Detail
of Lot 49
It has been
widely exhibited and published.
Detail
of Lot 49
This masterpiece
is a vibrant composition of color and texture.
It has an estimate of $600,000 to $800,000. It
failed to sell.
Lot
46, "Sonriente en rosa," by Rufino Tamayo, oil and sand on canvas, 51
by 37 3/8 inches, 1988
Lot 46 is a more
realistic Tamayo and is entitled "Sonriente en rosa," but it can't
begin to compare with the glorious "Tres Figuras.' An oil and
sand on canvas, it measures 51 by 57 3/8 inches. It was
painted in 1988 and has been widely publishedd and exhibited.
Detail
of Lot 46
It has
an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000. It sold for $375,750.
Lot
38, "Mujeres con fruitas," by Alfredo Ramos Martinez, oil on canvas, 36
by 34 inches, circa 1930
The cover
illustration of the auction catalogue is Lot 38, "Mujeres con fruitas,"
an oil on canvas by Alfredo Ramos Martinez (1871-1946). It
measures 36 by 34 inches and was painted circa 1930. It has
been widely exhibited and published and is a prime example of the
artist's idyllic Indian motifs. The artist lived in Paris
from 1900 to 1909 where he became friendly with Henri Matisse, Claude
Monet, Pablo Picasso and Auguste Rodin. He returned to Mexico
in 1909. The lot has an estimate of $1,000,000 to $1,500,000.
It sold for
$1,107,750.
Lot
40, "Young Love," by Alfredo Ramos Martinez, tempera and conte crayon
on paper laid down on heavy paper, 19 by 23 1/2 inches, circa 1939
Another Martinez
is Lot 40, "Young Love," a tempera and conte crayon on paper laid down
on heavy paper measures 19 by 23 1/2 inches. It was painted
circa 1939. It has an estimate of $150,000 to $200,000.
It failed to
sell.
Lot
58, "Neighborly advice," by Leonora Carrington, tempera on masonite, 10
by 15 inches 1947
Lot 58 is a good
tempera on masonite by Leonora Carrington entitled "Neighborly advice."
It measures 10 by 15 inches and was painted in 1947.
It was shown at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York in
1948.
Detail of Lot 58
The lot has an
estimate of $200,000 to $300,000 It
sold for $364,750.
Lot
61, "De la hiera santa," by Leonora Carrington, oil and tempera on
canvas, 39 1/2 b 27 5/8 inches, 1975
Another
Carrington is Lot 61, "De la hiera santa," an oil and tempera on canvas
that measures 39 1/2 by 27 5/8 inches and was painted in 1975.
It has an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. It sold for $195,750.
Lot
259, "Untitled," by Ignacio Iturria, oil on canvas, 39 by 31 7/8 inches
Lot 259 is an
excellent untitled oil on canvas by Ignacio Iturria (b. 1949).
It measures 39 by 31 7/8 inches. It has an estimate
of $30,000 to $40,000. It
sold for $15,000.
Lot 258, "Untitled," by
Ignacio Iturria, oil on canvas, 31 1/2 by 23 3/8 inches
Lot 258,
"Untitled," by Ignacio Iturria, is an oil on canvas that measures 31
1/2 by 23 3/8 inches. It has an estimate of $20,000
to $25,000. It
sold for $21,250.
Lot
52, "Candombe," by Pedro Figari, oil on board, 16 by 38 3/4 inches,
circa 1930
Lot 52 is a fine
oil on board by Pedro Figari (1861-1938) entitled "Candombe."
It measures 16 by 38 3/4 inches and was painted circa 1930.
It has an estimate of $60,000 to $80,000. It sold for $67,500.
Lot
102, "Untitled," by Rene Portocarrero, ink and gouache on paper, 11 3/4
by 14 7/8 inches, 1956
Lot 102 is an
untitled attractive ink and gouache on paper by Rene Portocarrero
(1912-1985) that measures 11 3/4 by 14 7/8 inches.
It was painted in 1956. It has an estimate of
$8,000 to $12,000.
It sold for $11,875.
Lot
15, "Peage de Venus," by Matta, oil on canvas, 78 3/4 by 150 3/8
inches, 1967
Lot 15 is a very
large oil on canvas by Matta entitled "Peage de Venus." It
measures 78 3/4 by 150 3/8 inches and was painted in 1967.
The catalogue provides the following very interesting
commentary:
"By mid-century, Matta had been cast from the surrealist
group for abandoning abstraction and pursuing an increasingly narrative
and socio-political content in his work. But far from
lamenting his break Matta seemed to relish the opportuity to explore
new ares of creativity unencumbered by the precepts and limitations of
surrealism. Moreover by the 1950s, the artist's diaphanous
and mysterious landscapes suggesting inner worlds of what he described
by 'Psycholoigcal Morphologies' and his dynamic and pulsating physical
scapes in constant transpormation and turmoil had themselves morphed
into biomorphic abstractions inhabited by tubular humaoids partially
inspired by mythical totemic figures culled from such myraid sources as
Pre-Columian, Native American, and Oceanic arts. It
seemed that against the backdrop of world events unfolding
Matta could no longer aford to merely focus his practice on expressing
the subconscious world or distant cosmic realities and phenomena.
