WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The market for Cuban art is strong, competitive and definitely mysterious in South Florida. On Monday, May 23, and Tuesday, May 24, Auction Gallery of the Palm Beaches will offer to collectors a group of Cuban artworks that according to gallery president Brian Kogan, “is as far as I know is totally new and unseen to the auction market.”
LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live bidding.
The problems in establishing authenticity are well known in the Cuban art market. With the political issues surrounding Cuban art and the some of the scandals that have ensued in Cuba and in Miami over the past 25 years, getting a Cuban work of art authenticated in writing is next to impossible. Aware of these difficulties the consignor decided to offer the works without any guarantee of authenticity and let the buyers establish how desirable and valuable the works are.
The collection is an array of Cuban artists including paintings and watercolors by Rene Portocarrero, Mario Carreno, Segundo Cabrera Moreno, Leopold Romanach and two bronze sculptures by Manuel Carbonell. There are two paintings by Rene Portocarrero, one an oil on canvas of the façade of the Cathedral de Madrid at night in his characteristic colorful palette and heavy impasoto, and a watercolor of a Harlequin musician dated 1960. The paintings by Segundo Cabrera Moreno are visually exciting with the imagery of farm workers wrangling horses. Both are signed and dated for 1964. There are two paintings by Leopold Romanch y Guillen of beach scenes and two figurative bronzes by Manuel Carbonell.
The May 23 auction will also feature an oil on canvas still life by French artist Suzanne Valadon dated 1926 from a Boca Raton private collection with provenance. Valadon is the mother of Maurice Utrillo (French 1883-1955), and there is a large and beautiful Le Pho oil on silk painting from a Fort Lauderdale collection with many other paintings and prints coming from a Boca Raton estate plus additional fine art by James Coignard, Franklin De Haven, Erte, Salvador Dali, Eugene Lami, Fritz Bultman and Robert Motherwell.
The auction will also have an array of Orientalia. As the market for Chinese and Oriental items is still ascending, the consignments from South Florida and the Palm Beaches continues to unearth remarkable objects. Featured is an important collection of jades to include a set of 10 19th century green nephrite book tablets with Imperial marks and a celadon nephrite archaistic Fang Ding censor with elephant handles. Also featured is a Sino-Tibetan gilt bronze bodhisattva with a Yung Lo (15th century) mark and an exotic 50 lot snuff bottle collection with some excellent examples in jade, enamel and ivory.
From the Boca Raton estate there is a Lalique “Cactus” table, a pair of 5-foot uncarved ivory tusks, a 19th century Chinese four panel screen, Paul Storr silver, Meissen 10-piece monkey band, R. Lalique, and a Russian five-piece silver and enamel tea service along with English, Italian and French furniture, carpets and lighting.
For more information and images see the auction house’s website at www.AGOPB.com or call 561-805-7115. In addition to Internet live bidding with LiveAuctioneers, absentee and phone bidding is available. Previews will be online and at the gallery, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday; noon–5 p.m. Sunday; and 10 a.m. to the start of the auction. The auction will start each day at 6 p.m. Eastern.
The Gallery is located at 1609 S. Dixie Highway, Suite 5, West Palm Beach, Florida 33401.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
