Tag: art auction

  • In Conversation with Ludlow & Veh

    Join Art Specialist Katherine Meredith as she speaks with Simone Ludlow and Erika Veh, designers of handmade one-of-a-kind cushions using vintage fabrics. Their company Ludlow & Veh also offers interior design and art advisory consultations. With backgrounds in art history, auctions, design and marketing, they share Katherine’s passion for collecting art with patience and intention.

    How would you describe your design style?

    Slow design. Not all the same style, not all the same era. Balance, texture, layers, not matching, eclectic. We love including vintage pieces and antiques, something with a patina and a story to it. If you do it intentionally and lovingly, it will work. Never feel like something is done. There is an expression that goes something like- “a room is only finished when you run out of money!”

    Where do you find inspiration?

    Art, nature, travel, film. Pedro Pascal’s apartment in the recent film Materialists, and movies like Home Alone, The Shining, I am Love, and The Birdcage. We are inspired by place and time. Matisse interior paintings. Unusual colour combinations we spot on the street or in nature.


    Why do you think original fine art is an important part of interior design?

    It’s a layer that finishes everything. Art adds a depth and a tone of your own personality to your home. There is something lively to a home filled with original art. It takes emotion. You don’t want your house to look like a staged showroom, or the same as the house down the block. A mass-produced print from a box store doesn’t elicit pleasure, it just fills a wall. Art adds personality, meaning, joy.


    What advice would you give to someone who is new to art collecting?

    Buy what you love, and then your house will be a reflection of your personality. It doesn’t matter if the artist is new, local, unknown or from the past. It doesn’t have to be expensive. It should be something that speaks to you. Don’t set out to buy art that matches your decor. If you love it, it will work and you will find a place for it. Have a bit of patience. People want things so quickly and so effortlessly, but it means so much more when you take your time and put effort into it, and it shows. You feel better about it because it’s a reflection of you.

    How do you approach auctions specifically, in comparison to other ways of acquiring art? Do you find any advantages or challenges?

    Advantages: you see such a broader scope of art, and artists you wouldn’t normally see or necessarily seek out. Better value. There’s no inflated art gallery commission – the price is what the market will stand.

    Challenges: the high volume of artwork – you have to have the patience to look through the entire listing. Everything at auctions is framed “as-is” and it can be difficult to imagine a work in a new frame that is better suited to your space. But framing is everything and can really transform the art and the room!


    If you could choose any artworks from Canadian art history to put in your own living room, what would you choose and why?

    Erika: There are many Canadian artists I admire and support. If I have to select just one piece – I would have to say Horse and Train (1954) by Alex Colville. Its haunting simplicity captures the tension between nature and machine, which feels very relevant at this time in the world. It also evokes a sense of Romanticism in the solitary, noble horse confronting the unstoppable force of modernity. A reminder that life is constantly moving, changing, and that inevitably time escapes us all. 

    Simone: This is almost impossible to answer, so I’m simply going with immediate impulses. I love Alex Colville, and I especially love his works featuring dogs, so perhaps Stove. It’s such an intimate and tender piece, and it captures so well the simple (and magical) joy of sharing your life with a dog.

    The original Stove painting resides in a private collection. A serigraph was sold by Cowley Abbott in 2018.


    I also love Jessie Oonark, so almost anything by her. I love her use of colour, and the bold, graphic nature of her work.

    Untitled by Jessie Oonark. Sold by Cowley Abbott in 2014.

    Margaux Williamson’s more recent works of interiors are also favourites. As I mentioned before, I gravitate to pieces featuring interiors, and Margaux’s are so interesting and I find them entirely
    captivating.

    And I mean, who wouldn’t want a Lawren Harris iceberg?

    If you could choose any artworks from ALL of art history to put in your own living room, what would you choose and why?

    Simone: This is truly an impossible question! Based entirely on immediate instincts – The Little Street by Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum. I also have always loved David Hockney; he’s so joyful and loves life, and that is so apparent through his work. I saw his recent retrospective in Paris, and I am particularly drawn to the paintings of his home in LA and his British landscapes. Paul Nash’s 1930’s painting Harbour and Room at Tate Modern has also been a constant fascination. I also absolutely love the art and design from the turn-of-the-century Vienna Secession movement led by Gustav Klimt.


    Erika: If I could select a piece of art for my home, it would be Sonia Delaunay’s Electric Prisms (1914). I had the pleasure of viewing it in New York, Guggenheim’s exhibition “Harmony and Dissonance: Orphism in Paris 1910-1930”. Both the scale and bold rhythmic motions of colour have stayed with me ever since. I have also always carried the same admiration for the Nike of Samothrace at the Louvre, a timeless emblem of victory, hope and forward momentum.

