Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled (1982). Oil stick on paper, 42⅝ x 30in. (108.3 x 76.2cm.) Estimate: £1 - 1.5m.© Christie’s Images Limited 2017.

LONDON.- Christie’s will present Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (1982, estimate: £1,000,000 - 1,500,000) from the collection of U2’s bassist Adam Clayton as a major highlight of the upcoming Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction on 7 March. Held for over twenty-five years in Clayton’s collection, Untitled featured on the front cover of the catalogue for the exhibition Basquiat Drawings held in 1990 at The Robert Miller Gallery in New York. A deeply poignant self-portrait, the work offers a rare insight into Basquiat’s psyche at a pivotal moment in his career: a tear drops from his eye; his arms seem to pierce his body like an arrow. Basquiat depicts himself as a martyr: a Saint Sebastian-like figure for the contemporary age. Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled will be on view as part of a global tour to Beijing (11-13 February), New York (24-26 February) and London (from 3 March) ahead of the auction at Christie’s King Street, London. 

Adam Clayton: “There was a group of them – there was Basquiat, there was Keith Haring, and obviously Warhol was the granddaddy of the whole movement. The idea that these young painters without any gallery experience could make their mark on the streets of New York – could go to the hippest night clubs, could mix with musical culture – was very exciting to me. It was where I came from – I always thought music and art went hand in hand together.” 

Francis Outred, Chairman and Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art EMERI: “On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of U2’s Joshua Tree, an album which was a thorough exploration of the band’s political and spiritual relationship with the United States, it is a rare privilege to showcase this work which Adam Clayton acquired during his first months of moving to New York. Unlike other selfportraits by Basquiat it articulates his fragility as a figure who is coming to terms with his new position in the world and injects the deepest pathos into the narrative of his dramatic trajectory from anonymous graffiti artist to international art superstar.” 

The work was acquired soon after Clayton’s arrival in New York and less than two years after Basquiat’s death. U2, by this point, were enjoying great success globally, and were exploring a new electronic sound world that would come to fruition in their celebrated album Achtung Baby (1991). At the same time the band acquired a large painting by Basquiat which was installed in the studio where they were working at the time. 

Rendered on an exceptional scale, the work bears all the hallmarks of the raw graphic language that, during this period, propelled Basquiat from anonymous graffiti artist to international superstar. Channelling influences ranging from Pablo Picasso and Leonardo da Vinci to comic books and cave paintings, the artist performs a rigorous anatomical dissection. In contrast to the heroism of his selfportrait paintings from this period, here Basquiat casts himself as a victim of his new status: an itinerant street artist raised to meteoric heights in an unfamiliar world

Parmigianino, The Virgin and Child with Saint Mary Magdalen and the Infant Saint John the Baptist.

LONDON.- Culture Minister Matt Hancock has placed a temporary export bar on a 16th century masterpiece by Parmigianino, to provide an opportunity to keep it in the country. 

The Virgin and Child with Saint Mary Magdalen and the Infant Saint John the Baptist is at risk of being exported from the UK unless a buyer can be found to match the asking price of £24.5 million. 

This exceptional artwork is a rare example of a religious easel painting from the last decade of the artist’s short career. It is one of the finest examples by Parmigianino remaining in private hands and is the only late religious painting by the artist in the United Kingdom. 

The extraordinary work has been in the United Kingdom for nearly 250 years and was one of the first Parmigianinos to be bought by a British collector. Acquired from the Barberini Collection in Rome, it has passed through the collections of three of the country’s major collectors of Italian Renaissance painting. 

Minister of State for Digital and Culture Matt Hancock said: “This incredible painting has been in the UK for almost 250 years and showcases the amazing talent of Parmigianino and his eloquent approach to composition. 

“Its highly unusual iconography and rare depth of colour helps us to understand his masterful technique and I very much hope that we keep this wonderful piece in the UK and on display, so that generations can marvel at it in the years to come.” 

The decision to defer the export licence follows a recommendation by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA), administered by The Arts Council. 

The RCEWA made its recommendation on the grounds of the painting’s aesthetic importance and outstanding significance to the study of Parmigianino’s oeuvre and to the sixteenth-century practice of painting on paper laid on panel. 

