Saturday, April 30, 2005

Modern Art at Auction: See the Works for Free, Buy for Millions

So you don’t want to pay $20 to see great works of modern art at MoMA? Check out the Impressionist and Modern Art exhibit at Sotheby’s this weekend (and early next week), you won’t be disappointed. There are some really strong examples of Fauvist painting by Braque, Derain, Dufy (both Jean and Raoul) and Vlaminck along with a slew of School of Paris masterpieces. A painting by Chaim Soutine and a late Picasso (Women of Algiers) alone are worth the trip. Take a break and have a latte on the roof terrace of Dean & DeLuca’s and you will feel like a millionaire.

My personal favorite is an early Kandinsky,
Zwei Reiter und Liegende Gestalt (Two Riders and Reclining Figure). Estimated at 15 – 25 million dollars, it’s a little out of my price range but definitely worth the trip to East 72nd St. and York Avenue.

The first decade of the last century was truly a watershed period in the history of Art comparable to Florence in the 1420’s or Rome in the early 1500’s. The works on view here are very high in quality, quantity and price.

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