By Carter B. Horsley
The afternoon auction of works on paper of Impressionist and Modern Art at Christie's May 7, 2008, includes some fine works by Juan Gris, Egon Schiele, Joan Miró and Paul Klee.
One of the highlights is Lot 141, "La Lampe," by Juan Gris, a gouache, watercolor, charcoal and pencil on board that measures 10 5/8 by 8 1/2 inches. It was executed in 1916 and has an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. It sold for $690,600 including the buyer's premium as do all results mentioned in this article. The catalogue entry notes that when this work was painted, Gris did numerous work with "dense speckling," as though, as James Thrall Soby noted in his 1968 catalogue on the artist for an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, "the painter admired what Alfred Barr has called the 'confetti-like stippling' in certain works by Picasso of 1913-1914."
Lot 134, "Bildnis einer Dame mit orangefarbenem Hut," is a simple but beautiful gouache and black Conté crayon on paper by Egon Schiele (1890-1918). It measures 17 1/2 by 12 inches and was executed in 1910. It is property of the Serge and Vally Sabarsky Collection. It has an estimate of $160,000 to $200,000. It sold for $847,400.
Lot 140 is a lively and charming watercolor and pen and black ink on paper by Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956). It measures 8 5/8 by 13 1/4 inches and was drawn in 1954. It has an estimate of $20,000 to $30,000. It sold for $39,400.
Lot 166 is a strong, untitled gouache, watercolor, pastel and brush and India ink on paper by Joan Miró (1893-1983). It measures 16 1/2 by 25 1/4 inches and was executed in 1970. It has an estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $409,000.
Lot 181 is an untitled gouache, watercolor and brush and India ink on paper by Joan Miró that measures 11 3/4 by 9 3/8 inches. It was created in 1936 and has and estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $505,000.
The catalogue entry provides the following commentary:
"Created during a time of extreme internal conflict for the poetic painter, this work reflects Miró's anxiety over the Spanish Civil War. Miró repeatedly maintained his intention to remain in Catalonia, until finally fleeing to Paris in October 1936, three months into the beginning of the war. Jacques Dupin describes the early 1930s as years of great importance in the development of Miró's work: '... it was just at this time that his art underwent changes as sudden and far reaching as to deserve the term 'cataclysmic.' The serene works of the years devoted to concentration on plastic concerns and to spiritual control of figures and signs now gave way to a new outburst of subjectivism, to an expressionistic unleashing of instinctual forces. The volcano which for some years now had been quiescent suddenly erupted. The clear skies suddenly clouded over, and a violent storm proceeded to darken the peaceful artistic climate - indeed, to shake Miró's art to its foundation.' From the early 1930s onward, Miró went through a period of continuous experimentation in techniques and materials: paintings and drawings on cardboard and sandpaper, drawings in India ink on white paper, paintings on uralita wood, tempera paintings on masonite, oil paintings on copper and experimental collage. The current work reflects Miró's anti-war, anti-tyranny themes. A female figure at the center of the composition, emblematic of Franco's minions, is about to devour a startled woman in the midst of what appears to be an explosion, suggested by the energetic spots of red, black and white pigment thrown to the bold red background. This work may be Miró's response to the countless other outrages suffered by the civilian population in Spain."
Lot 137, "Heiliger Bezirk," by Paul Klee (1879-1940) is a very good watercolor on paper laid down by the artist on paper. It measures 18 by 13 3/8 inches and was created in 1932. It has an estimate of $600,000 to $800,000. It sold for $2,953,000.
The catalogue entry for this lot provides the following commentary:
"Heiliger Bezirk, a complex tapestry of harmonious colors and mysterious pathways, embodies twoof the major influences in Paul Klee's life and work: his seminal trip to Egypt and his lifelong appreciation of music. Playfully nicknamed the 'Bauhaus Buddha' during his years as a revered teacher, artist and theorist at the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau from 1920 to 1931, Klee truly believed in the power of color and compositional arrangement to transport one's senses to a higher realm of being. While the obsessive grid of interweaving bands and colorful stripes in Heiliger Bezirk may evoke the tilled landscape and light of Egypt, the rhythmical arrangement of the horizontal lines punctuated by breaks and vertical staccatos recals a carefully composed sheet of music. Klee's fusing of the structural, architectural, natural, spiritual and lyrical is a trademark that makes him one of the most complex and fascinating artists of the early Twentieth Century."
Lot 172 is an untitled watercolor, brush and pen and India ink on paper laid down by the artist on board by Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944). It measures 9 1/4 by 6 7/8 inches and was created in 1930. It has an estimate of $60,000 to $80,000. It sold for$109,000.