The fruitful relationship between cinema and the plastic arts beats in the creative imagination of artists such as Picasso, Dalí, Chagall or Mimmo Rotella, who found in the seventh art their true inspirational muse.
The story of Olivier Bro de Comeres seems like the prelude to Lawrence of Arabia or some heroic novel. His biography has gone unnoticed for more than a century, until today.
Throughout the 20th century, sculpture underwent probably the most radical revolution in its history. The aesthetic fracture brought about by the avant-garde also brought about a reformulation in the conception of sculptural practice, whose principles and procedures had become obsolete.
The artist, who was recognized as one of the great introducers in Spain of abstract expressionism and gestural informalism, once again becomes an exceptional protagonist of our auction, this time with one of his most recognized series: Mutations.
On January 24 Setdart will be bidding on a large selection of archaeological pieces. Vestiges of numerous cultures are brought together in this auction, testifying to the cultural richness and artistic quality of the first civilizations.
The unique style of Gino Rubert, internationally recognized after being chosen to illustrate the famous literary trilogy Milenium, stars in our contemporary art auction on December 18.
One of many nights when Francis Bacon, already a revered figure, was going to the Colony club in Soho, he was approached by a young man whose shabby appearance was clearly out of keeping with the select atmosphere of the place, and spat at him, “Who do you think you are, my friend, to order champagne at the Swan and not bother to go and drink it?” The Irish genius, who by then was already in his sixties, was captivated by the audacity and, of course, the beauty of that daring waiter from the East End.
John Edwards would be his last lover but, above all, he would be the one who would take care of him until the end of his life. To him Bacon would bequeath his entire fortune.
Bacon would paint John in numerous canvases over the two decades from the time they met in 1972 until his death.
Walasse Ting began as an abstract art artist, but most of his works since the mid-1970s have been referred to as figurative-precious art. With a marked style based on the strength of color, his work is known not only for its fresh vitality, but also for his drawings of beautiful and sensual women.
“Muralla negra” reveals the philosophical and spiritual charge that underlies the work of Antoni Tàpies.
Bidding on December 3
Watch collecting is an activity that is clearly on the rise and the Rolex Daytona is one of the most desired models by collectors.
The greatest names in current Spanish art will meet at our next auction on December 19.
On September 23, Setdart presents at auction the collection “The Jewels of the Kimono Joya”, a selection of 27 pieces of jewelry designed by contemporary artist Carlos Muñiz.
The monumental “Flora” by Enric Casanovas in tender next 13th represents the paradigm of the noucentista sculptural practice.
Spanish contemporary art is experiencing a new golden age thanks to artists who, like Rafa Macarrón, have reached the Olympus of the international art market.
If you would like to discover some of the events that have marked the life and work of Edgar Plans, be sure to read the following curiosities that follow
During the Baroque period in Spain the works of Juan de La Corte and other architectural painters encouraged the development of architecture itself, many of the court painters would receive commissions for ephemeral architecture such as triumphal arches, mock facades, as well as the design of monumental altarpieces and the portals of churches and palaces.
The work we present here brings together the most representative features of the genre of ruins and architectures and the author’s own. The illusion and dynamism reaches a new height, creating the sensation that the ruins themselves are collapsing. Fallen columns are scattered around the characters, almost as if dodging disaster.
Since Goya there has not been a Spanish painter with greater international projection than the one achieved by Mariano Fortuny in his short career. Within a generation of extraordinary painters who raised Spanish art of the 19th century to its maximum power, Fortuny led an absolute renewal of the plastic arts that marked not only his closest friends but also a whole generation of European painters.
After demonstrating a precocious fondness for the arts, the young Fortuny began his academic training at the school of La Llotja where he won the scholarship that would take him to Rome for the first time in 1858. In the Italian capital Fortuny developed a fundamental part of his career that would deeply mark his personality and artistic projection. In this sense, the many trips that Fortuny made throughout his life meant a constant evolution in his painting, managing to abstract from them a learning process that, with an extraordinary instinct, led him to a completely innovative plastic conception, pushing his painting beyond academic conventions.
Walter Benjamin said that the figure of the born collector, along with that of the curious child and the urban flâneur share the same inquiring spirit. The German author was referring to those souls who know how to see the halo that surrounds certain works (paintings, furniture, antique books, rare objects…).
