Every year, the auction will always produce high-priced works of art, these works are almost without exception basically "familiar faces", either the artist is a pivotal name in the history of art, or the work is his career turnaround, looking back at the auction market in the past year, the auction market basically follows the above rules. However, 2021 is the first year that NFT artworks appear on the auction, and the figure of NFT artworks appearing in the list is somewhat unexpected. In addition, the works of the Renaissance master Botticelli are also among them, and let's review the stories behind these works that set market records.
01
$103.4 million
Picasso
Woman sitting by a window (Marie-Thérèse), 1932
The first and only work to exceed the $100 million mark in 2021: Femme assise près d'une fenêtre, modeled by Picasso's partner Marie-Thérèse Walter. At the 20th Century Night Auction in New York on May 13, Jasic sold the work for $103.4 million, the first time since 2015 that Picasso topped the list of the most expensive works at auction.
Femme assise près d'une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse), painted in 1932, is one of the artist's last great portraits, in which Picasso focuses his attention on majestic images and striking facial features, the passion unleashed by the painter is evident. Walter plays the roles of love, model and goddess, and although she is dressed in a dress, her sexiness is evident in her plump body silhouette. In this work, the artist shows a strong sense of sculpture in the painting. Art History Influences: Picasso was the most influential artist of the first half of the 20th century. He made significant contributions to Symbolism and Surrealism, and it is widely believed that Picasso was first and foremost a painter, but in fact his sculptural works were also far-reaching, and he also explored different fields such as printmaking and ceramics. His relationships with numerous women not only permeated his art, but also triggered many important transformations in his artistic career. Picasso and Georges, who was then living in Montmartre, Paris. Braque founded Cubism, and his The Avignon Girls is considered the first work to incorporate Cubist elements.
02
$93.1 million
Basquiat
In This Case,1983
On May 11, Basquiat's "In This Case" was unveiled at Christie's 21st Century Night Sale, a 1983 work that sold for $93.1 million and became the star of the night. The work is from basquiat's three "skull" series between 1981 and 1983, the other being Untitled (1982), which sold for $110.5 million in 2017 and has since held the artist's auction record.
Basquiat depicted on canvas a "massive skull with ruby red background, with shiny eyes and protruding green teeth, as well as fractured anatomy." Portraits of blackface often appear in one Basquiat painting after another. According to art historian Fred Hoffmann, "Basquiat was obsessed with the depiction of the human head because he was obsessed with the face as a passageway into the human mental and spiritual realm from external physical existence.
This Case is the last in a series of large-scale skull paintings between 1981 and 1983, which was previously sold by Sotheby's in 2002 for $999,500. Art History Influences: During his short life, Basquiat played an important historical role in the culture of New York and the rise of broader Neo-Expressionism. His art is often inaccurately described as "naïve", but his art has important connections with artists such as Dubuffe and Se Tombre. As a cultural observer obsessed with celebrity and business in the 1980s, Basquiat and his work are seen by many observers as a metaphor for art's social reality.
03
$92.2 million
Botticelli
Portrait of a Young Man with a Round Image, c. 1470-80
Botticelli's Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Disc in the second half of the 15th century went to auction for Paintings and Sculptures of Master Sotheby's in New York on Jan. 28. The Renaissance portrait didn't spark much bidding, but it nevertheless fetched a sky-high price of $92.2 million, the highest record for Sotheby's auction of paintings by early master painters. The first record of the painting was in 1938, when it was owned by Baron Carnarfon Newber, and art dealer Frank Sabin visited the Newber manor and assessed the value of the painting, which, according to art historians, was collected by the Newborough family when the first Baron of Newber, Thomas Win, lived in Florence, Italy, from 1782 to 1791.
Influences of Art History: Botticelli was the greatest humanist painter of the early Renaissance, and much of his life remains a mystery to us today. During his long career, he was commissioned to create works of many different subjects, the core of which was the pursuit of beauty and virtue, the qualities represented by the goddess Venus, who was also the subject of many of his famous paintings.
04
$82.46 million
Roscoe
No.7,1951
No. 7 oil on canvas 94 ¾ by 54 ⅝ in. 240.7 by 138.7 cm.
One of the most expensive works of art in McClowell's collection: Mark Rothko's 1951 No.7. The painting sold for $82.46 million, the artist's second-highest-priced work on the market, after 2012's Orange, Red, Yellow, which sold for $86.8 million. Rothko developed his signature abstract style and mature way of expression in the early 1950s.
Rothko painted only 18 paintings in 1951, a work that pulls the viewer's vision toward the center of the picture with a tangible energy intensity, with Rothko paying particular attention to the gap between the form of the work and the edge of the canvas itself.
