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Lot 11, "The Cocktail Party," by Marisol Escobar, an assemblage of 15 free-standing figures and wall panel with painted wood, cloth, plastic, shoes, jewelry, mirror, television set and other accessories, 1965-6.

By Carter B. Horsley
This Contemporary Art evening auction at Sotheby's May 10, 2005 is highlighted by several fine Pop Art works, two major heroic paintings by Chuck Close, a fine Wayne Thiebaud, a very good abstraction by Gerhardt Richter, a superb sculpture by Louise Bourgeois, a very good early Mark Rothko work and a nice sculpture by Alexander Calder.

The most spectacular work is Lot 11, "The Cocktail Party," a group of 15 sculptures by Marisol Escobar (b. 1930), that was one of several important works consigned to this auction by the Robert B. Mayer Collection. Robert and Beatriz Mayer established an education wing at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. The group consists of free-standing figures and a wall panel with painted wood, cloth, plastic, shoes, jewelry, mirror, television set and other accessories. It was executed in 1965-6 and has a modest estimate of $400,000 to $600,000. It sold for $912,000, including the buyer's premium as do all the results mentioned in this article, shattering the artist's previous world auction record of $131,200.

Detail of Lot 11
"I began to make self-portraits because working at night I had no other model. I used myself over and over again. At time making these self-portraits, I would learn about myself," Marisol was quoted in the catalogue as saying in 1968. As perhaps the most beautiful woman artist of her generation, she really did not need other models.

The catalogue provides the following commentary on this lot:
"Born of Venezuelan parents in Paris, Marisol Escobar's early artistic training was a transcontinental experience that brought her from Europe to the Jepson School in Los Angeles and then the Art Students League in New York. There, she had to opportunity to study under the tutelage of Hans Hoffman, and soon thereafter she would shed her surname Escobar in order to assume an identity distinctly her own, rather than that of her father. She quickly catapulted herself onto the New York art scene in the 1960s, armed with a precocious talent and au aura of mystery and cool chic that mesmerized her earliest admirers, but which would later became a catalyst for her critics. Even the typically laconic Andy Warhol quipped that Marisol was 'the first girl artist with glamour.'...Morisol's sophisticated aesthetic immediately linked her to the new Pop Art movement, but her work remained in a category of its own, displaying a myriad of influences from sources as diverse as Pre-Colombian art and Surrealist imagery. Even today, Mariosl's art resists any linear curatorial reading."

Lot 17, "Liz," by Andy Warhol, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, 40 inches square, 1963
The auction's highlight is Lot 17," a portrait of Elizabeth Taylor, the actress, by Andy Warhol. One of a series of 13, it is 40 inches square and was executed in 1963. It was consigned by Irving Blum, the dealer and has an estimate of $9,000,000 to $12,000,000. It sold for $12,616,000 to Lawrence Graff, the jeweler, the highest price in the auction, was moderately successful with 82.2 percent of the 73 offered lots selling for $68,036,800, a bit above the pre-sale low estimate of $63,070,000.

Nine other records were set at the auction, substantially more than were set at the previous week's Impressionist & Modern Art sales. Last week's Impressionist & Modern Art evening auction at Sotheby's was poor, but it was followed by a very successful evening auction at Christie's that buoyed up a rather stunned art market. This auction's relatively soft results is likely to further confuse the auction market that is giddy over high prices but still cautious.

The catalogue notes that the "Liz" series "represents the apotheosis of Warhol's creative vision, both as the technician of the (still then) revolutionary silkscreen process, and the architect of the various ideas he used to build monuments to the vagaries of celebrity. The present painting is the outstanding example of this celebrated group. Its status is elevated because of the excellent registration of the silkscreen. The hair, eyes, nose and lips all display wonderful plasticity and detail. This is further enhanced by the saturated crimson background, pushing the silhouette out of the picture plane, and lusciously conveying the film star's lips."

