LONDON.- For the first time, the Artist Pension Trust® (APT) is to offer a selection of artworks from its vast holdings at auction. A total of 34 works have been chosen for sales in New York and London in the spring, coming from the studios of trail-blazing contemporary artists including Josh Smith, David Shrigley, Bob & Roberta Smith and Liam Gillick. The proceeds from the sales will benefit artists participating in APT.

Mark Sebba, Chairman of MutualArt, which owns APT, said: “For a decade we’ve had the privilege of working with many of the world’s most promising artists as we have been assembling an unprecedented collection of international contemporary art. But while a small number of works have been sold privately in the last couple of years, this spring’s offering represents the first time that works from the collection will be offered at auction. Now is the time for us to broaden our sales activity by launching our first auctions - providing artists with further returns on their contributions to APT, and unveiling the collection to a new, wider, audience.

Deciding which of the thousands of APT artworks to select for our inaugural sale hasn’t been easy, but, ultimately, we’ve chosen some of our favourite works by artists who have been with us since the very earliest years of the program. Not only do these artworks speak to the tastes of today’s collectors, but reflect the quality and diversity of the collection that APT continues to build and develop each year.”

Artist Pension Trust
APT offers long-term financial security to select artists around the world.

Since launching in 2004, APT has compiled the world’s largest collection of international contemporary art, comprising nearly 13,000 artworks by 2,000 diverse artists in 75 different countries. The artists range from those that have participated in the most important fairs and biennials, and have won some of the most prestigious awards, to young artists who are at an earlier stage in their careers.

APT provides select artists around the world with long-term financial security through its patented mutual assurance model. Each participating artist agrees to deposit 20 artworks over a 20-year period. These deposits are then gradually sold to benefit the participating members.

The program is similar to a cooperative model whereby members who participate benefit from every artwork sold, allowing them to gain from the long-term value appreciation of the collection.*

Highlights from Sotheby’s New York Contemporary Curated Sale, 2 March 2017

Ivan Navarro, Victor (The Missing Monument for Washington DC or A Proposal for a Monument for Víctor Jara) (2008), est. $20,000-30,000. Fluorescent light, metal fixtures, glass, posters for the video, and electric energy, 68.58 x 71.12 x 152.4 cm
Ivan Navarro is one of Chile’s most well-known contemporary artists, whose politically charged neon sculptures are imbued with a mix of elaborate narrative elements and hard-edge Minimalist influences. Victor, showing a figure kneeling in an act of humility, basked in a bright light, is a poignant tribute to Victor Jara, the Chilean singer and activist who was arrested and tortured by the Pinochet regime.

Michael Joo, SRS no. 8, (2008), est. $18,000-25,000 Antlers and stainless steel, 35 x 65 x 14.5 inches (88.9 x 165.1 x 36.83 cm)
Working in a wide range of media, from performance to film and painting, and using materials diverse as silver nitrate, elk antlers, or bamboo, Korean-American artist Michael Joo is interested in the many ways audiences can interpret his work. SRS #8, a minimal composition of antlers and steel, has multifaceted meanings: the antlers may refer to the strength of a stag, dominance and male sexual power, but are also a hunting trophy, perhaps symbolic of loss and death.

Josh Smith, Untitled Palette Painting, (2005), est. $8,000-12,000 Oil on canvas, 24 x 18 inches (60.96 x 45.72 cm)
Originally trained as a printmaker and having worked as Christopher Wool’s studio assistant, Josh Smith has developed a unique language over the years; one that is aware of artistic trends, but that is in constant enquiry of what it means to make art in a world that is saturated with images. Untitled Palette Painting is a superlative example of Smith’s multifaceted practice, exploring colour and texture in a thick and painterly composition.

Highlights from Sotheby’s London Contemporary Curated Sale, 12 April 2017

David Shrigley, Untitled, from the series The Guardian's Saturday Magazine, (2005), est. $12,000-18,000 / £10,000-15,000 Ink on paper, 8.267 x 11.417 inches (21 x 29 cm)
Nominated for the Turner Prize in 2013 and commissioned for Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth in September 2016, David Shrigley stands at the forefront of radical British contemporary art. His trademark imaginative cartoon-like style, blended with thought- provoking humour is brilliantly captured in the present work referencing The Guardian’s Saturday Magazine.

Wilhelm Sasnal, Train, (2004) est. $25,000-35,000 / £20,000 - £30,000 Oil on canvas, 27.559 x 35.433 inches (70 x 90 cm)
Drawing from disparate everyday-life sources, Polish artist Wilhelm Sasnal creates paintings that fuse Romanticism with Realism and thereby scrutinise our perception of quotidian life. Train deliberately treads between abstraction and figuration, with the title evoking a myriad of possibilities given the almost completely abstract composition of the painting.

Liam Gillick, Brazil Kalmar Text, (2006), est. $15,000-20,000 / £12,000 - £18,000 Water-cut powder coated aluminium, 66.732 x 38.188 x 0.196 inches (169.5 x 97 x 0.5 cm)
British Conceptual artist and Turner Prize nominee Liam Gillick is deeply influenced by modes of production and models of social organisation. This interest is reflected in Brazil Kalmar Text, which draws on the content of Brazilian academic papers published on the Kalmar Volvo factory in Sweden, open from 1974 -1994.

Bob & Roberta Smith, Jasper Johns is a Dinosaur, (2002), est. $1,900-2,500 / £1,500-2,000 Oil on canvas, 20.078 x 19.881 inches (51 x 50.5 cm)
Patrick Brill, better known under his artistic pseudonym Bob & Roberta Smith, is a British artist, activist, campaigner, author and musician, best known for his witty and provoking “slogan-art”. Here he refers to artist Jasper Johns’ importance and influence on contemporary art, while encouraging new perspectives that are able to overcome previous, now-historic positions.

Shezad Dawood, Menhirs II, (2010), est. $6,500-8,500 / £5,000 - £7,000 Acrylic on vintage textile, 52.362 x 69.291 inches (133 x 176 cm)
Shezad Dawood’s works range between painting, film, and sculpture and investigate the artist’s own rich cultural heritage. By juxtaposing elements of the past with the present, Dawood’s works achieve a surreal air that is accentuated by blending the abstract with the figurative. The present work illustrates two menhirs (large upright standing stones found as monoliths) set against a background that is reminiscent of traditional tapestry.