This November we are excited to present several very special works in our Modern + Contemporary Art + Design sale.

For the first time at auction, we present a work by Austrian painter, Goetz Valien. Valien worked for much of his adult life as a movie poster artist and is also known for winning a lawsuit against the estate of German painter, Martin Kippenberger. This win allowed him to take credit for his role in the painting of the Paris Bar series, previously credited solely to Kippenberger. Valien’s work in this month’s sale, titled Ego, is a monumental acrylic on canvas painting of a dream-like scenario in which a figure walks through a maze of metal bars at twilight, evoking influences from Edward Hopper and Giorgio de Chirico.

Also coming in our November sale is a large screenprint by American Pop Art icon, Andy Warhol. This piece, titled Letter to the World (The Kick) from Martha Graham, depicts American dancer and choreographer Graham performing in a full-skirted dress in tones of blue. Graham is known for her unique technique, emphasizing “contraction and release,” and having a major influence on American dance since the 1920s. This print is one in a series of three that Warhol made featuring Graham, and it features his trademark screen-printing style that is comprised of solid blocks of monochromatic tones with a strong outline and lined detail — like the pink seen here in the folds of Graham’s dress.

Another highlight this November is an oil on canvas painting by Latvian-American artist, Raimonds Staprans. Staprans is known for his large swaths of bright color, often oranges and blues, and his understated treatment of subject. This piece, titled Red Sun, depicts a stylized landscape rendered primarily in saturated tones of red and orange with patches of bright green and blue. The sky dominates the image, taking up more than half of the canvas with its red and pink hues surrounding the pale orange dot of the sun hovering over the horizon. Staprans moved from his native Latvia in the early 20th century and settled in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he has remained active since. Staprans hosted a 60 year retrospective exhibit at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento and the San Jose Museum of Art in 2018.

One of the many highlights of the Design portion of the sale will be a Paul Frankl (1886–1958) Speed chair — the form originally designed in 1935. The iconic form is a testament to Frankl’s streamlined and architectural designs of the period, which took Design to the next level. Paul T. Frankl was one of the most important and influential designers working in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. Clars is pleased to offer an example from 1946 that was a fixture of Charlton Heston’s office at his custom Mid Century Modern 3.5 acre hilltop mansion in Beverly Hills, CA. Heston used to refer to the mansion as “The house that Ben-Hur built,” as this project was undertaken after the filming of the legendary motion picture.

Finally, we are pleased to offer a sculpture by contemporary Portuguese multimedia artist, Joana Vasconcelos. This sculpture, titled Cesar, was formed by covering a ceramic statue of a dog in a net of colorful, hand-woven crochet detail. A quote from the National Museum of Women in the Arts reads that in this series, Vasconcelos brings to light the “dissonance between handcrafted and manufactured” by covering a mass-produced dog statue with a painstakingly crafted textile. The juxtaposition is both jarring and aesthetically appealing; the colorful yarn seamlessly fits the dog’s body, while at the same time, the life-size animal appears lifelike enough to become uncanny.

This exciting work, along with others from Raymond Pettibon, Christopher Brown, Matt Gondek, and more will be available to bid on in our carefully curated November sale. Plus, we are delighted to offer Design items crafted by Tiffany Studios, Michael Taylor, John Cederquist, Dirk Van Erp, and more. This sale truly has something for every collector!

Clars Auctions is delighted to be offering 3 timed auctions in October. These timed auctions allow bidders to register and place one or more bids on lots of interest until the last day listed. If you are outbid, you will be notified and will be given the opportunity to raise your bid.

(please note: you can retract 3 bids per sale)

Art Within Reach: Bidding Closes October 16th, 2 PM PDT

This month in our Art Within Reach sale we are featuring a duo of oil paintings by Dutch Impressionist Paul Rink, paintings by early California artists Victor Hugo Basinet and Luther Evans de Joiner, and contemporary pieces by Carrie Lederer and Jack Ogden. We are also pleased to include prints and photographs by George Demont Otis, Carol Jablonsky, Jim Millett, and more.

The Discovery Sale: Bidding Closes October 16th, 3 PM PDT

In this month’s Discovery Sale we will offer a diverse range of items, including sterling flatware and hollowware from renowned brands like Tiffany, Gorham, and Dominick Haff. This sale will also feature collectibles, such as Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola paraphernalia, as well as carnival architectural elements.

