NEW YORK, NY.- This fall, Sotheby’s marquee Contemporary auctions bring together groundbreaking works that have shaped art history since 1950. The Now and Contemporary Evening Auction on 20 November features a selection of iconic works that have both reflected and defined American cultural life over recent decades. Highlights range from Willem de Kooning’s striking Untitled XXV and Lichtenstein’s Pop Art portrayal of the Oval Office, to a group of iconic Keith Haring subway drawings, to Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian, a banana fastened with duct tape to a wall that shocked the crowds in its debut at Art Basel Miami Beach and instantly went viral.
The sales pay homage to America’s trail-blazing strides in the evolution of Pop Art, starting with standout works by proto-Pop icons Stuart Davis and Jasper Johns, giving way to the purity of Lichtenstein’s Pop, and capped by Koons’ de-basing of the popular image and Ed Ruscha’s foray into a Johns-ian flag.
Works offered directly from the Collection of Dorothy and Roy Lichtenstein encompass paintings, collages, and works on paper, including nudes, reinterpretations of Monet and Picasso, and a depiction of the Oval Office.
Also appearing at auction for the first time are 31 subway drawings created by Haring between 1980 and 1985. Haring’s spontaneous drawings on the blank advertising spaces of New York City subways captivated millions of commuters and gave birth to a signature style that remains hugely influential across art, fashion, and popular culture today.
Further highlights include Red Kings from 1981 (est. $6-8 million) by Haring’s friend and fellow street art icon Jean-Michel Basquiat, a pivotal work that marks the transition from street to studio and sees early iterations of what would become his key motifs, such as the crown and skull; a major Kai Althoff painting from 2008 (est. $800,000-1,200,000), replete with the artist’s characteristic narrative mystery; and an exceptional and supremely rare Myron Stout (est. $300-500,000) hailing from the collection of Thomas N. Armstrong III C Whitney “Bunty” Armstrong, the former director of the Whitney and curator of Myron Stout’s 1980 Whitney retrospective.
THE NOW AND CONTEMPORARY EVENING AUCTION HIGHLIGHTS
Jeff Koons, Woman in Tub
Estimate: $10-15 million
I met Monique Barbier-Mueller through her acquisition of Woman in Tub. Monique was exemplary as a passionate collector because of her range and curiosity. She immediately embraced the dialogue of my Banality series, which was recontextualizing and emphasizing materials and images within a contemporary context. Monique loved art in all its manifestations from different cultures and time periods. Her love of art and people was always present in her company. One of my fondest memories was spending an afternoon at her home in Geneva looking at her collection of masterpieces of such depth and range that she shared with myself and my family. It has always been an honor to have shared a friendship with her. - Jeff Koons
Emerging from the renowned Barbier-Mueller Collection, Jeff Koons’s iconic 1988 Woman in Tub will appear at auction for the first time since 2001. The work hails from the artist’s Banality series - widely regarded as a watershed moment in Contemporary Art and the group of works that crystallized the aims and interests of his mature artistic enterprise. Indisputably among the most iconic images of not only the twenty works that comprise Banality but of Koons’ canonical oeuvre, Woman in Tub has been included in many of the artist’s most important exhibitions, from his 1992 survey at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam to his 2014 retrospective organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Further testament to its extraordinary importance, another edition of the present work is held in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, with other Banality works residing in prestigious institutions worldwide.
An inimitable interrogator of paradigms of popular taste, Koons creates a tension in his work by playing off positioning contesting values: fine art and kitsch, purity and perversion, sincerity and irreverence. Based on a bawdy postcard, Woman in Tub explores the complexities of spectatorship, daring the viewer to infer what is going on beneath the surface of the water and indulge their own intrigue. In its eighteenth- century Bavarian charm and Rococo decadence, and replicating the quality of a votive figurine, Woman in Tub also offers a commentary on the nature of material culture and class in America.
Koons’ conceptual coup lies in his orchestration of fascination and shame in the conspicuous eroticism of Woman in Tub; her porcelain perfection compels the viewer to negotiate the purity of the surface with the perversion of its contents, probing them to entertain the guilt they may feel. The rest of her head sliced below her nose, Woman in Tub’s relative anonymity teases a viewer’s ability to objectify her, all the while preventing full access to her. Perhaps Woman in Tub asks more about the delight or shame we experience than the delight or shame she does: she may be beautiful and nude, but what Koons lays bare in Woman in Tub is our reaction to it.
