Archinect - News

Refik Anadol's Casa Batlló NFT sells for $1.38 million

2022-05-11T11:32:00-04:00

A landmark of the Art Nouveau style is on center stage after Refik Anadol’s NFT of the Casa Batlló sold for $1.38 million at Christe’s 21st Century Evening Sale last night.

Titled Living Architecture: Casa Batlló, the piece was commissioned by the group responsible for managing Gaudí’s converted House of Bones last year and is currently on display in a larger format outside the Christie’s Rockefeller Plaza headquarters until May 13. It was also the lone digital-only lot to sell in the auction house’s marquee New York spring sales events this week.

Previously on Archinect: Refik Anadol unveils ‘first-of-its-kind’ AI artwork NFTs

A spokesperson with the Casa Batlló named Gary Gautier called Anadol a “perfect fellow traveler” and told reporters that his work “resides between art and technology, expands the possibilities of architecture and brings a new outlook beyond space and time.” Gautier also commented that the Turkish-American artist “connects past, present and future, reminding u...

Norman Foster’s Francis Bacon triptych is expected to fetch $47.3 to $74.3 million

2022-02-17T12:56:00-05:00

Bacon’s Triptych 1986–7, which is scheduled to be sold with an estimate of £35 million to £55 million ($47.3 million to $74.3 million) on March 1 in the first of a series of high-stakes 20th- and 21st-century art auctions, is being sold by star architect Norman Foster, according to people familiar with the work.

The painting is one of 28 historical triptychs Bacon completed between 1944 and 1991. Past auctions have commanded prices as high as $84.6 million (£62.1 million) for similar works, including his masterpiece Three Studies of Lucian Freud, which caused a media sensation in 2013 after setting records as the most expensive painting ever sold.

News of the upcoming auction has already been getting discussed in the Archinect Forum...

Foster appears to have purchased the triptych anonymously in 2007 from New York’s Marlborough Gallery. The piece had recently been shopped around privately for values upwards of $100 million, according to Artnet. Next month's auction will constitute the first time it has appeared in a public sale.

Lost masterpieces by Frank Lloyd Wright are up for auction

2019-12-05T13:01:00-05:00

Two pairs of Frank Lloyd Wright-designed chairs will be up for auction on December 13th in New York via Christie's auction house. Each pair are estimated to sell between $200,000 to $300,000.

The Ward W. Willits House in Highland Park (1901), by Frank Lloyd Wright

Designed as part of Wright's Ward W. Willits House in Highland Park, Illinois, the chairs were completed in 1902. Considered one of the first of the Prairie School houses, Wright emphasized the dwelling's horizontal lines with an expansive cruciform plan. The dining suite housed a table accompanied by six tall back chairs and five intermediate back chairs that could be situated flexibly throughout the space.

According to Christie's, the four chairs for sale remained in the Willits house from 1902 until the passing of the Willitses in the early 1950s, when the house and its contents were sold to a new owner.

I.M. Pei's collection of art will go out to auction starting September

2019-08-30T07:00:00-04:00

Not only did they care deeply for the works, but in many cases they cared deeply for the artists themselves, like Jean Dubuffet and Barnett Newman. Both Eileen and I.M. Pei had incredibly creative minds and, unsurprisingly, they surrounded themselves with friends of equal talent and intellect.

I.M. Pei, and his wife, Eileen's collection of art will go to auction at Christie's starting in Paris in September, followed by Hong Kong and Los Angeles in October, and then New York in November. The auctions will feature artwork by Barnett Newman, Zao Wou-ki, Jean Dubuffet, Henry Moore, and many others, reports Architectural Digest.

Many of the artists were friends with the Peis and the work is sure to provide an intimate look into the life of the couple, writes AD's Nick Mafi.