Wright offers 20th century’s top designs at auction June 6
Isamu Noguchi, ‘Ceremonial Object for Marcel Duchamp.’ Estimate: $200,000-300,000. Wright image.
CHICAGO – Wright’s Important Design auction on June 6 celebrates the most significant designs of the 20th century. As the company’s most exclusive auction of the year, Important Design features exquisite furniture and sculptures of unparalleled quality. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
Prominent among the lots offered is an important and rare chair by German-born designer Walter von Nessen (estimate: $200,000-300,000). This superb design is among the most visually arresting, memorable works of the 20th century. A lost masterpiece of the Art Deco era, this chair is the only known example of the two originally created for the 1928 International Exposition of Art in Industry in Macy’s in New York. Von Nessen’s tour-de-force design, created at the end of the 1920s, is a confluence of the decade’s myriad iconographies from ancient Egypt to Bauhaus. Held in a private collection for the past 40 years, Von Nessen’s throne-like design epitomizes the glamour of the Art Deco era.
Superb sculptural works in the auction include Ceremonial Object for Marcel Duchamp, a monumental sculpture by Isamu Noguchi (estimate: $200,000-300,000). Standing nearly 6 feet tall, this impressive sculpture embodies the pure poetry of Noguchi’s forms, whether sculptural or functional in design. Sculptures by Harry Bertoia, including a Dandelion form (estimate: $150,000-200,000), a silver-plated steel and granite Balancing Form (estimate: $70,000-90,000), and a Bundled Wire Form (estimate: $50,000-70,000) also figure among the impressive selection of sculptures offered in the auction.
Other sale highlights include a rare and important Rudder dining suite including a table and four stools (estimate: $150,000-200,000) that was used by the original owner for nearly 60 years, a unique ovoid coffee table by Gio Ponti (estimate $50,000-70,000) and a one-of-a-kind chandelier by Frank Lloyd Wright from the Adelman House in Phoenix, Ariz., (estimate: $30,000-50,000). Also outstanding is a chair designed by Carlo Mollino for Casa del Sole (estimate: $30,000-50,000), a rustic yet modern chalet designed by the Italian architect in the mountains of Cervinia. The elegant spirit of Casa del Sole is echoed in the warm oak and distinctive form of this chair.
Highly anticipated among the lots is a binder of blueprints for the Dymaxion car, a three-wheeled, teardrop shaped vehicle designed by visionary architect and designer, R. Buckminster Fuller (estimate: $20,000-30,000). Shown publically for the first time in a 1932 issue of Shelter Magazine, accompanied by illustrations by Fuller’s close friend, Isamu Noguchi, the Dymaxion Car was conceived as a revolutionary “flying machine.”
Wright’s Important Design auction begins at noon CDT on June 6. All lots will be illustrated in Wright’s catalog and online at www.wright20.com.
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at LiveAuctioneers.com.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
Isamu Noguchi, ‘Ceremonial Object for Marcel Duchamp.’ Estimate: $200,000-300,000. Wright image.
Walter von Nessen, important and rare chair from the International Exposition of Art in Industry. Estimate: $200,000-300,000. Wright image.
Gio Ponti, rare coffee table. Estimate: $50,000-70,000. Wright image.
Martin Olsen, rare curved sofa. Estimate: $20,000-30,000. Wright image.
