Art/Auctions: Contemporary Art evening auction November 13, 2012 at Sotheby's New York

Contemporary Art

Sotheby's New York

7 P.M., November 13, 2012

Sale 8900

Rothko painting at Sotheby's

Lot 19, "No 1 (Royal Red and Blue," by Mark Rothko, oil on canvas, 113 3/4 by 67 1/2 inches

Review and all photographs by Michele Leight. Copyright Michele Leight, 2012

By Michele Leight

Bathed in beautiful light, stunning Contemporary works of art in Sotheby's galleries offered welcome sanctuary in a week of disaster and chaos for thousands of Americans, including many artists and gallery owners whose treasured creations were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. After all the images of pain and loss, it was a gift to be able to bask in the glow of Mark Rothko's "No.1 (Royal Red and Blue)," painted in 1954, which leads Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening Sale on November 13th at 7 PM.

This sublime and majestic canvas was one of eight works chosen by Rothko for his landmark show at the Art Institute of Chicago the same year. With its shimmering red/oranges complementing ethereal sky blue, the painting was created at a time many consider to be the height of Rothko's creativity. "No.1 (Royal Red and Blue)," has remained in the same collection for 30 years, and has an estimate of $35,000,000 to $50,000,000. It sold for $75,122,500 including the buyer's premium as do all results mentioned in this article.

The auction was extremely successful, selling 84.1 percent of the 69 offered lots for $375,205,000, the highest total ever for any auction at Sotheby's. "I can hardly express how thrilled we are tonight," said Tobias Meyer, the auctioneer, and Sotheby's Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art at a news conference after the auction, adding that the result of the sale was "an ode to quality." "This has been an extraordinary year for Contemporary Art at Sotheby,'s. Tonight's record results bring our 2012 total to well over $1 billion and we still have tomorrow's Day auction, as well as our upcoming sale in Paris. The Rothko was the undisputed highlight of the evening, surpassing the Rockefeller Rothko to become the second highest price ever achieved for the artist at auction. The wonderful consignment from the Collection of Sidney and Dorothy Kohl brough more than $100 milllion, led by the Jackson Pollock, which sold for $40.4 million, well above expectations. If you are looking for evidence that today's market is alive and well, look no further."

Alex Rotter, Head of Sotheby's Contemporary Art department in New York noted: "We were thrilled to achieve great results on behalf of our consignors tonight, in an auction that showed just how vibrant the market is. We were especially encouraged by the strong depth of bidding from around the world on works like the Rothko, Bacon and many more. In addition to the great prices achieved by the Abstract Expressionists, Warhol was the other star of the night. His works achieved $54 million, well over their $35 million low estimate, and included the incredibly important Suicide that brought a price nearly three times the previous auction record for a work on paper by the artist."

Auction records were set for Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Hans Hoffman, Arshile Gorky, and Wade Guyton - and for a painting by Takashi Murakami. Andy Warhol's "Suicide" fetched $16,322,500, setting a stunning new auction record for a Work on Paper."

The room was dramatically different as the cream-colored seat covers were replaced with dark blue covers that matched the repainted auction room.

Rothko, left, Gottlieb, center, Bacon, center right, Tobias Meyer, Sotheby's Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art and Richter, right.

While admiring the Rothko, this reviewer and Tobias Meyer, Sotheby's Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art, shared stories about hosting Downtown friends that were displaced, without electricity, during Hurricane Sandy. They are happily back home now, together with many Americans that lost power, and we are closer friends. Art has enormous power, especially in difficult times. It reminds us that life itself is a gift, and that most people survived Hurricane Sandy. Tiny babies - even premature babies - survived evacuation from a hospital during a hurricane because of the love and care of amazing people. Many of the artists whose work is included in this sale were no strangers to horrific tragedy, loss and disaster, especially those that fled their homelands and sought sanctuary in America before and during WWII. They prevailed, and there art lives on, inspiring hope that, over time, people can and will overcome the fall-out and utter chaos caused by an unprecedented natural disaster like Hurricane Sandy because so many people care and will offer help.

Tobias Meyer, Sotheby's Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art, with Mark Rothko's Lot 19, "No 1 (Royal Red and Blue."

