Her father—originally a distribution manager for Hollywood studios—acquired a lease on the theater in 1931. He made numerous attempts to buy the building outright, something which he never completed, yet in 1962 his daughter, achieved what her father could not. Despite the rapidly changing nature of the entertainment industry, and attempts by various city fathers to ‘redevelop’ downtown San Diego, Jacqueline Littlefield rebuffed many offers to buy the building, insisting it was 'my family’s project, and it’s not for sale.' A former arts critic of the San Diego Union-Tribune once recalled that, 'when the downtown establishment was all men, they tried to pat her on the head and make her go away, and she wouldn’t' (J. Wilkins, 'Jacqueline Littlefield, longtime owner of historic Spreckels Theater, dies at 96,' San Diego Unioin-Tribune, January 9, 2019, via www.sandiegouniontribune.com [accessed 9/9/2019]). The theater become the centerpiece of Littlefield’s artistic patronage, which included such ventures as the San Diego Theater League, Arts Tix, the San Diego International Fringe Festival, and Mainly Mozart amongst many others. Indeed, such was a mark of Jacqueline Littlefield’s generosity, for the last decade, Terrain Vague had been on long term loan to the San Diego Museum of Art.
"Now regarded as one of the most celebrated Abstract Expressionist painters, Joan Mitchell’s Terrain Vague is an exemplary canvas that embodies the exuberance of the age. Energetic and expressive brushwork, combined with a rich color palette, results in a canvas that embodies the essential tenets of the first truly American art movement. As such, it marks an important juncture in the artist’s career, marking the moment when she finally emerges from the shadows of her male counterparts and begins to instill her own, unique form of artistic expression, and presenting us with a tantalizing glimpse of the breadth of her range and of what was still to come."
The
lot has an estimate of $2,800,000 to $3,500,000. It sold for $4,455,000.
Lot
699 is a good "Mickey Mouse" oil on board by Wayne Thiebaud (b.
1920). It is 10 1/4 inches square and was painted in 1988.
The catalogue provides the following commentary:
"Wayne Thiebaud’s depiction of the iconic cartoon character, Mickey Mouse, is a pure pleasure for the eyes in both composition and color palette. Reminiscent of the bygone memories of Disney’s golden age, Mickey Mouse demonstrates Thiebaud’s thoroughly modern treatment of the chromatic power of color within his signature use of oil paint. Best known for his still-life and figural portrait paintings of mundane yet satisfying subjects, Thiebaud’s Mickey Mouse is an extraordinary combination of both of his iconic motifs. The central figure is frozen in action, yet infused with energy and playfulness. Thiebaud’s signature brushwork and masterful use of color are apparent in the shadows and halos around the contours of his subjects.
"Coming from the collection of Ron and Diane Disney, Mickey Mouse is a perfect fit into the family collection. Both Thiebaud, as well as the Disney Empire, were fascinated by the pictorial possibilities of objects drawn from everyday American life and consumerism. Thiebaud's ability to transform a universally recognizable character into a subject of drama and complexity is a testament to his power of observation as well as his extraordinary sense of color and form. As Adam Gopnik expertly stated of Thiebaud, "The Pop resonance of his subjects is apparent, but they come at us slowed down and chastened with a host of ambivalent feelings - nostalgic, satiric, elegiac, longing, inquiring - attached, so that our experience ends calmed down and contemplative: enlightened" (A. Gopnik quoted in An American Painter, San Francisco, 2000, p. 56)."
The lot has an estimate of $400,00 to $600,000. It sold for $1,815,000.
The catalogue provides the following commentary:
"Wayne Thiebaud’s depiction of the iconic cartoon character, Mickey Mouse, is a pure pleasure for the eyes in both composition and color palette. Reminiscent of the bygone memories of Disney’s golden age, Mickey Mouse demonstrates Thiebaud’s thoroughly modern treatment of the chromatic power of color within his signature use of oil paint. Best known for his still-life and figural portrait paintings of mundane yet satisfying subjects, Thiebaud’s Mickey Mouse is an extraordinary combination of both of his iconic motifs. The central figure is frozen in action, yet infused with energy and playfulness. Thiebaud’s signature brushwork and masterful use of color are apparent in the shadows and halos around the contours of his subjects.