RCEWA member Aidan Weston-Lewis said: “I can’t think of a more ravishingly beautiful Italian Old Master painting remaining in any private collection in the United Kingdom. It is in pristine condition, has a very distinguished ownership history and, unusually for the period, has the additional fascination of being painted on paper, which opens up new avenues for scholarly research and technical investigation. Its permanent export overseas would be a major loss.” 

The decision on the export licence application for the painting will be deferred until 9 June 2017. This may be extended until 9 December 2017 if a serious intention to raise funds to purchase it is made at the recommended price of £24.5 million (plus VAT of £196,000). 

Offers from public bodies for less than the recommended price through the private treaty sale arrangements, where appropriate, may also be considered by Matt Hancock. Such purchases frequently offer substantial financial benefit to a public institution wishing to acquire the item. Organisations or individuals interested in purchasing the painting should contact the RCEWA on 0845 300 6200.

Lot 369. A famille rose-enameled white glass snuff bottle, Imperial, Yangzhou, circa 1770-1820. Estimate USD 4,000 - USD 6,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

The semi-opaque glass body is decorated with a continuous scene of three monkeys in a landscape. 2 ¼ in. (5.3 cm.) high, glass stopper

Provenance: Margaret Pollack Collection; Bonham's San Francisco, 22 June 2011, lot 2077.
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd., Hong Kong, 2012.
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 5332.

Christie's. The Ruth and Carl Barron Collection of Fine Chinese Snuff Bottles: Part IV, 15 March 2017, New York, Rockefeller Center

Lot 344. A famille rose porcelain snuff bottle, Imperial, Jingdezhen kilns, Daoguang four-character seal mark in iron red and of the period (1821-1850). Estimate USD 4,000 - USD 6,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

The bottle is decorated on one side with an equestrian with a dog, the reverse with an official leading a camel. 2 3/8 in. (6 cm.) high, glass stopper

Provenance: Robert Hall, London, 2007.
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 4688.

Christie's. The Ruth and Carl Barron Collection of Fine Chinese Snuff Bottles: Part IV, 15 March 2017, New York, Rockefeller Center

Lot 303. A rare enamelled porcelain snuff bottle, Imperial, Jingdezhen kilns, Daoguang four-character seal mark in iron red and of the period (1821-1850). Estimate USD 4,000 - USD 6,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

The bottle is decorated on one side with a scene of a seated scholar in a moored boat before low hills and a large sun. The reverse is decorated with a young lady holding a basket with a fish beneath a willow tree, flanked by raised iron-red rectangular panels edged in gold on the narrow sides. 2 ¾ in. (6.6 cm.) high, glass stopper

Provenance: 

Charles V. Swain, Pennsylvania. 
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd., Hong Kong, 2009. 
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 4913.

 Christie's. The Ruth and Carl Barron Collection of Fine Chinese Snuff Bottles: Part IV, 15 March 2017, New York, Rockefeller Center

Flacon à tabac à décor de dragon dans les nuages, dynastie Ming (1368-1644), porcelaine, Hauteur : 6,5 cm. Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques, G4483. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée Guimet, Paris) / Thierry Ollivier

Flacon à tabac à décor de dragon dans les nuages, règne de Qianlong (1736-1795), porcelaine, Hauteur : 6,5 cm. Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques, G4483. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée Guimet, Paris) / Thierry Ollivier

Flacon à tabac à décor de dragon et fleur de pivoine, règne de Yongzheng (1723-1735), porcelaine, Hauteur : 6,3 cm. Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques, MG5465. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée Guimet, Paris) / Thierry Ollivier

Flacon à tabac dans un ancien pot à collyre de forme globulaire, dynastie Qing (1644-1911), 18e siècle, porcelaine, Hauteur : 4,5 cm. Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques, G3253. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée Guimet, Paris) / Thierry Ollivier

MADRID - Opening in February at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza is Masterworks from Budapest. From the Renaissance to the Avant-Garde, an exhibition which, for the first time in Spain, presents an important selection of paintings, drawings and sculptures from the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest and the Hungarian National Gallery. In total the exhibition features 90 works from the 15th to the 19th centuries representing artistic schools such as the Italian, German, Flemish and Spanish and including great names from the history of art such as Dürer, Leonardo da Vinci, Rubens, Velázquez, Tiepolo, Cézanne and Manet, in addition to interesting works by Hungarian artists, together offering visitors a comprehensive idea of the collections housed in these institutions.

