CHICAGO, IL.- The December fine art auctions at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers include a particularly international Post War and Contemporary Art auction as well as an inaugural Outsider and Folk Art auction. Post War and Contemporary Art and Fine Print auctions will be conducted December 14 followed by American and European Art and Outsider and Folk Art auctions December 15.

Among highlights of the December 14 Post War and Contemporary Art auction is Liu Kuo-sung's The Universe is in My Heart, 2003, from the artist’s Space Series. It carries a presale estimate of $500,000 – 700,000. Kuo-sung is frequently heralded as a groundbreaker and one of the most significant modern Chinese painters, acknowledged as the father of Modernist Chinese ink painting.

The Universe is in My Heart employs both his personally developed Shuitou, or water rubbing technique, and Zimo, or ink steeping technique, and demonstrates the artist’s virtuosity in composition, craftsmanship and expansive scale. Depicting a cycle of seven red moon phases arcing against an atmospherically abstracted planetary surface the work imbues tranquility as science, spirituality and invention harmonize.

Also of note is Rufino Tamayo's Tres Figuras, 1969, which will be offered with a presale estimate of $500,000 – 700,000. Compositionally, this work combines Tamayo’s Modernist leaning approach with notions of ancestral archetypal themes. The central placement of the figures, as typically Tamayo, transcend a visual hierarchy, requiring the work be read as a whole. Painted at the height of both the space race and the cold war, the exaggerated structure of the trio references period science fiction and imagery reminiscent of robots, astronauts, rocket ships or missiles. Tamayo, one to operate in dualities, contrasts these fantastical features with materials and processes that speak to something more primitive. Opposition between the advanced and the terrestrially historic synthesize in Tres Figuras, making the work executed in 1969 perpetually current.

Keeping within an international focus, other highlights of the Post War and Contemporary Art sale include works by Fernando Botero, Jesus Rafael Soto, Leung Kui-ting, Chuang Che and Yannis Gaitis.

The Fine Prints auction will offer two Picasso linocuts. Nature morte au verre sous la lampe, 1962, estimated at $200,000 – 300,000 and Le dejeuner sur l'herbe (d'apres Manet), 1962, estimated at $80,000 – 120,000.

Nikolai Konstantinovich Roerich's stage design for the opera The Snow Maiden will be offered in the December 14 American and European Art auction on December 15. It carries a presale estimate of $100,000 – 150,000. Also included in the December sale is a notably winter scene, Guy Wiggins' Fifth Avenue at the Library, which depicts a snowy New York. It will be offered with a $60,000 – 80,000 presale estimate.

The December fine art auction schedule includes an inaugural Outsider and Folk Art auction for Leslie Hindman Auctioneers. Over 130 lots will be offered, including work by Josephus Farmer, Ted Harrison, Adam Brandau and Lee Godie. Highlighting the sale is Eugene Von Bruenchenhein's, Untitled, 1978. The oil on corrugated cardboard with the artist's frame will be offered with a $20,000 – 25,000 estimate. Other highlights include Grandma Moses / Anna Robertson's Mountain Landscape, 1939, with a $8,000 – 12,000 estimate and Reverend Howard Finster's Vision of Jialo - Howard in 1947, #4,895, 1985, which will be offered with a $3,000 – 5,000 estimate.

Catalogues are currently available online at lesliehindman.com. Previews open December 10 in the Chicago saleroom of Leslie Hindman Auctioneers.