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'I have always wanted to make paintings that are impossible to walk past, paintings that grab and hold your attention. The more you look at them, the more satisfying they become for the viewer. The more time you give to the painting, the more you get back.'
—Cecily BrownPainted in 1999, Cecily Brown’s Blithe Spirit is a striking example of the artist’s highly acclaimed practice and its careful balance of abstraction and figuration, past and present, paint and flesh. Engulfing the viewer into a sumptuous field of gestural brushstrokes, the present work expresses Brown’s ability to channel the Old and Modern Masters of the art historical canon— from Paolo Veronese to Willem de Kooning – in the formation of a singular visual language that is entirely her own. Coming to auction for the first time from a renowned Private Italian Collection, Blithe Spirit’s intimate scale and sensuous tones, all come together in a bacchanalian riot of tantalising allusions, epitomising the artist’s words: ‘The paint is transformed into image, and hopefully paint and image transform themselves into a third and new thing [..] I want to catch something in the act of becoming something else.’i
Left: Paolo Veronese, Rape of Europa, 1578. Palazzo Ducale, Venice. Image: Scala, Florence
Right: Willem de Kooning, Untitled V, 1977, Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo. Image: Albright Knox Art Gallery/Art Resource, NY/Scala, Florence. Artwork: © Willem de Kooning Revocable Trust/ARS, NY and DACS, London 2022Earthly Delights
'One of the main things I would like my work to do is to reveal itself slowly, continuously and for you never to feel that you’re really finished looking at something.'
—Cecily BrownFollowing her graduation from the Slade School of Fine Arts and the epochal rise of the Young British Artists in the 1990s, Cecily Brown garnered critical attention, with her lush gestural compositions of explicitly sexual imagery. Painted the same year she joined Gagosian, the carnal details of Blithe Spirit emerge in a tangle of fleshy peaches and pinks, slowly coming to reveal the form of a woman, lying prostrate. Recalling the orgiastic scenes depicted by Hieronymous Bosch in The Garden of Earthly Delights, the present work exemplifies this pivotal moment in the rise to fame.
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Left: Hieronymous Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights (triptych center panel detail), 1500-1505, Prado, Madrid. Image: © Museo Nacional del Prado © Photo MNP / Scala, Florence
Right: Detail of the present workIncluded in the 1999 exhibition at Galleria in Arco in Turin, Fact & Fictions, which celebrated the emerging talents of the international painting scene, Blithe Spirit encapsulates the continuous stream of colour, form and narratives that have become synonymous with the artist’s practice. The year also marked Brown’s breakout exhibition The Skin Game at Gagosian, which presented works characterised by their overtly erotic imagery. The artist later recalled: ‘I think I was doing a lot of sexual paintings… what I wanted – in a way that I think now is too literal – was for the paint to embody the same sensations that bodies would. Oil paint very easily suggests bodily fluids and flesh.’ii
Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
The present work takes its title from To a Skylark, a late poem by the English Romantic, Percy Bysshe Shelley. Brown extracts a line from the poem’s first stanza, in which Shelley addresses a skylark as a ‘blithe Spirit’ since its unimpeded song surpasses all other beauty.
Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
Bird thou never wert,
That from Heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated artTo a Skylark, also inspired Noël Coward’s 1941 comedic play Blithe Spirit, which centres on struggling novelist Charles Condomine who invites an eccentric medium into his home to host a séance; Madame Arcati inadvertently conjures the spirit of Charles’ first wife Elvira, who becomes determined to complicate and sabotage their relationship.
A poster for the 1945 film adaption of Nöel Coward’s Blithe Spirit staring Rex Harrison and Constance Cummings, directed by David Lean. Collector’s Digest
• Now based in New York, Cecily Brown was born in the UK and studied at the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art and is an internationally recognised and defining figure of contemporary art.
• Known for her assimilation of a broad range of cultural material, in 1999, Brown created additional works with titles that reference literature, such as The Skin of Our Teeth, which shares the title of a play by Thomas Wilder, and Tender is the Night, which references the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. This continues to be a theme in her recent work.
• In 2020, Brown exhibited in Bustes de Femmes, a group exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery in Paris that focuses on female portraiture to celebrate how the female figure has been reinterpreted by modern and contemporary artists.
i Cecily Brown, quoted in Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith, ‘Painting Sensations,’ in Cecily Brown: Paintings, exh. cat., Modern Art Oxford, 2005, p. 55
ii https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2005/jun/12/art1Provenance
Gagosian Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2002Exhibited
Turin, Galleria in Arco, Fact and Fictions: La nuova pittura internazionale tra immaginario e realtà, 1999, no. 83, n.p. (illustrated)
Milan, Castello di Vigevano, La donna oggetto. Miti e metamorfosi al femminile 1900-2005, 20 May - 30 July 2006, p. 223 (illustrated, p. 34)
Property from a Significant Private Italian Collection
20
Blithe Spirit
signed and dated 'Cecily Brown 99' on the reverse; signed and dated 'Cecily Brown 99' on the stretcher
oil on canvas
91.5 x 122 cm (36 x 48 in.)
