Phillips to Host Inaugural Sales at 432 Park Avenue in June

Phillips to Host Inaugural Sales at 432 Park Avenue in June

Company Announces Global Spring 2021 Live Auction Calendar, with the

New York Sales of 20th Century and Contemporary Art to Take Place on 23-24 June, Featuring Works by Amy Sherald and Vija Celmins

Phillips Continues Partnership with Poly with

New Beijing and Hong Kong Auction Format on 7-8 June

Rendering of 432 Park Avenue from Park Avenue, looking West

NEW YORK – 1 APRIL 2021 –Phillips is pleased to announce the inaugural sale dates for the company’s new headquarters in New York at 432 Park Avenue. The state-of-the-art galleries and saleroom will open with the exhibition of 20th Century & Contemporary Art, leading up to the auctions on 23-24 June. The company has also announced the full live auction calendar for Spring 2021, along with highlights from the 20th Century & Contemporary Art Sales in New York.

Edward Dolman, Phillips’ Chief Executive Officer, said, “While 2020 encouraged the world to embrace the digital frontier, in 2021, we look forward to reexamining the role of our physical space with the grand opening of Phillips at 432 Park Avenue. Phillips’ new headquarters are set to redefine the centuries-old auction experience with studioMDA’s innovative design. With the highly-anticipated inaugural sale in New York, the groundbreaking dual-location auctions to be hosted in association with Poly in Hong Kong and Beijing, and a string of tours around the globe, we look forward to promises of new beginnings and optimism for the season ahead, as the world begins to open up again.”

This June, Phillips will officially open its new Manhattan location at 432 Park Avenue, with the sales and exhibitions of 20th Century & Contemporary Art. Designed by studioMDA’s Markus Dochantschi, the gallery comprises over 35,000 square feet of concourse space featuring the grand auction room, exhibition galleries, viewing rooms and a VIP mezzanine.  Visually connected to the public via the Park Avenue Cube at 56th Street, the design breaks down the classical typology of the "auction behind closed doors," inviting the public to witness the excitement of the auction experience. 

Among the auction highlights from the 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale to be debuted at the new location is Amy Sherald’s It made sense...mostly in her mind. Phillips is delighted to offer this singular work by Sherald after having achieved the world record for the artist most recently in December 2020 in New York. Best known for her life-sized portraits of quotidian African-American figures set against flat, abstracted backgrounds, Sherald creates paintings that bridge reality and imagination. An intimate and rare work in the artist’s oeuvre, It made sense...mostly in her mind is based on an autobiographical subject and displays a richly textured background seen in only few early paintings from the artist’s career. Painted in 2011, the work was previously on loan since 2012 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.

Also included in the auction will be Vija Celmins’ Untitled (Ocean), 1987-88, the second painting of the artist’s iconic ocean surfaces to ever come to auction. Made at a pivotal moment in Celmins’ career when the artist returned to painting after 12 years of abandoning the medium for drawing, Untitled (Ocean) is a rare example of the artist’s first ocean paintings and was exhibited in Celmins’ recent major retrospective at the Met Breuer, New York from 2019 to 2020. Carmen Herrera’s seminal painting, Green and Orange, 1954, will also be offered at the auction. Featured at the artist’s landmark solo exhibition in 2016-2017 at the Whitney Museum, New York, this important work marks the transition to Herrera’s mature oeuvre of larger canvases, and the geometric structures rendered in a bright green-and-orange palette anticipate the hard-edge minimalism of the 1960s. The auction will also include Brice Marden’s Elements III, 1983, which was exhibited at the artist’s important 1984 Pace Gallery show. Among the pivotal post-and-lintel construction paintings by Marden made between 1979 and 1984, Elements III is part of a series comprising five works, one of which currently resides at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

Building upon the success of the auction house’s 2020 sales—where works performed at a remarkable average of 112% of their low estimates— the 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale will feature exceptional works by contemporary, post-war, and modern artists alike. The Morning Session will include important post-war works by Roy Lichtenstein and Frank Stella, as well as exceptional examples of French and British Modern sculpture. The Afternoon Session will offer a strong selection of cutting-edge contemporary works by Matthew Wong, Vaughn Spann, Emily Mae Smith, and more.

The gallery and saleroom at 432 Park Avenue will be outfitted with an HVAC system to promote air purification and a high fresh-air turnover rate, and visitor density and fever scanners will also be installed to ensure the safety of the community. The space will also allow Phillips to continue to provide cutting edge technology to collectors around the globe through virtual exhibit walkthroughs, digital media walls and kiosks, and 4k video broadcasting of the auctions. 432 Park Avenue will be the only auction room in Manhattan that is visible from the street, encouraging all collectors and enthusiasts to visit when it is safe to do so.  

As previously announced, Phillips and Poly Auction are pleased to announce they will continue to partner in presenting their sales of 20th Century & Contemporary Art and Design with a revolutionary and innovative dual-location format this spring. To be held on 7-8 June, in conjunction with Beijing Poly Spring Auctions week, the sales will be conducted by Phillips auctioneers at JW Marriott in Hong Kong with a live feed relayed from Poly’s auction room in Beijing. The auctioneer will be able to take bids from those bidding in person and over the phone at both locations simultaneously, as well as from online bidders. Among the leading highlights of the Evening Sale is Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild (940-7), 2015.

Continuing the momentum built earlier in the year, with the strong Editions sale in London and the record-breaking New Now sale in New York, the London auctions of 20th Century & Contemporary Art will be held on 15-16 April. Leading the Evening Sale is Jean Dubuffet’s La féconde journée, a rare and important example of the artist’s work, which was included in Dubuffet’s major centenary retrospective at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in 2001. Also included in the auction are works by Frank Stella, Mark Rothko, Alberto Giacommeti, Marcel Duchamp, and Mark Tansey.

Touring exhibitions for the auctions will be held across the globe in the lead-up to the sales – from Southampton and New York City to London, as well as major cities across Asia, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Taipei. Tour dates will be announced in the coming weeks and Phillips looks forward to welcoming collectors back into the galleries to view these important works of art in person once again. The full Spring 2021 sale calendar is available below.

Phillips’ Global Spring 2021 Live Auction Calendar

For the latest news and calendar updates please refer to Phillips’ website.

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ABOUT PHILLIPS

Phillips is a leading global platform for buying and selling 20th and 21st century art and design. With dedicated expertise in the areas of 20th Century and Contemporary Art, Design, Photographs, Editions, Watches, and Jewelry, Phillips offers professional services and advice on all aspects of collecting. Auctions and exhibitions are held at salerooms in New York, London, Geneva, and Hong Kong, while clients are further served through representative offices based throughout Europe, the United States and Asia. Phillips also offers an online auction platform accessible anywhere in the world.  In addition to providing selling and buying opportunities through auction, Phillips brokers private sales and offers assistance with appraisals, valuations, and other financial services.

Visit www.phillips.com for further information.

*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium; prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyer’s premium.

PRESS CONTACTS:            

NEW YORK – Magda Grigorian, Chief Communications Officer      mgrigorian@phillips.com           +1 212 940 1384         

NEW YORK – Jaime Israni, Public Relations Director, Americas     jisrani@phillips.com                  +1 212 940 1398

LONDON - Katie Carder, Head of Press, Europe                             kcarder@phillips.com                +44 20 7901 7938

HONG KONG – Ingrid Hsu, Public Relations Director, Asia             Ingridhsu@phillips.com             +852 2318 2043

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