Art/Auctions: Contemporary Art evening sale at Sotheby's New York November 13, 2013

Contemporary Art
Sotheby's New York
7 PM, November 13, 2013
Sale No: 9037

Tobias Meyer discussing Warhol

Tobias Meyer, Sotheby's Worldwide Head, Contemporary Art, talks about Lot 16, "Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)," by Andy Warhol, painted Summer 1963, Silkscreen ink and silver spray paint on canvas, in two parts
Photos and text © Michele Leight, 2013

By Michele Leight

Andy Warhol's "Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)," that leads Sotheby's Contemporary art evening sale in New York, and iconic "Liz #1 (Early Colored Liz)," a 1949 painting by Barnett Newman, a winsome Basquiat, and recent innovations by artists working today, were some of the highlights that lit up their galleries this fall, jewels in the crown of the dazzling show Contemporary art auctions in New York have become. There is important art on offer this auction season, after record prices achieved for contemporary art in spring. Some of the pricetags are hefty, reflecting confidence in the Contemporary art market as more of the world's wealthiest collectors compete for rare or prized pieces. This is now a global quest. The most confident collectors know what they want and they will go after it. This time around they may have to dig deeper into their pockets to win their prizes, and New York - this amazing city - is their arena.

Lot 26, "Liz #1 (Early Colored Liz)," by Andy Warhol, 1963, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, 40 by 40 inches

Many Contemporary works of art this season have price tags of, or in excess of, $20,000,000. A luscious De Kooning, painted in 1975, Lot 30, "Untitled V," has an estimate of $25,000,000 to $35,000,000; Lot 28, "By Twos," and important and beautiful painting by Barnett Newman, circa 1949, from the E.J. Power collection that was loaned to the major 1972 Tate retrospective, has an estimate of $18,000,000 to $25,000,000.

The choicest lots, like Lot 16, "Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)," by Andy Warhol, has an estimate in the region of $80,000,000.

"Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)," is a depiction of a fatal car crash from the artists important "Death and Disaster" series, culled from a newspaper clipping, and rendered in silver and black. It is an unusual composition for the artist, who left half of it blank and sprayed it in silver, which adds to its edgy-ness. Tobias Meyer, Sotheby's Worldwide Head, Contemporary Art, said "the work is so rare, how do you put an estimate on it?"

This is the only one of four Warhol Car Crash silkscreens remaining in private hands. So fasten your seatbelts. Anything can happen. It sold for $105,445,000, including the buyer's premium as so all results mentioned in this sale.
Its pre-sale estimate was "in excess of $60 million" and bidding opened up at $80 million. The price was a new world auction record for Warhol and the second highest price ever paid at auction for a work of contemporary art. It was one of four in his Death and Disaster series and the only one remaining in private hands. The sale total was $380,642,000, the highest ever total for a Sotheby's auction, beating the $375,149,000 set a year ago. The pre-sale estimate was $280.7 million to $394.1 million. In addition to Warhol, artists records were set for Cy Twombly, Martin Kippenberger, Brice Marden and Mark Bradford. The Dia Art Foundation consigned several works to the auction and the foundation's founders withdrew a lawsuit seeking to stop their sale shortly before the auction and the Dia works totalled $38.4 million. They had been estimated to fetch between $19.1 million and $25.6 million. The top Dia lot was "Poems to the Sea, which sold for $21,669,000, way over its $8 million pre-sale high estimate.

Lot 30, "Untitled V," by Willem d Kooning, 1975, oil on canvas, 70 by 80 inches

Lot 28, "By Twos," by Barnett Newman, 1949, oil on canvas, 66 1/4 by 16 inches. 1949 paintings by Barnett Newman are in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art (Onement III and Abraham); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Concord); The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (Dionysius); The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. (Covenant); The Whitney Museum of American Art (The Promise); The San Francisco Museum of Art (Untitled 2); The Menil Collection (Houston)

It was energizing to be face to face with several Warhols: "Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)," Lot 26, "Liz #1 (Early Colored Liz)," Lot 21, "Flowers (Five Foot Flowers)," and another "Death and Disaster" series painting, Lot 34, "5 Deaths On Turquoise (Turquoise Disaster)." Where else can this happen except in New York? It was pelting with rain outside, but who cared, with this amazing spectacle indoors.

