Sotheby s February Contemporary Art Evening

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Press Release London For Immediate Release London +44 (0)20 7293 6000 Matthew Weigman matthew.weigman@sothebys.com Simon Warren simon.warren@sothebys.

L'Arbois, Sainte-Maxime of 1968 (Estimate: 1-1.5million) 1.

1 Press Release London For Immediate Release London +44 (0) Matthew Weigman Simon Warren Sotheby s February Contemporary Art Evening Sale Set To Include Strong Section of British Art -- Artists Include: Auerbach, Hockney, Riley, Gormley, Ofili and Quinn -- David Hockney s Hotel L'Arbois, Sainte-Maxime of 1968 (Estimate: 1-1.5million) 1.5million) LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26 2 TH, Continuing Sotheby s established market experience in the field of British Contemporary Art and following several auction records achieved by the company for artworks in this area, the forthcoming Contemporary Art Evening Auction will feature a strong component of Contemporary British Art. The sale will take place on Tuesday, February 15 th, 2011 and will present rare and important pieces by some of the foremost Contemporary British artists, including among others David Hockney, Bridget Riley, Frank Auerbach and Glenn Brown. The auction is estimated to realise in excess of 30* million, bringing the total value of Contemporary Art to be offered by Sotheby s this February to more than 56 million**.

Headlining this section of the sale will be David Hockney s Hotel L'Arbois, Sainte-Maxime of 1968 (illustrated on page one) which was executed at a critical moment in the development of the artist s

As if in anticipation of the artist's important later artwork for the theatre, Hotel L'Arbois acts like a silent stage or film set, awaiting the human presence of the spectator to serve as actor and

2 Headlining this section of the sale will be David Hockney s Hotel L'Arbois, Sainte-Maxime of 1968 (illustrated on page one) which was executed at a critical moment in the development of the artist s remarkable career. It is a work of major significance that brilliantly embodies Hockney s masterful synthesis of photography, painting and drawing. As if in anticipation of the artist's important later artwork for the theatre, Hotel L'Arbois acts like a silent stage or film set, awaiting the human presence of the spectator to serve as actor and explore the location constructed before us. Painted shortly after the success of Hockney's celebrated run of five solo exhibitions in 1966, Hotel L'Arbois, Sainte-Maxime belongs to an era of burgeoning popularity for the young English artist. The original source for this work is a developed photograph squared up for ease of transition to canvas, reminiscent of the working processes of the Old Masters in which a cartoon drawing would be transferred to canvas by blowing charcoal through pinholes in the paper sheet. The work is estimate at million. Highlighting the three works in the sale by Frank Auerbach is his oil on canvas To The Studios IV. To The Studios IV was executed in 1983 during a particularly sought-after period in Frank Auerbach's oeuvre when the artist's career had reached a peak in terms of both international acclaim and painterly expertise. Over six decades the artist has repeatedly produced landscapes that demonstrate his profound connection to London, and the present work, in its size and execution, is among the greatest of these. The artist began painting his 'To The Studios' works in 1977 and the first of these works, from a cycle of four, is now in Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, while a 1985 example is housed in the Saint Louis Art Museum, and another from is in the Tate Collection. Frank Auerbach fled his native Germany and arrived in London in 1939 just before his eighth birthday. He proceeded to develop an intense attachment to the city that offered him and the other Jewish children that he travelled with refuge during World War II. The present work is a direct reference to the journey that Auerbach has regularly made to his studio for over 50 years, and the view of the winding steps is one that he has visited for several decades. The studio is in the area between Mornington Crescent and the park of Primrose Hill. The works that depict Auerbach's daily route to the studio collectively represent a vital strand in the artist's output. To The Studios IV is estimated at 900, million. A further work is the remarkable work Persephone 1 by Bridget Riley, executed in 1969, culminating the decade in which Bridget Riley had acquired international recognition for her experiments in Optical Art. It was painted two years after Riley had first introduced colour into her work, and the year following her sensational success at the thirty-fourth Venice Biennale in 1968 where the presentation of her three initial colour works - Cataract 3, Late Morning, and Chant II - ensured she became the first British contemporary painter and the first woman ever to win the International Prize for painting. In her experiments with 2

Riley was fascinated by colour from an early age and throughout the 1950s she made numerous studies from Georges Seurat, seeking to understand the mechanics behind the colour theory of the master of

