Paintings from Bacon unveiled

LONDON - Hürriyet Daily News

Sotheby’s offers a selection of works from Francis Bacon on June 26.

Sotheby’s London will offer a selection of works which articulate key moments in the careers of many artists such as Francis Bacon on June 26.

Alongside a strong selection of Post-War European Masters, the sale has a particularly strong showing of major British artists. At its heart are two key paintings by Francis Bacon; one a work from his legendary first commercial show at the Hanover Gallery in 1949, the other an outstanding triptych portrait of his closest female friend, muse and lover, the artist Isabel Rawsthorne. Other highlights include David Hockney’s paean to his home country, Double East Yorkshire and Bridget Riley’s powerful op art masterpiece of 1964, Stretch.

The cover lot of the auction is the most important collection of Andreas Gursky “Stock Exchange” photographs in private or public hands. Created over 20 years, these monumental and dynamic images of trading floors, distil the socio-economic topography of our age. Many fresh to the market and with distinguished exhibition histories, the sale comprises 69 works with a combined estimate in excess of £66 million.

“Contemporary collectors in search of prize works, should find a great deal to excite them in our Evening Sale. It is very much an auction of historic ‘firsts’,” said Alex Branczik, Head of Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Department. Noting that they were offering the first work that Francis Bacon ever sold, from his first show at a commercial gallery, in which for the first time he depicts the human form, Branczik added, “We have the first David Hockney landscape to appear at auction since the hugely successful 2012 Royal Academy show; a 1964 Bridget Riley shown in the first ever exhibition of “Op Art” in New York in 1965 and Andreas Gursky’s first Stock Exchange photograph of 1990, part of an unparalleled collection of his iconic series of trading floor studies.”