Important Modern and Contemporary Prints at Leslie Sacks Fine Art
Robert MOTHERWELL (1915-1991), '
CHICAGO, IL.- Modern and contemporary prints are an extension of a long and illustrious lineage that goes back to the Renaissance engravings of Albrecht Dürer, and the 17th century prints of Rembrandt, Rubens, van Dyck and Claude Lorraine. The diffusion of printmaking throughout Europe in the 18th century drew in the Italians, Tiepolo, Piranesi and Canaletto, the mystical Englishman, William Blake and the Spanish master, Goya. The posthumous 1863 publication of Goya’s powerful suite of prints, Disasters of War, was of major import, coincident with and an influence upon the emergent Parisian avant-garde who would come to be known as the impressionists.
During the impressionist period, the woodblock prints of Hokusai and other Japanese printmakers strongly influenced Manet, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, van Gogh, Gauguin, and virtually every other progressive artist working in France at the time, profoundly effecting not only the style of their print images but impressionist and post-impressionist painting as well. It was at this time that artists began to produce limited editions, signing their prints by hand or with a chop mark (monogram), in the manner of Japanese prints. The signature on a print has since come to indicate the artist’s involvement in the printmaking process itself, this being the criterion by which we now define what constitutes an “original print.”
Picasso and Matisse, the prototypical “moderns,” began making original prints in the first decade of the 20th century, followed in the 1920’s by Chagall. All three of these artists created voluminous bodies of work. Picasso is represented in this show by prints from the 1930’s through the 1960’s. Matisse is likewise shown across a wide swath of time, with works from 1906, the Fauve period, through the Jazz Series of 1947. Examples from Chagall include selections from his first suite of color lithographs, Four Tales of the Arabian Nights, published in 1949.
Pablo PICASSO (1881-1973), "
Henri MATISSE (1869-1954), '
inches, Arches. Edition of 50 plus 5 test proofs and 10 artist proofs. Signed and numbered in pencil MATX512A. Photo: Leslie Sacks Fine Art.
Marino Marini, though best known as a sculptor and particularly for his bronze horse and rider at the Guggenheim in Venice , was trained primarily as a painter and produced some of the most painterly prints of the 20th century. Favoring the etching and aquatint processes, he was able to achieve subtle effects not unlike those of watercolor and gouache while employing a rich and characteristically Italian palette of unlikely yet sumptuous color combinations. Leslie Sacks Editions has published the English language catalogue raisonné of Marini graphics, documenting the artist’s work in prints from 1919 through 1980. Important Modern and Contemporary Prints includes two of the strongest works from Marini’s Shakespeare portfolios, which are considered the pinnacle of his graphic production.
Marino MARINI (1901-1980), '
The artists of the New York School (1940’s and 50’s - Pollock, Rothko, Kline, et al.) are represented with important prints by Robert Motherwell and Helen Frankenthaler. The Motherwells include Burning Elegy and two of his signature red etching aquatints, Gesture and Mexican Night II. Frankenthaler, once married to Motherwell, is the last surviving major figure from the abstract expressionist period. She is represented by her most recent large-scale print, Book of Clouds, a multi-process work in aquatint, etching, woodcut and pochoir with hand coloring. Burning Elegy and Book of Clouds are characteristic of the New York School ’s penchant for creating large works that fill the viewers’ field of vision and thereby create an immersive experience.
Frankenthaler and Sam Francis were both associated with lyrical abstraction (aka in France , tachisme and art informel) which followed from abstract expressionism. The Francis work in this show is a dynamic, large scale monotype (unique print) with hand coloring, from the 1980’s, and shares its “super graphic” quality with Frank Stellas from the same period, specifically, excellent examples from Stella’s Polar Coordinates series.
Helen FRANKENTHALER (b. 1928), '
Sam FRANCIS (1923-1994), '
At this point in the chronology we run into a problem of nomenclature as to what differentiates modern from contemporary. One could logically argue that if an artist is alive, the art is contemporary, but the issue of style makes things more complicated. This problem is perhaps most pointedly underscored by the work of the contemporary and quite lively David Hockney, who has explicitly emulated Picasso, Matisse and most recently van Gogh. Several of Hockney’s greatest prints are featured in this show: an important lithograph, Hotel Well III, which references cubism and thus indirectly Picasso, Celia in an Armchair which indirectly references late Matisse, and Rue de Seine which contains a very direct reference to Matisse’s earlier Nice period.