Curated by Guillermo Solana, artistic director of the Museo Thyssen, and Mar Borobia, head of its Department of Old Master Painting, the exhibition is organised in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts, which is closed for renovation until March 2018, and the Hungarian National Gallery, where part of the Museum of Fine Arts’s collection is temporarily exhibited. To be accompanied by a range of activities, this is the first event in the Museo Thyssen’s exhibition programme for 2017, the year that marks the 25th anniversary of its opening to the public. 

Masterworks from Budapest. From the Renaissance to the Avant-Garde is divided into seven sections: The Renaissance in the North, which focuses on 16th-century German painting through the work of artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach the Elder and Hans Baldung 

Grien; The Renaissance in the South, with works by Leonardo da Vinci, Lotto, Raphael and Bronzino; The Baroque in Flanders and Holland, a room that includes works by Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck; The Baroque in Italy and Spain, with canvases by Annibale Carracci, Alonso Cano and Velázquez; The 18th century, with an excellent representation of the Venetian school led by Sebastiano Ricci and Giambattista Tiepolo, magnificent works by Central European artists who are little known in Spain, including an exceptional group of sculptures by Franz Xavier Messerschmidt; a monographic room devoted to The New Image of Women, with works by artists from Manet to Kokoschka; and finally, From Impressionism to the Avant-Garde, which presents international art from the 19th century to World War I. 

The Renaissance in the North

Grouped around Dürer, the most celebrated artist of the German Renaissance, represented here by Portrait of a Young Man (ca.1500-1510) and Lancer on a Horseback (1502), this opening section displays the work of other leading northern European artists such as Lucas Cranach the Elder with Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist (ca.1526-1530), an example of the artist’s finest style; Albrecht Altdorfer with The Crucifixion (ca.1518-1520); Jan Gosseart with The Mocking of Christ (1527); and Hans Baldung Grien, with The Virgin of Sorrows (Mater dolorosa) (ca.1516). The section is completed with a magnificent landscape drawing by Wolf Huber and a work by the Mannerist artist Bartholomeus Spranger.

Lucas Cranach the Elder, Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist, ca.1526-1530, oil on poplar wood, 88.4 x 58.3 cm. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts.

Hans Baldung Grien, The Virgin of Sorrows (Mater dolorosa), ca.1516, oil on wood, 152.2 x 46 cm. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts. 

The Renaissance in the South

The second room focuses on leading names of the Italian Renaissance, with important examples of the Florentine, Venetian and Lombard schools. Outstanding among them are two works by Leonardo da Vinci: a drawing of Studies of Horses’ Legs (ca.1490- 1492) and a small equestrian sculpture of a Mounted Warrior (1500-1505). Other exquisite creations include the Esterházy Madonna (ca.1508) by Raphael, a celebrated work from the artist’s mature period; The Adoration of the Shepherds (ca.1539-1540) by Bronzino, a masterpiece of fully developed Mannerism; and Mary Magdalene in Penitence by El Greco (ca. 1576), which reveals the influence of Italian art on the Cretan artist’s painting.

Leonardo da Vinci, Studies of Horses’ Legs, ca.1490- 1492, charcoal on paper, 21.3 x 14.5 cm. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts. 

Raphael, Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John Baptist (The Esterházy Madonna), ca.1508, tempera and oil on wood, 28.5 x 21.5 cm. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts. 

El Greco, Mary Magdalene in Penitence, ca. 1576, oil on canvas, 156.6 x 121 cm. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts. 

The Baroque in Flanders and Holland

A large-format canvas by Rubens, one of the greatest representatives of Baroque painting, opens the next section, dedicated to this artistic tendency in Flanders and Holland. Rubens’s canvas, which depicts Mucius Scaevola before Porsenna (ca.1618-1620), reveals how the painter made use of all his artistic resources to reflect this episode with enormous intensity, demonstrating a masterly synthesis of the Flemish and Italian schools. It is very likely that the canvas was painted with the collaboration of Rubens’s most gifted pupil, Anthony van Dyck, also represented here by Saint John the Evangelist (ca.1620), an elegant canvas that was part of an Apostles series.

Other Flemish painters present in this section are Jacob Jordaens, with his canvas of Adam and Eve (1630-1640), and Jacob Grimmer, with a set of four canvases on the Seasons. 

