Lots 11, 15, 41 and 47 identified with the symbol m from outside the EU: The hammer price will be VAT excluded. 5.5% VAT will be added to the hammer price and buyerâs premium. Upon request, this VAT can be refunded to the purchaser on presentation of written proof of exportation outside the EU or to the EU purchaser who will submit his intracommunity VAT number and a proof of shipment of his purchase to his EU country home address.
«âIl faut au moins deux semaines pour envahir une ville, je ne me contente pas dâen mettre un ou deux dans le centre puis de rentrer chez moi. Mon but est de couvrir la ville tout entiĂšre.â»
Since 1998, Invader conquers our urban spaces but also our collective consciousness to which he offers his universe populated by Space Invaders and popular culture icons (video games, comics, television series...) as opposed to advertising aimed at the consumers which we have become.
A tireless assailant, Invader disseminates his work around the world. Using the arcade game Space Invaders as his focal point, he takes to the street on a human and a global scale. His goal: to invade. He also takes a tally of his invasions. Each mosaic is unique, specially created for that specific area:
âIt takes at least two weeks to invade a town; I am not content to put one or two in the center and then go home. My goal is to cover the entire city.â
After a first step into space in 2012 in Miami when it had sent more than 40 km from the ground a Space Invader (Spaceâ1) using a weather balloon, Invader carried out in 2014-2015 in collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency) an invasion of space through Spaceâ2, a mosaic that it integrates into the environment of the Columbus module of the ISS (International Space Station). After several months of floating weightless in the ISS (she left in July 2014), it is the Italian spacewoman Samantha Cristoforetti who poses a saving glue point on the mosaic âSpace2â on Thursday 12 March 2015.
âI love the idea of confrontation, of collaboration between art and science,â Invader says. I work on land, not just on the streets. The idea is to invade the planet, which does not lack spots and resources. I wanted to make an aside, pushing my limits. And then fix this challenge to be the first artist to rise so high in space. We must find other spaces to invade, conquer new territories, to advance the history of art. It will be difficult to go even further and carry out such unexpected projects. I started in the stratosphere, now Iâm in the ISS. The next invasion may be on the moon. Who knows?â
Following his fourth wave of invasion of Hong Kong in 2014, Invader organized the exhibition Wipe Out, an explosition of Invader, in which he presented a series of LED Space Invader boxes.
The Space Invaders, flashing in space landscapes, seem to be leaving the Earth where they were born to attack other territories. While their vocation is to invade the planet, thereâs no limit to what they can do.
Invader is passionate about technologies, about what they bring to our society, but also about how society becomes a victim of them, manipulated by the endless potential of these technologies. Thus to realize this work, Invader uses a medium that evokes the contemporary urban advertising environment of luminous signs that invade our daily and mental landscape.
Visuel : Vue de lâexposition
Invader Wipe Out, an explosition of Invader, Hong Kong HOCA Foundation, 2015
Los Angeles is quite a new city, the second largest in the United States. Following Cartagena and Shanghai, JR wants to bring his Wrinkles of the City project to Los Angeles in 2011. This time, the purpose of the project isnât to meet witnesses of the changes that have occurred in the city or in their own lives.
Los Angeles is the place where the Hollywood myth was born, with its star system, the glamour and the beauty being part of the identity of the city. For this project, JR wishes to oppose the wrinkles of old people living in LA and the marks of their past with the image of perfection or regenerated beauty in the 21st century. For instance, in Southern California, plastic surgery is no longer a luxury but a lifestyle. It is now socially accepted, above all cultural and social barriers.
With this approach, the most interesting part is to spread these portraits throughout the city, using the gigantic urban mutations as a canvas. Unlike the project in Cartagena and Shanghai, JR does not paste on ruins, destroyed walls. The city is considered by urban planners and geographers to be the precursor model for the urban development of American metropolises.
The City of Angels appears to be the âurban laboratory of postmodernismâ, with large walls in the city center and in the surrounding suburbs.
Visuel : JR, The Wrinkles of the City, Los Angeles, Carl Ă Silverlake, horizontal, 2011
In 2004, searching for places where no one would ever imagine seeing works of art, JR organized his first exhibition on the walls of the Bosquets housing project in Montfermeil (93370). He photographed its young residents and pasted large-format photocopies of these photos on the walls.
In November 2005, in the same place, amid social unrest sparked by the death of two teenagers who had barricaded themselves inside an electrical transformer to escape the police, riots broke out and quickly engulfed the city. In one month, more than 10,000 cars were set on fire. The rioters not only wreaked havoc in other suburbs, they also destroyed their own neighborhood. The media showed young people throwing Molotov cocktails, attacking police officers and firefighters, and looting everything they could.
In 2006, in response to the way the media treated those who had become his friends, JR returned to the heart of the neighborhood and, with his friend Ladj Ly, a local artist, set up a project with young people from Les Bosquets.
My name is Carl Virden. I am 63 years old, but I feel younger. I was a carpenter for thirty-two years, with the Carpentersâ Union, and I worked on several buildings all over L.A. and around. When I retired, I got bored quickly. I saw an advertisement for background acting, so I answered the ad and joined a casting service. I got an audition within a week and received the first part I auditioned for.
