LONDON.- Sotheby’s has unveiled highlights from its autumn Modern British, Irish and Contemporary exhibitions in London, bringing together major works by Willem de Kooning, Gerhard Richter, Mark Rothko, David Hockney, Barbara Hepworth, L.S. Lowry, Frank Auerbach, Bridget Riley and others during Frieze Week.
Among the leading works is Willem de Kooning’s Untitled from 1977, estimated at 8 million–12 million, the highest estimate ever placed on a work by the artist at auction in London. The painting belongs to the celebrated group of large-scale, colour-saturated canvases de Kooning made during a period of intense creative renewal in the late 1970s. Comparable works from the period are held by institutions including The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Guggenheim Museum, the Menil Collection and the Centre Pompidou.
The Contemporary Evening Auction will also feature Gerhard Richter’s monumental Abstraktes Bild from 1992, estimated at 6 million–8 million. Created with the artist’s signature squeegee technique, the painting was first exhibited at Documenta IX in Kassel and later included in the major retrospective Gerhard Richter: Forty Years of Painting at MoMA and the Art Institute of Chicago.
A late work on paper by Mark Rothko, Untitled from 1969, carries an estimate of 3 million–4 million. Made during the final years of the artist’s life, the composition features a dark upper field above a warmer lower register and dates from the same period as the paintings Rothko created for the Rothko Chapel.
David Hockney is represented by Henry Reading from 1985, estimated at 2.2 million–2.8 million. The large-scale work depicts Hockney’s close friend, curator Henry Geldzahler, reading a book on Pablo Picasso. Combining acrylic, charcoal, collage and contact paper, the composition reflects Hockney’s engagement with Cubism and Picasso’s legacy during the 1980s.
Other Contemporary highlights include Banksy’s Grannies from 2006, estimated at 1.4 million–2 million, and Andy Warhol’s Portrait of Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe from 1981, estimated at 1.2 million–1.8 million. Banksy’s nearly three-metre-wide painting was first shown in the artist’s 2006 Barely Legal exhibition in Los Angeles, while Warhol’s portrait is based on Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein’s celebrated eighteenth-century image of Goethe.
The sale also includes Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s 11pm, Thursday from 2009, estimated at 600,000–900,000, depicting one of the artist’s imagined figures, created from memory and invention rather than from a specific sitter. Pasted text
Sotheby’s will also offer works on paper from the Duerckheim Collection, including three important sheets from Georg Baselitz’s Helden series. Among them is Ein Neuer Typ, dating to around 1965 and estimated at 250,000–350,000. A further 41 works on paper from the collection, including examples by Richter, Sigmar Polke, A.R. Penck, Blinky Palermo and Hermann Nitsch, will be included in the Contemporary Day Auction on October 16.
The Modern British & Irish Art Evening Auction will be led by Barbara Hepworth’s Small Form (Amulet), carved in white alabaster in 1960 and estimated at 600,000–800,000. Last offered at auction nearly 30 years ago, the sculpture reflects Hepworth’s longstanding investigation of organic form and the relationship between interior and exterior space.
Sean Scully’s Wall of Light Sea Blue from 2009, appearing at auction for the first time, is estimated at 500,000–800,000. The painting belongs to Scully’s celebrated Wall of Light series, whose origins lie in the artist’s encounter with ancient Mayan architecture in Mexico during the early 1980s.
L.S. Lowry’s The Steps from 1944, estimated at 500,000–700,000, returns to auction after more than three decades. First exhibited at the Lefevre Gallery in 1945, the painting reflects Lowry’s sustained fascination with the industrial landscape and daily life of northern England.
Frank Auerbach’s Head of Julia from 1980, estimated at 400,000–600,000, has remained in the same family collection since shortly after it was painted. The sitter was the artist’s wife, Julia Wolstenholme, whom Auerbach painted regularly over a period of two decades.
Bridget Riley’s monumental Intervals 6 from 2019 is also estimated at 400,000–600,000. The work dates from the year of Riley’s major retrospective at the National Galleries of Scotland and the Hayward Gallery and belongs to one of her most significant recent bodies of work.
Irish art will form another major strand of the auction. Sir William Orpen’s Little Spanish Dancer (Girl in Red Shawl) from 1907, estimated at 180,000–250,000, will appear at auction for the first time. The painting was created after Orpen’s visit to Spain and reflects his admiration for Velzquez, Zurbarn, Ribera and Goya.
Paul Henry’s The Potato Harvest from 1918–19, estimated at 250,000–350,000, will also return to the market after 30 years. The painting exemplifies the low horizons, dramatic coastal atmosphere and close relationship between figures and landscape that helped shape Henry’s enduring vision of the Irish west.
A separate David Hockney sale will bring together all 20 works from the artist’s 20 Flowers from Normandy series for the first time at auction. Created on an iPad in the spring of 2021, the works record changing flowers, seasons and light from the same viewpoint in Hockney’s Normandy home. Each is estimated at 25,000–35,000.
Sotheby’s London auctions begin with the Modern British & Irish Evening Auction on October 14, followed by the Modern British & Irish Day Auction on October 15, the Contemporary Evening Auction later that day, and the Contemporary Day Auction on October 16. The David Hockney sale will also take place on October 16.
