NEW YORK – Following the success of the previous theme sales, Phillips de Pury & Co. anticipates glowing reviews for its forthcoming Film auction, which premieres Thursday, June 24. The sale will be conducted at Phillips de Pury & Co.’s gallery, 450 W. 15th St. in Manhattan.
LiveAuctioneers will facilitate Internet live bidding.
Highlights of the Film auction include:
Silvano Campeggi’s depiction of Marlon Brando in The Wild One, 1945, estimated at $10,000-$15,000.
Silvano “Nano” Campeggi is often referred to as Florence’s greatest living artist. Campeggi produced more than 3,000 posters and graphic illustrations for such major filmmakers as MGM Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal, Columbia Pictures, United Artists, RKO and Fox. Many of the films whose posters he illustrated won Oscars, including Casablanca, Ben Hur, Singing in the Rain, An American in Paris, West Side Story, Exodus, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and Gigi. In the 1950s and 1960s, Campeggi became known as The Artist to the Stars. Today, his larger-than-life images of Hollywood’s greatest actresses are instantly recognizable cultural icons: the regal bearing of Grace Kelly; the smoky essence of Elizabeth Taylor; a green-eyed Lauren Bacall, sly and sultry in beret and cape; a perfectly coiffed Ava Gardner radiating power and control; a towering Rita Hayworth as the unobtainable, unconquerable redhead; a radiant Sophia Loren displaying as much worldly, earth-mother warmth and wisdom as she does sheer beauty. Hollywood’s male stars also fell captive to Nano’s discerning eye: Marlon Brando cockily astride his Harley as The Wild One; James Dean, bare-chested, exuding rawness, arrogance and testosterone; a dusty, trail-weary John Wayne sporting his signature neck kerchief and broad-rimmed cowboy hat; and Humphrey Bogart in his trademark white dinner jacket – a masterpiece of dramatic shadow and attitude.
Frank Worth’s Luxury Collectors Portfolio, 1939-1958, estimated at $12,000-$18,000.
Subjects in the photograph include all-time icons and legends who have come to symbolize timeless Hollywood glamour, such as Jane Russell, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, Wiliiam Holden, Cary Grant, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Dennis Hopper and Jane Wyman, among others.
Herman Makkink’s Rocking Machine kinetic sculpture, 1969, estimated at $20,000-$25,000.
Featured in Stanley Kubrick’s film A Clockwork Orange, the Rocking Machine was not designed especially for the film. Rather, it formed part of Makkink’s studio work at the time, and, after seeing them, Kubrick decided to use them for the film for their futuristic look. Movements of the late ’60s and early ’70s, including Pop Art and the sexual revolution, had influenced Makkink’s designs.
Mounir Fatmi’s Ecran Noir N°1, 2005, estimated at $30,000-$40,000.
A vast mural composition, Ecran Noir at first glance appears to be a large-scale painting, but in fact is conceived from hundreds of VHS cassettes. These cassettes, in a departure from their characteristic usage, are transformed into decorative elements, creating a work that rings back to the geometric compositions of concrete or minimalist art. In accordance with these principals, the elements of motif repetition and the economy of means are prevalent throughout the work. However, what makes both the artist and the work so strong is the direct challenge Ecrans noirs brings to the basis of concrete art, namely that art should not symbolize or represent anything further than what we see. The work comments on the power of images, from ones we have seen to ones we only think we have seen, from images we are shown to those that we interpret. The semiotic value of this wall of objects – and hidden images – is compounded by the fact that media images can often be visual decoys. This powerful work serves to reinforce the artist’s inquiry into the degree of reality and the level of truth found in each individual image.
Following the success of a selection of works by Dennis Hopper offered in Philips’ May Contemporary Art sales from the collection of Halsey Minor, and in anticipation of the upcoming Dennis Hopper retrospective to be held at Los Angeles MOCA this summer, the auction house will offer six representative works by the late actor and artist, including Willie Thomas, 1965, and News is Daily Again, 1963, each estimated at $7,000-$9,000.
Other notable works that will feature in the sale include Youssef Nabil’s Rossy De Palma, Madrid, 2002, estimated at $18,000-$22,000; Ron English’s Large Marilyn Red Peach, estimated at $10,000-$15,000; Gregory Crewdson’s Untitled (Dead cow discovery) from Twilight, 1998, estimated at $10,000-$15,000; Jonathan Horowitz’s Best Actress (24 works), 2001, estimated at $15,000-$20,000; Alan Aldridge’s Andy Warhol’s Chelsea Girls, 1971, estimated at $15,000-$20,000, and Firooz Zahedi’s Uma Thurman/ Pulp Fiction, 1994, estimated at $6,000-$8,000.
The auction catalog, whose innovative format could be described as a cross between Interview magazine and an artistically designed auction catalog, includes an editorial feature on Isabella Rosselini’s creative passions and exploration of her latest work titled Seduce Me, the late Dennis Hopper revealed, and other interviews with avant garde artists Francesco Vezzoli, Kutlug Ataman and Cao Fei.
Previews will begin June 19 and continue through June 24. The auction will begin June 24 at 2 p.m. Eastern.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