The film director Luis García Berlanga embodied the prototype of the genuine collector, the one who only obeys his desires and his lust for beauty.
From a very early age, despite being born into a family of merchants and artisans with no cultural concerns, Torres García showed great artistic sensitivity. He was self-taught in creation, and it was thanks to his insistence that his parents (his father was Catalan, his mother Uruguayan) gave in to his desire to leave Montevideo and travel to Barcelona.
The two paintings that Setdart brings together on this occasion confirm the aforementioned doubly, since each of them offers us a different journey into the past of the master from Malaga, each of them is an open window to the master’s adolescence: the landscape view of his native land and the interior of a church in which a Tridentine mass is celebrated were made by Picasso when he was barely sixteen years old.
Roman funeral rites were part of one of their identity signs and defining features of their most ancient values and traditions (including those of the conquered peoples). The artistic expression on the urns in this case, either by reliefs, scenes, ornaments or inscriptions, indicate their importance within their culture.
The image of a shepherd tending his flock is perhaps one of the oldest images of humanity and at the same time a permanent source of artistic inspiration, whether in poetry, as in the bucolic themes of Theocritus or Virgil, or in the religious themes of ancient Greece and Rome with Hermes and Mercury. The tradition of the classical past left its mark even on Judaism and early Christianity to the point that one of the first images of Jesus was as the good shepherd.
At Setdart we are committed to young talent with the firm conviction of creating bridges between collectors and emerging artists.
Among them, we present Costa Gorel (Moscow, 1993) whose work is developed from the city of Elche, Alicante, Spain. His debut in the Spanish art scene took place at the Art Madrid fair in February 2022, where his work was received with excellent reviews by experts, collectors and the general public.
Thanks to the fusion of Italian and German traditions, Costa’s multifaceted characters appear to the viewer as they are, without a filter. In this way, these bewitching androgynous figures develop their lives within a hermetic universe, where they are surrounded by fashion, architecture and chic aesthetics. But who is behind this solid artistic DNA?
Costa has shared with us through this interview his perspective on current issues such as the relevance and positioning of art in these uncertain times and what role online platforms play in the projection of emerging artists.
The etymology of the term jade dates back to the Spanish conquest of South and Central America. It means flank stone, referring to a stone that the Spanish conquistadors brought from America, and to which healing properties were attributed for the liver, spleen and kidneys. It is a stone to which metaphysical qualities have always been attributed.
“Colour light exercise” is among the most emblematic works of Bernardí Roig’s production, whose success and international recognition make him one of the most outstanding Spanish creators on the current art scene.
The niche in the bidding on the 18th represents a clear example of the mysticism of Gaudí’s legacy.
Antoni Gaudí’s work was a complete revolution in the field of architecture and decorative arts, going down in history as one of the most decisive architects of all time. The greatest exponent of Catalan modernism, his work represents a true icon that, despite remaining forever linked to the image of Barcelona, has achieved a prestige and admiration that knows no borders or cultures. The imprint of his artistic legacy tells us of an era in which the city of Barcelona manifested its freest and most imaginative spirit, betting on the most avant-garde creators, who, like Gaudí, made the dream of building a new Barcelona come true.
The style that a fountain pen gives off is not comparable to that of a ballpoint pen, the experience of writing by hand and seeing how the ink flows on the paper and the text acquires a unique character, turn that moment into something creative and very intimate.
If we were to go back to 16th century Spain, we would find ourselves before one of the most incredible panoramas in history. In barely a hundred years, a group of kingdoms, traditionally in dispute, are now at peace and united under one crown with the projection of being the custodians of half the known world.
The Asian art auction that Setdart is holding on October 10 hides small treasures of great artistic value. Among the pieces tendered is a small cup dating from the Ming Dynasty, which ruled China between 1368 and 1644, which stands out for the delicacy of the exquisite play of fretwork and the white of its polished surface. It is an export piece brought to Europe from Shanghai by the acclaimed Asian art dealer John Sparks, who ran a well-respected store specializing in Far Eastern art in the city of Manchester.
Since abstract art broke with all the limits of the pictorial practice itself, the plastic and expressive values intrinsic to it took on all the significant weight to proclaim its full autonomy and total freedom. The triumph of line, space, color and matter, above any hint of figuration, opened the way to new ways of conceiving, understanding and contemplating art, far beyond a tangible reality that could no longer express the vision of an atomized world.