1. Christie's London - Pivotal Moments in Post-War Contemporary Art

7/28/2019 1. Christie's London - Pivotal Moments in Post-War Contemporary Art

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PIVOTAL MOMENTS IN

POST-WAR & CONTEMPORARY ART

MASTERPIECES BY BASQUIAT AND DOIG LEAD

CHRISTIE'S LONDON EVENING AUCTION OF

POST-WAR & CONTEMPORARY ART ON 25 JUNE London - On 25 June Christie’s London evening auction of Post-War & Contemporary Art will featur

masterpieces by Jean-Michel Basquiat (Untitled , 1982, estimate on request; illustrated above) and Peter Doi

whose works have recently fetched world records at Christie’s, as well as iconic works by international Post-Wamasters, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Yves Klein and Nicolas de Staël. Many works have emerge

from important private collections, including Warhol’s rare Colored Campell’s Soup Can from 1965, formerly

the collection of legendary gallerist and collector Ileana Sonnabend.

Francis Outred, Christie's Head of Post-War & Contemporary Art, Europe: ‘Following the huge success of th

New York auctions in May when Christies achieved the highest total for any auction in history, the London sale

follow with a rich choice of material, presenting a fabulous opportunity to see pivotal paintings from the 1950s t

today. Beyond the top lots – masterpieces by Basquiat and Doig – we have Pop paintings from key moments i

the careers of Lichtenstein and Warhol, as well as rare conceptual and minimalist works by Blinky Palermo an

Brice Marden. From Europe, two important works by de Staël, hidden for years, show how he changed painting i

the 1950s.’

P R E S S R E L E A S E | L O N D O N

F O R I M M E D I A T E R E L E A S E | 6 J u n e 2 0 1 3



Leading Christie’s evening sale is an epic large-scale double portrait by Jean-Michel Basquiat from 1982, a pivot

year in the artist’s career (illustrated on page 1; estimate on request). Untitled forms part of the series o

important double portraits, including Untitled (Two Heads on Gold) and Dustheads (which fetched a record pric

of $48.8m when it sold at Christie’s New York in May). The full-length double portraits of 1982 marked Basquiat

coming of age in the art world. In 1982 he was 21, he had just met his idol, Andy Warhol, and the success of hi

gallery show at Annina Nosei that March gave him a new-found freedom, enabling him to earn a living from h

paintings. The cartoonish figures in this work evoke the joyous spirit of this heady time when he had just broke

through to art world super-star status. Towering above the viewer, this painting is striking for its monument

scale, the decisiveness of Basquiat’s line and the sheer brilliance of his signature colour palette of vibrant red

electric blue, and blaring yellow.

Boldly articulated in Basquiat’s confident scrawl, Untitled is a defiant assertion of artistic and individua

independence, expressing a confidence to match his new-found fame. Its two figures, with their rhythm

movements and screaming features evoke the chaotic energy of the New York underground scene in which th

artist was immersed. Basquiat painted impulsively, pouring out his creativity in a cathartic stream of pent-u

emotion. Working quickly in oil stick and acrylic, he combined drawing and painting in a graffiti-like style t

create a fresh medium he called ‘extra large’. Untitled exemplifies this explosive, ‘extra large’ sensibility, with

raw and spontaneous painterly energy that echoes the urban hubbub of 1980s New York and hints at th

inspiration Basquiat found in and around his downtown studio.

Francis Outred, Christie's Head of Post-War & Contemporary Art, Europe: ‘Following the doubling of the worlrecord for Basquiat in New York at $48.8m for ‘ Dustheads’ from 1982, Christie’s is thrilled to be offering anothe

magnificent even larger scale double portrait from the same year. Featuring the same iconic double portra

motif, Untitled (1982) is a more raw and direct explosion of mark making in primary colours. Speaking of th

influence of Picasso, Twombly, Dubuffet, the street and tribal art, not to mention the artist’s own response to hi

new- found fame and freedom, this painting pulsates with Basquiat’s creative energy .’

