Esoteric Survey

Peter Voulkos, Rondena, 1958 will be up for sale at Phillips .  Rondena was first exhibited at the Pasadena Art Museum in 1958. It was purchased at the Felix Landau gallery by Betty and Stanley Sheinbaum in 1959 and has been in their family ever since. It's huge in terms of size, as well as in the timeline of Voulkos's work, and in the abstract expressionist ceramics world in general. It's also a rare opportunity for someone to actually buy it. Most of these sculptures are in museum collections.  Glenn Adamson wrote a great essay about the sculpture: Tower of Power: Peter Voulkos' 'Rondena' .  And better yet, there's a video starring my buddy and Design Senior Specialist at Phillips, Meaghan Roddy! 

In 1939, Isamu Noguchi designed a glass-top rosewood table for Conger Goodyear, then president of the Museum of Modern Art.  “Even the first table I made for Conger Goodyear was not exactly utilitarian. I thought of it as sculpture that was a table. After all, you can say that the earth is a table. We feast upon it. You can also say that it is utilitarian, this earth.”  In 1933, Noguchi also did a bust of Conger, that can be seen  here . Source:  Ezra Stoller photo, Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum via Phillips Conger Goodyear House in Old Westbury NY, Architect: Edward Durell Stone  Photo: © Ezra Stoller / Esto via Phillips Exterior of the Goodyear house Source: Daniella on Design Noguchi at the Goodyear house Source:  Ezra Stoller photo, Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum via Phillips Isamu Noguchi, 3 ideas for "Table" Source: Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum via Phillips S...

Greta Grossman, 1953 The Architect , a sale at Phillips, created by Lee Mindel, FAIA Franco Albini, c. 1940 Junzo Sakakura, 1956 The Japanese section of the 1960 Triennale di Milano, 1960 Jean Prouvé, 1944  In situ, 1944 Carlo Mollino, 1949  Mollino light in situ, 1949 Gerrit Thomas Rietveld , 1923/1957 The sale is in London on April 29.   It includes a ridiculous amount of great design by the likes of Juhl, Wright, Aalto, Fuller, Ando, Niemeyer...  See it all here . All images via Phillips

Phillips  seems to have cornered the market on amazing ceramics by  Lucie  Rie and Hans Coper.  Seriously, where do they get all these? It seems like at every one of their auctions there's a stack of Coper and Rie. Now they're bringing some high level Ken Price to market.  Not just one either Ken Price, in a box It doesn't stop there. They also have some insane Natzlers. Natzler Starry Natzler These are all part of the Betty Lee and Aaron Stern Collection that will be sold  on November 17th  at  Phillips All photos by Phillips