|
EXTRAORDINARY PROVENANCE AND ESTEEMED COLLECTIONS DEFINE PHILLIPS’ NOVEMBER SALES OF MODERN & CONTEMPORARY ART
Nearly 90% of Works in Evening Sale to Be Sold for the First Time at Auction, with Many Having Been Held in the Same Private Collections for Decades
Evening Sale Marking a 50% Increase in Estimate from the Previous Year
Amedeo Modigliani’s Tête Leads the Auctions, Estimated at $28–35 Million, The Highest Value Sculpture to Ever be Sold by Phillips, While a Monumental David Hockney Group Portrait Marks the Most Significant Work by the Artist to be Offered in 2026 Across the Auction Industry
Morning & Afternoon Sessions to Feature Important Works by Modern, Post-War, and Contemporary Masters Spanning the Centuries
NEW YORK – 2 NOVEMBER 2026 – Phillips is pleased to announce that the full catalogues for New York’s November Modern & Contemporary Art Sales are now live, with the Evening Sale taking place on Tuesday, 17 November, at 4:30pm ET, and the Morning and Afternoon Sessions taking place on Thursday, 19 November, at 10am ET and 2pm ET respectively. Estimated in excess of $70.4 million with 23 lots on offer, the Evening Sale marks a nearly 50% increase in value from the previous year. Underscoring the strength of the offering this season is an extraordinary concentration of works from important private collections and estates. Many of the highlights have remained in the same private collections for decades, including works from the collections of leading collectors, critics, and patrons whose stewardship has helped preserve these masterpieces for future generations.
Robert Manley, Chairman, Modern & Contemporary Art, said, “Our November sales bring together an exceptional group of works spanning more than a century of artistic innovation, led by masterpieces from Amedeo Modigliani, David Hockney, Frank Stella, Clyfford Still, and Alexander Calder. It is the freshness of the material that makes this season so remarkable, with nearly 90% of the works in the Evening Sale to be sold at auction for the first time. We are also proud to report that the sale marks a 50% increase in low estimate from the previous year, a testament to the hard work of our team and the strength in the market for exceptional material. From Claude Monet's luminous La Maison dans les roses, painted at Giverny during the final year of his life; to François Xavier Lalanne’s celebrated Babouin, which speaks to the growing cross-category appeal of exceptional works; to Helen Frankenthaler’s monumental museum-worthy canvases, the November auctions offer a rare opportunity to acquire works that have been treasured in private collections for generations. This season's offerings underscore the enduring demand for museum-worthy works that are both fresh to market and exceptional within their respective oeuvres.”
EVENING SALE | Tuesday, 17 November, 4:30pm ET
As previously announced, the Evening Sale will be led by Amedeo Modigliani’s Tête. The landmark work from the artist’s celebrated series of heads will make its auction debut with an estimate of $28–35 million after being held in the same private collection for over five decades, becoming the highest value sculpture to ever be sold by Phillips. Carved from a single block of limestone between 1911 and 1912, Tête belongs to Modigliani's celebrated series of heads, a group widely recognized as the pinnacle of his sculptural achievement and among the defining monuments of early Modernism. Of the approximately 28 stone sculptures created by the artist during his lifetime, the vast majority are now housed in major museum collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate, London; and the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Tête is among the most arresting works from the series and, at nearly 30 inches tall, is also one of the largest of the few remaining examples in private hands, marking a once-in-a-generation opportunity to acquire a sculpture by Modigliani.
Making its auction debut after its inclusion in notable exhibitions, including the acclaimed David Hockney Portraits show two decades ago, David Hockney’s eight-panel portrait David, Celia, Stephen and Ian, London, 1982 belongs to the breakthrough group of multi-canvas works the artist produced in London in 1982. This body of work boldly announced Hockney’s return to painting after an intense engagement with composite Polaroid photography. Monumental in scale and ambition, this work stands as a touchstone within Hockney’s oeuvre: an iconic early example of his 1980s exploration of multiple viewpoints, and a decisive moment in his long dialogue with Cubism. Evocative of Pablo Picasso, as well as Francis Bacon, Hockney here presents the viewer with fractured, multi-perspective portrayals of his innermost circle—studio assistant David Graves, textile designer Celia Birtwell, painter Stephen Buckley, and illustrator Ian Falconer. Such relationships will be at the forefront of Hockney’s upcoming retrospective at the Tate next year, to be held on the occasion of what would be the artist’s 90th birthday.
A blazing eight-pointed star of red lead, Frank Stella's iconic Port Tampa City, executed in 1963, captures the artist at the height of his early invention. The painting is further distinguished by its exceptional provenance, heralding from the collection of Robert Mnuchin. One of thirteen Dartmouth Paintings, this monumental work is one of only two star-shaped canvases in the series, its sole counterpart acquired by legendary collector Agnes Gund and gifted to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Other examples from this significant series reside in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Shiga Museum of Art, Otsu, Japan, while another, in the Collection of Robert and Marguerite Hoffman, is a promised gift to the Dallas Museum of Art. In its uncompromising clarity, the painting stands as a defining moment in the canon of Minimalism and post-painterly abstraction, and as a critical bridge between two-dimensional painting and three-dimensional sculpture.
Clyfford Still’s monumental PH-589 from 1959 is another highlight of the Evening Sale with strong institutional significance. Comparable works from this period are held in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, New York’s Buffalo AKG Art Museum, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., among others. Jackson Pollock’s Constellation represents another key moment in the history of Abstract Expressionism—captured as well in its distinguished provenance, the work having originally passed from the personal collection of Peggy Guggenheim to that of Harold Rosenberg. Painted in 1946 as part of the celebrated Accabonac Creek Series, the work marks a crucial moment in Pollock’s evolution: standing at the threshold between his quasi-Surrealist paintings and the groundbreaking drip technique that would redefine modern art.
