Pablo Picasso’s “Nature morte aux tulipes” and Andy Warhol’s “Statue of Liberty” will be the highlights of New York autumn sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s. These two works could fetch an estimated price of $35 – $50 million each, when go under the hammer next month.
“Nature morte aux tulipes” is actually portrait of Picasso’s young lover and muse, Marie-Thérèse Walter, who was depicted in many of his works. Marie-Thérèse Walter was just 17 years old when she met the already married Picasso. In 1935, she bore him a daughter. Art experts consider that this painting is one of his most important works.
“The young woman, with her Grecian profile and athletic, statuesque frame, inspired Picasso’s greatest achievements in a variety of media,” said Simon Shaw, Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art department in New York.
“Nature morte aux tulipes is exceptional within the series for its double-meditation on this subject, demonstrating the influence of Surrealism on his output: the artist builds a sculpture of Marie-Thérèse, and then paints that sculpture as a sexually-charged still life, allowing him to dissect her form on many levels,” he added in a statement.
One more Picasso’s painting of Marie-Thérèse, “Femme à la fenêtre” from 1936, will also be included in the Sotheby sale on November 5, 2012, with a pre-sale estimate of up to $20 million.
Second artwork, that is expected to sell for at least $35 million is Warhol’s “Statue of Liberty” – the first of its kind in 3D and the only example of the artist’s experimentation with the technique still privately owned. It will go under the hammer at Christie’s on November 14, 2012. According to Christie’s, Warhol painted the red and green work showing multiple misaligned images of the iconic landmark in 1962 as a prelude to his Death and Disaster series.
“Andy Warhol’s Statue of Liberty is one of the most important statements on America and on painting in the 1960s,” said Brett Gorvy, the chairman and international head of Post-War and Contemporary Art. “It is a famous icon of the American dream, alongside Warhol’s most popular American subjects such as the Coca-Cola bottle, the Campbell’s soup-cans and his Marilyns and Elvis.”
Two other paintings from the 3D series are part of museum collections in Switzerland and Pittsburgh.