There are those that are dismissive of Warhol as a painter of prosaic flowers, and glittery pink stillettoes - fun, for sure - but the artist had a serious side, which manifested in his "Death and Disaster Series," the flip side of his seemingly unapologetic adulation of American consumerism, which played out in the endless silkscreens of Brillo boxes, Campbells soup cans, and wonderful Coca-Cola bottles. Confronting and "processing" the gruesome reality of the subject of Lot 34, "5 Deaths On Turquoise (Turquoise Disaster)," is not easy. This tragic memorial to five lives that ended abrubtly and violently in a car crash is a head on collision with our own mortality. Warhol wanted to freeze that, instead of passing it by, as many of us do when we see such tragic images. Viewing death in this unfiltered way helps explain his almost childlike flowers, the brightly packaged, enticing merchandise, and the glittery stillettoes made for dancing and joyfullness. Have fun, enjoy every moment, the artist seems to say, because life is fragile, fleeting. Sadly, Warhol's own life ended abrubtly and unexpectedly after a routine gall bladder operation.

Lot 26, "Liz #1 (Early Colored Liz)," has an estimate of $20,000,000 to $30,000,000. It sold for $20,325,000.

Lot 34, "5 Deaths on Turquoise (Turquoise Disaster)," has an estimate of $7,000,000 to $10,000,000. It sold for $7,333,000.

Lot 21, "Flowers (Five Foot Flowers)," has an estimate of $10,000,000 to $15,000,000. It sold for $11,365,000.

Lot 34, "Green Car Crash (5 Deaths On Turquoise)," by Andy Warhol, 1963, Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, 30 by 30 inches

Five Flowers by Warhol, left, and sculpture by Chamberlain, right

Lot 21, "Flowers (Five Foot Flowers)," by Andy Warhol, 1964, Acrylic and silkscreen on canvas, 60 by 60 inches; Right Lot 14, "Candy Andy," by John Chamberlain, 1963, Painted and chromium plated steel, 37 1/8 by 33 1/2 inches

Few know that Warhol was spiritual, and devout. He said the rosary, with its beads and repetitious prayers, every day. An excerpt from John Richardson's "The Eye of the Storm: Warhol and Picasso," from an interview with Tobias Meyer, New York, October 2013, in Sotheby's catalogue for this sale, offers further insights:

"I see Andy always at the Eye of the Storm. The Eye of the Storm where there is stillness, and all around is disaster. Here was Andy at the center of all this horror: the horror of modern life. Yet Andy was unaffected. He felt this, he sensed this, but he wasn't one of the victims of it. By virtue of being in the Eye of the Storm he could see it. And he transmitted his feelings into these amazing images...When I gave the eulogy at Andy's funeral I stressed the fact that Andy was a Catholic who went to mass every single day of his life. So much of his work, including the Disaster paintings, comes out of that. The whole repetition of Andy's imagery stems from the fact that he was Catholic. He went to church, he went to confession, he had to do ten Hail Marys, twenty Ave Marias, and all this is reflected in the way his imagery is repeated again and again and again..."

This is a straightforward explanation for Warhol's fascination with "multiples," from someone who knew him well. He also drew inspiration, and acquired his subjects from tabloids and newspapers that were read by the masses:

"For Warhol, tabloid papers were either vehicles for mass disaster, rendering tragic cirucmstances almost mundane by their commonplace repetition, or the purveyors of celebrity and fame to an avid audience. In figures such as Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Jacqueline Kennedy, Warhol found the ideal subjects that combined both aspects of the mass media culture where accessibility turned private tragedy into public myth. By isolating and then serializing such images, Warhol began the practice of essentially commodifying celebrity, just as he had earlier catalogued the darker side of life with his various images of car crashes, race riots and electric chairs. This, in turn, would affect a later generation of artists, most notably Jeff Koons, whose work seems to celebrate the Warholian process of 'commodification'" (from Sotheby's catalogue for this sale)

John Chamberlain's Lot 14, "Candy Andy," illustrated above with "Flowers (Five Foot Flowers)," has an estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. It sold for $4,645,000.

This is one of three Chamberlains being offered in this sale, together with Cy Twombly's "Poems to the Sea," Property From Dia Art Foundation Sold To Establish a Fund for Acquisitions.

