NEW YORK, NY.- Phillips announced the 18 November 2015 Latin America auction featuring 129 lots with a pre-sale estimate of $6,000,000 – 9,100,000.

This season marks a seminal moment in the Latin American art market. Never before have works by living female artists graced both the front and back cover of a major auction house’s Latin American art catalogue. This month Phillips breaks the mold by offering a masterpiece by Doris Salcedo as the cover lot and a monumental painting by Beatriz Milhazes on the back cover.

After retrospectives at two major museums this year—MCA in Chicago and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum—the 18 November 2015 Latin America sale offers a rare opportunity to acquire a work by Salcedo, such as Untitled 1992, estimate $300,000-500,000. This exquisite and subtle work gives voice to victims of violence in Colombia. Strikingly different in tone but equally as important, O Moderno, 2002, by Beatriz Milhazes, estimate $1,000,000-1,500,000, is an exuberant work imbued with Brazilian modernist traditions while simultaneously showcasing the artist’s reverence for the decorative arts.

The sale also includes selections from an important private collection of Contemporary Latin American art, many of which have been showcased at museums all over the world. The highlight of this group is an intimate yet captivating diptych by Francis Alÿs from the rotulistas series. Emilio Rivera, 1994, estimate $150,000-250,000 consists of two paintings: one made by Alÿs and another he commissioned from Emilio Rivera, a sign painter from Mexico City. The work demonstrates Alÿs’ keen interest in both appropriation and the social impact of artists who make a living creating public advertising.

Another rare gem in the sale is Basque, 1965, estimate $120,000 – 180,000, by Cuban born artist Carmen Herrera, the 100 year old artist now based in New York. With an upcoming Whitney exhibition in 2016, this is a pivotal moment in the artist’s almost 80 year long career and a unique occasion to find a work of this quality on the market.

The sale also features stunning works by modern masters Wifredo Lam, Joaquín Torres-García, Matta and Mathias Goeritz. Lam’s Untitled from 1960, estimate $400,000-600,000 is a large-scale painting from a significant period in the artist’s oeuvre. Lam’s artistic status has reached a new level of international importance with the opening of a retrospective of the artist’s work at the Centre Pompidou this fall, which will travel to the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid followed by the Tate Modern in London in the coming year.

"Our aim is to bring context and scholarship to the rich and varied art of Latin America and show its radical development from Modern to Contemporary,” said Kaeli Deane, Head of Sale, Latin American Art. “What sets this sale apart is the strong representation of leading female artists from the region, ranging from 20th Century masters to artists at the forefront of international contemporary art today.”

Other highlights to collect from the sale:

· A rare movable sculpture by Cuban artist Sandu Darie, circa 1950 (estimate $60,000-80,000), that shows the artist’s central importance within the Concrete art movement in Cuba.

· A striking Surrealist painting by Leonora Carrington from 1959 titled Trout Finch (estimate $200,000-300,000), which illustrates a magical world conceived by the artist and populated by colorful birds and mythical creatures shrouded in a deep chiaroscuro.