Another star work in the sale is a masterpiece by Peter Doig, Jetty (1994), which dates from a pivotal moment i

the artist's career and has remained in the same prestigious collection since the year of its creation (illustrate

above; estimate: £4,000,000-6,000,000). Executed on a monumental scale, Jetty creates an idealised vision of

landscape, vast and all encompassing, the lake at its heart suffused with the blazing colours of an Indian summe

sunset. Taking a scenic postcard as his point of departure, Jetty is a nostalgia-tinged rendering of Alberta

Cameron Lake in Western Canada.



Although this is a figurative image, the composition veers into abstraction, with its fire-fly flecks of colour an

skeins of paint weaving across the surface, taking the image in and out of focus and creating a painterl

meditation on the way we see and remember. As the artist has said, ‘I never really try to create real spaces – on

painted spaces. That’s all I am interested in. That may be why there is never really any speci fic time or place in m

paintings.’

Francis Outred, Christie's Head of Post-War & Contemporary Art, Europe: ‘Peter Doig's 'Jetty' was painted i

1994 - a key moment in his career and has been in the same private collection ever since. It has only been seen i

Britain once before at Doig’s Tate retrospective in 2008. With its romantic vision of a lone figure on a jett

watching a canoe drifting in the midst of a vast, pointillist lake at twilight, this atmospheric work hovers on th

edge of abstraction and exemplifies Doig's painterly vision. Last February a Doig painting from 1991 made

record price of £7.6m at Christie’s London and we’re truly excited to be offering another rare Doig masterpiece. ’

Jetty was painted in 1994, the same year the artist was nominated for the Turner Prize and won the first prize i

the Prix Eliette von Karajan. Works from this year are now widely considered among the best of his career, wit

Jetty standing out as a formative work in his artistic practice. This painting was personally selected by Doi

alongside Pine House (Rooms for Rent) to feature as centrepieces of his first solo exhibition at the New Yor

gallery, Gavin Brown's enterprise in 1994, with the artist driving it himself from Ontario to Manhattan to ensur

its inclusion. The present owner bought the work from that 1994 show. Several works from this important yea

are housed within international museum collections including Ski Jacket , 1994, Tate Modern, London, BoileHouse, 1994, promised to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Corn Cob, 1994, Los Angeles Count

Museum of Art. Doig’s practice is one of displacement. He lived in Canada from 1966-1979 and 1986-1989, but

was not until he had moved to London to attend the Chelsea School of Art that he began revisiting and relivin

the landscapes of his youth. Based on an image found in a postcard, this painting, along with others that he ha

created throughout his peripatetic life, is the result of a desire to depict and represent in paint his memories

feelings and experiences. Also featured in the Christie's London evening auction of Post-War & Contemporary A

is another visionary painting by Peter Doig entitled White Out . Offered from the famed Collection of Marce

Brient, it was created in 1992 and will be presented with an estimate of £700,000-1,000,000. In addition, th

evening auction will include a work on paper by Doig, Canoe Lake created in 1999 with an estimate of £80,000

120,000 that is another example of Doig’s celebrated imagery of canoes.

POST-WAR CLASSICS

BY WARHOL, LICHTENSTEIN, KLEIN AND DE STAËL An outstanding example from Andy Warhol’s celebrated series of Colore

Campbell ’ s Soup Cans, the present work is one of four from the series remaine

in the renowned Sonnabend Collection until Ileana Sonnabend’s death in 200

(estimate: £2,250,000-3,250,000; illustrated right ). An icon of 1960s America

culture, Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Can, first conceived in 1962, dramatical

changed the landscape of Post-War art. Sonnabend, an influential New Yorgallerist of the period, acquired her Colored Campbell’s Soup Can from the a

dealer Leo Castelli, her friend and former husband. Sonnabend was a pivota

figure in the careers and fortunes of numerous great American artists, becomin

an early patron of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns as well as Warho

whose paintings she proudly owned and mounted on her walls at her New Yor

and Venice homes, as well as exhibited in her gallery. Other examples of Colore

Campbell's Soup Cans are now in major museums and private collections acros

the world including: the Menil Collection, Houston, Staatliche Museum Berlin

Sammlung Marx, Berlin, and the Milwaukee Art Museum.



With its graphic intensity and striking array of hand-stencilled indigo blue Benday dots, Cup of Coffee (estimat

£1,500,000-2,000,000; illustrated right ) is one of the earliest examples of Roy Lichtenstein’s Pop imagery.

