Ahmet Ertug, Pantheon, Paris, 2011. Photo Philips
Lightjet print, flush-mounted. 221 x 180 cm (87 x 70 7/8 in) Signed in ink, printed title, date and number 1/3 on an artists label accompanying the work. One from an edition of 3 plus 1 artists proof. Estimate £25,000 - 35,000
PROVENANCE: Acquired directly from the artist
LITERATURE: A. Ertug, Domes: A Journey Through European Architectural History, 2011, pl. 78
Philips. PHOTOGRAPHS LONDON 8 MAY 2013 4PM
Lucio Fontana, Concetto spaziale, Attese, 1961. Photo Philips
waterpaint on canvas; 21 3/8 x 28 3/4 in. (54.3 x 73 cm.). Signed, titled and inscribed “l. fontana Concetto spaziale ATTESE 1+1-333H” on the reverse. Estimate $900,000 - 1,200,000
PROVENANCE: Galerie Tarica, Paris
Private collection
Christie's, London, Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, June 22, 2006, Lot 32
Private Collection, Europe
EXHIBITED: Munich, Galerie Heseler,Fontana, September 3 – 28, 1967
LITERATURE: E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana,Catalogue raisonné des peintures, sculptures et environnements spatiaux, vol. II, Brussels, 1974, no. 61 T 9, p. 126 (illustrated)
E. Crispolti, Fontana catalogo generale, vol. II, Milan, 1986, no. 61 T 9, p. 425 (illustrated)
E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana: Catalogo ragionato di sculture, dipinti, ambientazioni, Tomo II, Milan, 2006, no. 61 T 9, p. 613 (illustrated)
“I don’t want to make a picture, I want to open up space, to create a new dimension for art, to connect it up with the cosmos as it lies infinitely outstretched, beyond the flat surface or the image.” LUCIO FONTANA, 1970
Lucio Fontana, Italian painter, sculptor, and theorist of Argentine birth, is canonically recognized as a leader of the twentieth century avant-garde and an instigator of the
action genre. Introduced to sculpture by his father and classically trained under sculptor Adolfo Wildt, member of the Novecento Italiano group, Fontana would quickly react
against the ideology instilled within the romanticism of retrospective Italian art and his attention would soon turn toward Neoexpressionism. The desire to investigate
notions of sculptural space, however, would remain a key component of Fontana’s practice, gaining enough momentum to become one of his greatest contributions
to art history, transcending notions of dimensionality, exemplified here in Concetto spaziale, Attese, 1961.
In the aftermath of World War II, Fontana, like many of his European and American contemporaries, instinctively felt that the meaning of art had changed and, with this in
mind, he began to expand on the theoretical concept of art and space in five manifestos, developed throughout 1947 to 1952. Sharing a Futurist interest in technological and scientific progress, Fontana emphasized the need to push abstraction past its stagnant two-dimensional state and into the third and fourth realms of physical dimension. This form of abstraction necessitated the inclusion of time as a spatial element; indicated through the active intervention of spatial form, the planar confine of the canvas was sliced through in a dramatic gesture, revealing extensions of time and space– physical negotiations of infinity. Melding architecture, sculpture and painting, Fontana’s aesthetic idiom transcends the superficiality of surface and confronts the sanctity of painterly traditions by slashing, slicing and puncturing the canvas.
Striking in its meditative stark black pigment, Concetto spaziale, Attese, 1961, reverberates with intuitive poetic gesture; four elegant vertical incisions punctuate the canvas like musical notes ringing through a dark abyss. Literally translated, the title of this piece, like many in this series, means Spatial concept, and the word Attese means to wait or to expect. Rarely wasting a canvas, the artist would spend much of this time contemplating and waiting until a moment of inspiration overcame him. He would then approach the painted canvas with his blade, creating concise slashes or tagli. Puncturing the once tense surface of the canvas, it delicately folds back inviting the viewer’s gaze to reach beyond the plane, to penetrate and contemplate the infinite expanse. In order to achieve this illusion, the artist would often line the reverse of the canvas with black linen; resulting in the appearance of black space beyond the slashes, furthering the perception of depth. Fontana’s choice of color in this work evokes the boundless quality of interplanetary space, and beyond that, noted by the breaking of the surface, suggests a collapse in temporality. indeed, the present
work is a magnificent example of Fontana’s compositional and chromatic cosmos: “With my innovation of the hole pierced through the canvas in repetitive formations,I have not attempted to decorate a surface, but on the contrary,I have tried to break its dimensional limitations. Beyond the perforations, a newly gained freedom of interpretations awaits us, but also, and just as inevitably, the end of art” (Lucio Fontana in Minneapolis, Walker art center, Lucio Fontana, 1966)
In this way, Fontana’s Concetto spaziale, Attese, 1961, a most elegant example of his Tagli paintings, goes beyond political action and beyond the break of artistic and cultural tradition. Fontana posits a metaphysical revelation. His deliberate and sophisticated incisions create a language of their own– responding to the duality of nature;,
creative and destructive, contemplative and spontaneous, singular and repetitive. This notion of duality, chance and interaction bears comparison to the artistic practices of
Fontana’s contemporaries, Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings and Yves Klein’s conducted paintings. In the present lot, we witness one of the most subversive approaches to art making of the twentieth century, a theoretical interpretation of medium and perspective culminating into an exalted conceptual sublime.
