It's kind of like going to a museum, only free. It was really great cause Liz knows loads about the pieces and artists they had up for auction so I learned a lot from what she was telling me. Since she interned there, she also gave me the inside scoop of the workings of the auction house, where things happen, what goes on behind the closed doors and everything that goes into making a successful Christie's auction happen. Everything was so interesting!! They have a morning sale and an evening sale. The evening sale usually has the big ticket items. We're talking pieces going for multimillions. I discovered an artist who was part of the morning auction, Bernard Buffet , that I really liked. Hadn't heard of him previously, nor had Liz.
I also really liked Jean Dufy's pieces. The colors are so vibrant! This one is called Caliches et cavaliers:
There were pieces in the evening sale from Rodin, Cezanne, Monet, Renoir, Picasso and Dali, to name a view. I'd seen some of each of those artists work while taking my Art History class in London. Not that I'm incredibly familiar with all of their work. I know some bigger pieces. After viewing some of his pieces today, I've decided I would not want to be inside Dali's head. That's some scary stuff! On second thought, maybe I would like to know what was going on while he was creating his pieces. (I just checked out how the sale was going... Monet's Les Peupliers went for $22.5 million!).
What's really crazy, which Liz pointed out to me, is these pieces are being bought mostly for private ownership. These viewings might possibly be the last time the pieces are seen in public during our lifetime! How crazy is that to think about? After she mentioned that fact, I couldn't help but think about it when I was looking around. Some pieces weren't on the walls by their information plaques. Liz explained sometimes when a person is interested in a piece, the Christie's art specialists will take it from the viewing spots and meet with the interested parties in private rooms. There the interested party can take a closer look and get more information from the specialist. It was so cool!
Next week they are having a Post-War and Contemporary Art auction and we got to see some of those highlights. Lichtenstein's, Warhol's, Twombly's, Koons', Pollock's and more. Here's a couple of my favorites I saw:
I really loved this one but I forgt to get ANY information on it (not even sure which time period it falls under!) so if you know it, let me know!
We closed down the shop, too. We were in the middle of looking through one gallery and one of the security men announced the viewing was over. Liz said they were now going to have to take all the pieces down, remove the walls and set up chairs. The pieces would get ready to be auctioned off.
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