oil painting

Blackwell’s Island by Edward Hopper Leading Christie’s American Art Sale

Edvard Hopper is famous for capturing the mood and feel of the mid-20th century in his paintings. From lonely diners and hotel rooms to houses on the shore, his paintings lend a vision of what life was like in those times. One of his artwork Blackwell’s Island, oil painting is leading upcoming Christie’s American Art sale. The 1928 painting that has never come to auction before will be offered on sale on May 23 at Christie’s with an estimated price of $15 million to $20 million.
Edward Hopper's Blackwell’s Island oil on canvas is estimated at $15-20 million

Edward Hopper’s Blackwell’s Island, the work, which has never been offered at auction, is estimated at $15-20 million

Originally known as Hog Island and today known as Roosevelt Island (renamed for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1971), Blackwell’s Island has a rather notorious history. Its varied architecture and isolation is likely what attracted Hopper to the locale. “My aim in painting is always, using nature as the medium, to try to project upon canvas my most intimate reaction to the subject as it appears when I like it most; when the facts are given unity by my interest and prejudices. Why I select certain subjects rather than others, I do not exactly know, unless it is that I believe them to be the best mediums for a synthesis of my inner experience,” Hopper was saying. The large-scale oil (five feet wide) has been exhibited at renowned institutions, such as The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Institute. Most recently, it was included in the first major retrospective of Hopper’s work at the Grand Palais in Paris.
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Gerhard Richter Abstraktes Bild (809-4) Sold for $34 Million and Broke the Record for a Living Artist

Abstraktes Bild (809-4), an oil canvas by German artist Gerhard Richter sold for more than $34 million at Sotheby’s auction in London on Friday (Oct. 12), and broke the record for a living artist. The painting, owned by singer Eric Clapton, went to an anonymous bidder, after a five-minute bidding battle, for the double price than auction house estimated. Described by Sotheby’s as “masterpiece of calculated chaos” and a “paradigm of Gerhard Richter’s mature artistic and philosophical achievement”, this painting broke the previous 2010 record, when Jasper Johns’ “Flag” sold for more than $28 million at Christie’s auction house in New York in 2010. Eric Clapton, who is a known art collector, bought 1994 painting “Abstraktes Bild (809-4)” along with two others in Richter’s 809 series for $3.4 million in total at Sotheby’s New York in November 2001. At the time, this was an auction record for a lot containing abstracts by the German artist, with each worth about a third of the figure. Another from Richter’s 809 series, “Abstraktes Bild (809-2)” fetched $3,119,403 at the same auction on Friday, Sotheby’s said. The Richter is one of 55 contemporary artworks being offered at Sotheby’s which are expected to raise between £28.5 million and £39.4 million.

A Triptych Oil Painting by Chinese Artist Zhang Xiaogang Sold for $10.1 Million in Hong Kong

A triptych oil painting by Chinese artist Zhang Xiaogang sold for $10.1 million A triptych oil painting by Chinese artist Zhang Xiaogang sold for $10.1 million Auction giant Sotheby’s sold $447 million worth of Asian art, wine, watches and jewellery in its Asian spring sales. The centrepiece of auction in Hong Kong was an early triptych oil painting, Forever Lasting Love by renowned Chinese artist Zhang Xiaogang sold for $10.1 million. Sotheby’s said it was a record auction price for a contemporary artwork from China. Zhang’s early 1988 work, oil painting of  figures in an arid landscape suffused with mystical symbols fetched HK$79 million with fees, more than double a hammer-price estimate of as much as HK$30 million, with the anonymous winning bid taken by telephone from Miety Heiden of Sotheby’s, New York. It was the top lot of 105 offered by Guy Ullens, founder of Beijing’s largest private art museum, with a $16.7 million total estimate. The price was higher than the $9.5 million paid for a Zeng Fanzhi canvas in 2008 and a series of massive gunpowder works by Cai Guoqiang that fetched a similar price in 2007.
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