LOT DETAILS

Materials:

oil on canvas

Measurements:

76.77 in. (195.00 cm.) (height) by 98.43 in. (250.00 cm.) (width)

Markings:

signed "Yektai 60" (lower left), the verso bearing an exhibition stamp from the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire

Exhibited:

Paris, Galerie Iris Clert, Iris Clert Portraits, 1961Depicting the colourful and exuberant Parisian gallerist Iris Clert, the painting was first in 1961 in Paris alongside works by Lucio Fontana, Robert Rauschenberg, Yves Klein and Arman all of whom showcased their esoteric portraits of the famous gallery owner.Iris Clert was a captivating and colourful art dealer whose eponymous gallery became one of the focal points of the post-war Parisian avant-garde. Clert's Paris gallery many of the most successful, illustrious and provocative artists of the 1950s and 1960s, especially those who were associated with Nouveau Réalisme. Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Yves Klein, Lucio Fontana and Manucherh Yektai himself are just a few among the retinue of talents to have at Clert's gallery during this period.With its grand gestural style and painterly exuberance, Yektai's portrait created a stark visual contrast with the conceptual and provocative work submitted by the abstract artists participating in the exhibition. Its survival as one of the few documentented and subsequently works from this seminal exhibition marks it not only as one of the most historically important, but also most artistically accomplished of Yektai's works

Literature:

Genève, Musée Rath (Musée d'Art et d'Histoire), Le Visage de l'Homme dans l'Art Contemporain, 1967, n.106

Provenance:

Property from a private collection, London,Formerly in the Theodore Ahrenberg Collection, Chexbres