CHRISTIE’S TO OFFER
NICOLAS DE STAEL’S PLAGE À AGRIGENTE,
HIGHLIGHTING THE PARISIAN SELECTION OF
ONE: A GLOBAL SALE OF THE 20th CENTURY
Paris – Christie’s France is pleased to present Plage à Agrigente by Nicolas de Staël which will highlight the Parisian section of ONE: a Global Sale of the 20th Century. An exquisite work from one of Nicolas de Staël’s most celebrated and important series, executed in the South of France in 1953 and unveiled at Paul Rosenberg’s New York gallery in 1954, one of America’s leading dealers in modern American art.
Etienne Sallon, Specialist in charge of the sale: “We are pleased to present this vibrant painting which highlight the Paris leg of the sale. After the new world auction record established last October for Parc des Princes, we are glad to present such a powerful painting paying a beautiful tribute to Nicolas de Staël once again. This seminal painting from one of the most iconic series for the artist is truly fantastic. It was one of the rare paintings selected by the artist to be part of his personal show in New York at Paul Rosenberg’s Gallery in 1954 and a real treasure into this Paris section of the ONE auction”.
Suffused with the blazing light and color of the Mediterranean, Plage à Agrigente captures the memory of the landscape around the Ancient Greek city of Agrigento in Southern Sicily, which the artist had visited during the summer of 1953 and which made a powerful impression on his psyche. The artist will create this painting shortly after his sojourn there, which was for him the “highpoint” of his entire summer as he wrote to his friend Jacques Dubourg. Of the forty-four paintings de Staël produced based on his time in Sicily, twenty depict Agrigento, with six held in international museums’ collections. Widely exhibited, and one of the finest to remain in private hands, the present work captures the very essence of the series: sand, sea and sky vibrate with near-sonorous intensity, offering a glowing symphony of colour and form. If Agrigento was a “culmination” of de Stael’s travels, the resulting paintings also marked a zenith in his practice. With their sober, reductive compositions and increased chromatic charge, they took the experiences of previous years to new and daring heights, evoking the intensity and fragility with which the natural world closes in on the mind’s eye.
