Warhol’s Liz
Painted at the pinnacle of Elizabeth Taylor’s fame, Liz is a unique variation from a group of thirteen colourful portraits of the actress produced in the fall of 1963. Rarely viewed in public, the present Liz is an outstanding example of Warhol’s genius for colour and is closely related to his Marilyn ‘flavours’ paintings executed in the previous year – which were named after their vibrant candy colours. Full article >

Family Album
Lucian Freud paints those with whom he is familiar, with whom he has relationships -- lovers, friends and family -- and this fills his pictures with their unique, heady atmosphere, their meaty existentialism, their searing insights into the lives and emotions of the subjects and the artist himself. Lucian Freud’s portrait of his daughter Ib and her husband is one of intimacy and familial insight. Full article >


War on Taste
Jeff Koons is a great paradox, using humorous means for serious ends, trying to improve the quality of life of his viewers. This is edification through entertainment. Koons is waging a one-man war on taste; on the restrictions that he feels it imposes upon our lives. And Fait d’hiver, executed in 1988, and Diamond (Blue), from 2005-06, are clearly weapons used in this assault. Full article >


Tragedy, Ecstasy, Doom: The Art of Mark Rothko
In the early 1950s Rothko first made his great breakthrough to this way of painting and first established this Dionysian/Apollonian dialogue of grid-like coloured rectangles. ‘This kind of design may look simple,’ he said, ‘but it usually takes me many hours to get the proportions and colours just right. Everything has to lock together. I guess I am pretty much a plumber at heart’. Full article >

Royalty, heroes and the streets
These were the themes that Basquiat stated lay at the centre of his art, and they are all clearly present in Untitled (Black Figure) and Sugar Ray Robinson. Painted in 1982, the year that Basquiat claimed he created his ‘best paintings ever’, these pictures combine the artist’s expressive, expressionistic brushwork, a legacy from his days as one half of the graffiti partnership SAMO only a couple of years earlier. Full article >


The Water Gazer
In 1977, the year in which de Kooning created Untitled XXIII, the artist’s favourite pastime was to cycle from his house in the Springs, Long Island, out to Louse Point. There, he would spend an hour or so silently contemplating the surface of the sea. ‘There is something about being in touch with the sea that makes me feel good, he told his friend Harold Rosenberg. 'That's where most my paintings come from even when I made them in New York.’ Full article >


The vivacious & the violent
At certain key moments in an artist’s career, a confluence of forces can come together to breathe special life into their art. Such salient moments of artistic vitality are aptly illustrated in three important Abstract Expressionist paintings: Thaw by Lee Krasner; Atlantic Side by Joan Mitchell; and Untitled XVII by Willem de Kooning. Full article >


The light of day
A diverse array of masterworks created in a variety of media are the highlights in the Post-War & Contemporary Art morning and afternoon sales. Featured are A Figure 4 on an Elegy by Robert Motherwell; Late September by Philip Guston; Woman in Landscape by Willem de Kooning; and Self-portrait (Fright Wig) by Andy Warhol. Full article >

 


The light of day

Highlights from the Post-War & Contemporary Art morning and afternoon sales

The Post-War day sale on 14 November will present a diverse and exciting array of masterworks created in a variety of media. An important selection of paintings will be offered from the Estate of H.H. Arnason, the renowned scholar, critic and avid art collector. He developed a keen eye for quality and many close friendships while visiting artists' studios and writing about their work.

On one such visit he selected A Figure 4 on an Elegy from Robert Motherwell's studio after working on the artist's monograph; additionally Philip Guston's Late September was received as a personal gift from the artist. The quality of the works to be offered from this estate are testament to Arnason's profound understanding of the artists he admired.

Woman in Landscape from 1964-1965 is a remarkable example of Willem de Kooning's diverse oeuvre. The painting possesses an ambiguity and a sumptuous painterly touch, bordering on vulgarity, which emphasizes de Kooning's interest in uneasy subject-matter. He challenges the perceptions of art-historical tradition by incorporating both abstraction and representation in an aggressive and unflinching manner. His large brushstrokes do not blend but stand side-by-side, allowing the viewer to perceive his technique and, in a way, his artistic temperament.

A consummate draughtsman and colourist, he eliminates the traditional barriers between drawing and painting to explore ambiguities between the figure and its background.

Warhol's last series of self-portraits is among the most moving and iconic works of his entire career. Depicting the ghost-like apparition of Warhol's gaunt features isolated against a black background and staring wild-eyed directly at the viewer, these self-portraits, more than any of their many predecessors, present a powerful image not of Warhol the man but of Warhol as a phenomenon. Painted only one year before his death, this extraordinary image is stylish in a way that reduces the artist himself to mere decoration. The picture in the sale is one of the rare self-portraits executed in gold, suggesting a religious icon, and thus in a Warholian manner creating an absorbing, thought-provoking pietà for the modern world.

This article was provided by the Post-War & Contemporary Art Department, New York