On 24 and 25 May, the auction house Tajan will host two evening sales focused on the major periods of modern, Impressionist and contemporary art. Each auction will feature fifty meticulously chosen lots from the best of what artists have produced over the past centuries.
The 24 May sale is dedicated to modern art, and the catalogue offers us a journey through time where each work explores new ideas in the quest for modernity.
André Masson, the painter, engraver, illustrator and theatre designer, is one of the leaders of the Surrealist movement and is represented with his painting, Baigneurs (Bathers), an oil on canvas from 1949. It's a perfect example of Surrealism, with multiple lines that break free from pictorial standards and recall the automatic writing favoured by the representatives of this movement. André Masson also was inspired by the work of big names such as André Breton and Picasso.
The latter is precisely on display with a number of works in the catalogue. Pablo Picasso, one of the fathers of Cubism, never stopped inventing and reinventing art in his creative frenzy. He painted, sculpted, engraved and drew, and these various lots show how his genius is expressed through different mediums. Profil de Jacqueline Roque(1956), in white earthenware, is an exceptional work created when Picasso took up ceramics in the 1950s, appropriating this new medium, experimenting and incorporating the unexpected into his works. As for the more 'traditional' graphic arts, there's a magnificent representation of the female body with Nu lavis, an Indian ink dated 1972.
Contemporary art is not to be outdone since the 25 May sale offers us a wide and varied panorama of artists with styles as different as they are unique.
The ink on paper Untitled from 1992, by the artist Zao Wou-Ki, is a fascinating work that mixes the traditional with the contemporary. Zao Wou-Ki delved into his origins by using wash, the traditional painting technique that in China holds great importance, but created an abstract work, creating a game of balance that he managed to tame with a masterful hand.
Camino Al Infinito (1977) by Rufino Tamayo is an oil on canvas that catches the spectator's gaze and leads them outward to infinity. Rufino Tamayo, one of the greatest colourists of his time, skilfully works flat tints of colour in a symmetry barely disturbed by a scattered cloud, suggesting movement. Here, the man-made space is bewildering, seeming as immutable and immense as nature itself. With a skilful composition and an explicit title, Tamayo gives a humanist reflection.
Let's finish with Anthony Caro, the famous British sculptor known for his painted metal assemblies. He revolutionised twentieth-century sculpture, becoming a major figure of that time. His eclectic style can be seen in the three works in the catalogue, Up the Ante (2009), Moroccan Centre (1984) and Bollards (2012-1013). The monumental vertical sculpture Up the Ante, illustrated above, particularly attracts attention, as it responds to a singular inspiration for the artist: the ecclesiastical architecture of the thirteenth century. And indeed, no one can ignore the architectural allusion of this sculpture, as modern as it is timeless in its way of imitating the architecture of yesteryear.
Go on a journey through the history of art with these works of modern, Impressionist and contemporary artists who have marked the last century on May 24 and 25 at Tajan.