The auction house Rossini is organising on 7 July a ‘Sale of Modern & Greek Art’, the first part of which will be devoted to paintings, works on paper, and sculptures of modern and contemporary art, while the second part puts the spotlight on Greek art.
In this first part, comprising 171 lots, we note the presence of two drawings by Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita. Of Japanese origin, Foujita moved to Paris at the start of the 20th century and quickly made friends with modern artists, such as Picasso and Modigliani. These two drawings, characteristic of the artist, illustrate his hybrid style, with precise lines and defined contours reminiscent of traditional Japanese art.
A painting by Alfons Walde will also be presented. An Austrian artist and architect, Walde is known for his work of snowy landscapes and his exploration of natural light. This tempera on cardboard shows a smiling woman, walking against the wind and facing the sun, whose warm light tints the white snow with yellow and orange reflections.
Contemporary art will be highlighted with two acrylics on paper by Hans Hartung, dated 1971 and 1972. A French painter of German origin, Hartung was also a sculptor, photographer, and architect. The two works on offer at Rossini show him at the height of his art in the 1970s, when his compositions, characteristic of lyrical abstraction, are governed by movement and guided by creative emotion. At the antipodes of geometric abstraction, more distant and reserved, Hartung delivers here two works imbued with the expressive enthusiasm which was the secret of his success.
Three beautiful works by Henri Michaux join the selection. Writer, novelist, poet and artist, Michaux is known for his esoteric style. His written work resonates with his visual work, which was abstract, fascinating and somewhat baffling. In fact, in this bewitching acrylic and Indian ink, we find these same emotions, in particular in the abstract and organic forms characteristic of his style, and which vaguely create an illusion of multiple figures scattered on the surface of the paper.
Let's conclude this first part of the sale with two oils from Seund Ja Rhee. Korean painter and ceramist, she moved to Paris after the Korean War. Primarily an abstract painter, she works on the harmony of shapes and colours, as in this Untitled canvas from 1962, where the juxtaposition of complementary tones by fine touches of paint creates the effect of a magnetic sparkle.
The sale will continue with a rare and original selection of 60 lots of Greek art, bringing together paintings and sculptures by 19th- and 20th-century artists. Among them we find Yannis Gaïtis, of which four works will be presented. In this selection offered by Rossini, the compositions oscillate between abstraction and figurative forms, which, while are strangely familiar to us, also seem distorted by the artist's perception. We note the presence of a large canvas, Deep Blue, in which Gaïtis freely explores the effects of colour and the frank gesture of the brush.
Thanos Tsingos will also be represented in this sale, with a beautiful set of seven works (lots 204 to 210). Painter and architect, Tsingos' work is a reflection of his eventful and adventurous life. Fighting in World War II, he was arrested and sentenced to life in prison for his political activism, before finally being pardoned. In Red and Green Cliff Between Sky and Sea, the artist paints unexpectedly, with vigour and frenzy, diverting the apparent simplicity of the landscape in favour of a representation governed by the force of colour.
We end this review with a mention for Jannis Spyropoulos, an artist considered to be one of the greatest Greek abstract painters. The work Fishing Village by the Sea, which defies the diktat of perspective, on the other hand illustrates Spyropoulos' primary predilection for figurative art.
The Parisian auction house will host viewings from 5 July, with the sale on 7 July.
