News
2010-06-15
Modern & Contemporary Prints
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Francis Bacon (1909-1992) |
Over the last few years Bloomsbury Auctions has broken multiple world records for etchings by Lucian Freud and now Bloomsbury is delighted to offer six portraits as well as The Painter’s Garden. The pick of the bunch is probably Head of a Man and it is expected to arouse considerable interest. Inscribed in pencil, Leigh with Love LF, the sitter was the Australian performance artist, actor, pop star, model and fashion designer Leigh Bowery, the subject of 4 etchings by Freud and a number of paintings. The etching for sale at Bloomsbury Auctions is Bowery’s own copy and is the best impression that will ever come onto the market; it is estimated £10,000-15,000.
An early pioneer of the fetish and rubber scene, Bowery is considered one of the more influential figures in the London and New York art and fashion circles of the 1980s and 1990s influencing a generation of artists and designers from John Galliano, Alexander McQueen to Vivienne Westwood, Boy George, the Scissor Sisters and Lady Gaga. Leigh Bowery, notorious for the outrageous costumes he wore for his performances was, unusually for Freud, an experienced model. Bowery sat for Freud over the course of two years, as often as five days a week. ‘The bonus is the quietness,’ he said of this experience. ‘You get a different sense of yourself. It's nice to have that level of attention. And a tension.’ Head of a Man not only reveals Bowery’s power, stillness and serenity but also encapsulates Freud’s sensitivity and fascination with bone structure and flesh, ‘I paint people, not because of what they are like, not exactly in spite of what they are like, but how they happen to be.'
Bloomsbury is also offering three important Francis Bacon lithographs: Self Portrait, Study for a Portrait of John Edwards and Miroir de la Tauromachie as well as eight offset-lithographs from 1968 printed in colours (lots 195-198). However it is the unique Self Portrait (lot 195) which is particularly exciting. This hors commerce lithograph printed in colours and signed by the artist was never published as a single sheet, only as part of a triptych from an edition of 150 and it is now offered at £4,000-6,000.
No major sale can be complete without Picasso, considered to be the greatest artist of the 20th century and Bloomsbury offers a wide range of his work including Picador, Femme et Cheval (lot 172 estimate £12,000-15,000), Fumeur (lot 174 estimated £12,000-15,000) and lot 171 the magnificent signed artist’s proof linocut Pique (Rouge et Jaune). Picasso once said that if he hadn’t been an artist he would have been a Picador: a fearless mounted lancer whose job it is to wear down the bull’s strength prior to the Matador dispatching the animal. Here Picasso has captured the moment when the lance pierces the bull’s neck and the swirling morass of red and yellow evokes not only the blood, sand and blazing sun, but also the principal colours of Picasso’s beloved Spain. This powerful piece is expected to fetch £35,000-45,000.
British Futurism and especially the inter-war prints of The Grosvenor School are still very much on the ascendant and Bloomsbury is offering an important selection of linocuts by sought after masters such as Cyril Power, Sybil Andrews and Lill Tschudi. The Grosvenor School was fascinated by power and the London Underground became a symbol of the new machine age; recently Escalator by Cyril Power made £51,000 a record for The Grosvenor School and now Bloomsbury is offering The Tube Staircase by Cyril Power (lot 82) showing the spiral staircase of the Russell Square station, estimated £15,000-20,000. This important and arresting image is an early impression linocut printed in colours (1929) and is inscribed on the back by the artist, ‘A copy of this print was the first colour lino print to be bought by the National Art Collection Fund and is in the British Museum Print room. This was my first coloured lino print.’
This 357 lot sale also embraces a substantial number of Young British Artists. The crucial launch pad of the YBAs as they became known, was Freeze and Bloomsbury is offering the first catalogue signed by the contributing artists, most of whom are regarded today as superstars, none more so than the exhibition’s curator Damian Hirst. The Freeze catalogue has become a rare collector’s item as catalogues that remained after the show were burnt at a post-show bonfire, making this copy exceedingly rare (estimate £3,000-5,000). Hirst is well represented with, amongst others, seven aquatint Butterfly etchings printed in colour with estimates ranging from £1,800-3,500. The Pop Art section includes several Andy Warhol silkscreens including $ printed in a unique combination of colours (lot 345 estimate £15,000-20,000) and a signed and numbered silkscreen printed in colours of Ingrid Bergman with a Hat (lot 346 estimate £18,000-22,000).
2010-05-28
Three World Records Set at Bloomsbury Auctions’ Important Books and Manuscripts Sale
Bloomsbury Auctions’ sale of Important Books and Manuscripts in London on 27th May was an outstanding success, with three world records for an inscribed Das Kapital by Karl Marx, a letter from the illustrator John Tenniel to Lewis Carroll and an inscribed first edition of Dracula by Bram Stoker. The sale totalled £1.7million and was 90% sold.
One of the focal points of the sale was undoubtedly the legendary long-lost ‘Wasp in a Wig’ letter from the illustrator John Tenniel to Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carrroll) dated June 1, 1870 with an original ink sketch on the first page. As predicted there was considerable international interest and the letter was finally bought for a world record £51,240 for a Tenniel letter (estimate£15,000-20,000). The letter, in which Sir John Tenniel discusses revision of an illustration for Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, and proposes the omission of the ‘Wasp’ episode from the book, was reproduced in the late 19th century in facsimile by Dodgson's nephew Stuart Dodgson Collingwood in The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll (1898), but the original document has been lost for more than a century. This privately owned letter was important for several reasons: firstly it seems that little or none of the working correspondence between Dodgson and Tenniel has survived, so this note gives a unique glimpse into the process of developing and perfecting the Alice books; secondly a number of Tenniel sketches have been preserved, but this may well be the only spontaneous drawing of its type. Thanks to Collingwood, the text of the letter and the drawing have been known since 1898, but this small sheet of paper is the irreplaceable original.
Another outstanding result in Bloomsbury’s sale was the incredible £140,300 for a signed Das Kapital by Karl Marx. Estimated at £25,000-35,000 this was a world record for the first volume of Marx’s magnum opus, and the only one to be published in his life time, the other two were published posthumously under the editorship of Friedrich Engels. Such pre eminent works signed or inscribed by Marx are incredibly rare and no comparable titles have appeared at auction for 25 years. This excellent association copy sold at Bloomsbury Auctions was dated London, 18 Sept 1867 and was inscribed To Professor E Beesly his friend the historian, positivist and founding editor of the Fortnightly Review.
Yet another item to soar past all expectations was the best copy of Dracula by Bram Stoker that Bloomsbury Auctions had ever seen and it went for £53,680 estimated £7,500-10,000. This was a world record for an inscribed copy of Dracula; it was a first edition and a scarce first issue copy inscribed ‘To Mrs WS Gilbert with Bram Stocker’s very warm regards, 12/7/97’. Mrs WS Gilbert was the wife of William Schwenck Gilbert, of Gilbert & Sullivan fame and a friend of Stoker. At the time there was some mild controversy over the friendship that existed between Gilbert and Stoker’s young wife Florence, as they often socialised and the former was regarded as something of a ‘decadent’.
One has come to expect live online bidding as well as telephone bidding in all major sales and these elements together with a packed, standing room only saleroom made this an exciting and highly successful sale with an unprecedented demand for telephone bidding. The 753 lots encompassed substantial substantial private collections ranging from botany, ornithology and garden and domestic design to English literature, history and political philosophy.