Christie's Online Magazine No.227

From: Christie's - Saturday Jun 27, 2020 10:53 am

Christie’s

Art stories to feed the mind and soul

‘His delicacies look almost like religious icons’ — celebrating a Pop genius about to turn 100

From New York to Zürich, how Christie’s has mounted a global sale of monumental sculpture

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Why did Tamara de Lempicka revisit this 1932 work some 18 years later, and add a veil?

How Jean Royère’s playful furniture has won admirers ranging from royalty to rappers

Resurfaced: the Soulages that almost sank in the Tasman Sea on Christmas Day, 1952

Meet Anna Hu, creator of jewels for Hollywood stars — and three new pieces for Covid-19 causes

More stories

Editor’s picks

Throughout his life, the sea always held a particular fascination for L.S. Lowry. It is thought that Beach Scene, filled with relaxed and carefree yet orderly figures, might be a view from Spittal Beach, near Berwick-upon-Tweed in the north of England. It was one of the artist’s favourite places to walk on his visits to the town

Estimate: £130,000-180,000
until 2 July, Online

Allied efforts to break the M4 Enigma code, led by Alan Turing and Joe Desch, spurred the development of the first programmable computer. It is thought that fewer than 100 M4s survived the war. Many were lost on the U-boats on which they were deployed; German troops were also instructed to destroy them at the war’s conclusion

Estimate: £200,000-300,000
until 16 July, Online

In 2007, the Colombian maestro Fernando Botero (b. 1932) began a series of paintings inspired by the circus. It’s a subject that has been tackled by numerous artists, from Picasso to Chagall, yet Botero’s treatment — in such works as Circus Act — is unmistakably his own: one of colourful costumes, rotund performers and jolly beasts

Estimate: €250,000-350,000
30 June, Paris

The Veracruz region in southern Mexico produced some of the most stunning ceramic sculpture in all of ancient Mesoamerica. Dating to 250-450 AD, this warrior is a typically expressive, hollow figure in the so-called Remojadas style. Dressed in elaborate regalia, with hands on hips, he stands unflappable, as if insistent nobody must pass

Estimate: €40,000-50,000
29 June, Paris

Jean Royère (1902-1981), Coffee table ‘Forme libre’ or ‘Cachalot’, the model created before 1958, this one made in 1962. Estimate: €150,000-200,000. ‘Liane’ six-light sconce, special order, 1962. Estimate: €400,000-600,000. Pair of Boule armchairs called Polar Bear, the model created in 1947, these made in 1962. Estimate €300,000-500,000. Offered in Design on June 30 2020 at Christie’s in Paris // Niki de Saint Phalle, Oiseau amoureux, 1993. Available for immediate purchase. Artwork: © 2020 Niki Charitable Art Foundation. All rights reserved / ARS, NY / ADAGP, Paris // Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980), La couronne de fleurs II, painted in 1925 and reworked circa 1932 or later (detail). Estimate: £300,000-500,000. Offered in Dialogues: Modern and Contemporary Art, 26 June-14 July, Online. Artwork: © Tamara de Lempicka Estate / DACS, London 2020 // Wayne Thiebaud (b. 1920), Three Cones, 1964 (detail). Estimate: $2,000,000-3,000,000. Offered in Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale on 10 July at Christie’s in New York. Artwork: © 2020 Wayne Thiebaud / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY // Pierre Soulages, Peinture 130 x 89 cm, 25 novembre 1950. Estimate: €2,000,0000-3,000,000. Offered on 10 July in ONE at Christie’s in Paris. Artwork: © Pierre Soulages, DACS 2020. The front page of The Examiner, 26 December 1952. Image: Examiner (Launceston, Tas.: 1900-1954) 26 December 1952: 1. National Library of Australia

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Christie's Online Magazine No.227