My wrinkles represent time spent working, but more so time spent working for my family. They also represent aging; I remember looking down at my own wrinkled hands one day and thinking, âThose are my Dadâs hands! Iâm becoming my Dad!â
Swoon became known for her engraving technique. Inspired by street art signatures such as Banksy and Blek Le Rat, she abandoned galleries to exhibit her art in the streets. She loves the ephemeral and immediate nature of street art, the fragility of the work that makes it so vulnerable. âIâve always loved the idea of creating something that doesnât outlive its own necessity, that exists for a time and then disappears. I keep and protect some of my works, but I like to give others away in the moment,â she admits. During her travels, she takes photos of men, women, and children. These are personalities who convey an emotion to her, and she brings them back to life in the form of life-size drawings on paper pasted on walls. For her, each personâs personality, originality, and experiences are reflected in their bodies and faces. Her paper portraits thus bear witness to a moment in life.
In 2007, she proposed a project called âAll Over,â a projection of the world of the street, at the LJ Gallery, where this work was presented.
Vhils began working with street billboards in 2005. After years of observing the thick agglomerations they form if allowed to accumulate on walls and billboards in Portugal, he had the idea of using them as a canvas. As a graffiti artist, he was trained to read the space of the city and what it offers, and as most of these accumulations were in fact illegal, although ignored by the authorities, he felt free to use them without fear of being verbalized. He was marked by the old po- litical-utopian frescoes of the late 1970s and the advertising posters found on the walls of Lisbon. Heâll make it his tools. Unlike most ur- ban artists who pose, who stick, Vhils removes the material to make his subjects appear, he extracts, he deconstructs. He digs faces in the walls of cities. His posters are made by cutting but also with unexpected tools, acid, bleach that eat paper. Decomposition, destruction and deconstruction are at the heart of his creative process. Breaking the rigid codes of the city, its relationship to advertising is one of the objectives of Vhils.
Visuel : Collaboration de Vhils et JR, Los Angeles, 2010
Heavily influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphs, Black Letter and Native American traditional symbols as well as graffiti based styles of painting; self-taught Retna developed a script that is captivating and mystic at the same time. While it is based on many existing styles of symbols and letters, it is not meant to deliver a readable message; instead it is a product of a very meditative process of having a conversation with himself. Yet, the poem like structures, which he paints on walls and canvas, are meant to feel universal and for all people and cultures to find similarities in it, whether they can read it or not. 13
Los Angeles born Marquis Lewis, or better known as Retna, is an artist who transformed from graffiti writing into working for the most prestigious and high-end clients from the entertainment and fashion industry. Lewis, who picked his moniker after listening to Wu Tang Clan lyrics because he found them to be timeless and dynamic, is most renown for constructing and incorporated a distinctive script into his artworks which are a mix of spray paint and paintbrush strokes.
A critical and unforgiving observer of society, DRAN uses paper and canvas to draw acerbic and cynical visions of human relationships in contemporary society, the one that Guy Debord described as a Society of Spectacle. He criticizes its failings, its evolutions, its political economics and religions approaches, and various facts that litter the news pages. His intervention at the heart of the exhibition Inside the Palais de Tokyo made an impression. His works are scenes conveying a corrosive message. The grimacing and dreaming children are threatened by the world around them. Between dream and nightmare, between gentleness and provocation, between violence and humor, society and its violence impose themselves on them. His characters confront the harshness and absurdity of the world around them. DRANâs eye examines and analyzes contemporary society through a critical lens. Recurring themes such as the environment, consumerism, politics and religion are dissected in his creations.
A self-taught British artist born in London in the mid1980s, Stik takes his name directly from his style. Since 2002, he has been creating a community of men, women, and children in vignette form. âSticksâ, or stick-shaped characters in English (stik). The name his audience quickly gave him. Round heads, black dots for eyes, bodies made up of lines and curves. Mouthless, silent characters who observe the world. These geometric shapes, simple drawings that echo the world of childhood, use body language to express themselves and engage passersby. They adorn the walls of Londonâs urban landscapes.
Having lived for years in homeless shelters, Stik creates characters that, despite their simplicity, convey the artistâs views on the social causes he believes in and fights for: homelessness, solidarity, LGBTQ+ rights, the promotion of art, and the destruction of social housing.
From his teenage years, D*Face was fascinated by the United States and the American Dream. Already passionate about skateboarding and drawing, the artist discovered graffiti and street art at the age of 15 thanks to the specialist magazines Subway Art and Spraycan Art.
After studying design, he launched his career as a freelance illustrator and developed his street art activity in parallel. His work draws on American comics, notably those of Matt Baker, Jack Kamen, and John Romita. His style is recognizable by its use of pop art imagery, reminiscent of Roy Lichtenstein or even Andy Warhol, and features images of pop culture icons such as Marilyn Monroe and the Queen of England. His works deal with societyâs obsession with celebrities and overconsumption in a dark and satirical way. The aim of his work is âto encourage people not only to see, but also to look at what surrounds them, to rethink the stereotypes of our culture, and not to remain passive in the face of the reign of conspicuous consumption.â
His murals depict highly expressive female or male figures, often accompanied by a comment or thought. They look like theyâve been taken from the pages of an American comic book.
