Platinum and Diamond Bracelet - photo Sotheby's
Designed with graduating clusters set with numerous round, marquise and pear-shaped diamonds weighing approximately 50.00 carats, length 6½ inches, circa 1960. Estimation: 60,000 - 80,000 USD
Sotheby's. Important Jewels. New York | 07 févr. 2013 http://www.sothebys.com
18 Karat Gold, Platinum, Sapphire and Diamond Ring, Van Cleef & Arpels - Sotheby's
Centered by a cushion-cut sapphire weighing approximately 11.00 carats, framed and flanked by round diamonds weighing approximately 1.75 carats, size 7¼, partially signed Van Cleef &, partially numbered N.Y.22. Estimation: 50,000 - 70,000 USD
Accompanied by SSEF report no. 55760 stating that the sapphire has no indications of heating.
Sotheby's. Important Jewels. New York | 07 févr. 2013 http://www.sothebys.com
Pair of 18 Karat White Gold and Diamond Earrings - photo Sotheby's
Set with two heart-shaped diamonds weighing 3.19 and 3.14 carats, framed and surmounted by round diamonds weighing approximately 1.05 carats. Estimation: 50,000 - 70,000 USD
Accompanied by two GIA reports:
No. 2135361843 stating that the 3.19 carat diamond is G color, SI2 clarity.
No. 2135412004 stating that the 3.14 carat diamond is G color, SI2 clarity.
Sotheby's. Important Jewels. New York | 07 févr. 2013 http://www.sothebys.com
18 Karat Two-Color Gold, Sapphire and Diamond Ring, Buccellati - Sotheby's
Centered by an oval-shaped sapphire weighing 2.81 carats, accented by round diamonds weighing approximately .40 carat, size 5¾, signed M. Buccellati Italy. Estimation: 50,000 - 60,000 USD
Accompanied by AGL report no. CS 30686 stating that the sapphire is of Kashmir origin, with no indications of heating.
Sotheby's. Important Jewels. New York | 07 févr. 2013 http://www.sothebys.com
Platinum, Diamond and Sapphire Necklace, Hammerman Brothers - photo Sotheby's
Of articulated design set with numerous round diamonds weighing approximately 41.25 carats, centered and bordered by rows of cabochon sapphires, internal circumference approximately 13¾ inches, signed Hammerman, with maker's marks. Estimation: 40,000 - 60,000 USD
Sotheby's. Important Jewels. New York | 07 févr. 2013 http://www.sothebys.com
Platinum, Sapphire and Diamond Ring, Oscar Heyman & Brothers - Photo Sotheby's
Centered by a square emerald-cut sapphire weighing 19.79 carats, flanked by two tapered baguette diamonds weighing 1.05 carats, size 8¾, numbered 32651, 1944. Estimation: 35,000 - 45,000 USD
Accompanied by AGL report no. CS 52153 stating that the sapphire is of Sri Lankan origin, with no indications of heating.
Sotheby's. Important Jewels. New York | 07 févr. 2013 http://www.sothebys.com
Gold, Diamond and Emerald Necklace - Photo Sotheby's
Set with seven emerald-cut emeralds graduating in size, together weighing approximately 13.00 carats, framed and accented by old European, old mine and single-cut diamonds weighing approximately 40.40 carats, length 17 inches. Estimation: 35,000 - 45,000 USD
Sotheby's. Important Jewels. New York | 07 févr. 2013 http://www.sothebys.com
Richard Avedon, Princess Elizabeth Of Yugoslavia – 1961.
Barbara Mullen photograhed by Richard Avedon, New York, 1951
Platinum, Emerald and Diamond Necklace - Photo Sotheby's
Of floral design, set with seven emerald drops weighing approximately 14.00 carats, accented by 14 marquise-shaped and numerous round diamonds weighing approximately 25.50 carats, length 16 inches, signed Nannini. Estimation: 25,000 - 35,000 USD
PROPERTY FROM A PROMINENT ITALIAN FAMILY
Sotheby's. Important Jewels. New York | 07 févr. 2013 http://www.sothebys.com
Pair of Gold, Emerald and Diamond Earrings - Photo Sotheby's
Centered by two oval-shaped emeralds weighing approximately 25.00 carats, framed by 72 round diamonds weighing approximately 7.60 carats. Estimation: 25,000 - 35,000 USD
Sotheby's. Important Jewels. New York | 07 févr. 2013 http://www.sothebys.com
Truman Capote by Cecil Beaton.
