In October Sotheby's returns with the live-streamed auction model introduced by the company in this summer's sales in New York and London, introducing the cutting-edge format for the first time in Paris and bringing together two modern and contemporary art sales from the global calendar.
This fall, art lovers will once again have the opportunity to virtually converge for another live-streamed auction event: “Modernités / Contemporary” – two sequential sales that will jointly present defining moments of the XNUMXth and XNUMXst centuries through the works of artists working in Europe and beyond. The evening will open with the European president of Sotheby's, Helena Newman, who will take the podium in the studio of the London "control centre" for the Paris auction "Modernités", presenting bids in French and English live from colleagues in London , Paris, New York and Asia.
This will be followed, after a short break, by Sotheby's annual autumn evening auction of contemporary art led by European President Oliver Barker. Both segments of the auction will be live streamed, enhanced by dynamic and informative on-screen images for each of the works on offer.
Among the highlights of the London Contemporary Art Evening Sale there is a major black and white painting by Bridget Riley (estimate £5,5-7,5m / $7-9,6m), showing one of the leading abstract painters at the height of his powers. A hypnotic work from the early 60s, Riley takes simple, geometric shapes to create an instant sensation of flow and movement of dizzying proportions. Last offered for auction at Sotheby's in 2006, the painting set a record price for the artist that still stands. The work has since been exhibited as part of the artist's historic retrospective at the Hayward Gallery in London.
In Paris, Modernités – a sale spanning 1900 and the birth of the avant-garde modernist movement through to the postwar era – explores the common threads between the artists who forged a distinct path over the century, including Pierre Soulages, Francis Picabia and Wassily Kandinsky. Taking center stage will be a connoisseur's private collection of twenty-five works fresh on the market, encompassing intimate gems from Blaue Reiter in Germany to Surrealism in Paris, and a combined value in excess of €10m / $12m (separate release on 'Un Regard Moderne' available upon request). Among the rediscoveries in the collection is a powerful wartime work on paper by Pablo Picasso, a rare male portrait from the 40s, when the artist lived in the seaside resort of Royan with his lover Dora Maar.
The exhibitions for the two sales will be open to the public in the New Bond Street and Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré galleries respectively, with Modernités on show in Paris from 17-21 October and Contemporary Art Evening Sale in London from 16-21 October.