Rothko moving Untitled,1954 (seen inverted), photograph by Henry Elkan
In 1947 Rothko wrote at the time, "I think of my photographs as plays, and the shapes in the pictures are performers, organisms with will and enthusiasm for self-assertion." In 1950, Rothko abandoned these diverse works in favor of what he called "an unknown space." In his book on the artist, David Anfam argues that this pivotal moment was the beginning of the "classical period" and subsequently throughout Rothko's life.
Art History Influences: Rothko's fame rose sharply in the years after his death, and unlike other artists in Abstract Expressionism, he explored deeply the potential of color and form in the human psyche. Standing in front of Rothko's work is like being in a throbbing patch of color on his huge canvas, and even if it is short but strong, it is the sublime spirit he tirelessly wants to evoke.
05
$78.4 million
Jacmetti
The Nose, 1947
Le Nez bronze, steel and iron 81.3 by 72.4 by 38 cm
This extraordinary work of art, made of bronze and steel, fetched the second highest price in McClowell's collection for $78.4 million and set Giacometti's fourth-highest market record.
Giacometti's top three high-priced works all exceed $100 million. Le Nez was sold to 31-year-old cryptocurrency tycoon Justin Sun, who plans to donate the work to his ongoing NFT Foundation project, which works to build famous artworks and artists on the NFT blockchain.
Years of fatigue … Giacometti in the studio in 1951. Photograph: Alberto Giacometti Estate, ACS/DACS, 2017
Giacometti revolutionized figurative sculpture with his shriveled, slender human form. In his transition from realist body construction to mythical totem, the artist draws on the influences of Cubism, Surrealism and African sculpture. There is a sense of alienation permeated in Giacometti's work, reminiscent of the existential ideas of his friend Jean-Paul Sartre and the social and political upheavals that Jacmetti experienced in Europe in the early 20th century.
1947 was a crucial year for Giacometti, and many of his most famous works were created during this period.
Influences of Art History: Giacometti was one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century, whose works were influenced by artistic styles such as Cubism and Surrealism, philosophical questions about the human condition, and debates about the existential and phenomenological, all of which played an important role in his work. Around 1935 he abandoned the influence of Surrealism in pursuit of more in-depth analytical figurative works, and between 1938 and 1944, Giacometti's sculptures had a maximum height of no more than 7 centimeters. After World War II, Giacometti created his most famous sculptures: slender statues, which sit between real and imaginary, tangible and inaccessible spaces.
06
$71.35 million
Van Gogh
Wooden huts among olive trees and cypresses, 1889
Van Gogh’s Wooden Cabins among the Olive Trees and Cypresses (Cabanes de bois parmi les oliviers et cyprès)(October 1889)© Christie’s Images Ltd 2021
Another significant private collection for auction in 2021 is from the collection of Texas businessman and philanthropist Edwin Loridge Cox at christie's auction in New York in November. Unlike McClowell's collection of modern and contemporary art, the field focuses on Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Cox's collection prides itself on Cabanes de bois parmi les oliviers (The Wooden House Between Olive and Cypress Trees), a painting by Van Gogh in Saint-Rémy in October 1889 that ended up selling for $71.35 million.
Edwin Cox, at home with Gustave Caillebotte's Jeune Homme à sa Fenêtre (1876) © Christie's Images Ltd 2021
Van Gogh's painting was painted in October 1889, when Van Gogh was living in a mental hospital outside Saint-Rémy. In July 1889, Van Gogh attempted suicide by swallowing paint, and the work was owned by Theo's widow, Jo Bonger, until 1910, when it was sold to a Berlin collector through a gallery. A few years later the painting was bought by The Mexican-born artist and trader Marius de Zayas, who was also one of the key figures in what would become New York's avant-garde art scene. The painting has only been exhibited twice since the 1920s: in England (London) in 1949 and in Belgium (Mons) in 1980.
Art-historical influences: Van Gogh is widely regarded as one of the greatest Dutch painters of all time, and his work has had a strong influence on the development of many modern paintings, especially on Fauvist painters and German Expressionism. Of the more than 800 oil paintings and more than 700 drawings he produced during his lifetime, he sold only one during his lifetime. Van Gogh's paintings use a bright, ornate palette, and the dense brushstrokes that are clearly visible highlight the personal expression he gives life to in his paintings. This emotionally resonant style has influenced artists and art movements in the 20th century and today.
07
$70.35 million
Monet
The Water Lily Basin,1917-19
Claude Monet 1840 - 1926 The Water Lily Basin
At the May 12th Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art Night Auction in New York, one of Monet's major water lilies series: Le Bassin aux nymphéas, sold at Sotheby's in 2004 for $16.8 million, sold for $70.35 million, becoming the impressionist painter's fourth-most expensive work in auction history.
