Romanian artist Sandú Darié Laver, also known as Sandu Darie, received formal training in law but eventually becoming a painter. He was closely associated with the Concrete Art movement. Darie joined MADI, the Latin-American geometric abstract art group, in 1946 and later joined Los Diez Pintores Concretos. A 20th-century oil painting by Sandu Darie is a key highlight of the upcoming Akiba Antiques auction. The painting portrays geometric shapes in several colors. It bears Darie’s signature and comes with a certificate of authenticity.
An antique Chinese pendant necklace made of 22-karat yellow gold and carved jadeite leads the listings as well. The 19th-century pendant has character markings below. China’s connection to jade traces back to the Neolithic period. Considered to be a symbol of purity, the stone has been valued for its aesthetics and durability for generations. The sale also features a metal sculpture by Sergio Bustamante. It depicts a sun head with a boy’s body in an acrobatic position. The lot also includes a book titled The Mexico of Sergio Bustamante produced by Tyler Smith and Clint Clemens. To view the complete catalog and register to bid online, visit LiveAuctioneers.
An oil painting by American artist Edgar Alwin Payne leads this Best in the West auction, hosted by North American Auction Company. Payne was mostly a self-taught artist, apart from his brief time at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1907. He was perceived as one of the first plein-air landscape painters of the early 1900s and widely recognized for his Western landscapes. Available in the auction is an Edgar Alwin Payne oil painting titled In the Misty Alps. This piece features a scenic Swiss Alps view with Payne’s signature in the lower left corner. The framed depiction of mountainous peaks measures over 18 inches high and 21 inches wide.
Also offered is a rare Smith & Wesson .38-40 Frontier revolver with a 6.5-inch barrel. Smith & Wesson only manufactured 276 of these revolvers between 1900 and 1910, although the frames were made prior to 1899. Each one bears a serial number from 1 to 276. A popular caliber in the Southwest and Mexico at the time, this gun has matching serial numbers on the barrel, frame, and cylinder. View the entire collection and register to bid by visiting Bidsquare.
This autumn, Artemis Gallery will bring museum-worthy items from pre-Columbian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and other civilizations to auction. The Exceptional Antiquities Ethnographic Fine Art auction will open with a pre-Columbian Olmec jade maskette. The finely carved green omphacite jade mask dates back to 900 to 600 BCE. By that time, Olmec sculptors had mastered the art of recreating human forms. Omphacite jade, a precious material to the Olmecs, denoted ranks among the ruling class. The available mask has remarkably expressive features. The feline eyes, flat nose, and a downturned open mouth with flared upper lips, as described by Marshall Saville in 1929, depict a were-jaguar. The Olmecs believed this supernatural entity had divine powers.
Fossil enthusiasts will find a giant Permian Orthacanthus shark fossil with its sharp teeth exposed. This rare fossil is estimated to be 260 million years old and was found in Germany, Rheinland-Pfalz. Identified as male, the Orthacanthus fossil has claspers on both sides of the ventral (underside) region. The shark’s unusual forked crowns are well preserved.
Jewelry collectors can find a rare Byzantine gold and emerald necklace that was previously sold by Christie’s. It dates back to the 6th to 7th-century Roman-Byzantine empire. This era denoted a shift towards Christianity, and Christian motifs started to appear even in jewelry. It also saw a rise in the use of precious stones such as emeralds. Gold became the primary metal in jewelry worn by affluent Byzantine women. The upcoming auction offers more than 300 lots of Spanish Colonial, Etruscan, Asian, African, and Native American artifacts and fossils, alongside ancient jewelry and visual art. View the catalog and register to bid on Bidsquare.
Sculptures by the Haas Brothers are well-known for their artistic themes and use of different materials. The artists create functional pieces that blur the line between design and art. The upcoming Burning Man charity auction, offered by Sotheby’s, presents Handy Warhol by the Haas Brothers. The available glazed ceramic solar-powered LED sculpture also functions as a lamp. It showcases a smooth finish and aesthetic handiwork. Also featured is a canvas apron with glass beads titled Ethiopia by Big Chief Demond Melancon. It is a prominent example of New Orleans’ Black Masking Culture. The process involves sewing glass beads on canvas using needles and thread.
Another highlight is a custom vehicle build by Henry Chang. The offering will provide the winner access to the designer’s workshop, where the metal mutant vehicle manufacturing will take place for Burning Man 2023. The winning bidder will also be able to offer inputs during the design process. Purse for Strong Women by Russian sculptor Alexandra Weld Queen reflects a combination of spiritual space and materiality. Weld Queen’s interactive sculpture provides an artistic touch to everyday objects. Also offered is an ECCO leather dress by Iris van Herpen, artwork by Stephen Paul Day, and jewelry by Yasmine Dabbous. This charitable auction supports the participating artists and the work of Burning Man Project. Interested collectors can explore the entire listings and register to bid online on Sotheby’s.
Julius LeBlanc Stewart’s The Hunt Supper is one of the highlighted lots in the upcoming European Art Part I auction, presented by Christie’s. The 1889 oil painting shows some of the most famous celebrities of the late 19th century enjoying a meal in a terraced setting. The Hunt Supper was created in the theme of Stewart’s earlier work, The Hunt Ball, which received great acclaim. An American painter, Stewart was known for his multi-figural paintings that often depicted Parisian life. As the auction house notes, “[Stewart] paints the festivals and diversions in which he shares, as only he can who enters into them body and soul.”
