SOTHEBY'S NOVEMBER 17 CONTEMPORARY ART SALE INCLUDES MARCEL ...

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SOTHEBY’S NOVEMBER 17 CONTEMPORARY ART SALE INCLUDES MARCEL DUCHAMP’S FOUNTAIN AND IMPORTANT WORKS BY ROTHKO, FREUD, WARHOL, GOBER, TWOMBLY AND CALDER

THE ENDURING PRESENCE OF MARCEL DUCHAMP 

A SYMPOSIUM AND PANEL DISCUSSION TO BE HELD AT SOTHEBY’S ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1999 FROM 6.30PM

New York, N.Y.– Sotheby’s Fall sale of Contemporary Art on the evening of Wednesday, November 17, 1999, will include Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain, the radical icon of the 20th Century, and important works by Mark Rothko, Lucian Freud, Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Alexander Calder, Jeff Koons, Robert Gober, Charles Ray and Eva Hes

Tobias Meyer, World Wide Head of Sotheby’s Contemporary Art department, commented:“It is such a privilege to handlethesaleofDucham’psFountain.Thesalehasevolvedaroundthisiconicpiecetoencompasssomehighly importantworksrepresentativeofeverymajordevelopmentinposwtarartfromabstractexpressionism,minimalan conceptual art to recent pieces by Charles Ray, Robert Gober and Jeff Koon”s.

Duchamp revolutionized conceptual approaches to art, and was inventive and influential in terms of expanding the materials and mediums used in making art. Duchamp’s decision to exhibit the original Fountain at the ground breaking 1917 New York Armory show represented a watershed in the history of art. Although it was rejected from this exhibition, the importance of Fountain continued to resonate throughout the century. The current example is a replica of the lost original urinal, the fifth of an edition of eight fabricated under the art’isvierupstA.4691ninois ‘readymade’, as defined by Duchamp, is a commonplace prefabricated object which is elevated to the status of art by the mere act of the artis’ts selection. He introduced this concept in 1915 and appropriated the term from the clothing industry where it is used to describe items purchased off the rack. He purchased the original piece from th J.L.MottIronWorksCompany,at115FifthAvenue,aplumbingsupplystoreinManhatt’asnChelsea.Oftheeight numbered editions of Fountain, apart from the present example, five are in Museums, one is in the Foundation Din ViernyinParisandthewhereaboutsofoneisunknown.TheFountainintheSothe’sbysalewasmostrecently exhibited in this year’s “American Century” show at the Whitney Museum of Art, New York and it is estimated at $1/1.5 million.

A striking oil on canvas by Mark Rothko from 1952, entitled No. 15, is a classic, monumental work painted in luminous shades of yellow and red. The artist explores subtle shifts in space and modulation of color families: fro the whiteyellow which cedes to gold and patches of washed rose and blocks of deep orangered. One of his most confident and commanding pictures of the period, No. 15, it is estimated at $4/6 million.

Evening in the Studio, a triple portrait by Lucian Freud shows Nicola Bateman, the former wife of Leigh Bowery, sitting quietly in a chair working on a rich piece of embroidery which is laid out across her legs. Sue Tilley lyes nak and asleep, her figure dominating the bottom half of the painting. The arti’stdog, a whippet called Pluto, is asleep on an austere metalframed bed. Against an enclosed backdrop of damp mottled walls, Freud locks his three subjects in an intensely private moment of deep contemplation. The massive form of Sue Tilley is a celebration of Freud’s 40 years of painting naked flesh. This late work also demonstrates the arti’sto create a luxurioust ability surface of paint. The estimate is $2.5/3.5 million.

ThirteenMostWantedMen#5,ArthurAlvinMfromAndyWarh’sol1964commissionfortheNewYorkStatePavilion, is included in the sale. The silkscreen on canvas is based on the same image used in the 20 x 20 foot mural which caused controversy at the time of its installation as it depicted 13 criminal mug shots, some of whom were Italian criminals, which Governor Nelson Rockefeller feared may insult some of his Italian constituents. The idea for the paintingwasprobablypromptedbythefirstfullscaleretrospectivegiventoMarcelDuchampatthePasadenaArt Gallery which featured a“most wanted” poster with two mug shots of Duchamp and an offer of a reward. It is estimated at $1.5/2.5 million. A Warhol silkscreen portrait of Elizabeth Taylor from 1963, entitled Liz is also include with an estimate of $1.5/2.5 million.

Alexander Calder’s Brazilian Fish is one of about a dozen hanging fish mobiles that the artist produced during the 1940s and 1950s. Using a wire net stretched across a bent wire frame, Calder strung broken and discarded objects