But rather his practice assumed a sense of urgency that
posits the dehumanizing effects of technology, war, social injustice
and political corruption. Thus Matta's postwar production
evinces cosmic and social landscapes indicative of recent
hisorical events, while providing a metaphorical glimpse into the
timeless struggles of humanity By the 1960s, Matt's
heightened concerns about social inequalities and the perennial
strugggles of man led the artist to embark on a number of significant
trips, most notably he traveled to Cuba, Chile, and Nicaragua where he
actively engaged with artists and supported political movements that
opposed exploitation. Likewise in his own work he continued
to engage more humanistic concerns and current events such as racial
strife and the Vietnam War, whilst never abandoning the core tenents of
his practice - the search to visually convey a cosmic reality that
transcends traditional notions of time and space. During this
period Matta's subject matter also gravitated to mytholocial themes,
futureistic warfare, and phantasmic creatures in undersea or other
chimerical worlds. Painted in 1967, Peage de Venus
depicts a liminal space populated by apparitions - biomorphic and
humanoid creatures - engaged in a vaporous underworld far below the sea
or high above the heavens. The overall mood is one of reverie
and an unabashed abandonment that recall the Renaissance mastepriece by
Hieronymus Bosch's The
Garden of Delights (1490-1510). In Matta's
painting androids with elongated and circular appendages suggest
otherworldly bi-sexual beings with a heightened sense of sexual
potency, while bulblous shaped pods harness seeds yet to be fertiflized
or perhaps eggs in a state of gestation. The artist employs
his familiar technique of sponging and wiping off thinned pigment to
produce translucent layers of color. Here blue, ivory and
green-yellow washes fill the canvas to create a limitless
space in which the boundaries between the terrestial and
aquatic and living creatures and their envionment are
effetively dissolved...."
The lot has an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. It sold for $339,750.
Lot
56, "El prisonero de la luz," by Matta, oil on canvas, 38 3/8 by 49 1/4
inches, 1941
Lot 56 is a
great oil on canvas by Matta entitled "El Prisonero de la Luz."
It measures 38 3/8 by 49 1/4 inches and was painted in 1941.
Matta spent the summer of 1941 in Taxco with Robert
Motherwell and the spectacular eruption of the Paricutin volcano left a
lasting impression on the artist who began to in corporate the violence
of nature in his work.
Detail
of Lot 59
The
lot has an estimate of $2,500,000 to $3,500,000. It failed to sell.
Lot
11, "Yennes, l'evitation in Blue," by Matta, oil on canvas, 18 1/8 by
28 inches, 1939
Lot 11, "Yennes,
l'evitation in Blue," by Matta is an oil on canvas that measures 18 1/8
by 28 inches. It was painted in 1939.
In her catalogue entry, Abby McEwen, assistant professor at
the University of Maryland, notes that in his painting Matta "draws on
what curators Elizabeth A. T. Smith and Collette Dartnall have
described as Matta's 'idea of an inner fire, manifesting itself in
flames, eruptions, and swirling lavalike forms to express the
interrelatedness of man and landscape. Within these
morphological landscapes with no apparent central focus one can
decipher both crystalline and fluid forms amidst fields of vibrant
color.' Inviting an analogy between the morphology of Matta's
paint and the metaphor of the natural world, Smith and Dartnall suggest
that 'the struggle chaos and cosmos' is imaged in 'unevenly painted
surfaces applied in layers that are alternately thick and transparent.'
Here, the quiddity of Matta's paint dramatizes the enveloping
vapor of blue, which washes over opalescent bodies that gleam gemlike,
through amorphous openings. A living, liquid
landscape, Yennes,
l'evitation in Blue invokes an athmosphere of cosmic flux,
a watery galaxy of life ermerging out of the ether."
The lot has an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000. It sold for $435,750.
Lot
63, "Let's Phosphoresce, by Matta, oil on canvas, 31 by 38 7/8 inches,
1950
Lot 63 is an
impressive Matta with an unusual brown palette.
Entitled "Let's Phosphorescue," it is an oil on
canvas that measures 31 by 38 7/8 iches. It was painted in
1950. It was exibited at the Pasadena Art mseum in 1964 and
the Pan American Uion in Washington in 1955. It
has an estimate of $250,000 to $450,00. It failed to sell.
Lot
27. "Untitled,"by Francisco Narvaez, ebony, 23 1/2 inches high
Lot 27 is a very
beautiful and powerful, untitled, ebony sculpture by Francisco Narvaez
(1905-1982). It is 23 1/2 inches high. The lot has
an estimate of $180,000 to $220,000.
It sold for $267,750.
Lot
36, "Reclining Woman," by Fernando Botero, rose marble, 20 1/2 inches
long
Lot 36 is a
luscious reclining female nude in rose marble by Fernando Botero (b.
1932). It is 20 1/2 inches long. It has an estimate
of $300,000 to $400,000. It
sold for $363,750.
