Now live for browsing, Christie’s Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale takes place in London on 21 March – following a record-breaking year for this biannual sale in 2022.
L.S. Lowry, William Scott, Frank Bowling, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and Barry Flanagan all feature – along with works by David Hockney and Pauline Boty. Highlighting the strength of the market, the sale will showcase the richness and diversity of British and Irish art throughout the 20th Century up to the present day.
Highlights include:
- Henry Moore, Mother and Child with Apple,1956, estimate: £3,300,000-5,000,000. As the artist often acknowledged, the archetypal subject of the mother and child is one that lies at the very heart of his art. This sculpture is distinguished by its opening up of the space between the mother and child into a dynamic informal expression of the child’s inquisitiveness;
- A number of important works by the St Ives Group, including Barbara Hepworth’s Pierced Form (Toledo), 1957, estimate: £2,500,000-3,500,000 and paintings by, amongst others, Ben Nicholson, Peter Lanyon, Patrick Heron, William Scot and Christopher Wood;
- The largest group of Vorticist art presented to the market including work by Wyndham Lewis, David Bomberg, Edward Wadsworth, William Roberts, Lawrence Atkinson and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska;
- A group of five paintings by Lowry including The Railway Platform, 1953, estimate: £1,000,000- 2,000,000, Glasgow Docks, 1947, estimate: £1,100,000-1,500,000 and The Clock Tower, 1938, estimate: £400,000-600,000. In October 2022, Christie’s set the world auction record for the artist’s Going to the Match;
- BUM, 1966, by Pauline Boty estimate: £60,000- 80,000. BUM was Boty’s final painting before her premature death at the age of 28. Commissioned by the theatre critic Kenneth Tynan for his erotic cabaret Oh! Calcutta, when it was auctioned by Christie’s in November 2017, it achieved a record price for the artist;
- A group of four works by David Hockney, ‘The Making of a Master: Works by David Hockney from an Important Private Collection’, which focus on his artistic output during the 1960s and very early 1970s. The group includes an intimate portrait of the artist’s friend, textile designer Celia Birtwell, which is presented at auction for the first time estimate: £180,000-250,000;
Nicholas Orchard, Head of Modern British and Irish Art, Christie’s: “The selection of works included in the Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale represent the pioneering movements that shaped the 20th century across the UK and Ireland. One of the most dynamic periods of creativity, the sale includes the most comprehensive group of Vorticist works to appear on the market to date. Henry Moore’s Mother and Child with Apple will lead the auction and is featured alongside Barbara Hepworth’s exquisite sculpture Pierced Form (Toledo). A pioneer of the St Ives movement, Hepworth’s works are offered alongside examples of the movements ground-breaking painters. As the lead auction house for L.S. Lowry, Christie’s is delighted to offer a group of five works by the artist as a focal point.”
Christie’s Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale takes place on 21 March at Christie’s King Street saleroom in London. For further information: christies.com
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Image: DAME BARBARA HEPWORTH (1903-1975), Pierced Form (Toledo), mahogany with string, on a black-painted wooden base, 35 1/4 in. (89.5 cm.) high, excluding base, Carved in 1957. This work is recorded as BH 232. Estimate: GBP 2,500,000 – GBP 3,500,000 © Christie’s Images Limited 2023