A large size painting by Romanian-born contemporary artist Adrian Ghenie, the largest piece the painter has in Romania, is put up for auction, in a premiere move on the local art market. The starting price is EUR 100,000, while it is estimated at EUR 120,000 – 180,000.
Both price and also the size of the painting make “Energy” as the most valuable piece of work of those approximately 200 masterpieces of the Artmark Spring Auction due on Tuesday, March 23, at 18:30hrs.
“Energy”, an oil and acrylic on cardboard 204 x 76.5 cm signed upper left, with yellow, “Ghenie”, is the best ranking and the largest in size work signed by Ghenie. The painting is imagining an astral world being born from its own energy.
A piece on the same topic, yet half in size than the present one, was sold within the last Postmodern and Contemporary Art Auction in February for EUR 110,000.
Adrian Ghenie will be present at the upcoming auction with another painting, a portrait of the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa (“The Raven” cycle – Edgar Allan Poe) [2020], which has a starting point of only EUR 1,000.
The work is digital print 42 x 57 cm signed and numbered bottom right, with pencil, “32/50”, one of the seven pieces illustrating the “Nevermore” series dedicated to the poem “Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe. The series consists of four portraits (Edgar Allan Poe, Stéphane Mallarmé, Charles Baudelaire and Fernando Pessoa) and three compositions (The Raven, Nevermore and Lenore), all based on collages previously made by Ghenie.