Cecil Beaton, 1931, Portrait of Edward James. © Cecil Beaton
“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.” (Cecil Beaton)
18 Karat Gold, Platinum, Diamond and Emerald Cuff-Bracelet, Andrew Clunn - Photo Sotheby's
The central band set with numerous marquise and old European-cut diamonds weighing approximately 15.25 carats, accented by calibré-cut emeralds weighing approximately 3.60 carats, affixed to a gold cuff of hinged design, gross weight approximately 88 dwts, internal circumference 6¾ inches, signed A. Clunn. Estimation: 25,000 - 35,000 USD
Sotheby's. Important Jewels. New York | 07 févr. 2013 http://www.sothebys.com
18 Karat Gold, Diamond and Emerald Brooch, Van Cleef & Arpels, France - Photo Sotheby's
Designed as a flowerhead set with numerous round diamonds weighing approximately 10.80 carats, the exterior petals decorated with round emeralds,signed Van Cleef & Arpels, numbered 5329, with French assay and workshop marks. With signed box and pouch. Estimation: 25,000 - 35,000 USD
Sotheby's. Important Jewels. New York | 07 févr. 2013 http://www.sothebys.com
Bol céladon. Attribué au Viet Nam, dynastie Ly (1009-1225). Photo courtesy Ceramics Collector
Bol de forme circulaire évasée sur petit talon en terre cuite. Email céladon vert pâle à l'intérieur et bleu pâle à l'extérieur. La lèvre à l'intérieur comme à l'extérieur est laissée brute. Terre cuite. Haut. 3.5 x Diam. 15.2 cm. Haut. 1.4 x Diam. 6 inch. Bon état général, pas de restauration, 3 fèles concentriques partant du bord. Prix: 80 €. Référence 1755. http://www.ceramicscollector.com
NDB: La base étant également revêtue d'une couverte me laisse perplexe quant à l'attribution à une céramique vietnamienne... A vérifier.
PROVENANCE:
Estate of the Artist
Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York
Galerie Krugier, GenevaPrivate Collection, USA
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, 3 May 1989, Lot 139
Private Collection, New York
Galerie Beyeler, Basel
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, Contemporary Art, Part 1, 3 May 1993, Lot 43
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner
EXHIBITED: Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Mark Rothko, 1990-1991, cat. no. X, illustrated in colour
NOTE DE CATALOGUE: Equivalent in scope and scale to Mark Rothko’s late works on canvas, Untitled from 1969 is one of the largest works on paper that the artist ever painted and the first of its kind to appear at auction in almost twenty years. Painted just months before the artist’s tragic demise, it is an extraordinarily rare late masterpiece by an artist at the height of his mature style and the apogee of his creative powers.
In the spring of 1968, Rothko suffered an aneurism and on doctor’s orders refrained from making large paintings on canvas during his convalescence, working on smaller, more manageable works on paper instead. Although he had regained his health sufficiently by 1969 to resume work on large canvases, he found that the restrictions forced by his ill health had opened new creative possibilities; working on paper had introduced new imagery and techniques that he wanted to explore. Indeed, in one of the most productive periods of his artistic career in which he worked every day, from the summer of 1968 until his death in February 1969, the majority of his production was on paper.
With these works, Rothko sought to break away from the traditional notion that paper was only suited to small scale work. Scale was important for Rothko: “I realise that historically the function of painting large pictures is… grandiose and pompous. The reason I paint them however… is precisely because I want to be very intimate and human.” (The artist, cited in Bonnie Clearwater, The Rothko Book, London, 2006, p. 185). In works such as Untitled, which are equivalent in scale to his canvases, he invests the paperwork with the drama of scale that was absent from his earlier works in the medium. What sets Untitled apart from many of the works on paper from the period, such as the grey and brown paperworks from 1968 which inspired the black and grey canvases of the following year, is that this paper was laid down on canvas, thereby giving it the presence and magnificence of the canvases for which he was hitherto best known.
Working with paper afforded a new creative avenue for Rothko, who, by 1969 had pared down his artistic language to such a degree that it helped give rise to the austerity of Minimalism. What Rothko liked about the medium of paper was the radiance of hue that resulted from light reflecting off the white paper beneath semi-translucent ink, an effect that he could not achieve directly on his unprimed canvases which tended to absorb rather than reflect the light.
