NEW YORK, NY.- Sothebys announced that it will offer 11 works generously donated by leading contemporary artists to benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF). Works by Allora & Calzadilla, Martin Creed, Olafur Eliasson, Jeff Elrod, Urs Fischer, Jonathan Horowitz, William Kentridge, Joel Meyerowitz, Rob Pruitt, Ed Ruscha, and Frank Thiel, will be included in Sothebys Contemporary Art Day Sale on 12 November 2014, which goes on public exhibition on Friday 7 November. All proceeds from the sale of these 11 works will benefit EJAFs life-saving grant initiatives.
Thanks to the generosity of caring people like these artists and the buyers who purchase their work, EJAF was able to award more than $7.3 million in grants to 114 worthy organizations during 2013, said Sir Elton John. Their gifts helped support programs assisting homeless teens in New York City, enabling poor people to access the treatment and care they need in the Deep South, providing housing and medical assistance to HIV- positive parolees in the Bronx, serving the urgent needs of HIV-positive people in Haiti, and so much more. This sale at Sothebys will help us to continue expanding on these efforts.
Alexander Rotter, Co-Head of Sothebys Worldwide Contemporary Art Department, commented: We are delighted to be offering paintings and sculptures to benefit the vital work of the Elton John AIDS Foundation for a fourth consecutive year. The 2014 selection includes signature pieces by some of the most exciting artists working today, many of whom have been the subject of recent solo exhibitions. Urs Fischer has a brilliant ability to capture our imagination, and I am sure the bronze that he has so generously donated will appeal to both new and established collectors of his work.
This years selection features Naked Arrest by Urs Fischer, a new bronze that has many parallels with the works featured in the innovative exhibition of the artists work staged by Gagosian Gallery New York in April and May 2014 at a former Chase bank branch on the Lower East Side (est. $250/350,000). Other highlights include one of Jeff Elrods signature blurred ink works: Medium Cool (B/W blur) (est. $50/70,000), and #STAYINSCHOOL by Rob Pruitt whose work was the subject of a recent critically acclaimed exhibition at Gavin Browns Enterprise (est. $30/40,000).