For those interested in antique furniture, we have George III armchairs, a Hepplewhite table, a Biedermeier parlor suite, Federal mirrors, an Art Deco headboard, and Arts & Crafts desks. If you prefer contemporary designers, we carry pieces from brands like Bernhardt, Restoration Hardware, Henredon, and Cisco Home. Additionally, we will showcase exquisite porcelain pieces by Royal Crown Derby, Meissen, Herend, Royal Copenhagen, Lenox, Wedgwood, and Spode. For modern ceramics enthusiasts, our collection includes works by Marja Vallila, Dorren Blumbardt, and Tom Colman. Rounding out this sale is a selection of carpets, including Persian Bidjars, Aubusson styles, and Indo-Nains.

Asian Decorative Arts: Bidding Closes October 16th, 4 PM PDT

This month’s Asian Decorative Arts Auction presents a wide array of Japanese works of art — encompassing exquisite metalwork in bronze and cloisonné along with a captivating selection of lacquered objects. Additionally, we are delighted to offer a noteworthy collection of suiseki viewing stones from a private collection. As a longstanding tradition, we prominently showcase Chinese works of art in this auction, featuring an impressive range of ceramics, intricately carved jade pieces, and various scholarly objects.

A notable work in our October Collections Auction is a large print by funk artist, William T. Wiley. Wiley began his artistic studies at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute), and later taught at U.C. Davis alongside artists Roy DeForest and Robert Arneson.

As an associate of the Funk Art movement, Wiley was a purveyor of using unconventional materials, eschewing the Minimalist trend and embracing chaos. He often described himself as a sort of spiritual descendent of Marcel Duchamp, building upon the Dadaist tradition of absurdity. One of Wiley’s graduate students was Bruce Nauman, who would go on to become one of the biggest names in American Conceptual art. Nauman remembered Wiley as keeping his studio open at all hours for students. In doing this, young artists could practice their craft and work through creative blocks.

Wiley’s work has been the subject of major exhibitions, including showings at the 1980 Venice Biennial, the de Young Museum, and a retrospective at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. The monumental woodcut print featured this month is titled Mr. Bones, and features hand coloring by the artist.

The piece demonstrates Wiley’s eclectic visual style, including sketchy, movement-heavy lines and text interspersed throughout, with a humorous, surrealist-inspired subject. Wiley was known for wearing blue jeans and cowboy boots around his Marin County home, a look that is replicated on the aforementioned character of Mr. Bones. His peers and neighbors lovingly referred to the artist as a frontiersman for his choices in wardrobe, but within the artistic community of the San Francisco Bay Area he was exactly that — a pioneer of experimentation.

Clars’ Fall Fine & Rare Wines Auction on October 16th will feature a vast array of rare French bordeauxes and burgundies.

Some of just a few of the highlights are 1955 and 1959 Chateau Latour, 1964 and 1969 Domaine Comte Georges De Vogue Musigny, 1966 Chateau Lafite Rothschild, and 1969 Domaine Rene Engel, Clos Vougeot.

Clars is excited to present our October Collections Auction on October 13th. This sale will offer a splendid variety of art, jewelry, and furniture.

Asian Art

Highlights from the Asian Art department include a group of Chinese monochrome glazed ceramic bowls and vases from Song and Yuan dynasties, and Chinese export underglaze blue items from the Ca Mau shipwreck acquired from Sotheby’s Amsterdam in 2007.

Additionally, there will be a selection of Japanese works of art, such as two Edo era tanto daggers and various Meiji period metalwork vases.

Furniture & Decorative Arts

The Furniture & Decorative Arts department will offer a collection for the discerning connoisseur, including 18th and 19th century furniture and rugs, such as a Francoise Linke table, a collection of Regency Chinoiserie furniture and a Palace Kashan carpet.

Russian bronze sculptures and decorative arts, including Czarist examples and Grachev Bros enameled flatware, will also be up for auction. In addition, there will be a group of modern and contemporary pottery and art glass, and a selection of cameras and lenses available.

Fine Jewelry & Timepieces

The Fine Jewelry & Timepiece department is excited to offer a selection of diamonds, colored gemstone gold jewelry, and timepieces in their upcoming October 13th sale. This sale features a variety of wardrobe staples to build up the foundation of your jewelry collection at accessible price points. To be featured in the sale are a nice selection of diamond jewelry, including a diamond and 14k white gold tennis bracelet, estimated at $4,500–$5,500, and a colorful gem-set 18k gold bracelet, estimated at $3,500–$4,500.

Other wearable pieces that will highlight your everyday life include items such as a diamond and 18k bi-color gold starburst pendant brooch, estimated $1,200–$1,800. This brooch is complemented by classic timepieces, including a Rolex two-tone Oyster Perpetual lady’s wristwatch, estimated at $2,000–$3,000.