This sale includes eight stunning paintings from the Kohl Collection by titans of Abstract Expressionism - the founding fathers and mothers of the now famous Abstract Expressionist Movement - including an important and highly desirable Jackson Pollock, a delectable Clyfford Still, and top quality paintings by Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Hans Hoffman, and Joan Mitchell, among others. There is a gem by Arshile Gorky from this collection that more than holds its own - and shows his influence on the group, especially on De Kooning - that was displayed with the Pollock and De Kooning in the memorable exhibition preceding the sale.

This feast of Abstract Expressionism is enhanced by a luscious "abstrakt" by Gerhard Richter and one of Francis Bacon’s iconic Pope Paintings. A selection of important and unusual works by Andy Warhol include two from his Death and Disaster series, that are - as Warhol always seems to be - especially poignant at this time. Movie buffs will enjoy two monochromatic early works on paper by Warhol depicting Bella Lugosi and James Cagney from Hollywoods silent film era and golden age, and a stunning, large-scale canvas depicting the blond matinee idol Troy Donohue in "multiples" from the 1960s. (This lot was withdrawn)

Lot 70, "Your Dog," by Yoshitomo Nara

Works of art offered in this sale by present generation artists include Yoshitomo Nara, Takashi Murakami, Glenn Brown, Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, Malcom Morley, Wade Guyton and Jeff Koons, among others. They infuse energy and vitality that reflects our fast paced world - and often humor - in a sale loaded with important paintings by heavyweights of Contemporary Art. Humor is a priceless commodity.

Photographed "through" a work of art from the Day Sale, (and illustrated above), Yoshitomo Nara's adorable fibreglass doggie appears to be sniffing the molecules of a substance that resembles stardust. It must be said that these are individual works of art - unless an enlightened collector would like to own both, thereby ensuring the doggie's continued, blissful sniffing. Lot 70,"Your Dog," by Yoshitomo Nara has an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. It sold for $566,500.

In the background (made misty through the lucite sculpture) is Lot 64, es "Sanctimony," by Damien Hirst, with an estimate of $1,200,000 to $1,800,000. It sold for $1,314,500. In reality, the taxidermied butterflies are gorgeously hued and clearly defined, like stained glass windows. Several works of art by Jean-Michel Basquiat will be offered in this sale, led by "Onion Gum" from 1983, a vibrant example of the (at the time 23-year-old) artist’s signature gestural mark making and iconography.

Lot 10, "Number 4, 1951," by Jackson Pollock, 1951, from The Kohl Collection

Detail of Pollock

Beginning with the Pollock, the eight Abstract Expressionist paintings illustrated here - Lots 7 to 14 - are from the Kohl Collection.

Joan Mitchell, left, and Calder, right

Left: Lot 11, "Untitled," by Joan Mitchell, 1959, from The Kohl Collection; Right: Lot 1, "Escutcheon II," by Alexander Calder

From The Kohl Collection: Left: Lot 14, "1948 H," by Clyfford Still, 1948; Center: Lot 8, "Shenandoah," by Franz Kline, 1956; Right: "Lot 9, "Nirvana," by Hans Hoffman, 1963

Gorky

Lot 12, "Impatience," by Arshile Gorky, circa 1945, from The Kohl Collection

Lot 13, "Abstraction," by Willem de Kooning, circa 1949, from The Kohl Collection

Adolph Gottlieb

Lot 7, "Transfiguration," by Adolph Gottlieb, circa 1958, from The Kohl Collection

In the sumptuous catalogue for this sale, Tobias Meyer includes this observation about the Sidney and Dorothy Kohl Collection in "Collecting Abstract Expressionism in the 1970's:"