Untitled offers a master class in this technique. Two dense forms of opaque black pigment, each approaching the edge of the support, each subtly different in hue from the other, sit on top of an inky background of midnight blue. While the two central forms obfuscate the paper support entirely and absorb all light, the deep blue of the surround is more translucent and more thinly applied, allowing a glimmer of reflected light to pass through from the white paper below. Although subtle, it is this light that energises the entire composition which hinges on the subtle differences in hue and opacity of the painted surface. While the lower rectangle is a cooler black, the rectangle that fills the top twothirds of the composition has more pronounced red tones. The horizon line between the two offers a deep glow of light through the inky blue of the background, enhancing the velvety blackness of the immobile forms and invoking the sense of depth, stillness and quietude in the artwork. “These late creations, with their dense, unmodulated surfaces, do not flicker with light; rather, they generate a strong, constant glow” (Dore Ashton, ‘Introduction’ in Bonnie Clearwater, Mark Rothko: Works on Paper, New York 1984, page 55).
Rothko considered black to be a crucial member of the chromatic spectrum as opposed to representing an ‘absence’ of colour, a belief expressed with extraordinary care in Untitled. Although Rothko had been experimenting with a more sombre palette throughout the 1960s, these works reached their spectacular culmination in the last years of his life, following Dominique de Menil’s commission for the Chapel at the University of St. Thomas, Houstan, Texas. One of Rothko’s most significant artistic legacies, the development and execution of the works for the Chapel occupied much of the artist’s final years, with Rothko completing fourteen works for the project, although installation was not to be finally completed until 1971. Rothko was given extensive control over the architectural design of the chapel by his enlightened patrons, and conceived of five large single panels, along with three sizable triptychs, to fill the octagonal space, all in overwhelmingly dark tones of deep reds and blue. The commission encouraged the artist in his change of creative mood and increasing use of dark hues: Rothko’s paintings and works on paper of the late 1960s, including Untitled, have a greater sense of profundity and a powerful emotional depth that had not always existed within his earlier, more colourful, works. Rothko wrote of his immense gratitude to his patrons at the opportunity provided by the Chapel commission to pursue the next momentous steps in his artistic journey: “The magnitude, on every level of experience and meaning, of the task in which you have involved me, exceeds all my preconceptions. And it is teaching me to extend myself beyond what I thought was possible to me. For this I thank you.” (The artist, cited in Bonnie Clearwater, The Rothko Book, London, 2006, p. 160). Untitled can be viewed, in many respects, as the
culmination of the creative discoveries that resulted from the Chapel: with all extraneous distraction of colour and form eliminated, the impact on the onlooker is one of sheer power and wonder; the monochromatic expanse of sombre tones encourages a pseudo religious sense of awed reverence and communion within the viewer.
Many adhere to the view of Rothko’s official biographer Robert Goldwater about the late works that “In their sombre colours, or lack of colour, in their starkness and quiet, above all in a remoteness of a kind never evident in any of his previous work, they seem already to contain the mood that led to his tragic end” (Robert Goldwater cited in Bonnie Clearwater, Mark Rothko: Works on Paper, New York 1984, p57). Indeed, 1969 was a melancholic year for Rothko: his aneurism the previous year had made him aware of his own mortality; in January he separated from his wife and moved into his studio; bouts of depression were aggravated by his alcoholism and he sensed, incorrectly, that his influence was on the wane as a new generation of Minimalist artists – ironically inspired by his elimination of pictorial elements – were chasing his coat tails.
However, there is a very clear sense of a new beginning in these late works, as witnessed in Untitled. Forced to experiment by his illness and the creative cul-de-sac of his pared down vocabulary, the use of paper brought new impetus to Rothko’s oeuvre. Untitled sits squarely alongside the black and grey canvases of the period not as a coda to his earlier oeuvre but as the beginning of a new direction. As Dore Ashton surmises: “Yes, there is tragedy in these
works, as there is tragedy in the times, and Rothko as shaman or dramatist translates for us his vision of the human dilemma. The fact that the brooding majesty of the late works has elicited a sense of tragedy from viewers is perhaps proof that Rothko did achieve his goal: the evocation of ‘basic human emotions – tragedy, ecstasy, doom’” (Dore Ashton, ‘Introduction’ in Bonnie Clearwater, Mark Rothko: Works on Paper, New York 1984, p. 59).
