Boucheron Pansy watch, 1890-95, silver-gilt, sapphires, demantoid, spessartine, and hessonite garnets, amethysts and diamonds.

Gerhard Richter (b. 1932), Abstraktes Bild.  Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2013

signed, numbered and dated '889-14 Richter 2004' (on the reverse), oil on canvas, 88 5/8 x 78¾in. (225 x 200cm.). Painted in 2004. Estimate on request

Provenance: Wako Works of Art, Tokyo.
Private Collection, Japan.
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

Exhibited: Dusseldorf, K20 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Gerhard Richter, 2005, no. 889-14, p. 85 (illustrated in colour, pp. 225 and 305). This exhibition later travelled to Munich, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus. Kanazawa, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Gerhard Richter: Painting as Mirror, 2005 (illustrated in colour, p. 125).
Sakura-shi, Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, Gerhard Richter, 2005-2006. Tokyo, Wako Works of Art, Gerhard Richter Part II, 2006.
Tokyo, Galerie Sho Contemporary Art, Selected Works by German Artists, 2008.

Notes: This work will be included in the forthcoming volume 4 of the official catalogue raisonné of Gerhard Richter, edited by the Gerhard Richter Archive Dresden, as no. 889-14.

'Every time we describe an event, add up a column of figures or take a photograph of a tree, we create a model; without models we would know nothing about reality and would be like animals. Abstract paintings are fictitious models because they visualise a reality, which we can neither see nor describe, but which we may nevertheless conclude exists. We attach negative names to this reality; the un-known, the un-graspable, the infinite, and for thousands of years we have depicted it in terms of substitute images live heaven and hell, gods and devils. With abstract painting we create a better means of approaching what can be neither seen nor understood' (G. Richter, quoted in R. Nasgaard, 'Gerhard Richter', Gerhard Richter: Paintings,exh. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 1988, p. 107).

'There's a lot in the construction, in the structure, that reminds me of music. It seems so self-evident to me, but I couldn't possibly explain it' (G. Richter. quoted in B. Buchloh, 'Interview with Gerhard Richter', in R. Nasgaard, Gerhard Richter: Paintings, exh. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 1998, p. 28).

'That's roughly how Cage put it: 'I have nothing to say and I am saying it.' I have always thought that was a wonderful quote. It's the best chance we have to be able to keep on going' (G. Richter, quoted in J. Thorn-Prikker, 'Interview with Jan Thorn-Prikker', D. Elger and H. Obrist (eds.), Gerhard Richter: Text, Writings, Interviews and Letters 1961-2007, London 2009, p. 478).

GERHARD RICHTER: TRANSLUCENCY, TRANSPARENCY, OPACITY

Rendered in a luxuriant palette of sapphire, chartreuse, and crimson, Gerhard Richter'sAbstraktes Bild (889-14) is a near-regal painting from 2004 that enchants the viewer with its jewel-like surface. The present work demonstrates Richter having mastered his practice, recalling his opulent abstracts from the early 1990s including the suite of four Bach abstract paintings now housed in the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden and importantly prefiguring Richter's major suite of Cage paintings (2006). In the present work, as in these antecedents, Richter's masterful handling of paint allows lustrous palimpsests of colour to rise to the surface of the canvas. No signs of struggle are apparent in the fluid swathes of paint dragged from vertiginous height to the base of the majestic canvas, the artist enchanted by the apparent rhythm of his process. A rare feature in Richter's practice, the intense verticality of Abstraktes Bild is mesmerising, a torrent of colour enveloping the viewer before it. Painted just two years after his critically acclaimed retrospective curated by Robert Storr at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and exhibited in 2005 at the important retrospective of the artist's work at the K20 museum in his home town of Düsseldorf, Abstraktes Bild appears to project a sense of the artist's own confidence and personal satisfaction at the time. 2004 also marks the year that The Albertinum, Galerie Neue Meister opened three rooms dedicated to his career in his original home town of Dresden; a major accolade for the artist. As Richter himself proclaimed at the turn of the new millennium, 'well, after this century of grand proclamations and terrible illusions, I hope for an era in which real and tangible accomplishments, and not grand proclamations, are the only things that count' (G. Richter, quoted in S. Koldehoff, Gerhard Richter: Text, 1999, p. 353); a sense of this grand strategy is evident in Abstraktes Bild.

Throughout his career, Richter has probed the notions of reality and representation, articulating his ideas across a wealth of media. Over the course of 2004, Richter explored the possibilities of abstraction and figuration across many media, including Strontium (De Young, San Francisco),Abstraktes Bild (Haut) (Skin) (Artist Rooms Collection, Tate, London and National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh), 11 Scheiben (11 Panes) (Artist Rooms Collection, Tate, London and National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh), Waldhaus (House in the Forest), Ohne Titel (11.10.2004) and Ohne Titel (8. Sept. 04), 2004, the year being one of the most varied of his career. Transparency, translucency, opacity and reflection were subjects that he was actively re-engaging in. In 11 Panes (2004), the repeated panes of glass establish optical illusions and distortions in a manner that recalls the near-sculptural use of paint in Abstraktes Bild. In the painting, the thick, viscous texture of the medium offers the work a certain sheen; the rich medium apparently defying gravity. Richter's atmospheric and romantic landscapes and his abstracts from this period often complement each other, together making up a 'world view' which will nevertheless always remain fragmentary. House in the Forest (2004) depicts a wooded vista of velvety green pine trees. The painting offers a pronounced horizon line that is a natural counterpoint to Abstraktes Bild with its swept horizon of richly impastoed double-swipe striations tracking the top portion of the work. While there is no mimetic representation of reality, there is an equivalent and equally convincing pictorial reality that opens up before the viewer. During the same period Richter began his experiments with images of atoms under the microscope magnified to the point of abstraction, as exemplified in Strontium. In Skin, Richter captures the pattern of sound vibrations across the surface of milk, reflecting concerns which underpin the artist's practice in Abstraktes Bild.

RICHTER'S SPECIAL CADENCE

Abstraktes Bild recalls the artist's majestic Bach cycle of 1992 in terms of its composition and royal palette. It stands as a bridge between these benchmark works and his seminal Cage series of 2006. A figure of admiration for the artist, Richter was especially captivated by the American avant-garde composer, John Cage, during this period. Richter found an acute affinity with Cage's concept of the impossibility of saying nothing once a frame of communication had been constructed, as even emptiness has a voice. As the artist once recounted, 'that's roughly how Cage put it: 'I have nothing to say and I am saying it.' I have always thought that was a wonderful quote. It's the best chance we have to be able to keep on going' (G. Richter, quoted in J. Thorn- Prikker, 'Interview with Jan Thorn-Prikker', D. Elger and H. Obrist (eds.), Gerhard Richter: Text, Writings, Interviews and Letters 1961-2007, London 2009, p. 478). Great affinities exist between Cage's aesthetic and that of Richter's articulated in paint. Richter has noted that he has always seen his abstracts as, 'something musical. There's a lot in the construction, in the structure, that reminds me of music. It seems so self-evident to me, but I couldn't possibly explain it' (G. Richter quoted in B. Buchloh, 'Interview with Gerhard Richter', in R. Nasgaard,Gerhard Richter: Paintings, exh. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 1998, p. 28). As in the magisterial Bach series, the marks in Abstraktes Bild offer their own rhythm, each pull of paint betraying its own special cadence. Beneath the harmonious interplay of wet on wet paint we catch glimpses of a still monochrome base. The quiet confidence of this antecedent layer recalls the alternating silent and discordant aesthetic of Cage. Built up with stochastic applications of paint, applied to smooth pulls of colour, the later series of Cage paintings offer a logical continuation to the present work.