Peter Paul Rubens and Anton van Dyck, Mucius Scaevola before Porsenna, ca.1618-1620, oil on canvas, 187 x 156 cm. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts.

Pieter Claesz, Still Life with Fruit and Roemer, 1644, oil on canvas, 104.5 x 146 cm. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts.

The Baroque in Italy and Spain

The most important representatives of Spanish Golden Age painting are brought together in this space. They include Francisco de Zurbarán, with a late Immaculate Conception (1661), and Diego Velázquez with Tavern Scene with two Men and a Girl (The Luncheon) (ca.1618-1619), an early work that offers a simple presentation of an everyday subject. This section also includes works by Alonso Cano, Bartolomé Murillo and Mateo Cerezo, represented by splendid canvases on religious subjects. Alongside them are outstanding examples of Italian Baroque painting: Christ and the Samaritan Woman (ca.1596-1597) by Annibale Carracci, one of the most important works within the early classicising Baroque current; Diana and Actaeon (ca.1603-1606) by the Mannerist painter Giuseppe Cesari, which depicts an episode from Ovid’s Metamorphoses; and a colourful Annunciation (ca.1640) by Bernardo Strozzi.

Diego Velázquez, Tavern Scene with two Men and a Girl (The Luncheon), ca.1618-1619, oil on canvas, 96 x 112 cm. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts.

Alonso Cano, Noli me tangere, after 1640, oil on canvas, 141.5 x 109.5 cm. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts.

Annibale Carracci, Christ and the Samaritan Woman, ca.1596-1597, oil on canvas, 76.5 x 63.5 cm. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts.

The 18th Century

Within the outstanding collection of paintings housed in the Museum of Fine Arts, the representation of the Venetian school is particularly notable in terms of both quality and number of works. This section, the largest in the exhibition, presents a selection from these holdings, including the oil on canvas Bathsheba at Her Bath (ca.1724) by Sebastiano Ricci and The Virgin with Six Saints (1749- 1750) by Giambattista Tiepolo, in addition to a number of city views by the famous vedute painters Canaletto, Guardi and Bellotto. The section is completed with three canvases by Francisco de Goya: a portrait of Ceán Bermúdez’s wife (1792-1793), The Water Carrier (1808-1812), and The Knife Grinder (1808-1812); a group of works by the German sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, notably his series known as the Character Heads, constituting a repertoire of grotesque facial expressions; and a selection of works by Hungarian artists including Jakab Bogdány, Ján Kupecký y Ádám Mányoki.

Giambattista Tiepolo, The Virgin with Six Saints, 1749- 1750, oil on canvas, 72.8 x 56 cm. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts.

Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal), The Lock at Dolo, ca. 1763, oil on canvas, 30.5 x 44.5 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, The Water Carrier, 1808-1812, oil on canvas, 68 x 50.5 cm. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts

The New Image of Women

Symbolism, one of the artistic movements that characterised the last quarter of the 19th century, placed a renewed emphasis on emotions, states of mind, dreams and fantasy through the female figure. Artists affiliated with this movement include Puvis de Chavannes from France, Arnold Böcklin from Switzerland, Franz von Stuck from Germany and János Vaszary from Hungary. Their work is to be seen in this section alongside various powerful and expressive paintings by Oskar Kokoschka and Lady with a Fan (1862) by Édouard Manet, who was associated with Baudelaire, the poet and precursor of Symbolism.

Édouard Manet, Lady with a Fan, 1862, oil on canvas, 89.5 x 113 cm. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts.

József Rippl-Rónai, Woman in a White-dotted Dress, 1889, oil on canvas, 187 x 75 cm. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts. 

From Impressionism to the Avant-garde

This final room presents a selection of works from different artistic movements spanning the final decades of the 19th century to the start of World War I. They range from Claude Monet’s rapid, spontaneous brushstroke in Plum Trees in Blossom (1879) to Camille Pissarro’s manner of capturing the effects of light in The Pont Neuf (1902), the new ideas on pure colours introduced by Paul Gauguin in Black Pigs (1891), or Cézanne’s characteristic volumes in The Buffet (1877-1879). This section also focuses on several great Hungarian painters, including Károly Ferenczy, Adolf Fényes, Vilmos Perlrott-Csaba, Sándor Ziffer and Sándor Bortnyik, whose work reveals the influence of the new pictorial languages that emerged in France, from Impressionism and Neo-impressionism to the Avant-Garde.

