PHILLIPS ANNOUNCES ITS NEW YORK CONTEMPORARY ART EVENING SALE HIGHLIGHTS
FEATURING JEFF KOONS, ROY LICHTENSTEIN, MARK ROTHKO, ANDY WARHOL, AND KAZUO SHIRAGA AMONG OTHERS
AUCTION: 11 November 2013, 7PM
VIEWING: 2-10 November 2013
11 November 2013 by appointment
Monday – Saturday 10AM-6PM, Sunday 12PM-6PM
LOCATION: 450 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEW YORK – Phillips is pleased to announce highlights from its New York Contemporary Art Evening Sale, featuring 42 lots with a pre-sale low estimate of $65,950,000 / €48,010,083/ £41,135,719 and a pre-sale high estimate of $98,500,000/ €71,705,734 / £61,438,489.
“With the November Evening Sale, we are delighted to have the opportunity to present extraordinary works by the most important artists of our time. Spanning the major developments in art history for the last 50 years, Phillips will offer singular masterworks by Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, David Hammons and Kazuo Shiraga among many others.” Zach Miner, Senior Specialist and Head of Contemporary Art Evening Sale, New York.
Highlights from the Evening Sale include:
MARK ROTHKO, Untitled (Black on Gray), 1969-70
Estimate $10,000,000 - 15,000,000
Black on Gray, 1969-70, is a resounding statement achieved with the wisdom of decades of artistic mastery celebrated the world over. Subsequent to The Rothko Chapel commission in Houston in 1964, Mark Rothko returned in 1969 with a renewed determination and urgency. It was during this year that he completed his final cycle of paintings, Black on Gray. At once serene and metaphysically complex, the series have come to represent some of his greatest achievements in painting. Examples from the series are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
ROY LICHTENSTEIN, Woman with Peanuts, 1962
Estimate $10,000,000 - 15,000,000
Woman With Peanuts, 1962, marks the second year of Lichtenstein’s investigation of what would become his signature painterly invention—the Ben Day dot—the printer’s mark blown up to emphasize the industrial nature of the source image. In this large scale work, Lichtenstein renders an archetype of 1950s feminine beauty, against a bold yellow field. The intensity of line and the swaths of color possess a painterly, hand-wrought quality, transforming his source image in scale as well as material. Woman With Peanuts personifies Pop Art at it’s most vibrant and foreshadows its indelible impression on art history.
ANDY WARHOL, Nine Gold Marilyns (Reversal Series), 1980
Estimate $8,000,000 - 12,000,000
A master of portraiture, Andy Warhol elevated celebrity to deity and annointed the obscure with status. In Nine Gold Marilyns (Reversal Series), 1980 the artist captures his iconic subject in repeating silk-screened images that signal a return but also a wholly fresh departure. Marilyn is rendered in rich, gold tones that speak to the power evoked by her simple silhouette. Warhol has reversed the image of Marilyn’s visage, with black pigments occupying the negative space of the silkscreen. With this gesture, Warhol has captured her likeness anew, forging an ever present association between artist and muse.
DAVID HAMMONS, Untitled, 2000
Estimate $5,000,000 - 7,000,000
Untitled, 2000 is the embodiment of David Hammons’s unparalleled achievement as an artist and represents his continuing devotion to a subject and its complex implications. A study in fusing dissonant modes of conceptualism and craftsmanship into a harmonious whole, Untitled, 2000 is a shrine-like masterpiece of dynamism in light. Executed in opulent materials, Untitled, 2000 is simultaneously a tender testament and a scathing critique of sports’ aspirational power. Hammons eloquence has never rung more true.
JEFF KOONS, Buster Keaton, 1988
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Buster Keaton, 1988 is a telling portrait of both the subject and an artist who refused to look backwards, choosing instead to follow his own path. Jeff Koons is the anointed heir to the Pop Art lineage and it was with his Banality exhibition of 1988 that he firmly asserted his legitimacy to this title. Aligning himself with Hollywood royalty, Koons chose as his subject - one of the greatest comedic actors of all time. Known for his famous stone face, Keaton functions as an surrogate for an artist dedicated to delivering serious interpretations of humor and joy.
KAZUO SHIRAGA, Keishizoku, 1961
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Kazuo Shiraga was at the forefront of a group who would alter the course of art history. Inspired by the contributions of the Abstract Expressionists, Shiraga went a step further by dissolving the distance between his body and his art, eventually using nothing other than himself as the creative implement - eliminating the trained hand altogether. Keishizoku, with it’s dense layered pigments, perfectly expresses shishitsu-Shiraga’s concept of the release of psychic and physical power central to the compositional nature of his exuberant painting.
Additional highlights include: Amanda, 2003 by John Currin estimated at $3,000,000 - 5,000,000; Untitled (Orange Butterfly Green M 2003 G), 2003 by Mark Grotjahn estimated at $2,000,000 - 3,000,000; Self-Portrait, 1985 by Jean-Michel Basquiat estimated at $3,000,000 - 5,000,000; Higher Standards / Lower Prices, 2007 by Ed Ruscha estimated at $1,500,000 - 2,500,000; and Polygones noirs, 1953, by Alexander Calder estimated at $1,400,000 - 1,800,000.
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 Jewelry. Through the passionate dedication of its team of global specialists, the company has garnered an unparalleled wealth of knowledge of emerging market trends. 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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