Paul Brightwell

@brightwell.bsky.social

477 Followers 355 Following

Actor, claqueur rep. Curtis Brown

'Julius Caesar observed that Britons looked at the hare, the cock and the goose as creatures unlawful to eat, and that the study of birds and animals had been part of the divination process that helped Boadicea win the battle against the Romans. The story, first told by Roman historian, Cassius Dio, is that Boadicea employed a form of divination during her battle with the Romans and released a hare from the folds of her dress, following its direction as an indication of where to strike at the Romans.

Carrington draws on all the elements of this story in her rendering of the subject. Against a swirling celestial background, the legendary Celtic warrior queen Boadicea charges across a cosmic expanse in her horse-drawn chariot. Figures and beasts scatter in her path as she reclaims her power, embodying a timeless myth of vengeance and rebirth. The work’s symbolically charged atmosphere make it one of Carrington’s most striking late works: a declaration of female strength rendered through mythic transformation.'
(Sotheby's)

64 x 45 cm, printed black on packing paper. Announces the Fluxus group show held from July 5 to September 23, 1979 in Nice, previously presented at Elac, Lyon, April 1979. The poster is up for auction on June 19th at Zwiggelaar Auctions in Amsterdam

You've still time to bid on this. If Sotheby's is right you'll need between 300,000 -400,000 EUR

On 8th March 2022 VH's wonderful portrait of Rimbaud sold for £1,042,750

Having settled in Paris in 1938, Brauner took refuge from the Nazis in the Hautes-Alpes in April 1942, where he lived in hiding for nearly three years under conditions of extreme austerity. The shortage of traditional materials led him to experiment with alternative supports and media, notably candle wax and later beeswax, which opened up new formal possibilities within his practice. "Unable to obtain oil paint, he created wax paintings by spreading a thin layer of melted candle grease onto canvas or cardboard, then engraving a drawing into the surface, later accentuated with soot-black; the forms themselves were coloured with lightly glazed tones." (Marcel Jean, The History of Surrealist Painting, London, 1960)

Another great image from the unique Brauner imaginarium. It's kicking off at Christie's with an opening bid of EUR 60,000. The interesting provenance is a factor too: it's dedicated 'A PAOLO' on the reverse, being a gift to the great Italian avant-gardist Paolo Buggiani

A large and apparently figurative (or so we might assume from the title) oil painting to be sold at Sotheby's. The great, intransigent CoBrA artist, 1921-2006, here at the height of his very messy game. As usual it's taken twenty years to pass since his death to make him bankable; there's already a 100,000 USD opening bid placed ahead of the auction tomorrow

The end credits of this glitzy little promo show that a full crew was employed to make it, and presumably everybody involved was properly paid, which gives some idea of the very great wealth of the larger auction houses. More interesting than the main body of the film are its very brief excerpts from what must have been its inspiration: Lee Miller unveils Brancusi’s sculpture Princess X in Man Ray’s cinema short “Self-Portrait, or What We All Lack,” circa 1930. The Christie’s web page links to it.

$"...plate 3 from Kurt Schwitters' only self-produced print portfolio, Merz 3, comprising six lithographs that represent a defining expression of his Dada-inflected "Merz" practice, in which fragments of everyday materials are reassembled into dynamic compositions. Produced at a Hanover printing plant using salvaged, freshly printed papers transferred directly onto lithographic stone, the works embody an experimental process driven by chance and improvisation. Incorporating elements such as advertisements, cigarette wrappers, and book illustrations, the compositions reflect the fractured cultural landscape of post–World War I Germany. Particularly rare impressions, such as the present example, feature additional hand-applied collage elements layered atop the printed surface, an approach also seen in examples held by the Museum of Modern Art, underscoring Schwitters' fusion of commercial ephemera, abstraction, and the irrational as a response to modern upheaval." (Bonham$