THE MAJOR CONTEMPORARYART MOVEMENTS WORKS OF ART TO BE AUCTIONED AT AGUTTES

On the occasion of its first auction devoted entirely to Contemporary Art, a selection of works by pioneers of Asian contemporary art, including an important painting by Chu Teh-Chun and a powerful work by Yan Pei-Ming, will soon be put up for auction.
The great Western figures will also be well represented with remarkable works by Villeglé and Botero

The pioneers of contemporary Asian painting: Chu Teh-Chun, Yan Pei-Ming and Zhuang Hong Yi

The life and work of two great Chinese painters, Chu Teh-Chun and Yan Pei-Ming, respond to each other in a surprising way, decades apart. Both were born in China, one in 1920 and the other in 1960. Both arrived in Paris at a young age, where they were inspired by Western influences in their Chinese apprenticeship.

CHU TEH-CHUN (1920-2014)
Composition n°62, 1960
Oil on canvas, signed lower right, numbered, countersigned and dated on reverse
65 x 100 cm
25 1⁄2 x 39 3/8 in.
Estimate : 250 000 – 350 000 €


CHU TEH-CHUN (1920-2014)
Composition n°19, 1960
Gouache on paper, signed on the top right, countersigned and numbered on the reverse side
41 x 32 cm - 16 1/8 x 12 ½ in.

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Paris
Estimate : 60 000 – 80 000 €
 

While Chu Teh-Chun learned the great traditional Chinese calligraphy, he abandoned figuration to focus on abstraction. Conversely, Yan Pei-Ming learned his art through contact with Chinese political propaganda in the 1960s and 1970s and never left figurative painting. Where Chu Teh-Chun works in multiple and sometimes vivid colours, Yan Pei-Ming for his part produces portraits in monochrome, often in red or grey. The line and technique of the two artists also differ. Chu Teh-Chun uses the curves and subtleties of calligraphy, while adding the breath of French abstraction, as in this work Composition No. 62 from 1960. For his part, Yan Pei-Ming works rather with brushes and expressive gestures, as in Portrait-Robot of 1992 or Autoportrait of 2002.

YAN PEI-MING (born in 1960)
Autoportrait, 2002
Oil on canvas, signed, dated, titled on reverse
150 x 150 cm
59 1/16 x 59 1/16 in.
Estimate : 100 000 – 150 000 €

Contemporary of Yan Pei-Ming, Zhuang Hong Yi's work also combines the Western influence that influenced him when he settled in the Netherlands with the legacy of his Chinese education. Born in China in 1962, he learned traditional porcelain techniques and the use of rice paper, materials that still characterize his work today, at the Sichuan College of Fine Arts.
Zhuang Hong Yi's works in relief, particularly the Flowerbeds series to which our painting belongs, are characterized by extreme meticulousness. The artist folds rice paper into thousands of flowers, sprayed with paint and then retouched one by one, creating fascinating optical effects.
Indeed, the work changes colour, although it retains an iridescent appearance, depending on the viewer's point of view and its placement around the work.

YAN PEI-MING (born in 1960)
Portrait-Robot, 1992
Oil on canvas, signed and dated on reverse
55 x 46 cm
21 3/4 x 18 in.
Estimate : 28 000 – 35 000 €

ZHUANG HONG YI (born in 1962)
Flowerbed n°2, 2015
Mixed media on canvas and rice paper, signed, titled, dated on reverse
60 x 200 cm
23 5/8 x 78 3/4 in.

We thank the artist Mr. Zhuang Hong Yi for having kindly confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Estimate : 12 000 – 15 000 €
 

French poster-lacer artists: Jacques Villeglé and Raymond Hains

JACQUES VILLEGLÉ (born in 1926)
Rue de Rennes, juillet 1987
Torn posters mounted on canvas, signed lower right, monogrammed, titled, dated on the reverse side.
27.3 x 42.5 cm
A certificate of authenticity issued by the artist dated 17 March 2020 will be given to the purchaser.
Estimate : 8 000 - 12 000 €

Among the Europeans, Jacques Villeglé and Raymond Hains also figure prominently. After their meeting in 1945, the two Bretons wandered the streets of Montparnasse together in search of signs and posters to tear down. These two great representatives of the so-called French "affichistes-lacérateurs" ("poster tearing movement") collected panels in the streets that were cluttered with superimposed posters, from which they tore off certain layers in order to obtain a composition of material effects and figurative images. Their work is part of the New Realism, named after an exhibition held in 1961 in Paris, which included Armand, François Dufrêne and Yves Klein, and is sometimes seen as a French adaptation of Pop Art. Jacques Villeglé will never leave lacerations such as Rue de Rennes, juillet 1987 offered at auction, while his friend Raymond Hains, will experience the field of photography all his life and will also have a pronounced and constant taste for language games in his photos as well as in his lacerations as with Ça passe ou ça gaze, made in 1987, which will also be for sale.

RAYMOND HAINS (1926-2005)
Ça passe ou ça gaze, 1987
“Gaz de France" posters torn on sheet metal, signed below right
40 x 80 cm at sight
Estimate : 20 000 - 30 000 €

Paintings, sculptures, photographs...: the great names of contemporary art are showing us all the colours!

Aurélie Nemours (1910 - 2005) considers that the division of space by squares is the most relevant way to represent the spirit of the 20th century. This is why she is part of the movement of geometric abstraction. Having frequented the greatest critics and the greatest artists of the 1950s, Aurélie Nemours discovered the work of Piet Mondrian, which has been a revelation for her.
The work we present, Céphée from 1969, is a perfect manifestation of the spirit that inhabits her career. The almost mathematical construction of the division of space in composition often serves her quest for monumentality. His work will always be recognised by the public and institutions alike, and the Centre Pompidou will devote a retrospective to him in 2004 entitled "Rhythm, Number, Colour".