Lot 56, "Blue Nude," by Roy Lichtenstein, oil and magna on canvas, 81 by 60 inches, 1995
Another Pop Art star, Roy Lichtenstein has several works in the auction, most notably Lot 56, "Blue Nude," a 81-by-60-inch oil and magna on canvas that was consigned from the Collection of Gianni Versace, the designer. Executed in 1995, this lot has a conservative estimate of $2,500,000 to $3,500,000. It sold for $5,280,000.

Lot 59, "Interior with Diana," left, 50 by 1/4 by 46 7/8 inches, and Lot 60, "Interior with Ajax," right, 50 1/4 by 46 1/4 inches, both by Roy Lichtenstein, oil and magna on canvas, 1997
Versace commissioned two other works by Lichtenstein, Lots 59 and 60. The former is entitled "Interior with Diana" and measures 50 1/4 by 46 7/8 inches. It has an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000. It sold for $968,000. The latter is entitled "Interior with Ajax" and measures 50 1/4 by 46 1/4 inches. It has the same estimate as Lot 59. It sold an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000. It sold for $688,000. Both were executed in 1997.

Lot 9, "John", by Chuck Close, acrylic on gessoed canvas, 100 by 90 inches, 1971-2, left, and Lot 48, "Eric," by Chuck Close, 100 by 84 inches, 1990, right
The auction has two major large portrait paintings by Chuck Close (b. 1940).
Lot 9, "John" was consigned by the Robert Mayer Family Collection and is a 100-by-90-inch acrylic on gessoed canvas. Executed in 1971-2, it is, according to the catalogue, "the only painting to appear at auction from Chuck Close's first series of the artist's signature motif-portrait heads." "Monumental in scale and impact, the eleven paintings," the catalogue observed, "beginning with Close's own image in the black and white Big Self Portrait of 1967-68 through to John, the final work in this seminal group, established the subject matter, technical approach and aesthetic parameters within which the artist has produced a body of work of critical importance to 20th Century art. Significantly, five of the paintings in this group were purchased by museums or institutions between 1959 and 1971, an amazing aknowledgement of their importance at the time....Currently, nine of the eleven works are in museum collections....John is a masterpiece from this seminal group, which bean with a restricted palette of black and white and progressed in 1970 to include four color paintings....John ...demonstrates the return of color to Close's oeuvre and the introduction of photography as inspiration for the artist's process and technique. Close emerged from Yale University School of Art and Architecture...in 1964, and on a Fulbright scholraship, he studied in Venice and traveled through Europe from 1964-65....Returning ...to the United States as an instructor at the University of Masachusetts in Amherst, Close shifted to figuration, partially from frustration with his inability to break away from the habits of his student work....Close turned to found photographic sources as a departure point for multimedia constructions and shallow reliefs. He soon progressed to working from his own black and white photography and limited his composition only to the image recorded in the photograph. By the time Close moved to New York City in the fall of 1967, he artist had further defined his parameters by abandoning color in his palette, and by working in extreme scale so as to render the replicated image insistent and unavoidable....In November of 1967, Close opted to concentrate on a head-and-shoulder, passport-style composition, in order to achieve heightened concentration and enlargement of detail, thus arrived at a format that has remained the core of his oeuvre."
"John" is the cover illustration of the catalogue and has an ambitious estimate of $5,000,000 to $7,000,000. It sold for $4,832,000 to the Eli Broad Foundation, breaking the artist's previous world auction record of $2,807,500.

Lot 10 is a series of five dye transfer photographs of "John," mounted on paperboard with ink, graphite, masking tape and acrylic, each sheet measuring 24 by 20 inches. It has an estimate of $80,000 to $120,000. It sold for $204,000, also shattering the artist's previous world auction record for a print of $46,800.

The other major Close acrylic on gessoed canvas portrait is Lot 48, "Eric," a portrait of the artist Eric Fischl. It is an oil on canvas that measures 100 by 84 inches and was executed in 1990. It has an estimate of $2,800,000 to $3,500,000. It sold for $3,040,000. It sold to Robert Mnuchin, the dealer.

