PARIS.- On 4 and 5 June,
Christie’s France will present its Post-War and Contemporary Art sales which will present a great selection of works of art coming from private collections and spanning the 20th and 21th centuries. International collectors will discover great names such as Pierre Soulages, Nicolas de Staël, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Zao Wou-Ki, Hans Hartung, Sam Francis but also more contemporary artists like Jaume Plensa and Fabienne Verdier. The preview exhibition will be open to the public in the galleries of Christie’s Paris from 27 May until 4 June.
On June 4, the evening sale will feature a strong selection of Post-War and Contemporary works of art led by a remarkable sculpture, La Tauromachie, probably one of the most emblematic work by Germaine Richier. Conceived by the artist in 1953 and realised in an edition of 11, this bronze sculpture with a gold patina was acquired by Charles Aznavour from his friend, the singer Fred Mella, member of the Compagnons de la chanson. Present in several prestigious institutional collections (Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk; Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York ; Musée Royal d'Art Moderne, Bruxelles), it currently holds the world auction record for a Germaine Richier’s work of art (3,086,400 euros in December 2017).
Anne Lamunière (Christie’s Geneva) and Paul Nyzam (Christie’s Paris), Specialists of the Post-War and Contemporary art department: “Acclaimed around the world, Charles Aznavour is one of the most popular artists of the 20th century and it is with an immense joy that we are paying him tribute by offering two works coming from his personal collection. From Goya to Picasso, bullfighting has always been a recurrent subject in art history, making La Tauromachie a masterfuland universal work of art. By presenting Germaine Richier and Charles Aznavour face to face, we are creating a beautiful dialogue between two legendary figures.”
Christie’s will also pay tribute to Pierre Soulages whose painting Peinture 186x143 cm, 23 décembre 1959¸ set a new world record last November at Christie’s New York, exceeding the symbolic threshold of 10 million dollars. This sale will offer two of his remarkable works respectively executed in 1957 and 1969. The first one, entitled Peinture 65 x 50 cm, 1957 was realised during a very prosperous year for Pierre Soulages. Indeed, the year 1957 will be punctuated by a trip to the United-States and to Japan before inaugurating his new workshop rue Galande. In this context, his style evolved using brushes and knifes, enabling him not only to apply the paint but also to remove, scrape, and displace it and to create layers, hollows and furrows in the medium. Peinture 65 x 50 cm, 1957 is a perfect example of this particular technique (estimate: €1,200,000-1,800,000). Another important work of art by Soulages, Peinture 162 x 130 cm, 13 November 1969 (estimate: €1,200,000-1,800,000) is characteristic of the painter’s freedom and artistic inventiveness at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. The color is set aside in favor of black and white used by Soulages in graphical form, named macrography by Pierre Encrevé.
Three exceptional works by Nicolas de Staël (1914-1955) will also be offered at auction. Paysage de Vaucluse No.3 (estimate: €700,000-900,000) and Fruits (nature morte, fond gris) (estimate: €800,000-1,200,000) were executed respectively in 1953 and 1954, both coming from Drue Heinz’s collection. Acquired during the 1960s, these two paintings are emblematic of Nicolas de Stael’s work evolution during those pivotal years.
In 1953, de Staël settled in the South of France. To his gallerist, Jacques Dubourg, he wrote that he found “paradise, quite simply, with horizons that go on forever” (letter to Jacques Dubourg, July 1953); to René Char he wrote about his amazement at “the richness of the countryside from a formal point of view” (letter to René Char, Lagnes, July 1953). In 1953, Nicolas de Staël signs an exclusive contract with Paul Rosenberg. The renowned dealer encouraged the artist to increase his productivity and helped promote his work across the Atlantic.
Paysage de Vaucluse No.3 benefited in particular from this resounding success: it was part of the first consignment that the artist sent to Rosenberg for the exhibition to be held in New York in February 1954, this painting will be exhibited in 1958 and then sold by the American gallerist. This painting is presented on the market for the first time since then. Encapsulated within the thick impasto of its landscape is the tipping point in de Staël’s life: both in his flourishing career and in his painting, which was finding its way to being so impressed with reality as to retain only the most beautiful expression of it.
Paul Nyzam, Head of the Evening sale: “With Germaine Richier, Pierre Soulages, Nicolas de Staël, Wifredo Lam, Zao Wou-Ki, Serge Poliakoff or Jean Paul Riopelle, these are some of the greatest artists of the second half of the 20th century that we will highlight during our Post-War and Contemporary art evening sale, with works of art often offered at auction for the first time. After the sale of Anne Tronche’s collection (3 June, 7pm), prestigious provenances will continue to be put in the light with works coming from the collections of Charles Aznavour, Drue Heinz, René Tassin de Montaigu and Antonio Saura.”
On 5 June, Christie’s Day Sale will present 323 lots representing the main artistic movements of the 20th and 21st centuries. Highlighting the sale are a painting by Hans Hartung entitled T1967 and another one by André Lanskoy, Sans Titre, both executed in 1967 and estimated at €120,000-180,000. Other important works of art by Jean Dubuffet, Sam Francis and Jannis Kounellis, will represent the post-war section while talented artists such as Fabienne Verdier and Jaume Plensa will be offered in the contemporary art section.
Etienne Sallon, Head of Day Sale: “It has been very interesting to curate a sale comprising so many different artists. This sale will give the chance to confirmed collectors to acquire some works executed by the most important artists of the 20th century but it will also allow young passionate collectors to start a collection with more affordable works. I’m particularly pleased to present the contemporary artists who are not frequently presented on the second market”.
Several works of the sale will echo museums’ actuality, particularly with two paintings by Victor Vasarely, currently exhibited at the Centre Pompidou, and Bernard Frize who will also benefit from a retrospective from 29 May to 26 August 2019. The sale will also offer Sin-Hat-2 (estimate: €70,000-100,000) and Tomen (estimate : €50,000-70,000) which perfectly embody Vasarely’s work, combining “inspiration, fantasy, freedom on one hand, and rigor, discipline, constraints on the other hand”, as the artist said. By Bernard Frize, the collectors will discover two works including Disloqué, a painting dating from 2006 where a whole system of colors and geometric shapes fit into a subtle and graphic balance (estimate : €30,000-40,000).
Exhibited at the Musée Granet (Aix-en-Provence) from 21 June, Fabienne Verdier invites us to discover a new aesthetic nourished by the revisited great currents of thoughts of western painting on a backdrop of Chinese culture. This beautiful triptych, Opus Volcanique I, II, III executed in 2005 illustrates this dialogue between abstraction and calligraphy, through red ink shapes (estimate: €100,000-150,000).
Still amongst contemporary artists, the auction will present a work of art by Jimmie Durham, who will receive the Lion d’Or during the inauguration of the Venice Biennale for his entire career. Using a wide range of mediums (installation, sculpture, drawing, photography, video), the artist aims to deconstruct our relationship to art, standardized by hierarchical discourses. Thus, this sculpture, Wood (1990, estimate: €15,000-20,000), which is an assembly of wood, polymer molding, metal, plastic and iron wire, invites the spectator to get rid of his prejudices to better reconstruct his vision of art.
Currently exhibited at the Museum of Modern art of Paris until 14 July 2019, Thomas Houseago uses materials such as wood, plaster, iron and bronze. He is in line with other sculptors who, from Henry Moore to Georg Baselitz and Bruce Nauman focus on a representation of the human figure in space, such as Quake mask offered at auction. Realised in 2008, this work of art comes from Claude Berri’s personal collection who acquired it the same year of its conception (estimate: €40,000-60,000).
The department is also very pleased to present Theater palace, executed in 1989 and never presented to the market before, which is probably Charles Matton’s most important work. It is a unique and essential work in his career, recreating a movie theater according to his childhood memories through his famous boxes, at the same time an artist, a writer and a director. It is estimated at €60,000-80,000 euros.
The sale will also feature a group of works presented as a tribute to the gallerist Darthea Speyer, one of the greatest ambassadors of a singular American art scene completely out of step in 1970s-1980s’ with famous New York artists. She promoted several American artists in France such as Llyn Foulkes, Beauford Delaney or Peter Saul with Junk (estimate: €20,000-30,000).
Finally, the sale will include a superb group of four works of art by Paul Theck coming from his series “Small Paintings” including This won’t take a minute, executed in 1979-1980 (estimate: €25,000-35,000). Works by Thek will be part of the group exhibition at the Migros Museum Zurich: United by AIDS-An Exhibition about Loss, Remembrane, Activism and Art in Response to HIV/AIDS, from 31 August until 31 November 2019.