AURÉLIE NEMOURS (1910-2005)
Céphée, 1969
Oil on canvas, signed, dated and titled on the back.
92 x 73 cm
Estimate : 25 000 – 35 000 €

Wim Delvoye is one of the artists whose names will also be discussed in the saleroom on May 29th. Born in 1965 in Werwik, Belgium, he is now entering the world of contemporary art with his provocative works. His work questions, among other things, the consumer society but also the relationship to art as an investment with the publication of monetary bonds.
Delvoye's work is characterised by a multidisciplinary approach that includes painting, photography, sculpture and installations. It is within this framework that the work we present, Rude but cute babe, from 1998, is set. This large-format photograph, printed in six copies, belongs to the Mountains series. Here, the mountain is engraved with a message of its own size. From then on, its monumental and unshakeable slope becomes a support for a slightly vulgar message or announcement.

WIM DELVOYE (born in 1965)
Rude but cute 18 year old BABE 018 83 87 480, 2000
Cibachrome on aluminium, signed, numbered 6/6 on the back
100 x 125 cm
We would like to thank the Studio Wim Delvoye for kindly confirming the authenticity of this work.
Estimate : 20 000 - 30 000 €

The roundnesses dear to Fernando Botero are expressed in this sculpture imagined by the artist and representing a lying woman. Born in 1932 in Medellin, Colombia, where in 1958 he was awarded first prize at the Colombian Artists' Salon, Botero now lives and works in Paris, Tuscany and the United States. His very particular and unclassifiable style, inspired by popular and pre-Colombian arts, is characterized by very round forms, whether painting or sculpture, and are particularly visible in his sculpture series Reclining Woman.
This immediately identifiable style has earned him international recognition and his works are present in the world's most prestigious collections as well as in major museum institutions.

Three important names and two great movements: the expressionism of Bernard Buffet and the lyrical abstraction of Gérard Schneider and Georges Mathieu.

Bernard Buffet, Gérard Schneider and Georges Mathieu are among the greatest names in French painting at the beginning of the 20th century. Belonging to the same generation, they nevertheless follow very different paths. Indeed, painting in the immediate post-war period is marked by a split between two great pictorial movements that they embody respectively

BERNARD BUFFET (1928- 1999)
Eglise de Landerneau, 1968
Oil on canvas, signed and dated upper right, countersigned and annotated on the back Noël 1996 Bernard 21.
146 x 97 cm
A duplicate of the Galerie Maurice Garnier certificate will be given to the purchaser.
Estimate : 70 000 – 90 000 €

The expressionism of Bernard Buffet (1928 - 1999) turns towards an aesthetics of self-pity, reflecting the atmosphere of the early 1950s. His figurative painting is adorned from this period with his characteristic style of black and sharp lines. One of Bernard Buffet's works that we are presenting, L'Eglise de Landerneau of 1968, synthesizes Bernard Buffet's style very well and is part of a particular period of his career. Bernard Buffet had a studio in Brittany from 1965 to 1970, a period during which he painted the region and its landscapes. In the painting L'Eglise de Landerneau, Bernard Buffet uses a dark palette and a composition that accentuates the mystical dimension of the bell tower and the Calvary in the foreground.
The lyrical abstraction of Gérard Schneider and Georges Mathieu, on the other hand, along with great names such as Pierre Soulages or Hans Hartung, advocates a return to radical abstraction.
Gérard Schneider trained at the Fine Arts School in Paris and the artist settled there permanently in 1922. While a sense of self-pity asserted itself around painters like Bernard Buffet, young artists like Pierre Soulages and Gérard Schneider turned in the 1940s to the opposite approach: lyrical abstraction.
After participating in various cultural events around the world, Gérard Schneider (1896 - 1986) made a change of style in the 1960s and freed his gesture and palette to concentrate on broad gestures and bright colours. The Opus series, begun in 1945, is a continuation that Schneider will maintain throughout his life and which allows the evolution of his work to be realised. In the painting we present, Opus 18 K, composition abstraite sur fond bleu from 1971, the style of the last part of his production is very much in evidence: very colourful works, colours juxtaposed against a powerful background with free and swirling gestures.

GÉRARD SCHNEIDER (1896-1986)
Opus 18 K, composition abstraite sur fond bleu, 1972
Acrylic on canvas, signed, dated lower left, titled, dated on the back and bearing the label of the Galerie Klopfer.
116 x 89 cm
Estimate : 20 000 - 30 000 €

Georges Mathieu (1921 - 2012) created a style that was recognizable by all, which made him known as the central figure of this movement. One of the works we propose, Plainte captive, perfectly represents the artist's philosophy and style, developed in contact with Japanese calligraphy. The gesture is liberated, dynamic strokes go in all directions, the colours are vivid and this dynamism contrasts with the tranquility of the soft and translucent flat tints at the bottom of the canvas. The complaint expressed by the strokes seems to be definitively captive of this evanescent background.

GEORGES MATHIEU (1921-2012)
Plainte captive
Oil and mixed media on Arches paper, signed lower right and titled on the back.
54.5 x 75 cm à vue
Estimate : 12 000 – 15 000 €

 

Auction : May 29th 2020 – 2.30 pm
Aguttes Neuilly : 164 bis, av. Charles-de-Gaulle, 92200 Neuilly-sur-Seine. France.

Specialist
Ophélie Guillerot : +33 1 47 45 93 02 • guillerot@aguttes.com

See the page of the specialized department