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In Short
“You can travel miles within a drawing and not have to take all the baggage along… I can’t stress drawing enough… You can work from your inner world rather than always the external world”
– Lee BontecouAlongside Lee Bontecou's renowned, foreboding sculptures, the artist's small-scale drawings and paintings occupy a special place within her practice. Recently the focus of a traveling retrospective organized by the Menil Collection, Houston, these works, as James Steward noted, combine “elemental organic forms with machine-age aesthetics truly embody the artist’s anxiety, awe and ambivalence about contemporary life. As a body of work they are among the greatest, most singular artistic achievements of the past 50 years” (James Steward, “Lee Bontecou: Drawn Worlds | First Retrospective of Drawings by Pioneering Modernist”, press release, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, May 12, 2014, online).
Bontecou created Untitled after she left New York for rural Pennsylvania. A notable example of Bontecou’s 1980s paintings on panel, this work exemplifies a critical turning point in the artist’s practice. In the decades prior, Bontecou's so-called “worldscapes” drawings composed of graphite and soot were largely inspired, or thought to inform, the artist’s own sculptural practice. In the later part of the century, intimate two-dimensional works like the present one became instead more rooted in the tradition of landscape painting, resulting in standalone masterworks like Untitled.
Imagined Landscapes
Rendered in dynamic and impressionistic strokes, Untitled, 1982, offers a glimpse into these imaginative landscapes. In the present work, Bontecou used water-soluble casein paint atop wood panel. Varying in thickness, the resulting strokes draw the viewer into what looks like a moonlit-seascape, not unlike the voids which characterize her large-scale sculptures. While not entirely representational, the apparent tactility of the composition creates a world that we can almost, but not quite, imagine. Inspired in part by summers spent in Nova Scotia at her grandmother’s home, Bontecou’s wavelike forms feel at once familiar and eerily mysterious.An Ode to Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, Saint Rémy, June 1889. The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Perhaps the most direct visual comparison one can make when looking at works like Untitled is to Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night from a century earlier. Short, concentric strokes below a moon emanating beams of light in the upper center recall the swirling blue sky outside of the post-Impressionist painter’s window in Saint Rémy. And yet, while a long-time admirer of van Gogh’s works, particularly his drawings, Bontecou’s own practice pushes the representation of real world views to “a hallucinatory extreme” (Mona Hadler, “Lee Bontecou and Drawing: From the Real to the Strange”, Woman’s Art Journal, Spring/Summer 2014, online, p. 23). Just as the sculptural black holes made of steel and mesh inspire awe in their viewers, works like Untitled possess the same power, remarkably through a paradoxically intimate, two-dimensional surface.Provenance
Private Collection, New York (acquired directly from the artist)
104
Untitled
signed and dated "BONTECOU 1982" lower right
casein on wood panel
7 1/4 x 9 1/4 in. (18.4 x 23.5 cm)
Painted in 1982.
Estimate
$60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $105,000
John McCord
Head of Day Sale, Morning Session
New York
+1 212 940 1261
20th c. & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session
New York Auction 2 July 2020
101
Anne Truitt
Parva XIII
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $93,750
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102
Ed Moses
Untitled
Estimate $15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $16,250
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103
James Turrell
Hologram (IV 01)
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $50,000
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104
Lee Bontecou
Untitled
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $105,000
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105
Ad Reinhardt
Untitled
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
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106
Mark Tobey
Untitled
Estimate $15,000 - 20,000
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107
Hans Hofmann
Yellow Glow
Estimate $25,000 - 35,000
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108
Joan Mitchell
Untitled
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $102,500
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109
Robert Motherwell
Untitled
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $23,750
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110
Helen Frankenthaler
1973 (Thanksgiving Day)
Estimate $15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $47,500
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111
Ed Clark
Untitled
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $47,500
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112
Ed Clark
Untitled
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
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113
Mary Corse
Untitled (Black White Inner Band, Beveled)
Estimate $220,000 - 280,000
Sold for $250,000
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114
Tony Smith
Spitball
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
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115
Robert Ryman
Bent Line Drawing 20" x 20"
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $56,250
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116
Kenneth Noland
Resect
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
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117
Carlos Cruz-Diez
Chromointerférence Mécanique
Estimate $80,000 - 100,000
Sold for $90,000
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118
Yayoi Kusama
Flower
Estimate $18,000 - 22,000
Sold for $20,000
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119
Robert Morris
Untitled (Hypnerotomachia Series)
Estimate $18,000 - 22,000
Sold for $68,750
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120
Louise Nevelson
Young Tree XXIV
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $110,000
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121
George Rickey
Broken Line (Two Lines Horizontal)
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $40,000
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122
John Chamberlain
Untitled
Estimate $12,000 - 18,000
Sold for $15,000
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123
Lucas Samaras
Chair with Reclining Curvaceous V
Estimate $70,000 - 100,000
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124
Deborah Butterfield
Chestnut
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
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125
Julian Schnabel
Insomnolent Brown Trimmed in Mink
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $250,000
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126
Julian Schnabel
Lazarus, Second Painting for Aldo Moro
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $435,000
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127
Mary Heilmann
Lil Totem
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $137,500
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128
This lot is no longer available.
129
Philip Guston
Untitled (double-sided drawing)
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
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130
Jack Tworkov
Torso
Estimate $10,000 - 15,000
Sold for $9,375
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131
André Breton
Four works: (i-iv) Untitled
Estimate $15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $16,250
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132
Joseph Cornell
Sandsifter Box
Estimate $180,000 - 250,000
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133
Fernand Léger
Untitled Composition
Estimate $18,000 - 22,000
Sold for $28,750
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134
Jacques Lipchitz
Study for Pastorale
Estimate $12,000 - 18,000
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135
Henri Laurens
Femme couchée
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
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136
Henri Laurens
La jeune soeur
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
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137
Fernando Botero
Woman with Serpent
Estimate $200,000 - 250,000
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138
Fernando Botero
Danseuse équilibriste à cheval
Estimate $35,000 - 50,000
Sold for $37,500
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139
Wifredo Lam
Untitled
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $150,000
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140
Loló Soldevilla
Sin Título
Estimate $30,000 - 40,000
Sold for $52,500
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141
José Gurvich
Untitled
Estimate $25,000 - 35,000
Sold for $77,500
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142
Tomás Sánchez
Meditador
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $399,000
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143
Gerhard Richter
Onkel Rudi
Estimate $18,000 - 22,000
Sold for $21,250
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144
Anselm Kiefer
Lilith
Estimate $70,000 - 100,000
Sold for $68,750
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145
Kenny Scharf
Coconut Star
Estimate $25,000 - 35,000
Sold for $50,000
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146
Kenny Scharf
Spacemeats
Estimate $45,000 - 55,000
Sold for $81,250
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147
Jim Dine
2 Moons
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $81,250
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148
Alighiero Boetti
Entre loup et chien
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $30,000
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149
Tom Wesselmann
Study for Face Aquatint
Estimate $25,000 - 35,000
Sold for $22,500
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150
Richard Pettibone
Andy Warhol, Marlon, 1963
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $37,500
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151
Ed Ruscha
S
Estimate $15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $27,500
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152
Richard Artschwager
Pull
Estimate $25,000 - 35,000
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153
Al Held
Untitled
Estimate $10,000 - 15,000
Sold for $21,250
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154
Ralph Humphrey
Station
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $22,500
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155
Larry Poons
Untitled
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $200,000
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156
Paul Jenkins
Phenomena Forecast of Fire
Estimate $25,000 - 35,000
Sold for $75,000
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157
Patrick Hughes
Stairs to the Stars
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $112,500
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