Jeff Koons’ Bourbon Train to Lead Christie’s Sale in New York

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Sculptures by Jeff Koons and Charles Ray are two of the highlights of Christie’s 21st Century Evening Sale in New York on 17 November.

Koons’ Jim Beam - J.B. Turner Train (1986) is among the artist’s first forays into highly polished stainless steel sculpture.

Inspired by a novelty set of locomotive decanters that Jim Beam sold as an advertising gimmick, the gleaming six-car train was filled with bourbon whiskey when it appeared in the 1986 exhibition Luxury and Degradation at East Village gallery International With Monument.

Also made predominantly of stainless steel is Charles Ray’s Revolution Counter-Revolution (1990-2010), a four-metre-wide carousel that appears to move both clockwise and anticlockwise at the same time.

Based in Los Angeles, Ray is known for enigmatic works that challenge the viewer’s visual perceptions.

Koons’ boozy train is expected to fetch US$15–20 million, while Charle’s Ray’s confusing carousel is estimated to bring in $3–5 million come November.

‘Sharing references to the everyday, these works offer subtle yet powerful commentary on commodification, our perception of reality, and the divide within our collective cultural consciousness,’ said Christie’s Head of the 21st Century Evening Sale, Isabella Lauria.

These sculptures will be auctioned alongside works from Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, and Toyin Ojih Odutola, among others.

Christie’s 20th Century sale will take place on the same night and feature works by Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Edgar Degas, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Alberto Giacometti, Cy Twombly, Henry Moore, and Donald Judd.

Sotheby’s, meanwhile, has announced Piet Mondrian‘s Composition No. II (1930) as the star of its Modern Evening Auction on 14 November.

‘Quintessential works by Piet Mondrian rarely come to auction as many are housed in the most prestigious museum collections around the world,’ said Julian Dawes, Sotheby’s Head of Impressionist & Modern Art, Americas.

‘It is a seminal painting that is both crucial to the development of Modern art and emblematic of the enduring appeal of the Modern aesthetic, characterised by a serene sense of compositional balance and spatial order, and with superb provenance,’ she said.

Sotheby’s expects Composition No. II to sell for north of US $50 million. —[O]

Main image: Jeff Koons, Jim Beam - J.B. Turner Train (1986) (detail). Stainless steel, bourbon. 27.94 x 289.56 x 16.51 cm. Courtesy Christie's.