Conor Harringtonâs unique style is a fusion of classical realistic painting, inspired by Renaissance painters, and the codes of street art. He studied fine arts at art college for seven years, and his style has evolved over the years. His work treads a fine line between classical and contemporary art. The artist not only paints huge outdoor murals, but also constantly demonstrates his artistic and inventive talent in gallery exhibitions.
Harrington began his career as a graffiti artist and remains deeply influenced by hip-hop culture and street energy. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Limerick School of Art and Design and has lived in London for two decades. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Saatchi Gallery in London, the Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art in Munich, and the Southampton Arts Center in New York.
Conorâs themes touch on the theatre of power â its rituals, its ruins, and the brittle performances of masculinity that prop it up. Working at monumental scale, he draws on the compositional gravitas of classical painting, only to unravel it. His canvases are collisions: tight realism jostling with wild, gestural abstraction. In this friction, Harrington interrogates the myths of empire and the illusions of permanence that history insists on repeating.
Drawing on his Irish background, Harrington confronts the lingering shadow of empire and the Catholic Church. His work borrows the visual codes of ceremony âmilitary uniforms, ecclesiastical dress, state pageantryâ not to exalt, but to dissect. His figures, often white male archetypes, embody the contradictions of patriarchal power: performative, brittle, and often absurd.
Masculinity, in all its allure and toxicity, is a persistent undercurrent. These men, caught mid-parade or frozen in confrontation, appear less heroic than haunted â by history, by performance, by themselves. The effect is at once critical and compassionate, peeling back the costume of power to reveal the soft, unstable body beneath.
Lincoln Townley is a British contemporary artist born in London in 1972. After working in public relations and the nightclub industry, he turned to painting after overcoming his addiction issues. This transformation marked the beginning of his artistic journey, where he developed a distinctive style characterized by expressive and abstract figurative works that address themes of ambition, excess, and the darker facets of human nature. Townleyâs art often reflects the psychological complexities of his subjects, drawing inspiration from his own experiences and the chaotic energy of urban life.
His remarkable âBankerâ series depicts distorted figures of businessmen, symbolizing greed and the tumultuous world of finance.
In the bestiary, or rather the family of characters created by KAWS, the Accom-plice holds a special place. As he explained in ANP Quarterly magazine, KAWS was created in response to the supposed street credibility of the street art scene, that of graffiti artists who think they are bad boys. KAWS deliberately chose to undermine his own street credibility to highlight the limitations that such a criterion would impose on urban art. He therefore created âthe sweetest, most ridiculous character possible: in this case, the Companion seems to have slipped into a rabbit costume.â
Following in the footsteps of Keith Haring, who, on Warholâs advice, opened the Pop Shop to distribute his work on consumer goods, KAWS has since developed this character in multiple formats. KAWS has become a global phenomenon.
Presented in 2002 at the KAWS/CRASH exhibition at the MADE Gallery in Vancouver, this impressive but slightly disturbing portrait is the first known graphic representation of The Accomplice. In addition to the many variations that followed, The Accomplice was the subject of the largest in situ sculpture ever designed by KAWS in 2023. Measuring 48 meters long, Holiday Indonesia depicts the Accomplice character meditating in front of the Pramaban temples, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Fascinated by animals, ROA believes that they âhave much more to say about the world than any other creature.â On each of his trips around the world and across every continent, he paints local animals with spray paint. He first covers the surface to be painted with white paint and then finishes the details of the animal with a marker. Sleeping, alive, or dead. His goal is to make the viewer think. To come up with their own interpretation. âWhether it inspires them to be creative, get involved in environmental issues, or just take a look at my painting, Iâm happy.â Especially since the symbolism of animals varies from one country and culture to another. ROA therefore invites viewers to question the place of humans and animals in todayâs world.
Whether on the wall of a museum or in an abandoned factory in the suburbs, ROA likes to create an interaction between humans and nature. For him, painting animals is a way of bringing nature back into concrete environments. He also enjoys bringing his art to life in deserted places, such as in Gambia or Cambodia, in an abandoned village. In Africa, what touches ROA most is the involvement of the local people. âPainting in Africa is a unique and special experience,â he says. âItâs a commitment to the local community and a very intense creative process.â
Violaine Pondard
Visuel : ROA, Londres, Brick Lane, Grue, avril 2010
Famous for his interventions in urban spaces around the world, Shepard Fairey is also a prolific portrait artist. Like Warhol, who immortalized celebrities of the 1970s and 1980s, Fairey has established an instantly recognizable style, combining propaganda aesthetics, stylized silhouettes, and flat colors. But while Warhol was a socialite artist, symbolizing a generation of money, extravagance, and excess, Fairey champions socially engaged art that reflects the doubts and questions of Generations Ă and Z.
