PRESS RELEASE
PHILLIPS de PURY & COMPANY IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE
HIGHLIGHTS FROM ITS NEW YORK CONTEMPORARY SALES
THE
INAUGURAL EVENING SALE - CONTEMPORARY ART PART I AT NEW
FLAGSHIP 450 PARK AVENUE FEATURING HIGHLY IMPORTANT WORKS BY
JEFF KOONS, ED RUSCHA, ANDY WARHOL, JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT, ROY
LICHTENSTEIN, MAURIZIO CATTELAN, & RICHARD PRINCE
SALE DATE: NOVEMBER, 8 2010, 6pm
VIEWING: OCTOBER 30 – 7 NOVEMBER, 2010
LOCATION: Phillips de Pury & Company, 450 Park Avenue, New York 10022
Jeff Koons, Caterpillar Ladder, 2003
CONTEMPORARY ART PART II AUCTION FEATURING SIGNIFICANT
WORKS BY SAM FRANCIS, LOUISE BOURGEOIS, ANDY WARHOL, RONI
HORN, BANKS VIOLETTE, KEHINDE WILEY, OLAFUR ELIASSON, ED
RUSCHA & TONY SMITH
SALE DATE: NOVEMBER 9, 2010, 10am & 2pm
VIEWING: OCTOBER 30 – 8 NOVEMBER, 2010
LOCATION: Phillips de Pury & Company, 450 West 15 Street, New York 10011
Ed Ruscha, Sex at Noon Texas, 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New York – Phillips de Pury & Company is pleased to announce the highlights of the
forthcoming Contemporary Art Part I sale directly following Carte Blanche curated by
Philippe Ségalot and Contemporary Art Part II sale.
The November auctions will feature important works across the board and will mark a milestone
in the history of the company. Contemporary Art Part I estimate: $23,600,000 - $34,420,000.
Contemporary Art Part II estimate: $7,231,000 - $11,244,950. Carte Blanche estimate:
$80,000,000 – $100,000,000.
Highlights from Contemporary Art Part I sale comprising 26 lots include:
Roy Lichtenstein, Two Figures, Indian,
1979
Jeff Koon’s Caterpillar Ladder, 2003 estimated at $5,500,000 – $7,500,000. This work is one of the
most recognizable pieces from Koons’ Popeye series. This series exemplifies to perfection his
incredible ability to transform ready-made objects into art. Jeff Koons presents us with as
peculiar a paradox as we could imagine never ceasing to amaze with his larger-than-life style
and clever eye. The technical skills are incredible and, in many ways, unbelievable. The
perfectly painted aluminum and steel surfaces appear afloat despite the heavy materials from
which they are made. As with a true inflatable, they seem weightless.
“I think of the inflatables as anthropomorphic, we ourselves inflatables, we take a breath, we
expand, we contract, our last breath in life, our deflation. By contrast these objects have a
permanence to them, they maintain a non-divisible sense of life, of continuity. Maybe it’s also
almost like learning to swim, that extraordinary experience almost like birthing, the
independence of when you can finally swim yourself,” – Jeff Koons quoted in S. Murg, “Jeff
Koons: ‘We Are Ourselves Inflatables,’ mediabistro/UnBeige, August 6, 2009”.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, MP, 1984
Ed Ruscha’s Sex at Noon Taxes, 2002 estimated at $3,000,000 – $4,000,000. Sex at Noon Taxes is
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ultimate Ruscha: a palindrome, a visual pun a mountainous landscape. Ruscha has always
been interested in mountain imagery; however, he uses it more as an investigative backdrop for
his words rather than a specific geographical reference. The words invade the natural beauty
of the landscape, creating an oddly jarring yet infinitely intriguing juxtaposition. Ed Ruscha
states: “I’m creating some sort of disorder between the different elements. And avoiding the
recognizable aspect of living things by painting words. I like the feeling of an enormous
pressure in a painting,” (E. Mahoney, “Top of the Pops,” The Guardian, August 14, 2001).
Roy Lichtenstein Two figures, Indian, 1979 estimated at $3,000,000 – $5,000,000. A particularly
remarkable piece Two figures, Indian, blends together this variety of influences. The Native
American imagery is prevalent – an amalgam of different traditions including the Navajos and
the Acoma and Zuni Pueblos of New Mexico. Lichtenstein was not aiming for historical
accuracy but rather hoping to fuse together the images that have come to represent the
American West. The deep reds, warm yellows and cool blocks of gray are colors that are both
typical of Lichtenstein as well as of Native American imagery. He has reduced these forms and
figures down to their most geometric elemental components, seeing the beauty and potential of
the Native American motifs.
Andy Warhol, Mona Lisa, 1979
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s MP, 1984 estimated at $2,000,000 – $3,000,000. MP like Basquiat’s
other works, reveals a confluence of his numerous interests and energies, the general
categories of which include his own biography, black heroes, cartoons, anatomy, graffiti, signs
and symbols as well as money, racism and death. The words, in particular describe the
subjects most important to him. If one understands and interprets the figure in MP as a selfportrait, and takes into account the allusions to monetary value, exploitation and power, then
the title MP itself opens up to new meaning. In 1984, the same year this work was made, Mary
Boone became Basquiat’s New York dealer despite his concerns about doing so. The MP, or
Market Price, of his work, like the artist himself, becomes in a sense controlled by the gallery
and the art world machine.
