An enigmatic puzzle and artistic treasure, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (The Color of Yam) draws upon many of his signature symbols including the head, disjointed maxims, crossed-out maxims, and a familiar copyright from his SAMO graffiti period, whilst highlighting Basquiat’s maturation as an artist (estimate $500/700,000). Brilliantly connecting disparate cultural inferences and art-historical motifs with the use of words and drawing, the present work from 1985, stands as a tangible record of the artist’s otherworldly way of thinking and an acute critique of the world around him.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled (The Color of Yam), 1985, est. $500/700,000
The thing about Cecily's work that I really love is the subtle sexuality and hidden erotic elements that are buried within her paintings. There's a naughtiness that you have to really search for, but you can find it if you're looking. Every time I look at it, I get up close to it, and I see new things, new images. So to me, it's something that would be a constant discovery as you live with it.” – Ryan Murphy

Richly seductive and fantastically expressive, Cecily Brown’s Girder and Joist exemplifies the artist’s extraordinary fusion of rich painterly abstraction with figurative allusion (est. $500/700,000). Through the sensuality of its painted surface, the work exhibits the implied human presence inherent to Brown’s distinctive style, and her thickly layered gestural marks – lush throughout with candy pinks, soft lilacs, and rich fuschias – invites viewers to consume its luscious forms immerse the viewer in a fantasy of layered references.

Cecily Brown, Girder and Joist, 2009, est. $500/700,000
“Wayne takes everyday things like food and turns them into some surreal fantasy of the American dream, which you can say Warhol did the same thing with the Campbells Soup cans. Something as ordinary as a bowl of cherries, or a cantaloupe is fetishized here. And I think Andy of anybody, would love to have collected these, because Wayne Thiebaud makes the banal, everyday item an object of fantasy.” – Ryan Murphy

Murphy’s selection also features two exceptional works by the late Wayne Thiebaud—marking the first paintings by the artist to come to auction since his death in December 2021. The allure of Thiebaud’s works rests not only in its luscious quality of epicurean delight, but also in the cultural appeal and powerful sense of nostalgia with which Thiebaud is famously capable of infusing in his work—a nostalgia that is irrefutably linked to the cultural feel and tone of the sixties. Amidst the proliferation of consumer goods and rising commodification of culture, Thiebaud successfully captured in early works, such as Cantaloupe from 1962, the zealous spirit of the American moment of prosperity and abundance – which he continued to employ in later works such as Cherries #1 from 1981 (both estimated $1.5/2 million). Though readily considered a Pop artist, Thiebaud differs from his contemporaries such as Warhol in that his aim is not to critique society but rather to celebrate and remember it. Foregoing the cynicism and ironic appropriation so typical of Pop Art in favor of careful, sincere consideration of familiar images, Thiebaud’s work functions as an honest and commemorative societal mirror based not only on personal, but more importantly, collective memory