34-35 NEW BOND STREET LONDON W1A 2AA +44 (0)20 7293 6000 WWW.SOTHEBYS.
COM
PRESS RELEASE
Press office contact: Poni Ujlaky
T: +44 (0) 7293 6000
E: [email protected]
SOTHEBY’S FEBRUARY CONTEMPORARY ART SALE TO
FEATURE IMPORTANT WORKS
BY FREUD, LICHTENSTEIN,
KLEIN & RICHTER
Lucian Freud (born 1922), Bruce Bernard (Seated), 1996
Estimate: £2,000,000-3,000,000
SOTHEBY’S Evening Sale of Contemporary Art in London on Thursday, February 9, 2006, will feature a
broad selection of works spanning a number of important movements in art from the 1950s to the
present day. Highlights from the sale include masterpieces by artists who have epitomized the art of
each decade since the beginning of the post-war period, such as Lucian Freud, Roy Lichtenstein,
Gerhard Richter, Yves Klein and Nicolas De Staël.
SOTHEBY’S: REGISTERED AT THE ABOVE ADDRESS NO. 874867
A standout example among the large number of works in the auction by School of London artists, is a
1996 portrait of Bruce Bernard (Seated) (previous page) by Lucian Freud (born 1922), one of the world’s
most predominant figurative artists working today. Bruce Bernard (1928-2000) is considered to have
been one of the greatest picture editors of the 20th century, in addition to being a close friend of Freud’s.
During the early 1990s, Bernard sat for Freud on two separate occasions and the present portrait records
the culmination of the artist’s ongoing painterly interrogation. Depicting the man whose authoritative
monograph on Freud has shaped our understanding of the artist perhaps more than any other, this
portrait epitomizes Freud’s uncanny ability to expose the depths of his sitter’s inner-psyche. Describing
the experience of seeing this work for the first time, Bernard explained: ‘I feel as though my nervous
system has been penetrated in an unprecedented way…It must be, I feel, on the highest level of Lucian
Freud’s achievement.’ This work is fresh to the market, having remained in the same private collection
since 1996. It is estimated at £2,000,000-3,000,000.
Francis Bacon, Two Figures at a Window, 1953
Estimate: £1,800,000-2,500,000
Another outstanding School of London example is a work by Freud’s friend and contemporary, Francis
Bacon (1909-92). Two Figures at a Window is one of very few works still available from one of the artist’s
most seminal periods. Bacon had just hit his stride around this time - 1953 was the year of his first Pope
series. As the vast majority of his works from this period are now in prestigious private and public
collections, where they are likely to remain, this is a unique opportunity to acquire a seminal work by
the artist. The estimate for the work is £1,800,000-2,500,000.
Roy Lichtenstein, Still-life with Candy Jar, 1972
Estimate: £1,000,000-1,500,000
Several examples by proponents of Pop Art from both sides of the Atlantic are also included in the sale.
By the early 1970s, Roy Lichtenstein (1923-97) was moving away from his earlier paintings which had
questioned the traditional relationship of the artist with his subject through the appropriation of
conventionally low-art forms. In Still-life with Candy Jar, one of his most iconic images from 1972, he
challenges the dynamics of art’s most conventional and traditional genre – the still-life composition. The
painting affords a mini retrospective of his distinctive ‘Pop’ vision. Synthesizing the aesthetic and
technical characteristics from his cartoon, landscape and mirror series with the illustrious tradition of
still-life painting, he tackles the artifice of subject and composition in Western art. The painting is
estimated at £1,000,000-1,500,000.
Gerhard Richter, Untitled, 1967
Estimate: £1,000,000-1,500,000
Gerhard Richter (born 1932) spent the years 1967 to 1968 attempting to break free from the pure ‘Pop’ of
his photo-paintings and to develop a more comprehensive debate about the meaning of style in painting.
Untitled from 1967 is one of Richter’s most important photo-paintings in which the over-riding figurative
control of his grey-tone aesthetic dissolves into an abstract harmony of colour and form. One of only two
paintings of its kind within Richter’s oeuvre, this work marks the artist’s developing interest in Abstract
painting and epitomizes his constant drive for new means of expression. It is estimated at £1,500,000-
2,000,000.
Sigmar Polke, Herr Kluncker, 1964
Estimate: £400,000-600,000
An iconic work by Richter’s near-contemporary, Sigmar Polke (born 1941), is also included in the sale.
Herr Kluncker (estimated at £400,000-600,000) is one of the most important of Polke’s series of black and
white Rasterbilds, which took as their source banal and often ambiguous images from local German
newspapers and magazines. Mimicking the mechanical processes of mass reproduction, Polke’s
‘Capitalist Realist’ work of this period was made in response to the prominence of the media in
contemporary culture and, as he saw it, the Americanisation of society.
Sir Anthony Caro, Sculpture Two, 1962
Estimate: £250,000-350,000
Sculpture Two, 1962, acquired directly from Sir Anthony Caro (born 1924) in 1962 by the present owner
and exhibited on loan at the Tate since 1992, is the most important early steel sculpture by Caro ever to
appear at auction and belongs to the artist’s celebrated group of early abstract works. Sculpture Two, 1962
(estimate: £250,000-350,000) is a seminal, authoritative masterpiece that marks the onset of Caro’s hugely
influential sculptural revolution. Executed two years after the first of his steel constructions, the
harmony of parts in this work attains a sublime degree of finesse and internal resolution.
Yves Klein, IKB 92, 1959
Estimate: £1,000,000-1,500,000
Yves Klein’s (1928-62) IKB 92 embodies the intrinsic and unique spirituality that he believed to be
present in a work of art. One of eleven monochromes of identical dimensions and colour that Klein
produced during 1959, these works convey the artist’s belief that the individual value of a work resides
in the creativity installed in it. The IKB monochromes give an insight into the artist’s romanticised,
mystical belief in an immaterial world. IKB 92 denies any visible trace of the artist’s hand, allowing the
rich materiality of the blue pigment to saturate the canvas without variation in hue or texture and the
colour to find complete, uninterrupted unity in the monochrome. The work is estimated at £1,000,000-
1,500,000.
Nicolas De Staël, Fleurs sur fond rouge, 1953
Estimate: £500,000-700,000
In the early 1950s, Nicolas de Staël (1914-55), the standard-bearer of the Abstract post-war Ecole de
Paris, became increasingly dissatisfied with the restrictions of abstract expressionism and began to
explore means of bridging the gap between abstraction and figuration. Two examples of his work after
returning to the traditional genres of landscape and still life are included in the sale. Fleurs sur fond rouge
is one of the artist’s unequivocal masterpieces of 1953, and is a densely worked composition of
overlapping slabs of pure colour. The painting, estimated at £500,000-700,000, is a perfect example of De
Staël’s innate ability as a colourist.
Highlights from the sale will be on view at Sotheby’s galleries in the following locations:
New York January 9th – 13th
Hong Kong January 16th – 17th
Taipei January 21st – 22nd
Paris January 24th – 26th
IMAGES ARE AVAILABLE ON REQUEST
All Sotheby’s press releases are published online at www.sothebys.com
