Now Open for Bidding:
Sotheby’s First-Ever Online Day Sales of Contemporary Art and Impressionist & Modern Art

SOTHEBY’S MOST AMBITIOUS ONLINE SALES TO-DATE
Together Estimated to Achieve More Than $20 Million
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60+ Works Offered Over $100,000

Utilizing New E-Catalogue Experiences, Featuring Enhanced Visual Storytelling Through Video, Interactive Media, and More Rich Conten
NEW YORK, 5 MAY 2020 – Sotheby’s has opened bidding on our first-ever Online Day Sales of Contemporary Art and Impressionist & Modern Art. The auctions close on 14 and 18 May, respectively.

Together offering 250+ lots that are estimated to achieve more than $20 million, these sales represent Sotheby’s most ambitious online auctions to-date. With 60+ works estimated at $100,000 and above, they are poised to accelerate the strong momentum behind our successful online sales program – during a major moment in the traditional global auction calendar. Sotheby’s has raised $70+ million across 40+ online sales to-date in 2020, setting numerous benchmark results across both fine art and luxury goods.

Amy Cappellazzo, Chairman of Sotheby’s Fine Art Division, commented: “Throughout this unprecedented moment, collectors worldwide have enthusiastically participated in our online sales, demonstrating the continued appetite of the global art market. Through these Online Day Sales, we are meeting our clients’ needs by presenting unique opportunities to both buy and sell, during what would traditionally be a major moment in the international auction calendar. We are excited to present digitally the same exceptional selection of artists and works that the market has come to expect from our Day Sale program.”

The Online Day Sales benefit from the debut of our new, immersive digital catalogue experience. The ‘digital-first’ design of these enhanced catalogues emphasizes visual storytelling through video, interactive media, and other rich content formats in a way that moves beyond print media. By presenting the objects featured in our sales in a wholly modern way, the digital catalogue encourages deeper engagement with each sale across all collecting categories.

Sotheby’s live evening and day auctions of Contemporary Art and Impressionist & Modern Art, previously scheduled for May, will be held in New York the week of 29 June, pending the lifting of certain restrictions and confirmation from the relevant authorities that we can proceed. Clients and visitors can expect extra precautions to ensure the safety of our employees and visitors, as well as creative opportunities for those wishing to preview our exhibitions and participate in our auctions – from in-person and virtual appointment viewings to enhanced digital experiences. We will announce a more a detailed schedule in due course, including relevant exhibition plans.

CONTEMPORARY ART DAY AUCTION ONLINE
Open for bidding now through 14 May
This sale offers a strong selection of blue-chip Post-War and Contemporary Art across a range of price points. Presenting examples by some of the most renowned and sought-after artists of the period, the auction features a rare Brice Marden from his Basel Cathedral Window series, alongside works by Christopher Wool, Willem de Kooning, Keith Haring, Yoshitomo Nara, Richard Prince, KAWS, Damien Hirst and Julie Curtiss.

Untitled from 1988 is an exceptional example of Christopher Wool’s ‘pattern paintings,' in which he developed his style away from his early Abstract Expressionist works through the original use of wallpaper rollers (estimate $1.2/1.8 million). This seemingly simple innovation opened the possibility of mechanical reproduction in painting – much in the same way that Andy Warhol’s innovation of the silkscreen encouraged production in 1962. He identified a tool that was readily available and ubiquitous in any urban domestic environment, and transformed it into a bold new method of making fine art that is loaded with art historical references.

The preeminent abstract painter working today, Brice Marden is celebrated for his mastery over the fundamental components of the medium. Executed in 1985 after nearly a decade of conceptual development, Window Study No. 4 brings together cool and warm tones in ethereal washes, crafting the sensation of light and warmth emanating from within the canvas (estimate $700/900,000). An exemplar of Marden’s output, the present work captures the artist as he moved to address notions of spirituality as well as the relationship between nature and the individual, which endure as the primary painterly concerns of his practice.

Executed in 1987, 3 Jokes Painted to Death or 3 Jokes Really Painted is an early work and a rare gem from Richard Prince’s iconic series of monochrome Joke Paintings which he began in 1987 (pictured below, estimate $500/700,000). For this seminal group of works, Prince fuses the unrefined content of low-brow cartoon humor with the sophisticated aesthetic of monochrome painting to introduce the seemingly irrelevant concept of humor into the resolutely intellectual sphere of fine art. As an early Joke Painting, the present work is particularly special for its triptych format and the visibly hand-painted nature of the text.