    Which artworks from our September online auction do you have your eye on? And how would you style them in a room?

    Simone: What a wealth of beauty to choose from! One selection would be Lawren Harris’ Study of a Verandah. I love witnessing the traces of an artist’s process, and in this piece the sketches of the trees and the script on the paper’s reverse delight me. The verandah itself is also so inviting – the architecture draws the viewer in. I would love to sit there and have a glass of wine.

    Lot 199. Lawren Harris, Study of a Verandah. Graphite. Estimate: $3,000 – $4,000

    I also gravitate to Fortin’s Montréal. I love his use of colour and the somewhat chaotic, dense scene he has created. I went to school in Montréal, and this piece evokes the feeling of the city for me – layered, busy, a bit gritty, beautiful, full of life.

    Lot 125. Marc-Aurèle Fortin, Montréal. Watercolour. Estimate: $10,000-15,000

    I also must include some more graphic pieces – I always love them for balance. The colours in Fly me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra (who knew?) are beautiful, and I appreciate the feeling of motion that it suggests. Philomène by Jacques Hurtubise echoes the Sinatra piece in an interesting way, and I would love them displayed together. The blue and red are arresting, and I love their juxtaposition with the off-white ground.

    Lot 17. Frank Sinatra, Fly Me To The Moon. Colour lithograph. Estimate: $900-1,200

    Erika: I  am in love with Jim Ritchie’s female figure sculpture from the Quebec lot! It inspires me because it reminds me of the beauty, resilience and softness I recognize in the women I cherish in my life. 

    I also have a black and white striped marble plinth where this sculpture would look so stunning! 

    Lot 152. Jim Ritchie, Female Figure; Cubist Nude. Bronze sculpture; pastel on paper. Estimate: $900-1,200

    What I love about Winter Sleighing Scene by A.Y. Jackson is that, while the artist captures a distinctly Canadian winter scene, he departs from the expected palette of icy blues and greys, choosing instead a feminine blush for the sleigh and lively touches of pink in the trees. A choice that brings unexpected warmth and a smile to the winter scene. 

    Lot 207. A.Y. Jackson, Winter Sleighing Scene. Colour serigraph. Estimate: $600-800

    I was also drawn to Fly Me To The Moon by Sinatra for its bold shapes and vibrant interplay of colour, which is a style reminiscent of one of my favourite short lived art movements; Orphism  – with its rhythmic energy and sense of movement.  And perhaps also because the artist was also the infamous crooner! 

    For more information on Ludlow & Veh, check out their website and Instagram. And for further conversation on collecting art with intention, join Simone, Erika and the Cowley Abbott team for our 5 à 7 on Thursday, September 11th. RSVP at collect@cowleyabbott.ca.

  • From Surrealism to the New York School: Stanley William Hayter’s Influence on Printmaking

    We are excited to be offering three prints by master printmaker Stanley William Hayter (1901–1988) in our September Prints & Multiples online auction. Hayter studied chemistry and geology in England and worked for several years as a research scientist in the Middle East. He painted during his free time and, in 1926, moved to Paris to become a full-time artist. The following year he established Atelier 17, a printmaking workshop where artists such as Max Ernst, Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso could experiment with different techniques and media. In 1940, Hayter moved his studio to New York, where he would operate for nearly a decade before returning to France. 

    There, he attracted not only European painters and printmakers taking refuge from the war, particularly those affiliated with Surrealism, but also young American artists interested in the ideas these exiles brought with them. The exposure to the European artists and Hayter’s teaching had an enormous impact on American artists, many of whom were affiliated with the New York School, and greatly affected the future of printmaking in the United States. Jackson Pollock was influenced by Hayter in New York, particularly by his emphasis on automatism and reliance on the unconscious. The Atelier helped shape the early years of Abstract Expressionism and became one of the most influential graphic arts workshops of the twentieth century.

    Lot 17
    Stanley William Hayter
    Le chas de l’aiguille, 1946
    Estimate: $800 – 1,000

    This beautiful etching Chas de l’aiguille has a controlled and sinuous arrangement of thin lines. The free-flowing lines appear to be spontaneously drawn, recalling the automatism that inspired Surrealism. The etching is nearly abstract, with female anatomical features emerging from the tangled lines. Chas de l’aiguille, which translates to “Eye of the needle,” is particularly remarkable and rare because it dates to 1946—making it one of Hayter’s earliest prints executed post-war while living in New York.

