Strange, the things that can suddenly set an artist on his next subject. Did Marc Chagall, at the time struggling to restart his life, actually see the two pots he painted in gouache in 1926?
By MEIR RONNENchagall art 88 298(photo credit: )
Strange, the things that can suddenly set an artist on his next subject. Did Marc Chagall, at the time struggling to restart his life, actually see the two pots he painted in gouache in 1926? An earthenware pot flies at full staff, its pole embedded in the luxuriant garden of a funny little red ochre house; the metal pot lies outside its picket fence, a discard. You can ruminate on the symbolism of all this but the picture (and its title) has great charm (and an estimate of $270,000-$350,000). It will lead the June 25 sale of Matsa Auctions in Ramat Gan.
There are five prominent vases of flowers in this sale, one by Moise Kisling of mimosas, painted in 1942 (starts at $160,000); two by Reuven Rubin (one of which starts at $110,000); another by Jankel Adler in the modern English manner of the '20s ($23,000); and Nahum Gutman, 1940 ($30,000).
There are other Rubins in this sale, mostly kitschy; and a very early figurative Yosl Bergner of rabbis in Safed ($24,000). A rather pedantic Isidor Kaufmann of a young lady sitting pensively at her desk is well brought off but curiously static ($30,000, not much for a Kaufmann). Similar estimates, some starting a little higher, are given for very different works by Abel Pann, Moshe Castel (a scene with an Arab shepherd) and Mane Katz. More on this sale when we get the full catalogue.
AN OIL painted on tin by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo in 1943 sold for $5,616,000 to an anonymous telephone bidder at Sotheby's, setting a new record for a Latin American work of art at auction and for Kahlo at auction. Roots, 1943, one of the most beautifully detailed works from Kahlo's most celebrated period, had never before appeared on the public market.
The evening sale totaled $18,658,800, the highest total ever for a sale of Latin American Art at auction, far above its pre-sale estimate of $12m.; and set records for Francisco Z iga, Tom s S nchez, Luis Tomasello and Edmund Darch Lewis. The sale also set a record for a Botero sculpture at auction.
