NEW YORK, NY.- On December 3, Christie’s will offer Sarah Sze’s Surprise Ending, 2020 ($200,000-300,000) in its Day Sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art. Sze has donated Surprise Ending to benefit Hopeland, a New York City nonprofit organization working to help vulnerable at risk children who are unable to live with their families for a myriad of reasons, inclusive of poverty, mental health, war and abuse. 25 million children globally are growing up without a family, and 385 million more are at risk of separation. Hopeland works both domestically and internationally creating innovative initiatives and solutions to ensure every child lives in a permanent loving family. Hopeland’s focus is to put the issue of vulnerable children front and center on the global agenda, and especially at this time when the pandemic is putting children at risk of exploitation, gender based violence, financial hardship, social exclusion and separation from caregivers.




Deborra-lee Furness, Co-Founder of Hopeland, remarked: “Understanding that the predicament of vulnerable or abandoned children is further impacted by the global pandemic must prompt us to take action. Sarah, who is an extraordinary artist and a dear friend of mine and Hugh’s, has supported Hopeland since its inception in the hope that vulnerable children can look forward to a life where they feel safe, loved and are given the opportunities to thrive. I love the intersection of art and philanthropy whereby we can make the world a better place.”

Vivian Brodie, Specialist, Post-War and Contemporary Art, Christie’s continued: “Christie’s is thrilled to be partnering with New York based non-profit, Hopeland, and artist, Sarah Sze, to offer this monumental painting, which will benefit an extraordinary cause, which works to ensure that every child has a safe home. Sarah Sze’s donation is the first large painting by the artist to come to auction and highly sought after in the market.”

With a medley of intricately collaged forms and a kaleidoscopic understanding of color, internationally acclaimed artist Sarah Sze demonstrates a mastery of technique and materials in the mesmerizing new painting Surprise Ending. In a vigorous return to painting in recent years, Sze has used the medium to pursue a narrative related to the shattering of time in contemporary experience. Her singular vision, which integrates everyday source imagery with highly refined aesthetic means, results in maplike landscapes that mix the spontaneous with the systematic, dislocating the viewer from any specific time or place while immersing them in a multitude of sensations. Among her countless accolades, Sze was a recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2005 and represented the U.S. in the 2013 Venice Biennale. During 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, she installed the spectacular large-scale permanent sculptural commission Shorter than the Day in the new Terminal 2 at LaGuardia airport in New York.