Auction 12 August 2022 - 6 September 2022
Selling Exhibition
12 August - 6 September, 2022

Phillips Southampton
1 Hampton Rd, Southampton, NY 11968

Gallery Hours
Monday – Sunday
11:00am – 6:00pm

Phillips X presents, Roy Lichtenstein: Diana and Ajax, an intimate view of two Greco-Roman inspired works commissioned by Gianni Versace from the artists’ Interiors series. The pair was intended to hang in the studio of Versace’s Milan home. However, the finished paintings, Interior with Diana (1997) and Interior with Ajax (1997), remained in Lichtenstein’s studio at the time of the fashion designer’s death in July of 1997. It was not until that December, when Donatella Versace was contacted by the artist’s studio and made aware of the paintings’ existence. She then had them displayed in the Versace New York townhouse.

Both Interior with Diana and Interior with Ajax, featuring Lichtenstein’s iconic Benday dots, take significant influence from Greco-Roman iconography which coincidently often appeared in both Lichtenstein’s and Versace’s creative visions. Though there is no specific known source for either Ajax or Diana used by the artist, the subjects are instantly recognizable. Lichtenstein has captured their essence, and thus the viewer feels they automatically know the imagery in these works. The repetitive use of the blue Benday dots, a key characteristic of the artists oeuvre, draws together the detailed elements of these striking interior scenes into a harmonious vignette. This combination of new and old elements presents the canvases as incredible, unified works by one of America’s leading modern masters for his friend, Gianni Versace.

Sales Inquires

Exhibition Sales Southampton
ExhibitionSalesSH@phillips.com

Phillips X is a dynamic selling exhibition platform operated by the Private Sales department at Phillips. Presenting highly curated selling exhibitions on an international scale to Phillips’ collecting community around the globe, Phillips X highlights notable artists and creators of the 20th and 21st centuries, creating new and important dialogues in the art historical canon.

Contact
Cristina Tafuri
Global Exhibition Project Manager, Private Sales
ctafuri@phillips.com

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Roy Lichtenstein: Diana & Ajax

ROY LICHTENSTEIN Interior with Diana, 1997
ROY LICHTENSTEIN Interior with Ajax, 1997

Roy Lichtenstein: Diana & Ajax

Roy Lichtenstein: Diana & Ajax

Roy Lichtenstein: Diana and Ajax