Lot
20, "Aparicion de Santa Rosa de Lima," by Fernando Botero, oil on
canvas, 51 1/2 by 59 1/4 inches, 1967
Lot 20 is a
large oil on canvas by Fernando Botero of "The Apparition of Santa Rosa
de Lima." It measures 51 1/2 by 59 1/4 inches and was painted
in 1967. It has an estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. It sold for $363,750.
Lot
8, "Untitled (Abstract),"by Wilfredo Lam, oil on cardboard, 20 3/4 by
26 inches, 1937
Lot 8 is a great
abstraction by Wilfredo Lam (1902-1982). An untilted oil on
carboard painted in 1937, it measures 20 3/4 by 26 inches. It
is a fabulous, slightly akilter composition.
The catalogue provides the following commentary:
"Here Lam appears to liberate the pictorial space from the
constraints of the modernist grid suggesting a more seamless
relationship between the physical space and the biomorphic motifs that
inhabit that space merging the two in a manner that forecasts his
mature work in which space and figures metamorphose into one another
suggesting a quintessentially non-Western cosmology rooted in
interconnections and limitless dimensions."
The lot has an estimate of $60,000 to $80,000. It sold for $171,750.
Lot
53, "L'eau Solide," by Wilfredo Lam, oil on canvas, 34 1/2 by 41 3/4
inches, 1945
Lot 53 is a
large oil on canvas by Lam that is entitled "L'eaus solide."
It measures 34 1/2 by 41 3/4 inches and was painted in 1945.
It has been widely published and exhibited.
In her catalogue entry, Abby McEwen remarked that "Lam's
return to Cuba coincided with surging interest in Anillean culture
andidentity."
"The disaporic Negritude movement led by Aimé Cesaire, who
Lam met in Martinique whil en route to Havana, signalled new racial
consciouness: Afro-Cuban cosmology was the subject of pioneering
ethonographic and anthoprological work by Lydia Cabrera and Fernando
Ortiz. At this moment of intense fascination with African
culture, in Cuba and worldwide, Lam began to reconsitute the
iconography of the syncretic Afro-Cuba religion Santeria,
which he had studied as a child with his godmother....Indeed, scholars
have linked many of the figurative elements
that appear in his paintngs - for insance, the small
head with horns in L'eau
solide which may suggest the deity Eleggua to
speific orishas within the Santeria belief system."
It has an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000. It failed to sell.
Lot
136, "Sueno de piedra y mineral," by Mario Carreno, ink on paper, 15
1/8 by 18 7/8 inches, 1964
Lot 136 is an
impressive ink on paper by Mario Carreno (1913-1999) that measures 15
1/8 by 18 7/8 inches. Entitled "Sueno de piedra y mineral,"
it was painted in 1964. It has an estimate of $12,000 to
$18,000. It
sold for $11,875.
Lot
142, "Rebbib, paper, graphite, and wood construction, by Luis Fernando
Roldan, 60 by 120 by 48 inches, 2012
Lot 142,
"Rebbib," is a great construction of paper, graphite and wood by Luis
Fernando Roldan (b. 1955). It measures 60 by 120 by 48 inches
and was created in 2012. It has an estimte of $18,000 to
$22,000. It
failed to sell.
Lot
22, "Duino," by Fernando de Szyszlo, acrylic on canvas, 62 by 93 3/8
inches, 1992
Lot 22 is a
compelling and mysterious large acyrlic on canvasby Fernando de Szyszlo
(b. 1925) entitled "Duino." It measures 62 by 93 3/8 inches
and was painted in 1992.
Detail
of Lot 22
It has
an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. It
sold for $60,000.
Lot
53, "The Bridge at Boca," by Benito Quinquela Martin, oil on canvas, 61
7/8 by 81 inches, circa 1924
Lot 53, "The
Bridge at Boca," is a large and impressive oil on canvas by Benito
Quinquela Martin (1890-1977). It measures 61 7/8 by 81 inches
and was painted circa 1924. It was once in the collection of
President Marcelo T. Alvear of Buenos Aires who gave it to HRH Prince
of Wales Edward VIII of St. James Palace in London. It has
been widely pulished. Boca is the port district of Buenos
Aires. The lot has an estimate of $300,000 to $400,000. It sold for $339,750.
Lot
9, "Figura con tatuajes," by Mario Carren, colored pencil and gouache
on paper, 28 1/2 by 22 1/2, 1947
Lot 9 is a fine
colored pencil and gouache on paper by Mario Carreno (1913-1999) of a
figure with tattoos. It measures 28 1/2 by 22 1/2 inches and
was painted in 1947. It has an estimate of $40,000 to
$60,000. It
sold for $62,500.
Lot
210, "Guardiana," by Oswaldo Vigas, oil on canvas, 65 by 23 3/4 inches,
1967
Lot 210 is a
very lovely abstract oil on canvas by Oswaldo Vigas (b. 1926) that is
entitled "Guardiana." An oil on canvas, it measures 65 by 23
3/4 inches and was painted in 1967. It has an estimate of
$50,000 to $70,000. It
sold for $111,750.
