Gustav Klimt, “Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer” (1914–16) (image courtesy Sotheby’s New York; Leonard A. Lauder Collection)
If the weekend winds didn’t pick us up and carry us away already, then we should brace ourselves, as the much-anticipated Marquee Week descends on New York City’s high-profile auction houses this week. Scheduled to blow through bank accounts and auction records, the evening sales are expected to pull in well over $1 billion altogether over the course of five days, with works from Gustav Klimt, Mark Rothko, Frida Kahlo, Ruth Asawa, Maurizio Cattelan, and others across dozens of lots.
Market watchers, trend forecasters, and visual arts reporters like myself are keeping a close eye on the following sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips.
Monday, November 17
Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sale
Mark Rothko, “No. 31 (Yellow Stripe)” (1958) (image courtesy Christie’s New York; Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis Collection)
Among works by Paul Klee, Arshile Gorky, Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian, and others from the museum-quality collection of Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis, Mark Rothko’s “No. 31 (Yellow Stripe)” (1958) is expected to smash records early into the evening with an estimate “in the region of” $50 million, a Christie’s spokesperson said. The sale is also anchored by two David Hockney paintings, select sculptures by Alexander Calder, two of Lucien Freud’s painted nude figures, and Georgia O’Keeffe’s aptly seasonal “The Red Maple at Lake George” (1926).
Tuesday, November 18
Sotheby’s Now and Contemporary Evening Auction
Maurizio Cattelan, “America” (2016) (image courtesy Sotheby’s)
Sotheby’s New York has many tricks up its sleeve in anticipation of its inaugural lineup of marquee sales at its newly debuted Breuer Building headquarters, starting with Maurizio Cattelan’s cast-gold functional toilet “America” (2016) that’s currently installed in one of the restrooms until tonight in anticipation of Tuesday night’s sale. Instead of sitting on the throne, it’s possible that Justin Sun might instead be sitting this one out entirely, so if anyone wants to cough up the estimated $10.2 million and then some to bring “America” home, the time to act is 7pm tomorrow.
Those who pooh-pooh the toilet humor can instead turn their focus on works by Noah Davis, Kerry James Marshall, Yves Klein, Frank Stella, Mark Tansey, and Simone Leigh, and a small selection of Roy Lichtenstein’s paintings and sculptures, set to go under the hammer for six-to-eight figure estimates on Tuesday evening as well.
Sotheby’s Leonard A. Lauder, Collector Evening Auction
Gustav Klimt, “Waldabhang bei Unterach am Attersee (Forest Slope in Unterach on the Attersee)” (1916) (image courtesy Sotheby’s New York)
Three paintings and two sketches by Gustav Klimt have already stolen the show in this sale of work from Leonard A. Lauder’s collection. Of Klimt’s three paintings, “Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer” (1914–16) carries a massive estimate in excess of $150 million alone, while his two leafy-green landscapes are each valued at around half of that. A handful of Henri Matisse’s bronze busts and figures are also highlights of the sale, as are two geometric gems from Agnes Martin and Edvard Munch’s “Sankthansnatt (Midsummer Night)” (c. 1901–03).
Wednesday, November 19
Christie’s 21st Century Evening Sale Featuring Works from the Edlis | Neeson Collection
Ed Ruscha, “How do you do?” (2003) (image courtesy Christie’s New York; Edlis | Neeson Collection)
Christie’s 21st Century Evening Sale will take off with 45 provocative works from the collection of the late arts patron Stefan Edlis and his wife Gael Neeson. Embodying the collectors’ fervor for Pop and contemporary art, Andy Warhol’s paintings and prints are leveled with works by Ed Ruscha, Firelei Báez, Julie Mehretu, Amy Sherald, Glenn Ligon, and Jeff Koons. Christopher Wool’s “Untitled (RIOT)” is expected to sell within the region of $15 to $20 million.
Phillips Modern and Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Mark Tansey, “Reveler” (2012) (image courtesy Phillips)
Putting aside the auction house’s profound use of free will by including a nearly complete juvenile Triceratops skeleton as one of the lots in this Modern and Contemporary evening auction, this sale highlights works by Ruth Asawa, Francis Bacon, Joan Mitchell, Jackson Pollock, Firelei Báez, Olga De Amaral, Mark Tansey, Fernando Botero, and Jean-Michel Basquiat in a multi-generational, cross-movement appreciation of high-impact artists over the last century.
Thursday, November 20
Sotheby’s Cindy and Jay Pritzker Collection Evening Auction
Vincent van Gogh’s “Piles de romans parisiens et roses dans une verre (Romans parisiens)” (1887) (image courtesy Sotheby’s New York; Cindy and Jay Pritzker Collection)
From the collection of Cindy and Jay Pritzker, Vincent van Gogh’s sumptuous still life “Piles de romans parisiens et roses dans une verre (Romans parisiens)” (1887) emerges on the market for the first time in nearly 40 years with an estimated price in excess of $40 million. Additional lots include rarely seen works by Wassily Kandinsky, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Max Beckmann, and a lovely painting by Stuart Davis.
Sotheby’s Exquisite Corpus Evening Auction
Frida Kahlo, Frida Kahlo, “El Sueno (La Cama)” (1940) (image courtesy Sotheby’s New York)
This sale is billed as a continued celebration of Surrealism’s centennial, buoyed by Frida Kahlo’s “El Sueño (La Cama)” (1940). The work, which Anna Di Stasi, head of Latin American Art at Sotheby’s, described as one of the artist’s “greatest masterworks,” is expected to fetch between $40 and $60 million. Equally dreamy works by Remedios Varo, René Magritte, Kay Sage, Salvador Dalí, and Giorgio de Chirico, among others, make up various lots in this esoteric evening event.
Sotheby’s Modern Evening Auction
René Magritte, “Le Jockey perdu” (1942) (image courtesy Sotheby’s New York; Matthew and Carolyn Bucksbaum Collection)
The lots in this sale include masterpieces from the Matthew and Carolyn Bucksbaum Collection, the Geri Brawerman Collection, and, controversially, the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, which has faced criticism for deaccessioning pieces including Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Large Dark Red Leaves on White” (1927). Focusing on 19th- and 20th-century artists who formed new movements over 150 years, the sale notably features René Magritte’s “Le Jockey perdu” (1942), a 23-by-28-inch canvas estimated to sell for up to $12 million.
