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Christie’s, the world’s leading art business, announced that tonight’s sale of International Modern and Contemporary Art in Dubai made $14,043,000 / AED 51,565,896, more than doubling the pre-sale estimate of $6.7 million and confirming Christie’s market leadership in the region. The auction was 94% sold by value and 84% sold by lot. The buyer breakdown by lot was 60% from the Middle East, 28% from Europe, 10% from the Americas and 2% from Asia. The sale concludes a record year for Christie’s in contemporary Middle Eastern art, with an increase of 117 percent over 2009.
Jussi Pylkkänen, President of Christie’s Middle East and Europe, said: “A packed saleroom, a team of 20 Christie’s staff manning the telephones and internet bidding from around the world, helped to make tonight’s auction both successful and hugely memorable. The sale achieved $7.3 million over our pre-sale expectations and saw record numbers of clients registering to bid, with nearly 200 registrants from 23 countries. The 30 works from the Dr. Mohammed Said Farsi collection were again 100% sold and saw a huge increase in international interest in Egyptian art. We were delighted to see Mahmoud Said’s Whirling Dervishes sell for a world record $2,546,500 making it the most expensive Middle Eastern painting ever sold. Following the trend of the Frieze art sales in London two weeks ago, tonight’s auction here in Dubai had a tremendous spring in its step.”
Sotheby’s 4 November auction of 19th Century European Art in New York will feature three works by the prominent Italian painter Giovanni Boldini. This offering comes just after the close of the important exhibition Giovanni Boldini in Impressionist Paris, which opened at the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara in 2009 and traveled to the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts in early 2010. This exhibition represented the first major show of the artist’s work outside of Europe, and an exciting opportunity for Americans to discover Boldini’s impressive and varied oeuvre.
A double-sided painting entitled ‘King Solomon’ by Svetoslav Roerich is one of the top lots in the Russian Sale taking place in New Bond Street on 1st December. Estimated to sell for £300,000 – 400,000, this work has never been exhibited or published before and has only previously been known to a small group of specialists.
One of only two existing works from the unfinished series of paintings depicting the most important religious figures and spiritual teachers of the past, this magnificent portrait was painted in 1923 in Paris where Roerich stopped on his way to India.
Roerich’s interpretation of King Solomon, who built the first Temple of Jerusalem, is instilled with complex symbolism and is depicted as a vehicle for mystical experience: his Solomon has tasted from the chalice of his fate and sacrificed himself for the creation of the Great Temple. This symbolic interpretation was most likely suggested by the Roerich’s father, the legendary Nicholas Roerich who wrote the essay ‘Strings of Earth’ about Solomon’s desire to build a unified Temple.
Consequently, Svetoslav Roerich decided to model the portrait of King Solomon on the likeness of his father, who was indeed considered a spiritual teacher and cultural leader at the time. As a result, this interesting portrait can be seen as the personification of Nicholas Roerich as the celebrated builder of the Temple, known for his great wisdom, wealth and power.
The reverse side of the painting reveals Roerich’s talent as an illustrator. The scene of the falcon hunt is one of a series of illustrations for the edition of European Fairy Tales commissioned in France in 1923, but the series was never completed.
Art Miami , Miami’s longest running contemporary art fair, will once again electrify the city from December 1 – December 5, 2010. As the anchor art fair to the city of Miami, the fair will return with a compelling array of modern and contemporary artwork from over 100 international galleries and prominent art institutions. Art Miami will be held in a state-of-the-art 100,000 square foot pavilion in Midtown Miami’s burgeoning Wynwood Arts District.
Christie’s Hong Kong will hold its Fall sales of Fine Chinese Modern Paintings and Fine Chinese Classical Paintings and Calligraphy on 30 November at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre. These sales will showcase over 350 rare and exceptional works from the Chinese masters, valued in excess of HK$260 million (US$34 million).
