NEW YORK, NY.- Phillips will launch the fall auction season in New York with its New Now sale and exhibition, which will grace the company’s new headquarters at 432 Park Avenue. Featuring over 220 lots, the sale includes works by some of today’s most sought-after artists, including Salman Toor, Emily Mae Smith, Kehinde Wiley, Titus Kaphar, Tschabalala Self, Alex Gardner, Jenna Gribbon, and Joel Mesler. The auction also features auction debuts by Jessie Makinson, Jessie Homer French, as well as David “Mr. Star City” White. The auction also includes a group of work by Milo Matthieu, Delphine Desane, Bahar Bambi, Alteronce Gumby and Robert Peterson, with proceeds of their artwork benefiting Project Backboard. Highlights will be on view from 8-12 September in 432 Park Ave, with the full exhibition opening on 20 September.
Patrizia Koenig, Head of New Now, New York, said, “Our September auction perfectly encapsulates the ethos of Phillips’ New Now sales. We’re proud to present the blue-chip contemporary names that have become the keystone of the post-war and contemporary market alongside works by a dynamic group of emerging artists, many of which have been consigned by the artists themselves to benefit Project Backboard’s important mission. We look forward to kicking off the fall season at 432 Park Avenue with a memorable, one-of-a-kind exhibition and look forward to welcoming those in New York through our doors.”
Encompassing the breadth of art making from 20th and 21st centuries, the sale includes a group of postwar art– including works on paper by Milton Avery, Hans Hofmann, Elaine de Kooning, and Ellsworth Kelly–as well as a selection of minimalistic paintings by artists such as Richard Lin, Suzan Frecon, and Mary Obering. Pop art master Andy Warhol is represented in the sale with Portrait of Lee Bontecou, 1967, with additional works by Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat and George Condo capturing the energetic 1980s New York art scene.
The sale is led by KAWS’ THE GREAT BELOW, 2011, a monumental example of the artist’s unique aesthetic that bridges the worlds of art, popular culture and commerce. A quintessential example of his re-envisioned pop culture icons, THE GREAT BELOW illustrates the inflated facial details of KAWSBOB, an intervention on the animated cartoon SpongeBob, imbued with the artist’s distinctive style. The work is also notable for the artist’s use of a circular shaped canvas, or tondo, a format reaching back to the Renaissance and which artist continues to explore in his practice today. KAWS’ practice was recently subject to a large solo show at the Brooklyn Museum.
Following on the heels of Phillips’ world-record for Salman Toor in their June Hong Kong Evening Sale, the New Now Sale features Girl with Beggar, 2013, a significant early work by the Pakistani-American artist, who has enraptured the art world as one of the most exciting figurative painters to emerge in recent years. Toor is celebrated for his tender depictions of serene and often surreal scenes of contemporary life, loving application of luscious oil paint, and ability to render intimate introspective nuances. Painted in 2013 and exhibited at the artist’s solo show The Happy Servant at Aicon Gallery in New York, Girl with Beggar is an enchanting example of Toor’s masterful fusion of art historical traditions and contemporary culture drawn from his experiences in both South Asia and New York, rendering relatable but perplexing scenes that visually articulate the synthesis and disorientation of life between cultures.
Eddie Martinez’s Yours for the Taking, 2007, presents a classically composed still life brimming with the energy of street art and skater culture. Drawing inspiration from an array of sources ranging from graffiti to Picasso, the present work defines Martinez’s playful yet rigorous painting practice: that the accountments of both art history and contemporary culture are his for the taking.
In Takashi Murakami’s Engagement with This World, 2015, the word “Hollow” sits in spray painted lettering atop a turbulent sea of purple, black, and white skulls. The macabre backdrop replaces Murakami’s signature smiling flowers, adding a cartoonish sense of existential angst to an otherwise playful image. A singular work in a series of “Hollow” paintings that straddle media and industries, Engagement with This World is emblematic of Takashi Murakami’s worldwide success, a vivid demonstration of his Superflat aesthetic and historical fine art practices.
Mesmerizing the viewer with matrices of red built up over the underlying canvas, Jennifer Guidi’s Untitled (Field SF #2F, Red and Lilac), 2015, creates an enveloping and immersive effect. Guidi’s meticulously rendered geometric abstractions are celebrated for their rich textures and carefully rhythmic constructions, here inviting comparisons especially to Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Nets paintings.