''By the time Sidney and Dorothy Kohl decided to form a collection of Abstract Expressionism, the paintings they set out to find were not more than 25 years old. It is as if a collector today was looking for the best of the 1990's. New York by 1970 had seen Pop Art, Minimalism and Conceptualism but it also retained an acute consciounesss of the heroes of the earlier years. Such shows as Henry Geldzahler's 'New York Paintings and Sculpture: 1940-1970' at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1969-1970 only encouraged that interest...At the same time, prominent collectors such as Robert Scull and Gov. Nelson Rockefeller started to sell some of the AbEx holdings at Parke Bernet Galleries (Lot 7 and 8) and prices were being established on the public market. Even Clyfford Still and his wife consigned a painting to auction which found its way, via the Marlborough Gallery, into the Kohl Collection (Lot 14). So, for the alert and astute collector, there were many opportunities to find major works. What is interesting to note is that these paintings were no longer easy to buy. "Police Gazette" by Willem de Kooning made $180,000 in the Scull sale in October 1973, and when we recieved the invoices of the Kohl collection, it became obvious that they had to pay comparable amounts to acquire works of great quality. They also enlisted the late John Lloyd (Jack) Taylor, director of exhibitions at the Milwaukee Art Museum from 1967-1972 and an expert on abstract Expressionism, to help them locate prime examples of the artists that they were looking for. They bought from the major dealers at the time such as Martha Jackson, Marlborough, Allan Stone and Andre Emmerich as well as many works directly from the artists...This selection of eight paintings from the still extensive Kohl collection represents a brilliant panorama of the power and cohesiveness of American Abstract Expressionism."

The Kohl collection is led by Lot 10, "Number 4, 195," an extremely rare and beautiful drip painting on canvas by Jackson Pollock (estimate $25,000,000 to $35,000,000) and Clyfford Still’s wonderful Lot 14,"1948-H," (estimate $15,000,000 to $20,000,000). The Pollock sold for $40,402,500, an auction record for the artist. The Still sold for $9,882,500. Lot 13, "Abstraction," a masterwork by Willem de Kooning, was executed in 1949, soon after the artist’s first solo show at the Charles Egan Gallery in New York in 1948 (estimate $15,000,000 to $20,000,000). It sold for $19,682,500. Lot 7,"Transfiguration," a powerful work by Adolph Gottlieb (1958), has an estimate of $3,000,000 to $4,000,000. It sold for $4,450,500. Lot 8, "Shenandoah," by Yves Klein, is an absolute beauty, with an estimate of $6,800,000 to $8,500,000. It sold for $9,322,500, an auction record for the artist. Lot 9, "Nirvana," by Hans Hoffman, is well named because it is so uplifting, a shot of adrenaline for the spirit with it sumptuous colors and light. Lot 8 has an estimate of $5,000,000 to $7,000,000. It sold for $4,562,500.

Lot 12, "Impatience," by Arshile Gorky, has an estimate of $6,000,000 to $8,000,000. It sold for $6,802,500, an auction record for the artist.

Lot 11, Joan Mitchell's "Untitled," painted in 1959, joins this all-male cast of heavyweights and has an estimate of $6,000,000 to $8,000,000. It sold for $6.242,500. So few women artists penetrated the often unapologetically sexist landscape of that time, and in that context Mitchell's achievement is particularly moving and impressive. She barrelled along, following her bliss, and has endured the test of time, now acknowledged as the equal of the giants of Abstract Expressionism she worked so closely with. She said: "What makes me want to squeeze the paint in the first place, so that the bursh is out, is a memory of a feeling."(Joan Mitchell, in Judith E. Bernstock, Joan Mitchell, New York, 1988, PP.33-34, included in Sotheby's catalogue for this sale). Another beautiful painting by Mitchell is illustrated later in this review.

All these works have been widely exhibited and illustrated, as noted in the catalogue for this sale. An atmospheric photograph of Yves Kline and De Kooning ( dashing, booted and suited, and wearing ties) standing outside the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York for the opening of De Kooning's exhibition on May 4, 1959, offers a glimpse of art history in the making. It is amazing how a single photograph can take you right there, to the sidewalks and galleries of a grittier New York - and their stunning achievement.

Lot 4, "Abstraktes Bild," by Gerhard Richter, 1990

The luscious, exceptionally fine painting rendered with the help of a utilitarian squeejee by Gerhard Richter - and illustrated here is Lot 4, "Abstrakts Bild," painted in 1990, and numbered (712) by the artist:

"Richter's technique affords an element of chance that is necessary to facilitate the artistic ideology of the abstract works. As the artist has himself explained, 'I want to end up with a picture that I haven't planned. This method of arbitrary choice, chance, inspiration and destruction may produce a specific type of picture, but it never produces a predetermined picture...I just want to get something more interesting out of it than those things I can think out for myself'" (the artist, interviewed in Hubertus Butin adn Stefan Fronert, eds., Gerhard Richter. Editions 1965-2004: Catalogue Raisonne, Ostfildern-Ruit 2004, p.36, included in Sotheby's catalogue for this sale).

