Christie's Online Magazine No.386

From: Christie's - Saturday Apr 13, 2024 02:37 pm

Christie’s

C20 illustrators, Bram Bogart, Vivienne Westwood for Greenpeace, John Akomfrah in Venice, American Modernism, Collector sale highlights, and more ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ |

BUY | SELL | STORIES

John Akomfrah on representing Britain at the Venice Biennale: ‘I’m both terrified and enjoying it’

Vivienne Westwood’s playing cards for Greenpeace: ‘Diamonds are for money, clubs are for war’

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Bram Bogart: ‘He took a tradition begun in northern Europe by Rembrandt, and he exploded it’

‘They are part of our collective memory’: the growing market for early-20th-century illustrators

Seven strands of American Modernism — from abstraction to industrial landscapes and the West

‘I’m obsessed with vases, pots, plinths’ — Alexandre Benjamin Navet browses our Collector sales

More stories

Editor’s picks

When Leonora Carrington read The White Goddess, a study of poetic myth by Robert Graves, she called it ‘the greatest revelation of my life’. Its idea of the magical quality of creative expression feeds into Levitasium, from 1950, a dreamlike vision of dancing and levitating figures, supernatural beings and red-headed birds

Estimate: €250,000-350,000
23 April, Paris

Though it dates from an era when timepieces were often embellished with sculpted flowers, animals or chariot-mounted deities, this Louis XVI skeletonised clock is pared back to the essentials. With the brass workings of cogs, weights and springs laid bare, the design seems strikingly modern for 1790

Estimate: £12,000-18,000
until 23 April, Online

The easy charm of Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s The Performance is enhanced by the fact that it is a sketch rather than a finished painting. A study from around 1773 of two girls playfully teaching a lapdog to stand on its hind legs, it may have been a preparatory work for a lost canvas or one that was never completed

Estimate: $150,000-250,000
17 April, New York

Table bells, once used to call guests or staff to the dining room, came in many forms, some more whimsical than others. This George V silver bell, dating from 1911, is designed in the shape of a pig, with a winding mechanism on the underside. The bell is rung by pressing the tail or the snout

Estimate: $4,000-6,000
until 25 April, Online

John Akomfrah. Photograph by Christian Cassiel. © John Akomfrah; Courtesy Lisson Gallery // Vivienne Westwood (1941-2022), THE BIG PICTURE — Vivienne’s Playing Cards: Collect the cards. Connect the cards, 2024. All offered on 25 June 2024 at Christie’s in London / Vivienne Westwood in the Arctic. Photo: Finished Films. Courtesy of Vivienne Westwood // Bram Bogart in Ohain, Belgium, September 1979, with, clockwise from top left, Blauw en blauw, 1975, Rood, 1972, Jaune, 1978, and Witblancwit, 1976. Photo: Leni Bogart Vos. © Bram Bogart Foundation. Artworks: © Bram Bogart, DACS 2024 // Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945), “‘Don’t let me fall,’ she begged…”, 1921 (detail). Oil on canvas. 40¼ x 30¼ in (102.2 x 76.8 cm). Estimate: $150,000-250,000. Offered in Modern American Art on 18 April 2024 at Christie’s in New York // Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975), White Horse, 1955. Oil on canvas. 22 x 30 in (55.9 x 76.2 cm). Estimate: $1,500,000-2,500,000 / John Marin, Two Little Boats and Grey Sea, Cape Split, Maine, 1937. Watercolour and charcoal on paper. 15¼ x 20⅞ in (38.7 x 53 cm). Estimate: $40,000-60,000 / George L.K. Morris (1905-1975), Indian Composition #8, 1940. Oil on canvas. 60 x 54¼ in (152.4 x 137.8 cm). Estimate: $50,000-70,000 / Milton Avery (1885-1965), Female Painter, 1945. Oil on canvas. 32 x 40 in (81.3 x 101.6 cm). Estimate: $1,500,000-2,500,000 / Ralston Crawford (1906-1978), Boat and Grain Elevator, 1942. Oil on canvas. 30 x 36 in (76.2 x 91.4 cm). Estimate: $200,000-300,000 / Elie Nadelman (1882-1946), Duck, c. 1920s. White marble. 11 in (27.9 cm) high. Estimate: $100,000-150,000 / Fairfield Porter (1907-1975), Keelin Before the Reflected View No. 2, 1972. Oil on canvas. 60 x 62 in (152.4 x 157.5 cm). Estimate: $500,000-700,000. All offered in Modern American Art on 18 April 2024 at Christie’s in New York // Alexandre Benjamin Navet with his artwork. Photo: © Grégory Copitet. The Collector: Paris runs until 24 April 2024 at Christie’s Online. Courtesy of Alexandre Benjamin Navet

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Christie's Online Magazine No.386