In addition to the works of Toyen and Mucha, the May auction in Prague will also offer a painting by Václav Havel
The painting called The White Horse in Space will be produced for 2.5 million crowns. The auction hall said this in a press release today. The auction will take place on May 8 in the new headquarters of the organizing gallery in the Expo 58 pavilion in Letenské sady.
The most expensive item in the auction will be oil. The painting dates from 1951, a period when the painter dealt with Hermeticism and references to alchemy under Breton’s influence. The painting was originally part of the Toyen collection. This is the first auction sale of this work and the organizers set the starting price at six million crowns.
Alfons Mucha’s oil entitled Holiday Portrait is from the second half of the 1920s, when the author focused on realistic portraits. The starting price of the work is five million crowns. Emil Filla Ballerina’s large-format oil with flowers from 1947 and 1948 will be developed for the same price. According to the auction catalog, the painter captured a girlfriend, a soloist of the National Theater.
A painting by Václav Havel – acrylic on the descent from 1982 is called The White Horse in Space. According to the catalog, it was part of several private collections, including those of gallery owner Miro Smolák. The catalog states that the painting is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity written by Václav Havel, which is dated March 3, 2011, ie almost 30 years after the work was created. Václav Havel died on December 18, 2011. The work is also accompanied by a certificate from his wife Dagmar Havel dated March 3, 2021.
The auction will also offer works by Jan Zrzavý, Cubist still lifes by Emil Filla, a painting by a Tahitian woman by Maxim Kopf or an erotic collage by Jindřich Štyrský. The organizers won several sculptures from Czech and foreign collections for the auction. The most important item is the bronze statue of the Standing Man from 1981, created by the prominent English sculptor Henry Moore. The starting price of the work is 900,000 crowns. The French artist André Masson will be represented in the auction by a bronze Brother and Sister from 1942 with a starting price of 650,000 crowns.
Works by sculptors Eva Kmentová, Otto Gutfreund, Olbram Zoubek, Ladislav Šaloun, Eduard Ovčáček and the Janoušeks will be auctioned. Contemporary art will be represented by paintings by Jiří George Dokoupil, Hynek Martinec, Krištof Kintera, Michael Rittstein, Ivan Exner, Magdalena Jetelová, Jan Gemrot and others.