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Contact: Clare Roberts 020.7389.2117
MASTERWORKS BY BASQUIAT, KIEFER AND WARHOL TO BE OFFERED AT CHRISTIE'S IN JUNE
Post-War & Contemporary, Evening Sale
27 June 2002
London - Following the highly successful London sales of Post War Art and Contemporary Art in February 2002, The Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, to be held on 27 June will offer works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Anselm Kiefer and Andy Warhol. Many of the works featuring in the sale have come from distinguished private collections, including The Pierina de Gavardie Collection. Christie's Contemporary will once again stage a curated preview exhibition in the stunning warehouse space on Wharf Road, N1, while the Post-War pre-sale exhibition will be held at Christie's King Street.
A monumental and seminal woodcut by Anselm Kiefer, Die klugen Jungfrauen (estimate: £300,000-500,000) will be offered on the evening of 27 June. Dated 1996, it is an exceptional example of his recent work and marks a turn away from his signature style, dealing with Germanic history and mythology, towards more universal themes. Measuring over 4 metres high and 3 metres wide, this museum-quality piece depicts the artist standing amongst a group of gigantic sunflowers, plants which are regarded as an important symbol of change in the artist's oeuvre.
The Property of an Important Private Collector
The Post War & Contemporary Evening Sale is to offer a highly important 'capsule' collection of works by Andy Warhol from a private collection which is expected to sell for in excess of £2 million. This outstanding group of works by Andy Warhol, who was the subject of the recent major retrospective at the Tate Modern, spans his entire career and gives an impression of the full range of the work that he produced. Cagney (estimate: £600,000-800,000), a silkscreen dating from 1964, is an extremely rare work which depicts the Hollywood star James Cagney cornered and defiant in a scene from the 1931 movie The Public Enemy. The aggression of the scene and Cagney's role in the movie clearly relate this work to Warhol's celebrated 'Death and Disasters' series.
Shadow, a silkscreen painting produced in 1978 represents the artist's most successful foray into abstraction (estimate: £400,000-600,000). The shadow is perceptibly both actual and physical and yet seems ephemeral and phantom-like. The series of self-portraits that Warhol executed in the 1980s rank among the most famous of all his images. Self-Portrait, painted in 1986 just prior to the artist's death, presents an iconic portrait of the artist as both a myth and a man. Photobooth (estimate: £150,000-200,000), a montage of photobooth self-portraits taken of Warhol, Gerard Malanga and Philip Fagan, dates from 1964 and is an extremely rare and early work that captures the essence of the frenetic and spontaneous atmosphere that permeated Warhol's Factory in the 1960s. The collection also includes an example by an artist closely associated with Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat. Untitled, 1982 (estimate: £200,000-300,000) employs one of Basquiat's most famous motifs, the crowned figure. The present work depicts the mythical figure of a king through the raw, energetic and expressionistic painterly style that was unique to the artist.
The Collection of Pierina de Gavardie
The Pierina de Gavardie collection charts much of the development of art in the twentieth century, especially painting. Pierina de Gavardie was born in Italy but moved to Paris in the 1930s to work with her uncle who was a tailor. Among her uncle's clients were many of the most influential artists and dealers of the Parisian art world and slowly she found herself dealing in her own right before coming to work with Heinz Berggruen in the 1950s. Jean-Paul Riopelle's Composition (estimate: £100,000-150,000), 1951, is offered from the collection. Executed in 1951, it is a dark and hectic painting that can be seen to reflect the gloom and depression of war-torn Europe, and particularly of invaded Paris, and yet it gleams with colour. Alexandra Calder's Quatre disks blanc, (estimate: £100,000-150,000), a painted sheet metal and wire sculpture dating from 1972 is offered in the evening sale. The Post-War Art, Day Sale, on 28 June, includes a further work by Calder, from the Collection, Untitled, a standing mobile executed in 1973 (estimate: £30,000-40,000). A number of works from the Collection will also be sold in the Impressionist and Modern Art, Evening sale on 25 June.
Important Paintings from the Collection of Lars Ulrich
The evening sale will offer seven works from the collection of Lars Ulrich, a founding member, songwriter and drummer for Metallica, whose deep passion for the arts is reflected in his exceptional collection. This sale follows the dispersal of a number of works in Christie's New York sales of Post-War & Contemporary Art in May 2002. Further works will be offered in Amsterdam later in the year. The highlight of the works to be sold in London is Untitled (Saint) by Jean-Michel Basquiat, dating from 1982 (estimate: £800,000-1,200,000), the most highly sought-after period in the artist's brief but prolific career, and the most important Basquiat ever to be offered at auction in London. The sale also features three oils on canvas by Karel Appel, Boy with Ball, 1952 (estimate: £55,000-75,000), Tete en fuite, 1961 (estimate: £50,000-70,000) and Little Yellow, of 1947 (estimate: £25,000-35,000). Three works by Asger Jorn complete an exceptional CoBrA group: The Situation of a Central Figure, dating from 1966-68 (estimate: £170,000-200,000), Allegretto Furbo, 1964-70 (estimate: £150,000-200,000) and Le future qui passe (estimate: £80,000-120,000). The Post-War Art Day Sale on 28 June 2002 features a further seven lots from this collection, including Karel Appel's Famille, dating from 1967 (estimate: £35,000-45,000) and a work by Jean Dubuffet, Site Avec 9 Personages, 1981 (estimate: £30,000-40,000).
Further highlights in the Post-War & Contemporary Art evening sale include Mark Rothko's Untitled, a work on paper from 1968 (estimate: £450,000-650,000), Yves Klein's IKB 162 (estimate: £350,000-550,000), signed and dated 'Yves 58' and Donald Judd's Blue Anodized Aluminum, a sculpture conceived in blue anodized aluminum in 1973. Bill Viola's Incrementation of 1984 (estimate: £40,000-60,000) is a self-portrait of the artist and the first work by the artist to ever to be offered at auction. Andreas Gursky's Untitled IV (Prada 1), from the seminal 'Prada' series (estimate: £180,000-220,000) is a further notable work in the sale.
The Post War Art, Day Sale, on 28 June, features Flowers by Andy Warhol, 1964 (estimate: £250,000-320,000), Gerhard Richter's Abstraktes Bild, an oil on canvas, 1998 (estimate: £70,000-90,000), and Strand, 1966, a steel sculpture by Anthony Caro (estimate: £40,000-60,000). The Contemporary Art, Day Sale, also on 28 June 2002, includes Tracey Emin's Be faithful to your dreams, a neon work executed in 2000 (estimate: £12,000-£16,000), Paula Rego's Untitled No. 5, a pastel on aluminum (estimate: £60,000-80,000), Thomas Schuette's Geister, 1997 (estimate: £40,000-60,000) and Mark Quinn's Extrapolated Morphology, (estimate: £20,000-30,000). Work No. 230 (Don't Worry), a neon sculpture, is offered from the 2001 Turner Prize winner Martin Creed (estimate: £8,000-12,000)
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