Claude Monet, Meules (1890). Courtesy of Sotheby's
The main lots in Monet's top ten were the water lilies series, as well as another theme that Monet liked, the grass pile. Four of Monet's top five high-priced works at auction were created in the last five years, with the highest-priced work being Meules in 1890, which sold for $110.7 million in 2019.
Monet began building his now famous water garden and water lily pond in 1893, with water from a nearby river. A lover of gardening, Monet spent most of his life nurturing a botanical paradise in Giverny, built around his aesthetic and painterly concerns.
Influences in art history: Monet was a leader of the French Impressionist movement, he was interested in painting outdoors and capturing natural light, and as a painter of outstanding use of color and light, Monet received strong support from collectors throughout his career. His influence on other artists was extensive, from contemporaries such as Van Gogh to artists of different eras such as Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse. In the last decades of the 20th century, retrospectives of his work toured the world, making him one of the most important and popular figures in the modern Western painting tradition.
08
$69.35 million
Beeple
Everydays: The First 5000 Days,2021
Beeple Everydays: The First 5000 Days,2021
NFT artworks have been the most sought after in the auction market over the past year, so it's no surprise that one such artwork can make the list of the 10 most expensive works this year.
On March 11, digital artist Beeple's "The First 5000 Days" was auctioned at Christie's in New York, and the work fetched a high price of $69.35 million, making it the most expensive digital artwork in auction history. As a result, Beeple ranked among the three most expensive in the auction market for living artists, alongside David Hockney and Jeff Koons, and the impact of this sky-high auction continues to ferment to this day.
09
$61.16 million
Pollock
Number17,1951,1951
Number 17, 1951 enamel on canvas
In November, Pollock's Number 17, 1951 was also auctioned at Sotheby's as part of the McClowell Collection. The work, from Pollock's lesser-known "Black Paintings" series, set a new auction record for the master of abstract art for $61.16 million, more than double his undervalued price.
Pollock first showed his iconic drip paintings in the spring of 1951, which marked a period of bold courage in Jackson Pollock's widely acclaimed career, the product of an artist's reluctance to repeat his work and his desire to break through obstacles and move forward.
An installation view of the Jackson Pollock show at the Sidney Janis Gallery
In 1952, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York purchased the work from Sidney Janis Gallery, and in the same year that the work was completed, the famous critic Clement Greenberg distilled the essence of Pollock's new style: "Pollock's reference to the human form in his latest painting is a new stage, not a reversal of direction." Lines and chiaroscuro became the basic elements of Pollock's second-stage creation.
Influences on art history: Pollock was criticized throughout his life, from Greenberg's criticism of him in the magazine The Nation in the 1940s to time in 1956, a few months before his death, when Time magazine dismissed him as "Jack the Dripper." But critic Harold Rosenberg says Pollock reimagined the canvas and was no longer just "a space where objects can be copied, designed, or 'expressed'." Pollock's work was more appreciated abroad, having been exhibited at the Venice Biennales of 1948, 1950 and 1956.
10
$58.86 million
Sai Tombray
Untitled,2007
Untitled acrylic and crayon on wood panel, in six parts 2007
Tombre's Untitled came from his late 2007 series A Scattering of Flowers, which eventually sold for $58.86 million.
This late work is the third most expensive work in the auction of Tombre's works. Much of the late artist's current auction record comes from his iconic creative period, the late 1960s and early 1970s, when he created some softer works.
Peonies Botan zu fusuma by Kano Sanraku, 17th century, screen with gold-leaf background.
The series was first exhibited in 2007 in the exhibition "Blooming: Scattering of Flowers and Other Things" in Avignon, France. Tombré incorporated haiku into several of the paintings in the series, where the peony is a symbol of imperial family and a recurring theme in Japanese art, and this six-piece painting is exactly in line with the traditional Japanese screen system.
Tombre explains that he added poetry to give them subtle differences in paintings inspired by the imagery of flowers blooming, the artist looking for inspiration from nature, while he placed peonies in the context of art, history and literature.
Art history influences: At first glance, Tombre's graffiti looks like the work of a mischievous child, but it is not: he is a painter who is erudite, sophisticated, and emotionally rich. Tombré spent most of his time in Rome, so focused on the environment in which he lived, responding to the history and beauty he found there, combining traditional European painting with new American painting. Tombre said: "My lines look a lot like what children do, but they are not childish, and in order to obtain this quality, I need to integrate myself into the child's perception, I draw for a short time, but a long time to think." ”
Source: 99 Art Network
Author: Liu Jun