    Lot 18
    Stanley William Hayter
    Day & Night, 1952
    Estimate: $1,500 – 2,500

    Day and Night is a beautiful colour aquatint with etching by Hayter dating to 1952. At this time, Hayter would have been back in France while keeping ties with his American students and contemporaries in New York as Abstract Expressionism was exploding on the art scene. This print, with very loose references to human features, shows the artist’s transition from Surrealism to Abstract Expressionism and from figuration to abstraction. 

    Lot 16
    Stanley William Hayter
    Sealed Web, 1968
    Estimate: $1,500 – 2,500

    The third print by Hayter in this month’s auction is another colour aquatint with etching entitled Sealed Web. Entirely abstract with no reference to figuration and executed in a bright yet simplified colour palette of orange and blue, the work is a product of its time, dating to 1968. By this point, Abstract Expressionism had peaked and branched out into other abstract movements, including Color-Field painting, characterized by large areas of bright colours. The vibrations created by the layered web of lines also bear similarities to Op Art—a movement that emerged in the mid-1960s and focused on creating optical illusions for the viewer. 

  • Post-war American Art Movements in Cowley Abbott’s Modern & Contemporary Auction

    In the years following the end of World War II, several major art movements emerged in the United States. Abstract Expressionism began in the 1940s and was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the centre of the Western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris. Developing out of Abstract Expressionism came Color-Field painting, but also other movements that were anti-abstraction, such as Pop Art and Conceptual Art. The June Online Auction of Modern & Contemporary Art features some excellent examples of these various movements and their connections with each other. 

    Josef Albers was a famous German-American abstract artist and colour theorist. He studied and taught at the Bauhaus school in the 1920s, then moved to the United States after the Nazi regime closed the school in 1933. He first taught painting at Black Mountain College in North Carolina and later became the head of the design program at Yale University. In 1963, he published a very influential book, Interaction of Color, about studying and teaching colour through experience. Albers was instrumental in bringing the tenets of European modernism, particularly those associated with the Bauhaus, to America. His legacy as an artist, teacher and colour theorist profoundly influenced the development of modern art in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s.

    Albers is best known for his iconic coloured square paintings and prints, also known as his Homage to the Square series. Albers explored chromatic interactions with nested squares in this rigorous series, which he started in 1949. Each painting and print consist of three or four squares of solid planes of color nested within one another, and in a square format. Lot 201 is part of a series printed in Paris, so it has a French title: Hommage au carré. Albers signed and dated it 1964, however, it was only published in 1965.

    Josef Albers

    Robert Motherwell was an American abstract expressionist artist and one of the youngest of the New York School, which included painters such as Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. Trained in philosophy, Motherwell was regarded as among the most articulate spokesmen for abstract art, and his paintings and prints often touched on political, philosophical and literary themes. 

    Many people do not know that Motherwell is also known for his work in printmaking. Lot 243, Harvest, with Orange Stripe, is part of his Summer Light Series from the 1970s. This major series, in collaboration with Gemini studio in L.A., allowed him to reintroduce collage into his printing practice. Motherwell continued the Cubist tradition of incorporating everyday materials into collages, such as newspapers, or in this instance, cigarette labels.

    Tom Wesselmann was a key figure in the development of the American Pop Art movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Pop Art emerged as a revolt against the elitism of museums and abstract art of the time. Instead, artists purposely chose subjects found in everyday life that have mass appeal: Hollywood films, advertising, pop music and comic books. In Lot 222, Still Life with Lilies and Mixed Fruit, Wesselmann has contrasted the traditional still life subject matter with a flat, colourful and cartoonish design that is quintessential to Pop Art.

    Another art movement that emerged in opposition to abstraction was Conceptual Art. California-based artist John Baldessari started as a semi-abstract painter in the 1950s but grew so disenchanted with his own handiwork, that in 1970 he decided to take his paintings to a San Diego funeral home and cremate them. From then on, he explored a wide range of media, often combining images and the associative power of language and never taking himself too seriously. Lot 244, The First $100,000 I Ever Made, is a prime example of his humorous approach, with the title serving as a double entendre. The work stems from Baldessari’s billboard of a gigantic representation of a $100,000 bill, which he displayed next to the High Line in New York City in December 2011.

    The June Online Auction will close on Tuesday, June 27, starting at 2 pm EDT.

  • In the Presence of Royalty

    As the head of the International Art department, I first saw the set of four Queen Elizabeth II’s by Andy Warhol unwrapped and hung side by side in Montreal as we set up for our preview in April. They commanded the room. They were all framed similarly, each featuring the same image of Queen Elizabeth II but realized with different lines and bold blocks of bright colours.

    Perry Tung at Le Mount Stephen in Montreal.

