Bonhams & Butterfields Made in California sale on May 5th
Published February 28th, 2008
Bonhams & Butterfields is presenting the Made in California sale on May 5th, showcasing the exceptional creativity of the state’s leading modern and contemporary artists.
After spending decades in the shadows of the New York and European art scenes, California is coming into the limelight. Artists such as John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha, Ron Davis and Larry Bell have made the West Coast a new center of the art world. Museums across California are showing off their local talent in surveys of contemporary California art. As well, a recent exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, “Los Angeles: 1955-1985, Naissance d’une Capitale Artistique,” has given international recognition to the Golden State.
The May 5th auction highlights San Francisco’s rich artistic tradition. The auction includes work by groundbreaking Bay Area figurative artists such as David Park, Nathan Oliveira, Manuel Neri, James Weeks, and Roland Petersen. Working in the 1960s, these artists rejected the unwritten rule that art should be abstract in the legacy of Jackson Pollock. Roland Petersen experimented with color, light and shadow in a series of geometric picnic paintings. As a painter and professor at University of California at Davis (UC Davis) for many years, Petersen influenced many generations of Bay Area artists. The sale will feature several of his paintings from the 1960s and 1970s including Summer Picnic, 1971, and The Sunflower Eclipse, 1972. Each painting is estimated to bring $50,000-70,000.
The auction will also highlight the work of several generations of Los Angeles artists including Claire Falkenstein, Ron Davis, Peter Alexander, Billy Al Bengston, Ed Moses, Alexis Smith and Robert Graham. “California has a unique set of social and historical conditions that makes the state distinctive,” says Sherratt, “These artists were inspired by the landscape, beach culture and political climate of Los Angeles.”
The Los Angeles and San Francisco galleries will simulcast the sale on May 5th enabling bidding from the salesrooms in both cities. Made in California will follow the international Modern and Contemporary auction that begins at 10 am. Artwork from both sales will be on display in San Francisco on April 25-27 and in Los Angeles on May 2-4. The catalogue will be available online at www.bonhams.com/us in the weeks preceding the auction.