The Protestor, selected by TIME magazine for the cover of its âPerson of the Year 2011â issue, sums up Faireyâs art and commitment. The portrait of Sarah Mason, a protester from the Occupy Wall Street movement, takes on a universal power here, symbolizing a call for awareness and mobilization in the face of the challenges that threaten us all. It is also a magnificent example of Faireyâs stylistic mastery: âI felt there was a powerful contrast between the intensity of her gaze and her reassuring yellow wool hat. I wanted the protester to appear serious, but not scary. In my art, I try to highlight the most powerful essence of an image and eliminate anything superfluous.â This exceptionally powerful portrait focuses all its intensity on a gaze that follows the viewer and challenges them.
Faireyâs work ultimately questions our relationship with images at a time when advertising and social media bombard us with a constant stream of visual stimuli.
Regularly central to the action of the scene or included as key design elements, the rose is invoked as a resilient species, representing an organic sense of beauty and natural strength.
Enlarged and consuming the full expanse of the print, the rose radiates energy from within and stands upright despite the shackle and chain that binds its stem. The artist humanizes the message of rising above oppressive circumstances by including an oversized drop of blood that hangs but does not yet fall, from the protruding thorn. Acting as a metaphor for an individual or society-at-large, who has endured and preserved in the face of adversity, Fairey positions the rose as a surrogate rendering of the activist spirit that guides his artistic career.
Petersonâs inner world is one of total chaos, where violence reigns supreme and seems to govern all individual and social relationships. Depicted through a chromatic palette reduced to a few recurring dominants (black, red and white), this world of extreme violence belies the Hobbesian theory that âin the state of nature, man is a wolf to man; in the social state, man is a god to manâ. For if man as Peterson describes him is indeed a predator for his alter ego, itâs the man of the 21st century weâre talking about. Modern man, even postmodern man, reputed to be highly civilized...
Clearly underpinned by a resolutely pessimistic philosophy, Petersonâs scenes of extreme violence have the distinctive feature of not opposing victims and executioners, innocent and guilty. Conceived in a highly narrative manner and always telling the same story âthat of universal predationâthey depict each protagonist, from the man in uniform to the woman with her clothes torn off, as driven by an unbounded aversion to his fellow man, his features frozen in a rictus of hatred and pain common to all.
Visuel : Cleon Peterson, Hong Kong, District, 2016
Richard Hambleton is one of the most prominent street artists of the 80s. Close to Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, the Canadian artist became known as Shadowman after painting hundreds of silhouettes on the streets of New York. Hambleton moved permanently to the Lower East Side of New York in 1979. While the âwritersâ blasted their way into the subway, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Richard Hambleton painted in the explosive streets of the Big Apple. His works appeared in the urban spaces of 15 cities in the United States and Canada, where he painted human shapes on the ground like police âchalkâ outlines that delineate a crime scene. His works were considered the first examples of street art. In the 1980s, Richard Hambleton developed a passion for the dark corners of New York City and worked to make them even more fascinating by adding big black and terrifying silhouettes and acquired notoriety with his Shadowman paintings. Each painting resembles a life-sized silhouetted image of a mysterious person; a âsplashy shadow figureâ. These âshadow paintingsâ were splashed and brushed with black paint on hundreds of buildings and other structures in New York City. The locations of the works were calculated to have a maximum impact on unsuspecting pedestrians.
Visuel : Hank OâNeal, Richard Hambleton Shadowman, SoHo, New York, circa. 1984
«âDâautres artistes exposent leurs Ćuvres dans la ville, mais ce que je peins sur les murs nâest quâune partie du tableau. La ville complĂšte psychologiquement le reste. Les gens vivent mes peintures. Ils ne se contentent pas de les regarder.â»
A true pioneer of the 1st generation of New York graffiti artists, LADY PINK was born in Ecuador but grew up in New York. In 1979, she began writing graffiti and quickly made a name for herself as the only woman able to compete with the boys in the graffiti scene. She painted subway trains between 1979 and 1985, and in 1982 played a starring role in the film âWild Styleâ. This role and her other significant contributions to Graffiti have made her a cult figure in the hip-hop subculture:
When I started painting in the 70s, women were still trying to prove for themselves that they could do everything men could. The feminist movement was growing stronger and stronger and, as a teenager, I think that influenced me. Without realizing it, I had become a young feminist. The more guys said, âyou canât do thatâ, the more I had to prove them wrong. I had to do it for all my sisters who were watching me...
Jesse Rodriguez was born in Brooklyn in 1961. He began graffitiing, mainly on New York subway trains, in 1973. It was an early start to his career, to say the least, in an era that was less open than today. With Dondi and Rammellzee, he managed to immortalize a police chase scene, an image that has become famous. However, it would be wrong to reduce this artistâs career to this historical dimension aloneâeven if he himself does not claim it to be soâas he has made his mark over the years. Sonic is one of the iconic urban artists of an epic era. He appears in numerous books, including those by Martha Cooper, and several documentariesâ Wild Style, Style Wars, Beat Street, Subway Art, Hip Hop Files, and more.
