Sale
CONTEMPORARY ART AND ECLECTICISM: FROM ASIA TO PIERRE SOULAGES

On April 6, 2023, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Aguttes reveals, during its "Contemporary Art" auction, a beautiful collection of works by Pierre Soulages and Gérard Schneider. Spotlight on the Asian scene: the catalog also features Chu Teh-Chun and Kim Tschang-Yeul.

Tribute to Pierre Soulages:
A set of 9 works on paper "I did etching because, with etching, something appeared; something that could not appear in painting."
Pierre Soulages

Pierre Soulages (1919-2022)
Etching XXXII, 1974
Etching on laid paper Artist's proof signed bottom right 76.5 x 56.5 cm
Provenance
Private collection in the Paris region
Bibliography
PIETRZYK Estelle, RAGON Michel, DUPUIS Gilbert; Soulages le temps du papier; Catalog of the exhibition at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Strasbourg (MAMCS), October 31, 2009 - January 3, 2010; Éditions Cercle d'Art, Paris, 224 pages. Work listed and reproduced.
Estimation: €25,000 - €40,000

Painter of black and light, Pierre Soulages (1919-2022) was scarce in auction rooms despite more than 110 museums worldwide exhibiting his work. His works, characterized by broad dark strokes with rich meaning, affirm the artist's astonishing simplicity. The master has established himself as a major figure in abstraction, and his compositions continue to arouse curiosity.
Particularly known for his large canvases of "ultrablack," deep and vibrant, this French painter and engraver also did remarkable work with the technique of etching, representing a more intimate and personal aspect of his career. Encouraged by his friend Hans Hartung, he discovered this technique in the 1950s at the Lacourière studio in Paris.
A set of 9 prints from three different collections, estimated at €15,000 to €25,000, attests to the importance of this aspect in the artist's body of work. His etchings reveal on paper the essence of acid biting into metal and take on an almost sculptural appearance. The holes in the copper plate shape and transform these engravings into an abstract form. For Soulages, printing a rectangular shape on rectangular paper is a redundancy that he seeks to banish. The acid creates "fortuitous" forms, whose existence arises from the artist's hand as an adventure since chance guides it.

The lyrical abstraction celebrated by two works of Gérard Schneider
Gérard Schneider (1896-1986), associated with the lyrical abstraction movement and close to surrealist circles, is one of the pioneers of abstraction in Europe. Detaching it from any reference to the perceptible real world, he experiments with an aesthetic and radical painting. A sincere friend of Georges Mathieu, Hans Hartung, and Pierre Soulages, he quickly exhibits his works internationally alongside these three great names. And from 1950 onwards, he participates in exhibitions in increasingly prestigious galleries.

Gérard Schneider (1896-1986)
Opus 86 K, 1974
Acrylic on canvas, signed and dated bottom right, titled on the back
65 x 81 cm
Provenance
VAEP Marie-Françoise Robert-Franck Baille sale, Drouot Richelieu, 11/27/2006, lot no. 53.
Private collection, Paris region.
Estimation: €20,000 - €30,000

Estimated at €20,000 / €30,000, this abstract composition from 1974, with dominant blues, yellows, and magentas, balanced and elegant, illustrates Schneider's research. In search of abstract and poetic aesthetics, the artist here offers complete freedom of gesture, translated by the explosion of colors. This renewed energy marks the post-war turning point.

With an estimate of €8,000 / €12,000, Untitled, 1971, acrylic on paper, offers dominant reds and navy blues. It evokes a search for musicality, balance, and spontaneity. According to Schneider: "Abstract painting should be seen as one listens to music, feeling the emotional interiority of the work without seeking an identification with any figurative representation. What is important, therefore, is not to see the abstract, but to feel it. [...]". This work on paper shows all the sincerity and candor of Schneider's aesthetic approach, in a composition that is both stormy and harmonious. The brushstrokes, witnesses to the artist's inner state, translate his internal turmoil into a colorful symphony.

Three paintings by Lanskoy up for auction
Russian painter of the new school of Paris, André Lanskoy (1903-1976) produced paintings recognizable for their particularly vibrant colors. Self-taught, between 1935 and 1941, he transitioned from figuration to abstraction. During this period, forms became, under his brush, colored spots. Precise, Lanskoy's work is characterized by great variety. The artist produced gouaches, oils, as well as illustrations for books, tapestries, and mosaics.

Estimated at €50,000 / €80,000, this canvas from 1959 illustrates his search for abstraction. Discarding any recognizable physical form, the artist retains only color as a means of pictorial expression. By chaining seemingly disordered brushstrokes, his "tachist" style would have been strongly influenced by Nicolas de Staël, a painter with whom Lanskoy was very close.

André Lanskoy (1902-1976)
Neither Dream nor Reality, 1959
Oil on canvas, signed bottom right, titled and dated on the back 66 x 82 cm
A certificate of authenticity from Mr. Angelo Pittiglio, dated December 8, 1989, will be given to the buyer.
Provenance Pittiglio Gallery, Paris.
Private collection, Paris.
Estimation: €50,000 - €80,000

Two other paintings from the 1960s, Les soucis des insouciants and Vague souvenir, estimated at €70,000 / €100,000 and €60,000 / €80,000 respectively, should also attract the attention of enthusiasts.

