London – Christie’s will offer L.S. Lowry’s masterpiece Sunday Afternoon (1957, estimate: £4,000,000-6,000,000) as a leading highlight of the Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale, taking place on 20 March. Presented from the Collection of Sir Keith and Lady Showering, the painting has not been exhibited publicly in 57 years. Last sold in 1967 at Christie’s, during the artist’s lifetime, it realised a then record price for a painting by the artist. Christie’s has achieved seven of the current top ten prices for Lowry’s work at auction. Sunday Afternoon’s epic and highly populated industrial landscape exemplifies some of the most widely celebrated themes, landmarks and motifs from within Lowry’s oeuvre, something incredibly rare to see within a single composition. Thought to be one of around 12 works created on this, his largest scale, with almost all similar paintings of this size now held in prominent public museums including The Lowry, Salford; Tate, London; and National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. The painting will be on view for all to see, at Christie’s headquarters on King Street in London, from 13 to 20 March.
Keith Showering was a dynamic businessman whose career was founded on a 300-year-old Somerset family cider making business and the meteoric success of Babycham. By 1975, Showering was Chairman and CEO of Allied Breweries, Europe’s biggest drinks business, becoming the youngest ever Chairman and CEO of a FTSE 100 company. In 1981 he was knighted for services to industry and that same year he took over as Master of the Worshipful Company of Brewers. By the time of his death he was on the board of a wide variety of companies and arts organisations.
Philip Harley, Senior Director, Modern British and Irish Art, Christie’s: “Sunday Afternoon by L.S. Lowry will return to the public eye at Christie’s for the first time since it was last seen here 57 years ago. This important painting has remained in the Collection of Sir Keith and Lady Showering since 1967, offering a once-in-a-generation opportunity to acquire a work of this magnitude and scale. The composition represents the wonder the artist felt as he recorded his many observations of the evolving society around him. We are thrilled to bring Sunday Afternoon back to auction in the Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale. We look forward to welcoming our clients and visitors alike to view the painting when it goes on free display in London on 13 March.”
Lowry believed that crowds of people, with their individual characteristics, created unique patterns. These rhythms, he felt, revealed much about that person and their purpose for being present within the scene. This lifelong pursuit to capture what he described as the ‘battle of life’ continues to enthral audiences internationally.
Christie’s will offer Pauline Boty’s celebratory tribute to Marilyn Monroe, Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give (1962, estimate: £500,000-800,000), as a leading highlight of the Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale on 20 March. The painting was gifted to a close friend of Boty’s in 1964 and has remained in the same collection since. One of Pop Art’s founding members, Pauline Boty died prematurely at the age of 28 in 1966. Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give is one of only around 25 Pop paintings that Boty created and was included in a rare lifetime exhibition at Arthur Jeffress Gallery in London in 1962.
Boty painted two further depictions of Monroe as tributes to the actress following her death, both of which are held in museum collections: Colour Her Gone, 1962 (Wolverhampton Art Gallery) and The Only Blond in the World, 1963 (Tate, London). Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give will be on view in New York from 9 to 21 February before being exhibited in London from 13 to 20 March.
Angus Granlund, Head of Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale, Christie’s: “Painted in Boty’s distinctive style, Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give takes the form of a pictorial collage that is entirely rendered in oil paint. A celebration of female empowerment, this is thought to be Boty’s only painting of Monroe painted during the actress’ lifetime. The epitaph referred to in the title relates to the film Something’s Gotta Give shutting down production. The centrepiece of the composition is taken from a photograph published in Life magazine on 22 June 1962, depicting Monroe swimming in a pool on set. Collecting, collating and synthesising mass culture imagery from newspapers, adverts and magazines was central to Boty’s practice. A true polymath, as well as being a ground-breaking artist, Boty was also a talented actress and political activist. She strongly identified with Monroe and is often associated with her. Held in the same private collection since 1964, this rare painting brings together these two celebrated 1960s icons. Christie’s is honoured to present Epitaph to Something’s Gotta Give as a leading highlight of the Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale and look forward to welcoming clients in New York and London to view this Pop Art masterpiece.”
Pauline Boty was a pioneering artist whose work shaped one of the greatest movements in British art of the 20th century. Within her short lifetime, she created a powerful, vibrant group of works that explored popular culture and left-wing politics, subjects which were coming into sharp focus in the 1960s. Boty studied at the Royal College of Art, the seedbed of the Pop Art movement, where she met, befriended and went on to exhibit with Sir Peter Blake, Derek Boshier, David Hockney, Peter Phillips and Patrick Caulfield. In 1961, she exhibited along with Blake and two others at the A.I.A. Gallery in a group show seen as the very first Pop Art exhibition.