Sotheby's has opened online sales offers for contemporary, impressionist and modern art. Auctions close on May 14th and 18th respectively.
Together offering over 250 lots estimated to fetch over $20 million, these sales represent Sotheby's most ambitious online auctions to date. With over 60 works valued at $100.000 and beyond, are poised to accelerate the strong momentum of our successful online sales program – during an important time in the traditional global auction calendar.
Daily online sales benefit from the debut of the new immersive experience in the digital catalog. The “digital-first” design of these advanced catalogs emphasizes visual storytelling through video, interactive media and other rich content formats in a way that goes beyond print. By presenting the items featured in our sales in a thoroughly modern way, the digital catalog encourages deeper engagement with each sale across all collection categories.
Sotheby's Evening Live and Evening Auctions of Contemporary, Impressionist and Modern Art previously scheduled for May will take place in New York City the week of June 29, pending the lifting of certain restrictions and confirmation from relevant authorities that we can proceed. Customers and visitors can expect extra precautions to ensure the safety of our employees and visitors, as well as creative opportunities for those who wish to preview our exhibitions and participate in our auctions, from in-person and virtual viewings to appointments to enhanced digital experiences. We will announce a more detailed program in due course, including relevant exhibition plans.
CONTEMPORARY ART AUCTION
Open for bidding now until May 14th
This auction offers a large selection of postwar art and blue-chip contemporary art at a range of prices. Featuring examples from some of the most famous and sought-after artists of the period, the auction features a rare Brice Marden from his Window Cathedral Basel series, along with works by Christopher Wool, Willem de Kooning, Keith Haring, Yoshitomo Nara, Richard Prince, KAWS, Damien Hirst and Julie Curtiss.
Untitled from 1988 is an outstanding example of Christopher Wool's "pattern paintings", in which he developed his style away from his earlier abstract expressionist works through the original use of wallpaper rolls (estimate $1,2 / 1,8 million). This seemingly simple innovation opened up the possibility of mechanical reproduction in painting – in much the same way that Andy Warhol's screen printing innovation encouraged production in 1962. He identified a medium that was readily available and ubiquitous in any environment urban domestic, and transformed it into a bold new method of creating fine art that is filled with artistic historical references.
The preeminent abstract painter working today, Brice Marden is celebrated for his mastery of the fundamental components of the medium. Executed in 1985 after nearly a decade of conceptual development, Window Study No. 4 brings together cool and warm tones in ethereal washes, creating the sensation of light and warmth emanating from within the canvas (estimate $700/900.000). A sample of Marden's output, the present work captures the artist as he moved to address notions of spirituality and the relationship between nature and the individual, which persist as primary pictorial concerns of his practice.
Executed in 1987, 3 Jokes Painted to Death or 3 Jokes Really Painted is an early work and a rare gem in Richard Prince's iconic Monochrome Joke Painting Series which began in 1987 (pictured below, estimate $500/700.000). For this seminal group of works, Prince melds the unrefined content of low-brow cartoon humor with the sophisticated aesthetics of monochrome paint to introduce the seemingly irrelevant concept of humor into the resolutely intellectual sphere of fine art. As an early Joke painting, the present work is particularly special due to its triptych format and the visibly hand-painted nature of the text.
ONLINE SALE OF IMPRESSIONIST AND MODERN ART
Open for bidding now until May 18th
This auction offers a fine selection of paintings, works on paper, sculptures and prints from important private and museum collections. Works by Impressionist masters including Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas and Camille Pissarro are complemented by an exciting assortment of works on paper by Modernists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Joan Miró as well as major prints by Edvard Munch. The sale features a wonderful group of sculptures by Aristide Maillol, Auguste Rodin and Henry Moore as well as a stunning selection of portraits and abstractions from the School of Paris. Vibrant examples by Latin American modernists such as David Alfaro Siqueiros and Diego Rivera complete the sale offer.
The fluted white oil bottle depicted in Natura morta (Still Life) appears in some of Giorgio Morandi's early work from the mid-10s and is perhaps the most recognizable and iconic of all his subjects (estimate $1/1,5 millions). Morandi repeatedly painted the same objects over several decades and the groups are beginning to feel like family reunions to those familiar with his work. Morandi's profound influence on contemporary art is indisputable, including the work of Wayne Thiebaud, Agnes Martin, Philip Guston and Sean Scully, and even extends to contemporary architect Frank Gehry.
While many of Edgar Degas's works from this rare early period are formal portraits or history paintings, Buste de jeune femme presque nu (Bust of a nearly nude young woman) foreshadows his obsession with beauty and line (estimate $350/450.000 ). Here the artist synthesizes the frieze-like technique inspired by his travels in Italy in the 1850s, with the “exotic” allure and radical cut of the Japanese prints that intrigued his generation. The painting's first owner was George Jay Gould, son of Jay Gould, a notorious "robber baron" who made his fortune as a financial speculator and railroad magnate. George Jay Gould was a successful financier in his own right and amassed an impressive collection of Dutch, Italian and Impressionist art.
Like his peers Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall found inspiration in the warm and colorful atmosphere of the Côte d'Azur, eventually settling in the town of Saint-Paul-de-Vence with his wife Vava Brodsky after his return from the United States in 1948. Devant la fenêtre (In Front of the Window), executed between 1974 and 1975, is a reflection on the artist's career, as well as the places and motifs that fueled his artistic output (estimate $200 / 300.000) . Whether open or closed, windows have traditionally been a frame through which the artist depicts the dreamlike fusion of past idylls.
