Tag Archives: Christie’s

Artists: Inside Story Of Andy Warhol’s “Athletes” Paintings (Christie’s)

From a Christie’s Magazine online article (February 2020):

Christie's Magazine logo‘The sports stars of today are the movie stars of yesterday,’ proclaimed the artist. It was true; thanks to rapid advances in TV broadcasting, sporting champions in the 1970s were starting to achieve the same level of popularity as other entertainers.

Andy Warhol Athletes paintngs Muhammad Ali & Pele Christie's Magazine February 2020

In 1977, Richard L. Weisman approached his friend Andy Warhol with the idea for a new series: a set of silkscreen portraits of the day’s leading sports stars. Called ‘Athletes’, these pictures have come to be regarded as some of the standout works of Warhol’s later years.

Andy Warhol Athletes paintngs Kareem Abdul-Jabbar & Tom Seaver Christie's Magazine February 2020

Weisman (1940-2018) was a dedicated collector, and the two men bonded mostly over art, although they also crossed paths regularly at social gatherings across New York. On some occasions, these gatherings were held at Warhol’s Factory studio; on others, at Weisman’s apartment on United Nations Plaza.

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Artists: Belgian Surrealist Painter René Magritte Linked “Consciousness And The External World”

From a Christies.com online article:

René Magritte, The Son of Man, 1964
René Magritte, The Son of Man, 1964

‘The creation of new objects, the transformation of known objects; a change of substance in the case of certain objects: a wooden sky, for instance; the use of words in association with images; the misnaming of an object… the use of certain visions glimpsed between sleeping and waking, such in general were the means devised to force objects out of the ordinary, to become sensational, and so establish a profound link between consciousness and the external world.’

René François Ghislain Magritte (1898-1967) was born in Lessines, Belgium. His father was a tailor and textile merchant; his mother committed suicide in 1912, drowning herself in the River Sambre.

René Magritte 1898 - 1967 Le Somnambule 1946

From the 1930s, Magritte sought to find ‘solutions’ to particular ‘problems’ posed by different types of objects, a method that enabled him to challenge and reconfigure the most ubiquitous and commonplace elements of everyday life. These problems obsessed him until he was able to conceive of an image to solve them.

This philosophical method had come to him after waking from a dream in 1932. In his semi-conscious state, he looked over at a birdcage that was in his room but saw not the bird that inhabited the cage, but instead an egg. This ‘splendid misapprehension’ allowed him to grasp, in his own words, ‘a new and astonishing poetic secret.’

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Photography Insider: A Collector’s Guide To Ansel Adams (Christie’s)

From a Christie’s online article:

Christie's LogoAdams’ ‘visualisation’ strategy marked a shift away from Pictorialism, a much more manipulated photographic style, which had influenced his early work. His desire for sharper focus and deeper tone and contrast (he called it ‘an austere and blazing poetry of the real’) led to him becoming a leading figure in pure — or straight — photography. 

 

Arguably no other photographer of his era knew more about photography than Adams. He wrote ten technical manuals on the discipline, and even advised major figures like Strand and Edward Weston, his friend and fellow West Coast photographer.

He also consulted for Polaroid and Hasselblad. Without such technical mastery he would not have been able to react with such immediacy to the quickly changing conditions of landscape.

One of his most famous works, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico1941, needed snap judgements of immense sophistication to capture the momentary effect of sunset light on the foreground, and establish a balanced tone and focus with the distant peaks, evanescent clouds and darkening sky.

Animated Movie Nostalgia: “Animal Farm” (1954) Directed By John Halas & Joy Batchelor

From a Christie’s online article:

Christie's LondonShortly after George Orwell’s death in 1950, his widow Sonia was visited in London by two representatives of the American film producer, Louis de Rochemont. They sought the rights to Orwell’s novel from five years earlier, Animal Farm. It’s said Sonia took some convincing but eventually agreed, on the promise that de Rochemont would introduce her to her hero, Clark Gable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4egC00K7Dg

Animal Farm Movie 1954A conventional, live-action adaptation was out of the question given that the book’s main characters were farmyard animals, so an animated movie was decided upon instead. De Rochemont chose to have it made in the UK rather than the US — partly because of lower production costs, partly because he admired the work of British husband-and-wife duo John Halas and Joy Batchelor, a couple who ran their own animation studio and had produced several propaganda films for the British government during the Second World War.

Their adaptation of Animal Farm  was released in 1954, to popular and critical acclaim — the first feature-length animation movie ever made in the UK.

To read more: https://www.christies.com/features/Christies-to-auction-animation-still-from-Animal-Farm-10225-1.aspx?sc_lang=en&cid=EM_EMLcontent04144B00C_1&cid=DM354813&bid=199616411#FID-10225

Artist Tales: Sculptor Auguste Rodin’s “The Age Of Bronze” – So Realistic It Caused A Scandal In 1877

From a Christie’s online article:

August Rodin The Age of Bronze Christie'sRodin first exhibited a bronze and a plaster version of The Age of Bronze  at the Cercle Artistique in Brussels in January 1877. A few months later, he exhibited the plaster at the Paris Salon, where it caused a scandal. ‘The vitality and naturalism of the sculpture was so extreme, the sense of modelling so observed, that he was accused of having cast the sculpture from the model himself,’ says the specialist.

Tudor Davies, Head of Impressionist & Modern Art in Paris, reveals why Rodin’s Salon ‘scandal’ marked a pivotal turning point in the artist’s career.

The Age of Bronze  was originally conceived in 1877, and is widely considered Rodin’s first great work, ranking alongside his later masterpieces, including La Porte de l’EnferLe Penseur  and Le Baiser. Its conception marked a decisive turning point in the sculptor’s career.

August Rodin The Age of Bronze Christie's

To read more: www.https://www.christies.com/features/Auguste-Rodin-The-Age-of-Bronze-sculpture-10211-3.aspx?sc_lang=en&cid=EM_EMLcontent04144A99C_1&cid=DM351034&bid=198714681#FID-10211