SOTHEBY’S SALE OF LATIN AMERICAN ART TO FEATURE WORKS BY ARTISTS FERNANDO BOTERO AND MATTA On the evening of November 20 and morning of November 21, 2007, Sotheby’s will offer an impressive selection of Latin American Art
News-Antique.com - Nov 13,2007 - RECOVERED MASTERPIECE BY RUFINO TAMAYO, FOUND ON A NEW YORK CITY SIDEWALK, TO BE OFFERED
New York, New York – On the evening of November 20 and morning of November 21, 2007, Sotheby’s will offer an impressive selection of Latin American Art, highlighted by the groundbreaking triptych, Et At It (lot 15, est. $2.5/3.5 million), by the Chilean artist Matta. Painted in 1944, a pivotal point in Matta’s career, when he was living in exile in New York along with several other European Surrealists during the Second World War.
Additionally, the sale will feature several important works by Rufino Tamayo, Fernando Botero and Remedios Varo, as well as paintings and sculptures by many other prominent Latin American artists. Tamayo’s work Tres Personajes, 1970 (lot 21, est. $750,000/1 million), was stolen twenty years ago from a storage warehouse in Houston and fortuitously recovered years later by New Yorker Elizabeth Gibson, who found the painting abandoned on a Manhattan sidewalk (Please see separate press release).
The approximately 287 lots are estimated to sell for $21,609,000/28,570,000* and will be on exhibition in Sotheby’s 10th floor galleries from November 17 through November 20. Matta was an important link between the Surrealists and the members of the burgeoning New York School. His triptych Et At It, featured on page 1 (lot 15, est. $2.5/3.5 million), is closely related to the painting, The Vertigo of Eros, at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA).
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Matta had produced his “inscapes,” or imaginary landscapes, that he envisioned as projections of psychological states. Et At It also refers back to the erotic themes of Marcel Duchamp’s The Large Glass, a work Matta was well acquainted with and which was placed on view at MoMA in 1943, where it was seen by the public for the first time since its debut at the Brooklyn Museum in 1926. Et At It represents a breakthrough for the artist, as it was here that Matta found and mastered the means to transmit his much sought after effect of perpetual transformation.
The former director and curator of MoMA, William Rubin, championed Matta’s work and was instrumental in placing this work in the collection of Richard S. Zeisler. This work is designated as Property from the Estate of Richard S. Zeisler, to provide funds for the acquisition of art by the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Sale highlights will also include Déjeuner sur L’Herbe, a historic work by the Colombian artist Fernando Botero, 1969 (lot 8, est. $1.4/1.6 million, pictured at left), after the famous painting from 1863 by Édouard Manet. Déjeuner sur l’Herbe was the first work by Botero to command over $1 million at auction, when it was sold for $1,045,000 at Sotheby’s New York in 1991. Manet’s work is widely considered one of the most radical paintings in the history of modern art, and Botero’s own playful, yet thoughtful reinterpretation of Manet’s infamous painting reveals similar concerns, while pushing the boundaries
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