Five Big Lots to Watch as New York’s Spring Auctions Spring Into Action

New York Follow +

New York’s May auctions kicked off this week with leading auction houses doing their best to entice collectors with big-name artists. Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips boasted selections that included the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, and Cecily Brown to bring some headline heat to the spring sales.

Ahead of their Now and Contemporary Evening sale on Thursday, Sotheby’s will also present highlights from the late dealer Barbara Gladstone’s collection, including works by Andy Warhol, Richard Prince, Mike Kelley, and a Sigmar Polke dedicated to the gallerist.

Basquiat’s family portrait Baby Boom is set to lead Christie’s 21st Century Evening sale on Wednesday, with an estimate of $20–$30 million (all figures USD). 

Created in 1982 along with seven of Basquiat’s ten most valuable paintings, the two-metre canvas supported by wood structures shows a trio believed to be the artist and his parents.

The painting’s previous owner, publishing tycoon Peter Brant, paid $1 million for it at a Phillips auction in 2001. After the artist achieved a staggering $110 million at Sotheby’s 2017 May auctions, Brant consigned the work to Lévy Gorvy gallery for Art Basel, priced at $35 million.

Another important work, Marlene Dumas’ Miss January (1997), is set to break auction records for a living woman artist, estimated at $12–$18 million. The record is currently held by Jenny Saville’s painting Propped (1992) at $12.4 million. 

The current owners, Miami mega-collectors Mera and Don Rubell, acquired it from Galerie Paul Andriesse in Amsterdam over 20 years ago. 

Christie’s deputy chair of post-war and contemporary art Sara Friedlander called it Dumas’ ‘magnum opus’.

‘In this painting, Dumas triumphantly demonstrates a formal mastery of the woman’s body while simultaneously freeing it from a tradition of subjection, upending normalised concepts of the female nude through the lens of a male-centric history,’ she said.

Over at Sotheby’s, there’s another Basquiat work expected to make waves.

The artist’s 1981 Untitled is among the top valued lots at Sotheby’s Now and Contemporary Evening sale on Thursday—estimated to go for somewhere between $10 and $15 million. 

The painting is resurfacing after 36 years in a private collection, and epitomises the artist’s iconography rooted in symbolism of mythology and self, Sotheby’s said.

Meanwhile, the metallic V-shaped canvas of Frank Stella’s Adelante (1964) is likewise estimated at $10–$15 million. 

Consigned by San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, it’s one of three works the museum is letting go to fund new acquisitions alongside Alexander Calder’s 1963 mobile Four Big Dots at $6–$8 million and a 1918 Matisse, estimated between $1–$1.5 million.

Presented on the artist’s centenary, Robert Rauschenberg’s 1961 Rigger from his ‘Combines’ series, merging painting and sculpture, follows with a $8–$12 million estimate. 

Once owned by dedicated collectors Sally and Victor Ganz, the work is priced slightly below its last result of 9.5 million GBP (approximately 12.2 million USD) at Sotheby’s in 2017. —[O]

Main image: Andy Warhol, Big Electric Chair (1967–1968). Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas. 137.2 x 188 cm. Courtesy Christie's.