As Hockney is one of the most scholarly and intellectually acute artists of our time, one may assume that apart from personal predilection as to style, he has used style as a statement. If one considers his dedication to draftsmanship – the most fundamental aspect of all artistic practice - and his choice of subjects, these being predominantly still life, portraiture and landscape, it may be said that he’s cut against the grain of critical vogue, paying little attention to the conceptual apart from reaffirming the primacy of modern and classical values though his choice of styles and subjects, as evidenced by the selection of prints in this show.
David Hockney (b. 1937), "Celia in an Armchair", 1980. Lithograph, 40 x 48 inches, Arches Cover. Edition of 74 plus 12 artist's proofs. Photo: Leslie Sacks Fine Art.
Though reality doesn’t fully cooperate with efforts to put art into neat little boxes, if one had to select a movement or moment that represents a break with modernism, and so signifies the beginnings of what we call contemporary or post-modern art, it would be the advent of pop art ca. 1960, when high concept and irony came to replace romanticism, including the stereotypic image of the artist as a solitary individualist on an esoteric quest for communion with his or her muse. Conversely, with pop we see the appropriation of images from culture at large, as in the works of Roy Lichtenstein whose silk screens, Seascape and Still Life with Red Jar, appear in this show. By appropriating, as the key motif for his style, the benday dots of which photo-mechanical lithographic images are comprised (the tiny dots used to create images in the printing of magazines, newspapers and posters) Lichtenstein referenced mass media and with it popular culture, beginning with his cartoon images. Departing from this imagery, his later works embrace impressionist, modern and even classical imagery in architecture, thus riffing, ironically, on pop art itself. Printmaking was perhaps the art form most relevant to Lichtenstein’s style, being that he appropriated his signature motif from mass media printing technology.
Roy LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997), '
Edition of 250 plus 50 artist's proofs & various other proofs. Signed, dated and numbered in pencil LICX291B. Photo: Leslie Sacks Fine Art.
Jasper Johns was at the forefront of pop with such iconic images as the American Flag, but unlike most of his pop contemporaries who were obsessed with image and concept, Johns’ has always maintained a painterly aesthetic. This can be seen in the painterly quality of his prints. In so doing, Johns’ prints, along with his paintings, have preserved the place of painting in a contemporary art world wherein painting has been increasingly subordinated to concept (though this trend seems to be in the nascent stage of changing). The Johns prints in this show include Cicada, Between the Clock and Bed, and one of his best known images, a Savarin Coffee can - holding paint brushes.
Jasper Johns (b. 1930), "Cicada", from "Marginalia: Hommage to Shimizu", 1979. Silkscreen, 22 1/4 x 18 1/4 inches. Edition of 100 plus AP 10, PP 3, HC 10, BIR '79, TP 17, WP 5. Photo: Leslie Sacks Fine Art.
Jim Dine has long sustained an orientation similar to that of Johns, achieving painterly effects with print making processes. Additionally, Dine often embellishes entire editions with hand painting. Moreover, he has underscored the primacy of drawing with many editioned prints that are effectively drawings produced in multiplicity (as is the case with many of Hockney’s editions). Be it graphite pencil on paper, or lithographic pencil on a stone, a drawing is a drawing nevertheless and it is the mastery of this most fundamental of all artistic skills that separates the merely conceptual from classic art, though it should be said that the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Dine is represented in this exhibition with a large, intensely graphic robe entitled Very Picante, made with an unusual technique employing cardboard plates. Also shown are two of his Venuses in etching and aquatint, classical icons if ever there were.