The Asian scene
This auction dedicated to contemporary art also highlights Asian artists, including Chu Teh-Chun and Kim Tschang-Yeul.

Chu Teh-Chun (1920-2014)
Untitled, 1979
Oil on canvas, signed bottom right, countersigned, dedicated, and dated on the back 46 x 61 cm
A certificate of authenticity from the Chu Teh-Chun Foundation will be given to the buyer.
Provenance
Gift from the artist and then by descent.
Estimation: €160,000 - €250,000

Chu Teh-Chun (1920-2014) remains one of the great masters of lyrical abstraction. Unique, this work from 1979 evokes his famous snow series. A landscapist of the abstract, Chu Teh-Chun fell in love with the French mountains from the mid-1960s and endeavored to depict their complex beauty. This canvas evokes a wintry mountain landscape, full of cliffs and reliefs. White represents a major part of the surface, and the blue tones suggest the icy reflections of the snow. Born in 1920 in the Jiangsu province, Chu Teh-Chun trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou, where he discovered a hybrid art, between East and West. Trained from his early years in Chinese calligraphy and classical poetry, he nevertheless chose the canvases of Cézanne, Degas, and Matisse, which fascinated and influenced him the most.

Kim Tschang-Yeul (1929-2021)
Drops of Water, 1973
Oil on canvas, signed and dated bottom right, signed, titled, dated, and bearing the stamp of the Thot Gallery in Avignon on the back of the chassis. 50 x 50 cm
Provenance
Thot Gallery, Avignon, 1973
Private collection, France
Exhibition "KIM Tschang-Yeul," Thot Gallery, Avignon, 1973
Estimation: €30,000 - €50,000

An important artist, Kim Tschang-Yeul is one of the key figures in the renewal of the contemporary Korean art scene. His grandfather introduced him to the calligraphy of ideograms, and this art irrigated his work throughout his career. Born in 1929 in present-day North Korea, Kim went to France, where he settled permanently in 1969 after visiting New York in 1965. It is in the early 1970s that Kim Tschang-Yeul used the theme of the water drop, distinctive and representative of his work. Dated 1973 and unpublished on the auction market, the canvas offered on April 6, 2023, by Aguttes is titled Drops of Water and presents his famous, realistic water droplets. Particularly interesting due to its intimate format and date, this work is part of the first paintings in the drops series. The quintessence of his work, these drops will be declined on various media and in different forms for more than 40 years. This motif not only does not hide its support but enhances it. A true trompe-l'oeil, it exudes a certain fragility and takes on a simultaneously precious and unstable appearance. It creates the illusion that the slightest gesture could make it disappear and thus constitutes a trace of the passing time.

Two other flagship lots
Bridge between East and West, the work of Fabienne Verdier. Heir to the last great Chinese calligraphers, this artist trained in Chongqing in the 1980s, after the Beaux-Arts de Toulouse. Between modernity and tradition, she creates a universe that belongs only to her, a work that evokes a form of absolute and universality. Her intervention on the canvas constitutes only a transition that allows her to move from a physical manifestation to a metaphysical production.

Fabienne Verdier (born in 1962)
Circle - Asceticism, 2012,
Ink, pigments, and varnish on canvas stretched on panel, signed and titled on the back
183 x 135 cm
A certificate of authenticity signed by the artist will be given to the buyer.
Provenance
Art Plural Gallery, Singapore
Private collection, Switzerland
Estimation: €80,000 - €120,000

Like the whirling dervish, whose dance with concentric movements leads to a trance, the circular movement that the artist makes to produce this circle evokes a deep and personal reflection. A symbol of unity and infinity, the circle illustrates natural perfection and the absolute. In Circle - Asceticism, the circle remains open and unfinished. Thus broken, it offers a universe of possibilities: a world that is not closed but, on the contrary, turned outward. It represents a spirit in conversation with the energies around it, in complicity with nature and with others.

Early on, Ladislas Kijno (1921-2012) attended Germaine Richier's workshop, who encouraged him in 1954 to dedicate himself to painting. At the crossroads between lyrical abstraction and abstract expressionism, Kijno's work is inspired by elements of reality, which the painter translates into simple lines and shapes in abstract compositions.

Ladislas Kijno (1921 - 2012)
Untitled, 1977
Polyptych of five oils on wood, signed at the bottom of the last panel,
150 x 50 cm (each)
Provenance
Private collection, Montpellier
Estimation: €30,000 - €50,000

Composed of 5 panels repeating the same motifs in different color variations, this monumental oil on wood is certainly the largest known work by this artist.

CONTEMPORARY ART

Auction Thursday, April 6, 2023, at 4 p.m. Aguttes Neuilly
Private exhibition
Now by appointment

Public exhibition
April 3-5, 2023, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
April 6, 2023, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Director and expert of the Contemporary Art department
Ophélie Guillerot
+33 1 47 45 93 02 • guillerot@aguttes.com