Tag: online 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.

  • Remembering Robert Noakes with Senior International Art Specialist Perry Tung

    Remembering Robert Noakes with Senior International Art Specialist Perry Tung

    I was sad to hear of Robert Noakes’ passing last year, but while preparing his art collection to be offered for sale, vivid memories of Robert buzzing around the auction rooms during previews and phone bidding with him came back to me.

    I first met Robert early in my career when I was working for a local Toronto auction house. During previews, he would stride into the galleries, making straight for the works he was interested in. Inevitably, these would be decorative arts, furniture and fine art. His residence, luxuriously decorated with artworks and sculptures in every room, was a testament to his expert eye as a collector.

    Works by Graham Coughtry, Henri Matisse and Guido Molinari displayed at the Noakes residence

    During the auction week, I would often be assigned to phone bid with Robert. Phone bidding with him was always exciting. I would call him three lots ahead, we would quickly catch up, and then it would come time to bid on the lot he wanted, and he would get very serious. Once the auctioneer had opened the lot, he would quickly jump in, usually telling me to keep the paddle up until he won the lot. Or he would wait until the auctioneer would hammer down a lot and tell me to bid, eventually winning the lot. His quick thinking and passion for collecting art made him a memorable figure in the Canadian auction world, unlike anyone else.

    Cowley Abbott is delighted to present four online auctions showcasing the breadth and depth of his collection. There are exceptional works in each auction, with the following highlights in our February sales:

    Lot 20. Françoise Sullivan, Rouges. Oil on canvas. 30 x 40 in (76.2 x 101.6 cm). Estimate: $7,000-9,000

    Lot 35. Robert Motherwell, Three Forms II (B. 416). Etching with carborundum on grey HMP paper. 17.5 x 22.5 in (44.5 x 57.2 cm). Estimate: $3,000-4,000

    Lot 2. Guido Molinari, Noir & Blanc. Ink on paper. 20.5 x 26 in (52.1 x 66 cm). Estimate: $10,000-15,000

  • 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. 

  • The Timeless Art of David Hockney

    The celebrated Pop artist David Hockney took the art world by storm in the 1960s and 1970s with his sun-drenched series of poolside modernist homes, capturing his newfound Californian lifestyle. He continues to stay relevant today by adapting to new technological advancements, from Polaroid cameras to iPads.

    His works regularly break auction records, most recently with poolside drawings selling for over 2 million USD at Sotheby’s and Christie’s, respectively. During our Spring Live Auction of Important Canadian and International Art, his ink drawing Nehemiah Checking the Walls of Jerusalem not only drew an intense bidding war, but it sold for $102,000, well above its pre-sale estimate of $12,000 to $16,000.

    In our upcoming online auction of Prints & Multiples, opening on August 29th, we will be offering two prints by the British artist. Initially published in 1970, Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm with Illustrations by David Hockney revisits the Grimm tales through whimsical black-and-white etchings, including The Little Hare, Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin.

    “They’re fascinating, the little stories, told in a very very simple, direct, straightforward language and style; it was this simplicity that attracted me. They cover quite a strange range of experience, from the magical to the moral,” described Hockney in his 1976 autobiography.

    His suite of thirty-nine etchings took nearly a year to complete, using a cross-hatching method to create variations in tone and texture. Hockney wanted to create a spontaneous effect by drawing the forms quickly to work out the style and the references to the period.

    The Enchantress with the Baby Rapunzel

    For Rapunzel, Hockney draws on art historical sources, with the face made deliberately ugly and the pose based on Hieronymus Bosch’s The Adoration of the Magi (ca. 1475), while the copse of trees in the background is reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Annunciation (ca. 1472). He also drew inspiration from Vittore Carpaccio and Paolo Uccello for the costumes.

    Hockney took liberties with the source material, however, referring to the old lady not as a witch but as an enchantress since “an enchantress is less wicked, really, and after all this woman in the story doesn’t keep the child; she’s quite kind about it.”

    Corpses on Fire

    This second print comes from The Boy Who Left Home to Learn Fear, which Hockney believed to be “such a strange Gothic story; I’d no idea how to illustrate it. I only knew I wanted to do it.” Here he depicted two corpses on fire with moon-like faces. The figures stare blankly forward as their hazy bodies become engulfed by flames.

    According to the German folktale, a young, naive boy slept beneath the gallows one night, where there were still seven hanged men, because he wanted to learn how to shudder. He built a fire to stay warm, and upon seeing the bodies sway in the wind, he realized they must be cold. He decided to cut the bodies down and placed them by the flames, but they did not stir when their clothing caught on fire. Annoyed at their reckless behaviour, the young, careless boy re-hung them on the gallows before travelling on.

