Marc Jacobs, considered one of the most important fashion designers, has earned immense appreciation for his unrelenting commitment to his creative vision. His discerning eye and fastidious taste are reflected in his esteemed collection of contemporary art. This autumn season in Hong Kong, Sotheby’s presents eight works from his collection, including works by Andy Warhol, John Currin, Mark Grotjahn, and Richard Prince, with a total estimate of about HK$26.9m-38.3m (US$3.43m-4.88m).
Marc Jacobs was the former creative director of Louis Vuitton between 1997 and 2013
John Currin. The Penitent｜Estimate: HK$8m-12m
Executed in 2004, The Penitent is a portrait of the artist’s wife and muse, Rachel Feinstein. It takes on a venerated art historical vocabulary featuring the penitent Mary Magdalene, a subject that gained popularity from sixteenth-century Italy. The image of Magdalene is often portrayed with her teary eyes lifted up to heaven long flowing hair, and a semi-naked body with partially exposed breasts. Its popularity was also associated with the Penitent Magdalene’s implied sexuality.
In his play on the subject, Currin engages in a rare departure from his more explicit and provocative paintings: his wife is fully clothed in a loose sweatshirt with a crew neck, her ambiguous expression teetering between languid amusement and teasing expectancy. The painting was also featured on the promotional postcard of Currin’s solo exhibition at the Museo Stefano Bardini in Florence in 2016, ranking amongst the artist’s most iconic dialogues with the conundrum of painting.
John Currin and his wife Rachel Feinstein
John Currin’s Study for The Penitent will also be offered at the sale with an estimate of HK$450,000-650,000
Mark Grotjahn. Untitled (Lavender Butterfly Over Green). Estimate: HK$7m-9m
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Lavender Butterfly Over Green) comes from Mark Grotjahn’s celebrated series of Butterfly paintings, combining graphic representation, geometric abstraction and illusionistic space in a mesmerizing and enigmatic visual phenomenon. The central vertical strip delineates the butterfly’s ‘spine’, from which two spectrums of radial vectors cascade outwards to establish the dynamic trajectories of its ‘wings’. At the centre, two slightly off-kilter vanishing points mark the butterfly’s ‘abdomen’, while the emanating terrains of concentrated linear brushwork launch shifting spatial illusions of infinitely subtle tonal gradations.
Iconic and instantly recognizable, Mark Grotjahn’s celebrated Butterfly paintings reside in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. In May 2017, Grotjahn’s Untitled (S III Released to France Face 43.14) was sold at Christie’s New York for US$16.76m, setting an auction record for the artist.
Untitled (S III Released to France Face 43.14 sold for record-breaking US$16.76m in 2017
Richard Prince. Untitled (De Kooning) ｜Estimate: HK$3.2m-4.8m
Richard Prince is a controversial artist
Richard Prince is a controversial artist and he has been involved in a lawsuit surrounding his work New Portraits, which consisted of screenshots of Instagram posts as enlarged images on canvas
The present painting, Untitled (De Kooning), comes from Prince’s celebrated corpus of paintings that engage with the canonical imagery of Abstract Expressionist Willem de Kooning. The idea for the series came to Prince when he was browsing a catalogue of de Kooning’s Women series, which featured grotesque distorted female figures violently entangled in swathes of abstraction. Inspired by the imagery, Prince began sketching and doodling over the paintings using graphite and oil crayons, adding outlines, textures and silhouettes.
He also applied collage fragments cut and pasted from catalogues and vintage pornographic magazines, embellishing the figures with facial features, body parts and limbs, as well as male and female genitalia, building hybrid or hermaphroditic characters. These laboriously reworked images were then ripped out, montaged together, and scanned and blown up via ink-jet printer onto monumental canvases, creating further distance from the source material. Prince further paints over the canvases in oil and graphite in sweeping gestures reminiscent of de Kooning’s painterly technique.
Andy Warhol. Flowers (Three Works)｜HK$2.8m-3.6m
Andy Warhol’s Flowers (Three Works) has stood as an everlasting image of twentieth-century art. Flowers from 1964 embodies one of Andy Warhol’s most iconic bodies of work. Warhol’s Flowers have infiltrated popular culture as a touchstone of classic American Pop. Flowers’ source material is a photograph of hibiscus blossoms from the June 1964 issue of Modern Photography magazine. Warhol took artistic liberty with this photograph, isolating just four of the original seven flowers in a tighter composition, which he then transferred onto acetate and polarized the tonal range in order to increase sharpness and clarity.