Painted in 1999.
Estimate
£500,000 - 700,000 ‡♠
Sold for £845,300
Rosanna Widén
Senior Specialist, Head of Evening Sale
+ 44 20 7318 4060
rwiden@phillips.com
Olivia Thornton
Head of 20th Century & Contemporary Art, Europe
+ 44 20 7318 4099
othornton@phillips.com
20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale
London Auction 3 March 2022
1
Lauren Quin
Airsickness
Estimate £30,000 - 50,000 ‡
Sold for £441,000
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2
Doron Langberg
Amy in Her Studio
Estimate £30,000 - 50,000 ‡
Sold for £163,800
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3
Cinga Samson
Ubuhle beenkanyezi VIII
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000 ‡
Sold for £252,000
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4
Kwesi Botchway
The Apprentice Bench
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000 ‡
Sold for £138,600
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5
Rafa Macarrón
Balcones
Estimate £30,000 - 50,000 ‡♠
Sold for £126,000
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6
Jadé Fadojutimi
My Blanket has a Possessive Nature
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ♠†
Sold for £529,200
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7
Issy Wood
Chalet
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡♠
Sold for £441,000
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8
This lot is no longer available.
9
Robert Nava
Sylvia (87 Sylvia)
Estimate £80,000 - 100,000 ‡
Sold for £176,400
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10
Nicolas Party
Houses
Estimate £1,100,000 - 1,500,000 ‡
Sold for £1,474,500
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11
Shara Hughes
Crooked
Estimate £180,000 - 250,000 ‡
Sold for £627,500
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12
Cecily Brown
When Time Ran Out
Estimate £2,000,000 - 3,000,000 ‡♠
Sold for £3,168,500
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13
Yayoi Kusama
Dots Accumulation (WWPER)
Estimate £800,000 - 1,200,000 ‡
Sold for £930,000
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14
Günther Förg
Ohne titel
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £869,500
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15
Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild
Estimate £1,800,000 - 2,500,000 ‡♠
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16
This lot is no longer available.
17
Henry Moore
Family Group
Estimate £300,000 - 400,000 ‡♠
Sold for £403,200
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18
Hurvin Anderson
Untitled (Handsworth Park)
Estimate £1,200,000 - 1,800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £1,337,250
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19
David Hockney
Self-Portrait on the Terrace
Estimate £4,000,000 - 6,000,000 ‡♠
Sold for £4,862,500
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20
Cecily Brown
Blithe Spirit
Estimate £500,000 - 700,000 ‡♠
Sold for £845,300
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21
This lot is no longer available.
22
Alexander Archipenko
Statue on a Triangular Base
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡
Sold for £138,600
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23
Francis Bacon
Untitled (Head)
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £772,700
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24
This lot is no longer available.
25
Banksy
Laugh Now Monkeys with Monkey Placards
Estimate £1,500,000 - 2,500,000 ‡♠
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26
George Condo
The Rock Thrower
Estimate £500,000 - 700,000 ‡
Sold for £567,000
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27
John Chamberlain
Snatching Bookie Bob
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ‡
Sold for £346,500
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28
Ed Ruscha
Huge Conditions
Estimate £1,100,000 - 1,500,000 ‡
Sold for £1,232,500
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29
Claude Monet
Le Golfe Juan
Estimate £900,000 - 1,200,000 ‡
Sold for £1,111,500
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30
Anselm Kiefer
Freia's Garden
Estimate £700,000 - 1,000,000 ‡♠
Sold for £869,500
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31
Harold Ancart
Untitled
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ‡♠
Sold for £504,000
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32
Jadé Fadojutimi
A Cropped Perspective of This Whirlwind Effect
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ♠
Sold for £627,500
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33
Yayoi Kusama
Infinity Nets (SENN)
Estimate £1,200,000 - 1,800,000 ‡
Sold for £1,293,000
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34
This lot is no longer available.
35
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
''Untitled'' (March 5th) #2
Estimate £450,000 - 650,000 ‡
Sold for £504,000
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36
Daniel Buren
Peinture aux formes variables
Estimate On Request
Sold for £881,500
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37
Damien Hirst
Without You
Estimate £500,000 - 700,000 ‡♠
Sold for £627,500
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38
Damien Hirst
Zinc Sulfide
Estimate £350,000 - 550,000 ‡♠
Sold for £346,500
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39
This lot is no longer available.
40
Jack Whitten
Space Busters III
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡
Sold for £403,200
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41
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡
Sold for £688,000
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42
KAWS
THIS IS THE WAY
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡
Sold for £796,900
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43
Serge Attukwei Clottey
Glow girl
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000 ‡
Sold for £151,200
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44
Tschabalala Self
Chandelier 2
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡
Sold for £138,600
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45
Georg Baselitz
Torso Frau
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡♠
Sold for £478,800
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46
Renato Guttuso
Aranceto Notturno
Estimate £70,000 - 100,000 ‡♠
Sold for £170,100
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47
David Hockney
The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) - 4 May
Estimate £180,000 - 250,000 ‡♠
Sold for £504,000
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