PAFA to Showcase Seminal Flag Painting by Celebrated Artist Jasper Johns

PHILADELPHIA, PA.- This summer, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) will feature JASPER JOHNS: FLAG, one of Johns’ most sensuously painted flags in a single-object exhibition, on view June 26 through September 12. An icon of modern art, Johns’ Flag (1960-66) has been exhibited only once before, and was recently sold at auction for a record price as part of the collection of the late Michael Crichton. Author, director, producer, screenwriter, and collector, Crichton made his fortune creating [...]

New Book “Leo and His Circle” by Annie Cohen-Solal Tells the Life of Leo Castelli

NEW YORK, NY.- Leo Castelli reigned for decades as America’s most influential art dealer. Now Annie Cohen-Solal, author of the hugely acclaimed Sartre: A Life (“an intimate portrait of the man that possesses all the detail and resonance of fiction”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times), recounts his incalculably influential and astonishing life in Leo and His Circle. After emigrating to New York in 1941, Castelli would not open a gallery for sixteen years, when he had reached the age of [...]

Flag Flies at Christie’s Sale – Record for Jasper Johns Whose Flag Sells for $28.6 Million

NEW YORK, NY.- The quality, scope and innovative vision of the late author Michael Crichton’s collection of contemporary art compelled buyers at Christie’s on May 11. The focal point of the sale was Jasper Johns’ Flag, 1960-1966, selling for $28,642,500 million (£19,476,900/€ 22,627,575) (estimate: $10 million-$15 million), the highest price ever achieved for a work by Johns at auction. The collection realized $93,323,500 (£63,459,980/€ 73,725,565) and sold 100% by lot and by value, becoming one of the most significant. Four [...]

Iconic Yves Klein Work a Spring Auction Highlight this Week

NEW YORK.- The spotlight at this week’s post-war and contemporary art auctions at Christie’s and Sotheby’s is trained on star offerings such as Jasper Johns’ “Flag” and Andy Warhol’s “Self Portrait.” But the most unusual work could be Yves Klein’s monumental “ANT 93, Le Buffle (The Buffalo),” which is hitting the block for the first in its 50-year life on Tuesday. The rare work from the French artist’s signature “Anthropometrie” series is big, bright blue, and highly conceptual. Long before [...]

Leading Works Light Up Christie’s Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s, the world’s leading art business, will celebrate the leading lights of modern and contemporary art offering 49 seminal works in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale taking place on the evening of May 11. Led by extraordinary works by Yves Klein and Andy Warhol, the auction will offer collectors highly important examples by Jasper Johns, Jeff Koons, Yayoi Kusama, Roy Lichtenstein, Chris Ofili and Christopher Wool. The sale will directly follow the evening auction of [...]

Michael Crichton Collection Features World-Class Artists

NEW YORK, NY.- Best-selling author Michael Crichton approached art in the same way he did his writing — through extensive research — but also by developing close friendships with many of the artists whose works he collected. The popular thriller writer died in 2008 leaving behind such blockbusters as “Jurassic Park,” ”The Andromeda Strain” and the TV series “ER.” But he also left a 20th century art collection that features some of pop art’s best known artists, including Jasper Johns, [...]