Works on offer this spring are led by a superb early example of Calder’s celebrated mobiles, Untitled from 1948 (estimate $4.5/6.5 million). Marked by exceptional provenance, the sculpture was first owned by Wallace K. Harrison – the celebrated American architect and engineer who orchestrated the design of Rockefeller Center, among other major projects. Several years before the execution of Untitled, Calder and Harrison collaborated on an architectural design project which, although it ultimately went unrealized, influenced Calder’s oeuvre during this period. A rare, unpainted example of the artist’s mobiles, the purity of the sheet metal and structural elegance with which it hangs tell the story of Calder in wartime, and of his ingenuity as both an artist and engineer. Additional works from the Unger Collection by artists Alexander Calder, Pablo Picasso, and Francois-Xavier Lalanne will be offered throughout Spring 2021.

NORMAN LEWIS’S EVENING RHAPSODY WATCH & EMBED: PLAYWRIGHT LYNN NOTTAGE SHARES A
Appearing at auction for the first time, Norman Lewis’s Evening Rhapsody from 1955 is an exceptional example of the profound brilliance of the artist’s groundbreaking vision (estimate $700,000/1,000,000). Evening Rhapsody remained in his own collection until 1979 when, shortly before his passing, he gifted the painting to his close friend Wallace Nottage. Wallace then passed the painting to his children, including two-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage, and it has remained in their collection ever since. A harmonious orchestration of color and gesture teeming with joyous energy, Evening Rhapsody embodies the dynamism that defined the Abstract Expressionist movement.

One of the most socially engaged and politically active artists of the Twentieth Century, the artist’s use of abstraction to these social and political ends radically differentiated him from his peers.

BRUCE NAUMAN’S LIFE, DEATH, LOVE, HATE, PLEASURE, PAIN
Bruce Nauman’s sculpture Life, Death, Love, Hate, Pleasure, Pain from 1983 will make its auction debut this May (estimate $4.5/6.5 million). From the onset of his influential work in neon in the mid-1960s, Nauman executed a total of only 12 neon sculptures featuring a circular ring of text. Of these, 10 are in permanent museum collections, with the only other still in private hands residing in the esteemed Froehlich Collection in Stuttgart. The work encapsulates Nauman’s career-long fascination with the paradoxes of language and epitomizes his ability to convey the entire scope of the human condition in a manner that is direct, witty, and provocative.

ROBERT COLESCOTT’S GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER CROSSING THE DELAWARE: PAGE FROM AN AMERICAN HISTORY TEXTBOOK
Robert Colescott’s icon of American art George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page from an American History Textbook from 1975 is a highlight of the auction. With an estimate of $9/12 million, the painting is poised to shatter the artist’s current auction record of $912,500. Acquired directly from John Beggruen Gallery in San Francisco in 1976, George Washington Carver has remained in the same esteemed private Midwestern collection ever since. Both in title and composition, the work directly references Emanuel Leutze’s iconic scene Washington Crossing the Delaware from 1851 – which is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where it has remained since 1897 – and stands as one of the most recognizable images in the American popular imagination. Separate release available

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT’S EARLY MASTERWORK VERSUS MEDICI
Appearing at auction for the first time, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s early masterwork Versus Medici will take center stage in the May auction, offered with an estimate of $35/50 million. An extraordinary work executed in 1982 when Basquiat was only 22 years old, and soon after his transformative early trip to Italy in 1981, Versus Medici is among Basquiat’s most forceful visual challenges to the Western art establishment, in which the young artist boldly crowns himself successor to the artistic legacy as established by the masters of the Italian Renaissance. Having remained in the same distinguished private collection since 1990, the work previously belonged to Stéphane Janssen who was an early champion of Basquiat and acquired it from Larry Gagosian on a visit to Basquiat’s studio in 1982. Separate release available

LIVING IN COLOR: THE COLLECTION OF MORRIS AND RITA PYNOOS
The sale will also offer a selection of bold 1980s masterworks from the collection of prominent Los Angeles collectors and philanthropists Morris and Rita Pynoos – all of which have been in the couple’s esteemed collection for nearly a half century.

Leading the selection is a work by David Hockney, who was a friend of the couple. The monumental Self-Portrait on the Terrace (estimate $8/12 million) from 1984, a deeply personal painting that expands on the artist’s best-known works and captures the spirit of Los Angeles. The collection is further distinguished by de Kooning’s large-scale 1986 masterwork Stowaway (estimate $6/8 million), which the couple acquired directly from the artist in 1987. Separate release available