artnet Online Auctions - Prints Sale March 12-26 artnet Launches Prints Sale Featuring Works By Francis Bacon,
Marc Chagall, Roy Lichtenstein, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and many other artists
New York / Berlin, March 12, 2009 – From March 12-26 artnet Online Auctions (http://www.artnetonlineauctions.com) will feature a special sale of over 100 original limited edition prints by 40 artists including Francis Bacon, Marc Chagall, Roy Lichtenstein, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol.
Pop Art
Leading the sale is an exceptional group of Pop Art prints by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Twenty works by Andy Warhol range from the 1950s through the 1980s, including four 1968 screenprints from his Death and Disaster series. Included in this group is Flash – November 22, 1963 (Jackie), which depicts a glamorous 1960s Jackie the day of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination (estimate: $7,000 - $9,000), and Electric Chair, 1971 (estimate: $10,000 - $15,000).
The sale also celebrates Roy Lichtenstein with eight prints from 1974-1996. Among the highlights is Virtual Interior: Portrait of a Duck (BAT), 1995. Lichtenstein created this work for renowned art collector Michael Ovitz during his tenure as President of Walt Disney Company. This is an exceptionally rare work as this edition was never sold publicly and only one has ever appeared at auction (estimate: $25,000 - $35,000). Other rare editions include Rouen Cathedral #4, 1969, inspired by the works of Claude Monet (estimate: $9,000 - $12,000) and Art Critic, 1996, the artist’s tongue-in-cheek homage to Picasso’s Cubist period (estimate: $25,000 - $30,000).
Other Pop highlights include two of Jasper Johns’ iconic Target prints, Target, 1973 (estimate: $10,000 - $12,000) and Target with Plaster Casts, 1990 ($12,000 - $15,000). The target image was an important element in Johns’ early work and figured prominently in the Metropolitan Museum of New York’s 2008 Jasper Johns retrospective. Other Pop artists featured in the sale are Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist and Tom Wesselmann.
Contemporary Art
Contemporary highlights include works by Francis Bacon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Marlene Dumas, and Robert Rauschenberg. Study for the Human Body, 1975 by Francis Bacon is a characteristic example of the artist’s use of bold and muted colors to highlight amorphous and twisted human figures set in an enclosed, artificial space (estimate: $22,000 - $25,000). An example of Robert Rauschenberg’s visual wit, Chronosaur, 1993 depicts overlayed images of dinosaurs chewing on clocks (estimate: $8,500 - $9,500). Jean-Michel Basquiat’s tour de force Jawbone of an Ass, 1982-2005, embodies the artist’s stream of consciousness technique, covering the surface in drawings and text that present a multiplicity of ideas. This particular edition is signed by Gerard Basquiat, Jean-Michel’s father and the Executor of the Basquiat Estate (estimate: $18,000 - $22,000).
Modern European
Rounding out the sale are ten works by Modern masters including Marc Chagall, M.C. Escher, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso. Three works by Marc Chagall are among the artist’s finest from the 1950s to 1970s. Maternité, 1954 reflects the Russian-born artist’s nostalgia for his native country (estimate: $16,000 - $18,000); Winter: Daphnis and Chloé, 1960 depicts a popular myth and frequent subject of the artist; (estimate: $25,000 - $30,000); The Magic Flute III, 1972, is a complex
