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.
Art and Auction 