Jim DINE (b. 1935), '
Chuck Close has become an iconic name in contemporary art, but the underpinning of his signature style - portraits comprised of intricate patterns of pixilated colors - have precedent in neo-impressionism, best known from the late 19th century divisionist, aka pointillist landscapes and seascapes of Seurat and Signac. This said, the thinking behind Close’s work is different than that of the neo-impressionists, and he’s taken the basic form of divisionism to the next level with the development of complex patterns and free form designs within those patterns. Important Modern and Contemporary Prints includes Close’s tour de force self portrait of 2007, a 187 color silk screen image measuring 68 x 74 inches. Each color requires a separate screen, and the registration (alignment) of all of the screens is critical, thus a work of this complexity is a staggering accomplishment, making this perhaps the most important print of the new century to date.
Chuck CLOSE (b. 1940), '
Lastly, looking at the amazing 1981 work of contemporary French etcher Erik Desmazieres, L’Atelier Rene Taze III, takes us back to where this narrative began, in reference to the intricate 16th century engravings of Albrecht Dürer, the etchings of Giovanni Piranesi, Jacques Callot and other early masters of European printmaking. Desmazieres’ obsessively detailed, affectionately rendered image of a print shop and its venerable press eloquently express the importance of printmaking, not only in the eyes of this artist, but in those of all the artists, curators, gallerists and collectors who have fallen under the spell of the print.
Erik Desmazieres (b. 1948), '
The show will be on view at Leslie Sacks Fine Art from January 23 to February 22, 2010
Bonhams Best-Ever Gentleman's Library Sale makes over £1m - World Record Price for Frampton Portrait
Meredith Frampton (British, 1894-1984), 'Dr. Clive Forster-Cooper, F.R.S.', bears inscription on label on reverse, oil on canvas, 86.3 x 106.7cm (34 x 42in). Sold for £79,200. Photo Bonhams
Bonhams Gentleman's Library Sale on 20 January realised £1,084,320 making it the most successful in its history. "This impressive total in our first major sale of the year, and above estimate prices for high quality items, shows that the market remains resilient." said Bonhams Head of Collectables, Jon Baddeley.
The highlight of the sale was a work by British painter Meredith Frampton (above) which achieved a record price for the artist of £79,200 against an estimate of £5,000-7,000. The painting, a highly accomplished portrait of the former Director of the Natural History Museum, Dr Clive Forster-Cooper, shows the eminent palaeontologist surrounded by items from his personal collection of fossil vertebrates. (Dr Forster-Cooper lived at the Natural History Museum from 1940 – 1945, sleeping in his office to ensure the survival of the collections.) The painting dates from 1945 and although Meredith Frampton lived until 1984 this is believed to be his final work.
National Trust takes picture back to Sissinghurst
The National Trust paid £12,000 for a rare view of Sissinghurst Castle in 1761 (above) when it was used as a prisoner of war camp to house French seamen captured during the Seven Years war. The drawing, by an unknown hand, shows the aftermath of an escape attempt. It will be displayed at Sissingurst. The Trust also purchased seven pictures of prize cows by the Worcestershire 19th century painter Richard Whitford (below).
Richard Whitford (British, d.1890), A prize cow in a barn, signed 'R. Whitford' and dated 1875 (lower right), oil on canvas, 50 x 61cm (19 3/4 x 24in). Sold for £12,600. Photo Bonhams
Top prices for quality lots
An 8ft 6 ice age cave bear skeleton made £36,000 over its estimate of £18,000 – 22,000 and a carved elephant ivory presentation tusk sold for £46,000 against an estimate of £10,000 – 15,000. Two 42 inch globes, facsimiles of 18th century originals by Vincenzo Coronelli, fetched £26,400.
