SOTHEBY’S TO UNVEIL BLOCKBUSTER EXHIBITION IN ITS DUBAI GALLERIES COVERING A VAST SPECTRUM OF WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS
From Rare Watches & Bespoke Diamonds to Towering Modern & Contemporary Canvases On Public View 18 – 24 March 2019
Edward Gibbs, Sotheby’s Middle East & India Chairman, said: “2019 is a particularly special moment for Sotheby’s as we celebrate our 275th birthday, marking the occasion across the globe.
"We’re tremendously proud to be launching another year of exciting events in the UAE with such a vibrant, wide-ranging exhibition that encapsulates all that Sotheby’s has to offer our clients, from the auction room and beyond.”
Sotheby’s second Watches sale in Dubai is set to take place on 24 March, carefully curated to feature a rich selection of fresh-to-the market contemporary and vintage timepieces from the world’s most renowned brands including Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and Breguet.
Further highlights include a highly-collectible Rolex with “Arab dials”, luxurious diamond-studded watches by Vacheron Constantin, Harry Winston and Cartier, as well as pristine limited editions that are certain to captivate established and new collectors alike.
Alongside the pre-sale exhibition, Sotheby’s Diamonds will showcase a selection of exceptional signature pieces – the debut of the world-class diamond boutique in the Middle East.
A pioneering venture, Sotheby’s Diamonds brings together desirable diamonds, cutting-edge design and superlative craftsmanship. The forward-looking brand creates settings that allow the stones to ‘speak’, with the diamonds always at the heart of the composition.
The galleries will also showcase the first highlights from Arts of the Middle East Week in London, taking place from 26 April – 1 May. This includes important paintings and photographs by Modern and Contemporary artists from the region, as well as luminous Orientalist paintings and historic Islamic objects.
Celebrating the legacy of Islamic geometry in Modern and Contemporary Art, on 18 March Sotheby’s Dubai will host a book launch for ‘Geometry and Art in the Modern Middle East’, a lavishly illustrated tome by Roxane Zand, Sotheby’s Deputy Chairman of the Middle East, and Dr Sussan Babaie, Professor of Islamic Arts at The Courtauld Institute of Art.
This month also marks Sotheby’s first foray into outdoor public sculpture in the Middle East, as Hamish Mackie’s larger-than-life Andalusian Stallion goes on view outside the DIFC premises for the period of a year.
20th CENTURY ART / MIDDLE EAST
Sotheby’s London, 30 April Huguette Caland, Untitled, 1973, oil on canvas, 120 by 120cm (est. £120,000-180,000)
One of the most influential female icons from Lebanon, Caland’s playful abstract works are imbued with the artist’s appetite for life and adventure.
The only daughter of Bechara El Khoury, the first post-independence President of Lebanon, Caland’s audacious character is nonetheless captured throughout her oeuvre. Her works explore the delicate balance between the suggestive and the explicit, challenging traditional conventions of beauty and desire.
The female form is a recurrent motif in Caland’s works, as she hints at womanly curves and carefully draws the viewer’s gaze. Caland moved to Paris in 1970, where this rich crimson and emerald work was lovingly painted, and her work took on a daring intensity – brimming with a sense of unbridled feminine power, echoing the canvases of Georgia O’Keeffe.
The artist has exhibited at Frieze Masters and the Institute of Arab and Islamic Art in New York, and is now set to have her first UK museum solo exhibition at the Tate St Ives this May.
Walid Raad, BEY82_Soldiers_II (Untitled series 1982-2007), archival colour inkjet print, 111.8 by 170.2cm., edition 1 from a total edition of 5 with 1 artist proof (est. £25,000-35,000)
A leading Lebanese contemporary media artist whose works blur the distinction between fiction and reality, Raad created the Atlas Group, a fictional collective with the ostensible aim of researching a historical survey on Lebanon.
Raad's works, presented as documents and photographs from the past, narrate and visualise stories about the wars that happened in Lebanon between 1975 and 1991. This photograph depicts two soldiers seeking shade under their armoured car and smilingly gazing at the camera – an ordinary scene that is infused with the possibility of violence.