Glenn Ligon, Stranger Drawing #7, 2004. Photo Philips
coal dust, oil, pencil on paper mounted on aluminum 60 x 40 in. (152.4 x 101.6 cm.) Signed, titled and dated Glenn Ligon 2004 Stranger Drawing #7 on the reverse. Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
PROVENANCE: Baldwin Gallery, Aspen
“At some point I realized that the text was the painting and that everything else was extraneous. The painting became the act of writing a text on a canvas, but in all my work, text turns into abstraction.” GLENN LIGON, 2009
In 1985, Bronx-born Glenn Ligon attended the Whitney museum’s independent study program, focusing heavily on the use of text within art and setting in motion a career largely defined by this initial intrigue. In 2011, Ligon would return to the Whitney for his first comprehensive mid-career retrospective which was also shown at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
Though he has always worked across a vast range of media, Ligon is best known for his text-based paintings. The current lot epitomizes the artist’s ability to transform text into abstraction. The heavy black oilstick covers text from James Baldwin’s 1955 essay, Stranger in the Village, which describes the perspective of a man who moves to a small Swiss village where no one had ever seen a black man before. Though the viewer can make out the shapes of some letters and even a few words, it is nearly impossible to read the text in its entirety. The viewer’s inability to see beyond the muddled surface of the work prevents the viewer from processing the text. In this way Ligon has placed the viewer in the position of the Swiss villagers: trying to understand, but finding it impossible to look past the outermost appearance of the other. The ostracization of the viewer—enticing them to develop a deeper understanding of the work despite implementing obstacles that prevent that aim from being fully realized–anticipates the helplessness expressed by Bladwin’s essay, and contained within the painting: “[James] Joyce is right about history being a nightmare-but it may be the nightmare from which no one can awaken. People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.”
A good dehua porcelain vase with mask handles, China, 18th century. Photo Nagel Auktionen
Good condition. H. 35,7 cm. Estimate 6 000 - 7 000 €
Property from an European private collection
Nagel Auktionen. Asian Art, 2013/05/10. http://www.auction.de
A ruby and diamond necklace. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2013
The detachable pendant/brooch designed as a pavé-set diamond stylized bow enhanced by rectangular-cut rubies and flanked with two larger brilliant-cut diamonds, weighing approximately 1.83 and 1.79 carats, to the brilliant and baguette-cut diamond twin-line neckchain with tied ribbon motifs, 1950s, 43.0 cm. Estimate CHF10,000 – CHF18,000
Christie's. MAGNIFICENT JEWELS. 15 May 2013. Geneva
A pair of copper-red glazed porcelain saucer dishes, China, underglaze blue seal marks and period of Qianlong. Photo Nagel Auktionen
One dish with three, the other dish with four very small or tiny chips to rim. D. 20,9 cm. Estimate 4 000 - 6 000 €
Property from an old North German private collection, purchased in the 1960ies and 1970ies
Nagel Auktionen. Asian Art, 2013/05/10. http://www.auction.de
A pair of ruby and diamond ear pendants. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2013
Of triangular outline, each designed as a sculpted plaque set with alternated lines of rose-cut rubies and circular-cut diamonds, suspended from a pear-shaped rose-cut diamond top, 8.6 cm. Estimate CHF10,000 – CHF15,000
Christie's. MAGNIFICENT JEWELS. 15 May 2013. Geneva
Chinese Grayish-White Jade Cup Stand, 20th Century. Photo courtesy iGavel Auctions
NEW YORK, NY.- The iGavel Auctions sale of Asian, Ancient, and Ethnographic Works of Art presented by Lark Mason and Associates that closed on May 1st, 2013, had 305 sold lots resulting in a total of over $2.75 million. Buyers were from many countries, with a large group of successful bidders from the People's Republic of China. As iGavel enters its' tenth year, this Asian sale represents a strong continuance of the company's successful auction history and ability to navigate the Asian art and antiquities market.
