The work of Francis Bacon raised $50,4 million following a four-minute battle between five bidders, vastly surpassing his $30 million estimate. An outstanding example of Bacon's most celebrated and recognizable iconography, the work powerfully captures the silent scream of his iconic Popes. Offered from the collection of Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis, 1952's Study for a Head belongs to a series of six small paintings in the head-and-shoulders portrait format completed by Bacon that year, which advanced both his suitable businessmen as well as papal imagery began in the late 40s.
COURTESY SOTHEBY'S
Assembled in the 70s and 80s, the Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis Collection now belongs to the Friday Foundation, a private charitable organization committed to working with its cultural partners to ensure that the great works remaining in the collection are appreciated from the public, while also supporting key art ventures that were important to the Langs with proceeds from sales. Further works from the collection will be offered in our Contemporary Art auction tomorrow.
COURTESY SOTHEBY'S
Competition between at least four bidders prompted Mark Rothko's Untitled, 1960 to sell for $50,1 million (estimate $35/50 million). The painting was offered on behalf of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), sold to benefit the institution's Acquisitions Fund. A major work completed at the height of Rothko's artistic powers, Untitled, 1960 is one of only 19 paintings completed by the artist in 1960. That year marked a critical moment in Abstract Expressionism's iconic career, following his commission definition of the Seagram Murals (1958-59) and its US representation in the XXIX Venice Biennale (1958) – organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, which subsequently held the first and only major Rothko retrospective in 1961.