The eighteen works in this series are held in the permanent collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Abdulrahman Al Soliman, A Swab on the Head of an Orphan, 1980, oil on board, 76 by 56cm (est. £40,000-60,000)
Saudi modernist Abdulrahman Al Soliman’s paintings draw attention to all facets of his national heritage and local memory, an amalgamation of things seen and experienced. Al Soliman practised alongside the other members of the ground-breaking Dar Al Funoon Al Sa’udiyyah (Saudi Art House) – the first independent space entirely dedicated to art in the country, with members including Mohammed Al Saleem and Abdulhalim Radwi.
His sophisticated works bear resemblance to many European Cubists, including Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, developing a multitude of influences into a style that was intimately involved with the context of his local community. This piece was recently included in the ground-breaking exhibition at Art Dubai Modern curated by Dr. Sam Bardouil and Till Fellrath.
Bahman Mohasses, Elmo Antico (Ancient Helmet), 1969, oil on board, 100 by 70cm (est. £100,000-150,000)
This rare, intellectual work offers an exceptional insight into Mohasses’ life-long exploration of the ruins of humanist values he saw in the wake of the tragedies taking place in the world around him.
Mohasses saw himself as a sculptor with a paintbrush and a canvas in place of a stone surface. This thickly-layered painting bridges the artist’s love for ancient Greek statutory busts and classical civilisations, with the grotesque malformation of humankind.
Mohasses was also influenced by primitivism, in much the same way as Henry Moore, Alberto Giacometti and Marino Marini. Part of a series in which the artist was fixated with heads – examples of which are held in the collection of the Tate Modern – here, Mohasses intensifies this focus through the use of an antique helmet.
The helmet, an emblematic symbol of the past, is appended to a monstrous head, in a tragic vision of the present and the advanced state of decay following the Second World War.
THE ORIENTALIST SALE
Sotheby’s April, 30 April Jean-Léon Gérôme, Rider and his Steed in the Desert, 1872, oil on canvas (est. £1,000,000-1,500,000)
A rare masterpiece by Jean-Léon Gérôme, Rider and his Steed in the Desert is cinematic in scale – measuring over one metre in length – and its subject is unique in the artist’s oeuvre. The evocative work captures the moment on a hot afternoon in the implacable brightness of the desert sun, as a horseman comforts his exhausted steed against the backdrop of a range of barren hills.
Raphael von Ambros, The Tobacco Seller, Cairo, oil on panel (est. £200,000-300,000)
Painted in 1891, The Tobacco Seller, Cairo depicts a busy stall outside a coffee shop in the streets of Cairo. The development of a major cigarette industry in Egypt in the late 19th century was unexpected but tobacco traders from across the Ottoman Empire moved to Cairo to take advantage of a loophole in the law.
Egyptian cigarettes became so popular in Europe and the United States that they inspired many locally produced counterfeits, including the American Camel brand, established in 1913, which used on its packet three Egyptian motifs: the camel, the pyramids, and a palm tree.
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ARTS OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD
Sotheby’s London, 1 May A large carved emerald, North India, circa 1800 (est. £30,000-50,000)
The Mughal Emperors were passionate collectors of precious stones, going to great lengths to acquire what they saw as the very best. The exterior of this emerald features a naturalistic floral stem, which undulates with the contours of the stone, whilst the reverse has been carved with a petal design – reflecting the motifs that were omnipresent in the architecture, textiles and jewellery of the period.
Speaking to the continued desire for carved emeralds, Mughal emeralds were sought-after in the nineteenth century by jewellers such as Cartier, who remounted them to form magnificent new creations.
A view of the Taj Mahal from the West looking East, Company School, circa 1813 (est. £15,000- 25,000)
This meticulously-detailed view of the Taj Mahal from the South-West corner terrace exhibits both the beauty of the monument and the artist’s ability to draw from a double-point perspective.
It is thought to be the only example of an Agra draughtsman’s view of the Taj Mahal for which there is a European prototype, that of the eccentric Thomas Loncroft, whose only surviving coloured drawing depicts the same South-West approach and is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
This drawing comes from the collection of Sir John Wolfe-Barry (1836-1918), a renowned engineer whose projects included the Tower of London, and the son of Sir Charles Barry, architect of the Houses of Parliament, who likely acquired it in the first half of the nineteenth century.
An Ottoman metal-thread embroidered horse chamfron, Turkey, circa 1900 (est. £12,000-18,000)
The Ottoman Empire’s passion for horses and ceremonial dress is embodied by a chamfron (horse armour), embroidered with metal threads in a distinctive cintamani pattern.