Sotheby's. Contemporary Art Evening Auction. London | 12 févr. 2013 www.sothebys.com
Bol à décor floral. Attribué au Viet Nam, dynastie Ly (1009-1225). Photo courtesy Ceramics Collector
Bol de forme circulaire évasée sur petit talon en grès porcelaineux. Email céladon vert pâle à l'intérieur comme à l'extérieur, décor interne de fleurs faiblement visible. Le talon et la lèvre sont laissés bruts. Bon état, ni fèle, ni restauration, égrenures au talon, craquelures à l'émail. Haut. 5.5 x Diam. 17 cm. Haut. 2.2 x Diam. 6.7 inch. Prix 120 €. Référence 1754. http://www.ceramicscollector.com
Lucio Fontana (1899 - 1968), Concetto Spaziale, Attesa. Photo Sotheby's
signed, titled and variously inscribedStrepitoso/Gimondi/dominato/Pulidor/nella/“Cronoscalata” on the reverse; waterpaint on canvas, 118 by 91cm. 46 1/2 by 35 5/8 in. Executed in 1965. Estimation: 2,200,000 - 2,800,000 GBP
PROVENANCE:
Marlborough Gallery, RomeCattaneo Collection, Brescia
Galleria Leone, Venice
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in the early 1970s
EXHIBITED: Minneapolis, Walker Art Center; Austin, University of Texas Museum, Lucio Fontana. The Spatial Concept of Art, 1966-67, no. 45, illustrated
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum; Endhoven, Stedelijk van Abbenmuseum, Lucio Fontana - Concetti Spaziali, 1967, no.54, illustrated
Stockholm, Moderna Museet, Fontana. Idéer om rymden, 1967, no. 45
Hannover, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Lucio Fontana, 1968, no. 45, illustrated
Rimini, Sala Comunale d'Arte Contemporanea, Lucio Fontana, 1982, no. 70, illustrated in colour
Varese, Varese Incontri, Lucio Fontana, 1985, no. 81, illustrated in colour
Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli, Lucio Fontana. La cultura dell'occhio, 1986, p. 61 and p. 122, no. 44, illustrated in colour
Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Lucio Fontana,1998, front cover and p. 273, no. 4, illustrated in colour
LITTERATURE: Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, Catalogue raisonné des peintures, scultures et environments spatiaux, Vol. II, Brussels 1974, pp. 160-61, no. 65 T 31, illustrated
Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana. Catalogue Generale, Vol. II, Milan 1986, p. 563, no. 65 T 31, illustrated
Dino Marangon, Spazialismo: Protagonisti, Idee, Iniziative, Quinto di Travise 1993, pl. 11, illustrated
Nicoletta Pallini, 'Antologia di Fontana', Gioia, Milan, 16 May 1998, illustrated
Marco Di Capua, 'Quello di Tagli. Cinque mostre a Milano', Ars, May 1999, p. 73, illustrated in colour
Angela Vettese, Lucio Fontana. I tagli, Ciniselo Balsamo 2003, p. 31, illustrated in colour
Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana. Catalogo Ragionato di Sculpture, Dipinti, Ambientazioni, Vol. II, Milan 2006, p. 751, no. 65 T 31, illustrated
NOTE DE CATALOGUE: Mesmerisingly serene and imposing in its purity, Concetto Spaziale, Attesa is an unmitigated paragon of Lucio Fontana’s revolutionary artistic and philosophical innovation. Enshrining the single most iconic act of the artist’s career in rare monumental proportions, the present work stands among the most powerful and undiluted expressions of Fontana’s groundbreaking rupture of normative spatial and visual concepts. The utterly pristine white surface articulated with a precisely and masterfully incised single cut delivers a visual experience of absolute clarity verging on the transcendental. Belonging to only ten works created in this grand scale and articulated on a pure white ground in 1965, the present work counts among the most iconic of the Concetto Spaziale, Attesa – Fontana’s most revered and instantly recognised body of work. Significantly, this particular work possesses an extraordinary and extensive exhibition history. First exhibited as part of the artist’s early and important international retrospective in 1967, Concetto Spaziale Attesawas also included in Fontana’s major show held the following year at the KestnerGessellschaft in Hannover; what’s more, in 1998 this work was prestigiously chosen as the cover image for the artist’s retrospective exhibition in Rome. The importance of the single and monumental white slash in Fontana’s oeuvre is utterly unparalleled: chosen as the single supreme format for the artist’s exhibition at the Venice Biennale of 1966, the white single slash was the dominating expression for the immersive spatial environment curated by Fontana as the foremost manifestation of his artistic vision. Thus, marking the apogee of Fontana’s creation and a paragon ofconceptual and formal elegance, the present work unassailably generates a sublime effect that induces the viewer into the pure white fields of its encompassing simplicity and expansive surface. Amidst the wide variety of works articulated in a multitude of colours with numerous cuts in varying scales, the present example exquisitely and forcefully comprises the purest and most absolute essence of Fontana’s art.
