Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website Modern Renaissance: Full Line Up Unveiled for Auction on 25 March
marzo 12, 2021 - Sotheby

Modern Renaissance: Full Line Up Unveiled for Auction on 25 March

Comunicato Stampa disponibile solo in lingua originale. 

Star Lot Announced Today: Wartime Portrait of Dora Maar by Picasso 

To be Offered Alongside Two Munchs Owned by the Artist’s Friend and Neighbour ǀ Hockney Inspired by his Favourite Old Master ǀ Last Pollaiuolo Portrait in Private Hands

Psychological Portraiture by Pablo Picasso
Picasso’s powerful seated portraits of Surrealist photographer Dora Maar, who was his lover during the war, forever altered the way that portraiture was perceived. In this strikingly original painting from November 1941, bold geometric lines fragment the ambitious composition. This radical distortion of Maar’s features encapsulates Picasso’s innovative approach to capturing the likeness and personality of his sitter. 
The chair envelops Maar like a throne and her hat becomes a crown, intensifying the magnitude of her presence. With her hands, sharp like talons yet extended to the viewer, Marr becomes a condemnatory voice speaking out against the violence of war whilst also calling for resilience and optimism in the face of despair.

Two Paintings by #edvardmunch from the Olsen Collection

A rare self-portrait and a large-scale frieze originally owned by Munch’s friend, neighbour, chief patron and owner of The Scream, speak to the artist’s contemporary obsession with the angst of the human condition.

When the Nazis rose to power and placed Munch on the list of so-called ‘degenerate’ artists, theseworks were deaccessioned from the Städtische Kunsthalle and Nationalgalerie in Berlin. Embrace on the Beach then briefly hung in Hermann Goering’s private study, who secretly remained a fan of Munch’s art. Desperate to save his pictures, Munch consulted his friends to arrange an auction and help re-patriate the works back to Norway.

Embrace on the Beach was a commission from one of Munch’s patrons to decorate a nursery, but was deemed unsuitable for a child’s room and returned to the artist. Munch then added the embracing figures in the left, transforming the bucolic landscape into a scene full of drama and tension. It was last sold at Sotheby’s in 2006, when it made a record for the artist, which was surpassed a few years later by The Scream. The self-portrait, dating to 1926, is making its auction debut and is the first formal self-portrait by the artist to come to the market in 15 years.

Further information in the press release to download