Lot 4, "Abstraktes Bild," (712), has an estimate in excess of $16,000,000, and its sale follows the remarkable price of $34,200,000 achieved for Richter’s "Abstraktes Bild (809-4)" on 12 October, 2012 at Sotheby’s London, which established the world record for a work by Gerhard Richter, as well as the highest price achieved for the work of any living artist at auction. Lot 4, circa 1990, was painted at a crucial moment in the artist’s career and captures his mastery of the art of abstraction in a technique of his own invention. It sold for $17,442,500. Three other works by the artist are illustrated later in this review.

Lot 22, "Green Disaster (Green Disaster Twice)," by Andy Warhol, 1963

Lot 22, "Green Disaster (Green Disaster Twice)," by Andy Warhol is an important painting from his seminal Death and Disaster series, executed in February, 1963. It has an estimate "in excess of $12 million." It sold for $15,202,500. The crushed car and tragic victim appear unreal because they are rendered in an unnatural pthalo green that casts an a iridescent glow on the composition, like that of a TV. Warhol highlights how we have become accustomed to images of brutality, violence and death in the media, and therefore often desensitized to the tragedy of others. We recognize this horror, but are simultaneously distanced from it as we often are from all disasters that do not directly impact on us:

"Warhol's exceptional aptitude to seize the most potent images of his time defines him as the consummate twentieth-century history painter. Inasmuch as his canvas implicates our fascination with mortality and a certain voyeurism of death, it advances a heritage proposed by David’s 'Death of Marat' and Géricault’s 'The Shipwreck,' while also uniting the celebrity and anonymity of victimhood so harshly contrasted in those two paradigms. The seminal Death and Disaster Suicides, Car Crashes, and Electric Chairs; as well as the celebrity portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor; and the immortal Campbell Soup Cans and Coca Cola Bottles, were all executed within a matter of months in an explosive outpouring of astonishing artistic invention. Warhol was disturbed by the media's potential to manipulate, yet simultaneously he celebrated the power of the icon. Thus at the same time this painting encapsulates portraiture as biography and it acts as a memorial to the anonymous victim by eulogizing the subject’s story to the realm of high art. Like a tomb to the Unknown Soldier, Warhol enlists the simulacra of this stranger to commemorate all casualties of mass culture in a newly homogenized society." (Sotheby's catalogue for this sale). "In an interview with Gene Swenson in 1963 Warhol stated that 'when you see a gruesome picture over and over again, it doesn't really have any effect.'" (the artist interviewed by Gene Swenson, "What is Pop Art?", Art News 62, November 1963, pp. 60-61, included in Sotheby's catalogue for this sale.

Lot 26, Untitled (Pope)," by Francis Bacon, circa 1954

Detail of Lot 26

Lot 26, "Untitled Pope," by Francis Bacon is as searing an image as is possible to imagine, unrelenting in its ferocity and anguish. That a pope can be depicted in such unsettling iconography is especially disturbing, which is the artist's intention. Instead of the customarily serene, detached and often pompous portraits of popes that line the walls of the worlds finest museums, Bacon's interpretation recalls the warriors trauma and anguish, fighting to death - kill or be killed - and torture. Man's inhumanity to man, and all of lifes worst nightmares are manifested in the worst "scream" yet, even more tormented that Edvard Munch's screaming, tortured soul on a bridge, with hands held over his ears. Yet it is exquisitely rendered in seductive papal purple hues by an artist whose technique is unsurpassed in contemporary art. These juxtapositions are deliberately intended to shatter our sense of security and trust in anything "human." Bacon and his generation were directly impacted by World War II, and all its horrors. This version of his popes was painted in 1954 and is closely related to the artist’s famous "Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X," now in the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa:

