Star Lots from Paris Sales to go on View in Hong Kong

Star Lots from Paris Sales to go on View in Hong Kong

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  © Succession Picasso/DACS London, 2018.

  Pablo Picasso, Le peintre et son modèle, 1963. Estimate €2,000,000–3,000,000.

  “That the artist at work – almost always Le Peintre et son modèle which, in Picasso’s work, has appeared as a major theme for a long time – became not his unique theme, but at least his most frequent , shows how important the very act of painting is in Picasso’s eyes.” In 1963, the same year as the present painting, Michel Leiris wrote these words on the iconic series of works by Picasso on the theme of the painter and his model. Although Picasso depicted the theme in his early works, it was not until the 1960s that the subject acquired a fundamental importance in his art.

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  Paul Cézanne, Abricots et cerises sur une assiette, 1877–79. Estimate €1,500,000–2,000,000.

  Specialists and critics of Cézanne’s work all agree that 1878 was a decisive date in the master’s work. Painted between 1877 and 1879, Abricots et cerises sur une assiette is a work which precisely testifies to a change in vision, in the perception of light and the conception of space. It is a work where, in the shadow of deceptive silence, rustle the main precursory elements of Modernity.

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  Georges Seurat, La Femme au panier, circa 1880–82. Estimate €800,000–1,200,000.

  One of the most influential and most mysterious artists of the 20th century, a figurehead of the Neo-impressionism movement, Georges Seurat is also recognised as an extraordinary draughtsman. His Conté pencil drawings in which he develops all the ambiguous gradations of light and shade, are landmarks in the development of modern art. La femme au panier announces Seurat’s period of maturity and is part of the recurring theme of solitary figures often seen from the back. This drawing expresses not only Seurat’s inimitable style but also his interest in contemporary life in the vicinity of Paris.

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  Marc Chagall, La Mariée au collier, 1977–80. Estimate €800,000–1,200,000.

  Painted in the Vence studio in 1977-1980, date at which Chagall fed on the light of places in order to create paintings where, between bright colours, shine the most beautiful motifs of his imaginative repertoire. Everything functions as if the southern light and vegetation contributed to the emergence of a most sumptuous style and as if the magic of colours increased to suit the memories and embraces. With its nuances of blue, its misty greens, its phosphorescent whites, bright reds and yellows, La Mariée au collier testifies to a diffused alchemy.

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  Francis Picabia, Danseuse de French Cancan, circa 1942–43. Estimate €300,000–500,000.

  Picabia depicts a French Cancan dancer, the very image of frivolity and obvious eroticism, at a time when the Montmartre cabarets were condemned by the Vichy regime. Picabia's sources of inspiration were deliberately banal and stereotyped. In the age of industrialisation and glamour photography, Picabia justified this new approach with his own philosophy: "In this era of bad taste, I strive to go further than everyone else". This series of realist paintings has long been dismissed by critics as a degeneration of Picabia's art and just another manifestation of his ever changing style.
  
  French Cancan by Natalie Seroussi
  20 October | Paris

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  Martial Raysse, A propos de New York en Peinturama, 1965. Estimate €1,000,000–1,500,000.

  Each element of A propos de New York en Peinturama – from the use of a distinctive palette of vivid colors, to the gendered topic with standardized attributes of modern beauty, the integration of manufactured objects, the photographic rendering inspired by advertisement and the Super 8 device used as a constitutive part of the work – is testament to Martial Raysse’s visionary and ambitious production. Known as of one of the most important figures of the art history of the second half of the 20th century, he became one of the most creative but also insolent and troublemaker artists of his generation as early as the mid-60s.
  
  French Cancan by Natalie Seroussi
  20 October | Paris

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  Bernard Buffet, Autoportrait sur fond noir, 1956. Estimate €100,000–150,000.

  The first painting by Bernard Buffet to be exhibited was a self-portrait in 1946 at the exhibition Salon des Moins de Trente Ans at the Galerie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The theme of the self-portrait appears throughout his career.
  
  Autoportrait sur fond noir was painted ten years after his first exhibition and represents the traditional posture of the artist at his easel. Bernard Buffet drew upon the great figures of the history of painting, his artistic culture was vast with many references to the old masters. The position of his left hand placed next to his heart certainly refers to Durer’s famous self-portrait, a painter Bernard Buffet held in great esteem.

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  Bernard Buffet, L’Atelier, 1956. Estimate €80,000–120,000.

  Bernard Buffet's studio as it is depicted in this painting in 1956 appears to be very different from Pierre Berge's description of it as he remembers: "It was extremely untidy! The studio was very dirty because he never wanted it cleaned. He did not even want anyone to enter. He did not work with a palette but mixed his colours directly on a table cluttered with paint tubes, rags and bottles. [...] He never used an easel."
  
  (Pierre Berge, in Jérôme Coignard, Bernard Buffet Les années 1950 Entretien avec Pierre Bergé, Paris, 2016, pp. 19-20).

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  Shiro Kuramata, ‘Miss Blanche’ Chair, 1988. Estimate €220,000–280,000.

  Shiro Kuratama’s iconic 'Miss Blanche' chair was named after the famed Blanche Dubois from Tennessee William’s play A Streetcar Named Desire. The technicalities involved in the production of ‘Miss Blanche’ were complex: the design required that each artificial rose be held in place for extended periods of time until the resin had hardened sufficiently.
  
  Experiments with natural roses were conducted, but the flowers would burn up in the acrylic resin, prompting a serendipitous moment when Kuramata decided: “...it has to be fake [materials] because Blanche Dubois is a fake.”

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  Claude Lalanne, Gingko Chair, 2003. Estimate €50,000–70,000.

  The Ginkgo Biloba leaf is an important source of inspiration for Claude Lalanne. For many years, she passionately employed its design to create tables, side tables, chairs, jewels, armchairs, benches and thrones. The imposing and generous leaves are here multiplied, displaying their majesty. Emblematic of Asia, the leaves of this tree are said to be immortal, and therefore synonymous with hope and the symbol of love.

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  André Breton, La Lampe dans l’horloge, Paris, Robert Marin, 1948. Estimate €15,000–20,000.

  Rose Adler was a famous French bookbinder and cabinetmaker. Her first bindings, partially made under the supervision of this master, already displayed her extremely free sense of colours and materials. She constructed and organised a book’s décor with architectural logic and rigor while simultaneously endowing her designs with a sensitivity and grace never spoiled by sentimentality. For this this elegant binding, dated 1959, Adler was inspired by the title of the book symbolising the passage from day to night.
  
  Books and Manuscripts
  21 November | Paris

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• • 

    Type: video

    Category: Expert Voices

    Bernard Buffet and Pierre Bergé - Paintings of a Life
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    Type: story

    Category: Collectors

    Pierre Bergé: A Life in Collecting
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    Category: 20th Century Design

    Designer Joseph Walsh on his Unique 'Enignum X' Table
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    Category: Hong Kong Autumn Auctions

    Louise Bourgeois: Life in Sculpture
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    Type: video

    Category: The Most Famous Artworks in the World

    Marc Chagall's 'Double Portrait with Wine Glass', A Revolutionary Wedding Portrait
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    Type: story

    Category: Impressionist & Modern Art

    Jewelry Designer Anissa Kermiche on Her Love for Picasso