Alex Rotter, Sotheby's Head of Contemporary Art, Americas talks about Lot 10, "Untitled (Yellow Tar and Feathers)," by Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1982, Acrylic, oilstick, crayon, paper collage and feathers on joined wood panels, 96 1/2 by 90 1/4 inches

Detail of Basquiat Lot 10

Detail of Lot 10, "Untitled (Yellow Tar and Feathers)"

Warhol's influence resonates in nations that are currently experiencing unprecedented growth after decades when the majority of their people suffered deprivation and hardship. Warhol knew what it felt like not to have all the things we take for granted today, because his parents lived through the Depression, and he grew up poor. He wanted everyone to have their labor-saving, "almost-ready-to-serve" soup, straight out of a can, a luxury for the masses when they first appeared on supermarket shelves. He also wanted the masses to have access to art. Both were equally valuable to him. He did not necessarily give one more importance than the other, a radical idea at the time.

Warhol's vision of art for everyone is becoming more possible than even he might have anticipated. Today, more collectors are appropriating his idea, making art accessible to the masses in their own way - by beginning collections, building museums to house them, and lending their art to institutions and museums.

There is a shift in values. Art was once the preserve of the few, the elite. The more people have access to art, the more they seem to grasp its meaning, or love it, or need it - or connect to whatever art means to them. Many more people have come to value it. There is no rational explanation for the prices achieved for Contemporary works of art. It is propelled by something deeper, especially as we grow more technologically dependent, and less interactive with each other. "Abstract" art - such as the Abstract Expressionists and The New York School - also has global appeal because its imagery and iconograpy is intended to be universal. That was what the artists wanted. Today, anyone can relate to it, wherever they live in the world: Mark Rothko being the most obvious example.

Artists have also been influenced by Warhol, most notably Jeff Koons, Martin Kippenberger (in Europe) and Jean-Michel Basquiat, even though they express themselves in very different ways. Jean-Michel Basquiat and Warhol collaborated on monumental paintings, and Kippenberger and Koons often deploy epic or billboard proportions. A gorgeous, powerful piece, Lot 10, "Untitled (Yellow Tar and Feathers)" by Basquiat, (illustrated), was exhibited at Larry Gagosian in Los Angeles in 1982, soon after the artist's first one-person show in the United States, in New York City. It was acquired by the present owners from that exhibition. This is the first time it has appeared on the market in over 30 years.

Lot 10, "Untitled (Yellow Tar and Feathers)," has an estimate of $15,000,000 to $20,000,000. It sold for $25,925,000.

Lot 8 "Untitled," by Martin Kippenberger, 1981, Acrylic on canvas, 78 3/4 by 118 inches

Lot 8, "Untitled," by Martin Kippenburger, is a deceptively slick, sexy painting, a self-portrait with serious undertones from his "Lieber Maler, Male Mit" series, ("Dear Painter, Paint For Me"). Proclaiming he was not an "easel kisser," the artist delegated the painting itself to Werner, a painter of film posters, to his specifications and vision, on a scale of billboard proportions practiced by well-known German artists at the time, like Richter and Sigmar Polke. Incorporating posters commemorating 30 years since the existence of East Germany - with the dismantling of the Berlin Wall - on a backdrop of a souvenir shop, Kippenberger slyly referenced the tourist industry's exploitation of Eastern bloc fascination in 1980s Berlin. Born in Dortmund in 1953, the artist had no romanticized ideas about this chapter in German history, because he had lived in Berlin from 1978, and had experienced the tensions within the city and country at that time. From 1961 to 1989 the Berlin Wall divided Communist East Berlin from West Berlin - one part was ruthlessly repressed, the other liberated. The "Midnight Cowboy," American-ness, of this painting is intentional:

"There is also an inherent exquisite irony in the presentation of Untitled as a self-portrait once the conditions surrounding the creation of the Lieber Maler, Male Mit are taken into account. Kippenberger stands nonchalantly in front of a seemingly abandoned Berlin souvenir stand, between the East German DDR emblems and presumably in the shadow of the Berlin Wall, apeing the style and pose of a cowboy in his Stetson hat and fur-adorned coat. The choice of attire and the word 'Souvenirs,' prominently displayed above Kippenberger's head, indicates a commentary on the pervasiveness of American consumerism, obliquely connecting Untitled with the earlier work of Pop Artists such as Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg, as well as to Richard Prince's renowned Cowboy series, which arose from Marlboro Man advertisements in the early 1980s." (Sotheby's catalogue for this sale)

Lot 8," Untitled," by Martin Kippenberger, has an estimate of $6,000,000 to $8,000,000. It sold for $6,437,000.

