NCS
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A René Magritte portray depicting an eerily lit streetscape bought for greater than $121 million at a Christie’s public sale in New York on Tuesday –– surpassing its $95 million estimate and smashing the public sale record for the Surrealist artist’s work.
As one of many largest work in a succession of 27 works all titled “L’empire des lumières” (“The Empire of Light”), the 1954 canvas is well-known amongst twentieth century artwork consultants for its scale, pristine situation and delicate particulars.
The public sale home described the art work because the “crown jewel” of its former proprietor, the late American inside designer Mica Ertegun’s, assortment –– a part of which went on sale Tuesday. The public sale additionally featured work by different trendy giants like Ed Ruscha and Max Ernst.
The art work depicts a home with a single streetlamp in entrance. The flame from the lamp lights up your complete canvas, together with the darkish timber –– virtually black in coloration –– within the foreground, whereas the picture is serenely mirrored over a pool of water. Above the streetscape, a lightweight blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds stretches to the highest of the canvas.
The portray has been praised for its distinctive potential to juxtapose a nocturnal panorama and daylight –– a surrealist motif that Magritte explored in his panorama work for virtually 20 years.
“The motif is one of the few truly iconic images in 20th century art and the painting, particularly the sky and flickering light in the foreground,” stated Max Carter, Christie’s Vice Chairman of twentieth to twenty first Century Art, in an e mail to NCS previous to the sale, including that the work has an “extraordinary glow in person.”
The promoting worth, which smashed estimates, marks a vibrant spot amid a slowdown in world artwork gross sales and an artwork market marred by economic uncertainties.
“When icons appear on the market, they create their own market dynamic,” Carter stated.
Two different Magritte works have been included within the sale: The work “La cour d’amour” and “La Mémoire,” which bought for $10.53 million and $3.68 million, respectively. Elsewhere, a nonetheless life by 87-year-old British artist David Hockney fetched over $19 million.
According to Art Basel and UBS’s 2024 Survey of Global Collecting, public public sale gross sales at Christie’s totaled $2.1 billion within the first half of this yr –– down 22% the identical interval final yr –– marking the second consecutive yr of declining first-half gross sales.
Christie’s nevertheless noticed some uplifts in 2024, together with in its sale of Asian artwork in addition to whole on-line gross sales, which recorded a 3% year-on-year improve in world share of bids since 2023.
A current twentieth and twenty first century artwork sale in Hong Kong noticed works by Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh fetching costs close to and below estimates –– an indication that consumers are nonetheless cautious.
Though maybe greatest identified for his surrealist depictions of bowler hat-wearing males, Magritte spent a interval of 15 years exploring the fleeting transition from day to nighttime in panorama portray. He produced a complete of 17 oil work and 10 gouaches (water-based work) that every one share the identify “L’empire des lumières” –– and every with small alternations between variations.
The paradoxical work rose in demand, significantly when a big model created in 1954 was featured within the Belgian Pavilion on the Venice Biennale and was bought to famed collector Peggy Guggenheim. Magritte went on to create three equally giant canvases — together with the one which bought Tuesday — that very same yr in order to not disappoint different collectors.
When requested concerning the comparatively delicate surrealism of the “L’empire des Lumières” works, Sandra Zalman, an artwork historical past affiliate professor on the University of Houston, argued that the lamppost was an early iteration of the enduring bowler-hat man.
“The lamppost’s shadow alludes to the bowler-hatted man, hovering — or haunting — the space that would otherwise be considered a quiet, though eerie, landscape,” she stated, in an e mail.
Zalman added that the timing of the sale can be becoming –– not simply because it coincides with the centennial of the surrealism movement, however that it’s going down throughout a “surreal moment in history to be living through.”
“I would also argue that the surrealists’ own time was equally anxiety-ridden,” Zalman stated. “There are almost too many parallels.”