BALLOON FLOWER (Blue) by JEFF KOONS For Auction At Christie's Nov. 10 Post-War And Contemporary Evening Sale

On display outside Christie's at Rockefeller Center is one of five unique versions of sculptor JEFF KOONS' "Baloon Flower (Blue)." Executed in 1995-2000, the piece is made of high chromium stainless steel with transparent color coating, 133 1/4 x 112 1/4 x 103 3/8 inches. I made these images last night. The estimated value of this piece is $12,000,000-16,000,000. The sculpture will be auctioned on November 10, and its performance that evening will be closely watched as a gauge of the uppermost echelon of today's art market. In November 2007, Jeff Koons's "Hanging Heart (Magenta/Gold)" sold for $23.6 million at Sotheby's New York, setting a world auction record for a work by a living artist. In June 2008, Balloon Flower (Magenta)," surpassed that price, fetching $25.7 million in a Christie's showroom.

Jeff Koons (born January 21, 1955) is an American artist known for his reproductions of banal objects—such as balloon animals and flower produced in stainless steel with mirror finish surfaces. Balloon Flower (Red) is installed at 7 World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan.

"Nellybelle," the Jeep from the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum Collection

One of the featured items from the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum Collection to be auctioned at Christie's New York (on July 14-15, 2010) is this 1946 Willys CJ-2A Jeep. This iconic vehicle is Nellybelle from the Roy Rogers TV Show in the 1950s. I took the picture outside Christie's at Rockefeller Center.

Lot Description (from Christie's):

One of the most memorable characters on the Roy Rogers TV show that ran from 1951 through 1957 was neither Roy, Dale, Trigger, Buttermilk or even Bullet - or for that matter even made of flesh and blood. It was a TV icon manufactured from good old American steel and namedNellybelle, a 1946 Willys CJ-2A Jeep with some very innovative bodywork. It was in fact owned by Roy, but was driven in the show by his comic sidekick, Pat Brady (1914-1972). Brady met Rogers while appearing as a bass guitarist in California in 1935, striking up a friendship with the young country & western singer who was a member of the popular group, The Sons of the Pioneers. When Len Slye was elevated to screen stardom as Roy Rogers, he recommended Brady as his replacement. However, as Bob Nolan, an original member of The Sons, was referred to as Bob, "Bob Brady" became "Pat Brady" joining the legendary singing group and appearing in a dozen films between 1938-51, including West of Cheyenne (1938), Man from Sundown (1939),The Durango Kid (1940), Song of Texas (1943), Bells of Coronado (1950), and South of Caliente(1951).

On TV, Pat Brady drove around Mineral City, the setting of the series, sweet talking to Nellybelle as if his verbal compliments could convince the recalcitrant jeep to get up and go. The name, which was painted on her doors in most episodes, apparently developed out of Pat riding an ornery mule in the earlier movies, and addressing it with phrases like "Whoa, Nelly!"

Roy Rogers chose to include a Jeep into the program because he noticed that after WWII, Jeeps were very popular, especially with children. Rogers himself owned a Jeep which he used for hunting, off road cruising and travel to and from his studio.

FERNANDO BOTERO'S "Woman On A Horse" for the Latin American Art Auction at Christie's (May 26-27, 2010)

Christie's (New York) Latin American auction on May 26 and 27 will offer an exceptional selection of works by modern and contemporary artists from Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Colombia, and many other regions throughout the Americas.   The auction presents nearly 300 works by leading Latin American artists such as Frida Kahlo, Fernando Botero, JoaquínTorres-García, José María Velasco, Gunther Gerzso,  and Rufino Tamayo, among others. Outside Christies at Rockefeller Center, Fernando Botero's "Woman on a Horse", one of the featured artwork in the auction is on display. The sculpture (estimate: $800,000-1,200,000) is a terrific, monumental bronze that demonstrates the artist’s penchant for playing with scale.  It is a perfect example of one of the artist’s most beloved themes: the equestrian subject, in which a sumptuous, beautiful, strong female nude is executed in bronze. 

Art Collection of MICHAEL CRICHTON

Artworks from the collection of best-selling author and screenwriter, film director and producer, MICHAEL CRICHTON are on public exhibition for the first time in New York at CHRISTIE'S. The display is being presented ahead of the public auction on May 11-12, 2010. The selection of artworks include Jasper Johns' "Flag," one of the most famous icons of 20th century art. Mr. Crichton is renowned for his scientific thrillers such as The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park, and for creating the television series ER. Crichton is also acknowledged as a leading authority on the American artist Jasper Johns and as an important collector of 20th century art. Also included in the auction are paintings by Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha and Andy Warhol, as well as sculptures by Jeff Koons. Christie's is located at 20 Rockefeller Plaza #6, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.

Carpets from the Corcoran Gallery of Art

A Kurdish Gallery Carpet, Northwest Persia, Late 18th Century

These are some of the carpets on preview at Christie's Rockefeller Center. These items will be part of the auction for "500 Years: Decorative Arts Europe Including Carpets from the Corcoran Gallery of Art" to be held on November 24. Kurdish carpets of the 18th century are known for their wonderful colors, and the one I photographed above is no exception. Among those used are deep emerald green, aubergine, mustard yellow, bright blue, and creamy ivory.

Latin American Art Auction at Christie's

Claudio Bravo (Chilean, b. 1936) White, Blue and Yellow Papers, Oil on canvas, 57 ½ x 45 in, Painted in 2004. Estimate: $400,000-$600,000

Fernando Botero (Colombian, b. 1932) Mujer Fumando, Bronze with dark brown patina 74x141 ½ x 62 ¾ inches, executed in 1987. Estimate: $800,000-$1,200,000.