"It is perhaps the most singularly devastating personification in figural art of the post-war period. It is a vision so universal and immediate that it threatens to traverse the threshold between viewer and object, simultaneously leaping into our domain and sucking us into its own. It is an unrepeatable image, borne specifically of its time and of the unique experiences of its creator, yet stands as an allegory for perpetuity. Emerging from the desolate shadows of the Second World War and its abject annihilation of over fifty million souls, a Pope looms forth from the depths of Francis Bacon’s formidable genius and draws near, into our focus. The Vicar of Christ, Successor of Saint Peter and God’s temporal representative on earth; this Supreme Pontiff has transmogrified into a chimera of awesome terror. It has become the anguished epitome of humanity’s excruciating scream: deafening to our collective interior, yet silent in the existential void. Encaged within insufferable isolation, this Pope - totem of enlightened perception, of authoritative faith, of order against chaos - is violently racked by the brutal fact of the human condition. It is the proposition of a world turned upside down, of established systems shattered, and, as such, is the perfect response to Theodor Adorno’s legendary 1951 axiom 'There can be no poetry after Auschwitz.'" (Sotheby's catalogue for this sale).

Lot 26 has an estimate of $18,000,000 to $25,000,000. It sold for $$29,762,500.

Right: by Yves Klein, 1961. Property from The Estate of Andrea Bollt; Center: Lot 54, "Concetto Spaziale, Attese," by Lucio Fontana; Left: Lot 55, "Figure," by Isamy Noguchi

Stunning works of art by Isamu Noguchi, Lucio Fontana and Yves Klein co-exist in a gallery filled with visitors, some wearing sweaters and accessories that echoed their colors, which was pure happenstance - not intentional! On the right is one of Yves Klein's seductive "female forms," Lot 2, "ANT SU 27," with an estimate of $1,000,000 to $1,500,000. It sold for $4,338,500. In the center, in glowing lilac/purple is Lot 54, "Concetto Spaziale, Attese," by Lucio Fontana, with an estimate of $1,600,000 to $2,000,000. It sold for $3,666,500.

Lot 55, "Figure," by Isamy Noguchi, has an estimate of $1,000,000 to $1,500,000. It sold for $1,370,500.

Sotheby's catalogue for this sale describes how Noguchi's preoccupations changed as his world changed:
"Isamu Noguchi’s eloquent and sinuous Figure exudes a timelessness and universality, yet as with much of the art born of the post-war years of the mid-20^th century, its clarity, form and presence emerged from the crucible of that turbulent time in modern art and society. Noguchi was a modernist of the New York School who synthesized East and West, expressing dichotomies and tensions between the Asian and European/American cultures, ancient and modern, the practical and the utopian. Early works such as Figure reveal the influence of the artistic milieu surrounding Noguchi, from Surrealist biomorphic forms to the growing notions of innate, heroic self-expression. Consistent with his beliefs, and not unlike the goals of other artists of the period, Noguchi’s sculptures and public commissions had aspired to achieve social good and moral uplift in the 1930s and early 1940s. Yet by the time he carved the original marble version of Figurein 1945, Noguchi’s aesthetic aims had altered. He had achieved recognition among Surrealist figures such as his friend Arshile Gorky and the dealer Julien Levy and was included in the Museum of Modern Art’s influential exhibition Fourteen Americans in 1946. Yet, as Bruce Altshuler has commented about Noguchi’s statement in that exhibition’s catalogue, “now [Noguchi] addressed more inward needs: the ‘adjustment of the human psyche to chaos’ and the‘transformation of human meaning into the encroaching void.’ Like many artists of the postwar period, Noguchi had moved from the social to personal issues, seeking existential meaning from art in a world bereft of stable values.” (Bruce Altshuler, Isamu Noguchi, New York, London and Paris, 1994, p. 49)

Lot 16, "Untitled (Study for Untitled)," by Franz Kline, 1961, Property from The Estate of Andrea Bollt, has an estimate of $80,000 to $120,000

Lot 57, "Knife Couple," by Louise Bourgeois has an estimate of $1,200,000 to $1,600,000

Lot 52, "L'Homme Aux Cocardes," by Jean Dubuffet, has an estimate of $1,500,000 to $2,000,000

Lot 20, "Untitled," by David Smith, has an estimate of $2,500,000 to $3,500,000; Lot 21, "Untitled," by Joan Mitchell, has an estimate of $4,500,000 to $6,000,000; Lot 24, "Elegy To The Spanish Republic," by Robert Motherwell has an estimate of $2,800,000 to $3,500,000

Calder

Lot 1, "Escutcheon II," by Alexander Calder, 1952, Property from The Estate of Andrea Bollt, has an estimate of $300,000 to 500,000, including the shadows.

