For Immediate Release November 8, 2011 Contacts: Sara Fox sfox@christies.

com tel +1 212 636 2680

MODERN MASTERPIECES FROM BRAZIL AND MEXICO LEAD THE AUTUMN LATIN AMERICAN SALE AT CHRISTIES NEW YORK

Emiliano di Cavalcanti (1897-1976) O Homem a e Mquina, 1966 estimate: $200,000 300,000

New York Christies New York is proud to announce details of its major fall Latin American Sale on November 15, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. and November 16, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. This two-session sale of more than 370 lots total is led by significant works from the best-known painters and sculptors of 20th century Central and South America and the Caribbean. The Evening Sale features 79 of the sales most important works, with an exceptional line-up of paintings and sculpture from celebrated Brazilian and Mexican artists, amongst many others. The following Day Sale presents 290 additional works of art, including photography, drawings, prints and sculpture from the Spanish colonial era to the present. The combined sales are expected to realize in excess of $18 million. Virgilio Garza, Head of International Latin American Paintings at Christies, commented: The very rich representation of genres, periods and countries represented in this falls Latin American Sale offers exceptional opportunities to collectors in this dynamic field, at every price level. Leading the sale is a particularly strong group of works from Brazil and Mexico, a selection of

works by Fernando Botero in a variety of mediums, a monumental painting from the 1970s by Francisco Toledo, and a number of extraordinary works from the distinguished Olivetti Latin American Collection. Brazilian Highlights The sales strong selection of Brazilian artists is highlighted by fresh to the market works from the Olivetti Latin American Collection. Leading the collection is a stylized abstraction, Bandeirinhas estruturadas, painted in 1966 by Alfredo Volpi (1896-1988). The painting is typical of the artists work in which he transforms everyday motifs-- facades, flags, arches, sails-- into schematic and essential geometries (estimate: $250,000 - 350,000). His practice both anticipated and coexisted with the Neo-Concrete movement of the 1960s, and his iconic abstractions rank among the landmarks of modern Brazilian art. Another highlight of the Olivetti group, and gracing the catalogue cover, is O Homem a e Mquina, painted in 1966 by Emiliano di Cavalcanti (18971976) (estimate: $200,000 300,000). A key figure in the history of early Brazilian modernism, and one of the architects of the landmark Semana de Arte Moderna de So Paulo in 1922, Di Cavalcanti developed a mature style that mingled the formal precepts of cubism, fauvism, surrealism and German expressionism with a subject matter rooted in Brazils rich cultural and racial heritage. In O Homem a e Mquina, he creates a fantastical scene combining his familiar iconography of young, stylized female figures with elements that exalt Brazils past and its energetic present. The typewriter depicted in the composition, a clear reference to the Olivetti company, stands as a powerful symbol of industry and modernity. The group of Brazilian artists is rounded out with a sculpture by Franz Weissmann (1911-2005) Estructura, 1969, also from the Olivetti collection (estimate: $60,000- 80,000), and Mira Schendel (1919-1988) Untitled (estimate $50,000 - 70,000); Antonio Bandeira (1922-1967) Blue Streets, 1955 (70,000 90,000), and Jos Pancetti (1902-1958) Abaet (Serie Bahia, No. 28), 1957 (estimate: $60,000 80,000). Mexican Highlights Significant works by Mexican artists are led by Alfredo Ramos Martnez (1871-1946) and the painting The Oldest Couple in Town, circa 1930s, which evinces the artist's stylistic adherence to Art Deco and Cubist-based practices (estimate: $500,000 - 700,000). Martnezs thematic approach is decidedly locally inspired and grounded in a steadfast commitment to depicting the humble campesino at work, at prayer, and at other moments that exalt traditional familial and cultural values. 2