Artworks from Marc Jacobs Collection offered in Hong Kong Sales
John Currin. The Penitent｜Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Lot no.: 1150
Created in: 2004
Size: 107 x 86.6cm
Provenance:
- Gagosian Gallery, New York
- Acquired from the above by Marc Jacobs in 2004
Estimate: HK$8,000,000 - 12,000,000
John Currin. Study for The Penitent｜Contemporary Art
Lot no.: 581
Created in: 2004
Size: 45.4 x 34.8cm
Provenance:
- Sadie Coles HQ, London
- Acquired from the above by Marc Jacobs
Estimate: HK$450,000 - 650,000
Mark Grotjahn. Untitled (Lavender Butterfly Over Green)｜Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Lot no.: 1151
Created in: 2004
Size: 70.2 x 63.4cm
Provenance:
- Gagosian Gallery, New York
- Private Collection, United States
- Christie's, New York, 13 November 2014, Lot 175
- Acquired from the above sale by Marc Jacobs
Estimate: HK$7,000,000 - 9,000,000
Richard Prince. Untitled (De Kooning)｜Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Lot no.: 1149
Created in: 2007
Size: 132.5 x 188.4cm
Provenance:
- Gladstone Gallery, New York
- Acquired from the above by Marc Jacobs in 2007
Estimate: HK$3,200,000 - 4,800,000
Richard Prince. Untitled (Black Bra)｜Contemporary Art
Lot no.: 584
Created in: 2016
Size: 50.8 x 40.8cm
Provenance:
- Collection of the artist
- Paddle8, The LGBT Community Center Benefit Auction, April 2017, Lot 26 (donated from the above)
- Acquired from the above sale by Marc Jacobs
Estimate: HK$240,000 - 400,000
Andy Warhol. Flowers (Three Works)｜Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Lot no.: 1152
Created in: 1964
Size: 20.3 x 20.3cm (each)
Provenance:
- Ileana Sonnabend, Paris
- Lawrence Alloway, New York
- Christie's, New York, 5 October 1990, Lot 38
- Mayor Gallery, London
- Private Collection, Europe
- Sotheby's, New York, 15 November 2007, Lot 191
- Acquired from the above sale by Marc Jacobs
ii.
- Ileana Sonnabend, Paris
- Galleria San Michele, Brescia
- Richard Grey Gallery, Chicago
- Private Collection, Europe
- Sotheby's, New York, 16 May 2007, Lot 220
- Acquired from the above sale by Marc Jacobs
iii.
- Estate of Jon Nicholas Streep
- Christie's, New York, 11 May 1983, Lot 106
- Private Collection, United States
- Christie's, New York, 4 May 1994, Lot 175
- Jason McCoy, Inc., New York
- Private Collection, United States
- Private Collection, New York
- Christie's, New York, 17 May 2007, Lot 108
- Acquired from the above sale by Marc Jacobs
Estimate: HK$2,800,000 - 3,600,000
Elizabeth Peyton. May 1999 (Kirsty + Roe Kissing West 15th Street)｜Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Lot no.: 1148
Created in: 1999
Size: 42 x 35.8cm
Provenance:
- Neugerriemschneider, Berlin
- Private Collection, United States
- Sadie Coles HQ, London
- Acquired from the above by Marc Jacobs in 2002
Estimate: HK$3,200,000 - 4,800,000
Elizabeth Peyton. Haircut (Ben & Spencer)｜Contemporary Art
Lot no.: 583
Created in: 2002
Size: 30.8 x 23.4cm
Provenance:
- Sadie Coles HQ, London
- Acquired from the above by Marc Jacobs
Estimate: HK$1,600,000 - 2,400,000
Elizabeth Peyton. Pierre Calling His Mom (Pierre and Camille)｜Contemporary Art
Lot no.: 582
Created in: 2003
Size: 22 x 15.2cm
Provenance:
- Neugerriemschneider, Berlin
- Acquired from the above by Marc Jacobs
Estimate: HK$300,000 - 500,000
Auction details
Auction house: Sotheby’s Hong Kong
Venue: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
Sale: Contemporary Art Evening Auction
Lots offered: 34
Preview:
3 October 2019｜10am - 5:30pm
4-5 October 2019｜10am - 8pm
6 October 2019｜10am - 6pm
Auction date: 6 October 2019｜7pm
Sale: Contemporary Art
Lots offered: 145
Preview:
3 October 2019｜10am - 5:30pm
4-5 October 2019｜10am - 8pm
6 October 2019｜10am - 6pm
Auction date: 7 October 2019｜10:30am