Lot 38, "Untitled (Bernstein 81-83)," by Donald Judd, stainless steel and blue Plexiglas, in four parts, each 19 5/8 by 39 1/4 by 19 5/8 inches, left; Lot 22, "A.B. Courbet," by Gerhard Richter, 1986, oil on canvas, 118 1/8 by 98 3/8 inches

Lot 38, "Untitled (Bernstein 81-83), is a large stainless steel and blue Plexiglass sculpture in four parts by Donald Judd (1928-1994). Each part measures 19 5/8 by 39 1/4 by 19 5/8 inches. The work was created in 1981. It has an estimate of $3,000,000 to $5,000,000. It sold for $2,925,000.

The technical virtuosity of Gerhard Richter's "A.B. Courbet" is matched by its phenomenal beauty, as riffs of color mingle and collide with startling precision. A squeegee is hardly a reliable tool with which to compose a painting, but Richter deploys it like an alchemist and a poet:

"...As Richter himself declares, 'There is no more that I can do to them, when they exceed me, or they have something that I can no longer keep up with'" (Exh. Cat., Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Gerhard Richter: Paintings, 1988, p. 108, cited in Sotheby's catalogue for this sale)

Lot 22, "A.B. Courbet" has an estimate of $15,000,000 to $20,000,000. It sold for $26,485,000, the third highest price at auction for a Richter.

Lot 12, "The Attended," by Brice Marden, 1996-9, Oil on canvas, 82 by 57 inches

Lot 12, "The Attended," by Brice Marden, is a beautiful, sinuous painting that invites contemplation. It is a painting you want to live with forever and look at all the time. It is impossible to tire of it.

The lot has an estimate of $7,000,000 to $10,000,000. It sold for $10,917,000.

Lot 44, "1960-F," by Clyfford Still, 1960, oil on canvas, 112 by 144 1/2 inches, background; front: Lot 51, "Agricola XII," by David Smith, 1952, Steel, 32 by 24 by 4 5/8 inches

Lot 44, 1960-F," by Clyfford Still, has been widely exhibited and written about. Disenchanted with the commercial art world, he left the art galleries and his fellow artists behind a year before he painted this compelling, atmospheric work in the peace and solitude of the Maryland countryside. Still was always his own person, one of a kind, even though he was in the vanguard of Abstract Expressionism, and a critical player in a legendary group of American artists whose influence and impact cannot be quantified. Rothko and Barnett Newman were close friends, and he shared with them the pursuit of the sublime:

"For Still, painting should - above all else - be a pure and singular totality that could speak to the soul and address universal themes of life, death, freedom and oppression that were the very essence of philosophical discourse in the post-war world at mid-century. His credo, as it applied to the viewer and to his conception of the role of the artist, is perhaps best summarized in his own words, 'I want the spectator to be reassured that something that he values within himself has been touched and found a kind of correspondence. That being alive, having the courage, not just to be different, to go your own way, accepting responsibility for what you do best, has value, is worth the labor." (Excerpted in Dean Sobel Anfam, Clyfford Still: The Artist's Museum, New York, 2012, p. 101, cited in Sotheby's catalogue for this sale)

Lot 44, "1960-F," has an estimate of $15,000,000 to $20,000,000. It was withdrawn.

Lot 51, "Agricola XII," by David Smith, has an estimate of $1,200,000 to $1,800,000. It sold for $1,205,000. It is described as part of an installation illustrated below.

Lot 29, "Genesis - The Break," by Barnett Newman, 1946, Oil on canvas, 24 by 27 1/8 inches

A purist, non-conformist, deeply spiritual, independent and a huge influence on the trajectory of art after World War II, Barnett Newman was not content to look back at art history and what had gone before. He, like Clyfford Styll, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Adolph Gottleib, Willem de Kooning and all the groundbreakers that became known as the Abstract Expressionists and The New York School, wanted to celebrate the art of their own time. That art happened to be American, although many of these artists had strong European, Russian and other roots. Some had fled war torn countries, and persecution, and found refuge in America, or their art might not be with us today. Lot 29, "Genesis - The Break," a rare and moving painting - circa 1947 - by Newman preceeds his now iconic "strips" and "zips." It has been so widely written about, the cititations occupy two full pages of Sotheby's catalogue for this sale. That is because "Genesis - The Break" is also a survivor, for a very different reason:

