2 Cents: Sotheby's and Christies

Auction previews held by Sotheby's, Christies, and Phillips the week before the actual auctions are among my favorite NYC freebies. Previews provide a rare opportunity to see serious works of art during the narrow window when they are transferred from one rich person's private collection (usually) to another's, thus disappearing, once more, from the eye of the hoi polloi. Of course, I have neither a direct interest in the auctions (since I can't afford anything there) nor even a secondary one (since I don't care about the "art market" as a social phenomenon or as gossip). But I like art, and love free stuff of any kind, so previews are right up my alley. (Besides, the bathrooms are nice. Thick, soft paper towels.)

A few random thoughts about things I saw. At Sotheby's, one of the stars is this Munch (poor picture, sorry):




I didn't like it. It had none of the energy and emotional meaning found in the best Munchs. The paint seemed too lightly put on the canvas, and the strokes had no movement or intensity. The painting felt static and flat. Though, somewhat inconsistently, the bright yellows, reds, and oranges of the female figures on the right, which dominates the painting, are way too saturated.

Maybe I just don't like sunny-day Munchs. He seems to do better when painting more sombre atmospheric or lighting conditions, like the night or twilight, or the time just before a storm is about to hit, or dark Northern interiors.

As usual, there were lots of bad late Picassos. Here is a particularly awful one, entitled "Le Baiser":
The estimate is $10 to $15 million, so the experts obviously have a different opinion.

If I had that much dough, I'd rather blow it on this Richter:




Nothing screams "I have taste AND money!" these days more than a good Richter. This one's really beautiful in person.

Finally, my favorite at Sotheby's was this little-promoted Matisse from 1910:

Delicious! The estimate is a mere $2.5 to $3.5 million. Again, I know nothing about the art market, but that seems a good buy relative to the estimates on the other works. A beautiful picture, in and of itself, but also an early Matisse, from what many consider to be his seminal period (the 1910s). Bargain of the day.

***

At Christies, the Cover Boy is this Monet from the 1880s:



I gather that it is an important work from an art-historical perspective, as well as from a collecting one. But it didn't do much for me, unlike this Nympheas from 1908:


As usual, there were lots of so-so Impressionist works. I liked this Degas:




Trust me, it looked better in person.

I also liked this 1975 deKooning (made before he either got all Zen-d out or simply Alzheimered-out, depending on who you believe):

There were lots of Warhols, including a soup can, a self-portrait with pink hair, a "Last Supper", and even an oxidation painting, of which I have not seen many:




And, finally, can someone explain Elizabeth Peyton to me? I dig Kurt Cobain, but $700,000 to $1 million for this?


What do I know.