Gypsophilia on Black Skirt

Lot 6, "Gypsophilia on Black Skirt," by Alexander Calder, 1950

Gypsophilia is a beautiful, feathery creation of Mother Nature that seems like an unusual inspiration for Calder, but like everything else he touched, he spins it into magic reminiscent of a plant "...native to the Mediterranean regions and may have been familiar to Calder from his many years living and traveling throughout Europe. Characterized by small pink or white flowers also known as 'baby's breath,' gypsophilia is a wonderfully paradigmatic motif that combines Calder's proclivities toward the organic and the architectonic. The minute 'petals' are here suspended on delicate wire stems, allowing for an equally delicate movement determined by the air around them as they interact with their three dimensional space.'" (Sotheby's catalogue for this sale)

Lot 6, "Gypsophilia on Black Skirt," by Alexander Calder, has an estimate of $3,000,000 to $5,000,000. It sold for $3,722,500.

Lot 31, "Suicide," by Andy Warhol

Lot 37, "Troy, a 1962 portrait depicting Troy Donahue, the American heartthrob of the 1950s and 60s, was created by Warhol just before his famous "iconic" paintings of Marilyn Monroe which followed later that year. The Troy series - multiples - anticipates the artist’s obsession with fame, stardom and celebrities. Of the ten canvases Warhol screened of Troy, only three are large in scale and the most impressive examples of the group are the "Troy Diptych" in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and the painting in this sale, which is an early Pop Art archetype. Lot 37 has an estimate of $15,000,000 to $20,000,000. It was withdrawn from the auction.

The second Death and Disaster lot in this sale - a work on paper - included is Lot 31,"Suicide," from 1962/66, illustrated above. This unceremoious and tragic depiction of a life that will soon end is devoid of color, making it more stark than the vibrantly colored car crashes and electric chairs of the series. The self determined fate of a human life in limbo is chilling, isolated in despair. The fact that it is taken from a real event - and corresponding image - reproduced in a newspaper heightens the sense of tragedy about to happen. Lot 31 has an estimate of $6,000,000 to $8,000,000. It sold for $16,322,500, an exceptional price and an auction record for a work on paper by the artist.

On a lighter note, two other fantastic works on paper by Warhol in this sale are Lot 32, "The Kiss (Bela Lugosi)," from 1963, with an estimate of $4,500,000 to $6,500,000 and Lot 33, "Cagney," from 1964, with an estimate of $4,500,000 to $6,500,00. The Lugosi sold for $9,266,500. The Cagney sold for $6,578,500. Both possess a "graininess" reminiscent of the black and white films from which they were appropriated by the artist. Whether or not Warhol intended it, the variable textures of silkcreening in monochromatic inks on paper is very effective in evoking this era in filmmaking.

Lot 37, Troy," an acrylic, silkscreen ink and pencil on canvas, is illustrated in the center of other works of art by Andy Warhol, and a painting by Wayne Thiebaud

Troy

Detail of Lot 37, "Troy," by Andy Warhol

Cagney

Lot 33, "Cagney," by Andy Warhol, unique silkscreen print on paper

Lugosi

Lot 32, "The Kiss (Bela Lugosi)," by Andy Warhol

Sotheby's catalogue for this sale sheds light on Warhol's experimentation with this innovative technique:

"'The Kiss (Bela Lugosi))', printed on a stark white background, alludes to the silver emulsion used in film and photographic negatives and to the Silver Screen of cinema. Warhol saw silver as the future, it felt galactic, astronauts wore silver suits and maybe more than anything, silver signified narcissism as mirrors were backed with silver...In this work...Warhol developed the artistic technique and subject matter that was to cement him foremost amongst the legends of Pop Art..."

Lot 34, abstraction by Richter

Complementing the monochromatic theme is Lot 34, "Split," an oil on canvas "abstract" by Gerhard Richter, illustrated above. The artist comments:

"Almost all the abstract paintings show scenarios, surroundings and landscapes that don't exist, but they create the impression that they could exist. As though they were photographs of scenarious and regions that had never yet been seen." (Gerhard Richter in Exh. Cat., London, Tate Modern, "Gerhard Richter: Panorama," 201, p. 19). Lot 34 has an estimate of $3,000,000 to $4,000,000. It sold for $4,450,500.