The catalogue provides the following commentary on this lot:
"...through the genius of Chuck Close, portraiture returns with full force to the forefront of Twentieth century art, as the artist chooses this seemingly straight-forward subject matter to produce an oeuvre of extraordinary complexity. Though a variety of medium, Close experiments with the parameters of portraiture from the eerily factual representation of his early portraits such as John...lot 9..., to his later work, such as Eric, in which a fractured prism of details coalesce into a resemblance only at a distance....Based on photographs of his subjects, Close creates a proscribed area in which he can experiment with various media and investigate the nature of perception, often creating several works of astonishing variety from one photographic source. ..Close adapts many of the classic tenets of the canon: the extreme frontality of his Heads is as basic to portraiture as early church icons, Greek funerary portraits and Roman coins, yet it is also most closely related to present-day passport or yearbook photographs....By the 1980s and 1990s, the link with photography becomes more complex, intuitive, and less technical. As Jochen Poetter has observed, '[Close's] portraits are free of emotion and affectation; they make no attempt to shape a 'character' or typify. Even if the focus is always on the human being, Close never ventures beyond the realm of visibility, devoting equal care and attention to each external detail. Whereas the liveliness is lost in a photograph, the painting gives birth to a new, lively and colorful cosmos....The documentary statics of the photographic representation are clothed in a veil of brilliance which, though taken from the external world as material and phenomenon, obeys internal intelligble laws - namely those of painting.'....In Eric and other portraits of the late 1980s and early 1990s, this freedom to create to create color in a myriad of combinations is mirrored in the grand relaxation of Close's brush. Dots, diagonals, curves and dollops of paint activitate the surface, and in their infinited inventiveness, the picture surface and the image are fractured into jewel-like individual units that act as small abstract paintings within the whole. Almost in pointillist fashion they swim before our eyes when viewed up close. Yet when viewed at a distance, the image not only coalesces into a recognizable whole, but a personality emerges - the sitter has been both deconstructed and reconstructed by Close who has never lost sight of the image and its essence....Having struggled with the debilitating affects of paralysis due to a spinal blood clot in December 1988, Close's ability to focus on discipline and process, while at the same tme celebrat[ing] the sheer joy of art-making, allowed him to continue his creative development."

Historically, Close's early huge portraits like John are impressive and important, but the later ones like Eric are spectacular and awesome even if they look like they might have been conceived with the "glass lens" filter in Photoshop. The catalogue reproduces photographs of Close painting in a special lift.

Lot 69, "Athanor," by Anselm Kiefer, oil, sand, ash, gold leaf and lead foil on canvas, 111 by 150 1/4 inches, 1991
Close's portraits remind one of early book illuminations with their meticulous and brilliant detail, very neat and organized. At the opposite pole of painting, Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945), who also works in large scale, is intensely into surface texture and very much focused on emotional impact. Lot 69, "Athanor," is one of his finest creations, an oil, sand, ash, gold leaf and lead foil on canvas that measures 111 by 150 1/4 inches. Executed in 1991, it has a modest estimate of $700,000 to $900,000. It was sold at Sotheby's November 14, 2001 for $1,160,750 when it had been consigned by the collection of Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch of Berlin. At this auction, it sold for $800,000.

Kiefer has made other works with the same title. A 1983-4 version shows the courtyard Albert Speer designed for the Chancellery in Berlin, the same setting the artist used in "To the Unknown Painter" in which a palette stands where the ceremonial sculptures may have stood, according to the catalogue.
This work exemplifies Kiefer's exploration of Germany's past and is one of his most ambitious works.
"The reason for the charring is explained by the painting's title. Athanor was a large furnace use by alchemists who transmuted lead...into gold," the 2001 catalogue observed, adding that "the fire which the alchemist tames is...not one of destruction but of purification." In this work, Speer's courtyard has been replaced with the Reichstag. "Its emptiness, as well as the ravaged ground and pregnant sky, add a curious serenity to the scene. It also adds a grandeur, as Kiefer here creates a building reminiscent of the Ancient temples of Greece and Rome. Kiefer's Athanor has now became a Parthenon for the Twentieth Century, and he himself a Delphis Oracle for Germany's past," the catalogue maintained.

