RELEASE: Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction | Christie's London | 4 October 2019
London – Christie’s Frieze Week Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction will take place on 4 October 2019 and will be followed by our annual sale dedicated to Italian artists, Thinking Italian. The Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction showcases artists who pioneered new directions for the medium of paint ranging from Sigmar Polke’s dotted raster technique to Gerhard Richter’s ‘Abstraktes Bild’ series and from Joan Mitchell to Kazuo Shiraga. The auction will be led by Jean-Michel Basquiat’s vivid Four Big (1982, estimate: £7,500,000-9,500,000, illustrated above, right), a large-scale painting structured like a devotional triptych. Held in the same private collection for the past five decades – and unseen in public since 1983, when it was the poster image for the group show Kunst Nach 45 at the Frankfurter Kunstverein – Alpenveilchen/Flowers (1967, estimate: £5,000,000-7,000,000, illustrated page one, left) is an exceptional large-scale example of Sigmar Polke’s Rasterbilder. A further highlight is Pierre Soulages’s Peinture 146 x 114 cm, 6 mars 1960 (1960, estimate: £4,000,000-6,000,000), which has also been held in the same collection for 50 years and was last seen in public in 1967. An additional focus of the auction is a group of four works by Gerhard Richter, highlighted by three paintings from ‘Art for Future, Selected Works from the UniCredit Group’.
Coinciding with a major survey exhibition at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, an early sculpture by Antony Gormley, Growth (1987, estimate: £500,000-700,000), will be offered alongside paintings by Thomas Bayrle, Tomoo Gokita, Loie Hollowell, Nathaniel Mary Quinn and Alfredo Volpi, who are all included in a Christie’s Evening Auction for the first time. Assembled during the second half of the 20th century, the Matthys-Colle Collection reveals the passion for international contemporary art shared by Dr Roger Matthys and his wife, Hilda Colle. A total of 41 works will be offered in a series of auctions across three sale rooms: 4 and 5 October in London, followed by Amsterdam on 25 and 26 November, and finally Paris on 4 and 5 December.
The Auction Exhibition will be on view in London from 27 September to 4 October 2019. The Frieze Week programme will be launched by an Evening Auction dedicated to The Jeremy Lancaster Collection on 1 October 2019. A chorus of vivid colour, radical form and brilliant innovation, the collection showcases some of the greatest achievements in post-war British painting, complemented by a stellar selection of European and American works. The Jeremy Lancaster Collection will be on view at Christie’s King Street from 25 September to 1 October 2019.
Cristian Albu and Katharine Arnold, Co-Heads, Post-War and Contemporary Art, Europe: “Our Frieze Week marquee sale celebrates the trajectory of paint, as artists pushed the boundaries of what this traditional medium could convey. Kazuo Shiraga translated the violence of war to canvas while Gerhard Richter and Frank Bowling are interested in exploiting the plasticity of paint. Sigmar Polke’s Alpenveilchen/Flowers and Pierre Soulages’s Peinture 146 x 114 cm, 6 mars 1960 have both remained in private collections for 50 years so we are thrilled to offer works with distinguished provenance that is fresh to market. The incredible transformation of painting during the 20th and 21st centuries continues with Four Big, from 1982, a defining moment in the career of Jean-Michel Basquiat, and pieces by contemporary painters including Nicolas Party and Loie Hollowell. Belgium’s esteemed Matthys-Colle Collection and ‘Art for Future, Selected Works from the UniCredit Group’ act as pillars for both the Evening and Day Auctions, underpinning the quality and pedigree of the 48 works we are presenting in the Evening Auction.”
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Four Big brings together echoes of religion, royalty, ancient history, anatomical drawing, music and the daily news and centres around Basquiat’s famous crown icon. The painting has the edge of self-portraiture common to Basquiat’s works, which probe the problems and glories of his status as a celebrated young artist.
Sigmar Polke
Flowers sees Polke employing his dotted raster technique to create an image with the shimmering, hazy beauty of Monet’s waterlilies: red and white blooms hover weightlessly amid blades of deep blue-green grass. Derived from magnified printed photographs, Polke’s dots were similar to the Ben-Day dots used by Roy Lichtenstein in the 1960s.
Art for Future | Selected Works from the UniCredit Group
UniCredit has appointed Christie’s to manage the sale of its artworks from Austria, Germany and Italy. The proceeds will be primarily used to support the further roll-out of the group’s Social Impact Banking initiatives. The remaining balance will be dedicated to other relevant projects, including the support of young artists. The artworks will be offered at various Christie’s international salerooms across a range of marquee week sales in 2019 and 2020, with the first pieces being auctioned in London on 4 and 5 October as part of the Post-War & Contemporary Evening and Day Auctions alongside Thinking Italian, taking place during Frieze Week. The selection will include works by Gerhard Richter, Yves Klein, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Enrico Castellani, Sam Francis, Andreas Gursky and Nam June Paik among others.
