LONDON – Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions’ sale of Modern and Contemporary Art on Thursday, Dec. 5, is the London auctioneer’s first foray into the worlds of impressionist and modern Art, and postwar and contemporary art. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding
A previously unseen and unique variant from Banksy’s Barcode Leopard series of works, signed by the artist, is the largest painted canvas so far seen on the auction market. At 84 x 91.5 cm (33.6 inches x 36.6 inches), the canvas has been in a private London collection for the past 10 years, having been purchased by the vendor from a friend of the artist. The signature image will be recognizable to Bansky aficionados as the series includes both an editioned series on canvas, and screenprints on paper. The painting has been authenticated by Pest Control Office, London and is offered at £80,000-£120,000 [Lot 141].
A newly discovered pastel drawing by the German expressionist Max Pechstein was among a group of paintings purchased from a car boot sale in Essex five years ago. The purchaser was unaware of what he had in his possession until he showed it to Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions’ modern and contemporary art specialist Angus Maguire. Maguire’s instinct proved correct when the painting was authenticated by the artist’s grandson. On the Ligurian Coast now comes with a newly procured certificate from Alexander Pechstein, director of the Max Pechstein Estate, dated Aug. 1, 2013. It is thought the painting was made probably in the summer 1924 in Motorosso al Mare on the Ligurian coast of Italy. It is estimated at £3,000-£5,000 [Lot 59].
A 3-meter long abstract painting by the German artist Anselm Reyle, who is well known for his large-scale work, is perhaps the most imposing in the sale. The signed and dated acrylic and foil on canvas, signed is one of a well-regarded series for which he is well known. He creates them using strips of foil arranged in Perspex boxes. Designed to attract the interest of the viewer through bold colors and the shimmering effect of the foil they engage the senses through the texture of the materials used. It is estimated at £40,000-£60,000 [Lot 124].
A rare double-sided painting by Winifred Nicholson is offered as part of the modern British section of the sale. Born in Oxford, Nicholson was a prolific artist and a number of her paintings are in the Government Art Collection and several major UK public galleries. One side was painted at the beginning of her career as a Parisian art student in the early 1930s and is titled Paris Lights. It remained in the artist’s possession until she had completed the reverse some 40 years later, during the 1970s and is tiled Still Life with Cyclamen. The completed work was displayed for the first time in an exhibition at the Crane Kalman Gallery in London in 1981 and is estimated at £15,000-£20,000 [Lot 47].
Some 70 lots of postwar and contemporary artwork includes a collection of works by Young British Artists donated to the Colony Room, one of the most notorious late-night drinking dens in London. Frequented by Francis Bacon and his contemporaries in the 1960s it became a favorite haunt of the YBAs in the 1990s. The Colony Room finally closed its doors in 2008 and these are the last of the company’s artworks to be sold at auction. Included in the group is an early work from the highly influential British artist Susan Hiller. Formed of 22 vintage postcards mounted onto seven separate cards, the work from her 1976 “Rough Seas” series is estimated at £8,000-£12,000 [Lot 116].
View the fully illustrated catalog and register to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAucitoneers.com.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