Visuel : Sonic devant lâĆuvre Boys are Down en 1981
Rammellzee is one of the most inventive and inspired pioneering American graffiti artists of his generation. He made his first tags on the New York subway in 1974 on lines 2 and 5 in the company of Dondi White. He quickly refutes the label of âwriterâ, too assimilated to vandalism, and considers himself a full-fledged artist. His very personal and atypical style illustrates the conceptual and abstract trend of graffiti, like Koor and Futura. He develops the aesthetics of Gothic Futurism, wanting to be the successor of the work started by the monks of the Middle Ages in the Gothic period on the work of the stylized letter. Just as it is illegible in Gothic, it becomes âWild Styleâ in the graffiti movement to escape the MTA (Mass Transit Authority). It can only be decrypted by the initiated. In his theories, Rammellzee denounced the perversions of the alphabet. Then comes the Ikonoklast Panzerism, regrouping alphabet missile letters whose aim is to destroy symbols. Figuration is absent. Rammellzee is also a performing musician, appearing on stage in a camouflage reminiscent of a character somewhere between a samurai and a medieval warrior. Rammellzee builds up the colourful look and figure of a hip-hop voodoo sorcerer, covering his face and body with numerous colourful masks and trinkets. Here again, the artistâs designs are reflected. His 1982 album Beat Bop, whose cover was illustrated by Basquiat, remains in the annals of rap. It must be noted that along with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Toxic, he formed the Hollywood Africans trio which gave its title to the eponymous painting in the Whitney Museum.
Exposition : Groningue, Groninger Museum, en prĂȘt Ă long terme de 1997 Ă 2017 New York, Red Bull Arts Center, RAMMELLZEE: Racing for Thunder, 4 mai au 26 aoĂ»t 2018
Bibliographie : Maxwell Wolf and Carlo McCormick, RAMM:ELL:ZEE (Racing For Thunder), Ăditions Rizzoli Electa & New Canons, New York, 2024; reproduit pp.150 Ă 153
Gypsum, resin, wood, spray paint, pigments balls and collaged plastic objects on wood in artistâs frame 43.30 Ă 123.46 in.
At the center of Rammellzeeâs artistic career is an intricately crafted and often complex personal mythology. His name for instance, styled alternatively as The RAMM:ELL:ZEE or RAMMELLZEE, is derived from an esoteric mathematical equation. In his public appearances, he often embodied one of many characters from a pantheon of figures, each with its own history, persona, and most importantly a mask and costume elaborately constructed from found objects and detritus the artist collected from the streets of New York. These characters inhabited the same fantastical, science-fiction inflected world as their creator, one best exemplified in the Battle Station, Rammâs Tribeca loft that was both his home and a full tilt sculptural installation inseparable from his studio practice and day to day activities.
Visuel : Vue de lâexposition
New York, Red Bull
Arts Center, RAMMELLZEE: Racing for Thunder, 4 mai
The Coming of Zee (1984) is part and parcel of Rammellzeeâs all-consuming universe. Over 10 feet wide and composed of various media including paint, gypsum, wood, and plastic objects embedded in layers of epoxy resin, this monumental work blurs the line between painting, sculpture, and installation. The title alludes to an origin story while bright neon colors and swirling forms resemble a planetary cosmos or topographical landscape, one filled with a âbig bangâ of stars or volcanic eruptions, or perhaps more imaginary forms known only to Ramm. It is a seminal work by an artist with an unflinching dedication to manifesting the world he wished to see.
Torrick Ablack was one of the pioneers of the Graffiti movement in the early 80s. Under the name Toxic, he grew up in the Bronx and at the age of 13 began to make his mark on the trains and walls of New York, alongside his friends Kool Koor and A-One. His encounters with Rammellzee and JeanMichel Basquiat (with whom he later formed the Hollywood Africans, named after a famous Basquiat painting) in the early 80s were decisive. Toxic would appear in several of Basquiatâs works, the best known of which is Toxic, produced in 1984. The three Hollywood Africans are social and political commentaries on African-American stereotypes. That same year, he exhibited at the famous Fashion Moda gallery in the Bronx, and the show went on to Germany, England, France, Holland, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy, Israel... Since then, his talent and success with a discerning public have never wavered. In 2006, the Whitney Museum in Brooklyn paid homage to the precursors of the graffiti movement, consecrating him as a major artist alongside such legends as NOC 167, Bear 167 and Fab 5 Freddy. In 2024, All Imperfections Included was shown at Woodbury House in London. Itâs worth noting that this painting has the singularity of having a figurative approach, which is very rare for him, who is one of the leading exponents of abstraction and the explosion of color characteristic of graffiti.
A-One (Anthony Clark) is from Manhattan, the neighbourhood in which he will start to âwriteâ on the walls. He tags from around 149th Street and the Brooklyn Bridge. Member TDS TDT and the Zulu Nation, in 1982 he participates in the South Bronx Show exhibition at Fashion Moda Gallery then, with Toxic and Koor, he creates a fresco called Camouflage Panzerism. A-One is a pioneer of this generation who graduates on to canvas. He develops an expressionist aerosol work linking American culture and his African Rasta roots. In it, he mixes the street mythology. Close to Basquiat who helps him in his relations with the art world, he participates in the Venice Biennale in 1984 and in several exhibitions in the United States and in Europe (Maurice Keitelman in Brussels...). He is considered a major artist, highly respected and an icon.
