: - Bonhams & Butterfields auctioned Modern, Contemporary and
Latin American art on Sunday, November 9, in Los Angeles and San
Francisco.
The 138-lot sale saw bidding from across the globe, resulting in
more than $900,000 paid.
A large bank of telephone bidders was dialing internationally as
bidders crowded both the Los Angeles and San Francisco salesrooms
on Sunday. Clients successfully bid from Paris, Berlin, Florence,
Madrid, Barcelona, London, Tokyo, Mexico, Jakarta and India, as
well as from New York, throughout California, Washington, D.C.,
New Orleans and Dallas. Specialist-in-charge was Frank Hettig;
this was his first sale.
The top selling lot was a gouache on paper signed and dated by
Fernand Leger. His "Tete de femme et Fleurs," 1949, sold above
estimate early in the auction, bringing $49,938 ($20/30,000).
Three works in varied media by Nathan Oliveira found buyers:
"Seated Man on a Branch," 1959, mixed media on paper, exceeded
its estimate to sell for $11,750; an untitled watercolor and ink
figural study dated 1960 brought $2,644 and an oil on canvas
exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in the
mid-1980s sold for $47,000. This last piece, a large format
Oliveira work titled "Swiss Site 1," was signed and dated by the
artist in 1979.
A pair of Richard Diebenkorn ink on paper sketches sold, an
untitled 1965 work that had been signed and inscribed in 1974
"...for Bebe/ Flora with love, Dick," sold for $7,638 while his
untitled (Seated Woman), 1963, tripled its estimate to sell for
$35,250. Salvador Dali's signed and dated watercolor and ink on
paper untitled (Mythology), 1963, brought $29,375 and an oil on
board, "Surreal Composition," 1940, by Mariano Andreu sold for
$16,450 ($4/6,000). James (Darrell Northrup) Weeks's oil on
canvas "Two Children with a Ball," 1963, doubled its estimate to
bring $26,438 while a bold and colorful Mattia Moreni oil on
canvas "Sterpi," 1955, sold for $28,200, just above estimate.
A Diego Rivera watercolor and pencil on paper landscape sold
within estimate, $6,463, as did a 1964 Francisco Zuñiga
watercolor depicting two women, $5,581. "Hombre remando," circa
1957, a pyroxylin on Masonite by David Alfaro Siqueiros, brought
$39,950 while "Tribal Girl in Dress," 1935, an oil on board by
Fernando Armosolo, sold for an above-estimate $8,225.
A pair of Robert Arneson works saw competitive bidding. The
California artist passed away just over a decade ago and his 1987
charcoal, acrylic and graphite on paper, "Night Wolf," depicting
a ghostlike wolf atop an overturned car, its headlights shining,
sold for $38,188 ($15/20,000). Selling for more than three times
its estimate was a painted and glazed ceramic "Mask with Clay
Mask," signed, titled and dated 1975, which sold for $32,313. The
Arneson ceramic came to auction from the San Francisco estate of
Richard and Genevieve Woods. Also from this estate, and of great
interest to bidders, were several stoneware and bronze glazed
porcelain footed bowls and vases by Dame Lucie Rie. Highlighting
these lots were: "Slender-necked vase with flaring rim" of green,
pink and beige stoneware, 11-inches high, impressed with the LR
seal on the base, sold above estimate for $15,275, and a nearly
ten-inch-diameter white porcelain bowl with bronze glaze and
radial graffito "Conical bowl," circa 1975, which brought $14,100
($6/8,000).
A bronze nude with brown patina by the Spanish artist Pablo
Gargallo, signed and dated 1925, sold for $32,313 while a painted
terra-cotta 15-inch high sculpture by the African American artist
Sargent Johnson doubled its estimate to bring $30,550. Johnson's
"Mother and Child," 1947, had been exhibited at SF MoMA as
recently as 1998. A buyer paid $35,250 for "Disk with Strings
(Moon)," 1969, by Dame Barbara Hepworth, the aluminum disk with
strings, numbered 4/9, came to auction from a Bel Air, Calif.,
private collection.
All prices cited include the buyer's premium.