A Qur’an leaf in Kufic on vellum, North Africa or Near East, 9th century, 18 by 27cm (est. £10,000-15,000)
An early Qur’an leaf written in elongated Kufic, the verses separated by gold rosettes, bears testament to one of the earliest written expressions of the Islamic faith.
An enamelled diamond and pearl-set torque (hasli), India, Jaipur, 19th century (est. £10,000-15,000)
This beautiful bejewelled and enamelled torque displays the spread of Mughal courtly production among the Empire’s elite. Mughal craftsmen inspired goldsmiths outside the confines of the court to produce jewellery that combined ornamentation and refinement of the court with traditional rural forms, such as the torque.
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OUTDOOR SCULPTURE
Hamish Mackie, Andalusian Stallion, 2014, bronze, numbered edition of 6, 360 x 200cm
Testament to Sotheby’s commitment to public art, Hamish Mackie’s remarkable proud bronze Andalusian Stallion will go on view outside the DIFC gallery space as a year-long installation. The Andalusian horse is known for its elegance and strength.
Highly prized for thousands of years, this breed comes from the Iberian Peninsula and was used by the nobility as a war horse. Andalusian Stallion has previously been exhibited at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, Admiralty Arch in London and Royal Ascot.
Mr. Peyman Parham, VP & Acting Head of Marketing and Corporate Communications- DIFC said: “We are delighted to be working with Sotheby’s to exhibit this impressive sculpture within the DIFC and have it as an integral part of our Art Integration Programme over the next year.
"The DIFC has a dynamic art and culture scene and we are extremely proud of the diverse range of artwork – from all over the world – that can be found here, from outdoor installations to the latest exhibitions showcased by Dubai’s most prestigious galleries, bringing new artistic and creative perspectives to our community.”
SOTHEBY’S DIAMONDS
Blue Opal Principessa Earrings Suspended from a pair of natural blue opals, the Principessa Earrings ripple downwards to form a steel frame.
A palette of pavé-set grey diamonds surround a pair of marquise-cut diamonds totalling 3.04 carats, both D colour. Set in 18 carat white gold.
Pear Shaped Yellow Diamond Ring set with a 12.29 carat pear-shaped Fancy Intense Yellow diamond
OTHER BLING
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WATCHES Sotheby’s Dubai, 24 March
ROLEX, Paul Newman Daytona, Reference 6241, A fine and rare stainless steel chronograph wristwatch, circa 1968 (est. $200,000-300,000)
Rolex’s ‘Paul Newman’ Daytonas are widely recognised as the most highly coveted vintage Rolex models on the market.
Only in production from 1965 to 1969, the reference 6241 was made in a very limited quantity of approximately 2,700 pieces.
AUDERMARS PIGUET, A platinum and diamond-set bracelet watch, no.1, circa 1990 (est. $150,000-250,000)
A fantastic example of Audemars Piguet’s high jewellery designs, this watch features 390 baguette-cut diamonds on the dial, bezel and bracelet (with a total weight of approximately 47 carats) and is engraved no. 1, which further enhances its rarity.
PATEK PHILIPPE, Reference 2481, made in 1957, A pink gold and ruby-set wristwatch with enamel dial featuring a portrait of King Ibn Saud (est. $45,000-65,000)
Part of a special order from the Patek Philippe retailer in Saudi Arabia to honour Abdul Aziz 'Ibn Saud', King of Saudi Arabia (1953-1964), this watch was made in a limited edition of about 250 pieces.
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EXHIBITION OPENING TIMES 18 March: 10am – 3pm, 6pm – 10pm 19 March: 10am – 7pm 20 March: 10am – 3pm 21 March: 10am – 7pm 22 March: 1pm – 8pm 23 March: 10am – 7pm 24 March: 10am – 3pm AUCTION CALENDAR Watches, Sotheby’s Dubai, 24 March – view catalogue here 20th Century Art / Middle East, Sotheby’s London, 30 April – view catalogue here The Orientalist Sale, Sotheby’s London, 30 April – view catalogue here Arts of the Islamic World, Sotheby’s London, 1 May – view catalogue here # # #
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*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium. Prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyer’s premium and are net of any fees paid to the purchaser where the purchaser provided an irrevocable bid. I
1 comment:
I have a different perspective, but I appreciate your insights nonetheless.
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