Willem de Kooning, Untitled XXV
Estimate: $G-12 million
Hailing from the pivotal year of 1982, Willem de Kooning’s striking Untitled XXV stands alongside the very best of de Kooning’s 1980s compositions. Testifying to its importance, the painting was previously on extended loan to the Tate in London from 1994-97. The painting bears equally exceptional provenance, emerging at auction for the first time from a private collection where it has remained for more than 20 years.
The early 1980s marked a momentous change for de Kooning as he spent most of his time in the calm of East Hampton. The serene beauty of the sunlit countryside and sea were an endless source of inspiration for the artist, and in the first few years of this pivotal decade, this new balance and clear-eyed confidence gave birth to an explosive creative energy which culminated in a series of monumental paintings.
The artist’s late-era paintings, best represented by those executed in 1982 such as Untitled XXV, reflect the purest, most minimal qualities of the natural world - unadulterated light and color. In his unerring ability to reinvent his own modes of painting over the course of a long and varied career, Untitled XXV is reflective of a culmination of the artist’s brilliance.
Stuart Davis, Contranuities, 1G63
Estimate: $12-18 million
Stuart Davis is celebrated as one of the 20th century’s most influential American artists, merging European modernism with a distinctly American cultural perspective. In the final decade of his life, Davis refined his unique style, yielding masterpieces that blended Cubism, Pop, and Abstract Expressionism.
Captivated and deeply influenced by the Avant Garde Modernist movement in Europe (Picasso, Matisse, Léger, Van Gogh and many more), Davis took their language and created something entirely new. At the same time, he captured the energy and dynamics of the American environment, with influences encompassing, in the artist’s words, ‘American wood and iron work of the past, Civil War and skyscraper architecture; the brilliant colors on gasoline stations, chain-store fronts, and taxi cabs; the music of Bach; synthetic chemistry; the poetry of Rimbaud; fast travel by train, auto, and airplane, which brought new and multiple perspectives…’
Executed in 1963, Contranuities, stands over five feet tall. In it, Davis revisits an earlier work (Summer Twilight of 1931), abstracting and dramatically re-working the elements and composition of the earlier painting and, in the process, creating one of his finest works.
The painting also acts as a bridge, in which hints of the European Modernism Davis so loved (Picasso’s cubist forms, Matisse’s colours and cut outs) come together with a strong nod to the emerging Pop art movement. Similarly, the title of the work brings together ‘contrary’ and ‘continuity’, alluding to the constant dialogue – and occasional dissonance – between past and present.
A testament to the importance of this work, and to Davis’ critical role in the evolution of American 20th- century art, this painting will be offered in November’s evening sale, shoulder to shoulder with the American greats on whom he had such influence.
Having remained in a prominent collection for over 40 years, Contranuities is one of small handful of works of this quality remaining in private hands. Its emergence onto the market therefore represents a major and rare opportunity for collectors.
Ed Ruscha, Georges’ Flag, 1GGG
Estimate: $8-12 million
The American flag ripples against a blazing vermilion sky in Georges’ Flag from 1999, an epic ode to Ruscha’s career-long exploration of Pop and conceptual themes through a West Coast lens. Spanning over ten feet in width, this monumental painting draws on the loaded image of the national banner, a motif shared by Ruscha’s contemporaries such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. Georges’ Flag marks the last and largest canvas in an early group of six paintings centering the American flag executed between 1985-99, a motif so resonant and resounding that Ruscha would re-visit and feature it prominently in his 2018 solo exhibition at the Vienna Secession, ‘Ed Ruscha: Double Americanisms.’
Works from the Collection of Dorothy and Roy Lichtenstein
Estimates range from $250,000 - $5,000,000
Born in Manhattan in 1923, Roy Lichtenstein grew to prominence in the 1960s as one of the progenitors of the Pop art movement, known for his comic-strip inspired paintings.
This Fall, Sotheby’s will present “Roy’s Lichtensteins”, an exceptional group of from the Collection of Dorothy and Roy Lichtenstein reflecting the artist’s diverse creative journey from the 1970s through to the 1990s.
This selection, which includes sculptures, drawings, collages, and prints, showcases Lichtenstein’s playful and transformative approach to classical subjects. Among the works, for instance, is his inventive reimagining of the recurring art historical motif of the artist’s studio in the spectacular Nude with Bust (est. $3-5 million), which sees Lichtenstein depict two of his own sculptures and a nude model together in the studio.
