After taking an impressive £197.5 million ($265 million) from its marathon, three-pronged modern and contemporary evening sale last week, Christie’s London is now preparing for its modern British and Irish art sale on March 18. Frank Auerbach, Lynn Chadwick, and Barbara Hepworth spearhead the tightly curated auction of 26 works.
Among the top lots is Auerbach’s Christmas Tree at Mornington Crescent (2004-05), which has a high estimate of £2 million ($2.6 million). Rendered in the artist’s trademark thick paint and striking in scale, the painting exemplifies Auerbach’s tactile approach to landscape. Mornington Crescent, located near Auerbach’s Camden studio, was one of several North London sites he returned to repeatedly over decades.
Another highlight is Chadwick’s bronze Back to Venice (1988), appearing at auction for the first time and from the collection of Dr. Robert Holton. Conceived and cast more than three decades after Chadwick won the International Prize for Sculpture at the 1956 Venice Biennale, the work reflects the artist’s long relationship with the city that helped establish his international reputation. Christie’s sold a Henry Moore bronze for a £26.3 million ($35.2 million) last week, setting the artist’s record, so the house will hope Chadwick’s work follows suit.
Moore also features in next week’s sale with his Working Model for Hill Arches (1972) bronze, which carries a high estimate of £600,000 ($805,000).
Alice Murray, Christie’s head of modern British and Irish art, told ARTnews that Chadwick’s sculpture represents a key moment in the artist’s later career. “It really represents a culmination of Chadwick’s career,” she said. “What’s particularly exciting is that, with the Biennale opening later this year, the sculpture feels inseparable from his long and transformative relationship with Venice. It has remained in the same private collection for almost 30 years. It’s about 10 feet wide, so it’s fairly monumental.”
The modern British and Irish art sale also includes two works by Hepworth. Curved Form (1960), carved from a single piece of walnut, and Solitary Form (1971), carved in white marble, carry £1 million ($1.3 million) and £700,000 ($900,000) high estimates, respectively.
Paintings from the postwar period are well represented. Recollection (1986) by 94-year-old Bridget Riley is one, with a high estimate of £1.2 million ($1.6 million). Murray said the painting captures Riley at a pivotal moment in her practice when, inspired in part by the vivid palette she developed following a formative trip to Egypt, she began experimenting with tessellating zigzag parallelograms that create shifting rhythms of color and space.
British Pop pioneer Peter Phillips features with Motorpsycho/Ace (1962). The work has never hit the auction block before and comes from the collection of Italian curator and art historian Enrico Crispolti.
Another notable painting is Balthazar (1929) by Glyn Philpot. Murray described the luminous portrait, which is fresh from an exhibition in Chicago, as “probably the strongest work by the artist to come to market.”
What about the sale’s estimates? “I think we’ve estimated things very reasonably,” Murray said. “We feel confident in our pricing and we’re looking forward to seeing how the market responds.
“Our modern British and Irish art sales benefit from sustained and active international bidding,” she added. “Interest in the category continues to expand globally, with particularly robust demand from the United States.”
