"Christie's has secured the consignment of a mobile by Alexander Calder made of wood from early in the artist's career. Specialists expect the work, the leading lot of the Christie's 20th Century Evening Sale next month, to sell for between $15m and $20m-Calder's highest-ever auction estimate. Painted Wood (1943) is the largest and most significant of Calder's wooden Constellation mobiles ever to appear at auction, according to Christie's."
"The work is being offered from the collection of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, a prominent collector of predominantly Latin American art. Its provenance is notable: the mobile was featured in Calder's landmark 1943 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which made him-at age 45-the youngest artist to receive a solo exhibition at the museum. (Frank Stella broke that record in 1970 and still holds the title today.)"
"The record for Calder's work at auction was set in 2020, when a later mobile sold at Sotheby's New York for a shocking $15.6m against a high estimate of $8m after a ten-minute bidding war. Even if Painted Wood sells at the low end of its estimate, breaking Calder's auction record in November seems plausible. Calder, who died in 1976 aged 78, is currently the subject of multiple high-profile institutional presentations, including at the newly opened Calder Gardens in Philadelphia."
Christie's has secured the consignment of a wooden mobile by Alexander Calder from early career, expected to lead the 20th Century Evening Sale next month. Specialists estimate the sale price between $15 million and $20 million, a career-high estimate for Calder at auction. Painted Wood (1943) is the largest and most significant of Calder's wooden Constellation mobiles to appear at auction. The work comes from the collection of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and was exhibited in Calder's 1943 MoMA retrospective. Calder features in multiple institutional presentations including Calder Gardens and a Whitney exhibition celebrating Calder's Circus centennial.
Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events
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