Phase 2, is one of the most influential New York graffiti artists, often credited as the inventor of the bubble letter graffiti, so commonly used today. Phase 2 began writing graffiti in 1971 by tagging his name across the city. It took him only a year to create an early version of his signature bubble letters, which were quickly picked-up and copied by other street artists. Over the years, this graffiti artist moved away from âsimpleâ tags and toward a more complex style of âhieroglyphical calligraphic abstractionâ, and his works from those years stand as the most important in the early development of the street art movement. In the mid-1970s, Phase 2 joined the newly created United Graffiti Artists, a professional graffiti collective which quickly attracted media attention and skyrocketed his artistic career.
Hopare can be defined as a contemporary figurative artist practicing free figurative work; however, his work would not exist without abstraction. The work of Alexandre Hopare Monteiro seems not to play with opposites, but to reconcile them in an unprecedented and paradoxical unity. On a theoretical level, Hopare practices abstraction in the etymological sense of the term using a composition that generates meaning without initially making a direct reference to the subject. Then, by an idealisation of forms and marks that enable the representation of a subject. The subject is therefore no longera mere object, including the character, but a story, a pictorial speech. For him, painting is a language in the strict sense, which is not content with seeking the trace of the world as it is offered up to our innocent eyes. Alexandre is inspiredby street photography, and he says this is his hobby. He takes fragments of reality to build his personal cosmos.
JonOne comes from Harlem in New York, where he started his tagging. For him, the subway was the only living thing in New York. The forbidden, the attraction to these mediums with rolling colours enticed him into the tunnels. For several years he signs his name Jon156, JonOne and makes a ânameâ for himself. He distinguishes himself by the abstraction of his realisations that contrast with the tag or other figurative representations. His influences: the great masters, MirĂł, Pollock through to Kooning. He joined both energy and strength to the terrain. Around 1985, his master, A-One introduces him to canvas. In 1987, he arrives in Paris, invited by Bando, and appears on the Parisian, becoming one of its major players. JonOne is known for his saturated colour paintings, representing pure energy for him. The vacuum does not exist, this colour is essential or rather, vital. Games of shades, a rich, vivid palette.
Janlou Albrespy
«âLa vie, ce nâest pas dâattendre que les orages passent, câest dâapprendre Ă danser sous la pluie.â»
- Auteur anonyme
Paris est aujourdâhui une des places importantes pour la reconnaissance du street art ce quâon appelle lâurban art.
A true pioneer of stencil art, Blek began painting on the walls of Paris in the early 1980s. Numerous little rats covered the walls of the capital. He borrowed his pseudonym from a comic book character. Trained in fine arts, he quickly developed life-size characters, sometimes inspired by classical works, art history, antiquity, and the Renaissance. In the early 1990s, after being arrested several times, he abandoned direct spray painting on walls and replaced it with poster collages. From then on, he produced a large number of works, his favorite subjects being Russian soldiers, tango dancers staged in settings, the Faun, and also famous people.
In his 2017 work Awesome Art, he revisits one of Botticelliâs Madonnas, the Madonna of the Pomegranate, dated around 1487 and housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
Visuel : Botticelli, Vierge Ă la grenade, vers 1487, Galerie des Offices, Florence
Artcurial SAS participe Ă la protection des biens culturels et met tout en Ćuvre, dans la mesure de ses moyens, pour sâassurer de la provenance des lots mis en vente dans ce catalogue.
CONDITIONS OF PURCHASE IN VOLUNTARY AUCTION SALES
ARTCURIAL
Artcurial SAS is an operator of voluntary auction sales regulated by the law articles L321-4 and following of the Code de Commerce. In such capacity Artcurial SAS acts as the agent of the seller who contracts with the buyer. The relationships between Artcurial SAS and the buyer are subject to the present general conditions of purchase which can be modified by saleroom notices or oral indications before the sale, which will be recorded in the official sale record.
As a voluntary auction sales operator, ARTCURIAL SAS is subject to the obligations listed in articles L.561-2 14° and seq. of the French Monetary and Financial Code relating to the Anti Money Laundering regulation.
1. âGOODS FOR AUCTION
a) The prospective buyers are invited to examine any goods in which they may be interested, before the auction takes place, and notably during the exhibitions. Artcurial SAS is at disposal of the prospective buyers to provide them with reports about the conditions of lots.
b) Description of the lots resulting from the catalogue, the reports, the labels and the verbal statements or announcements are only the expression by Artcurial SAS of their perception of the lot, but cannot constitute the proof of a fact.
c) The statements by made Artcurial SAS about any restoration, mishap or harm arisen concerning the lot are only made to facilitate the inspection thereof by the prospective buyer and remain subject to his own or to his expertâs appreciation. The absence of statements Artcurial SAS by relating to a restoration, mishap or harm, whether made in the catalogue, condition reports, on labels or orally, does not imply that the item is exempt from any current, past or repaired defect. Inversely, the indication of any defect whatsoever does not imply the absence of any other defects.
d) Estimates are provided for guidance only and cannot be considered as implying the certainty that the item will be sold for the estimated price or even within the bracket of estimates.
Estimates cannot constitute any warranty assurance whatsoever.
