February Fine Art Auction

A hand-colored lithograph of Marc Chagall’s Nature Morte au Bouquet is among the highlighted lots in the upcoming February Fine Art Auction, presented by Barridoff Galleries. Chagall influenced the Surrealist art movement and was even formally invited to join, although he declined. In Bouquet, flower petals, human faces, a vase, and other forms fuse together to create one mass. Jan van der Heyden’s An Imaginary View of a Town is another highlighted lot in this auction. In the art world, he is known for his paintings of cities in the Netherlands. However, this painting showcases what the National Gallery of Art calls van der Heyden’s “architectural fantasies.” The piece was most recently at auction in Sotheby’s 2006 Old Master Paintings event. 

Contemporary artist Rupert Garcia is also represented in this auction with his painting titled Mayan. Garcia’s political activism for Latino Americans impacts his paintings and their message. The Smithsonian American Art Museum describes his aesthetic as a “unification of the Mexican tradition of Rivera, Siqueiros, and Orozco, with elements learned from… the American Pop Art movement.” 

Another piece influenced by previous traditions is Joseph Lindon Smith’s Queen Hatshepsut with Goddess. On a trip to Egypt in 1898, Smith met archeologists who were in the middle of excavations in Giza. Because of his artistic background, he was asked to document the tombs’ paintings as they were excavated, a pursuit that would continue for the rest of his life. View each lot and register to bid on the Barridoff Galleries website.