Falls Sales up for Auction at Sotheby’s New York

This week, Sotheby’s New York is sure to be abuzz with avid collectors and their trusted art advisors. The reason for the commotion? Their ambitious set of auctions, “The New York Sales”, set to take place between the 14th and 16th of November. The four-part series of auctions scheduled are The David M. Solinger Collection, Modern Evening Auction, The Now Auction, and the Contemporary Evening Auction in partnership with Samsung. These fall sales feature incredible works with notable provenances, though a heavy majority of the lots presented are by white, male, American artists. From Andy Warhol to Roy Lichtenstein, the viewer feels like at the end of every turn one was greeted by an American artist. Some works of pottery from Pablo Picasso and a couple of sculptures and mobiles by Alexander Calder were sprinkled in between the viewing rooms, an overwhelming majority of the lots did not represent a less Euro-centric assemblage. The press will undoubtedly compare the revenues of these sales with the recent auction of the Paul G. Allen Collection that took place last week at Christie’s and brought in a record-breaking amount of 1.5 billion dollars. 

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Highlights from these sales include many familiar names. For example, the Modern Evening Auction will include René Magritte’s work Shéhérazade from 1950. This work was inspired by one of the stories from “Tales from 1,001 Nights”. It is a rare opportunity to see such works outside of private collections; they become available for public view once in a generation as they enter the market. Also in the same auction is Piet Mondrian’s Composition No. II from 1930. The artist and his oeuvre are associated with simplicity, his signature use of primary colors and perpendicular lines comprise the work. Mondrian’s paintings have been trending recently due to a scandal because it was discovered that a German gallery had been hanging one of his works upside down for decades. 

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The Now auction is perhaps the most vibrant, offering the widest array of mediums of works out of the four. Yayoi Kusama’s Pumpkin (M) from 2014, with an estimated value between 3.5 and 5.5 million dollars, is one of the highest-priced works available in the series of auctions in the fall sales. The pumpkin is an easily recognizable, iconic piece of popular culture with its deep black polka dots and striking gold background. The auction features other artists and works that hold cultural significance, including several paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat and mixed media art from Keith Haring; the latter artist is most famously known for his activist imagery made for the ACT UP! organisation at the height of the AIDS crisis, which ultimately led to his demise.

Looking ahead, the results of these auctions and the subsequent owners of these iconic artworks (which make up much of contemporary art history) will decide the art market’s future. Until they find their new homes in public and private collections, these works will be available for viewing until Wednesday, November 16^th.