Rogelio Polesello (Argentinian, b. 1939), Untitled, Acrylic, 86 1/4 x 41 1/4 inches, executed in 1968.

Estimate: $25,000-30,000

These are some of the artwork for auction today and tomorrow as part of the Latin American Art Sale at Christie's Rockefeller Center.

SAMURAI ART at Christie's

A Suit of Armor for the Boy's Day Festival (Meiji Period, Late 19th Century)

Estimate: $10,000-15,000

Christie’s New York is offering a wide-ranging selection of valuable works of art in its sale of "Arts of the Samurai" on October 23. The items in the fine selection exemplify the outstanding craftsmanship and visual splendor of the Samurai culture. The collection includes over 80 lots comprising of armor, helmets, and most importantly, swords dating from the thirteenth to nineteenth centuries.

This fall, the Samurai will have a major presence in New York: the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition entitled Art of the Samurai: Japanese Arms and Armor, 1156-1868 opens on October 21 and the Japan Society will stage a sword drawing demonstration on October 22.

Claes Oldenburg's Giant "Typewriter Eraser"

On display outside Christie's Auction House in Rockefeller Center is Claes Oldenburg's giant "Typewriter Eraser, 1976." I made his image last April 12. This piece will be auctioned on May 13 during the Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale at Christie's. Claes Oldenburg (born January 28, 1929) is best known for his public art installations typically featuring very large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions of everyday objects.

From Christie's website:

Lot Description

Claes Oldenburg (b. 1929) 
Typewriter Eraser 
signed, titled, numbered and dated 'Claes Oldenburg TYPEWRITER ERASER COPYRIGHT (C) 1976 CLAES OLDENBURG 3/3' (on the reverse)
painted aluminum, stainless steel, ferroconcrete and bronze 
89½ x 80 x 70 in. (227.3 x 203.2 x 177.8 cm.) 
Executed in 1976. This work is number three from an edition of three. 1/3, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; 2/3, Nasher Collection. 

Pre-Lot Text

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF BETTY FREEMAN

Provenance

Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles
Acquired from the above by the present owner on 18 August 1978 

Literature

G. Celant, Claes Oldenburg: An Anthology, New York, 1995, p. 337 (another example illustrated in color). 

Exhibited

The Art Institute of Chicago, 72nd American Exhibition, April 1976.
New York, Leo Castelli Gallery, Claes Oldenburg: Log, May 1974-August 1976, November 1976, pp. 100-108 (illustrated as a work in progress). 

Lot Notes

Produced in 1976, Typewriter Eraser presents a giant disk-shaped eraser that appears to have just alighted on the ground, the bristles of its brush turned upward with a sense of dynamic grace. Oldenburg transforms this once ubiquitous office accessory into a grand monument. In 1970, he began to sketch its mass-produced form, placing it into imagined landscapes in order to explore the idea of using it for a giant public sculpture.

Oldenburg's fascination with elevating mundane objects to something "higher" first manifested itself in his Store project -- a "store-cum-art-gallery" -- first presented at the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York in 1961, and then resurrected in a shop-front on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. With the Store, Oldenburg embraced the commodities of materialist culture as subject matter, re-creating foodstuffs and merchandise in brightly painted plaster and kapok stuffed canvas. Spending time in Los Angeles in the fall and spring of 1963-64, Oldenburg was inspired to approach the product lines of industry and technology using manufacturing methodology, and he gradually began to abandon the malleability, tactility and fleshiness of his soft-sculptures to create works that could withstand the elements and that more accurately resembled the objects he was representing

The concept of typewriter eraser writ large had initially presented itself as "a fine anti-heroic subject" for a colossal sculpture to be placed outside an office plaza on Manhattan's Fifty-seventh Street. This now obsolete item of stationary had been a favorite plaything from the days when Oldenburg visited his father's office as a boy. Although this project was never realized, Oldenburg remained strongly attached to this strangely exuberant object and continued to use the idea for a number of drawings, prints and sculptures in varying scales and mediums, including this metal and cement version executed in a small edition of three.

Oldenburg's fixation on the metaphoric power of the things that surround us can be seen to stem from those Dada and Surrealist artists who extracted items encountered every day and elevated them into the rarified realm of art. His sculptures undergo a metamorphosis of scale similar to that found in the paintings of Magritte, yet Oldenburg does not tend to distort the function of his chosen objects or to place them in bizarre juxtapositions, but celebrates the singular qualities that distinguish them from all other things. He stated, "We do invest religious emotion in our objects. Look at how beautifully objects are depicted in ads on Sunday newspapers. It's all very emotional. Objects are body images, after all, created by humans, filled with human emotion, objects of worship" (C. Oldenburg, quoted in M. Rosenthal, "Unbridled Monuments; or, How Claes Oldenburg Set Out to Change the World," Claes Oldenburg: An Anthology, New York, 1995, p. 259).


DONNA IN PIEDI by FERNANDO BOTERO at CHRISTIE'S ROCKEFELLER CENTER

On display in front of Christie's Rockefeller Center is Fernando Botero's "Donna In Piedi." This piece is stamped with foundry mark, signed and numbered 'Botero 1/3' (on the base on the back) bronze with brown patina 141¾ x 60 x 60 in. (360 x 150 x 150 cm.) Botero was born in Colombia in 1932. This sculpture was executed in 2007 and is edition one of three. The piece is one of the many valuable Latin American artwork featured in an auction next week at Christie's. The lots include 320 paintings and sculptures by major artists including Mexico’s Diego Rivera and Rufino Tamayo and Colombia’s Fernando Botero. According to Christie's this is their most comprehensive and valuable Latin American sale to date, and expect the sale to bring in more than $30 million.