LONDON, Ely House – This summer, Bloomsbury Auctions present their first-ever auction dedicated to recent and emerging Contemporary Art at Mallett’s magnificent Ely House, with some of the best examples in this active and increasingly popular area of the market. The sale will take place on Tuesday 30th June, at 4pm, with viewing from Wednesday 24th June. The sale will also feature a unique watercolour produced by Peter Doig exclusively to raise money for WWF with all proceeds from the sale going to the charity.
It also suggests the emerging and cutting edge quality to the works, in that they are ‘box fresh’ and a reference to Carter Ratcliff’s watershed treatise on 1970s art theory, first published in 2000, titled; Out of the Box: The Reinvention of Art, 1965-1975.
Artists include: Nigel Cooke, Peter Doig, Rodney Graham, Damien Hirst, Frederick Kunath, Julie Mehretu, Chris Ofili, Grayson Perry, Dan Rees, Christian Rosa, Eva Rothschild and Conrad Shawcross amongst others.
Jeremy Deller Installation: I ? Melancholy
From one of Britain’s best loved and most popular contemporary artists Jeremy Deller is ‘I ? Melancholy’. Deller uses populist media such as posters, T-shirts, television documentaries even bouncy castles to examine the eccentricities of what we consider to be the British psyche. His work is witty and playful, but not disposable: through much of the work lies a charming sentimentality, a poignant inclusiveness and above all a powerful meaning.
At the 2012 Hayward Gallery retrospective, the audience was met with a huge black wall painting with the words ‘I ? Melancholy’ stencilled in black gloss on top of the matt background. This is an early work from 1993 but has rarely been seen in public. Originally issued in an edition of 5, this is the first edition of the work ever to appear at auction. It is estimated at £7,000-9,000.
Three Iconic Works by UK Sculptor Eva Rothschild
More than most of her contemporaries, Rothschild is engaged with enduring sculptural issues. She uses materials such as steel, Plexiglas, leather and wood, media more closely related to other disciplines such as craft and architecture. It is no surprise therefore that her concerns seem to be very much to do with how objects occupy space and volume, and the role of gravity in holding objects together, to allow the desired presentation of the work.
Rothschild first came to prominence in the landmark Whitechapel Gallery exhibition Early One Morning in 2002, itself a remake of the much-vaunted 1965 exhibition of the same title and venue. She has since gone on to be included in several high profile exhibitions worldwide, famously taking over the Duveen Galleries at Tate Britain with her monumental sculpture ‘Cold Corners’ in 2011.
Arguably her best known work is the sculpture Meta, four large triangular sheets of polished steel that fit together to create a pyramid structure. The work was produced in an edition of 3, and has been included in several exhibitions worldwide most recently at Waddesdon Manor’s House Of Cards exhibition of 2012. This is the first time this sculpture has ever appeared at public auction, and is offered at £35,000-45,000.
From the same private collection, are two further sculptural works by Rothshcild. N.G.O of 2002 is a hanging piece constructed from leather, which resembles Eva Hesse’s pivotal 1960s work Vertiginous Detour, now housed at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC. This work is estimated at £30,000-40,000.
Cactus is a free-standing sculpture constructed from plastic tubing to form a U-bend, with leather tassels cascading from the two ends. It was last seen at the South London Gallery’s retrospective on the artist in 2007, and is now estimated at £10,000-15,000.
Nigel Cooke, ‘Food’, 2005
One of the most celebrated painters to emerge in London in the early 2000s, Nigel Cooke continues to exhibit in commercial and public spaces worldwide to much acclaim.
‘Food’, an oil on canvas from 2005, measuring 6 x 9 feet, was first exhibited at the South London Gallery where it was purchased by the current vendor. The first of Cooke’s large scale painting ever to appear at auction, it is now offered at £100,000-150,000.
Commenting on the exhibition, Nigel Cooke has said: “This show is engaged with ideas of time and its expenditure – work, free-time and fun – and their relationship to the business of painting, making it a very personal exhibition in some ways. The emphasis on genre and generalisations is important too: the paintings at first seem to be about grand themes, then turn out to be about other things entirely.”
Highlights from the inaugural Mallett Auction of 18th Century and Regency furniture, works of art, ceramics and glass will also be on display at Ely House alongside Bloomsbury Auctions’ first Contemporary Art sale ahead of the ‘Mallett At Home’ auction on Tuesday 7th July.
Website: www.bloomsburyauctions.com
