George Grosz: Firm Principles

George Grosz's star continues to rise. In 2015 at Christie's New York, his drawing of a "respectable" German couple was offered for sale. The man and woman are depicted upright and stiff, walking side by side joylessly on their way to what they anticipate to be an unpleasant social function. They represent the moral torpor of Weimar Germany's upper class. The incisive drawing sold for about four times its estimate.

George Grosz
Christie's New York, November 13, 2015

http://www.christies.com//lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/george-grosz-feste-grundsatze-5938470-details.aspx?from=searchresults&intObjectID=5938470&sid=8506ac19-07a1-4901-a61b-05dc520b3262

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Saul Steinberg: Speech Table

The title gives it away. Those odd pointy paired shapes on Saul Steinberg's 1972 Speech Table are not protractors or compasses but abstract, mechanized renditions of speech balloons. The table surface that Steinberg constructed with these images represents a drafting table complete with pencils and rulers. The artist's drafting tools are frequently represented in his creation. In 2016 this construction sold for $23,750, more than double the low estimate.

Speech Table, 1972
Saul Steinberg

Saul Steinberg
First Open / Post-War and Contemporary Art
Sale 12123, Lot 156
Christie's New York 28 September 2016

https://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectId=6023605

Note:  For further reading, see "The Art of Speech Balloons" on David Apatoff's Illustration Art blog. Word.


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Gaston Lachaise: Two Nudes

Two Nudes by Gaston Lachaise:  because you can never have enough nudes.

Gaston Lachaise
Two Nudes, c. 1930

Gaston Lachaise
Christie's

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=6122143&lid=1&From=salesummery&sid=beb2a659-b836-41e3-af45-60484c792804

Note:  Attempted Bloggery has been clothing-optional all week. After Labor Day, we'll go back to the usual dinner jackets and all.


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Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi

Art is a commodity. I know I don't usually describe it that way here. Typically I'll look at a specific work of, say, illustration art and describe as best I can what attributes make it unique. Now if every work, low or high, is so unique, what value is there in suggesting that art is just another commodity? Well, rare and highly sought-after art by an undisputed genius is a valuable commodity indeed. I don't think there's a better way to understand how a painting like Leonardo's Salvator Mundi could sell for $450,000,000, now the world record price for a work of art. It's not that it's "the male Mona Lisa"—it isn't, although calling it that is great marketing. It's not that it's Leonardo's most compelling work; I'd argue that it falls on the opposite end of that spectrum. What it is, simply, is Leonardo's only painting in private hands. If you had the resources and wanted to own a Leonardo painting, this was your only chance.

It you didn't win the auction, you can console yourself that the work is not in the best condition, that the face of Jesus was overaggressively cleaned in the past and now appears somewhat ghostly and distant from the better-preserved hands or the clothing. You can tell yourself that the composition appears very static and overly symmetrical compared with other works by the artist.

But if you did win the auction, you can tell yourself that you own a Leonardo.

Leonardo da Vinci
Salvator Mundi

Leonardo da Vinci
Christie's New York, November 15, 2017

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/leonardo-da-vinci-salvator-mundi-6110563-details.aspx?from=salesummery&intobjectid=6110563&sid=8174d46e-582f-45f6-b119-bb2e8d3c0814

Leonardo da Vinci
Salvator Mundi

Note:  Leonardo has never appeared on this blog before, but his reputation seems to be holding up just fine.


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Saul Steinberg: The Ascent of Man

An untitled ink drawing by Saul Steinberg from the mid-1960's was published in The Inspector, his 1973 collection. It depicts a stepped pyramid with an arch at the center. The steps along the left show a boy growing into  a man initially before being simplified into a geometric form, while the steps on the right show abstract shapes in no clear progression. At the apex is a right triangle, the placement of which seems to promise some unity to the two sides of the pyramid although it barely unifies the two top steps. The stark landscape is relieved by another triangle of three carefully-positioned decorative plantings--a rose, a cactus, and a palm tree--and a frieze of clouds scratched across the sky. The drawing was sold at Christie's in 2013 for $27,500, nearly twice its high estimate.

Saul Steinberg, Untitled, c. 1965-1967, published in The Inspector (1973)

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/saul-steinberg-untitled-5705396-details.aspx?from=searchresults&pos=1&intObjectID=5705396&sid=6ec6fe23-5edd-45ff-b61e-55ce7aaf1cd9&page=1

Saul Steinberg, Untitled, c. 1965-1967, published in The Inspector (1973)

Note:  Saul Steinberg's art is full of fascinating ideas and occupies a unique place in American art.

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