A cave bear skeleton, Ursus spelaeus, Carpathian Mountains, Romania, Ice Age (50-100 thousand years ago), (the hip and shoulder-blades reconstructed), on a metal stand, 102.5in(260cm)high, 45.3in(115cm)deep. Sold for £36,000. Photo Bonhams
An impressive pair of Vincenzo Coronelli 42 1/2-inch (108cm) facsimile terrestrial and celestial globes, 20th century, 69in (175cm) high, 54in (137cm) wide (2). Sold for £26,400. Photo Bonhams
A carved elephant ivory presentation tusk, by Gedijala Satyaraju, Vizagapatam, 1929, 103cm wide, 130cm high (the tusk), 150cm high (tusk with stand). Sold for £45,600. Photo Bonhams
English School, circa 1761, Sissinghurst Castle, ink and dye on laid paper, 53.3 x 76cm (21 x 29 15/16in). Sold for £12,000. Photo Bonhams
Damien Hirst, "End of an Era" @ Gagosian Gallery
Damien Hirst, End of an Era, 2009. Bull's head, gold, gold-plated steel, glass and formaldehyde solution with a Carrara marble plinth, 84 x 67 5/16 x 38 5/16 inches overall (213.4 x 171 x 97.2 cm). Courtesy Gagosian Gallery
NEW YORk, NY.- Gagosian Gallery will present "End of an Era", an exhibition of new paintings and sculpture by Damien Hirst.
The exhibition takes its title from the central sculpture in the exhibition, a severed bull's head with golden horns and crowned with a solid gold disc. Suspended in formaldehyde and encased in a golden vitrine, this totemic sculpture acts as a powerful coda to The Golden Calf (2008). End of an Era proffers a sacrificial head, here dismembered from the majestic body of the earlier sculpture. While The Golden Calf symbolized the worshipping of a false idol, with End of an Era (2009) Hirst demystifies the biblical tale and, by extension, debunks his own myth-making.
Also included in the exhibition is Judgement Day (2009) a thirty-foot long gold cabinet filled with close to 30,000 manufactured diamonds. A series of photorealist paintings of famous diamonds including The Golden Jubilee (2008) The Agra (2006) and The Premiere Rose (2006) are shown together here for the first time.
Having recently announced the end of the various series for which he has become known over the last twenty years, including the spot, spin and butterfly paintings, Hirst also makes reference with the exhibition's title to the seachange in his own work.
Damien Hirst was born in 1965 in Bristol, UK. Solo exhibitions include "The Agony and the Ecstasy", Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Naples (2004); "A Selection of Works by Damien Hirst from Various Collections", Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2005); "Damien Hirst", Astrup Fearnley Museet fur Moderne Kunst, Oslo (2005); "For the Love of God", Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (2008); "No Love Lost", The Wallace Collection, London (2009) and "Requiem", Pinchuk Art Center, Kiev (2009);. He received the DAAD fellowship in Berlin in 1994 and the Turner Prize in 1995. An exhibition of the artist's private collection, 'Murderme', was held at Serpentine Gallery, London in 2006. His work is included in important public and private collections throughout the world.
Hirst lives and works in London and Devon.
Damien Hirst, End of an Era, 2009. Bull's head, gold, gold-plated steel, glass and formaldehyde solution with a Carrara marble plinth, 84 x 67 5/16 x 38 5/16 inches overall (213.4 x 171 x 97.2 cm). Courtesy Gagosian Gallery
Damien Hirst, Painful Memories/Forgotten Tears, 2008. Gold plated, glass and Cubic Zirconia. Diptych: 72 3/16 x 108 3/8 x 4 inches each (183.3 x 275.3 x 10.2 cm). Courtesy Gagosian Gallery
Damien Hirst, Painful Memories/Forgotten Tears, 2008. Gold plated, glass and Cubic Zirconia. Diptych: 72 3/16 x 108 3/8 x 4 inches each (183.3 x 275.3 x 10.2 cm) *Detail view. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery
'Kingdom of Ife: Sculptures from West Africa' @ the British Museum
Obalufon mask. Ife, Nigeria. Early 14th century. © Karin L. Wills/Museum for African Art/National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Nigeria.
LONDON.- This spring, two major exhibitions at the British Museum will explore two important artistic traditions which flourished at the same time in different part of the worlds.
