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Phillips Unveils New July Auction of 20th Century & Contemporary in New York

Sale on 18 July Features Fresh to Market Works by Robert Motherwell

and Jennifer Barlett Alongside Cutting-Edge Artists Daisy Dodd-Noble, Kate Pincus-Whitney, Anna Valdez, and Others

Jennifer Bartlett

Alphabet Eight, 1993

Estimate: $100,000 - 150,000

NEW YORK – 29 JUNE 2023 – Phillips is pleased to announce a new live auction dedicated to 20th Century & Contemporary Art taking place on 18 July in New York. Featuring just over 110 lots, the selection highlights a diverse and compelling group of artists with established names such as Robert Motherwell, Alex Katz, and Andy Warhol, along with many pieces by women artists of the 20th century and today. This includes Sally Michel Avery, Sophie Larrimore, Perle Fine, Pipilotti Rist, Lynne Drexler, and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, who currently has a solo exhibition featured at the Whitney Museum of American Art, among many others. This unique assemblage brings together artists experiencing a resurgence in recognition, as well as those who have more recently emerged from the shadows of their male counterparts. The works will be on view from 10 – 17 July at 432 Park Avenue, providing an opportunity for visitors and art enthusiasts alike to escape the summer heat and immerse themselves in the artworks on display.

Robert Motherwell

Open No. 137: In Ultramarine on Beige, 1969

Estimate: $80,000 - 120,000

Leading the sale is Jennifer Bartlett’s Alphabet Eight, 1993, (illustrated page 1), a dazzling visual journey of bouncing colors at the intersection of art and mathematics. The work consists of 64 steel plates, each covered in irregular patterns formed by tiny dots of primary colors. After spending over 15 years exploring various media, the Alphabet series marks Bartlett’s return to the idiosyncratic steel plate technique that defines her early works. Each painting includes an additional plate with figurative elements reflecting Bartlett’s interrogation of the widely accepted categorizations of modern art. By integrating representational image into an abstract design, Alphabet Eight pushes the limits of traditional definitions of abstract and figurative art.

Paul Jenkins

Phenomena Wingspan Right & Left, 1964

Estimate: $20,000 - 30,000

Also featured is a fresh to market Robert Motherwell, Open No. 137: In Ultramarine on Beige, 1969. Motherwell’s Open series, executed between 1967 and 1974, marked an evolution in his painting practice towards an increasing economy of form. As Motherwell himself explained in a statement from 1969, he found his initial inspiration for the series from the way in which a smaller, painted canvas leaned against the unpainted verso of a larger canvas in his studio. Open No. 137: In Ultramarine on Beige returns to the series’ genesis through the use of two interposed rectangles in intimate scale, showcasing the rich and formal understanding of abstraction that Motherwell displayed throughout his career.

Andrea Marie Breiling

Brian Liked & Hearted It (Instagram Blows), 2020

Estimate: $50,000 - 70,000

Paul Jenkins is another 20th century abstractionist in the sale with his 1964 Phenomena Wingspan Right & Left. This fresh to auction work comes from a private collection and displays a particularly beautiful example of Jenkins’ precise and tight use of color. With large swaths of vibrant hues overlapping yet maintaining their individual form on a blank background, Phenomena Wingspan Right & Left is a wonderful representation of the skill and technique Jenkins poured into each of his works.

Anna Valdez

Pheasant, 2016

Estimate: $4,000 - 6,000

Andrea Breiling’s Brian Liked & Heart It (Instagram Blows), 2020, is a strong gestural piece, featuring bold colors animated by unexpected moments of impasto. Of her own work, Breiling discusses her desire to evoke an emotional reaction from the viewer. The varying quality and richness of color, linework, and texture in Brian Liked & Heart It (Instagram Blows) come together to illicit an experience unique to every individual. Anna Valdez is another cutting-edge artist seeing her auction debut with her work Pheasant, 2016. Emblematic of her signature colorful still lives, Pheasant plays with the reinterpretation of old masters imagery into a new context.