Executed in 1961, this work is a crucial marker of the advent of Pop Art in America and

forms part of a series of single object paintings that represented quintessential American

life and were sourced from mass-produced newsprint ads. This painting marks the first time

the artist used the Benday dots that have come to be seen as his trademark. With the

artist’s pencil-marks and corrections still visible, it is rare and remarkable for its raw, hand-

crafted quality.

Drenched in the artist’s signature International Klein Blue, YvesKlein’s SE 181 (estimate: £1,400,000-1,800,000; illustrated left ),

with its elegant oceanic sponge form is one of only three,

extremely rare versions in the artist’s oeuvre in which the sponge and base ar

organically linked by Klein’s trademark blue, creating a tree-like form. This spong

sculpture embodies the essence of the artist’s celebrated Sculptures éponges that hav

recently made record prices at Christie’s (in June 2012, Klein’s sponge relief Le Rose d

bleu (RE 22), fetched a record £23.5m at Christie’s London). Made in 1960 at the heigh

of the artist’s career, when the artist picked up a paint-drenched sponge and decided t

turn it into a sculpture, this intricate, bulbous work has an otherworldly quality. Formin

part of the same collection since 1986, this is the first time SE 181 has been seen by thpublic for over 25 years.

Painted in 1954, Marseille (estimate: £1,000,000-1,500,000; illustrated right ) dates

from the pinnacle of Nicolas de Staël’s career when nature and landscape became his

preferred subjects through which to explore colour and form. Infused with the

brilliant light and vibrant colour of the South of France, Marseille is one of de Staël’s

Mediterranean paintings, which are among his most celebrated works. The painting

has a strong exhibition history, first shown the year of it was made at Galerie Jacques

Dubourg. It was subsequently first seen in London at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in

1956 and at the Venice Biennale in 1964. In 1966 Marseille was shown in America,

touring to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Art Institute of Chicago and theSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Marseille was last publicly seen in the

United Kingdom at Nicolas de Staël , Tate Gallery, London in 1981. Also featured in this

section of the sale is an important still life painted by Nicolas de Staël in 1953, entitled

Fleurs blanches et rouges dans un vase gris (estimate: £600,000-900,000).

POST-WAR & CONTEMPORARY ART EVENING AUCTIONChristie’s - 8 King Street, St James’s - London SW1Y 6QTTuesday 25 June 2013 at 7pm

Viewings:Christie’s - 8 King Street, St James’s - London SW1Y 6QTFriday 21 June 9am – 7pm

Saturday 22 June 11am – 5pm

Sunday 23 June 12noon – 5pm

Monday 24 June 9am – 6pm

Tuesday 25 June 9am – 4pm

PRESS CONTACT: Cristiano De Lorenzo | +44 207 389 2283 | [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]






About Christie’s

Christie’s, the world's leading art business, had global auction and private sales in 2012 that totalled £3.92 billion/$6.2

billion. Christie’s is a name and place that speaks of extraordinary art, unparalleled service and expertise, as well a

international glamour. Founded in 1766 by James Christie, Christie's has since conducted the greatest and most celebrate

auctions through the centuries providing a popular showcase for the unique and the beautiful. Christie’s offers over 45

auctions annually in over 80 categories, including all areas of fine and decorative arts, jewellery, photographs, collectiblewine, and more. Prices range from $200 to over $100 million. Christie's also has a long and successful history conductin

private sales for its clients in all categories, with emphasis on Post-War and Contemporary, Impressionist and Modern, O

Masters and Jewellery. Private sales totaled £631.3 million/$1 billion in 2012, an increase of 26% on the same period las

year.

Christie’s has a global presence with 53 offices in 32 countries and 10 salerooms around the world including in Londo

New York, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Amsterdam, Dubai, Zürich, and Hong Kong. More recently, Christie’s has led in growt

markets such as Russia, China, India and the Middle East, with successful sales, exhibitions and initiatives in Moscow, Bak

Beijing, Mumbai, Delhi, Jeddah, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Dubai.

*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium. Sales totals are hammer price plus buyer’s premium and do not reflect cost

financing fees or application of buyer’s or seller’s credits.

Images available on request

Complete catalogue available online at www.christies.com or via the Christie’s iPhone app

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1. Christie's London - Pivotal Moments in Post-War Contemporary Art