The estimations can be provided in several currenciesâ; the conversions may, in this case or, be rounded off differently than the legal rounding
e) Second-hand goods (anything that is not new) do not benefit from the legal guarantee of conformity in accordance with article L 217-2 of the Consumer Code.
2â. THE SALE
a) In order to assure the proper organisation of the sales, prospective buyers are invited to make themselves known to Artcurial SAS before the sale, so as to have their personal identity data recorded.
Artcurial SAS reserves the right to ask any prospective buyer to justify his identity as well as his bank references and to request a deposit.
Artcurial SAS reserves the right to refuse admission to the auction sales premises to any prospective buyer for legitimate reasons. A bid is accepted on the basis of the information provided by the bidder prior to the sale. Consequently, the name of the winning bidder cannot be changed after the sale.
b) Any person who is a bidder undertakes to pay personally and immediately the hammer price increased by the costs to be born by the buyer and any and all taxes or fees/expenses which could be due. Any bidder is deemed acting on his own behalf except when prior notification, accepted by Artcurial SAS, is given that he acts as an agent on behalf of a third party.
c) The usual way to bid consists in attending the sale on the premises. However, Artcurial SAS may graciously accept to receive some bids by telephone from a prospective buyer who has expressed such a request before the sale. Artcurial SAS will bear no liability / responsibility whatsoever, notably if the telephone contact is not made, or if it is made too late, or in case of mistakes or omissions relating to the reception of the telephone. For variety of purposes, Artcurial SAS reserves its right to record all the telephone communications during the auction. Such records shall be kept until the complete payment of the auction price, except claims.
d) Artcurial SAS may accept to execute orders to bid which will have been submitted before the sale and by Artcurial SAS which have been deemed acceptable. Artcurial SAS is entitled to request a deposit which will be refunded within 48hours after the sale if the lot id not sold to this buyer.
Should Artcurial SAS receive several instructions to bid for the same amounts, it is the instruction to bid first received which will be given preference. Artcurial SAS will bear no liability/responsibility in case of mistakes or omission of performance of the written order.
e) In the event where a reserve price has been stipulated by the seller, Artcurial SAS reserves the right to bid on behalf of the seller until the reserve price is reached. The seller will not be admitted to bid himself directly or through an agent. The reserve price may not be higher than the low estimate for the lot printed in or publicly modified before the sale.
f) Artcurial SAS will conduct auction sales at their discretion, ensuring freedom auction and equality among all bidders, in accordance with established practices.
Artcurial SAS reserves the right to refuse any bid, to organise the bidding in such manner as may be the most appropriate, to move some lots in the course of the sale, to withdraw any lot in the course of the sale, to combine or to divide some lots in the course of the sale. In case of challenge or dispute, Artcurial SAS reserves the right to designate the successful bidder, to continue the bidding or to cancel it, or to put the lot back up for bidding.
g) Subject to the decision of the person conducting the bidding for Artcurial SAS, the successful bidder will be the bidder would will have made the highest bid provided the final bid is equal to or higher than the reserve price if such a reserve price has been stipulated.
No lot will be delivered to the buyer until full payment has been made.In case of payment by an ordinary draft/check, payment will be deemed made only when the check will have been cashed.
The lot not auctioned may be sold after the sale in accordance with the law, provided that its price is at least 1,500 euros.
h) So as to facilitate the price calculation for prospective buyers, a currency converter may be operated by Artcurial SAS as guidance. Nevertheless, the bidding cannot be made in foreign currency and Artcurial SAS will not be liable for errors of conversion.
3â. THE PERFORMANCE OF THE SALE
a) In addition of the lotâs hammer price, the buyer must pay the different stages of following costs and fees/taxes:
1) Lots from the EU:
âą From 1 to 850,000 euros: 27 % + current VAT. From 850,001 to 6,000,000 euros: 21 % + current VAT.
Over 6,000,001 euros: 14,5 % + current VAT.
2) Lots from outside the EUâ: (identified by an m). Works of art, Antiques and Collectorsâitems
The hammer price will be VAT excluded to which should be added 5.5% VAT.
Upon request, this VAT will be refunded to the purchaser on presentation of written proof of exportation outside the EU or to the EU purchaser who will submit his intracommunity VAT number and a proof of shipment of his purchase to his EU country home address. Commissions and taxes indicated in section 3.1) remain the same.
3) Lots from outside the EU (identified by an m):
Jewelry and Watches, Wines and Spirits, Multiples
In addition to the commissions and taxes specified in paragraph 1) above, an additional import VAT will be charged (20% of the hammer price).
4) Additional fees will be charged to bidders who bid online via Internet platforms other than ARTCURIAL LIVE.
5) VAT on commissions and importation expenses can be retroceded to the purchaser on presentation of written proof of exportation outside the EU.
An EU purchaser who will submit their intracommunity VAT number and a proof of shipment of their purchase to their EU country home address will be refunded of VAT on buyerâs premium.The payment of the lot will be made cash, for the whole of the price, costs and taxes, even when an export licence is required. The purchaser will be authorized to pay by the following meansâ:
- In cashâ: up to 1 000 euros, costs and taxes included, for French citizens and people acting on behalf of a company, up to 15 000 euros, costs and taxes included, for foreign citizens on presentation of their identity papersâ;
- By cheque drawn on a French bank on presentation of identity papers and for any company, a KBis dated less than 3 months (cheques drawn on a foreign bank are not accepted);
- By bank transfer;
- By credit cardâ: VISA, MASTERCARD or AMEX (in case of payment by AMEX, a 1,85â% additional commission corresponding to cashing costs will be collected).