Chinese calligraphy and paintings are among the most culturally rich and meaningful art forms and encapsulate the history of Chinese culture. The Fine Chinese Classical Paintings and Calligraphy sale will feature important works by artists spanning both Ming and Qing Dynasty (15th-19th Century), including Ming Dynasty calligraphers and painters such as Wang Duo, Ni Yuanlu, Huang Daozhou and Lan Ying, as well as important Qing artists such as BaDa ShanRen, Hua Yan and Yuan Jiang. The Fine Chinese Modern Paintings sale will present a body of magnificent works by renowned 19th and 20th Century masters such as Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong, Fu Baoshi, Zhang Daqian, and Lin Fengmian. Showcasing a wide range of works by artists of different styles and schools, these sales cater to the variety of diverse palettes of today’s discerning collectors.
PARIS—Strolling from Adel Abdessemed’s compressed block of taxidermy animals to an enormously twirling Anish Kapooralpenhorn, it’s clear that Paris’s FIAC fair is not on the shy side this year. The cautiousness of 2009 is long forgotten, and the fair is filled with sometimes-outrageous contemporary work and some daring propositions. Nevertheless, it is a testament to the quality of this year’s fair that it has taken ARTINFO France a good few days to finalize its list of the best booths in the Grand Palais, which are listed below.
AKRON, OH.- Featuring works by four internationally renowned artists, Zheng Fanzhi, Wang Guangyi, Shen Jiawei and Hung Liu, Culture Revolution allows viewers a glimpse into the rapidly changing terrain of contemporary Chinese culture. The lush, poetic paintings, on loan from the Allen Memorial Art Museum (AMAM) at Oberlin College, is on view in Akron through February 27, 2011.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to present this selection of remarkable contemporary Chinese paintings from the AMAM,” said Curator of Exhibitions Ellen Rudolph. “Culture Revolution will offer our audiences the chance to learn about modern China through powerful images created by artists who have lived through the tumultuous changes of the last several decades.”
During China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), the only manner of artistic expression permitted was a form of official propaganda that glorified the Communist regime through heroic images of peasants and workers. Although China remains a Communist state, the culture has undergone a true revolution since their economy opened to the rest of the world in 1978.
The artists in this exhibition exploit the freedom they now have to draw from all eras of Chinese and Western art. In doing so, they not only speak of their individual experiences navigating the social and political upheaval of the last three decades, but they also reflect the clash of outmoded Socialist ideas with the consumerism brought about by capitalist reforms.
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LONDON.- This evening, Sotheby’s Sales of 20th Century Italian Art and Contemporary Art, brought a combined total of £30.4 million/$48.8 million (Est. £22.3-30.5 million*) – substantially more than in the equivalent sales last year (£20 million).
Commenting on the 20th Century Italian Art Sale results, Claudia Dwek, Co Chairman Sotheby’s Italy, said: “We are delighted with the results of this evening’s sale. The auction achieved the above-estimate sum of £17 million representing the highest ever total for a sale in this field staged by Sotheby’s. While the majority of lots were acquired by Italian collectors, the sale saw activity from clients across the globe, including from the Far East. These strong results and healthy sell-through rates testify to Sotheby’s leadership in this field.”
Discussing today’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale, Alex Branczik, Director, Contemporary Art, Sotheby’s, said: “The Frieze Art Fair and the London Art Scene brought the whole collecting community here this week. With this sale, our vision was to showcase, alongside the more established names, the most interesting works by new and cutting-edge artists to satisfy the desires of collectors in this field in London during Frieze week. The energy generated in the sale room for the first two lots of the sale – by Ged Quinn and Ahmed Alsoudani – validated our strategy.”
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PARIS—PARIS – If art is a question of taste, the Australian painter Sid Chidiac, whose works are entirely made of fine Belgian chocolate, has given himself a head start in the popularity ratings.
When Chidiac introduces himself as an oil and chocolate painter, most people assume they have misheard him. In the past three years, the 36-year-old has conjured up dozens of works from pure chocolate complete with edible frame, canvas and richly-coloured paint portraits ranging from Marilyn Monroe to chat-show host Oprah Winfrey.
His tantalising technique uses a rich blend of white chocolate copiously donated by a major chocolate maker and a range of simple food colourings.
Since his first work in chocolate in 2003, a painting of sunflowers, with honeyed yellow hues fanning out from a heart of smooth dark chocolate, Chidiac has captured the public imagination with his alluring, ephemeral creations.
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