Jean Dubuffet, Les Grandes Artères
Oil on canvas, painted in July-August 1961.
$15-20 million
Kandinsky, Dubuffet at Christie’s New York auctions Christie’s fall auctions in New York will be highlighted by Wassily Kandinsky’s ‘Rigide et courbé’ (estimate: $18-25 million) and Jean Dubuffet’s ‘Les Grandes Artères’ ($15-20million)]]>
September 16, 2016, source: Christie’s
Christie’s has announced Wassily Kandinsky’s “Rigide et courbé” as a highlight of its November 16th Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale in New York. “Rigide et courbé (Rigid and Curved)” is one of the most celebrated and dynamic compositions, of grand scale. The canvas is densely packed with lively geometric vignettes and a thoughtfully textured surface composed of sand mixed with paint, a technique Kandinsky used only in his Paris paintings of 1934-1935. The present work, first owned by Solomon R. Guggenheim who acquired it from Kandinsky in 1936, has been extensively published and highly exhibited from 1937-1949. Estimated at $18-25 million, the painting is undoubtedly the most important Paris period painting by Kandinsky to ever appear on the market. It is being offered from an important private American collection and has not been on the market since 1964. The upcoming sale preview marks the first time in over 50 years that the work will be publicly displayed.
The previous day, Christie’s will highlight its November 15th Evening Sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art with Jean Dubuffet’s “Les Grandes Artères”, 1961 ($15-20million). “Les Grandes Artères” is a masterful canvas from Dubuffet’s celebrated Paris Circus series, a body of work which is regarded by many Dubuffet scholars as marking the pinnacle of the artist’s career. With its vibrant palette, sense of energy and the individuality that Dubuffet instills in each of his characters, “Les Grandes Artères” is one of the artist’s most accomplished compositions from Paris Circus. Many examples from this series are housed in important international collections including the Tate Gallery, London; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. “Les Grandes Artères” has been in the same private American collection since 1964, and has not appeared publically since 1973, when it was featured in the Guggenheim’s Dubuffet retrospective.
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Kandinsky to lead Christie’s London sale, June 2013 (news, 2013)
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