Maurizio Cattelan, Frank and Jamie, 2002
Andy Warhol’s Mona Lisa, 1979 estimated at $1,500,000 – $2,500,000. By the time Andy Warhol
cast his spell on the Mona Lisa and vice versa, she was no longer considered purely high art but
rather the most famous face in the world, something that was of equal (if not higher)
importance to Warhol. He was reacting not only to the painting itself but to the fame and power
of her image in a culture saturated with replicas. Warhol’s art is about appropriation and no
image has been so thoroughly appropriated as the Mona Lisa.
Maurizio Cattelan’s Frank and Jamie, 2002 estimated at $1,000,000 – $1,500,000. Frank and
Jamie address the play of power and make a heady statement about the seduction of authority.
Cattelan is very careful about his choice of subject matter, always selecting highly charged
concepts yet refusing to take a concrete position – he is suggestive without being subversive. In
true Cattelan fashion, Frank and Jamie is mildly ambiguous, serving as both an homage to the
police department but also commenting on the inefficacy of their power. Fank and Jamie point
the viewer towards the very essence of Cattelan’s work – a constant questioning of authority be
it in the form of law enforcement, gallery owners or art lovers. And he is indeed kidding yet
there is truth in all jokes and Cattelan intentionally provokes the viewer’s reactions.
Richard Prince’s Untitled (Cowboy), 1998 – 1999 estimated at $1,000,000 – $1,500,000. Untitled
(Cowboy) is among Richard Prince’s most iconic works as well as one of his most emblematic
images. For his Cowboys series, specifically, Prince appropriated images directly from Marlboro
cigarette advertisements, then re-photographed, cropped and eliminated the text from them. A
response to American consumerism and identity, Prince’s Cowboys question notions of
originality, authorship and the privileged status of the unique art object. Prince only started rephotographing these advertising images after the marketing company stopped using the
Marlboro Man in their pictures. As the artist himself recalls, “without him as an identifying
factor, it was easier to present these pictures as something other than they were. I think that’s
the way I felt at the time anyway. Other than I was,” (L. Phillips, Richard Prince, New York, 1992,
p. 95).
Richard Prince, Untitled (Cowboy), 1998 –
1999
Sam Francis, Permanent Water, 1967
Highlights from Contemporary Art Part II include:
Sam Francis’s Permanent Water, 1967 estimated at $150,000 – $200,000. Francis upends the
convention of using white to signify a background by shifting the focus of the piece to the white
expanse, and by giving color a subordinate role. The painting’s massive size overwhelms the
viewer’s visual field with stark whiteness, and the colored painting appears to be a mere frame
Louise Bourgeois, House, 1995
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around the white rectangle. Francis also evokes the idea that the entire work is no more than a
remnant of a painting that was completed on top of this canvas, the colored strokes marking
where a painter’s brush accidentally touched the surface beyond the edges of the canvas he
was working on.
Louise Bourgeois’ House, 1995 estimated at $180,000 – $250,000. House is a small-scale marble
replica of the artist’s country home in Easton, Connecticut, where she and her family took
refuge during World War II. Bourgeois depicted the country house in different mediums, but
arguably the most beautiful of these representations are the sculptures in marble. This work is
from a series of marble houses Bourgeois created between 1984 and 1995, each of which is
unique and completely handcrafted. The work’s gently sculpted edges and soft white coloration
give it a serene, almost tender appearance. Bourgeois’ attachment to the house comes through
in her sensitive rendering of its architecture, with its lack of perfect geometry and smooth
curves. When examining the piece, it is possible to sense the artist’s emotional investment in
the object of her work, creating a peaceful, intimate moment between viewer and sculpture.
Andy Warhol, The Scream (after Munch),
1984
Andy Warhol’s The Scream (after Munch), 1984 estimated at $200,000 – $300,000. This work, a
brightly colored interpretation of the famous Edvard Munch canvas The Scream, highlights
Warhol’s Pop aesthetic as well as his practice of appropriating the work of other artists.
Through his presentation of The Scream as a reproducible printed image, Warhol labels the
painting both an icon and a commercial product. Executing an army of copies of “The Scream”
enables Warhol to strip away the expressivity, individuality, and intense emotion that make the
painting unique. As such, he cements its role as a masterpiece worth replicating, but also
transforms it into a mass-produced commodity of his own creation.
Andy Warhol’s Gem, 1979 estimated at $200,000 – $300,000. Gem was a gift from Andy Warhol
to former Miss America and First Lady of Kentucky, Phyllis George Brown, in 1982. In this piece,
Warhol synthesizes his fascinations with commercialism, glamour, and celebrity into a single
image. Here he creates a portrait of a diamond in the graphic style he also uses to render his
human subjects, placing both people and objects on the same plane of commodification.
-ENDContacts:
New York
Anne Huntington
Communications Manager
[email protected]
+1 212 940 1210
London
Giulia Costantini
Head of Communications
[email protected]
+ 44 20 7318 4010
Fiona McGovern
Communications Assistant
[email protected]
+ 44 20 7318 4010
Andy Warhol, Gem, 1979