NEW YORK, NY.- Doyle’s auction on Wednesday, May 9 will showcase a wide range of works by prominent European, American, Latin American and Asian artists of the late 19th century to the current day. The sale will be offered in two sessions with Impressionist and Modern Art beginning at 11am and Post-War and Contemporary Art at 2pm.
Highlighting the sale is 02.01.64, an abstract work by Zao Wou-Ki (1920-2013) from 1964 (est. $200,000-400,000). Zao began his art training in China and immigrated to France at the age of twenty-seven. His formal Chinese painting techniques lent themselves well to the abstract styles popularized by the New York-based Abstract Expressionists. In France, artists such as Joan Mitchell, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Pierre Soulages and Henri Michaux seized on this expressive style and took it to new heights. Zao was part of this energetic time in the Paris art scene. 02.01.64 was created during a productive time in the artist’s life and the same year in which he was granted French citizenship.
One of two works in the sale by Street Art pioneer Richard Hambleton (Canadian/American, 1952-2017), a large-scale Shadow Portrait from 1999 continues his Shadowman series that the artist began painting in the streets of the Lower East Side during the early 1980s. The figure holds a spinning disc, a device Hambleton used sporadically, which was also evident in an earlier canvas featured in MoMA’s recent Club 57 exhibition (est. $30,000-50,000).
While still a teenager, Jean Dufy (French, 1888-1964) was inspired to become an artist by an exhibition of Fauve paintings in his home town of Le Havre. After his service in World War I, he moved to Paris, where he befriended a number of painters working in Montmartre. A handsome still life, with its careful arrangement of fruit, porcelain and flowers on a Persian carpet, shows the powerful influence of Paul Cezanne. Also by Jean Dufy is a delightful view of a busy port teeming with sailboats and a domed lighthouse in the background. Born in the Norman seaport of Le Havre, Dufy particularly loved the sea, sailboats and harbors, and another work is a classic example of one of his favorite themes (est. each $20,000-30,000).
Hans Hofmann (1880-1966) was a leading figure in shaping modernist art concepts both as teacher and painter. Born in Germany, Hofmann studied in Paris, began his career in Munich, then crossed the Atlantic and taught in California and finally, New York. His role as a teacher had perhaps more influence than any other on the generation of Abstract Expressionist painters. An untitled work from 1945, created in the United States, foretells of the artist’s expressive painterly style to come (est. $20,000-30,000).
Norman Bluhm (American, 1921-1999) was born in Chicago and moved to New York at a turning point in American art, when great minds from the United States and Europe converged on New York City and began shaping the Abstract Expressionist movement. Bluhm’s broad, rapidly applied brushstrokes align him with the wing of Abstract Expressionist art known as Action Painting. A 1959 work fully illustrates the expressive style for which Bluhm is best known (est. $12,000-18,000).
Also featured in the sale are works by Alexander Calder, Montague Dawson, Sam Francis, Os Gemeos, George Grosz, Jacob Lawrence, Aristide Maillol, Reginald Marsh, Roberto Matta, Henry Moore, Guy Pène du Bois, Theodoros Stamos, Alfred Emile Léopold Stevens, Victor Vasarely, Maurice de Vlaminck and Guy Wiggins.
The public is invited to the exhibition on view from Saturday, May 5 through Tuesday, May 8. Doyle is located at 175 East 87th Street in Manhattan.