    Hockney’s series of etchings were ultimately proofed by Maurice Payne, printed by Piet Clement on Hodgkinson handmade paper and published by Petersburg Press in London and New York. A miniature book was published by Oxford University Press, selling over 150,000 copies.

    With the fall 2023 auction season fast approaching, Cowley Abbott is seeking consignments of international art for our upcoming online and live sales.

  • Celebrating Japanese Pop & Contemporary Art in our June Online Auction

    In the past few decades, Japanese artists have taken the contemporary art world by storm, presenting bold and inventive works that embody Japan’s rich cultural history. They challenge Western traditions and push the boundaries of contemporary art, like Yayoi Kusama and Yoshitomo Nara, whose revolutionary works have attracted international acclaim and commercial success.

    Photo by Rahil Chadha on Unsplash

    Born in 1929 in Matsumoto, Yayoi Kusama is one of the most successful living female artists, best known for her signature polka dots and mirrored infinity rooms. Her style relies on repetitive patterns and vibrant colours and is influenced by Conceptual Art, Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism. She left Japan for New York in 1957, and by 1962, she was exhibiting at the Green Gallery alongside well-established avant-garde artists such as Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist and Andy Warhol. 

    In 1946, the pumpkin first appeared in Kusama’s work when she exhibited in a travelling show in Nagano and Matsumoto, Japan. From then on, she began incorporating pumpkins in her dot-motif paintings, drawings and prints. For instance, a giant black and yellow polka-dotted pumpkin has stood at the end of a pier on Naoshima Island since 1994. It was the first of many examples of public art that Kusama began to display in Japan, France, the United States and Korea.

    Kusama explained in a 2015 interview: “I love pumpkins because of their humorous form, warm feeling, and a human-like quality and form. My desire to create works of pumpkins still continues. I have enthusiasm as if I were still a child.”

    Lot 228. Yayoi Kusama, Pumpkin (Red & Yellow)
    Estimate: $2,000 – 3,000

    Another pioneering figure in contemporary art is Yoshitomo Nara, whose work is influenced by childhood memories, popular music and current events. Born in 1959 in Hirosaki, Nara became fascinated with Neo-Expressionism and punk rock while studying at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in Germany. He first gained recognition in the 1990s during Japan’s Pop Art movement. By 2001, he had become associated with the avant-garde group of Japanese artists known as Superflat, who used bright colours, patterns and cartoon motifs to challenge Japan’s hyper-consumerist culture. The group also included Takashi Murakami and Chiho Aoshima. 

    Nara is renowned for his works featuring young children appearing simultaneously innocent and enigmatic. His distinct style is introspective, exploring a wide range of feelings, from joy to loneliness to rebellion. Nara adopts a muted colour palette and minimalist approach to present simple subjects whose oversized features reveal complex emotions. 

    His characters often brandish weapons, like knives or scissors, as shown in this lithograph. Nara once commented on this recurring motif, saying: “Look at them, they are so small, like toys. Do you think they could fight with those? I don’t think so. Rather, I kind of see the children among other, bigger, bad people all around them, who are holding bigger knives.”

    Lot 229. Yoshitomo Nara, Suite of Three Colour Lithographs
    Estimate: $2,500 – 4,000

    Born in Osaka in 1974, MADSAKI is a Jersey-raised contemporary painter who graduated in 1996 from Parsons School of Design in New York before starting to exhibit at galleries in Tokyo, Seoul, Los Angeles and New York. He would eventually return to Japan, becoming one of the most influential Japanese artists after Takashi Murakami invited him to exhibit at Hidari Zingaro in 2016.

    Being Japanese-American, MADSAKI straddles two cultural identities often at odds with each other. Despite being a member of the Western art world, he playfully criticizes the canon and believes there should be no distinction between high and low art. He draws inspiration for his acrylic and aerosol paintings from an eclectic mix of sources: Old Masters, popular advertisements and films. 

    His instantly recognizable subject matter is full of childlike energy and emotions. “Specifically, I am interested in how experience enters memory, and once there, how it’s flattened into a two-dimensional image. Memory makes images feel simultaneously very close and very far,” described the artist in a 2021 interview with L’Officiel Saint Barth.

    Lot 230. MADSAKI, Masters of the Universe Power Sword. Estimate: $1,000 – 1,500

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