Deeply imbued with the psychic mysticism of the pre-Hispanic Oaxacan world, Francisco Toledo has described the swirling, rich tonalities of reds and oranges in the exuberant Vaca Roja as evoking a primal space teeming with creation (estimate: $500,000 700,000). The textured surface recalls the paintings in the Paleolithic caves of Lascaux, with the commingled figures of cow and crab suggesting an animistic kinship grounded in the very materiality of the canvas. Painted in 1967, Hombre Con un Gran Sombrero by Rufino Tamayo (18991991), is an example of his mature abstract style, in which highly simplified objects seem to dissolve into layers of translucent color (estimate: $400,000 600,000. The painting centers on a solitary human figure underneath an oversize, wide-brimmed, high-pointed hat: in post-revolutionary Mexican art, the symbol of the peasant and agrarian classes. Tamayos treatment of this classic iconography draws the Mexican symbol into an international visual syntax, and reaffirms his belief that a non-didactic, universal art can nevertheless draw creative inspiration from popular sources. The Mexican painter Diego Rivera remains one of the most highly recognizable Latin American artists of the twentieth century-- his name synonymous with Mexico's artistic and cultural renaissance. Riveras Retrato de Julieta, a tender rendering of an indigenous girl, is an example of his pervasive images of young Mexican children (estimate: $300,000 - 500,000). A pioneer of abstraction in post-war Mexico, Gunther Gerzso (19152000) gained a firsthand knowledge of modern European art during an adolescence spent abroad, then had a pivotal encounter with the preColumbian landscape in 1946 during travels through southeastern Mexico. The richly colored, complexly overlapping geometries of Verde-Azul-Blanco, 1978 (estimate: $150,000 200,000) exemplify his influential synthesisa new American art par excellencewhich he himself summed up with the words, I am an artist who expresses the irrational with very rational methods. Another highlight by Gerzso is Ciudadela, 1955, which evocatively reimagines the archaic forms and architecture of the Mesoamerican landscape (pictured right, estimate: $200,000 - 300,000). After 1946, Gerzso began to name his paintings after important pre-Hispanic sites, and Ciudadela likely recalls the fortress of the same name at the ancient Mexican city of Teotihuacn, whose four-sided sunken plaza and pyramid are here

re-imagined in the close-packed geometries nestled within two imposing vertical planes. Other Highlights The powerful duo in Dancers by Fernando Botero (b. 1932) take their place among the bronze works that Botero began to create in the 1970s, rendering both human and animal figures into monumental beings (estimate: $1,500,000 2,000,000). Like a supersize Adam and Eve, the majestic figures stand face-to-face at a moment that might immediately precede a dance, or perhaps an embrace or kiss. Reminiscent of certain sculptures from Western Mexico, as well as Brancusis The Kiss (1916), Boteros Dancers gaze at one another directly, while maintaining the tension of a moment in which the space between them is as important as their intimacy. Argentinian artist Guillermo Kuitcas (b. 1961) now-celebrated themes of emotional dislocation and spatial disintegration took root during the 1980s, influenced by the artists encounter in Germany with Pina Bauschs experimental Tanztheater. Taking a cue from Bausch, Tres Noches stages an enigmatic human drama against a cavernous and disorienting interior space, laden with a sense of disquiet (estimate: $120,000 180,000). Two figures lie prostrate on the floor, while a band stands before a bed between them, chairs scattered throughout the vast and strangely luminous space.
Public Exhibition: November 12 15, 2011 Auction: November 15, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. and November 16, 2011 at 10:00 a.m.

About Christies Christies, the worlds leading art business, had global auction and private sales in the first half of 2011 that totaled 2.0 billion/$3.2 billion. In 2010 it achieved global auction and private sales of 3.3 billion/$5.0 billion. Christies is a name and place that speaks of extraordinary art, unparalleled service and expertise, as well as international glamour. Founded in 1766 by James Christie, Christies conducted the greatest auctions of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, and today remains a popular showcase for the unique and the beautiful. Christies offers over 450 sales annually in over 80 categories, including all areas of fine and decorative arts, jewellery, photographs, collectibles, wine, and more. Prices range from $200 to over $100 million. Christies has 53 offices in 32 countries and 10 salerooms around the world including in London, New York, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Amsterdam, Dubai and Hong Kong. More recently, Christies has led the market with expanded initiatives in emerging and new markets such as Russia, China, India and the United Arab Emirates, with successful sales and exhibitions in Beijing, Mumbai and Dubai. *Estimates do not include buyers premium ### Images available on request Visit Christies Website at www.christies.com