"Genesis - The Break is the third painting recorded in the artist's catalogue raisonne, as Newman destroyed all of his artistic efforts prior to 1944. Throughout his career Newman remained steadfastly fixated on performing his creative act freely, ultimately developing a groundbreaking style that enabled him to achieve his goal. He felt an inescapable need to liberate painting from its formal preconditions and conventional properties as an object. Thus he abandoned as many established devices of presentation and composition as he could identify. In an interview in 1963, Newman confirmed the consistency of his artistic project, almost twenty years after creating his first preserved paintings, stating: 'I want my painting to separate itself from every object and from every art object that exists.' (the artist in a statement prepared for an interview with Lane Slate and aired by CBS, March 10, 1963." (Sotheby's catalogue for this sale)

Lot 29, "Genesis - The Break," has an estimate of $3,500,000 to $4,500,000. It sold for $3,637,000.

Works by Chamberlain, Mitchell and Smith

Left: Lot 25, "Malaprop," by John Chamberlain, 1969, Galvanized steel, 23 5/8 by 22 1/4 by 14 inches; Center: Lot 24, "Atlantic Side," by Joan Mitchell, 1960-61, Oil on canvas, 87 1/4 by 84 1/4 inches; Right: Lot 51, "Agricola XII," by David Smith, 1952, Steel, 32 by 24 by 4 5/8 inches

At the center of the installation illustrated above is Lot 24, "Atlantic Side," a powerful painting by Joan Mitchell created in 1960-61. Sotheby's catalogue for this sale cites its importance in the context of its time:

"Executed in 1960-61, the present work is an indisputable demonstration of the artist's uninhibited confidence and bravura among what was perceived at the time to be a male dominated exercise in painting, as such, it is not surprising that Atlantic Side was selected as the sole painting exhibited by Mitchell in the important exhibition Abstract Expressionists and Imagists, held at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1961. Shown alongside the work of the legendary male artists of the New York School, the present work signified Mitchell's acceptance as a member of this elite generation of painters. A brilliantly executed and gorgeously raw exemplar of the artist's oevre, Atlantic Side retains the same overpowering immediacy and emotional potency today as it surely did while hanging on the walls of the Guggenheim museum in the year immediately following its creation."

Lot 24, "Atlantic Side," has an estimate of $5,000,000 to $7,000,000. It sold for $6,885,000.

John Chamberlain's (Lot 25), "Malaprop," created in 1969, is a wonderful, monochromatic galvanized steel sculpture (illustrated on the left), originally in the collection of Leo Castelli, and O.K. Harris, among other important collectors and gallerists. It is one of the Works from Dia Art Foundation that will be Sold To Establish a Fund For Acquisitions.

Lot 25 has an estimate of $600,000 to $800,000. It sold for $845,000.

The steel sculpture on the right is Lot 51, "Agricola XII," by David Smith (previously illustrated with the Clyfford Still), a superb sculpture of restrained proportions, considering his later work. An important member of the Post War generation of artists that founded the New York School and Abstract Expressionism, Smith forged innovative sculpture that - like this piece - was radical for its time:

"With his mature works of the 1950s, such as Agricola XII, 1952, Smith arrived at his own artistic apex. Agricola XII belongs to the series of seventeen sculptures that defines this seminal moment in Smith's oeuvre; this is the first series explicitly grouped and titled by the artist, thus inaugurating a method that mapped a powerful trajectory for the rest of his career, culminating in his final great series, the Cubi. Smith's family groups of sculptures were both organizational and inspirational as each series developed its own vocabulary or aesthetic relationships and principles. In this instance, Agricola XII is abstract but still rooted in the experience of an earthly existence, embodying Smith's elegant command of a sculptural form whose references move among abstraction, Cubism, Surrealism and even drawing."

Lot 51, "Agricola XII," by David Smith, has an estimate of $1,200,000 to $1,800,000. It sold for $1,205,000.

"On the Corner" by Wool, left, and "Untitled" by Hammons, right

Left: Lot 11, "On the Corner," by Christopher Wool, 1999, enamel on canvas, 108 by 72 inches; Right: Lot 9, "Untitled," by David Hammons, 2009, silver paint and mixed media on canvas, overall dimensions 110 3/4 by 81 inches

Woman by de Kooning

Lot 46, "Woman," by Willem de Kooning, 1972, Oil on canvas, 39 1/2 by 36 inches

Christopher Wool's Lot 11, "On the Corner," is a beautifully inscribed constellation of black dots, elegant squiggles, and interlocked circles that form an almost lace-like pattern on the stark white surface.

