"Malevich’s work provided a gateway for the evolution of Modernism. Malevich pushed the boundaries of painting to a point far beyond recognition, forever changing the advancement of art. Without the Suprematist Composition paintings, the art being made today would not exist as we now know it," remarked Loic Gouzer, Co-Chairman of Post-War and Contemporary Art department at Christie’s.
The Malevich work became a repeat auction champion. In 2008, the canvas sold for $60 million at Sotheby’s, an artist’s record until it resold at Christie’s.
Max Carter, Head of Department, Impressionist and Modern Art, New York
It is clear from the frequency with which Malevich exhibited Suprematist Composition that he valued it highly: it was included in every subsequent major survey of his Suprematist works mounted during his lifetime. These exhibitions ranged from his first major retrospective, in Moscow in 1919, to a 1927 retrospective that travelled to Western Europe.
Hidden in Germany throughout much of the 1930's, Suprematist Composition and the other works from this great Berlin exhibition, were ultimately to become part of the highly influential holdings of Malevich’s work in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
Left: Kazimir Malevich. Self-portrait, 1911.
All this time the paintings were at a friend of Malevich, the architect Hugo Häring. To give him credit, he managed to save the painting in the war years, when the avant-garde was considered "degenerative art." In 1958, he sold paintings, including the Suprematist composition, to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
For almost 40 years the paintings were in Holland. And in 1999, the heirs of the artist began a trial with the museum: Häring was not legally the owner of the paintings, and therefore had no right to dispose of the artist’s legacy. Relatives won this case, and "Suprematist composition" together with four other canvases became their property.
In 2000, the picture was sold at the Phillips auction in New York for $17 million.
About a dozen of the works were destroyed during wartime bombing while others were variously dispersed. "Landscape", a large square gouache , resurfaced at auction in 1963 when it was sold to Marlborough Gallery, who in turn sold it to the Kunstmuseum Basel, where it remained for 50 years. In 2012, a settlement was agreed by the Kunstmuseum and the Canton of Basel-Stadt and the work, then called "Landscape with Red Houses", was restituted to Malevich’s heirs, who sold the work privately that year.
It sold on what appeared to be a single bid from the telephone for $39.7 million (est. $35 million-$55 million). Working with just a single genuine bidder, auctioneer Adrien Meyer expertly guided the picture home, the mark of a cool-headed navigator.
The picture last sold at Christie’s London in February 2012 for the equivalent of $16 million and prior to that sale sold to actress Elizabeth Taylor’s father, Francis Taylor, at Sotheby’s London in April 1963 for £92,000, who bid on her behalf.
The second jewel of the evening should’ve been "Le Marin", Pablo Picasso’s self-portrait. But the painting was accidentally damaged during the final stages of preparation for Christie’s May exhibition. According to Christie’s statement on official site, two outside conservators consulted and made recommendations for the successful restoration of the painting. After consultation with the consignor, the painting has been withdrawn from Christie’s May 15 sale to allow the restoration process to begin.
"Le Marin", an oil-on-canvas work executed on October 28, 1943, has long been seen as one of Picasso’s most celebrated self-images, with the artist wearing one of his famous striped fisherman’s jerseys. Executed in Paris at the height of Occupation — Picasso and western civilization’s lowest ebb — it is a revealing view into the artist’s wartime psyche. The work was formerly in the collection of Victor and Sally Ganz.
The portrait had "price on request," but the estimate put it in the region of $70 million, one of the five highest prices for the artist at auction, since ‘Les Femmes D’Alger (Version 0)'. This sold in May 2015 for $179.4 million including fees, a record price for a painting at auction at that time. It remains the most expensive Picasso in public auction and the second most expensive painting after the "Salvator Mundi," attributed to Leonardo da Vinci and sold last year.
Left: Pablo Picasso. Le marin, 1943.
Title illustration: "Suprematist Composition" on the block at Christie’s.CreditAlba Vigaray/EPA, via Shutterstock.
