The sale, dedicated to modern and contemporary art, includes works by artists who belong to art movements recognised for their importance in the history of art, but whose prices remain relatively affordable: Arte Povera and Figuration Narrative.
Alighiero Boetti is one of the leading artists of the Italian Arte Povera movement, to whom the Fondation Pinault is devoting an exhibition until 20 January 2025. Four of his embroideries on canvas from a major Belgian collection are featured in the sale on Tuesday 4 December. Estimated at between €30,000 and €40,000, Lasciare il erto per l'incerto, (1987), Tavolta sole tavolta luna, (1988), Cinque x cinque venticinque, (1988), and Un filo di voce un filo di luce, 1992 were woven by Afghan embroiderers, first in Afghanistan, then in Pakistan after the Soviet invasion in 1978. Boetti's squares illustrate a form of magical rationalism in which words play with numbers (and numbers with words), lulled by mystical oriental thought and brilliant colours.
These works echo those of the Egyptian artist Ghada Amer, exhibited in 2022 at the Mucem in Marseille for her first retrospective in France. A woman, artist and activist, her use of embroidery is, as it was for Boetti, a political gesture.
Boetti, is a political gesture. Here, it serves to reflect on masculinity and female pleasure (Untitled, 1996, €10,000 / €15,000). Another Belgian collection sheds new light on another major movement of the 1960s, this one mainly French: Figuration narrative.
Among the emblematic pieces are Mesures n°2A, (diptych) €20,000 / 30,000), an oil on canvas created in 1972 by Jacques Monory (€20,000 / 30,000) and a series of paintings that were all part of the exhibition ‘La résistance des images’ curated by Jean-Jacques Aillagon at the Patinoire Royale in Brussels in 2015.
They are by Peter Klasen (Passager clandestin, 1966, €25,000 / €35,000; Visage + petit robinet, 1970, €18,000 / €25,000), Gudmundur Erró, (Le Concorde, (Mao sur la place de la Concorde), 1980, €25,000 / €35,000) or Gilles Aillaud (Sans titre, n°141, (Tortues), 1972, €100,000 / €150,00 and Grille sans croco, 1969, €50,000 / €70,000).Also not to be missed is an oil and vinyl on paper dated 1975 by Jean Dubuffet, Mondanité XXII, estimated at between €300,000 and €400,000.
