NEW YORK, NY.- On the heels of its most successful ever Editions sale in London,
Phillips announced the departments 10th anniversary auction on 24 April in New York. The Editions team was founded at Phillips in 2008 by Cary Leibowitz and Kelly Troester, who both remain at the helm today. In the 10 years since its inception, Phillips team has elevated the status of Editions as an artistically significant, often experimental and endlessly fascinating collecting category. The auction on 24 April will offer works by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Brice Marden, Peter Doig, David Hockney, Jackson Pollock, Sam Gilliam, Keith Haring, Joseph Beuys, and Vija Celmins, among others.
In the past decade, we have seen tremendous growth in the market for prints and multiples, said Cary Leibowitz and Kelly Troester, Worldwide Co-Heads of Editions. Phillips has prided itself on offering fine art original editions, which are many times the direct result of collaboration between artists and their printmakers, to both aspiring collectors and connoisseurs of 20th Century and Contemporary Art. Our 10-year anniversary auction continues this tradition, offering over 400 lots that span nearly 90 years of this important collecting category.
Philips will offer, within the auctions strong modern art section, works by Joan Miró, Marino Marini and Jean Dubuffet as well as a wide selection of more than 15 examples of Pablo Picassos masterful work in ceramic earthenware from the famous Madoura pottery studio in Vallauris, France. This group of Picassos ceramic works is crowned by 1953s massive and monumental Gros oiseau corrida (Large Corrida Bird), an edition of only 25 that towers above 30 inches tall. Visage larvé (Hidden Face), 1956-57 is a rare example of Picassos work in sterling silver, which was inspired by the artists remark to the legendary art historian Douglas Cooper about how thrilling it would be to see his ceramic works rendered in the precious metal. The most emblematic examples of Picassos oeuvre can be seen in the sales graphics. For example, Jacqueline Reading (Jacqueline lisant), 1962 exemplifies the artists innovative work in linocut as well as his fruitful collaboration with Jacqueline, one of the artists great loves.
Innovative works by the most sought-after Post-War, American artists feature in both the Evening and Day sale sessions, including the complete set of Robert Indianas NUMBERS ONE through ZERO , 1978-2003. In a small edition of 8, this work is among the most coveted sculptural multiples, with each piece in this version standing 18 inches tall. From 1965s iconic 11 Pop Artists Volume II portfolio, Reverie, 1965, by Roy Lichtenstein is one of the finest trophies of Post-War printmaking and a star of the Evening session. It is joined by other fine examples by the artist such as Reflections on Crash, 1996, Tel Aviv Museum Print, 1989, and Sunshine Through the Clouds, 1985, amongst a number of others. Such seminal pieces of Pop Art history are joined by the most iconic face of them all in Andy Warhols Marilyn of 1967.
Several works by female artists also feature strongly in this seasons Editions sale. Helen Frankenthalers Tale of Genji III, 1998, is the artists late-period, printmaking masterpiece in which she made use of over 18 woodcut blocks and 53 colors that recalls her most renowned paintings on canvas. The auction will include innovative works by Niki de Saint Phalle, Kara Walker, Jo Baer, Louise Bourgeois, Elizabeth Peyton, Susan Rothenberg and Cindy Sherman amongst others.
Other Contemporary highlights include a collection of works by Brice Marden. Brice Marden began printmaking in the early 1960s and has been a force upon the medium ever since. Phillips is delighted to offer over 20 lots from the artist, including both individual works and large sets, which span across four decades of Mardens long and introspective career. Dating from his time as a student at Yale, to sailing trips through the Greek Isles during the 1970s, and finally to more recent times with his study of Eastern calligraphy, these works trace the artists development into a contemporary master. Etchings to Rexroth, 1986, a prolific portfolio of etchings, illustrates some of Brice Mardens most profound artistic triumphs and provides a rare and comprehensive look at its artists pensive, inner landscape. In the exhibition leading up to the sale, Mardens works will be exhibited alongside the work of Josef Albers, presenting an interesting dichotomy, as it was Albers influential color theory that Brice Marden rebelled against.
Peter Doigs painterly set of twelve etchings from 2013 encapsulates many of the various developments seen across the artists fruitful career. David Hockneys Moving Focus image similarly deploys tropes that anchored the British artists decades-long art making. Reminiscent of Hockneys early portraits, Walking Past Two Chairs, 1984-86 combines the informality of his Friends series together with the studies of perspective and landscape that are hallmark of his later career.