"Moss on Moss" @nytimes

Panda Banquette by Fernando and Humberto Campana (2006).

 

LIKE everything else that Murray Moss does, the auction he curated for Phillips de Pury & Company, “Moss, the Auction: Dialogues Between Art and Design,” is highly subjective and personal. Mr. Moss has a fraternal twin (a sister, Fern Moss Kalai) and has always had an interest in genetics

Here are some lots from the auction, which pairs design objects (some from his private collection that he owns with Franklin Getchell) with art from various collectors.

The auction is on Oct. 16; the viewing starts on Saturday at the Phillips uptown location, 450 Park Avenue.

Pandamonium

Panda Banquette by Fernando and Humberto Campana (2006) and “Composition” by Henri Michaux (1959). “A variation of a Rorschach test?” Mr. Moss wonders in the catalog.

Lounge Act

Velvet Sofa by Mattia Bonetti (2002) and “Rosa Nackte (Red Nude)” by Luciano Castelli (1982). “Doesn’t the velvet-skinned sofa suggest the elongated, welcoming lap of the sleeping red Siren?” Mr. Moss muses. “Couldn’t each be a portrait of the other?”

By BOB MORRIS

Art World Best Sellers - Blog #1

Norwegian painter Edvard Munch became the most expensive artist at auction when his 1895 pastel of a terrified man clutching his cheeks along an Oslo fjord, 'The Scream,' sold for $119.9 million at Sotheby's—the most ever paid for a work of art at auction. The previous world record price for an artwork at auction is Picasso's 'Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust,' which fetched $106.5 million at Christie's in 2010. Here's a look at some record and noteworthy sales -- Ellen Gamerman

Picasso's "Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust" sold at Christie's in New York for a record $106.5 million—fetching the highest price for any artwork at auction in 2010. The 1932 portrait of the painter's mistress went to an anonymous bidder.

Sure Bets: Blog Spotlight #2: "Picasso: The End of the Affair"

Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

ARTIST Picasso

TITLE 'Femme Assise Dans un Fauteuil'

AUCTION HOUSE Sotheby's

ESTIMATE $20 million to $30 million

Estate property is especially desirable in part because it has generally been off the market for years and comes with reasonable estimates. This canvas, from 1941, is one of 17 works being sold on Wednesday from the estate of Theodore J. Forstmann, the New York financier who died in November. Painted in the early years of World War II, the distorted figure of Dora Maar, Picasso’s muse and lover, posed in a chair is one of scores of seated women whom he depicted. “The anguish of the war and his relationship with Dora, which was deteriorating, is reflected in these paintings,” said John Richardson, the Picasso biographer. “He painted Dora in such an angular way, she almost looks like a pair of scissors.”

The painting was made the same year as Picasso’s “Dora Maar With Cat,” a far more dramatic canvas with a black cat perched on Maar’s shoulder that sold for $95.2 million at Sotheby’s in 2006.

Mr. Forstmann bought the painting in 2001 from the Acquavella Galleries in New York.

via nytimes.com

 

"Other Big-Ticket Items" - Blog #1 - Sotheby's Offers Up $75 Million Art Collection, including "The Scream"

Next week, Christie's and Sotheby's major Impressionist and modern sales will kick off in New York, followed by their contemporary sales. Here are some of the works expected to command the biggest prices.


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Sotheby

Pablo Picasso's 'Femme assise dans un fauteuil,' 1941

On Wednesday, Sotheby's will offer up 17 artworks—including a $20 million-plus Pablo Picasso—from the estate of leveraged-buyout king Theodore Forstmann.

Americans Dominate at London Art Sales; Bacon for $33.4 Million

via online.wsj.com

As economy weighs on European collectors, confident Americans are big buyers

"Confident American bidders lifted the sales to a combined $713 million, with Christie's $457 million total topping Sotheby's roughly $256 million. Overall, the results easily topped the houses' low estimates of $413 million."