"Coming from the collection of Ron and Diane Disney, Mickey Mouse is a perfect fit into the family collection. Both Thiebaud, as well as the Disney Empire, were fascinated by the pictorial possibilities of objects drawn from everyday American life and consumerism. Thiebaud's ability to transform a universally recognizable character into a subject of drama and complexity is a testament to his power of observation as well as his extraordinary sense of color and form. As Adam Gopnik expertly stated of Thiebaud, "The Pop resonance of his subjects is apparent, but they come at us slowed down and chastened with a host of ambivalent feelings - nostalgic, satiric, elegiac, longing, inquiring - attached, so that our experience ends calmed down and contemplative: enlightened" (A. Gopnik quoted in An American Painter, San Francisco, 2000, p. 56)."
The lot has an estimate of $400,00 to $600,000. It sold for $1,815,000.
See The City Review article on the Fall 2018 Contemporary Art evening auction at Sotheby's New York
See The City Review article on the Spring 2018 Contemporary Art evening auction at Christie's New York
See The City Review article on the Spring 2018 Contemporary Art evening auction at Sotheby's New York
See The City Review article on the Fall 2017 Contemporary Art evening auction at Christie's New York
See The City Review article on the Spring 2017 Contemporary Art evening auction at Christie's New York
See The City Review article on the Spring 2017 Contemporary Art evening auction at Sotheby's New York
See The City Review article on the Fall 2016 Contemporary Art evening auction at Christie's New York
See The City Review article on the Spring 2016 Contemporary Art evening auction at Christie's New York
See The City Review article on the Fall 2015 Contemporary Art evening auction at Christie's New York
See The City Review article on the Fall 2015 Contemporary Art evening auction at Sotheby's New York
See The City Review article on the Spring 2015 Contemporary Art evening auction at Christie's New York
See The City Review article on the Spring 2015 Looking Forward to The Past auction at Christie's New York
See The City Review article on the Spring 2015 Impressionist and Modern Art auction at Sotheby's New York
See The City Review article on the Looking Forward to the Past auction May 11, 2015 at Christie's New York
See The City Review article on the Fall 2014 Impressionist & Modern Art auction at Christie's New York
See The City Review article on the Spring 2014 Impressionist & Modern Art auction at Sotheby's New York
See The City Review article on the Spring 2014 Impressionist & Modern Art auction at Christie's New York
See The City Review article on the Fall 2013 Impressionist & Modern Art auction at Sotheby's New York
See The City Review article on the Spring 2013 Impressionist & Modern Art auction at Christie's New York
See The City Review article on the Spring 2013 Impressionist & Modern Art evening auction at Sotheby's New York
See
The City Review article on the
Fall 2012 Impressionist & Modern
Art auction at Sotheby's New York
See The
City
Review article on the Fall 2012 Impressionist & Modern Art day
auction at Sotheby's New York
See The
City Review article on the Spring 2012 Impressionist & Modern
Art auction at Sotheby's
See The
City Review article on the Spring 2012 Impressionist & Modern
Art auction at Christie's
See The
City Review article on the Fall 2011 Impressionist & Modern Art
auction at Sotheby's
See The
City Review article on the Fall 2011 Impressionist & Modern Art
auction at Christie's
See The
City Review article on the Spring 2011 Impressionist & Modern
Art auction at Sotheby's
See The
City Review article on the Spring 2011 Impressionist & Modern
Art auction at Christie's
See The
City Review article on the Fall 2010 Impressionist & Modern Art
evening auction at Sotheby's
See The
City Review article on the Fall 2010 Impressionist & Modern Art
evening auction at Christie's
See The
City Review article on the Spring 2010 Impressionist & Modern
Art evening auction at Sotheby's
See The
City Review article on the Spring 2010 Impressionist & Modern
Art evening auction at Christie's
See The
City Review article on the Fall 2009 Impressionist & Modern Art
evening auction at Sotheby's
See The
City Review article on the Fall 2009 Impressionist & Modern Art
evening auction at Christie's
See The
City
Review article on the Spring 2009 Impressionist & Modern Art
evening auction at Sotheby's
See The
City Review article on the Spring 2009 Impressionist & Modern
Art evening auction at Christie's
See The
City Review article on the Fall 2008 Impressionist & Modern Art
evening auction at Christie's
See The
City Review article on the Fall 2008 Impressionist & Modern Art
evening auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Christie's evening sale of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Art May 8, 2000
See The City Review article on the Christie's evening sale of Twentieth Century Art May 9, 2000