Leonora Carrington - Editions & Works on Paper New York Thursday, February 15, 2024 | Phillips

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  • “I’m not interested in style... I’m interested in looking.”
    —Robert Bechtle
    The collection of Robert Bechtle and Whitney Chadwick, assembled over their nearly forty-year marriage, reflects Bechtle’s legacy as a preeminent Photorealist along with Chadwick’s expertise as a historian and scholar. With works by Wayne Thiebaud, Ed Ruscha, and Leonora Carrington, among others, their extensive collection of editions and works on paper represents many of Bechtle’s fellow Bay Area artists, notable names in Pop, and female figureheads of Modernism and Surrealism whom Chadwick championed through her writings and teachings.   

     

    Known for his tightly detailed renderings of suburban landscapes and vintage cars, Bechtle is considered one of the founding Photorealists, a set of artists who used photographs as a point of departure for their hyperrealist art. Such interest in notions of realism permeate the works on offer, presenting a multitude of the artistic methodologies for interpreting the world: a visual interpretation of the musicality and movement of a ballet, postmodern representations of landscape, a surreal memory of a childhood home, and even different artists’ renditions of Bechtle himself. Following his passing at the age of 88 in 2020, Bechtle’s legacy persists through his collection, inspiring the continued search for unexpected beauty in the everyday. 

     
    • Provenance

      Gift of the artist to Dr. Salomon Grimberg
      Gifted to Whitney Chadwick, 1987

    • Artist Biography

      Leonora Carrington

      British / Mexican • 1917 - 2011

      At the core of Leonora Carrington's Surrealist oeuvre is a preoccupation with gender and feminist issues. Born to a wealthy family in Lancashire, England, Carrington demonstrated an interest in art at a young age and enrolled at Chelsea School of Art in London. Carrington first became interested in Surrealism after having attended the 1939 International Surrealist Exhibition, and later entered into a relationship with German Surrealist painter Max Ernst.

      Like many European intellectuals and artists, Carrington fled war-torn Europe and settled in Mexico where she was greatly influenced by the cultural and religious syncretism. Carrington's unique Surrealist aesthetic is one that often features females as the central figure and includes fairytale-like imagery.

      View More Works

Property from the Robert Bechtle and Whitney Chadwick Trust, San Francisco, California

13

The Transparent Hen

1969
Unique watercolor and ink drawing.
10 3/4 x 4 1/8 in. (27.3 x 10.5 cm)
Signed and dated in black ink, framed.

We wish to thank Dr. Salomon Grimberg for his kind assistance in the cataloguing of this work.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$2,000 - 3,000 

Sold for $4,445

Editions & Works on Paper

New York Auction 15 February 2024