LONDON.- ‘A Contemporary Edge’ at Bonhams, 101 New Bond Street on March 4th is an exciting new sale of painting, sculpture, photography and modern design. As well as established artists, the sale includes a curated section of works by carefully selected artists that have never appeared at auction before.

The sale is headed by an impressive Damien Hirst work estimated at £60,000 to £80,000. Conceived as a single work, “Beautiful Intergalactic Fantasmagoria in a Rainbow Big Bang Explosion, Let's Have More Intercourse 2012”, is formed from nine iconic spin paintings on paper laid together.

Another highlight, Banksy’s Keep It Real, is unique in its format and depicts a stick figure with a billboard against a bright blue ground. This work is estimated to sell for £50,000 to 70,000, and was acquired directly from the artist by the present owner in 2002.

Bonhams are also auctioning works by eight leading contemporary artists to raise funds for SHAPE, the UK’s leading arts charity which works to help disabled people engage with art and culture. Amongst those who have donated are Sir Antony Gormley, Angela de la Cruz, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Marc Quinn and Tacita Dean.

Gareth Williams, Head of Contemporary Art at Bonhams, comments: “We are delighted to be launching this new and exciting sale format, our first to be held in Bonhams’ brand new flagship salerooms. The curated section offers a fantastic opportunity to acquire works by artists that are new to the auction world. We are also proud to be supporting Shape in their fundraising efforts towards such a great arts-based cause.”

Shape:
Shape is the UK’s leading arts charity working to improve access into arts & culture for disabled people.

The Shape philosophy is simple: full participation of disabled people into arts & culture.

Shape empowers disabled artists by developing artistic opportunities, they train cultural institutions to be more open to disabled people, and run participatory arts and development programmes. They support career opportunities for disabled artists of all ages - through skills development, careers advice, networking and mentoring.

Shape aims for:

a. More disabled people as arts audiences
b. More disabled people employed in, and leading, the arts
c. More disabled people participating in arts activities
d. More high quality practice by disabled artists