Two works on offer by Helen Frankenthaler encapsulate the breadth of the artist’s celebrated practice. Seabreeze, 1980, comes to auction after residing in the same private collection for over 20 years. While evocative of the sea near the artist’s studio at Shippan Point, Connecticut, Seabreeze, “ultimately,” as contributing author Carter Ratcliff observes of this masterpiece, “is not a land- or seascape but a masterful unfurling of color that owes its freshness, its immediacy, to the method the artist invented decades earlier”. Painted in 1990, Peacock Alley meanwhile exemplifies the physical ambition and technical experimentation with which Frankenthaler continued to push her practice during the final decade of her career. Spanning more than ten feet in width, the monumental painting envelops the viewer into a field of color, activated by looping, hand painted arabesques and veils of pigment pulled and scraped with a squeegee.
Ultra-Contemporary works feature prominently in the auction, with examples by some of today’s most important artists. On the heels of Phillips’ record-breaking result for the artist this October, the Evening Sale is also proud to feature Joseph Yaeger’s My determinate alongside important works by Derek Fordjour, Avery Singer, and Rashid Johnson.
Phillips’ November sales will also kick off the offering of FREESTYLE: Property from a Private New York Collection, which will be sold across the house’s New York sales in November and on 12 December in a single-owner auction alongside the house’s seasonal Design sale. Miyoko Ito’s 1959 painting Odyssey will be offered as Lot 1 in the Evening Sale, with works by Oscar yi Hou, Joan Snyder and Rose Wylie being offered from the Collection in the Afternoon Session. Completed just three years before the artist’s death, Odyssey stands among the most accomplished expressions of Ito’s mature practice. Drawing on influences ranging from Synthetic Cubism and Surrealism to the dreamlike sensibility of Chicago’s artistic milieu, the work balances formal restraint with emotional depth, presenting a monumental form that functions simultaneously as self-portrait, landscape, and mythic journey.
MORNING SESSION | Thursday, 19 November, 10am ET
Phillips’ Morning Session of Modern & Contemporary Art will take place on 19 November at 10am ET, featuring 117 exceptional works from the Modern through Post-War periods.
Leading the session is Joan Mitchell’s Composition, circa 1965, a powerful example of the artist’s celebrated mid-career practice. Featured in a posthumous solo exhibition at the Robert Miller Gallery in New York in 2002, the work embodies the concentrated compositions and dramatic contrasts associated with Mitchell’s seminal “Black Paintings” of the early 1960s. Against a luminous white ground, vibrant passages of crimson, deep olive, and blue paint converge in a dynamic field of gestural brushwork, demonstrating the expressive use of color and movement that define her oeuvre. Drawing on remembered landscapes and the distinctive light of her adopted home in France, Composition reflects Mitchell’s singular ability to transform sensation, memory, and emotion into abstraction.
Also included in the Morning Session is Lois Dodd’s Yellow Window Curtain, 1972, an outstanding example from the artist’s celebrated window paintings. Rendered at life scale, the work positions the viewer between interior and exterior space, balancing the geometric structure of the window frame with the landscape beyond. Widely regarded as one of the most important American painters of observation, Dodd transforms a familiar view into a compelling study of light, perspective, and place.
David Hockney’s Lemons & Oranges, circa 1986, reflects the artist’s enduring fascination with perception, color, and pictorial space. Held in a private Los Angeles collection for nearly four decades, the work reimagines the traditional still life through bold color and multiple viewpoints. Created during a period of intense experimentation, it underscores Hockney’s lifelong engagement with the legacies of Cézanne and Cubism.
Works by Helen Frankenthaler and Richard Estes are also among the top lots of the auction, in addition to an important selection of outdoor sculptures from the Joel and Carole Bernstein Collection will also be offered. The sculptures will be available to view in person in Chicago.
AFTERNOON SESSION | Thursday, 19 November, 2pm ET
The Afternoon Session of Modern & Contemporary Art will take place at 2pm ET on Thursday, 19 November, featuring a strong selection of Post-War and Contemporary names across 96 lots.
Leading the Afternoon Session is Mark Grotjahn’s Untitled (Large Colored Butterfly with Smile White Background 9 Wings), 2005, an exceptional example from the artist’s celebrated Butterfly series. Defined by vivid color and converging geometric forms, the composition creates a dynamic interplay between depth and flatness, reflecting Grotjahn’s enduring exploration of perspective and perception. A comparable nine-winged work is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, underscoring the significance of this compelling example from one of the artist’s most sought-after bodies of work.
The sale will also feature William Kentridge’s Processione di Riparazioniste Maquettes (Full Set), 2017, a maquette related to the artist’s major public installation commissioned for the reopening of Turin’s historic Officine Grandi Riparazioni. Translating the loose, expressive lines of his drawings into sculptural form, Kentridge depicts a procession of industrial workers whose bodies merge with the machinery they operate. Addressing themes of labor, migration, and collective memory, the work exemplifies the artist’s unique ability to intertwine personal narratives with broader social and political histories.
Another highlight of the Afternoon Session is Lisa Yuskavage’s True Blonde IV (At Home), 1999, a pivotal work from a formative moment in the artist’s career. One of just four paintings in the celebrated True Blonde series, the work was included in the 2000 Whitney Biennial, helping establish Yuskavage as one of the leading painters of her generation. Drawing on both art historical references and contemporary visual culture, the painting demonstrates the artist’s masterful handling of light, color, and form while exploring themes of femininity, identity, and representation.
|
|||||||||||||
