Sotheby’s Shares Full Highlights From
Impressionist, Modern & Contemporary Art | An Evening Sale
A New, Cross-Category Marquee Auction in New York,
Showcasing Masterworks from the 19th Century to Today,
To Be Livestreamed to the World
On 8 December

Live Auction Highlighted By:
Alexander Calder’s Mariposa
A Monumental Mobile from 1951
On Offer from the Neiman Marcus Collection
Estimate $6/8 Million

Claude Monet’s Vernon, Soleil
A Stunning Landscape by the Pioneer of En Plein Air Naturalism
Offered on Behalf of the Brooklyn Museum
Estimate $4/6 Million

Barkley L. Hendricks’ Mr. Johnson (Sammy from Miami)
A Masterful Portrait from 1972
Estimate $2/3 Million

Exhibition Is Now Open for Appointment Viewing
At Sotheby’s New York Headquarters Through 8 December

NEW YORK, 3 December 2020 – Sotheby’s is pleased to share full highlights from the upcoming Impressionist, Modern & Contemporary Art | An Evening Sale, a new cross-category auction that will bring together masterworks encompassing the most renowned artists from the late 19th century to the most in-demand contemporary artists working today. The marquee Evening Sale will be held in New York and livestreamed to the world on Tuesday, 8 December beginning at 6pm EST via Sothebys.com. In addition to Pablo Picasso’s Buste de Femme Assise (separate press release available), the sale will be highlighted by works from Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Alexander Calder, Barkley L. Hendricks, Glenn Ligon, Mark Bradford, Jenny Saville, and many more.

The Evening Sale exhibition is open for appointment viewings at Sotheby’s York Avenue Galleries from 1-8 December, coinciding with our exhibitions for Design Week, on view 5-9 December, and the recently announced Festival of Wonder, a luxury sale series featuring coveted jewels, watches, designer handbags, wine and much more offered across a series of live and online auctions, which is on view 1-14 December.

The cross-category format builds on the success of Sotheby’s Rembrandt to Richter Evening Sale in London in July, which brought together works of art spanning 500 years of art history, and achieved $193 million with 95% of lots sold. The December Evening Sale also follows the success of Sotheby’s global October auctions, including marquee Evening Sales of Contemporary and Impressionist & Modern Art across Hong Kong, Paris, London, and New York, which achieved $1 billion in consolidated sales, as well as the record-breaking Impressionist & Modern Art Online Day Sale, which achieved $30.5 million in November, establishing a new record for an online sale at Sotheby’s.

The December sale will once again be presented in the dynamic, innovative digital format pioneered during Sotheby’s marquee summer sales and autumn sales. The auction will be broadcast globally from the New York salesroom to enable viewers to follow the bidding live, in high-definition through real-time video streams, while bidders will be able to place bids with Sotheby’s specialists via phone in New York and London, where there will be a dedicated phone bank for clients bidding from Asia, or via Sotheby’s interactive online bidding platform.

Julian Dawes, Sotheby’s Head of the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale in New York, commented: “This cross-category sale presents a wide-range of works that appeals to the many facets of Modern art history. From classic Impressionism with a beautiful Monet landscape, to daring works by Vincent Van Gogh and Edvard Munch that presaged a new modern way of painting, to exemplary works of Surrealism by Man Ray and one of the finest late period portraits by Picasso, the works of offer encompass nearly 100 years of art history by the leading artists who defined the course of Modernism.”

David Galperin, Sotheby’s Head of the Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York, said: “Adding a new sale to our autumn auction calendar created an opportunity to showcase an exceptional selection of works by the most in-demand postwar and contemporary artists. Leading the auction is Alexander Calder's magnificent Mariposa from 1951, one of the most impressive works by the artist to come to auction in years. Executed in 1951, the epic grandeur of the nineteen cascading elements in red, white, yellow, and black, showcase the artist at the height of his powers and ingenuity. Alongside exceptional works by artists such as Barkley Hendricks, Glenn Ligon, Mark Bradford, and John Baldessari, the auction tells a unique story of art of the 20th and 21st centuries.”

IMPRESSIONIST, MODERN & CONTEMPORARY ART | AN EVENING SALE
Auction Highlights
8 December Sale

Among the highlights of the December Evening Sale, Alexander Calder’s Mariposa (estimate $6/8 million) is a standout example of the artist’s iconic hanging mobiles that is at once gracefully delicate and impressively scaled. The work brilliantly distills the crucial elements of form, motion, and color that define the renowned sculptor’s theory and practice. Hovering apparently weightless above the viewer, the nineteen exquisitely cascading elements communicate a sense of limitless kinetic possibility, shifting and rotating to create infinite permutations within the simplest of abstract forms in perfect equilibrium. Although entirely abstract, Mariposa, which is Spanish for butterfly, recalls through its form and motion both the elegant fluttering of flight and the patterns of conspicuous beauty that distinguish the insects’ wings. The work is further distinguished by exceptional provenance, having resided in the famed Neiman Marcus Collection since it was acquired in 1951.