Also by Richter are two paintings entitled "I.G.," with an estimate of $3,000,000 to $4,000,000 each. Beautifully rendered in the artist's - almost - photo-realist style, the portraits were painted in 1993 towards the end of his marriage to Isa Genzken and references the complex relationship between the painter and his subject. Lot 28, "I.G," (790-4) and Lot 29, "I.G" (790-5) are illustrated below. Both lots sold for $3,442,500.

Left: Lot 29, "I.G," and (right) Lot 28, "I.G," by Gerhard Richter

Lot 28 and Lot 29 sold for $3,442,500, each.

Anthony Grant, Sotheby's Vice Chariman, Americas, Contemporary Art, talks with visitors in the galleries

Right, Lot 35, "Hammer and Sickle," by Andy Warhol; Center and front: Lot 43, "The Castle of Tin Tin," Lot 63, "Kinoko Isu," (fibreglass), by Takashi Murakami; Left: Lot 48, "Bread With Egg," by Jeff Koons

Flavin

Lot 60, "Untitled (Monument for V. Tatlin)," by Dan Flavin, cool white fluorescent light

Illustrated in the following photographs are pieces by present generation artists, a dazzling array of talent and innovation that reflect a changing world. Yet figuration persists, and it is becoming more prevalent, not less so, perhaps a reaction to a dependence on technology. Dan Flavin is so timeless, his work fits right in with pieces by much younger artists, glowing in the corner of a gallery displaying beautiful, minimal art. Two superb pieces by Takashi Murakami - sculpture and a painting - are illustrated above, with a Jeff Koons, and another dramatic Warhol depicting a hammer and sickle. Prices will be added soon.

Lot 71, "Agean Crime,"by Malcom Morley

Foss and Brown

Left: Lot 45, "Towards an International Socialism (after "Icebergs in Space" 1989 by Chris Foss and, center, "The Shepherdess," both by Glenn Brown, Property From The Collection of Marcel Brient, Paris

Blowing up a painting of a lunar landscape - without the spacecraft included in the original work - by Chriss Foss entitled "Icebergs In Space," circa 1989, Glenn Brown appropriates his imagery and simultaneously subverts it: "A sweeping, hyper-realist version of alien space that echoes the intimately familiar landscapes of the great Romantic tradition, and an epic example of Old Master virtuosity veiled unde the glossy flatness of photographic reproduction, Glenn brown's stunning Towards and International Socialism (after 'Icebergs in Space 1989 by Chris Foss) is the definitiveparagon of this Turner-prize nominee's canon of post-modernist art and his most important work to appear at auction..." (Sotheby's catalogue for this sale)

Lot 45, "Towards an International Socialism (after "Icebergs in Space" 1989 by Chris Foss)" has an estimate of $3,500,000 to $4,500,000. It sold for $4,022,500.

Rear wall, center: Lot 62, "Untitled," by Anish Kapoor; Rear wall right: Lot 65, "Untitled," by Wade Guyton; Foreground: Lot 61, "Ultra Yahoo," by John Chamberlain

The sale - and exhibition - is beautifully curated not only to offer choice works of art to collectors, but also to highlight some of the most dazzling achievements of New York and America. Innovation in the arts, film and so much more have been - and continue to be - nurtured in this city and country as nowhere else, manifested in exhibitions and sales of this quality. It is no longer a matter of works of art on the auction block with pricetags attached.

The catalogues accompanying these sales are absolutely superb. Their illustrations, photographs, writing, research and art historical content offer a joy ride - and consolation - after the exhibitions are taken down, and the works of art dispersed to fortunate new owners. Some of these paintings are generously lent to museums so we can see them again - like Edvard Munch's "The Scream," currently on view at MoMA, that was sold at Sotheby's earlier this year. If the most expensive painting in the world can find its way to one of the finest museums in the world, there is the happy prospect that others will do the same.

This review will be updated after the sale, with prices achieved, and more information about works of art by present generation artists illustrated here.

Illustrated below are a selection of contemporary works of art that will be sold to benefit The Elton John AIDS Foundation at Sotheby's Contemporary Art Day Sale on November 14th. For more information visit www.sothebys.com.

For information about The Elton John AIDS Foundation please visit: www.ejaf.org