LONDON – A surrealist print by René Magritte emerged as the highlight of Roseberys auction of modern and contemporary prints, multiples and editions on April 25. LiveAuctioneers.com provided Internet live bidding.
Titled Poire et Rose, the print was from an edition of 150 of the 1969 suite of four etchings titled Le Lien de Paille. The picture captures the playfulness that dominates the surrealist style, and makes Magritte’s work so sought after. It sold for 4,182 pounds ($6,324) to a buyer in room.
As one of the most fascinating and mysterious artists from the surrealist movement, Magritte sought to use ordinary objects in an extraordinary way. He challenged the viewers’ perception of reality by forcing them to look at the world from a different perspective, and give new meaning to everyday objects through his complex relationship with surrealism.
“My painting is visible images which conceal nothing … they evoke mystery and indeed when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question ‘What does that mean’? It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable,” Magritte once said.
An iconic multiple by one of the world’s most famous artists, Andy Warhol came in the form of the late 1970s mixed media sculpture Brillo Box. The Brillo Boxes were his first sculptural works and were exhibited in 1964 at Stable Gallery in New York.The sculptures were intended to raise questions about society’s accepted ideas about, and definitions of, “high art” using deadpan humor and pop culture imagery. They were initially met with confusion and uncertainty by the public, but the use of an everyday object challenged the historical idea of art as an aesthetically pleasing medium.
He appropriated a consumer-minded product (the cardboard boxes with real Brillo pads still inside) and elevated them into the realm of fine art sculpture. Warhol’s Brillo Boxes took the mundane and transformed it into something thought-provoking, encouraging viewers to reassess the aesthetics found in commercialism, as well as re-evaluate their own ideas about the definition of art. The sculpture was the property of a private Italian Warhol collector and it sold to a buyer in the room for 2,952 pounds.
A linocut in color by the Swiss artist Lill Tschudi also performed well, selling to an absentee bidder for 2,829 pounds. Having established an interest in printmaking from a young age Tschudi later developed a lifelong interest in linocut as a preferred medium, producing over 300 during her career. A former student of the Grosvenor School of Modern Art, her work was exhibited in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as the Osborne Samuel Gallery in London. The linocut titled Im Hafen or, “In the Port” was signed and numbered 5/50 in pencil.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium of 23 percent.
Click here to view the fully illustrated catalog for this sale, complete with prices realized.
