Art trends 2021: 7 most valuable artworks

In 2021, the most expensive works of art sold at auction are predominantly by already well-known faces in this medium. Male artists of the 19th and 20th centuries lead sales: Femme assist près d'une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse) ofPablo Picasso, 1932; In This Case inJean-Michel Basquiat (1983); portrait of a young man holding a roundel by Sandro Botticelli;At the. 7 inMark Rothko (1951); Le Nez inAlberto Giacometti,(1947) and Oxen huts parmi les oliviers et cyprès inVincent van Gogh (1889). At P55 we see the new artists, who have been addresses the need for social and ecological to set the stage, yet remainthe popular faces of 20th century Portuguese art to lead. Discover the most expensive works sold on our platform in 2021.

1. Cat Shoe inJúlio Pomar, 2009 - 87 500,00 €
This list begins with two paintings by Júlio Pomar with a recurrent theme in his painting: animals.Júlio Pomar was one of the artists with the greatest impact on the Portuguese arts of the 20th century, since the beginning of his career. Committed to social problems, he began in the neo-realism artistic movement, which resumed the aesthetic and social attitude of 19th century realism, simultaneously demonstrating the new concerns of the 20th century. For seven decades it managed to constantly reinvent itself, whether in the techniques and means used or in artistic movements.Among modern Portuguese painters,Júlio Pomar is one of the few — as Paula Rego — whose figuration, not only human, is the main theme. Many were the animals portrayed byJúlio Pomar: the pig, the monkey, the tiger, the crow, the elephant, the giraffe, the deer, the turtle, the bull, the cat, the horse, the dog, the lobo, the goat and the goat, the seagull and the fly. The firm presence of this theme can be seen in his works over six decades, from the small individual clay sculptures with monkeys in 1949 to the donkeys playing the guitar in 2010.

2. New Year's Piglet inJúlio Pomar, 2009 - 50 000,00 €

3. Plastic Tiger inBordalo II, 2018 - 37,375€
Objects once abandoned, in the hands of Bordalo II, tell a new story. The plates, the tires, the doors acquire an aesthetic and communicative function, clearly expressing a critique of consumerism, offering a sustainable solution. The Portuguese artist wants to represent in his works an image of nature - animals, building them from what destroys them - garbage, waste and pollution. The landscape that his grandfather Real Bordalo once painted, is currently transformed by the animals of Bordalo II. This sculpture of Bordalo II addresses the need for socio-ecological sustainability.

4. Untitled inVieira da Silva - 38 750,00 €
Through his works ranging from the figurative to the abstract, Maria Helena Vieira da Silva marked the history of Portuguese and international art. The artist worked and lived essentially in Paris, however it is possible to discover traces of Lisbon in her work. Due to the Second World War and the Estado Novo, she took refuge in Brazil with her husband, the painter Arpad Szenes. It was mainly from the post-war period that his work began to be recognized and celebrated nationally and internationally, with several commissions and exhibitions. His path was associated with his versatility, with a set of works ranging from painting, sculpture, tapestry, to illustration and scenography. became one of the most celebrated abstract artists in post-war Europe. His works are exhibited all over the world, being shown in repeated retrospectives.This painting, with abstract compositions and a soft line, involves colors and shapes, inspired by big cities.

5. Nadir Afonso - 22 850,00 €
the portuguese artist Nadir Afonso he was a pioneer in geometric abstraction in Portugal, being a fundamental figure for the modernism of this country. In an initial period of pictorial experimentation, through figurativism and the representation of the real, he went through a surrealist aesthetic that made the transition to abstractionism. This is how he discovered his attraction for geometric painting. The artist considered that art was not the result of imagination, but of observation and manipulation of form. In addition to painting, he worked in architecture, collaborating with architects such as Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer. His artistic production is fundamental for the study of modernism in Portugal. This work is a representation of the singularity of his artistic production around geometric abstraction.

6. Depict Series in Vhils, 2018 - 25 000,00 €
Alexandre Farto, artistically known for Vhils, he sculpts the faces of anonymous figures on a large scale that he photographs on the streets. Through his creativity, the Portuguese artist reveals the hidden lower layers and the fragility of the urban space, reflecting current themes in the artistic panorama, such as identity, representation, ephemerality and the experience of the individual in the consumer society. Vhils became internationally known mainly for his murals in public space, honoring José Saramago, Zeca Afonso, among others. However, being an experimentalist, he has been transferring his visual language from the layer subtraction process to a variety of media, such as serigraphy and installation, in addition to the use of other supports, such as advertising posters, wooden doors and metal plates. that he collects from the streets. In this work we see this transition from wall media to other formats.

7. "Circular Forms" inManuel Cargaleiro - 21 050,00 €
the portuguese artist Manuel Cargaleiro created a striking language in the artistic world by combining ceramics and painting, through interplay between color, light and shadow. His works are strongly characterized by the use of geometry and abstract, non-figurative language. In this work, spontaneous and dynamic brushstrokes with vibrant colors, which overlap the form, reduce the formality that characterizes the geometric elements. The exploration of color is one of the main characteristics of this work and of its artistic production, as it reveals feelings and creates different spaces in a single composition.