Auction
POST-WAR & CONTEMPORARY ART- Evening Sale - Autumn 2010 - Christies (New York)
RELEASE: A NIGHT OF BLOCKBUSTERS: CHRISTIE’S NEW YORK NOVEMBER 2010 POST-WAR AND CONTEMPORARY EVENING SALE EXPECTED TO EXCEED $240 MILLION
A NIGHT OF BLOCKBUSTERS
CHRISTIE’S NEW YORK NOVEMBER 2010 POST-WAR AND CONTEMPORARY EVENING SALE EXPECTED TO EXCEED $240 MILLION
ACCLAIMED MASTERPIECES BY WARHOL, LICHTENSTEIN, KOONS, RICHTER AND CALDER TO BE SOLD IN ONE EVENING
CHRISTIE’S HAS BEEN CHOSEN TO SELL ALL THREE OF THE MAJOR ESTATES OF THE SEASON
New York — Christie’s is pleased to present one of the greatest rosters of master works in a single auction. The Post-War and Contemporary Evening sale, which will take place in New York on November 10, 2010, comprises seminal works by the foremost artists of the period including acclaimed masterpieces by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jeff Koons and Rothko, as well as one of the finest examples from Gerhard Richter’s revered Candle Paintings Series. In addition to such masterpieces, Christie’s has been chosen to sell all of the three major estates on offer this season —the collections of computing pioneer Max Palevsky, actor Dennis Hopper, gallerist and taste-maker Robert Shapazian and philanthropic art collector Nancy Epstein. This auction is estimated to realize upwards of $240 million.
“From the remarkable works hailing from premiere private collections such as Warhol’s Big Campbell's Soup Can with Can Opener (Vegetable), to gems from major corporate collections such as Balloon Flower (Blue) by Jeff Koons, this sale contains the high quality, rarity and provenance that creates fireworks at auction,” said Robert Manley, Head of the Post-War and Contemporary Department at Christie’s New York and Head of Evening Sale. “Collectors are vying for the best works by the major artists of the last sixty years and Christie’s Evening sale is loaded with museum masterpieces.”
Pop Art masterpiece Ohhh...Alright…., 1964 by Roy Lichtenstein is the top lot in the auction (estimate upon request; pictured right) and is expected to realize more than $40 million. This work characterizes the artist’s captivation and inspiration with techniques of commercial printing and reproduction articulated in his signature Ben-Day dots. As with all of Lichtenstein’s iconic images, Ohhh...Alright... is at once striking and subtly and humorous. The stunning blue-eyed, flame-haired beauty that fills the frame has been lifted from the pages of a romance comic and rendered larger-than-life. Perhaps giving into an unrelenting suitor for a date, the red-haired girl forms part of the iconic cast of dream-girls painted between 1961-1965 that saw Lichtenstein attain international prominence as one of America's most exciting and controversial artists.
Andy Warhol’s Big Campbell's Soup Can with Can Opener (Vegetable), 1962 (estimate on request pictured right) leads an extraordinary selection of the artist’s key works offered by Christie’s New York this fall. Warhol’s hand-painted masterpiece, Big Campbell's Soup Can with Can Opener (Vegetable), 1962 is an icon of Pop Art and is one of the largest examples of Warhol’s most famous and beloved image of a Campbell’s Soup Can — a subject matter that helped shape the course of art history in the 1960s. The work is estimated to fetch over $30 million.
Warhol’s soup cans challenge the traditional boundaries of art and life as well as art and business. Warhol believed anything could be touched by art: from the mundane, such as the humble Campbell’s soup can and Brillo boxes, to ubiquitous public figures and celebrities such as Jacqueline Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. The Campbell’s Soup can is the ultimate everyman consumer product. It is completely accessible and recognizable, making it a key icon of Pop Art. In this work, Warhol’s signature static soup has been pierced by a can opener against a seamless background.
