Lambertville, NJ: On Thursday, November 5, 2015, Rago will hold auctions of 19th/20th Century American and European Art and Post-War/Contemporary Art. The sale offers an important collection of work by Andy Warhol, and more fresh to market material, with many significant deaccessions from important private collections. 

An important Andy Warhol piece in the sale is lot 734, Open This End, ca. 1966, a silkscreen inks on Waste Basket Boutique dress, estimated at $600,000-800,000.

By early 1962, Andy Warhol had found artistic inspiration in commercial objects and repeating images. With this, he would change the world of art and how we look at everyday objects.  

Open This End, part of a small series depicting shipping and handling labels, is one of the first paintings in which Warhol used silkscreen to reproduce commercial objects and repeating images. The technique suited Warhol well, allowing him to duplicate images at will in an artistic simulation of industrial production. Within months of producing Open This End, the artist discovered that he could use silkscreen printing to reproduce photographs. Images of the recently deceased Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) soon followed, and opened the way to the long chain of influential works that would define the artist’s career and his era.

Open This End belongs to a group of paintings Warhol executed starting in 1962 depicting labels used in shipping: “Fragile:, “Fragile Handle With Care”, “Handle With Care Glass Thank You”, “This Side Up”, and “Open This End”. The silkscreen label “Open This End” appears in only four works in the Warhol oeuvre. Three of these are small silkscreen paintings on linen. The largest and most complex is the example for sale as lot 734, which Warhol chose to create on a Waste Basket Boutique dress. It is clear from its rich, dense field of color that Warhol methodically cleaned and re-inked the silkscreen after laying down each image.

Open This End references and suggests affinities with other art movements that took everyday objects as their subjects, including Conceptual Art, Performance Art and Fluxus (see the Robert Watts stamp machine, lot 667) and anticipates the role of written language in the work of Ed Ruscha, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger and Bruce Naumann, among others.

Andy Warhol continues with…

Lot 524: Lincoln Center Ticket, 1967, $1,000-1,500

Lot 525: Screen Tests/A Diary, 1967, $800-1,000

Lot 526: Untitled, from A Gold Book, 1957, unique trial proof $8,000-12,000

Lot 527: Untitled from A Gold Book, 1957, $800-1,200

Lot 596: Flowers, 1964, $15,000-25,000

Lot 631: Muhammad Ali (suite of four images) 1978, $80,000-120,000

Lot 632: Bad, 1977, $2,000-3,000

Lot 637: Birth of Venus on Zitura, 18k Gold Watch, Ltd., Switzerland, 1998, $1,500-2,500

Lot 639: Grace Kelly, 1984, $50,000-70,000

Lot 662: Joseph Beuys, State III, 1980-83, unique trial proof $40,000-60,000

Lot 674: Annie Oakley from Cowboys and Indians, 1986, $25,000-35,000

Lot 697: Blackglama (Judy Garland) from Ads, 1985, $18,000-24,000

Lot 739: Candy Box, Closed and Opened (unique), ca. 1983, $80,000-120,000

Lot 745: Santa Claus, from the Myths Portfolio, 1981, $12,000-18,000

Lot 746: Mildred Scheel (unique), 1980, $10,000-15,000

Lot 747: Martin Buber from Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century (unique), 1980, $10,000-15,000

Lot 750: Untitled Drawing (Double Sommerring's Gazelles) from Vanishing Animals, 1986, $10,000-15,000

19TH / 20TH AMERICAN / EUROPEAN ART: Thursday, November 5 at 10:00 a.m.

19th/20th C. American and European Art features paintings by Daniel Ridgway Knight, Richard Lorenz, José Gallegos Y Arnosa, James Carroll Beckwith, George Elmer Browne, Frederick Coburn, Albert Lynch, John Grabach, Luigi Lucioni, Milton Avery, Alfred Morang, Rolph Scarlett, Balcomb Greene, Moses Soyer, Jane Freilicher, Nell Blaine, Bernard Cathelin, Alexandre-Louis Jacob, Georges Stein, Jean Jansem, Hugues Claude Pissarro, Yuri Krasney, Nicola Simbari, Noe Canjura,

Aristodimos Kaldis, and Robert Moore Kulicke. Pennsylvania Impressionists and Modernists include Daniel Garber, John Fulton Folinsbee, Henry Bayley Snell, Alfred Nunamaker, William Francis Taylor, John Wells James, Robert Spencer, Antonio Pietro Martino, Giovanni Martino, Stanley Reckless, Bror Julius Olsson Nordfeldt, Louis Bosa, Lloyd Raymond Ney, Charles Rosen, Charles Evans, Lee Gatch, Louis Stone, Joseph Barrett and Anthony Michael Autorino. Prints by Rufino Tamayo, M.C. Escher, Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger,  Edouard Vuillard, Juan Gris, Edvard Munch, Fernand Léger, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, and Walter Henry Williams. Also, from a Private Pennsylvania collection: Lot 200, La Guirlande: Album Mensuel d’art et de, eleven Art Deco magazines under the direction of Umberto Brunelleschi, 1919-1920; and lot 218, Journal des Dames et des Modes, Paris, 1912-1914, seventy-nine issues in original titled wrappers with hand-colored pochoirs, with artists including George Barbier, Armand Vallee, H. Robert Dammy, Victor L. Huer, Fabius (Alberto Fabio Lorenzi), Charles Martin, Maurice Taquoy, Gerda Wegener and Roger Broders. Sculpture by Frederick William MacMonnies, Grace Helen Talbot, Henry Linder, Edward Berge, Louise Allen Hobbs, Edgardo Simone, Alfredo Pina, William Zorach, Edith Barretto Stevens Parsons, Jose De Creeft, Francisco Zuniga, and Gerhard Marcks. Works on paper by Jules Guerin, Reynolds Beal, Andrew Wyeth, Joseph Solman, Candido Portinari, Albert Gleizes, Salvador Dali, Walasse Ting, Chen Chi, and a collection of 15 lots by Joseph Stella.