Claude Monet, Plum Trees in Blossom, 1879, oil on canvas, 64.5 x 181 cm. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts.

Camille Pissarro, The Pont-Neuf, 1902, oil on canvas, 55.3 x 46.5 cm. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts.

Paul Gauguin, Black Pigs, 1891, oil on canvas, 92.5 x 72.2 cm. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts.

Károly Ferenczy, Stream II, 1907, oil on canvas, 134 x 171 cm. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts.

Adolf Fényes, Poppy-seed Cake, 1910, oil on canvas, 80 x 87 cm. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts.

Sándor Bortnyik, The New Adam, 1924, oil on canvas, 48 x 38 cm. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts.

Flacon à tabac à décor de fleurs de prunus dans le style japonais maki-e, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722), cuivre, émail peint, Hauteur : 7,6 cm. Taïwan, Taipei, Musée national du Palais, K1E000823N. Photo © National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taïwan, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / image NPM

Flacon à tabac en forme de segment de bambou, règne de Yongzheng (1723-1735), émail sur verre, Hauteur : 6,5 cm-Diamètre : 2,2 cm. Taïwan, Taipei, Musée national du Palais, K1E000931N. Photo © National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taïwan, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / image NPM

Flacon à tabac, dynastie Qing (1644-1911), 19e siècle, marque "Peint lors des mois d'hiver par Chou Le-yüan", verre peint, Hauteur : 6 cm. Taïwan, Taipei, Musée national du Palais, K1D001808N. Photo © National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taïwan, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / image NPM

Les flacons à tabac étaient de fréquents cadeaux de cour. Chou Le-yüan était actif à la fin du 19ème siècle.

Calligraphy and blossom snuff-bottle (double), 1800-1840, Qing dynasty, famille rose enamelled porcelain. Height: 2.4 inches - Diameter: 2 inches. Donated by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, The British Museum, London, Franks.609.+. © Trustees of the British Museum

Double gourd-shaped snuff bottle, circa 1780-1830, Qing dynasty, brown, green, yellow, red glazed porcelain; glass stopper. Height: 2.5 inches (with stopper). Bequeathed by Oscar Charles Raphael, The British Museum, London, 1945,1017.353. © Trustees of the British Museum

Flacon à tabac à décor de personnages féminins, 18e siècle, règne de Qianlong (1736-1795), fours de Jingdezhen, laque sur porcelaine, H. 7,1 cm. Legs Dreyfus-Barney 1975. Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques, MA3752. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée Guimet, Paris) / Thierry Ollivier

Flacon à tabac à décor de dragon, dynastie Qing, fin du 18e siècle. Porcelaine. Ancienne collection Grandidier. Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques, G4671. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée Guimet, Paris) / Mathieu Ravaux

Flacon à tabac à décor de dragon à cinq griffes agrippant fermement la perle enflammée parmi les nuages, fin du 19e siècle, règne de Daoguang (1821-1850), porcelaine, fours de Jingdezhen, Hauteur : 6,7 cm-Largeur : 5,1 cm. Ancienne collection Ernest Grandidier. Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques, G2251. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée Guimet, Paris) / Mathieu Ravaux

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio  (1571-1610), 'Boy Bitten by a Lizard', ca. 1593-1595, Fondazione di Studi di Storia dell’Arte Roberto Longhi, Florencia. © Fondazione di Studi di Storia dell’Arte Roberto Longhi

 DUBLIN.- The highly anticipated exhibition Beyond Caravaggio opened this Saturday 11 February in the National Gallery of Ireland. Out of a total of 42 major works from the sixteenth and seventeenth century, four are master paintings by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610). Many of the works in the show are on loan from private collections, and regional galleries, and is, therefore, be a rare opportunity for visitors to see works not easily available to the public. 

Adrian Le Harivel, co-curator of Beyond Caravaggio says: ‘”This exhibition will bring together, for the first time in Dublin, thirty major artists who knew or were inspired by Caravaggio. It underlies the incredible impact that he had on painting at the time, whose ripples are still felt today.”