Christie’s 1/23/2021

Art stories to feed the mind and soul



Out of the shadows: from Bierstadt to Blake, artists who found inspiration in darkness



Why the Renaissance might have been different without this man, Marcantonio Raimondi


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Art books to buy now: Nazi and Napoleonic plunderers, Bacon, Rothko, Rawsthorne and more



From the archive: Peggy Guggenheim and the ghosts of her Venetian palazzo



Zizi Jeanmaire and Yves Saint Laurent: the couture that shaped the friendship of a lifetime



Art for 2021 in the US and Canada — a dozen openings and exhibitions for your radar


More stories

Editor’s picks





Pino Pascali’s Bomba was painted in the mid-1960s, when the artist was also making his famous series of fake guns, bombs and other armaments out of car parts. He traced this interest back to the games of soldiers he played in childhood, as the Second World War raged

Estimate: €6,000-8,000
until 10 February, Online






Depicting a man deep in thought, sitting on the ground with his chin resting on his folded arms, this pre-Columbian terracotta sculpture from Colima in Mexico dates from around 250 AD. The horn protruding from the figure’s head marks him out as a shaman

Estimate: €6,000-9,000
9 February, Paris






Léon Bakst’s stunning sets and costumes for the Ballets Russes — Sergei Diaghilev’s sensational avant-garde dance company, which toured Europe from 1909 to 1929 — are recorded in this lavishly illustrated book, The Decorative Art of Léon Bakst. It features notes on the ballets by the artist’s friend, Jean Cocteau

Estimate: $2,000-3,000
until 29 January, Online






This 19th-century rococo dessert service from the Gutfreund collection is particularly rich in decorative detail. A different military scene has been painted on each of the 16 porcelain handles, and there are playful mermaids in the silver-gilt stems of the forks and serving spoons

Estimate: $2,000-3,000
until 28 January, Online










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Peggy Guggenheim and her dogs in the palazzo gardens, with Germaine Richier’s sculpture, Tauromachy, 1953. Photo: Ray Wilson. Courtesy of Peggy Guggenheim Collection Archives. Artwork: © Germaine Richier, DACS 2021 // Félix Vallotton (Swiss, 1865-1925), The Lie, 1898. The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland, BMA 190.298. Photo: Mitro Hood. From the Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis, Paris, 1889-1900 exhibition at Cleveland Museum of Art / Vincent van Gogh, Tree Trunks in the Grass, 1890. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands. From the Hockney-Van Gogh: The Joy of Nature exhibition at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston / The Academy Museum, Fairfax Avenue. © Renzo Piano Building Workshop /© A.M.P.A.S./ Images from L’Autre Image / The Marcel Breuer building, the temporary home of the Frick Madison from 2021. Photo: courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Truth), 2013. Collection of Margaret and Daniel S. Loeb. © Barbara Kruger. Digital image courtesy of the artist. From the Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago / Rembrandt van Rijn, The Blinding of Samson, 1636. Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main. Inventory Number 1383. From the Rembrandt in Amsterdam: Creativity and Competition exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada