BLAST #6
Welcome to BLAST Issue 6
March 2023
AUCTIONS
Cameo role for the Vorticists
Christie’s Modern British Art sales last week totaled £24.4 million, comfortably within pre-sale estimates. A fascinating feature for readers of BLAST who understand the significance of the title, was a rare sighting in the market of nineteen Vorticist works. Mostly works on paper from between 1913-19 by artists who were part of the movement - Wyndham Lewis, Lawrence Atkinson, Edward Wadsworth, David Bomberg, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and William Roberts - it was designated ‘Radical Art: An important Vorticist Collection.’
Wyndham Lewis Dancing Figures courtesy of Christie's.The collection was assembled over several decades by a collector from California, commencing in 1985 with purchases from a young private dealer, Ivor Braka, and then a few years later, from Anthony d’Offay, the pioneering dealer whose 1969 exhibition, Abstract Art in England 1913-1915, was a landmark. Many of the works had been included in Vorticist exhibitions at the Yale Centre for British Art, the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, the Nasher Museum of Art in North Carolina and Tate Britain.
Cultural historians will not need reminding how significant the Vorticists were in the evolution of British modernism, not just in the visual arts but also in literature. The publication of BLAST, co-edited by Percy Wyndham Lewis and Ezra Pound in 1914 and 1915, is a testament to that, and Christie’s had dug out original copies of the two publications for auction viewers (though they were not included in the sale).
Visually, Vorticism is characterised by hard edged, angular abstraction – an offshoot of Cubism – and the dynamic vigour of Futurism, but without the sense of movement.
It was Britain’s response to both movements but, while art historically significant, has never achieved the same market profile. This was partly because it was British and British art of that period was considered inferior to European.
It was also because there has always been a shortage of supply. Not only was the movement short lived, but many of its products have either been lost or destroyed. Examples for sale and in good condition are therefore rare. As Anthony d’Offay described in his 1969 exhibition catalogue the group produced abstract art that ‘could rival anything in Europe’ for only a few brief years. But after the artists went to war, the movement was ‘blasted... crushed, defeated.... and went missing.’ The biggest Vorticist collection comprising over 150 paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture was formed by an American, John Quinn. But after his collection was dispersed in 1927, most were then lost. What survived were mainly small-scale drawings and watercolours, such as those shown by d’Offay, and represented in the Christie’s sale. Certainly, no one would ever have seen such a quantity of original Vorticist material at auction before.
John Duncan Fergusson. Submarines and Camouflaged Battleship courtesy of Christie'sFor Christie’s the issue was how to evaluate such works with little precedent to refer to. In the event, they judged it just right selling every lot with an estimate of £1 - £1.6 million for a total £1.6 million. Prices ranged from £10,800 for a posthumously published linocut of The Wrestlers by Gaudier-Brzeska to a double estimate £1,074 million for John Duncan Fergusson’s large cubist inspired 1918 oil of Submarines and Camouflaged Battleship . This had been bought at Sotheby’s in 1969 by d’Offay for £1,600 and acquired from Ivor Braka in 1985 – perhaps the starting point of this collection. It was the only oil painting in the collection and its top lot. One can but hope it will be lent for display to the Imperial War Museum, which would not have had the budget to buy it.
Although bidding sometimes felt flat, as it can in niche markets, it took off for William Roberts’ St George and the Dragon (see details below) and, though not strictly a Vorticist artist, for Fergusson’s stunning camouflaged ships.
Not strictly Vorticist in style was a 1921 portrait drawing of Iris Barry by Wyndham Lewis which was bought by the Leeds Art Gallery (see below). Barry was the sitter of the oil painting by Lewis in the Leeds collection entitled Praxitella, made more famous recently by the discovery of a lost Vorticist painting by Helen Saunders beneath the paint surface (see BLAST #2).
Below is a list of known bidders, hammer prices and estimates during the entire Modern British sale. The Vorticist lots were 18-26 and 123 – 130.
Buyers (with final hammer prices)
2 David Hockney. Celia, 1970. £160,000 (£180/250,000) - Offer Waterman
12 Euan Uglow. Standing Nude, Blue Dress, 1978-1981. £400,000 (£300/500,000) - Piano Nobile. Second highest price for the artist at auction
David Bomberg The Dancer courtesy of Christie's20 David Bomberg. Figure Study (Racehorse) c.1913 £300,000 (£300/500,000) - Gurr Johns
21 Wyndham Lewis. Protraction, 1914. £50,000 (£50/70,000) - Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert. Holland-Hibbert sold this picture in 2004 to the American collector who was selling last week, and tells BLAST ‘the price has moved up along with the rest of the market,’ buying it for another private collector.
22 David Bomberg. The Dancer, 1913/14. £170,000 (£150/250,000) - Daniel Katz. A record for a work on paper by the artist.
40. Henry Moore. Working Model for Thin Reclining Figure, 1978. £280,000 (£350/450,000) - Osborne Samuel. Arguably the bargain of the evening, this late work was estimated last summer at £600/800,000 at Christie’s but went unsold.
106. Keith Vaughan. Pomegranate, Lemon, Cup 1948. £32,000 (£20/30,000) - Jenna Burlingham
109. Peter Lanyon. Little Bracken, 1951. £15,000 (£15/25,000) - Alan Wheatley
124. Wyndham Lewis. Iris Barry Seated, 1921. £17,000 (£15/25,000) - Leeds Art Gallery
218. Craigie Aitchison. Crucifixion V11, c.1967-68. £15,000 (£10/15,000) - Piano Nobile
155. Lionel Bulmer. Footpath in the Snow, 1964. £6.500 (£2/3,000) - Jenna Burlingham
169. Joan Eardley. Girl in Pink, 1961-3. £11,000 (£8/12,000) - Jack Wakefield.
234. John Piper. The Garden at Stourhead, 1939. £26,000 (£12/18,000) -Jenna Burlingham
238. Keith Vaughan. Nude against a Rock, 1957. £82,000 (£20/30,000) - Osborne Samuel
Underbidders (with final hammer prices)
William Roberts St George and the Dragon courtesy of Christie's6. Barbara Hepworth. Small Oval, 1963. £470,000 (£300/500,000) - Hugh Gibson
9. Barbara Hepworth. Pierced Form (Toledo), 1957. £2.9million (£2.5/3.5 million) - Hugh Gibson
22. David Bomberg. The Dancer, 1913/14. £170,000 (£150/250,000) – Ivor Braka
26. William Roberts. St George and the Dragon, 1913-14. £190,000 (£40/60,000) - Holland-Hibbert. A record for a work on paper by the artist
120. Vanessa Bell. Flower Study, 1920. £62,000 (£15/25,000) - Mark Goodman, Piano Nobile
163. Gwen John. Mimosa and Flowers in a Vase, c.1930. £18,000 (£3/5,000) - Jack Wakefield
Additional records
1. Pauline Boty. BUM 1966. £239,400 (£60/80,000), a record for a work on paper by the artist
19. Wyndham Lewis. Dancing Figures, 1914. £107,100
25. Lawrence Atkinson. Abstract Composition, c 1914-16. (£50,400), a record for a work on paper by the artist
28. John Duncan Fergusson. Submarines and Camouflaged Battleship, 1918. £1,074,000 (£400/600,000)
101. Edith Rimmington. Capsicum, 1949 £15,120 (£1/2,000)
Colin Gleadell is the art market columnist for The Daily Telegraph and a regular contributor to Artnet News, Art Monthly, and Artsy. Prior to The Telegraph, he worked for the Paul Mellon Foundation for British Art as a researcher, the Crane Kalman Gallery as a gallery manager, and Bonhams auctioneers as Head of Modern Pictures. He worked for ten years (1986 – 1997) as the features editor of Galleries Magazine, whilst also contributing to leading art market publications such as Art & Auction and Art News where he was the London correspondent of the Artnewsletter. He Introduced Sister Wendy Beckett to the BBC for whom he worked as a consultant on market programmes such as the Relative Values series (1991). He also worked as an art market consultant for Channel 4 News.
Gleadell was on the original advisory committee for the 20th Century British Art Fair in 1988, where he has served ever since as it changed its name to the 20/21 British Art Fair, and now British Art Fair.