This season's catalogue noted that "Athanor is a wonderful example of Anselm Kiefer's continued exploration into Germany's past, and the vicissitudes of history and memory." "This monumental work must be seen as one of the artist's most ambitious paintings, and in its power of presentation, its depth of meaning and its accomplished technique, Athanor remains one of Kiefer's most charged and concise commentaries on the meaning of matter and the matter of meaning," it added.
Kiefer's "ruins" resonate with history and memory.

Lot 31, "Untitled," by Mark Rothko, watercolor on board, 21 1/2 by 14 1/2 inches, circa 1944-5
Lot 31 is a fine and impressive early Surrealist work by Mark Rothko (1903-1970). A watercolor on board that measures 21 1/2 by 14 1/2 inches, it was executed circa 1944-5. It has a modest estimate of $150,000 to $200,000. It sold for $408,000.

Lot 29,"LabyrinthineTower," by Louise Bourgeois, marble, 36 1/2 incheshigh, executed 1962-1981
Lot 29 is a very beautiful white marble sculpture by Louise Bourgeois (b. 1911) that was executed 1962-1981. The 36 1/2-inch-high work is one of three variants based on the two original plaster sculptures of the same title but half the size executed in 1962. The artist also executed a cast iron edition of 5 with one artist's proof, circa 1967, and an edition of six plus one artist's proof in the 1980s cast in bronze. It has an estimate of $900,000 to $1,200,000. It sold for $940,000.

Lot 19, "Cake," by Jeff Koons, oil on canvas, 125 1/8 by 116 3/8 inches, 1995-7
Lot 19 is an enormous painting of a slice of cake by Jeff Koons (b. 1955). It was executed in 1995-7 and measures 125 1/8 by 116 3/8 inches. It has an estimate of $2,500,000 to $3,500,000. It sold for $3,040,000 breaking the artist's former world auction record for a painting of $2,248,000.

Lot 68 is a very fine and strong abstract painting by Gerhard Richter (b. 1932). Dated 1992, it is an oil on canvas that measures 78 1/4 by 63 inches. It has an estimate of $1,200,000 to $1,800,000. It sold for $1,248,000.

Lot 5. "TV Set," by Luc Tuymans, oil on canvas, 32 7/8 by 32 inches, 2000
Lot 5, "TV Set," is a eery, Munch-like landscape by Luc Tuymans (b. 1958) that has a nice feeling of mystery. The oil on canvas measures 32 7/8 by 32 inches and was executed in 2000. It has a modest estimate of $150,000 to $200,000. It sold for $352,000.

The catalogue provides the following commentary:
"Having just been celebrated with a major retrospective at the Tate Modern in London last year..., the Belgian artist's reputation has never been more pronounced. Tuymans' project is underaken with a liquid-like fluttering of oils on canvas. Loose, yet still extremely deliberate (and deliberated upon), Tuymans' seemingly miminal brushwork is used to convey objects and subjects which speak powerfully not in their concrete rendition, but in their mood. Tuymans treats paint like poets treat words."

Lot 49, "Circle Street" by Wayne Thiebaud, oil on canvas, 48 inches square, 1985
Lot 49, "Circle Street," is an excellent example of the cityscapes of Wayne Thiebaub (b. 1920). A 48-inch-square oil on canvas, it was executed in 1985. It has an estimate of $1,000,000 to $1,500,000. It sold for $1,024,000.

Lot 72, "The Battle of Atlanta: Being the Narrative of a negress in the Flames of Desire - A Reconstruction," by Kara Walker, paper cutouts with adhesive backing, dimensions variable, 1995, shown with four visitors to the Sotheby's gallery.
Lot 72 is a good example of the work of Kara Walker (b. 1969). A 5-part paper cutout with adhesive backing, it was executed in 1995. It has an estimate of $150,000 to $200,000. It sold for $329,600, smashing the artist's previous world auction record of $51,000.

Lot 13, by Red Grooms (b. 1937), sold for $96,000; when "Untitled Leg," Lot 23, by Robert Gober (b. 1954) sold for $912,000 Michael McGinnis, the head of the Contemporary Art Department at Phillips, de Pury & Company, and when Lot 54, a collaboration between Andy Warhol (1928-1987) and Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) sold for $1,001,600.

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