Attempted Bloggery: Still Life

Showing posts with label Still Life. Show all posts

Friday, May 23, 2025

Saul Steinberg: Window Upright Eiffel Tower Center

Even after all these years, Saul Steinberg's still lives can simply take one's breath away. Just about the only think not to like about the 1979 colored pencil drawing sold yesterday in Swann Auction Galleries' Modern & Post-War Art sale is its title: Window Upright Eiffel Tower Center. But one could learn to live with it.

Saul Steinberg
Swann Galleries Modern & Post-War Art listing of May 22, 2025

https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/SAUL-STEINBERG-(1914---1999-AMERICAN)-Window-Upright-Eiffel-?saleno=2705&lotNo=81&refNo=824292

Sold, for a hammer price of $19,000.

Note: Your original Saul Steinberg artwork too can be shared on this blog, especially if it has a good title.

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Saturday, February 15, 2020

Saul Steinberg: Second Class (Packaged)

The art market continues to validate the unique status of Saul Steinberg. His still life Second Class (Packaged) from 1980 was offered without reserve in an online auction that opened on February 4, 2020. The rather anemic estimate of $2,000 to $3,000 for this colored pencil drawing on paper seemed calculated to generate hopeful bidder interest, and that it did. By the time the auction closed, though, the price realized was a robust $16,250.

Saul Steinberg
Second Class (Packaged), 1980

Saul Steinberg
Christie's Interiors NY
Online February 4-13, 2020

https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/interiors-ny/saul-steinberg-american-1914-1999-150/80557

Saul Steinberg
Second Class (Packaged), 1980

Three separate labels on the back of the original art give the title as Fourth Class (Art Materials) from 1980. The drawing's online sale history would seem to confirm this title. In fact, Christie's originally listed the still life with this title from the labels, then changed it to Second Class (Packaged). What happened?

The concept of Steinberg's four "classes" of still life was enumerated by Sarah Cowan in 2014, reviewing "Saul Steinberg: 100th Anniversary Exhibition" at the Pace Gallery. A Steinberg pencil drawing from 1980-81 including all four of these classes confirms that the Christie's Steinberg represents the second and not the fourth class of still life. The supposition, then, is that Steinberg's Second Class (Packaged) left Pace Gallery some forty years ago with the wrong label or, less plausibly, that a buyer bought more than one and the labels were switched at the framers.

https://hyperallergic.com/155375/saul-steinberg-decodes-the-symbols-of-society/

Saul Steinberg
Still Life (1980–81)
Graphite on folded paper, 14 ½″ x 23″

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Thursday, May 15, 2014

Constantin Alajálov: Still Life with Roses

Constantin Alajálov's still life with roses reveals yet another aspect of this artist's work. It is executed in oil on board and framed rather ornately. Like his 1948 painting of Morgnaga, this 1965 work was apparently exhibited, perhaps at the Parrish Art Museum. Unlike his Portrait of a Young Girl, there is little exploration of the expressive properties of oil paint. Instead, we have what looks like an illustration in oil, but it is less visually compelling than much of his illustrative work intended for publication.