"The sale significantly exceeded our expectations and I am extremely pleased for our consignors," says Lark Mason. "The results remind us, once again, that even in challenging economic times, the finest objects are highly desirable."
Seven lots sold above $100,000 each, and received 166 bids. The top ten lots realized $1,185,270, and received over 208 bids. The high-value lot from this auction was a Chinese Grayish-White Jade Cup Stand, 20th Century, which sold for $216,000 and had 43 bids.
Other highlights include: a Chinese 'Three Friends' Rhinoceros Horn Libation Cup, 17th/18th Century, which sold for $162,000; a Chinese Huanghuali and Hongmu Cabinet with Carved Dragon Doors, 20th Century, which sold for $144,000; a Chinese Enamel Decorated Porcelain Peach Vase, 18th Century, which sold for $138,600; a Chinese Archaistic Rhinoceros Horn Cup, 17th/18th Century, which sold for $120,000; a Chinese Rhinoceros Horn Lotus Decorated Cup, 17th Century, which sold for $110,400; a Chinese Gilt Bronze Standing Buddha on Lotus Base, 17th/18th Century, which sold for $108,000; a Chinese Rhinoceros Horn Libation Cup with Magnolia and Prunus, Late 17th Century, which sold for $96,000; and a Chinese Imperial Ancestor Portrait, Color Inks on Silk, 19th Century, which sold for $90,000.
iGavel is a leader in online art auctions. Their sellers are a select group of international dealers, non-profit organizations, and regional auction houses, who follow a code of professional conduct in their presentation and sale of works of art on the iGavel Auctions site.
Lark E. Mason - President of iGavel - is the author of numerous articles on Asian art, the translator of two major works on Chinese furniture, and the author of the acclaimed guide to the arts of Asia, Asian Art. He was formerly a Senior Vice President with Sotheby's Chinese Works of Art Department, and a Director of Online Auctions for Sothebys.com. He frequently appears on national and international media as a guest appraiser.
Chinese Grayish-White Jade Cup Stand, 20th Century. Photo courtesy iGavel Auctions
The stone of a grayish white tone; one vajra head broken off; scattered nicks and chips. Diameter: 5 3/4 inches. Estimate $10000-15000. Lot sold $216,000
Chinese 'Three Friends' Rhinoceros Horn Libation Cup, 17th-18th Century. Photo courtesy iGavel Auctions
Carved with the 'Three Friends of Winter'. Width: 5 3/4 inches; height: 3 3/8 inches. Estimate $80000-120000. Lot sold $ 162,000.00
iGavel Auctions. Asian, Ancient, and Ethnographic Works of Art. May 1st, 2013. http://www.igavelauctions.com/
Chinese Archaistic Rhinoceros Horn Cup, 17th-18th Century. Photo courtesy iGavel Auctions
Width: 6 inches; height: 3 1/2 inches. Scattered cracks; chips to the foot, carving, and lowest section of the body; the dragon climbing up the exterior spout with a chip to the tip of the tail; scattered filled holes from insect activity, including approximately 3 around the rim and spout; one filled split and hole at the base of the spout, just above the foot; and a chip to the leg of a dragon on the exterior handle. Estimate $70000-100000. Lot sold $ 120,000.00
iGavel Auctions. Asian, Ancient, and Ethnographic Works of Art. May 1st, 2013. http://www.igavelauctions.com/
Chinese Rhinoceros Horn Lotus Decorated Cup, 17th Century. Photo courtesy iGavel Auctions
This cup was inherited from a descendant of GE “Chinese” Morrison. George Ernest Morrison, born on 4 February 1862, was an Australian adventurer who is known for his travels in Asia and the Pacific. Before the age of 21, he traveled to the South Sea Islands and wrote an expose of the evils of the “Kanaka” trade, a trade in “indentured” labor for the Queensland sugar plantations that included kidnapping. His article was published by ‘The Age’ and influenced the eventual suppression of the trade. After several years working in New Guinea and other Asian countries as a journalist, in 1897 he moved to Peking and became the first permanent correspondent there for the London ‘Times’. While there he reported on the tensions between China and Russia and later on he experienced and reported on the Boxer Rebellion. Morrison not only wrote about the Boxer Rebellion, but he also took up arms and joined in defense of the foreign legations that were under siege. Several years later, he was still in China when the 1911 revolution erupted. At that time Morrison took up arms with the revolutionaries and helped fight to establish the Republic of China in 1912. Directly after the Republic was established, Morrison resigned from the ‘Times’ and took a position as an advisor to the Chinese government. He spent the remainder of his career as a representative of the Chinese government. He passed away on 30 May 1920.
