NEW YORK: The spring art auction season kicks off Sunday in New York with paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Cy Twombly and a taboo-smashing statue of Hitler.
Some 1,500 artworks are to go under the gavel over the course of five days of auctions expected to fetch more than a billion dollars.
The most important ones will be held in the evening, three hosted by Christie’s and two by Sotheby’s.
First comes the Christie’s thematic evening “Bound to Fail,” with a selection of 39 works of Modern and Contemporary art exploring the idea of commercial failure, and that of taking risks to expand the boundaries of art.
The most troubling piece is a wax and resin statue by Italy’s Maurizio Cattelan, entitled simply “Lui.”
From behind, it looks like a boy on his knees, wearing a gray woolen suit. But walk around front and you see it is Hitler, his hands clasped together in front of him as he gazes upward.
Completed in 2001, it is expected to go for 10-15 million dollars.
“I wanted to destroy it myself. I changed my mind a thousand times, every day,” said Cattelan.
He added: “Hitler is pure fear. It’s an image of terrible pain. It even hurts to pronounce his name. And yet that name has conquered my memory. It lives in my head, even if it remains taboo.”
Loic Gouzer, deputy chairman of post-war and contemporary art with Christie’s who created the theme-oriented auction evenings, called the work “extremely powerful, extremely disconcerting.”
Unlike in the movies, Gouzer said, “artists have hardly ever touched on the issue of Hitler.”
Even some years ago the statue would have been a tough piece to sell, but now the market seems ready, he said. The piece might break the previous eight million dollar record for a Cattelan piece.
Another important work in this particular auction is “One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank” by the American Jeff Koons, who is known for toying with objects from popular culture. This one has a water-filled basketball suspended in the center of a tank of saline solution. It is expected to lure as much as 12 million dollars.
On May 9, French artists Maurice de Vlaminck and Andre Derain will be the main features of an auction of Impressionist and Modern art by Sotheby’s.
Derain’s “Les voiles rouges,” completed in 1906, is thought to be worth 15-20 million dollars, and “Sous-bois” (1905) by Vlaminck some 12-18 million.
These two paintings have never been auctioned before.
Some 1,500 artworks are to go under the gavel over the course of five days of auctions expected to fetch more than a billion dollars.
The most important ones will be held in the evening, three hosted by Christie’s and two by Sotheby’s.
First comes the Christie’s thematic evening “Bound to Fail,” with a selection of 39 works of Modern and Contemporary art exploring the idea of commercial failure, and that of taking risks to expand the boundaries of art.
The most troubling piece is a wax and resin statue by Italy’s Maurizio Cattelan, entitled simply “Lui.”
From behind, it looks like a boy on his knees, wearing a gray woolen suit. But walk around front and you see it is Hitler, his hands clasped together in front of him as he gazes upward.
Completed in 2001, it is expected to go for 10-15 million dollars.
“I wanted to destroy it myself. I changed my mind a thousand times, every day,” said Cattelan.
He added: “Hitler is pure fear. It’s an image of terrible pain. It even hurts to pronounce his name. And yet that name has conquered my memory. It lives in my head, even if it remains taboo.”
Loic Gouzer, deputy chairman of post-war and contemporary art with Christie’s who created the theme-oriented auction evenings, called the work “extremely powerful, extremely disconcerting.”
Unlike in the movies, Gouzer said, “artists have hardly ever touched on the issue of Hitler.”
Even some years ago the statue would have been a tough piece to sell, but now the market seems ready, he said. The piece might break the previous eight million dollar record for a Cattelan piece.
Another important work in this particular auction is “One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank” by the American Jeff Koons, who is known for toying with objects from popular culture. This one has a water-filled basketball suspended in the center of a tank of saline solution. It is expected to lure as much as 12 million dollars.
On May 9, French artists Maurice de Vlaminck and Andre Derain will be the main features of an auction of Impressionist and Modern art by Sotheby’s.
Derain’s “Les voiles rouges,” completed in 1906, is thought to be worth 15-20 million dollars, and “Sous-bois” (1905) by Vlaminck some 12-18 million.
These two paintings have never been auctioned before.
