July 2012

On July 25th, 2012, at 10am and 2pm, at  Rockefeller Plaza in New York, Christie’s Inc will be auctioning off a collection of Prints & Multiples that I am very excited about. There will be amazing pieces going up for sale, including etchings by none other than Rembrandt (4 pieces that are AMAZING), Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henry Moore, Henri Matisse, and the one I’m most excited about, Albrecht Durer.  The reason why I am excited about the Durer piece is because of the fact his work, like Rembrandt’s work, is BEAUTIFUL. Durer is a very special artist. He IS the print maker of the Northern Renaissance.  Amazing, just everything he has done that I have seen is just BEAUTIFUL.  Yes his work were “mass produced” as prints, even during his time (Heck, he was a print maker, what else is the work supposed to be there for in that time? There was no “commercial market” at that time like there is today), but really, if you as a reader have the chance to buy a piece of his work, I would say yes.  If you have a chance to see his work, do it.  Remember Durer lived from 1471-1528, during the Protestant Reformation which was initiated by Martin Luther, the time that the Protestants broke away from the Catholic church and outlawed art works depicting people in all religious settings as they thought it was worshiping false idols (Please note, art work was still allowed outside of church which is why Durer was still able to do his craft, is they were not Protestant, but it just it was just SO much more different than what there was in the south or Italian Renaissance).  SO with all of this going around him religiously and everything that was going on in the art world around him, his ability to create works like this one and that they are still in good condition today, just wow, look for yourself. And remember, this was all hand done or hand chiseled.

Albrecht Durer’s “Ecce homo from the large Passion”

The craftsmanship that Durer put into this is just beautiful.  The details are perfect and it is everything that basically the 1400s-1500s art work was supposed to be about, the subject manner, the characters, the perspective, everthing just works here, as it does with all of Durer’s work.  The estimated sales price for this work from Christie’s is $2,000-$3,000, which I think is EXTREMELY low, no matter how many works are still available of Durer is still out there or not.  I would at least double if not triple that price, if not just for the artist creativity of the work but also the historical stand point, knowing the time in which it was created, this is a must buy.

To view this and all of the works in this sale, please visit the Christie’s Website.

June 2012

This month, on the 21st in London, Christie’s Auction has their Impressionist/Modern Day sale.  This sale is awesome.  That is the best way I can put it.  Sure we are talking about Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, Camille Pissarro, Joan Miro, Max Ernst, Salvador Dali and even the one and only Man Ray.

However, even with these big, billboard names of the art world, I’m excited for a couple of lesser known names.  I’m speaking of artist like Leon de Smet (1881-1966), Eugene Boudin (1824-1898) and (okay screw it, I’m going to throw in one big name here) Alfred Sisley (1839-1899), and their work is BEAUTIFUL.

Saint-Mammes by Alfred Sisley, Lot #345
Est. $463,323 – $772,205

View of the Tames Embankment
by Leon de Smet
Lot $326
Est. $61,776-$108,109

Trouville, le port
by Eugene Boudin
Lot # 327
Est. $77,220-$108,109

These three pieces of work are, in my mind, the most beautiful pieces of work in the entire sale.  The brushwork, color and cropping are just beautiful.  If I were two choose a favorite, a “must have” for my personal collection, it would have to be Trouville, le port.  There is just something about that one painting that is just…wow. Maybe it is the loose brushwork, where the clouds are sometimes just even a single brush stroke or two for the fainter clouds.  The ship is breath taking, and the light, as it reflects off of the water and the ripples that show, the prime techniques and ideals of the impressionist ways of painting. I feel that the buyer of Trouville, le port is going to get a very amazing painting for a steal.  Yes, Mr. Boudin is not that well know, much less than the above named artist, but his work is just as good, the subject matter of leasure is prime of the French lifestyle of the time.  He is known as one of the first French landscape painters to actually paint outdoors. He was a trendsetter. I would say on this work, buy buy buy and hold onto it for a LONG time. It is worth it.

You can see a larger view of these works and much more at Christie’s Website.

June 2012

There are two things that I want to talk about in this article.  One is the action happening at Christie’s on June 12th at 1pm in London of Rock & Roll Memorabilia. Some of the items include Jeff Beck’s guitar and case (Lot #2), a collection of Jimi Hendrix items (Lots 18-25), one of Buddy Holly’s shirts (Lot #26), some of Michael Jackson’s items (Lots 27-31) to a pair of Madonna’s boxer shorts that she wore in the 1985 Orion Pictures file Desperately Seeking Susan (Lot #38) and a signed LP and poster by Nirvana.

One of my favorite pieces is a posted of Bob Dylan (Lot #53) The estimate price is $460-$770.  The poster is one of a kind and beautiful.  Christie’s has the Lot description as follows:

“Psychedelia/Bob Dylan – Two promotional poster, one featuring Bob Dylan Mister Tambourine Man, 1967, and Donovan, Sunshine Superman, 1966, art by Martin Sharp — both 30x20in and framed.

Bob Dylan Mister Tambourine Man, 1967

There are a lot of other really amazing things in this auction that such as a fanzine from the Sex Pistols.  This fanzine is of their classic “Anarchy in the U.K.”.  The fanzine is amazing.  It is of you classic 1980s punk rock girl, included with a bi-hawk, a skull earring in her left ear, the eye make up…the full works. Everything works with this cover, except for it’s condition.  The corners and edges look fine, however, there is a huge cease in the middle of the publication.  On the left side of the fanzine there is some major discoloration around the fold  and on the right side of the post, it looks like there are a couple of holes along the fold.

Now the fanzine (Lot #113 Est. price of $769-$1,075) is beautiful, printed by none other than ZigZag and it features the photos by Ray Stevenson of the Pistol’s trip to Paris in 1976. It is 17x12in.

Now the thing is that there are a lot of signed pieces, from the Beatles (Lennon, Harrison, Star and McCarthy) to the Rolling Stones.  Now I don’t doubt that Christie’s had the signatures verified…but they don’t say this anywhere.  Now I trust the company, yet I have also worked in the music industry.  I know that when you have an autograph book and bring it to a show, the last thing on  your mind is “How am I going to verify that this is so-and-so’s signature???” Yet, I personally would feel better about the sale if Christie’s would just mention that yes, the signatures have been verified as authentic. If they can’t be authenticated or the auction house is going to fail to provide that information for the general public prior to the sale, then how do we know they are real or how are to know we are not going to spend several hundred to thousands of dollars on a piece of paper.

Okay, the next auction I would like to talk about is the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale in London on June. 19th 2012 at Sotheby’s. This sale is going to be amazing.  There will be some beautiful works from Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Edvard Munch, Joan Miro and works from the Private collection of Mr. and Mrs. John D Rockefeller 3rd which includes works by Pierre Bonnard and Paul Signac.

The other collections are from individual artist like the collection of Eight Watercolours by Wassily Kadinsky, while there are single pieces by partist like Picasso, Henry Moore, Otto Dix, Alfred Sisley, Edgar Degas, van Gogh and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. These works are beautiful, simply breath taking.  This collection that Sotheby’s has is  collection that I would like to have in my own personal collection. Now, these pieces are not as noteworthy as what one would see in the MoMA or the Louvre, but these works are still as breath taking as ever and when the artist is still in their prime, or at the end of their prime (not as the other article where we saw artist being sold 40-60 years after their prime), and each one of the works is well worth their asking prices.

Claude Monet – The Seine at Bougival c. 1869

 

For Further information on the Sotheby’s Auction, please click the link.

For Further information on the Christie’s Auction, please click the link.