Fine Art

This month the Fine Art department is pleased to feature a number of works by contemporary and early California artists, including an oil on canvas painting by painter George Demont Otis. Otis first came to California in 1924, where he worked as a scene designer for Metro-Goldwyn Mayer (MGM). He later moved to San Francisco and eventually settled in Marin County. He is known for landscapes of central and Northern California scenes, often depicting eucalyptus trees and rolling hills. In the featured painting this month, titled Marin Redwoods, he depicts a grove of the California state trees with sunlight peeking in through the canopy.

Another highlight this October is a large print by funk artist William T. Wiley. Wiley began his artistic studies at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute), and later taught at U.C. Davis alongside artists Roy DeForest and Robert Arneson. Wiley’s work has been the subject of major exhibitions, including showings at the 1980 Venice Biennial, the de Young Museum, and a retrospective at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. The monumental woodcut print featured this month, titled Mr. Bones, features hand coloring by the artist. The piece demonstrates Wiley’s eclectic visual style, including sketchy, movement-heavy lines and text interspersed throughout, with a humorous, surrealist-inspired subject. Also to be featured this month are an important print by Roberto Matta, paintings by Guy Anderson and Arthur Grover Rider, sculptures by Squeak Carnwath, and much more.

Clars is now seeking consignments for our upcoming Luxury Jewels & Timepieces Auction on November 16th. Schedule a private appointment with one of our Jewelry specialists and learn what your property is worth.

The market for signed and antique jewelry, as well as precious colored gemstones and timepieces is very strong. Schedule your private and confidential appointment now to speak to one of our Specialists to determine your jewelry’s auction potential.

“I seek the power of the rock, the magic of the water, the religion of the tree, the color of the wind, and the enigma of the horizon,” George Morrison (American, 1919–2000).

George Morrison was a Native American artist well known for his abstract paintings and landscapes. Morrison captured the American landscape and environment in vibrant multicolored paintings through the lens of the Chippewa tribe’s culture.

Morrison was born Wah Wah Teh Go Nay Ga Bo (Standing in the Northern Lights) in 1919 on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation, MN, a rural fishing village on the north shore of Lake Superior. He began drawing as a child while he was confined to a full-body cast after a surgery. He later attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, graduating in 1938.

After graduation, Morrison associated himself with a group of Abstract Expressionist painters in New York City. He graduated from New York’s Art Students League in 1946. There he would find critical acclaim, and eventually, as a Fulbright scholar, he studied and worked in Paris and Aix-en-Provence.

He began a teaching career at Cape Ann Art School in Massachusetts and continued to teach art and Native American studies at various institutions, such as the Rhode Island School of Design and University of Minnesota, throughout his life. While teaching Morrison also produced art and showed his work — primarily in the Midwestern United States.

Later in life, he would go on to receive several important commissions and continue his work on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation — creating prolifically assembled totemic sculptures and making horizon-line paintings. In 2022, a selection of five of his paintings were commemorated by the United States Postal Service as Forever Stamps.

Annie Leibovitz began her artistic career at the San Francisco Art Institute in the late 1960s, where she originally studied painting but was inspired to change her focus to photography. In 1970, Leibovitz began working as a staff photographer for Rolling Stone magazine, where she continued to photograph musicians such as John Lennon and Fleetwood Mac for 13 years.

In 1970, the then 21-year-old Leibovitz secured an interview with Jann Wenner, the founding editor of Rolling Stone. Impressed by her portfolio, Wenner entrusted her with her inaugural task, capturing photos of John Lennon in New York. The photograph to be offered at Clars’ Fall Modern + Contemporary Art Auction originates from the momentous session and effectively captures a portion of the lighthearted essence shared by the renowned couple. An image of Lennon by Leibovitz from this series graced the cover of Rolling Stone in January 1971, marking a pivotal juncture in the early journey of this significant photographer. She quickly gained recognition for her distinctive style of capturing candid and intimate moments with musicians and celebrities.

Nearly a decade after, on December 8, 1980, Leibovitz captured the iconic photo of a nude Lennon embracing a clothed Yoko. In taking this photo, Leibovitz became the final professional photographer to immortalize Lennon before his tragic shooting and death, which happened just five hours later. Her iconic photograph of John and Yoko is one of her most famous works from that era. Leibovitz’s photographs for Rolling Stone helped redefine the concept of celebrity portraiture and set a new standard for the magazine’s visual identity.

In 1983, Leibovitz started working with Vanity Fair magazine, and in 1991, she was the first woman to stage an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. In her personal life, Leibovitz was the long-time partner of writer and philosopher Susan Sontag and has three daughters.

Clars is excited to present The Collectors Auction on September 15th. This spectacular collection is overflowing with an impressive variety of art, jewelry, and furniture.