6)The distribution between the lot's hammer price and cost and fees can be modified by particular agreement between the seller and Artcurial SAS without consequence for the buyer.
b) Artcurial SAS will be authorized to reproduce in the official sale record and on the bid summary the information that the buyer will have provided before the sale. The buyer will be responsible for any false information given. Should the buyer have neglected to give his personal information before the sale, he will have to give the necessary information as soon as the sale of the lot has taken place. Any person having been recorded by Artcurial SAS has a right of access and of rectification to the nominative data provided to Artcurial SAS pursuant to the provisions of Law of the 6 July 1978.
c) The lot must to be insured by the buyer immediately after the purchase. The buyer will have no recourse against Artcurial SAS, in the event where, due to a theft, a loss or a deterioration of his lot after the purchase, the compensation he will receive from the insurer of Artcurial SAS would prove insufficient.
Artcurial SAS also reserves the right to set off any amount Artcurial SAS may owe the defaulting buyer with the amounts to be paid by the defaulting buyer.
Artcurial SAS reserves the right to exclude from any future auction, any bidder who has been a defaulting buyer or who has not fulfilled these general conditions of purchase.
e) With reservation regarding the specific provisions of this sale, for items purchased which are not collected within seven days from after the sale (Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays included), Artcurial SAS will be authorized to move them into a storage place at the defaulting buyerâs expense, and to release them to same after payment of corresponding costs, in addition to the price, costs and taxes.
f) The buyer can obtain upon request a certificate of sale which will be invoiced ⏠60.
4.âTHE INCIDENTS OF THE SALE
In case of dispute, Artcurial SAS reserves the right to designate the successful bidder, to continue the sale or to cancel it or to put the lot up for sale.
a) In case two bidders have bidden vocally, by mean of gesture or by telephone for the same amount and both claim title to the lot, after the bidding the lot, will immediately be offered again for sale at the previous last bid, and all those attending will be entitled to bid again.
b) So as to facilitate the presentation of the items during the sales, Artcurial SAS will be able to use video technology. Should any error occur in operation of such, which may lead to show an item during the bidding which is not the one on which the bids have been made, Artcurial SAS shall bear no liability/responsibility whatsoever, and will have sole discretion to decide whether or not the bidding will take place again.
5â. âPRE-EMPTION OF THE FRENCH STATE
The French state in entitled to use a right of pre-emption on works of art, pursuant to the rules of law in force.
The use of this right comes immediately after the hammer stroke, the representative of the French state expressing then the intention of the State to substitute for the last bidder, provided he confirms the pre-emption decision within fifteen days.
Artcurial SAS will not bear any liability/ responsibility for the conditions of the pre-emption by the French State.
6â. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHT - COPYRIGHT
The copyright in any and all parts of the catalogue is the property of Artcurial SAS. Any reproduction thereof is forbidden and will be considered as counterfeiting to their detriment.
Furthermore, Artcurial SAS benefits from a legal exception allowing them to reproduce the lots for auction sale in their catalogue, even though the copyright protection on an item has not lapsed.
Any reproduction of Artcurial SAS catalogue may therefore constitute an illegal reproduction of a work which may lead its perpetrator to be prosecuted for counterfeiting by the holder of copyright on the work.The sale of a work of art does not transfer to its buyer any reproduction or representation rights thereof.
7â. ITEMS FALLING WITHIN THE SCOPE OF SPECIFIC RULES
The International regulation dated March 3rd 1973, protects endangered species and specimen. Each country has its own lawmaking about it. Any potential buyer must check before bidding, if he is entitled to import this lot within his country of residence. Any lot which includes one element in ivory, rosewoodâŠcannot be imported in the United States as its legislation bans its trade whatever its dating may be. It is indicated by a (s).
8. REMOVAL OF PURCHASES
The buyer has to insure its purchase, and Artcurial SAS assumes no liability for any damage items which may occur after the sale. All transportation arrangements are the sole responsibility of the buyer.
9. âSEVERABILITY
The clauses of these general conditions of purchase are independant from each other. Should a clause whatsoever be found null and void, the others shall remain valid and applicable.
10. âLAW AND JURISDICTION
In accordance with the law, it is added that all actions in public liability instituted on the occasion of valuation and of voluntary and court-ordered auction sales are barred at the end of five years from the hammer price or valuation.
To allow time for processing, absentee bids and requests for telephone bidding should be received at least 24 hours before the sale begins. Telephone bidding is a service provided by Artcurial for lots with a low estimate above 500âŹ.
I have read the conditions of sale printed in this catalogue and agree to abide by them. I grant your permission to purchase on my behalf the following items within the limits indicated in euros. (These limits do not include buyerâs premium and taxes).
Limite en euros / Max. euros price
Date et signature obligatoire / Required dated signature