Gerhard Richter
The selection of works from the UniCredit Group is led by three outstanding pieces by Gerhard Richter. Abstraktes Bild (559-1) (1984, estimate: £6,500,000-9,500,000) is a monumental vision dating from a watershed moment in Richter’s career. Acquired shortly after its creation, it is among the largest canvases produced during the pivotal year of 1984. Wiese (Meadow) (1983, estimate: £3,500,000-5,500,000) is an exquisite example of the celebrated photo-realist German landscapes that Gerhard Richter produced during the 1980s. It is the second work within this extraordinary cycle, and a sister painting to Scheune (Barn) (Art Gallery of Ontario). 7.3.86 (1986, estimate: £550,000-750,000) that will also be presented. Titled after their date of creation, these complex works on paper punctuate the artist’s practice at various intervals from the early 1980s onwards.
In addition to the abovementioned artworks from the UniCredit Group, Brautpaar (blau) (Bride and Groom (blue)) (1966, estimate £1,200,000-1,800,000) will be presented. This is a rare work in colour which has remained unseen in public during its lifetime. It stands together with major works such as Ema (Akt auf einer Treppe) (Museum Ludwig, Cologne) and Zwei Liebespaare (Daros Collection, Zurich).
The selection for sale at Christie’s is highlighted with two works by Robert Mangold, Triangle Within a Circle dating from 1974, and acquired that year by Matthys-Colle in New York (estimate: £350,000-450,000, London, 4 October, illustrated below, right) and Four Squares Within a Circle from 1974, bought the following year in Brussels (estimate: £120,000-180,000, London, 5 October).
Pierre Soulages
Widely exhibited during the 1960s, Peinture 146 x 114 cm, 6 mars 1960 (illustrated page three, left) is a monumental painting by Pierre Soulages. A field of black oil paint is combed across the upper half of the canvas in broad, horizontal brushstrokes. In the painting’s lower half, framed by a ground of off-white, vertical and horizontal black forms set the composition in formidable, calligraphic balance.
Antony Gormley
Exhibited at Documenta 8, Kassel, in the year of its creation, Growth (illustrated page three, centre) is an important early work by Antony Gormley. A life-size vision of two conjoined bodies, it stems from the series of ‘Double Bodycase Works’ (1987–1989) – some of his most ambitious early sculptures.
Artists New to Christie’s Evening Auction
Painted in 2016, Lady in Green (estimate: £50,000-70,000, illustrated left) demonstrates Loie Hollowell’s ability to synthesise light, colour and form into powerful explorations of sexual experience. Created in 1967, Tassenfrau (Milchkaffee) (Cup Woman (Milk Coffee)) (estimate: £80,000-120,000) is an important early silkscreen by Thomas Bayrle. A scintillating expanse of colour and form, Untitled (Bandeirinhas com Mastros no Azul) (circa 1960s, estimate: £300,000-500,000) is a lyrical painting by Alfredo Volpi, one of Brazil’s foremost 20th century painters.
The Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Auction will take place on 5 October 2019, featuring 188 lots. Works from the Matthys-Colle Collection and ‘Art for Future, Selected Works from the UniCredit Group’ will also be presented in the Day Auction. Robert Mangold’s 4 Square within a Circle 2 (1974, estimate: £120,000-180,000, illustrated right) and Sol LeWitt’s Folded Paper (1972, estimate: £15,000-20,000) highlight the Matthys-Colle Collection while 27 works by artists including Gerhard Richter, Nam June Paik, Thomas Schütte and Birgit Jürgenssen will be offered from the UniCredit Group. These works will be shown alongside the Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction from 27 September to 4 October 2019.
PRESS CONTACTS
Sara Macdonald| +44 (0)20 7752 3136| saramacdonald@christies.com
Emily Burke | +44 (0)20 7389 2054 | eburke@christies.com
About Christie’s
Christie’s, the world's leading art business, had auction sales in the first half of 2019 that totalled £2.2 billion / $2.8 billion. Christie’s is a name and place that speaks of extraordinary art, unparalleled service and international expertise. Christie’s offers around 350 auctions annually in over 80 categories, including all areas of fine and decorative arts, jewellery, photographs, collectibles, wine, and more. Prices range from $200 to over $100 million. Christie's also has a long and successful history conducting private sales for its clients in all categories, with emphasis on Post-War & Contemporary, Impressionist & Modern, Old Masters and Jewellery.
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*Please note when quoting estimates above that other fees will apply in addition to the hammer price - see Section D of the Conditions of Sale at the back of the sale catalogue.
*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium. Sales totals are hammer price plus buyer’s premium and are reported net of applicable fees.
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