ABSTRAKTES BILD: AN INTENSE VERTICALITY

Created by handling swathes of paint across the canvas with a squeegee, the tool represents Richter's most important implement for incorporating contingency into his painting. Richter's vertical action pulls a curtain of ombré sapphire and thistle, mixing wet paint into wet paint and causing streaks of rich marbling and blooming chromatic fusions. Initially established as flat layers of paint, cavities and canyons melt away to reveal kaleidoscopic fissures of teal, emerald and magenta like the successive layers of a fossil ammonite. The chromatic and tonal contrast of each successive geological layer creates a sense of depth and time within the work. The eye trips and caroms off the paint as it descends toward the last homogeneous coat that is visible at the base. Verticality, an important characteristic in Richter's oeuvre during this period, is powerfully present in Abstraktes Bild, a gesture that was re-iterated by the artist in two captivating over-painted photographs of the same year. Ohne titel (11.10.2004) has the same vertical, abstract pull of paint as is present in Abstraktes Bild, overlaid atop an image of two young children on a hill just as Ohne titel (8. Sept. 04) presents a landscape overlaid with a vertical stroke of paint in a similar palette.

REALITY AND REPRESENTATION

Well known for the heterogeneity of his artistic output, Richter's practice has primarily focused on deconstructing the idea that an absolute reality can be known or communicated through a single painting style. Indeed Richter has often suggested that abstraction and figuration appear as opposite ends to the same spectrum, abstraction being no less a representation of reality than those photorealist paintings of landscapes, people or places: 'every time we describe an event, add up a column of figures or take a photograph of a tree, we create a model; without models we would know nothing about reality and would be like animals. Abstract paintings are fictitious models because they visualise a reality, which we can neither see nor describe, but which we may nevertheless conclude exists. We attach negative names to this reality; the un-known, the un-graspable, the infinite, and for thousands of years we have depicted it in terms of substitute images live heaven and hell, gods and devils. With abstract painting we create a better means of approaching what can be neither seen nor understood' (G. Richter, quoted in R. Nasgaard, 'Gerhard Richter', Gerhard Richter: Paintings, exh. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 1988, p. 107).

Christie's. Post-War and Contemporary Art (Evening Auction) 13 February 2013 London, King Street.

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown).  Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2013

acrylic, oilstick and paper collage on canvas; 84 x 84 in. (213.4 x 213.4 cm.). Painted in 1983 (14). Estimate £7,000,000 - £9,000,000

Provenance: Larry Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles.
Kamran Diba, Paris (acquired from the above in 1983).
Private Collection, London.

Literature: M. Enrici, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Paris 1989 (illustrated in colour, p. 81).
Jean-Michel Basquiat, exh. cat., New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1992 (illustrated in colour, p. 251).
R. Marshall and J.L. Prat, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Paris, 1996, vol. II, no. 7 (illustrated in colour, pp. 100-101, 205 and 237).
Jean-Michel Basquiat: Works on Paper, exh. cat., Paris, Fondation Dina Vierny-Musée Maillol, 1997 (illustrated in colour, p. 159).
T. Shafrazi, J. Deitch and R. Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, New York, 1999 (illustrated in colour, p. 186).
Galerie Enrico Navarra, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Paris, 2000, no. 7 (illustrated in colour, pp. 154-157). 

Exhibited: Los Angeles, Larry Gagosian Gallery, Jean-Michel Basquiat: New Paintings, 1983.
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Passions Privées: Collections Particuliéres d'Art Moderne et Contemporain en France, 1995-1996, no. 5 (illustrated in colour, pp. 592-593).
Basel, Fondation Beyeler, Basquiat, 2010-2011, no. 128 (illustrated in colour, p. 118). This exhibition later travelled to Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. 

