Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

ART

Auction record smashed for Spanish artist Gris

Juan Gris's Cubist still life "Nature Morte a la Nappe a Carreaux" ("The Checked Tablecloth") sold for €42 million ($56.8 million) at a London sale Tuesday, smashing the auction record for the Spanish artist.

Published: 5 February 2014 09:43 CET

Auction record smashed for Spanish artist Gris

The 1915 Gris painting attracted considerable bidding interest and was eventually sold for double the pre-auction estimate. Photo: LEON NEAL / AFP

The 1915 work portrays a pile of objects — including a bunch of grapes and a newspaper — on a checked tablecloth.

It smashed pre-sale estimates of £12-18 million, fetching almost double the previous record for a Gris work at auction.

That was achieved in 2010 when his 1913 painting of a violin and a guitar sold for $28.6 million in New York.

The Christie's sale of Impressionist, modern and Surrealist art signals the start of two weeks of auctioneering in the British capital, setting the art market's tone for the coming year.

Other important items sold included Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti's bronze work of three men, which fetched £9 million, and Cubist master Pablo Picasso's 1955 portrait of lover Jacqueline Roque, which went under the hammer for £16.9 million pounds.

The auction was truncated after Christie's announced earlier in the day that it had cancelled the sale of 85 paintings by Spanish master Joan Miro, valued at more than €36 million, over a legal dispute in Portugal.

The paintings became Portuguese state property following the nationalisation of the BPN bank in 2008 and their sale met with fierce opposition from art lovers in Portugal.

But the cash-strapped Portuguese government has argued that the sale of the paintings would bring a much-needed injection of funds.

Earlier on Tuesday, a Portuguese court rejected a request from the opposition Socialist party for the sale to be halted.

However, hours before the first of the paintings were due to go under the hammer, Christie's said it would not go ahead with the sale because of the "legal uncertainties" surrounding the works.

"The sale of the collection of 85 works by Joan Miro has been cancelled as a result of a dispute before the Portuguese court, to which Christie's is not a party," the auction house said.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

African-born director's new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

The “Haus der Kulturen der Welt” (House of World Cultures), or HKW, was built by the Americans in 1956 during the Cold War for propaganda purposes, at a time when Germany was still divided.

New director Ndikung said it had been located “strategically” so that people on the other side of the Berlin Wall, in the then-communist East, could see it.

This was “representing freedom” but “from the Western perspective”, the 46-year-old told AFP.

Now Ndikung, born in Cameroon before coming to study in Germany 26 years ago, wants to transform it into a place filled with “different cultures of the world”.

The centre, by the river Spree, is known locally as the “pregnant oyster” due to its sweeping, curved roof. It does not have its own collections but is home to exhibition rooms and a 1,000-seat auditorium.

It reopened in June after renovations, and Ndikung’s first project “Quilombismo” fits in with his aims of expanding the centre’s offerings.

The exhibition takes its name from the Brazilian term “Quilombo”, referring to the communities formed in the 17th century by African slaves, who fled to remote parts of the South American country.

Throughout the summer, there will also be performances, concerts, films, discussions and an exhibition of contemporary art from post-colonial societies across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.

‘Rethink the space’

“We have been trying to… rethink the space. We invited artists to paint walls… even the floor,” Ndikung said.

And part of the “Quilombismo” exhibition can be found glued to the floor -African braids laced together, a symbol of liberation for black people, which was created by Zimbabwean artist Nontsikelelo Mutiti.

According to Ndikung, African slaves on plantations sometimes plaited their hair in certain ways as a kind of coded message to those seeking to escape, showing them which direction to head.

READ ALSO: Germany hands back looted artefacts to Nigeria

His quest for aestheticism is reflected in his appearance: with a colourful suit and headgear, as well as huge rings on his fingers, he rarely goes unnoticed.

During his interview with AFP, Ndikung was wearing a green scarf and cap, a blue-ish jacket and big, sky-blue shoes.

With a doctorate in medical biology, he used to work as an engineer before devoting himself to art.

In 2010, he founded the Savvy Gallery in Berlin, bringing together art from the West and elsewhere, and in 2017 was one of the curators of Documenta, a prestigious contemporary art event in the German city of Kassel.

Convinced of the belief that history “has been written by a particular type of people, mostly white and men,” Ndikung has had all the rooms in the HKW renamed after women.

These are figures who have “done something important in the advancement of the world” but were “erased” from history, he added. Among them is Frenchwoman Paulette Nardal, born in Martinique in 1896.

She helped inspire the creation of the “negritude” movement, which aimed to develop black literary consciousness, and was the first black woman to study at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Reassessing history

Ndikung’s appointment at the HKW comes as awareness grows in Germany about its colonial past, which has long been overshadowed by the atrocities committed during the era of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.

Berlin has in recent years started returning looted objects to African countries which it occupied in the early 20th century — Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia and Cameroon.

“It’s long overdue,” said Ndikung.

He was born in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, into an anglophone family.

The country is majority francophone but also home to an anglophone minority and has faced deadly unrest in English-speaking areas, where armed insurgents are fighting to establish an independent homeland.

One of his dreams is to open a museum in Cameroon “bringing together historical and contemporary objects” from different countries, he said.

He would love to locate it in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s restive Northwest region.

“But there is a war in Bamenda, so I can’t,” he says.

Url copied to clipboard!