3 colour, Riley discovered that the same colour can be read differently by the eye depending on the adjacent colour. This discovery is best explained in Persephone I, a rigidly structured arrangement of narrow horizontal stripes made up of three pastel shades of blue, pink and green. Riley was fascinated by colour from an early age and throughout the 1950s she made numerous studies from Georges Seurat, seeking to understand the mechanics behind the colour theory of the master of Pointillism. In her earlier works of the 1960s, however, she eradicated colour from her palette as she explored the fertile binary dialect of high-contrast black and white. Persephone 1 demonstrates the artist's early experimentation with the interaction between specific colours in which she achieved astonishing effects. The vast dimensions and astutely accomplished colour combinations of Persephone 1 position it as an iconic work within a crucial period of Bridget Riley's historic oeuvre and it is estimated at 600, ,000. Glenn Brown's oil Declining Nude from 2006 is the largest work on panel by the artist to appear at auction and a masterly display of Brown's technical ability with the brush to create a sculptural illusion of depth by means of a perfectly flat painted surface. In Declining Nude from a distance, the viewer recognises the bearded features of Camille Pissarro's Self Portrait from 1873, which has been enlarged and amplified by the younger artist. It is not Pissaro s painting itself, housed in the Musée d Orsay in Paris, which Brown uses as a source image but rather a reproduction of the painting. Brown's artistic process today involves scouring the internet for source images. Taking his cue from the founders of Appropriation Art, his quintessentially post-modern approach to painting borrows images from two extremes of visual culture: masters of painting canonised by art history and low-brow, sci-fi illustration which in Brown's pantheon is awarded equal status. This work, which has been exhibited and discussed in the literature, has never before been offered at auction and is estimated at 600, ,000. Further highlights include: Property from the Collection of The Brussels Airport Company Antony Gormley (b.1950) Angel Of The North Bronze, 99 by 282 by 20cm, executed in 1997, this work is number five from an edition of twelve plus one artist's proof. Estimate: 400, ,000 3

Property of a Private European Collector Anish Kapoor (b.

, executed in 2007 Estimate: 500,000-700,000 Chris Ofili (b.

Acrylic, oil, paper collage, glitter, polyester resin, map pins and elephant

Frank Auerbach Head of Gerda Boehm II Oil on double panel Estimate:

4 Property of a Private European Collector Anish Kapoor (b.1954) Untitled Alabaster, 66 By 61 By 46.5cm., executed in 2007 Estimate: 500, ,000 Chris Ofili (b.1968) The Naked Spirit Of Captain Shit And The Legend Of The Black Stars Acrylic, oil, paper collage, glitter, polyester resin, map pins and elephant dung on canvas, signed, titled and dated 2000/2001 Estimate: 600, ,000 Frank Auerbach Head of Gerda Boehm II Oil on double panel Estimate: 500, ,000 Frank Auerbach Portrait of Catherine Lampert [the Director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery from 1988 to 2001] Oil on canvas, 1987 Estimate: 500, ,000 4

1954) Syphon Mirror - Kon Synthetic wood and

, dated 2005 Estimate: 300,000-400,000 Gilbert &

5 Ged Quinn (b.1963) The Wintry Wind Of The Bone Oil On Canvas, 183 By 215cm., executed in Estimate: 60,000-80,000 Anish Kapoor (b.1954) Syphon Mirror - Kon Synthetic wood and Japanese lacquer, by by 45.2cm., dated 2005 Estimate: 300, ,000 Gilbert & George (b & b. 1942) Head Over Heels Mixed media, in ten parts, 277 by 54cm., executed in 1973 Estimate: 300, ,000 5

, executed in 2005 Estimate: 70,000-90,000 Gary Hume (b.1962) Water Painting (Lilac) Enamel on aluminium, 300 by 244cm.

6 Property From An Important European Collection Yinka Shonibare (b.1962) Lady On Unicycle Fibreglass mannequin, dutch wax-printed cotton clothes, leather shoes, metal, rubber and leather unicycle 212 by by 124cm., executed in 2005 Estimate: 70,000-90,000 Gary Hume (b.1962) Water Painting (Lilac) Enamel on aluminium, 300 by 244cm., executed in 1998 Estimate: 80, ,000 Notes to Editor: *Estimates do not include buyer s premium **The low estimate of 56 million for the Contemporary Art Sales Series this February includes both the Evening and Day various owners auctions and the contemporary component of the Evening Looking Closely single owner sale. # # # 6

Sotheby s Forthcoming Contemporary Art Evening Sale To Debut Ai Weiwei s Sunflower Seeds At Auction

Press Release London For Immediate Release London +44 (0)20 7293 6000 Matthew Weigman matthew.weigman@sothebys.com Simon Warren simon.warren@sothebys.com Sotheby s Forthcoming Contemporary Art Evening