Notes: Bursting with a litany of words, symbols and signifiers in a cacophony of rainbow colours, Jean-Michel Basquiat's Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) is a masterpiece by the artist. Both painting and urban poem, it was undertaken at the very height of Basquiat's practice, marrying the energy of his haiku street graffiti, Cy Twombly's stream of consciousness applied to the written and painted word with the expressive gestures of the American Abstract Expressionist generation. Exhibited in the artist's second solo show at the Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles in 1983 alongside Hollywood Africans (1983), now held in the Whitney Museum of Modern Art, New York, the present work can be considered as a direct pendant to this important painting. Included in the artist's major retrospective exhibitions at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel and the Musée de la Ville de Paris Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown), was originally owned by Kamran Diba, the architect of the renowned Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art considered to be one of the greatest museum collections of contemporary art in the world. Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) was undertaken at the very height of Basquiat's artistic prowess. In 1982, Basquiat had exhibited at Documenta VII in Kassel, and in 1983 he was included in the Whitney Biennial, becoming the youngest artist to have represented America in a major international exhibition of contemporary art at the tender age of 22. Despite his youth and the originality of his art, critics unanimously recognized the maturity and talent demonstrated in his work. Basquiat said about this period, 'I had some money. I made the best paintings ever. I was completely reclusive, worked a lot, took a lot of drugs' (J.M. Basquiat, quoted in C. McGuigan, 'New Money: The Marketing of an American Artist', in The New York Times Magazine, 10 February 1985, p. 29).

In Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) as in Hollywood Africans, we see Basquiat return to the same potent compositional frame. Executed on the same scale the two counterparts share an expressive application of paint, Hollywood Africans drenched in black like the tarmac of New York City, overlayed with intense cadmium yellow, Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) in black on white with brilliant colour, like the bright lights on Broadway or the strobe illuminations of the downtown New Wave scene. Both share Basquiat's explosive display of enigmatic symbols and verbal erasure. Rendered in pyrotechnics of colour: shrieking violet, emerald green, fire engine red, orange and white, Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown)captures the frenetic pace of the artist's peripatetic existence. Across the surface of the canvas, Basquiat has spelt out words including Esso, Asbestos, Rome, 400 Yen and Priceless Art; the artist joking with characteristic mock irony about the value of his painted composition given the burgeoning demand for his work, his new found fame and fortune. As the title suggests, this work becomes a physical manifestation of Basquiat's thought process, committing images and ideas to canvas with a sense of urgency and immediacy. Simple phrases are interspersed with complex motifs taken from the artist's daily life. Dominating the top right portion of the canvas is Basquiat's riff on the ubiquitous Comic Code stamp, a self-regulatory seal of approval used to denote moral upstanding that appeared on all comic books from the 1950s until its use fell into decline in the mid-1980s. In Basquiat's version the Comics Magazine Association of America logo is replaced with his own monogram, his signature crown, an attempt perhaps both to mock the older convention and to assert his own status by placing his self-endorsed, seal of approval on this particular work. Other more enigmatic symbols include a hand with an outstretched index finger, his interpretation of an African mask that dominates the center of the composition, and the mysterious shield-like emblem that appears in the top left-hand corner.

Basquiat's breathless vocabulary is ushered onto the canvas with a force that combines both urgency and political perceptiveness. Ranging from historically dubious figures such as Papa Doc, the 1960s Haitian despot, to Hooverville; the name for shanty-towns built by the homeless people during the Great Depression, Basquait's choice of words show an empathy with the social underclass as they struggle to make their voices heard in society as a whole. In many waysMuseum Security (Broadway Meltdown) can be seen as a work that documents Basquiat's meteoric arrival on the art scene. As one of the few African Americans in a predominantly white art-world (the only other black faces he might have seen in the art world would have been the museum security guards of the work's title), he may have found it difficult to adjust to his rising fame. In Hollywood Africans (1983), we see Basquiat engaging a similar theme, playfully adding himself to a coterie of African-American Hollywood stars and reflecting upon his new-found stardom. It was during this important period that Basquiat begun to gain a reputation as one of the most exciting and innovative artists in New York, having been propelled from a street artist to artistic wunderkind in less than two years. The sense of speed and intensity of this ascension is deftly contained within the composition of Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) and the boldly hieroglyphic features, enigmatically rendered vocabulary, and painterly drips could be seen, in part, as an expression of the artist's stream of consciousness as well as a metaphor for his sudden rise to fame.

