By Carter B. Horsley
The evening auction of Contemporary Art at Sotheby's November 14, 2006 is highlighted by selections from the Vanthournout Collection including a masterpiece by Francis Bacon (1909-1992), a very beautiful abstraction by Gerhard Richter (b. 1932), a very fine work by Richard Artschwager (b. 1923) and an excellent sculpture by Robert Smithson (1938-1973). The remainder of the auction has major works by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Mark Rothko and Jeff Koons.
"In the Varnthournout Collection the avant-garde European painting of Francis Bacon and Piero Manzoni, the reductive minmialism of Josef Albers, Robert Ryman, Carl André, Dan Flavin, Sol Lewitt and Robert Mangold, and the bold Pop and conceptual works of Tom Wesselmann, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Artschwager and John Baldessari, inform the paintings and sculpture from the most recent decade by artists such as Gerhard Richter, Jean Michel Basquiat, Cindy Sherman, Gilbert and George, Damien Hirst, and Anish Kapoor." The collection of Robert and Josette Vanthournout was kept at their home and sculpture garden in the countryside near Brussels, Belgium. Mr. Vanthournout was a furniture manufacturer and works from the collection were also included in the Impressionist and Modern Art auction at Sotheby's November 7, 2006, and will be included in the Latin American Art auction at Sotheby's November 20 and 21, 2006. Sotheby's has estimated that the consigned works to all three auctions from the collection will bring $34.3 to $47.5 million.
All 27 lots in this auction from the Varntournout Collection sold for a total of $42,146,000 including the buyer's premium.
The highlight of the collection is Lot 5, "Version No. 2 of Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe," a 1968 oil on canvas by Francis Bacon (1909-1992). It measures 78 by 58 inches and has an estimate of $9,000,000 to $12,000,000. It sold for $15,024,000 including the buyer's premium as do all results mentioned in this article, except where noted, the highest price of the auction and a world auction record for the artist.
The catalogue entry notes that the painting "is partly based on a photograph of Henrietta Moraes, a key member of Bacon's coterie and a fellow regular at Soho's Colony Club, where the owner Muriel Belcher gave Bacon free drinks and a £10 allowance," the catalogue entry maintained, "since he brought in so much business. Moraes was the erstwhile wife of the Indian poet Dom Moraes, and claimed to have attended the Colony Club simply so that Bacon would paint her which ultimately he did at least a dozen times. Moraes was also painted by Lucien Freud in the course of a year-long affair during the fifties....Bacon preferred to paint in absentia, relying predominantly on the combination of photographic material and memory to inform his image production. Furthermore, he saw what he did as injurious, a violent paroyxsm on the human figure that he did not want to practice before his subject. Painting in absentia freed the artist from the imperatives of empirical observation and allowed him to liberally reinvent the image in the sequestered isolation of his studio.....Bacon claimed that the syringe had purely visual purpose with no sinister connotations, as he claimed about the Nazi armband in Crucifixion (1965), but in both these cases the allusive power of the objects is so loaded that it is disingenuous to deny their impact. Besides, the hypodermic syringe wa to prove eerily prophetic, in that Henrietta Moraes became a heroin addict about a decade after the painting of this work. The swirling brushtokes and rearranged features, as well as showing the influence of de Kooning, give a sense of captured movement over time, of film frames overlaid or a flipbook assembled into a single instant, like a writhing ghost within the flesh....It brilliantly illustrates his almost sculptural approach to painting, his ability to mould the fleshy paint like clay, to be shaped and arranged on the armature of the human skeleton. The result, almost discomfortingly intimate and poignant, is a brilliant reminder of the vulnerability of the human ocndition."
The auction was successful with 90.9 percent of the 83 offered lots selling for a total of $125,132,000, nicely in the middle of the pre-sale estimates of $109,330,000 to $148,090. While the sale was not spectacular, it did manage to set 17 auction records for individual artists, a very high number.
An equally exposive and sensational painting in the Vanthournout Collection is Lot 22, "Maria (544-4)," by Gerhard Richter. An oil on canvas that is 78 3/4 inches square, it was painted in 1983 and has an estimate of $2,500,000 to $3,500,000. It sold for $2,368,000. The catalogue entry maintains that this painting "is one of the most stunning and lushly vibrant compositions in the entire series of Richter's Abstract Paintings which evolve in stages, building up layers of gestural compositions," adding that it is now rather difficult to think of him as anything other than one of the great colorists of the second half of the 20th century."
The monchrome paintings Richard Artschwager (b. 1923) on celotex have a wonderful dimensionality and texture as well as a ghostly aura. Lot 15, "Destruction I," is part of his series on the demolition of the Traymore Hotel in Atlantic City. An acrylic on celotex, it measures 36 by 30 inches and was executed in 1972. It is one of his best works and has a conservative estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $349,855.
