Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky, Tensions calmées, 1937. Estimate $25-35 million (£18-25 million).  Courtesy Sotheby's. LONDON.- No artist played a greater role in the development and emergence of abstraction than Wassily Kandinsky. Tensions calmées, a modern masterpiece from 1937 encapsulates the artist’s extraordinary vision which continues to have a profound influence on generations of artists that have followed.In 1964, Sotheby’s held a historic auction of 50 paintings by Kandinsky from the Solomon R. Guggenheim... [Lire la suite]

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Fränzi in front of Carved Chair, 1910. Oil on canvas. 71 x 49.5 cm © Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid MADRID.- When in 1961 Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen‐Bornemisza acquired Young Couple by Emil Nolde he initiated a change of direction in the Thyssen family’s collecting activities. While his father Henrich Thyssen had assembled a remarkable collection of Old Masters during the interwar period, between the 1960s and 1990s Hans Heinrich would be extremely active as a collector of the... [Lire la suite]

Courtesy Sotheby's. LONDON.- The first decades of the twentieth century would change the course of art history for ever. This treasure-trove from a private collection – little known and rarely seen – spans the remarkable period, telling its story through the leading protagonists, from Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti to Wassily Kandinsky, Lyonel Feininger and Alexej von Jawlensky. Travelling across the continent, the works emphasise the crosscurrents and connections that united Europe, from France to Germany... [Lire la suite]

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. The Head of a Young Man in Profile to the Left (detail), 1749/50. The Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray. CHICAGO, IL.- Highlighting one of the most important gifts in the history of the Prints and Drawings department, Pure Drawing: Seven Centuries of Art from the Gray Collection brings together more than 100 works from celebrated art dealer Richard Gray and art historian Mary L. Gray. Assembled over nearly 50 years, the Gray Collection encapsulates a long and... [Lire la suite]

  DRESDEN.- In the Bauhaus anniversary year, three exhibitions pursue historic and contemporary questions on the theme of space, display, and constructivist art. The exhibition "Visionary Spaces: Kandinsky, Mondrian, Lissitzky and the Abstract-Constructivist Avant-Garde in Dresden 1919–1932” brings together master works from international museums. In the center of the show are spatial designs by Piet Mondrian and El Lissitzky, which were created for Dresden in 1926. This is also the starting point for new works by... [Lire la suite]

The sale was led by a record for a Venetian View by Claude Monet at £27.5 Million / $36.2 Million. Courtesy Sotheby's.  LONDON.- Tonight’s Evening Sales of Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist Art brought a total of £87.7 million / $115.3 million (est. £62.1 – 89.3 million). Helena Newman, Sotheby’s Worldwide Head of Impressionist & Modern Art, said: “It was great to see these first indicative sales of the season hit the ground running with such a promising and lively start. The combination of... [Lire la suite]

Alfred Stevens, Die japanische Pariserin, 1872. Öl auf Leinwand, 150 x 105 cm. Musée des Beaux-Arts de La Boverie, Lüttich © Musée des Beaux-Arts de La Boverie, Lüttich. VIENNA.- “This isn’t fashion, it’s passion, it’s madness” – thus did the French critic Ernest Chesneau characterise the mania of the Western public for the extravagant vases, lacquered boxes, fabrics and colour woodcuts that had arrived from the Far East and were on display at the 1878 World Exhibition in Paris. Owing to pressure from the USA, Japan,... [Lire la suite]

   Alvin Langdon Coburn (1882-1966), Vortograph, 1917. Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper, 283 x 214 mm. Courtesy of the George Eastman Museum NY © The Universal Order. LONDON.- A major new exhibition at Tate Modern reveals the intertwined stories of photography and abstract art. Shape of Light: 100 Years of Photography and Abstract Art is the first show of this scale to explore photography in relation to the development of abstraction, from the early experiments of the 1910s to the digital... [Lire la suite]

Lot 18. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Mousquetaire et nu assis, detail, signed 'Picasso' (lower right); dated '11.4.67' (on the reverse), oil and Ripolin on canvas, 51 1/4 x 37 7/8 in. (130 x 96.5 cm.) Painted in Mougins on 11 April 1967. Estimate GBP 12,000,000 - GBP 18,000,000 (USD 8,304,000 - USD 12,456,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2018 LONDON.- Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale on 27 February will launch ‘20th Century at Christie’s’, a series... [Lire la suite]

FRANKLIN, MASS.- A tempera on paper painting attributed to Claude Monet (1840-1926), titled Study for Gare Saint-Lazare, and a tempera and gouache on paper attributed to Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), titled Morning, Going to Work, are expected star lots in Woodshed Art Auctions’ next Prestige Collection sale, a 65-lot internet-only fine art auction ending July 26th.  With a pre-sale estimate of $100,000-$160,000, the Monet is the auction’s expected top lot. It is signed verso and marked “Gallery Simon, Paris,” stamped and... [Lire la suite]