Width: 6 1/2 inches, height: 3 7/8 inches. The lotus flower carved at the top of the handle with a glued break to a portion of the petals; the central exterior petal with a split, and a hole from insect activity, a few small nicks to the top edge of the petals; the leaves emanating from the base of the handle with chips along the edges, and one with a 1/4 inch long break to the tip; the top edge of one side with a 3/4 inch long split; the exterior base of the spout with a 1 1/2 inch horizontal split, filled partially with resin; the exterior rim on the other side with a 1/2 by 1/2 inch chip; with scattered cracks and nicks. Estimate $40000-60000. Lot sold $ 110,400.00
Provenance: Property of a direct descendant of GE “Chinese” Morrison, adventurer, and London Times correspondent in China during the Boxer Rebellion
iGavel Auctions. Asian, Ancient, and Ethnographic Works of Art. May 1st, 2013. http://www.igavelauctions.com/
Chinese Rhinoceros Horn Libation Cup with Magnolia and Prunus, Late 17th Century.
With fitted wood stand. Width: 5 1/2 inches; height 3 inches. The base with a magnolia bud, 1 1/4 inches long broken off and reaffixed with glue adhesive, several other repairs to the base carving in the round; the surface with small cracks, most at the rim, the longest 3/8 inches long, the carved edges with small nicks, and there are a few filled cracks or losses next to the rim of the spout. Estimate $30000-50000. Lot sold $ 96,000.00
iGavel Auctions. Asian, Ancient, and Ethnographic Works of Art. May 1st, 2013. http://www.igavelauctions.com/
Chinese Huanghuali and Hongmu Cabinet with Carved Dragon Doors, 20th Century.
43 1/2 inches by 27 3/8 inches. Each carved panel with scattered splits, the left with a loss approximately 1/4 inches wide along the left edge, and with splits along the right side; the right panel with gaps along the edges and splits; the side and back panels split, as illustrated. Estimate $800-1200. Lot sold $ 144,133.20
iGavel Auctions. Asian, Ancient, and Ethnographic Works of Art. May 1st, 2013. http://www.igavelauctions.com/
A twelve-panel Coromandel lacquer screen. Qing Dynasty, Kangxi period, dated Gengchen year, corresponding to 1700 - Sothebys
The front face carved and painted with the Daoist Paradise, depicting groups of male and female Immortals within a mountainous landscape, all gathering to greet Shoulao,framed by a border of auspicious objects, the reverse with a lengthy inscription which may be translated as the Hanlin Academy official Zheng Kaiji (1639-1717) presenting the screen to Yuweng Chi on celebration of his and his wife Zhang's eightieth birthday, Kangxi cyclical date. Quantité: 12 - 280 by 540cm., 212 1/2 by 110 1/4 in. Estimation: 30,000 - 50,000 GBP
PROVENANCE: Ariane Dandois Gallery, Paris, circa 1980.
NOTE: The reverse of the screen is inscribed with a dedication celebrating the birthday of Yuweng Chi, who is particularly well known for his filial piety towards his ill and weak mother, using his own liver to brew as medicine. Without taking the medicine, his mother miraculously recovered, which was seen as the heavens being moved by his filial act. The incident spread and Chi received many titles of honour.
Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. London | 15 mai 2013 www.sothebys.com
A pair of huanghuali round-corner square cabinets, yuanjiaogui. Qing dynasty, 18th century - Sothebys
the rectangular top supported on slightly splayed corner posts of rounded square section, enclosing the rectangular single-panel doors set within narrow frames, all above a blind rectangular panel and a plain shaped apron, the shorted sides with similar aprons, opening to reveal a single shelf and lower compartment; 145 by 75.4 by 40cm., 57 by 29 3/4 by 15 3/4 in. Estimation: 20,000 - 30,000 GBP
PROVENANCE: Sotheby's London, 28th October 1988, lot 87.
NOTE: Huanghuali is amongst the most valued hardwood in China, appreciated for its vibrant colour, impressive grain pattern and light sweet fragrance. During the Ming and Qing dynasties it was used for making high quality furniture with craftsmen taking advantage of the special qualities of the wood to create smooth and plain surfaces that retained much of the material’s natural beauty. The highest quality huanghuali, also known by its Chinese botanical name Hainan jiangxiang huangtan, comes from Hainan with a wide range of colouration from light yellow to purplish-red.This type of timber is also grown in Vietnam, Laos, Burma and Cambodia but with a coarser grain texture and its colour not as striking as that from Hainan. By the Qing dynasty, huanghuali became especially treasured by the imperial court and was frequently used for the production of imperial furniture. Hu Desheng in The Palace Museum Collection. A Treasury of Ming and Qing Dynasty Palace Furniture, vol. 2, Beijing, 2008, p. 578, describes huanghuali furniture as that which typically combines artistry, technical rationale and functional utility and the embodiment of China’s rich cultural heritage. Amongst collectors and connoisseurs huaghuali is universally acclaimed as the ‘the pearl of the Orient’.
Cabinets of this type, with the characteristic round-corner, are known as yuanjiaogui. Amongst classical Chinese furniture yuanjiaogui are valued for their simple yet elegant form and design. This type of cabinet was widely made throughout the Ming and Qing periods, although an early Qing period attribution to the present pieces is supported by the construction and the clean lines of the joinery. For detailed information on the development of Chinese cabinets see Sarah Handler, ‘Cabinets and Shelves Containing All Things in China’, Journal of the Classical Chinese Furniture Society, Winter, 1993, pp. 4-29, where Handler illustrates a large yuanjiaogui on p. 13, from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, and notes that cabinets of this type became more common of domestic furniture from the 15th century.
Compare two related cabinets illustrated in Wang Shixiang, Classic Chinese Furniture, London, 1986, pl. 142, from the author’s collection, and pl. 145, from the collection of the Beijing Cultural Relics Bureau. Another slightly larger cabinet of this type, attributed to the Ming dynasty and in the Honolulu Academy of Arts , Honolulu, is published in Gustav Ecke, ‘Notes on Chinese Furniture’, Chinese Furniture. Selected Articles from Orientations 1984-1999, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 87; and another in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, is included in Robert D. Jacobsen and Nicholas Grindley, Classical Chinese Furniture in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1999, pl. 52. See also a pair of small cabinets sold in our New York rooms, 19/20th October 1988, lot 551; a single large cabinet, from the collection of Nicholas Grindley, sold at Christie’s New York, 21st March 2013, lot 926; and a further example, also of larger dimensions, sold at Christie’s New York, 23rd March 2012, lot 1748.
Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. London | 15 mai 2013 www.sothebys.com
A pair of huanghuali stands, Qing dynasty, 19th century - Sothebys
the rectangular top supported on four legs linked by stretchers, the apron decorated with double-lozenge braces. Quantité: 2 - 21.3 by 42.3 by 79cm., 8 3/8 by 16 5/8 by 31 1/8 in. Estimation: 8,000 - 12,000 GBP
Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. London | 15 mai 2013 www.sothebys.com
A pair of hardstone-inlaid gilt-lacquer cabinets, Qing dynasty, 19th century - Sothebys
each of rectangular form, the doors finely embellished with soapstone, mother-of-pearl, bone, jadeite, agate and other hardstones to depict numerous boys at play and groups of ladies playing weiqi and musical instruments, all within a garden setting with a tiered pavilion and over-hanging pine and wutong trees, all framed by a mother-of-pearl lozenge border and shaped cartouches enclosing various floral sprays against a lozenge diaper ground, the sides similarly embellished with chrysanthemum, peony and prunus blossoms, with metal lockplate and hinges. Quantité: 2 - 157.4 by 97.4 by 41cm., 62 by 38 3/8 by 16 1/8 in. Estimation: 8,000 - 12,000 GBP
Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. London | 15 mai 2013 www.sothebys.com