Lot 4 is an untilted steel sculpture by Eduardo Chillida (1924-2002). The unique work was executed in 1998 and measures 17 1/4 by 26 by 16 inches. It has an estimate of $1,200,000 to $1,500,000. It sold for $884,000.
Lot 27 is a gray alabaster sculpture by Anish Kapoor (b. 1954) that was executed in 1999 and measures 55 3/4 by 31 1/2 by 12 3/4 inches. It has an estimate of $350,000 to $450,000. It sold for $2,256,000, smashing the previous auction record for the artist of $844,444 set at Sotheby's in London last year.
Other major works in the Vanthournout Collection are Lot 10, an untitled painted steel and plexiglass mirrors sculpture by Robert Smithson (1938-1973) that measures 15 by 100 by 6 1/4 inches and was executed in 1965 and has a modest estimate of $500,000 to $700,000 and sold for $352,000; Lot 9, a richly impastoed but untitled oil by Robert Ryman (b. 1930) on unstretched linen mounted on board that measures 10 1/2 inches square and has an estimate of $350,000 to $450,000 and sold for $688,000; Lot 7, "Achrome," a Kaolin on squared and folded canvas by Piero Manzoni (1933-1963) that measures 39 1/2 by 29 1/2 inches and was executed in 1959 and has an estimate of $900,000 to $1,200,000 and sold for $2,592,000 establishing a new auction record for the artist; and Lot 23, "Sienna," a good and vibrant 1984 acrylic, oilstick and silkscreen inks on canvas by Jean Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) that measures 88 by 77 inches and and has an estimate of $1,500,000 to $2,000,000 and sold for $2,144,000.
Lot 16 is a 1967 oil on magna on canvas by Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997). Entitled "Modern Painting with Fishes," it is 36 inches square and has an estimate of $1,000,000 to $1,500,000 and sold for $2,256,000.
In the general auction, there are other works by Lichtenstein.
Lot 49 is a 1984 black and white sunrise painting by Lichtenstein that measures 55 1/2 by 68 inches. It was painted in 1964 and has an ambitious estimate of $6,000,000 to $8,000,000. It sold for $6,624,000.
A slightly more colorful and large Lichtenstein oil and magna on canvas is Lot 65, "Still Life with Lamp." It measures 54 by 74 inches and was executed in 1976. It has an estimate of $2,500,000 to $3,500,000. It sold for $3,040,000.
Lot 56 is a very unattractive cartoonish head of a woman in yellow and black painted by Lichtenstein in 1962. An oil on canvas, it measures 48 inches square and has a very ambitious estimate of $8,000,000 to $10,000,000. It was passed at $7,200,000. It is hard to believe that the artist who painted Lots 49, 65 and 56 could later produce enormously vibrant, colorful and exciting sculptures that, to this observer, are better than his often drab and depressing early paintings.
Lot 68 is a superb acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas by Andy Warhol (1928-1987) that is entitled "Bald Eagle." It is 60 inches square and was executed in 1983. With its "accented edges," it is a smashing, powerful and indelible image, unlike most of Warhol's oeuvre. It is not prosaic. The catalogue does not indicate how many versions of this image exist. It has a modest estimate of $1,200,000 to $1,800,000. It sold for $1,248,000.
For those not concerned with beauty, there is a self-portrait by Warhol, Lot 41, an acrylic, silver paint and silkscreen ink on canvas that measures 20 by 16 inches. It is the cover illustration of the catalogue and was executed in 1964. It has an estimate of $3,500,000 to $4,500,000. It sold for a hammer price of $3,712,000.
There are other Warhols in the auction including Lot 59, a 48-inch square "Flowers," a subject that the artist mass-produced in many sizes with some variations of color. This example from 1964-5 has an estimate of $4,000,000 to $6,000,000 and sold for $6,848,000; and Lot 55, "Colored Campbell's Soup Can," a 1965 version in rather muted and non-appetizing colors that measures 35 1/2 by 23 3/4 inches and has an estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 and sold for $1,808,000.
Lot 37 is a very colorful and energetic 1977 abstraction by Willem de Kooning (1904-1997). An oil on canvas, it measures 80 by 70 inches and is titled "Untitled XXX." It has an estimate of $7,500,000 to $9,500,000. It sold for $10,656,000. In 1977, de Kooning painted 30 large paintings that the catalogue maintains "have long been regarded as among the finest within his extensive oeuvre," adding that "prized for capturing the essence of the sea, the sand and the surf, the works from this pinnacle year are among de Kooning's most dynamically expressive representations of nature and the Long Island landscape he loved."
"De Kooning emphasizes texture, allowing a variety of planes of paint to coalesce in and out of each other across the canvas. The impastoed surface is a signature characteristic of de Kooning's work of the 1950's, however one of the revelations of de Kooning's later work, such as Untitled XXX, is the utter sophistication and variety of de Kooning's paint handling.The quiet passages, created by scraping and smearing across fields of varying color pigment, foreshadow the beauty of Gerhard Richter's smeared Abstraktes Bild of the early 1990s.
