21.4.2024 - Evening Sale Prague at Expo 58 ART
EVENING SALE PRAGUE
Sunday April 21, 2024 in Expo 58 ART EXHIBITION HALL
(Letenske sady 1500/80, Prague 7, Czech Republic)
Pre-auction exhibition:
March 20 - April 20, 2024 (10 AM - 6 PM); then April 21 (10 AM - 3:30 PM)
The most important lot in the auction will be Frantisek Kupka's oil Conception / Danae.
This famous painting is Kupka's "Mona Lisa", whose starting price is set at CZK 85 million. Kupka encoded the old mythological story of Danae into the painting Conception / Danae, in which Zeus, in an attempt to give birth to a son with Danae, transformed himself into a golden rain and in this form penetrated to the hidden princess. In this way, Kupka has woven an ancient mythological source into a machinic image that combines the power of the machine and sexual connection. In this phenomenal, dynamic image he summed up the entire universe, combining surviving and modernist modes of representation, while also using both to express the state of the art of the time. This is one of the most remarkable oils Kupka ever created.
The auction will also include an exceptional French collection of paintings, with 14 artworks by the Czech-French painter Josef Sima. This collection, which the French collector had until recently displayed in his vast chateau in a beautiful park in Normandy, was forty years in the making. Because of his age, he decided to sell the collection. This extraordinary collection of seven top-quality oils and seven works on paper (mostly using the gouache technique) is representative of Sima's post-war output (apart from one early gouache from 1919), which is now coming to the forefront of collectors' and investors' attention. We are delighted and obliged that this experienced French collector has chosen Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery to sell his collection. Sima's oils will be auctioned with starting prices ranging from CZK 990 000 to CZK 5 800 000.
Another extraordinary convolute of gallery quality that will appear in the auction will be works from the collection of Adam Gallery, Brno. Among the eleven works on offer from this unique collection, the auction will offer, for example, Vaclav Bostik's work, Nebulae, with a starting price of CZK 3,900,000. Other works with this provenance will include significant works by Karel Malich, Jan Merta, Jan Mancuska, Dalibor Chatrny, Josef Bolf, Lubomir Typlt and others.
The auction will offer a highly collectible oil Madonne by Jan Zrzavy, which the artist painted in Paris in 1929–1930 and gave to the wife of the famous French historian Edouard Dolleans. The painting will be offered at a price of CZK 3 500 000.
Another key work of the auction will be Emil Filla's masterpiece Still Life with Grappa, Grapes and Bottle with a starting price of CZK 3 million.
The pre-auction offer will also include a unique Abstract Composition (Trégastel) by Frantisek Kupka. This colour gouache on paper goes to auction with a starting price of CZK 1 350 000. Kupka painted it during his stay in Trégastel (Bretagne), where he often went on holiday.
The selective auction will offer a unique collage by Toyen Ceci est inévitable from 1949. The painting belonged to the collection of Meret Oppenheim, the first lady of the world surrealist movement, and was included in the auction by her museum in Carona, Switzerland. The starting price is set at CZK 1 350 000.
From the restitution of the National Gallery in Prague comes an oil painting by the renowned French painter Maurice de Vlaminck Street from 1925, for which the incentive bid price is set at CZK 1 100 000.
Czech 19th century painting will be represented in the auction, especially by rare oils by Ludek Marold Chess Player and Antonin Slavicek The Road in Kamenicky with a starting price of CZK 1 300 000.
The highlights of the auction will include two oils by Vaclav Spala, Puddles in a Pitcher and Still Life with Pears.
The famous Czech-Austrian painter Oskar Kokoschka will be represented in the auction by an outstanding watercolour Polperro from 1939, which the artist painted from the window of his house during his stay in the English fishing village of the same name. Oskar Kokoschka subsequently presented the work to the then Czechoslovak President Edvard Benes. Later, the work, which goes to auction with a starting price of CZK 900 000 was acquired by the famous Oscar-winning actor Peter Ustinov through the Edinborough Gallery.
The attention of collectors and investors will undoubtedly be attracted by the beautiful pastel Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt, from 1921, by the famous Art Nouveau painter Alfons Mucha, with a starting price of CZK 600 000.
The auction will also offer two life-size sculptures Kazi and Teta by Olbram Zoubek with starting prices of CZK 550 000.
Joza Uprka is represented by a high-quality oil painting Girl in Spring Costume. The painting was previously exhibited at Uprka's cross-sectional exhibition at the National Gallery in Prague and goes to auction with a starting price of CZK 450 000.
The auction will also include Max Kopf's rare oils Still Life with Pipe with a starting price of CZK 280 000 and Antonin Pelc's Liftboy with a starting price of CZK 330 000.
Contemporary art is represented by top works by Zdenek Sykora, Radoslav Kratina, Vera Janouskova, Jiri Sopko, Magdalena Jetelova, Jiri G. Dokoupil, Michael Rittstein, Vladimir Kokolia, Ivan Exner, Kristof Kintera, Hynek Martinec and many others.
All artworks have been carefully examined by the most prominent Czech and foreign experts.
The auction house is the only one in the Czech Republic to offer a lifetime guarantee of the authenticity of the offered works of art.
Auction date: 21 April 2024 at 4 PM
Venue of the auction: the Expo 58 ART Exhibition Hall, Letenske sady 1500/80, 170 00 Prague 7
Venue of the pre-auction exhibition: the Expo 58 ART Exhibition Hall in Letenske sady
March 20 – April 20 from 10 AM to 6 PM
April 21 from 10 AM to 2 PM
(open daily including weekends and holidays)
