Christie’s hopes to hit the mark in November with Ed Ruscha’s ‘Ripe.’ – Picture via Intagram/Christie’s
NEW YORK, Oct 21 – Christie’s is betting that two giants of American art will make a splash during the upcoming New York edition of its “20th-21st Century” sale. The auction house will soon take bids on two paintings by Ed Ruscha and Andy Warhol currently in private hands. They could fetch up to US$20 million (RM83 million).
According to Christie’s, it is a “seminal masterpiece” of post-war art history: Ed Ruscha’s “Ripe” will go under the hammer on November 11 during the New York edition of the “20th-21st Century” sale. The American painter created this monumental canvas in 1967, at the height of the Pop art movement.
It belongs to a series of “liquid word” paintings, in which words look like liquid spilled or sprayed on a flat surface. There are only 12 liquid paintings that compare in size to “Ripe,” nine of which are housed in museums such as MoMA and the Broad.
The painting for sale at Christie’s has remained in private hands for more than two decades. It is estimated to fetch between US$18 million and US$22 million. This is a far cry from the US$52.5 million price obtained for “Hurting the Word Radio #2,” which was sold at Christie’s New York in 2019 and marked a record price for the American artist.
However, bids could rise given the appeal of Ed Ruscha’s word paintings hold for collectors. One of them, titled “Smash,” sold for US$30.4 million at Christie’s in 2014.
“‘Ripe’ stands as a wonderful example of the highly celebrated series of liquid paintings by the inimitable Ed Ruscha, said Barrett White, Executive Deputy Chairman for Christie’s Post-War & Contemporary Art Department. “We are thrilled to present this icon as a highlight of our 20th Century Evening Sale this November.”
When Warhol ‘urinated’ on Basquiat
This painting will be offered at auction together with another masterpiece of American painting: “Jean-Michel Basquiat” by Andy Warhol. This portrait was painted on October 4, 1982, after the two artists met at the initiative of Bruno Bischofberger. The Swiss gallery owner and collector had organized this tete-a-tete in the aim that Warhol and Basquiat would exchange portraits of each other.
And it worked. While Basquiat finished his portrait of Warhol the same day, the older artist took a few Polaroids of the younger artist before returning to the Factory. There, he subjected Basquiat’s portrait to oxidation, a process he began experimenting with in the late 1970s, urinating on painted copper canvases to produce a staining effect.
This will be the first time that this “Jean-Michel Basquiat” portrait will go under the hammer. It comes from the personal collection of American billionaire Peter Brant, who bought the work some 20 years ago from the Tony Shafrazi gallery in New York. It is said to have an estimate of over US$20 million. This is well below the US$105 million that “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)” achieved at Sotheby’s New York in 2013. A record still unmatched for the American artist.
The Andy Warhol market, however, has slowed in recent years. Warhol’s work generated just under US$150 million at auction in the first half of 2021, according to the Artnet Price Database. That of his model, Jean-Michel Basquiat, meanwhile, fetched US$302.7 million in the same period. – ETX Studio