Lot 43, "Ushering in Banality," is a polychromed wood sculpture by Jeff Koons (b. 1955) that measures 38 by 62 by 30 inches. It is number two from an edition of three and one artist's proof and one of the other examples of this work was exhibited at the artist's famous "Banality" exhibition at the Sonnabend Gallery in New York, the Max Hetzler Gallery in Cologne, and the Donald Young Gallery in Chicago between Novmeber 1988 and January 1989. It has an estimate of $3,200,000 to $3,800,000. It sold for $4,048,000.
On a smaller scale but more mirthful is Lot 57, "Cape Codder Troll," a stainless steel sculpture by Jeff Koons that is 20 1/2 inches high. It was executed in 1986 and is number 3 of an edition of 3 and one artist's proof. It has a modest estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $352,000.
Lot 66, "Crag," is a good painted metal standing mobile by Alexander Calder (1898-1976) that was once part of a spectacular and wonderful group that the artist created in 1974 for "Crags and Critters" exhibition at Perls Gallery in New York in 1976 and which, sadly, is no longer together. This lot, one of the least animated of the group, has an estimate of $800,000 to $1,200,000. It sold for $800,000.
Lot 67 is a wet pulp paper on canvas portrait of Philip Glass, the composer, by Chuck Close (b. 1940). The 1983 work measures 92 by 72 inches and has an estimate of $3,000,000 to $4,000,000. It sold for $3,208,000.
Lot 82, "Alex de Large in Seinem Geliebten Madchenzimmer (triptych)," a 82 1/2 by 55 inch triptych by Jonathan Meese (b. 1977), sold for $251,200, soaring above the artist's previous auction record of $79,245.
Lot 70 is a impressive, monumental and very strong work by Barnaby Furnas (b. 1973) entitled "Heartbreak Ridge." A urethane on canvas that measures 72 by 144 inches, it was executed in 2002 and has an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000. It sold for $520,000.
The catalogue provides the following commentary:
"The artist combines strategies of cartooning and film-making with the decadence of high art and history painting to form a modern digestible orgy of carnage. Furnas mixes his own paint by adding pigment to urethane, a technique resulting in a uniquely radiant finish that enhances the already vibrant color palette....Our culture is in a de-sensitized state, bombarded by an influx of images conveying the current global situation of terrorism, genocide, and extemist religiosity, inevitably raising the question: what would a modern-day Guernica look like? In response, Furnas' battle scenes deliver on canvas what Quentin Tarantino (director of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction) and the Wachowski brothers (directors of The Matrix trilogy) convey on film, what the masterminds behind Rockstar Games offer in gaming - death in split-second Technicolor."
The film's title refers to a war film by Clint Eastwood but the uniforms in the painting are from the Civil War.
Lot 1, "Homage to the Square, Stucco Setting," a rather bland oil on masonite by Josef Albers (1888-1976) sold for $912,000, an auction record for the artist.
Lot 2, "Ana Lena en Grèce," a 106-inch-high painted polyester sculpture by Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002), sold for $1,136,000, more than doubling the previous auction record for the artist, even though it had none of the usual humor and grace of her better works.
Lot 6, "Dittico Nero-Argento," a very stunning aluminum powder and acrylic on shaped canvas construction in two parts, by Enrico Castellani (b. 1930), sold for $352,000, an auction record for the artist.
Lot 8, "Untitled (100 Copper Square)," by Carl Andre (b. 1935), sold for $912,000 just over the artist's previous auction record.
Lot 36, "The Sky," a white marble circular sculpture from the Anna Moffo Sarnoff Estate, by Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988), sold for $1,248,000, setting a new auction record for the great sculptor.
Lot 48, "Untitled," three yellow and three red fluorescent lights, by Dan Flavin (193301996), sold for $744,000, just over the artist's previous auction record.
Lot 76, "Still," an enormous and unflattering self-portrait by Jenny Saville (b. 1970), sold for $1,024,000, almost double the artist's previous auction record.
Lot 79, "Bertrand Russell at the BBC," by Glenn Brown (b. 1966), sold for $688,000, setting a new auction record for the artist.
Lot 80, "Bonjour Tristesse," by Martin Eder (b. 1968), sold for $520,000, way over the artist's previous auction record of $198,000.
Lot 38, "Hostess," sold for $3,936,000, setting a record for a sculpture by Willem de Kooning.
Lot 40, "Study for 'Good Morning Darling," sold for $1,136,000, setting a record for a work on paper by Roy Lichtenstein.
Lot 58, "Cagney," sold for $2,480,000, almost doubling the previous auction record for a work on paper by Andy Warhol.