798 District Blog

A single-owner sale of more than 400 works, which is estimated to bring more than $10 million, has been scheduled for Saturday, 25 September 2010 in New York. Among the works to be auctioned are examples of early works by many of the leading artists of the late 20th century – Damien Hirst, Gerhard Richter, Felix Gonzalez Torres, Richard Prince, John Currin and Takashi Murakami, as well as examples by artists whose work has become more internationally acclaimed over the last decade – Neo Rauch, Julie Mehretu, Liu Ye and Do Ho Suh.

“We ran a rigorous process to find the right auction house for this distinguished group of works,” said Mr. Bill Gordon, a managing director at Alvarez & Marsal. “Sotheby’s longstanding familiarity with the collections of both Lehman and Neuberger as well as its reputation and experience with corporate collections were important factors in our decision. We are confident that Sotheby’s is the best fit for the Estate’s mission to deliver maximum value to our constituents.”

Mr. Kelly Wright, an advisor to LBHI who is overseeing the evaluation and sale of these works, said “It truly is a visionary collection, and Neuberger Berman’s astute reputation for investment is clearly seen in the selected works for sale. Many of the works were acquired from cutting edge and emergent artists who have since evolved into the vanguards of the contemporary art world.”

Lehman Brothers long history of collecting art can be traced back to Robert Lehman. Works he collected were donated to the Metropolitan Museum and comprise the Lehman Wing. Works from the Lehman Brothers Corporate Collection currently being offered at this auction provide buying opportunities for works of important provenance to both seasoned collectors wishing to supplement an established collection and first-time purchasers. As a result of Lehman Brothers’ 2003 acquisition of Neuberger Berman, the two firms’ collections were integrated.

Read the full article

In 2005, this humoristic asumption by Evariste Blanchet allowed us to understand that there were different types of comic boods, while suggesting that there was a real need to classify and define contemporary comic book art.

But how can we define contemporary comics art, and is there comic book art created today that cannot be classified as « contemporary » ? One could assume that, as for contemporary art, all comics cannot be called « contemporary » ; the works of an artist painting Montmartre «Poulbots» or « Marines » for an art gallery in Le Touquet can hardly be called contemporary, even if the execution shows genuine virtuosity.

One will point out the fact that contemporary comics have a long history, which has been widely referenced and commented on, and that a number of artists throughout the past decades have challenged the boundaries of the genre : from Gilbert Shelton to Aurélie William-Levaux, Moebius, Philippe Druillet, Chris Ware, Christophe Blain and many others. And creators have to be aware of the fact that they belong to this history, and have to mistreat their medium by multiplicating hybridisations with other artistic specialities to make unknown aspects emerge.

One could conclude that the purpose of an event such as the Le Havre contemporary art biennale is to reference, in a non-exhaustive way, the most convincing of these hybridisations. A word that has to be understood in its latin meaning, « mixed blood ».

Read the full article