It’s that time of the year again—not Halloween, but on October 18, TD’s annual Art With Heart auction will raise money for Casey House, a specialty hospital with programming that provides care and support for Toronto’s HIV/AIDS community. The auction itself offers plenty of Canadian contemporary art, with familiar names like Douglas Coupland, Kent Monkman and Edward Burtynsky appearing in the lineup as well as up-and-coming artists like Linda Chalmers and Joshua Jensen-Nagle. Perhaps the most intriguing piece available this year is by art star Robert Mapplethorpe, courtesy of the Olga Korper Gallery—the 1985 piece, Von Hackendahl, is a striking nude in black and white. Check out nine picks we think will make top dollar at the auction after the jump.
Lot 65: Robert Mapplethorpe The inclusion of a Mapplethorpe in the auction stands out not just for the print’s striking composition— this black and white study of the male body, positioned like an athlete, is indicative of the artist’s signature style and interest in the (male) human form—but also because of its rarity. Von Hackendahl is the third of only 10 prints, courtesy of the Olga Korper Gallery and donated by the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, with an estimated value of $10,000.
What guests will say: We’ll let Sir Mix A Lot take care of this one.
Artist-to-watch Linda Chalmers has a unique 3-D sensibility that permeates much of her work. Graduating from OCADU in 2009 with a BFA, Chalmers boasts quite an impressive resumé for such a young artist. Chalmers donated At the Bottom, a Tempest of Colour to the auction, an acrylic on canvas courtesy of Patrick Mikhail Gallery. Its estimated worth is $3,450.
What guests will say: Hand me another tab of acid, please.
We loved that Coupland’s novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture was revisited last year during Canada Reads 2010, but we have to admit we’re increasingly drawn to the author’s visual work: Harris Progressive Abstraction No. 3c (Icebergs, Davis Straight), worth an estimated $8,500, is part of a limited series of works from 2010 in which Coupland reinterpreted Group of Seven paintings with a contemporary eye. A unique pigment print, Coupland’s take on Lawren Harris’s renders the iceberg in sharp blocks of purple and mauve.
What guests will say: Iceberg, dead ahead. Even our closest friends make bad jokes referencing even worse films.
Another up-and-comer, Jensen-Nagle holds a BFA from Ryerson University. Lonely Nights, courtesy of Bau-Xi Photo, was donated by Jensen-Nagle with an estimated worth of $5,000. This first-edition print is part of his New Nature series, portraying a forest at night with a “pseudo-psychedelic colour palette.”
What guests will say: I need a vacation, immediately.
Writer and artist Luis Jacob donated The Stonebreakers (2010), courtesy of Birch Libralato—the work has an estimated worth of $4,500 and refers to a work by Gustave Courbet from 1849 that was destroyed during World War II in 1945. Jacob’s silkscreen rendition features the original figures of two peasants breaking rocks, imbued with a new digital sensibility.
What guests will say: Sir or Madam, hand me your closest bucket—I’m feeling ill.
Burtynsky’s Leaf Lettuce, Holland Marsh, Ontario (1983), courtesy of Nicholas Metivier Gallery, is a fine example of the artist’s interest in manufactured landscapes—the piece explores how Holland Marsh was drained and cleared to create farmland.
What guests will say: You don’t win friends with salad.
First Nations artist Kent Monkman is another well-known figure in the Canadian art world. Monkman’s The Academy (2011), courtesy of Pierre-Francois Ouellette Art Contemporain, is a black and white etching on paper that plays on familiar themes in Monkman’s work, including colonialism, Christianity and First Nations traditions. The work is estimated at $1,200.
What guests will say: I think I saw this in a history textbook. No, it was made in 2011.
Koop is a name many auction-goers are sure to be familiar with: she’s been exhibiting work for close to 40 years, recently showed at the National Gallery of Canada and made a film with the NFB. Koop’s Untitled Green Zone (Infrared. two lights) (2004), courtesy of Birch Libralato, is anything but green. Its estimated worth is $10,000.
What guests will say: Understanding this requires much more mental energy than I am willing to give.
Reinhard Reitzenstein Reitzenstein’s visual art can quite literally be seen around Canada, with notable pieces Island, River, Sentinels (2003–04) located in the Ambassador’s Court Garden at Rideau Hall in Ottawa and Festival Walkway (2003) located in a walkway at 10 Bellair Street between Bloor Street and Cumberland Avenue in Toronto. Reitzenstein’s Panoptic: Pisaq (2009/2010), courtesy of the Olga Korper Gallery, is an estimated $7,000 and depicts a rugged landscape.
What guests will say: We so often tour the countryside—I love it when art reflects real life.
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