Kingdom of Ife: Sculptures from West Africa (4th March - 6th June 2010) will tell the story of the legendary city of Ife through some of the most refined and beautiful sculptures ever to be found in Africa, created between the 12th and 15th centuries. Meanwhile Fra Angelico to Leonardo: Italian Renaissance Drawings (22 April - 25 July 2010) will bring together the finest group of Italian drawings to be seen in this country for over seventy years, featuring 100 works by artists such as Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Titian. The exhibition will focus on the period between 1400 and 1510 and is a unique collaboration between the British Museum and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
Kingdom of Ife: Sculptures from West Africa
Kingdom of Ife: sculptures from West Africa will tell the story of the legendary city of Ife (pronounced ee-feh) through some of the most refined and beautiful sculptures ever to be found in Africa. Ife is today regarded as the spiritual heartland of the Yoruba people living in Nigeria, the Republic of Benin and their many descendants around the world. The exhibition will feature nearly 100 superb pieces of Ife sculpture, most of which have never been seen in the UK before, and have been drawn almost entirely from the magnificent collections of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Nigeria. The British Museum is planning a series of Africa-related events, activities and displays to coincide with the 50th anniversary of African Independence celebrations in 2010.
Ife is rightly regarded as the birthplace of some of the highest achievements of African art and culture, combining technical accomplishment with strong aesthetic appeal. From the 12th to the 15th centuries, Ife flourished as a powerful, cosmopolitan and wealthy city-state in West Africa, in what is now modern Nigeria. It was an influential centre of trade connected to extensive local and long-distance trade networks which enabled the region to prosper. Ife developed a refined and highly naturalistic sculptural tradition in stone, terracotta, brass and copper-alloy to create a style unlike any in Africa at the time. The human figures portray a wide cross-section of Ife society and include depictions of youth and old age, health and disease, suffering and serenity. The almost pure copper mask of Obalufon II, an early Ooni (king) of Ife is one of the finest images of royal power from Ife.
According to Yoruba myth, Ife was the centre of the creation of the world and all mankind. Ife was home to many sacred groves located in the city’s forests. Two groves in particular have revealed numerous sculptures: the Ore Grove with its stone monoliths, human and animal figures and the Iwinrin Grove which is associated with terracotta heads and fragments from life-size figures.
Other sites have revealed spectacular pieces with royal associations including the only known complete king figure and an exquisite terracotta head, possibly portraying a queen both from Ita Yemoo. A terracotta elephant and a hippopotamus head lavishly adorned with beaded regalia come from the royal burial site of Lafogido.
The figurative terracotta sculptures, which represent the largest group of works, capture the diverse nature of Ife society at the time. Several terracotta heads bear facial striations suggesting cultural markings, some possibly from groups outside Ife. Some heads appear to depict women wearing regalia or jewellery indicating their high status. Also on display are almost life-size copper alloy heads which reveal an idealized, naturalistic uniformity although each head has notable individual characteristics. It is suggested that they were produced over a relatively short period of time, maybe in a single workshop. These heads are believed to be associated with the coronation or the accession rituals of new rulers of Yoruba city-states which owed allegiance to Ife.
Today Ife remains a major spiritual and religious centre for the Yoruba people. Some of its shrines and groves are still in use and rituals to key gods are performed regularly. Works of art from Ife have become iconic symbols of regional and national unity, and of pan-African identity. Since Independence in 1960 enthusiasm for copies or reproductions of heritage items with nostalgic associations has increased. The ‘Ori Olokun’ head was chosen as the logo for the All-Africa Games held in Lagos in 1973 and has been adopted as the logo of numerous commercial, educational and financial institutions. Such images have become universal symbols of African heritage.
Bracelet of birds pecking at bound humans, Ife, brass, 14th-15th century. ©Karin L. Willis/Museum for African Art/Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments
Seated figure, Tada, copper. Early 14th century. © Karin L. Wills/Museum for African Art/National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Nigeria.
Hommage à Jacques Martin, le pape de la bande dessinée historique franco-belge
Tome 1 © CASTERMAN
Ado, Alix était ma bande dessinée préférée. J'étais plus "Alix" que "Tintin". Je lisais en même temps L'Illiade et L'Odyssée. Et puis, Alix et Enak illustrent le couple masculin antique de l'éraste et de l'éromène
Tome 2 © CASTERMAN
Tome 3 © CASTERMAN
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Extrait du Tome 9: "Le Dieu Sauvage" © CASTERMAN
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Lire une interview de Jacques Martin réalisée par Gérard Lefort et Mathieu Lindon pour Libération en 1996.