For those that need proof of Pop Art and Abstract Expressionisms influence on future generations of artists, here is a perfect example, even though it is deliberately and cleverly "de-constructed." Jackson Pollock, automatic writing, Zen painting, Brice Marden, and even Juan Miro, come to mind when viewing Wool's "On the Corner," whose patterns are actually "stamped out" and not painted at all - evoking Warhol's silkscreens which elevated the mechanical process of printing to high art.

Lot 11, "On the Corner," has an estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. It sold for $2,741,000.

David Hammons has consistently launched broadsides against the status of high art, capitalist systems, and the elitism of the art world, prompting the writer Steven Stern to describe him as a "projectile in the medieval armoury of the art world...[who] set about finding ways to sabotage the work, to undermine this notion of a singular context and a singular dialogue,' (Steven Stern, A Fraction of the Whole, Frieze Contemporary Art and Culture, March 2009.) Untitled, 2009, does just this by pointedly challenging the monumental legacy of painting." The essay in Sotheby's catalogue for this sale continues:

"The present work comprises a large canvas cloaked in a plastic sheet that obscures the painted surface below. Areas of pigment are visible only through tears and holes in the overlaid wrapping, revealing gestural brushstrokes of metallic silver in a style alluding to Abstract Expressionist masters such as Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock."

Lot 9, "Untitled," has an estimate of $1,200,000 to $1,800,000. It sold for $1,925,000.

Lot 46, "Woman," by Willem de Kooning, shown above, is as fully charged with pigment and virtuoso brushwork as it is possible to get on canvas. Primoridal, as luscious as a sunset or verdant landscape, this superb painting is clearly inspired by the female body, a preoccupation of other masters of female nudes that rendered flesh like magicians, such as Rubens, Titian, Ingres, Renoir and Matisse:

"Flesh was the reason oil painting was invented," said de Kooning.

Lot 46 has an estimate of $3,000,000 to $4,000,000. It was passed at $2,700,000.

Lot 4, "Mithra," by Mark Bradford, 2008, Mixed media and collage on canvas, 72 by 84 1/4 inches

From constellations, to maps and streetscapes, Bradford's superb mixed media works take a birds eye view of the urban environment, and somehow simultaneously submerge us in it, grids, grit and all. It is a lucky person that wins this one.

Lor 4, "Mithra," by Mark Bradford, illustrated above, has an estimate of $600,000 to $800,000. It sold for $2,629,000.

Two fabulous paintings by Roy Lichtenstein flank David Smith's sculpture - again, (it is the same sculpture) - in the photograph below.

Lot 27, "Puzzled Portrait," features one of the famed blondes - deconstructed - and will be included in the catalogue raisonne being prepared by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation; Lot 37, "Stretcher Frame and Vertical Bars" is about art itself: the subject is the back of a canvas, its wood bones laid bare. Both paintings are meticulously rendered in magna on canvas.

Lot 27 has an estimate of $8,000,000 to $12,000,000. It was passed at $7,250,000.

Lot 37 has an estimate of $4,000,000 to $6,000,000. It sold for $4,309,000.

Left: Lot 27, "Puzzled Portrait, 1978, Oil and magna on canvas, 72 by 60 inches, and Right: Lot 37, "Stretcher Frame with Vertical Bars," 1968, 36 by 68 inches, both by Roy Lichtenstein. Sculpture "Agricola XII" by David Smith (previously cited)

Cy Twombly's mysterious "ancient," towering stucture - created in 2009 - is enigmatically called "Untitled (The Mathematical Dream of Ashurbanipal)," references the powerful Assyrian king, who was able to read cuneiform script in Ancient languages such as Akkadian and Sumerian, and who was obsessed with documenting his empire's history. A complex leader, he plundered "resources of knowledge" from those he conquered during brutal military campaigns - like computer hacking today. Ashurbanipal was also able to solve mathematical problems, and founded The Library of Ashurbanipal, a treasure trove in the lost city Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, in what we know today as Iraq. The site was discovered in 1853.

