PHILLIPS ANNOUNCES HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE NEW YORK MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY EDITIONS AUCTIONS
FEATURING ICONIC AND DIVERSE WORKS BY JASPER JOHNS, GERHARD RICHTER, RICHARD SERRA, ROBERT LONGO, KEITH HARING, PABLO PICASSO, HENRI MATISSE, ALEXANDER CALDER AND ANDY WARHOL
AUCTION: 28 OCTOBER 2014
DAY SALE: 11AM (LOTS 137-372)
EVENING SALE:5:30PM (LOTS 1-136)
VIEWING: 18-28 OCTOBER 2014
AUCTION LOCATION: 450 PARK AVENUE, NEW YORK, NY 10022
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEW YORK – 3 OCTOBER 2014 – Phillips is pleased to announce highlights from the forthcoming October Evening and Day Editions Auctions, featuring 372 lots with a pre-sale low estimate of $3,985,100 / £2,457,314 / €3,157,740 and a pre-sale high estimate of $5,905,500 / £3,644,797 / €4,679,440.
“We are delighted to offer one of our largest and most diverse group of prints and multiples in the history of the Editions department at Phillips. Along similar lines, we have a selection of truly ‘monumental’ (large scale) works from artists such as Jasper Johns, Sean Scully, Roy Lichtenstein, Henry Moore, Kara Walker, William Kentridge and Alex Katz. We look forward to the robust fall season ahead and open for preview on October 18th.” Kelly Troester, Worldwide Co-Director, Modern Editions and Cary Leibowitz, Worldwide Co-Director, Contemporary Editions, Phillips.
This sale offers a selection of 28 editioned ceramics by Pablo Picasso, most from an Amsterdam private collection, produced in 1948-1969 at the Madoura pottery studio in Vallauris, France. With renewed popularity of these objects—evidenced by the exceptional prices from a collection in our London June 2014 sale, we expect great interest from an American audience here.
Modern highlights include a variety from Picasso’s graphic oeuvre—a beautifully drawn lithograph of Marie-Thérèse Walter still included in the first monograph, Picasso, 1928; the rare three states/unpublished proofs of Tête de jeune fille lithographs from 1945; a classic Vollard suite etching, an exercise in depicting the face and forms of the female muse; and a few striking linoleum cuts.
Late color prints by Henri Matisse including the important graphic work Marie-José en robe jaune, 1950—his only color aquatint, and the Sword Swallower, 1947, a proof of the pochoir from the popular Jazz series. This example is printed without the text on the left hand side like another example given by the artist to the Museum of Modern Art and on display in this fall’s blockbuster show, Henri Matisse The Cut-Outs.
Phillips is excited to offer two three-dimensional works that are rarely available at auction. They are all the more special because they come from very small edition sizes.
Nancy Grossman’s powerful bronze head is 3/3. It was cast from a wood and leather sculpture, Head for Sculpture, and has its roots in another early work, No Name. One of the other heads is owned by Michel Rosenfeld and the other is exhibited in the Weatherspoon Museum, North Carolina. In 1992, this head was at the Hunter College Gallery in a group show aptly called The Auto-Erotic Object.
Buckminster Fuller's geometry shows that any sphere tangentially and symmetrically surrounded by spheres of the same radius will always produce an array of twelve balls around one ball. This phenomenon defines what he calls the Vector Equilibrium.
The transparent spheres of this sculpture give it an ethereal quality reminiscent of a child's bubble blowing while lucidly presenting the concept. Faintly visible equators illustrate the tangency of adjacent balls and the red nuclear sphere clarifies the radial symmetry of the structure. Twenty-four rods delineate the edges of the polyhedron uniquely determined by the nuclear packing of spheres. Its shape is unaffected by additional layers of balls. Two layers surround the nucleus which classifies this structure as "two-frequency," a term that refers to the subdivisions along each edge.
Post-war and Contemporary prints are strongly represented by multiple works by Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy warhol.
Jasper Johns, Untitled (back cover) from a group of 8 proofs in various experimentations of primary and secondary colors. Richly colored and impeccably printed in monumental scale, this print is truly an achievement of experimentation and innovation. Closely related to his painting Land’s End (1963) which was used as a starting point and revisiting and exploring further through his prints, this particular example reveals the artists thinking and working process in clarity. All numbers ‘1/2’ are in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. collection, the one being offered here is from an important and prestigious American Collection.
Our Cover lot, Roy Lichtenstein’s Water Lilies with Cloud is a large scale screenprint in enamels on processed and swirled stainless steel. With its obvious nod to Impressionist master, Claude Monet, this work is distinctly contemporary, innovatively fabricated with industrial materials in the artist’s characteristically bold and seductive style.
Andy Warhol is represented by more than 30 works in the sale spanning the late fifties through his last projects, including contemporary icons such as James Dean, Ingrid Bergman and Liza Minnelli alongside classical icons Alexander the Great, Beethoven and Göethe.
PHILLIPS:
As the only international auction house to concentrate exclusively on contemporary culture, Phillips has established a commanding position in the sale of Contemporary Art, Design, Photographs, Editions and Jewellery. Through the passionate dedication of its team of global specialists, the company has garnered an unparalleled wealth of knowledge of emerging market trends. Founded in London in 1796, Phillips conducts auctions in New York and London and has representative offices throughout Europe and in the United States. For more information, please visit: phillips.com.
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