With its wild agglomeration of elements and artfully combined colour palette, Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) eschews the icy serial production of Pop art in favour of a new type of Expressionism, evoking the intuitive scrawls of Cy Twombly and the raw energy of Dubuffet's Art Brut. As Rene Ricard once famously asserted, 'if Cy Twombly and Jean Dubuffet had a baby and gave it up for adoption, it would be Jean- Michel' (R. Ricard, quoted in 'Radiant Child' Artforum, December 1981, p. 43). In Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) we see sentences simultaneously drawn, scored through, obscured and rewritten. Cy Twombly was clearly an influence in this respect. A close reading of Twombly's 1970 Untitled (Study for Treatise on the Veil) or The Italians (1961), would have perhaps provided Basquiat with a precedent for such verbal erasure. The difference however, is that whilst Twombly cancels to cancel, Basquiat cancels to reveal. As the artist himself explained, 'I cross out words so you will see them more; the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them' (J.M. Basquiat, interview with R. Farris Thompson, quoted in 'Royalty, Heroism and the Streets: The Art of Jean-Michel Basquiat', R. Marshall (ed.), Jean-Michel Basquiat, New York 1992, pp. 28-43). 

Christie's. Post-War and Contemporary Art (Evening Auction) 13 February 2013 London, King Street.

A gold and enamelled brooch in the form of a cicada by René Lalique, c.1902

Art Nouveau dragonfly brooch, circa 1900.

18 Karat Two-Color Gold, Sapphire and Diamond Brooch, Buccellati - photo Sotheby's

Designed as a floral spray, the flowerheads centered by five oval and cushion-cut sapphires, accented throughout with numerous round diamonds weighing approximately 6.60 carats, signed Buccellati. Estimation: 16,000 - 18,000 USD

Sotheby's. Important Jewels. New York | 07 févr. 2013 www.sothebys.com

Attribuéà Bartolomeo Castelli le Jeune, dit le Spadino (1696-1738), Natures mortes de fruits. Photo Guillaume Le Floc'h

Deux huiles sur toile (rentoilées). Haut. : 73,6 cm - Larg. : 61,2 cm. Beaux cadres en bois sculpté et doré du XVIIème siècle. Estimation : 10 000 / 12 000 €

Guillaume Le Floc'h. Dimanche 10 février 2013. Hôtel des Ventes de Saint-Cloud - 1 ter boulevard de la République - 92210 Saint-Cloud. Tel. 01 48 78 81 06

Jupe et veste en soie à fond bleu foncéà décor brodé de papillons et fleurs. Chine, XIXème siècle ou début du XXème siècle. Photo Guillaume Le Floc'h

Estimation : 400 / 600 €

Guillaume Le Floc'h. Dimanche 10 février 2013. Hôtel des Ventes de Saint-Cloud - 1 ter boulevard de la République - 92210 Saint-Cloud. Tel. 01 48 78 81 06

Paire de souliers de dame en soie brodée de la Chine, XIXème siècle. Photo Guillaume Le Floc'h

le talon et la semelle en cuir (petites usures). Long. : 24,5 cm. Estimation : 50 / 100 €

Guillaume Le Floc'h. Dimanche 10 février 2013. Hôtel des Ventes de Saint-Cloud - 1 ter boulevard de la République - 92210 Saint-Cloud. Tel. 01 48 78 81 06

18 Karat Gold, Emerald and Diamond Ring, Harry Winston - Photo Sotheby's

Centered by an emerald-cut emerald weighing 12.26 carats, flanked by four tapered baguette diamonds weighing approximately .60 carat, size 5¼, fitted with inner sizing band, with maker's marks for Jacques Timey. Estimation: 20,000 - 30,000 USD

Accompanied by AGL report no. CS 52827 stating that the emerald is of Colombian origin, clarity enhancement: faint, type: modern. 

FROM THE COLLECTION OF EVELYN H. LAUDER, SOLD TO BENEFIT THE BREAST CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION

Sotheby's. Important Jewels. New York | 07 févr. 2013 www.sothebys.com

Pair of 18 Karat Gold, Emerald and Diamond Earclips, Harry Winston - Sotheby's

Centered by two emerald-cut emeralds, framed by round, pear and marquise-shaped diamonds weighing approximately 7.75 carats, signed Winston. 

