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Category Archives: Peter’s Auction Picks
Outstanding Post Auction Lots Still Available
Exceptional Investment Opportunities
from the Giants of Modern
Today, Peter and Dan combine forces to spotlight several amazing lots from last Sunday’s record-breaking auction that are still available for purchase — all at amazing prices. The lots Peter and Dan highlight are just the tip of the iceberg. Please see our complete list of unsold lots.
Continue Reading >> May 23, 2013Posted in Dan on Design, Peter's Auction Picks | Tagged Dan Tolson, Eames, gio ponti, Horace Bristol, LAMA, Man Ray, modern art, Modern Design, Osvaldo Borsani, Peter Loughrey | Leave a comment
Peter’s Picks of the Day: Ceramics
Today I’d very much like to discuss a group of remarkable ceramists represented in Sunday’s auction. These master craftsmen changed our artistic recognition of the clay medium. Glen Lukens, Peter Voulkos, and Ken Price revolutionized ceramics in Los Angeles and the world beyond.
Continue Reading >> May 17, 2013Posted in Peter's Auction Picks, Words from Peter Loughrey | Tagged ceramics, Glen Lukens, Ken Price, Modern ceramics, Peter Loughrey, Peter Voulkos | 1 Comment
Peter’s Auction Pick of the Day: Billy Al Bengston and Ken Price
Today, I’d like to share some thoughts about the great Los Angeles artists Billy Al Bengston and Ken Price, their epic friendship, and how they are both children and fathers of the Southern California art scene.
This week LAMA was honored by a visit from Mr. Bengston and he retains the same wit and magnetism he carried so effortlessly 50 years ago. We’re honored to spotlight the legend of Bengston and Price.
Continue Reading >> May 16, 2013Posted in LAMA Exclusive, Peter's Auction Picks, Words from Peter Loughrey | Tagged Billy Al Bengston, Ken Price, Los Angeles Art, Southern California Art | Leave a comment
Peter’s Auction Pick of the Day: Vija Celmins Painting from 1964
For over twenty years, Los Angeles Modern Auctions (LAMA) has been privileged to auction over 25,000 works of modern art and design, but last February a longtime friend and client of LAMA presented me one of the most important works LAMA has ever represented: Vija Celmins’ Untitled (Knife and Dish) (Lot 160) from her seminal year of 1964.
I had never seen a Celmins painting from this legendary era in-person and for good reason – the artist only created these object paintings for a brief period in 1964. They are therefore extremely rare; experts have speculated that there are fewer than ten such paintings in existence. The works that have survived, and are publicly known, are in the Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, as well as important private collections.
Continue Reading >> May 15, 2013Posted in LAMA Exclusive, Peter's Auction Picks, Words from Peter Loughrey | Tagged contemporary art, LACMA, MoMA, Peter Loughrey, Vija Celmins | Leave a comment
Peter’s Auction Pick of the Day: Exploring the Artist’s Hand
Peter’s Auction Pick of the Day: Exploring the Artist’s Hand
“The artist’s hand…” You may have heard art historians use that term to convey how a master leaves very specific and telltale signs of his or her authorship with every muse-kissed scratch, scrawl, and dab. An expert can spot an unsigned Picasso as genuine merely by identifying Picasso’s one-of-a-kind handling of every medium he ever tackled.
Sunday’s fast approaching auction boasts an intriguing group of works that take the phrase “the artist’s hand” even more literally – for in each of the following lots the artist works his own appendage into the composition. There’s something deeply personal when an artist gives his hand, his unaccredited collaborator if you will, a cameo.
Continue Reading >> May 14, 2013Posted in Peter's Auction Picks, Words from Peter Loughrey | Tagged Alexander Calder, Bruce Nauman, Emerson Woelffer, Harry Bertoia, LAMA, Man Ray, Peter Loughrey, Sam Francis | 2 Comments
Peter’s Auction Pick of the Day: Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
Peter’s Auction Pick of the Day: Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
Regarding the power of things…there’s a magic trick with which artists have been delighting us for millennia: The conjurer of canvas may invest so much of his own soul into depicting an inanimate object that the resulting painting or photo of mere lifeless metal, vegetable, meat, or clay can evoke in its beholder an overwhelming emotional response.
Therefore, inspired by our neighbors on Van Nuys Blvd—the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms—my picks for today have inspired me to meditate upon a certain type of inanimate object in art: the Object of Vice—Evil you can smoke, drink, and/or shoot.
Continue Reading >> May 13, 2013Posted in Peter's Auction Picks | Tagged Bill Barminski, Gottfried Helnwein, Larry Rivers, Peter Loughrey | 2 Comments
Peter’s Auction Pick of the Day: Opportune Investments in Abstract Painting
My pick today is a group of exceptional paintings with strong provenance and exhibition history by John Ferren, Leonard Edmondson, and Emil Bisttram, artists whom were wildly successful during their careers, yet neglected by art critics and historians in recent years. Click to read more about why this is the perfect moment to invest in the work of these artists.
Continue Reading >> December 14, 2012Posted in Peter's Auction Picks | Tagged Abstract painting, Bisttram, Edmondson, Ferren, Modern painting | Leave a comment
Peter’s Auction Pick of the Day: Tapestries
In Part Two of the 20th Anniversary Auction, we’re offering an interesting selection of tapestries from around the world, each piece representing a unique approach to the textile medium. Each of these works has the added provenance of coming from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a respected Los Angeles art institution that continues to promote healing through art.
Posted in Peter's Auction Picks | Tagged Alexander Calder, Cedars-Sinai Hospital Art, Ernest Trova, Modern Tapestry, Sadamasa Motonaga | Leave a comment