    When they arrived at our Toronto galleries after our preview in Montreal, we decided to install them as they appear in the catalogue raisonné. Again, hung on a main wall, they drew the eye of every visitor as they entered our galleries. After all, the works had captured the public’s imagination as soon as the press release was sent out, where we revealed what would be offered in our first live session of International art.

    When dealing with an artist such as Warhol, one of the most celebrated figures in modern art, and this iconic portrait of the Queen, we expected to receive a frenzy of inquiries, further image requests and multiple condition report requests. We did, and then some. Collectors’ interest in these works, both in Canada and abroad, never lagged as we led up to the evening of our Spring Live Auction on June 8th. 

    The works on display at our gallery in Toronto.

    With bidders in place in the room, on the phone and online, the bidding started slowly before gradually picking up the pace. We are pleased to report that the set of four Queen’s realized a price of $936,000 (including buyer’s premium).

    Cowley Abbott is delighted to donate the proceeds to the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG-Qaumajuq) as they build an endowment fund to support more diverse representation in the permanent collection, beginning with contemporary Indigenous art. 

    The next day, the successful bidder on the Warhol’s contacted me. I had discussed the works with him in the early stages, following the press release and the catalogue becoming available. He was delighted with the sale’s result and is pleased to be revealed as the successful bidder. Ron Rivlin is the founder of the Revolver Gallery in West Hollywood, California, and the author of WARHOL LIVES: 2022 Print Market Report. 

    He had this to say about his purchase: “As an art collector, and as a Canadian, I am happy to have contributed to Winnipeg Art Gallery with their sale of the Warhol’s. These prints will make a fantastic addition to our collection, and it is so exciting for me to see the art market continue to grow in Canada.”

  • Kurelek Artwork Commissioned for $250 Fetches $82,600 During Fall Live Auction

    William Kurelek, Threshing Outfit Being Brought Lunch (1972)
    William Kurelek, Threshing Outfit Being Brought Lunch (1972)

    November Auction of Important Canadian Art Includes Record-Breaking Sales of Work by Bertram Brooker, Ken Lochhead and Robert Gray Murray

    Toronto, ON (November 20, 2018) – A never before seen painting by renowned Ukrainian-Canadian artist William Kurelek, Threshing Outfit Being Brought Lunch (1972), sold for $82,600 (including buyer’s premium), tens of thousands of dollars of above its original purchase price of $250. The painting made its auction debut this evening at Consignor Canadian Fine Art’s live auction event at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto, ON.

    The painting was purchased directly from the artist in 1972, and remained within the owner’s family until its offering on Tuesday evening. Kurelek met the original owner, a Ukrainian-Canadian student who had just moved to Toronto, at an exhibition of his work at Isaacs Gallery. She indicated to the painter that she couldn’t afford to purchase any of the pieces on exhibit, so Kurelek offered to create a painting that she could afford. At her request, Kurelek painted a panoramic farm scene as a reminder of her family’s farm on the prairies; a connection that he shared with the owner, having a similar upbringing in rural Manitoba.

    The auction highlights also included record-breaking sales of works by Ken Lochhead, Bertram Richard Brooker and Robert Gray Murray.  Lochhead’s Colour Rotation (1964), a rare and monumental canvas by the celebrated modernist painter, sold for $54,280, doubling the previous auction record for the artist. Bertram Brooker’s, Delta Ice House, sold for $82,600, three times above its auction estimate ($25,000 – $35,000) and nearly doubling the artist’s previous auction record. Robert Gray Murray’s Burwash, a striking painted aluminum sculpture, fetched $28,320, more than doubling the previous auction record for the artist’s work.

    Solid auction results were also achieved for:

    • A.Y. Jackson, St. Irenée, Quebec, a classic and compelling Quebec winter village scene by the Group of Seven painter, sold for $94,000, more than double its opening bid
    • A.J. Casson, Storm in the Cloche Hills, an exemplary 1951 dramatic landscape which was featured on the cover of the fall auction catalogue, sold for $118,000, almost doubling its opening bid
    • Marc-Aurèle Fortin, Ste. Rose Paysage, the 1939 vivid Quebec landscape selling for $70,800
    • William Perehudoff, AC-85-81, fetching $33,040, exceeding pre-sale expectation
    • Bill Reid, Haida Medallion Brooch, fetching $29,500
    • Jean Paul Riopelle, Sans titre, the 1965 work on paper by the Quebec abstract master fetching $23,600, exceeding the high-end of pre-sale expectation
    • Maud Lewis, Red Sleigh on a Country Road, the early work by the Nova Scotia folk artist selling for $20,060, exceeding the high-end of expectation (one of three works by Lewis to perform strongly during the evening)

    View full auction results by following this link.