Estimation: 20,000 - 30,000 USD

Accompanied by AGL report no. CS 51937 A and B stating that the emeralds are of Zambian origin, clarity enhancement: insignificant to faint, type: traditional.. 

FROM THE COLLECTION OF EVELYN H. LAUDER, SOLD TO BENEFIT THE BREAST CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION

Sotheby's. Important Jewels. New York | 07 févr. 2013 www.sothebys.com

Eve Arnold: Elizabeth Taylor at the local pub. England, 1963.

Rudolph Valentino, années 1920

Silver Skull Vinaigrette, Europe 1701-1800

Like pomanders, vinaigrettes could be used as a vessel to hold strong smelling substances to be sniffed should the user be passing through a particularly smelly area. At a time when miasma theories of disease – the idea that disease was carried by foul air – were dominant, carrying a vinaigrette was considered a protective measure. Vapours from a vinegar-soaked sponge in the bottom were inhaled through the small holes in the top of the ‘acorn’. If a person felt faint they could also sniff their vinaigrette and the sharp vinegar smell might shock their body into action. The other side of the vinaigrette shows a face and could act as a memento mori – a reminder of death. The skull was probably hung from a piece of cord or necklace and carried at all times.

The Table

“Created by Efisio Marini - This table is formed of petrified brain, blood, bile, liver, lungs and glands on which sits a foot, four ears and cut vertebrae which are also petrified.” @ Musée d’Histoire de la Médecine / Paris

Pair of Platinum, Jade, Diamond and Onyx Clip-Brooches - photo Sotheby's

Of geometric design, the jade rings set at the sides with old European-cut diamonds weighing approximately 5.40 carats and calibré-cut onyx. With a vintage leather case signed Coven LaCLoche, 325 Calle Florida, Buenos Aires. Estimation: 15,000 - 20,000 USD

Sotheby's. Important Jewels. New York | 07 févr. 2013 www.sothebys.com

Platinum, Jade, Diamond and Onyx Bracelet - photo Sotheby's

The flexible strap composed of four carved jade discs spaced by four black onyx rings, accented throughout by numerous old European and rose-cut diamonds weighing approximately 3.50 carats, length 8¼ inches. Estimation: 15,000 - 20,000 USD

Sotheby's. Important Jewels. New York | 07 févr. 2013 www.sothebys.com

Exceptionnelle et spectaculaire glace à pare-closes. Travail italien du XVIIIe siècle. Photo Mercier & Cie

en bois argenté et sculptéà décor de coquilles, feuillages, guirlandes de fleurs et motifs feuillagés. Haut. : 234,5 cm - Larg. : 131 cm. Estimation : 15 000 / 17 000 €

Mercier & Cie. Dimanche 17 février 2013. Hôtel des ventes de Lille - 14, rue des jardins - 59000 Lille. www.mercier.com

Glace à pare-close en bois doré et sculpté. Époque Régence. Photo Mercier & Cie

d'oiseaux fantastiques, guirlandes feuillagées, coquilles et motifs rocailles. (Petits accidents et manques). Haut. : 180 cm - Larg. : 103 cm. Estimation : 8 000 / 10 000 €

Mercier & Cie. Dimanche 17 février 2013. Hôtel des ventes de Lille - 14, rue des jardins - 59000 Lille. www.mercier.com

Large fauteuil à châssis en bois rechampi, crème et doré. Estampillé Nicolas Quinibert Foliot, reçu Maître en 1729. Époque Louis XV. Photo Mercier & Cie

à décor largement sculpté sur le dossier mouvementé de fleurs, fleurette et motifs rocailles. Crosses d'accotoirs en coup de fouet. Ceinture mouvementée. Ils reposent sur quatre pieds galbés. Garniture de soierie au chinois. Haut. : 97,5 cm - Larg. : 66 cm - Prof. : 67 cm. Estimation : 12 000 / 15 000 €

Mercier & Cie. Dimanche 17 février 2013. Hôtel des ventes de Lille - 14, rue des jardins - 59000 Lille. www.mercier.com