On Hearing Lulu Apres Diabelli Var.

On Hearing Lulu Apres Diabelli Var.

16×22

Oil on linen

Painting notes:

  1. Amedeo Modigliani: Nu Couché, 1917-8.
  2. Amedeo Modigliani: Nu Couché, 1917-8.
  3. Michaelangelo: Sistine Chapel; Clem Greenberg’s aperçu.
  4. George Grosz: Suburb, 1920.
  5. Lynda Benglis: Life magazine photo, 1970. Butterfly patterns based on Vladimir Nabokov’s drawings.
  6. Amedeo Modigliani: Nu Couché, 1917-8.
  7. Frank Stella aperçu.
  8. Amedeo Modigliani: Nu Couché, 1917-8.
  9. A. Warhol: Brillo Box, 1964.
  10. Daniel Batchelor: Stoke Newington. For nearly 20 years British artist David Batchelor (b. 1955) has been photographing his series of Found Monochromes – white rectangles and squares encountered on walks through cities from London to São Paulo.
  11. Lynda Benglis, then and now.
  12. Joseph Noel Patton: The Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania, 1847.
  13. Soane Museum, their Crapper.
  14. Damien Hirst: The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991.
  15. Billionaire hedge-fund manager Steve Cohen recently bought it for a reported $12 million. Though a source close to Cohen says the price was actually only $8 million, that’s still a hefty profit for art mogul Charles Saatchi—who bought it in 1992 for $93,000—and a confident sign of the investment value of shocking contemporary art. Except the fourteen-foot tiger shark, which Hirst cut in half and displayed in formaldehyde, has been showing signs of deterioration. In 1993, Hirst called in Oliver Crimmen, curator of fish at London’s Natural History Museum. “He wanted advice because it was shrinking,” says Crimmen. “I recommended deep-injecting formaldehyde directly into the internal organs.” They spoke again in 2003. “The fluid was going cloudy,” says Crimmen. “I’m sure it wasn’t deep-injected initially.” So what to do? He would transfer it to alcohol, “which would stabilize it for over 100 years,” but without a greenish tint. Hirst’s company didn’t return calls, but a source close to Cohen says the shark’s in good hands: “He consulted with several conservators before the purchase.”
  16. George Grosz: Far in the South, Beautiful Spain,1919.
  17. Gustave Courbet: Femme nue couchee, 1862. Fetched $15.3 million, quadrupling the Impressionist artist’s previous auction record.
  18. Gavin Turk: Bag, 2001.
  19. Jackson Pollock: Composition with Pouring II, 1943.
  20. Elmer Batters: Untitled, c. 1972-5.
  21. George Grosz: Presseball, c. 1928.
  22. Paul Cezanne: Vue sur L’Estaque et le Chateau d’If, c. 1883-5.
  23. The temptations of Maigret.
  24. Claude Monet: Wild Poppies, 1873.
  25. Roy Lichtenstein: Nurse, 1964. Roy Lichtenstein’s comic book-style painting of a nurse fetched $95.4 million at Christie’s on Monday, an auction record for the Pop artist. The 1964 square canvas, measuring 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide, was estimated at more than $80 million.
  26. George Grosz: Far in the South, Beautiful Spain,1919

A Chinese taxi driver turned billionaire art collector has paid a record-breaking $170m (£113m) for a painting of a nude woman by Amedeo Modigliani at an auction in New York.

Reclining Nude was sold at Christie’s on Monday after a protracted, nine-minute bidding battle, eventually going to Liu Yiqian, who has built a reputation as one of China’s most ostentatious billionaires.

The 1917-1918 painting is considered one of Modigliani’s best-known works and nearly created a scandal when it was first exhibited in Paris. Interest from five buyers pushed the price for Nu Couché far above the previous $71m record auction price for the Italian artist.

Courbet’s painting of a sleeping nude fetched $15.3 million, quadrupling the Impressionist artist’s previous auction record. Courbet’s 1862 canvas, “Femme nue couchee,” was estimated at $15 million to $25 million.

Lichtenstein’s comic book-style “Nurse” painting fetched $95.4 million, also an artist auction record. Although the final price, which includes buyer’s premium, surpassed the presale target of more than $80 million, only one bidder wanted the work, a client of Laura Paulson, Christie’s senior international director in the postwar and contemporary art department. The work’s value increased about 5,500 percent in the 20 years since it last sold at auction. Lichtenstein’s previous auction record of $56.1 million was achieved in May 2013 at Christie’s in New York.