Asian Art

Asian Art will feature various distinguished private collections of Chinese, Himalayan, South Indian, and Southeast Asian religious works of art. One of the highlights is a Chinese Daoist painting of various religious figures.

Also, to be presented in this auction is an extensive collection of Chinese mixed metal ink boxes, silver accessories, and miniature decorative objects.

Furniture & Decorative Arts

The Furniture & Decorative Arts portion of the sale will be offering an extensive selection of fine objects, including contemporary furniture from an exclusive St. Helena winery, antique furniture and decorative arts from the 17th through 20th centuries, American carousel animals from Gustav Dentzel, Native American blankets and beadwork, and Indian and Middle Eastern decorative arts.

Fine Jewelry & Timepieces

The Fine Jewelry & Timepieces department is excited to offer a selection of diamond, colored gemstone and gold jewelry, in their upcoming September 15th sale. This sale features a variety of wardrobe staples to build up the foundation of your jewelry collection at accessible price points. To be featured in the sale are a nice selection of diamond jewelry, including a diamond and 14k white gold band, estimated at $1,200–$1,800, and a pair of diamond stud earrings, estimated at $1,200–$1,800.

The sale will also include a colorful gemstone selection, including a tanzanite, diamond and silver necklace, estimated at $2,000–$3,000, and a pair of emerald, diamond and platinum-topped 18k gold ear clips, estimated at $1,000–$1,500.

Other wearable pieces that will highlight your everyday life include items from makers Seaman Schepps, in a gem-set and 18k gold, ‘Chessman,’ brooch, estimated at $1,500–$2,500, and an enamel and 18k gold bracelet, by Buccellati, estimated at $10,000–$15,000.

Fine Art

This September at Clars we are excited to offer an original print by French-American naturalist, John James Audubon. Audubon is well known for his illustrations of the birds of North America. The featured engraving is titled Canvas Backed Ducks and dates to 1836.

Also included in our sale are an oil on canvas painting by Thomas Virgil Troyon Hill Jr., depicting California’s Yosemite Valley, and a still-life oil on canvas painting by Luigi Lucioni.

Clars’ Fine Art department is excited to present our Fall Modern + Contemporary Art Auction on September 14th. The sale will offer an array of artworks spanning movements and decades, with notable works for all collectors.

An important highlight to be offered in this sale is an oil on canvas by French artist Henry Moret (French, 1856–1913) titled Maisons à Volendam, Hollande. Moret, while trained in the Neo-Classical and Orientalist style at the École National des Beaux-Arts, took much inspiration from Impressionist artists and painted the Western European countryside and Coastlines, incorporating vibrant tones of blue, green, and peachy orange. This work, completed in 1900, is a strong example of his bold palette choices and forceful and short brushstrokes, a style he credited much to Claude Monet. This painting will be offered at $50,000–$70,000.

Also to be featured in our Fall Modern + Contemporary Art Auction are two large-scale prints by American artist Robert Longo (American, b. 1953). Longo, who has also worked in film and sculpture, is most known for his drawings and prints in the Men in the Cities series. These images depict models in stark black and white formal attire whose contorted poses convey dancing, fighting, or other active and sometimes violent movements. Longo created these images by blowing up photographs of his friends to a larger-than-life scale and tracing his subjects to paper. These iconic artworks have appeared in film and television series including American Psycho and Inventing Anna. Clars will be offering both James and Tillman at $15,000–$20,000 each.

Yet another notable print to be offered is Andy Warhol’s (American, 1928–1987) Sitting Bull — a print originally intended for the Cowboys and Indians suite completed in 1986. The print, valued at $40,000–$60,000, displays the iconic portrait of Sitting Bull, derived from an archival photo of the Sioux Chief. Warhol of course adds a flare of dramatized color in his Pop Art style to blend the understanding of historical and modern-day imagery.

The sale will also offer numerous photographs by renowned artists such as Diane Arbus, Annie Leibovitz, and David LaChapelle. One notable work in this category is a photograph by American artist and writer Peter Beard (American, 1938–2020), most known for his images of Africa. Beard’s book The End of the Game, first published in 1965, documented the issues of starvation and poaching facing wildlife in Kenya, and brought the artist international attention. The photograph in our September sale titled Fayel Tall depicts Kenyan model Fayel Tall posing in a mudcloth-style skirt covered in geometric designs. An inscription on the left of the photograph quotes a passage from The End of the Game describing a beautiful woman. The unique photograph will be auctioned off for $20,000–$40,000.

This sale will also offer additional important works by renowned artists such as Nguyễn Tư Nghiêm, Hunt Slonem, George Morrison, and Ruth Asawa, among others.