The sun set on Ashurbanipal's Neo-Assyrian Empire in the Seventh Century BC, but by then he had "dispatched scribes and scholars to every part of his empire to collect and transcribe ancient texts. The discovered Library contained over 30,000 clay tablets, which have provided exhaustive insight into Mesopotamian and Babylonian literary, religious and administrative history. The tablets include treatises on mathematics, medicine, astronomy and literature; omens, incantations, and hymns; and epics and myths such as the Enima Elis creation story, the myth of Adapa the first man, and the legendary Epic of Gilgamesh...." (Sotheby's catalogue for this tale)

Ancient history, mythology and legend were a continual source of inspiration for Cy Twombly, whose work is simultaneously fragile, mysterious and beautiful.

Lot 33, "Untitled (The Mathematical Dream of Ashurbanipal) has an estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. It sold for $2,285,000.

"Statue of Liberty" by Warhol, left, and "Spermini" by Maurizio Cattelan, right

Lot 7, "Spermini," by Maurizio Cattelan, 1997, painted latex rubber masks, in one hundred fifty parts, overall dimensions variable; Left: Lot 36, "The Statue of Liberty," by Andy Warhol, 1986, Acrylic and silkscreen inks on canvas, 72 inches square.

Lot 7, "Spermini," consists of 150 painted latex rubber masks by Maurizio Cattelan (b. 1960). The workd was created in 1997 and is unique. It has an estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. It failed to sell and was passed at $1,600,000.

Lot 36, "The Statue of Liberty," is an acrylic and silkscreen inks on canvas by Andy Warhol. It measures 72 inches square and was created in 1986, It has an estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. It sold for $3,189,000.

Right: Lot 40, "Blue Skull Painting," by Takashi Murakami, 2012, acrylic on canvas, 78 1/2 by 60 1/4 inches; Left: "Mask" by Jean-Michel Basquiat," from the Day Sale

Lot 40, "Blue Skull Painting," is an acrylic on canvas by Takashi Murakami (b. 1962) that measures 78 1/2 by 60 1/4 inches. It was painted in 2012. It has an estimate of $900,000 to $1,200,000. It sold for $1,565,000.

Front: Lot 33, "Untitled (The Mathematical Dream of Ashurbanipal)," by Cy Twombly, 2009, Bronze, 41 1/2 by 20 3/4 by 20 3/4 inches; This work is number two from an edition of three; Right: Lot 22, "A.B. Courbet," by Gerhard Richter, previously cited. Also in the photograph is Simon Shaw, Senior Vice President, Head of Department, New York, Impressionist and Modern Art

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Sotheby's Day Sale Highlights

Eight Artists Donate Works to Benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF), That Will Be Included in Sotheby's Contemporary Art Day Sale on November 14, 2013

"Untitled, 1971-74/2013" by William Eggleston, Pigment Print, Edition 1 of 2, 44 by 60 by 2 inches, © Eggleston Artistic Trust, Courtesy of Gagosian Gallery, Estimate $100,000 to $150,000; Photo courtesy of Sotheby's

Wei-Wei watermelon

"Watermelon," By Ai WeiWei, 2006, Porcelain, 15 by 15 by 15 inches, Courtesy of The Ai WeiWei Foundation; Estimate $80,000 to $100,000; Photo courtesy of Sotheby's

Marina

"The Spirit In Any Condition Does Not Burn," 2011, by Marina Abramovic, Black and White Photograph With Color Text, Digital C Print mounted on dibond, Edition 3 of 12 + 2 AP, 67 1/2 by 55 3/4 inches, plus 2 3/4 inches white border, © Marina Abramović Archives, Estimate $40,000 to $60,000

Sotheby’s will offer eight works generously donated by leading contemporary artists to benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF). Works by Marina Abramović, William Eggleston, Inka Essenhigh, Theaster Gates, Wade Guyton, Louise Lawler, Raymond Pettibon, and Ai Weiwei will be included in Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Day Sale on 14 November 2013 which goes on public exhibition on Saturday 9 November. All proceeds from the sale of these eight works will benefit EJAF’s life-saving grant initiatives.

marinaspiritElton marina Sir Elton John said: “All of us at the Elton John AIDS Foundation are deeply grateful to Sotheby’s and to all of the wonderful artists, dealers, and galleries that have partnered with us on this project for the last three years. The funds raised from the special charity lots at the sale will support our continuing efforts to achieve an AIDS free generation by confronting stigma and discrimination and helping people to access the prevention, treatment and care services they need. This sale truly is art supporting life, and I can’t think of a higher purpose for art than that.”