POST–WAR AND CONTEMPORARY ART: Thursday, November 5, 2015 at 1:30 p.m.

Post-War and Contemporary Art features paintings by Allan D'Arcangelo, Ray Parker, Robert Natkin, Gerardo Chavez, Richard Hambleton, Alexis Rockman, Theodoros Stamos, Leonard Koscianski, Thomas Nozkowski, John Beerman, Leonard Nelson, Wolf Kahn, Luigi Rocca, Stephen Hannock, Justin Faunce, Delia Brown, Ridley Howard, Dasha Shishkin, David Harrison, Anthony Lister, Nicky Nodjoumi, and Katherine Bernhardt. Photographs by Dennis Hopper, Daido Moriyama, Lee Friedlander, Ansel Adams, Larry Fink, Imogen Cunningham, Fritz Henle, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Lucienne Bloch, George Tice, Harry Callahan, Lewis Baltz, André Kertész, Joel-Peter Witkin, Anna Gaskell, Matthew Barney, Nobuyoshi Araki, Nan Goldin, Vik Muniz, Bert Stern, William Wegman, Michal Rovner, Joel Sternfeld, Gregory Crewdson, Katy Grannan, and eleven works by Richard Prince. Prints by Bridget Riley, Wayne Thiebaud, Zao Wou-Ki , Ad Reinhardt, Sigmar Polke, Sam Francis, Jim Dine, Philip Guston, Kenneth Noland, James Rosenquist, Romare Bearden, Keith Haring, Martin Kippenberger, Sol LeWitt, Frank Stella, Willem de Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Mangold, Robert Ryman, Howard Hodgkin, Donald Sultan, Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, Helen Frankenthaler, Louise Bourgeois, Elizabeth Peyton, Barbara Kruger, Christo, Christopher Wool, Ellsworth Kelly and  many prints by Jasper Johns and Helen Frankenthaler. Sculpture by Baltasar Lobo, Francesco Somaini, Joseph Beuys, Robert Watts, Richard Erdman, Jeff Koons, Roxy Paine, Sol LeWitt, Manuel Marin, Bruce Beasley, Lynda Benglis,  and Jose Davila. Works on Paper by William Baziotes, Johannes Itten, Alfred Jensen, Hans Hoffman, Sam Gilliam, Arman, Alexander Calder, Keith Haring, Raymond Pettibon, Paul Jenkins, Sean Scully, Damien Hirst, Christian Holstad, Nick Mauss, Scott Reeder and Steve Claydon.

Auction Exhibition/Preview/Bidding

• Saturday, October 31 through Tuesday, November 3, 12–5 p.m. and by appointment. Wednesday, November 4, 12-7 p.m. Doors open at 9 a.m. the day of the sale.
• Open House with guest speaker, Marvin Taylor, “The Downtown Shows: The New York Scene, 1974-1984”, Monday, November 2, reception at 5 p.m., lecture at 6 p.m. RSVP to 609.397.9374 ext. 119 or raac@ragoarts.com.
• Rago is located midway between New York City and Philadelphia. Directions online at ragoarts.com.
• Telephone, absentee, online bidding available for those unable to attend.

Catalogues

• Print: $20 (or both for $30). Available by calling 609.397.9374 or e-mailing a request to info@ragoarts.com.
• Online at ragoarts.com as of October 20.

19th/20th C. American and European Art Select Highlights 

Lot 4: Daniel Ridgway Knight, Untitled, $15,000-20,000

Lot 18: José Gallegos Y Arnosa, Untitled, $10,000-15,000

Lot 27: John Grabach, Untitled (Ballet), 1920s (Ashcan School), $18,000-22,000   

Lot 36: Milton Avery, Untitled (Seated Nude), ca. 1947-1949, $30,000-50,000

Lot 56: John Fulton Folinsbee, Shag Rock, 1949, $12,000-18,000

Lot 61: Robert Spencer, New Hope-Lambertville Covered Bridge, $40,000-60,000 

Lot 68: Bror Julius Olsson Nordfeldt, Fruits and Pink Flower, 1942, $8,000-12,000

Lot 186: Edvard Munch, Omega's Flight, from Alpha & Omega series, 1908-09, $10,000-15,000

Lot 10: Edward Berge, Duck Mother (piped as a fountain), $12,000-18,000

Post-War and Contemporary Art

Lot 513: Allan D'Arcangelo, Landscape BB (74), 1968, $25,000-35,000

Lot 796: Wolf Kahn, Black Trees, 2003, $25,000-35,000

Lot 704: Ansel Adams, Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, California, 1944, $12,000-18,000

Lot 777: Vik Muniz, Charlton Heston from Pictures of Chocolate, 1999, $20,000-30,000

Lot 691: Richard Diebenkorn, Folsom Street Variations I, 1986, $10,000-15,000

Lot 667: Robert Watts, Wattspost (Stamp Machine), 1962, $40,000-60,000

Lot 763: Sol LeWitt, Cube without a Cube, 1996, $15,000-25,000

Lot 617: Arman, What Happened To The Flowers (Homage to Andy Warhol), 1970, $40,000-60,000

Lot 649: Keith Haring, Untitled, 1986, $80,000-120,000

Consignments invited for all of Rago’s Auctions. Please call 609.397.9374 or email info@ragoarts.com.

END OF PRESS RELEASE