LONDON.- On 22 June 2010,
Christie’s Interiors sale goes retro, embracing mid-century modern lifestyle and design, with estimates from £300. Christie’s Interiors sales offer the ultimate opportunity to source a diverse and eclectic selection of home furnishings with an extensive selection of lots in each sale including everything from ceramics and textiles to furniture and lighting, whilst each piece is defined by its inherent value and design integrity. The second June sale in this category celebrates fun and funky modern interiors, presenting a large selection of top quality modern design items, and modern and contemporary paintings, as well as antique furniture, carpets, decorative objects and much more. Vintage film posters feature in the same magazine-style catalogue, and will be offered the following day, on 23 June 2010.
The sale includes a selection of over thirty interesting highlights from a Private London Collection that illustrate progressive space age styling, the trend that defined international design of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. The pieces on offer demonstrate an emphasis on the use of new materials sculpted into fantastic fibreglass shapes from respected designers such as Eero Saarinen, Verner Panton, Joe Colombo, Ettore Sottsass and Marc Newson. These striking works have estimates ranging from just £500, and are sure to brighten up any room in your home.
Stephen Wiltshire
Christie’s Interiors sales offer a wide array of decorative paintings, specifically chosen to complement the furniture, decorative arts, and other home furnishings on offer. Every item featured in a Christie’s sale is valued and fully researched by our experienced experts. One particularly interesting painting on offer on 22 June 2010 is Times Square at Night, 1995 by Stephen Wiltshire MBE (estimate: £10,000-15,000). A gifted contemporary artist, Stephen is known worldwide for his detailed cityscapes, often drawn and painted from memory, as was this work.
Stephen’s talent was discovered as a child, whilst attending Queensmill School in London. Diagnosed with autism, Stephen was unable to communicate through speech, and used his drawing to interact with the world. It was his teachers at the school who taught him how to speak, by taking away his pens, pencils and paintbrushes, so that he had to ask for them back. As a post-graduate student at City & Guilds College, Stephen developed his painting skills to photorealistic perfection. Painted in February 1995, Times Square at Night was the third oil painting he ever attempted, and has since become one of his most iconic creations to date.
Stephen was awarded an MBE for services to the art world in 2006. His work is popular all over the world, and is held in a number of important collections. In October and November 2003, thousands flocked to the Orleans House gallery in Twickenham near London, to see the first major retrospective of Stephen's work. The exhibition covered the 20-year period, from 1983 to 2003, and comprised 150 examples of Stephen's drawings, paintings and prints.
Vintage Film Posters
The first sale offered by the Popular Culture department at Christie’s South Kensington in 2010 is that of Vintage Film Posters, to be held on 23 June 2010. The sale will pay tribute to all genres of cinematic history, from cult horror and sci-fi films, to the icons of the silver screen featuring artwork from a range of epic films including stars such as:
Steve McQueen, Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Veronica Lake, Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe. This popular biannual sale comprises approximately 250 lots of original cinema posters ranging from the early years of cinema to the 1990s, with estimates ranging from £300 to £6,000. One particularly eye-catching poster featured in the sale is a rare poster, originally intended for display in the subway, for the classic Barabarella film starring Jane Fonda (estimate: £700-900).