Soon after this work came into being Fontana gave expression to his radical breach of the untarnished and untouched primed canvas: “With the taglio, I have invented a formula that I think I cannot perfect…. I succeeded in giving those looking at my work a sense of spatial calm, of cosmic rigor, of serenity with regard to the Infinite. Further than this I could not go” (the artist quoted in: Pia Gottschaller, Lucio Fontana: The Artist’s Materials, Los Angeles 2012, p. 58). A gesture of singular art historical importance, Fontana’s transgressive incision realised his concept of ‘Spatialism’, a sophisticated intellectual theory further advanced by the artist in four manifestos published between 1947 and 1952. Nonetheless, though utterly forward-looking and progressive, Fontana’s dialogue invoked a point of connection with Renaissance masters of alabaster or Carrara marble, whose historic innovation induced a revolt of form against material to transgress the resolute physicality of sculpture. In Fontana’s words, Michelangelo “wants to virtually abolish [marble], and he makes his last Pietàs as though he wanted only to make them from pure spirit, from pure light” (the artist cited in: Sarah Whitfield, ‘Handling Space’ in: Exhibition Catalogue, Hayward Gallery, Lucio Fontana, 2000, p.42). Indeed, Fontana’s Attesa is unmistakably imbued with an equivalently votive and contemplative aura to echo Michelangelo’s exquisite late Pietàs. Photographs documenting Fontana’s iconic contribution to the 1966 Venice Biennale emphatically deliver this point. Furnished solely by the single-slash white tagli, Fontana designed and curated an entirely white Ambienti Spaziale (Spatial Environment). Their configuration bespeaks an atmosphere of holiness, conflating the gallery room with a light-flooded chapel; the once-traditional canvases transformed into objects of meditative power were here presented in venerative recesses.
The first tagli date to the autumn of 1958 and by 1960 Fontana had executed tagli works in an expansive variety of experimental colours including yellow, orange, red, pink, ochre, turquoise, blue, purple, brown, grey, gold, silver, and black. Against this panoply of pigments, and the variety of slash quantities and arrangements that Fontana explored, the single elongated slash upon a pristine and monumental white canvas was the purest epitomisation of the ideal incarnated by the tagli. Its forms distilled the artist’s great innovation – piercing the canvas – into its most elemental presentation. On a physically formal level, as powerfully articulated in the present work, the single slash preserves the greatest tension within the canvas flesh, heightening the viewer’s perception of contending binaries whose dynamic marriages fill Concetto Spaziale, Attesa with symbolic interaction between light and dark, release and contraction, void and plane. With the tagli, Fontana took great lengths to maintain an immaculately homogeneous paint surface, concentrating all trace of his hand upon the slash. Employing a paint brush and not a roller, this required great craftsmanship and demanded the progressive layering of horizontal and vertical strokes to eradicate inconsistencies and realise a true depth of opacity. Scholar Pia Gottschaler has concluded: “in the development of the tagli, perhaps more than anywhere else, we can see the extraordinary dedication [Fontana] brought to refining the minute details of every aspect of their making…” (Lucio Fontana: The Artist’s Materials, Los Angeles 2012, p. 64). Concetto Spaziale, Attesa exemplifies this process through its pristine and elegantly incised surface.
Contemporaneously in tune with an international political context of technological ambition and progression, Fontana’s oeuvre speaks to the age of space exploration and discovery. With these works Fontana hypothesised overturning accepted norms of three-dimensional Cartesian space by invoking and venturing into the fourth dimension of time. Hence Fontana’s statement that: “the discovery of the Cosmos is that of a new dimension, it is the Infinite: thus I pierce the canvas, which is the basis of all arts and I have created an infinite dimension, an x which for me is the basis for all Contemporary Art” (the artist cited in: Exhibition Catalogue, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Lucio Fontana: Venice/New York, 2006, p. 19). Though embodying an art historically iconoclastic and destructive act, Concetto Spaziale, Attesa simultaneously invokes a futuristic spirit of evolution to engender an object of votiveworship offered up to an era of conceptual innovation and radical technological progression.
Sotheby's. Contemporary Art Evening Auction. London | 12 févr. 2013 www.sothebys.com