This event offers 37 fine art pieces from 19th-century European artists. Among them is Herbert James Draper’s The Mountain Mists. Many of Draper’s works depict a variety of mythological subjects such as sea nymphs. The available piece shows several figures floating through an alpine landscape. In the painting, the heat of the sun harms the three figures. Among the spotlights are important works by Peder Severin Krøyer, Gustav Bauernfeind, and William Adolphe Bouguereau. Register to bid for these lots by visiting Christie’s.
The Oakland Motor Car Company, established in Pontiac, Michigan by Edward Murphy, produced carriages before General Motors it bought out. In the 1920s, General Motors introduced the first Pontiac model as part of the Oakland line. Pontiac models, including the GTO, were popular by the 1960s. Designed by John DeLorean, the GTO was named after a Ferrari coupe, the Gran Turismo Omologato. According to The New York Times, “More than any other G.M. brand, Pontiac stood for performance, speed and sex appeal.” Mecum Auctions’ upcoming Las Vegas 2021 auction brings a 1966 Pontiac GTO convertible. The black car still has its original 389/360 HP engine and four-speed manual transmission.
A 1959 Chevrolet Impala is also highlighted in the upcoming live sale. It was first introduced in 1958 as the Bel Air Impala. It features a 1959 Rochester fuel injection system. The exterior of the car is polished black while the interior is red. Find a range of available cars and register to bid online on Mecum Auctions.
The upcoming Important Fine Art and Design event, presented by Auctions at Showplace, will offer bidders a chance to own items by several notable artists and designers. Featured in the auction is a 1950 painting titled L’entrée du port à Sainte-Adresse by Raoul Dufy. Henri Matisse’s Luxe, Calme et Volupté inspired Dufy’s profound interest in Fauvism. His works were characterized as optimistic, decorative, and celebratory. Saint-Adresse is an oil on canvas that captures the landscape of a French port.
The second version of Table Berceau by Swiss sculptor and designer Diego Giacometti is also on offer. The glass top table stands low in height and features patinated bronze legs. A gem-set gold clock by luxury watchmaker Vacheron Constantin is also available. The 18-karat gold-cased clock rests on the paws of a reclining white bear with ruby eyes. A Rolex Oyster Perpetual 18-karat gold wristwatch and Pablo Picasso’s Lampe Femme vase is also on offer. To view the full catalog or to place a bid, visit Bidsquare.
In Babe Ruth’s Own Book of Baseball (1928), Ruth writes, “Last season… I started ‘notching’ my bats for home runs like the old gunmen used to notch their guns when they killed a man. Every time I would hit a home run I would cut a notch in the bat handle of the club I had used.” There are only five known notched bats that were game-used by Babe Ruth. One of these bats leads the upcoming Christie’s auction of important baseball memorabilia. The catalog offers several other game-used bats associated with Ty Cobb and Jimmie Fox.
A variety of lots related to disgraced superstar Pete Rose, who was famously banned from baseball for gambling, will also come up for bid. Notable Rose items include the legal document by the Office of the Commissioners of Baseball banning him from the game and a Pete Rose professional model bat with a “corked barrel.” The sale will present several items related to the marriage of Joe DiMaggio to Marilyn Monroe, including a copy of the inaugural issue of Playboy in which Monroe appeared. The offered copy of the magazine bears DiMaggio’s signature on the cover. View any of these lots and register to bid on Christie’s website.
American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe documented the queer subculture in New York in the late 1960s and early ‘70s. Mapplethorpe was also celebrated for his subversive nudes, floral still lifes, and monochrome portraits and self-portraits. His classic hand-colored photostat self-portrait from 1972 is a key highlight of an upcoming Christie’s auction. The flush-mounted on board photograph exemplifies Robert Mapplethorpe’s iconoclastic style. His work sparked controversies and debates in the United States regarding the constitutional parameters for freedom of expression.
Another significant lot is a ferrotyped gelatin silver print, Water Tower “Berka/Wipper, Thuringen,” 1996, by Bernd Becher and Hilla Becher. The two German photographers and conceptual artists collaborated for a major photography series on industrial structures. They used a large eight by ten-inch camera to click images of water towers, blast furnaces, gas tanks, and oil refineries among other industrial objects. The auction also features a photograph of Francis Bacon by Peter Beard. It shows Bacon sitting on the roof of his house at 80 Narrow Street, London. Beard and Bacon felt an instant connection to each other when they met. They shared a strong friendship and were mutual admirers. To view the complete catalog and register to bid online, visit Christie’s.
For pioneering Bauhaus artist László Moholy-Nagy, photography offered a completely different viewing experience from the naked eye. The constructivist favored technology in his work and often experimented with both new and old artmaking techniques. He was particularly interested in photograms, which yielded realistic images without a camera by exposing photographic paper to light. Moholy-Nagy even believed that the photogram was “the real key to photography.” Phillips’ upcoming Photography sale will feature a 1920s experimental photogram by László Moholy-Nagy. The available lot shows the blurred image of a muzzle, a film spool, and a child’s rattle. Moholy-Nagy wrote extensive annotations in pencil on the back.
Phillips’ October photography auction will also highlight a panoramic image created by Peter Beard depicting Francis Bacon’s studio in 1976. At the time, Bacon was working on the central panel of his famous Triptych (1976). For this image, Beard took three consecutive exposures of the artist’s workspace. Paint cans litter the ground and a group of framed photos honor the recently deceased George Dyer. The auction catalog includes works by other notable photographers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Among them is a Cindy Sherman court jester self-portrait designed for Harper’s Bazaar and a retroreflective screenprint by Hank Willis Thomas. Visit Phillips’ website for the full listings and to place a bid.