In addition, there are pieces that highlight the artistic influence of his forebearers – from Picasso to Monet to Brancusi- on Lichtenstein’s work. However, he doesn’t simply reproduce the work of other artists, rather he subjects them to his own iconic aesthetic, asserting his place in art history. The earliest work in the collection, from 1973, is Still Life with Picasso (est. $800,000 – 1,200,000), painted the year the Spanish artist died, and is an homage to one of Lichtenstein’s great artistic heroes, and the Spanish master’s 1938 drawing of Dora Maar.
Entirely fresh to the market having been retained by Dorothy and Roy Lichtenstein for their own collection, this vibrant group of works, which will be offered across the Evening and Day auctions on 20 and 21 November, come to auction ahead of Lichtenstein’s much-anticipated retrospective at the Whitney Museum, New York, in 2026.
Jasper Johns, Evian, 1G64
Estimate: $6-8 million
A psychologically complex investigation into the paradoxical nature of representation, Evian stands as an early manifesto of Jasper Johns’ defining conceptual project. Created in 1964, the rich, nearly six-foot composition dates to one of the most pivotal years in Johns’ career, when the Jewish Museum in New York staged a major retrospective of the first ten years of his artistic practice, bringing him international recognition and widespread acclaim. It was acquired by the present owner just two years after, in 1966, and has since been exhibited widely at several significant institutions worldwide.
Johns created Evian at a moment in which he had moved away from the flags, targets, numbers and maps of the 1950s in favor of a more conceptual style. In 1964, he had just returned from his sojourn in Japan, and this painting was among the first to be completed after settling in New York. Befittingly, its title pays homage to a bar in he frequented in Tokyo. Here, the interplay between found objects and a rich, textured surface unites the artist’s early Pop vocabulary with a gestural commentary on Abstract expressionism. Readymade objects are collaged against a painterly backdrop alongside imprints of liquor bottles, evoking the Duchampian spirit of borrowing, reconfiguring and recontextualising forms. Evian also sees Johns bring together motifs that recur throughout his oeuvre: the bent coat hanger, for instance, recalls his eponymous 1960 painting, Coat Hanger, while the trash can lid speaks to the circular shapes in his 1962 lithograph, Device.
Further paintings from the early 1960s which share motifs with Evian are held in prestigious collections, among them: The Broad, Los Angeles; MoMA and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Menil Collection, Houston; and Museum Ludwig, Cologne.
Art in Transit: 31 Keith Haring Subway Drawings from the Collection of Larry Warsh Estimates range from $40,000 – 700,000
During the 1980s, Keith Haring used the New York City subway stations as his canvas, seeking out blank advertising spaces and covering them with what would soon become his iconic subway drawings.
After noticing that the Metropolitan Transit Authority covered unpaid advertisements with black matte paper, he quickly began scrawling his inventive visual language on top of them in white chalk.
This became a daily, repetitive occupation for Haring, riding the subway and looking for empty spaces to leave his mark – imbued with spontaneity before hopping on the next train. These drawings transformed the city for millions during their daily commute in the vast underground system of New York. Motifs such a flying saucer and radiating baby rendered in chalk on the subway, have become icons of global visual culture.
Haring’s drawings will go on public view in a special, immersive exhibition in Sotheby’s York Avenue galleries from 8 to 20 November, created in collaboration with Samsung. The design of the exhibition will replicate a vintage 1980s New York City subway station complete with details like turnstiles and benches. The space will also leverage cutting edge Samsung technology – including the Samsung Neo ǪLED 8K and The Premiere 9 triple laser projector – to bring to life archival footage of Keith Haring creating his drawings to create the experience of viewing the works “in-situ” as when they were first created more than four decades ago.
The drawings were displayed together in 2012 as part of the critically acclaimed Brooklyn Museum exhibition Keith Haring: 1978-1982.
The works will be offered in Sotheby’s Contemporary Day Sale on November 21.
Maurizio Cattelan, Comedian, 201G Estimate: $1-1.5 million
Comprised of a banana fastened with duct tape to a wall, Comedian become a viral global sensation when first exhibited at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019. It drew record crowds, divided viewers and critics alike, and caused such pandemonium that it had to be removed from the premises before the end of the fair. Widely venerated, and hotly contested – and eaten not only once, but twice – the work headlined news stories shared around the world.
Skyrocketing to art historical infamy and universal recognition in an instant, no other artwork from the 21st century has provoked controversy, sparked imagination, and upended the very definition of contemporary art like Cattelan’s Comedian.
