By Carter B. Horsley

The November 17, 2016 Contemporary Art Evening Auction at Sotheby's New York is highlighted by several fine works from the Steven and Ann Ames Collection including major paintings by de Kooning, Richter and Kiefer that precede the Fall Contemporary Art evening auction which includes  fine works by Basquiat, Hockney, and Rothko.  The late Mr. Ames was a member of the Annenberg family and a partner of Oppenheimer & Co., and the family has been well-known for their art collections.

The two parts of this evening sale totalled $276,560,750 with only four passes of the 64 offered lots, a highly successful 94 percent sell-through rate.  The pre-sale estimate for the auction was $208,550,000 to $302,350,000.  The 25 lots from the Ames consignment in the evening sale sold for $122,800,000.

The Ames Collection

Lot 10, "Ziege," by Gerhard Richter, oil on canvas, 78 3/4 by 71 inches, 1984

Lot 10 is the best work by Gerhard Richter (b. 1932) (see The City Review article on the artist.) at this season's auctions.  Entitled "Ziege," it is a 1984 canvas that measures 78 3/4 by 71 inches.

The catalogue provides the following commentary:

"An electrifying example of masterful coloration and superb painterly ingenuity, Ziege is archetypical of a vital moment of conceptual transition in Gerhard Richter's inimitable career....Captivating in their dynamic juxtaposition of vibrant color, complex space, and explosive mark-making, these works are strident affirmations of their creator's technical abilities as a master paiuter....In a pyrotechnic explostion of primary and secondary color, Ziege transmits a visual dynamism that has become a hallmrk of Richter's early abstract paintings.  Painted between 1980 and 1986, these complex pioneering works broadcast space as an illustion constructed through the repetitive layering of soft diffusive marks, geometric shapes, and free-hand strokes...Unlike the wild abandon of his Neo-Expressionist contemporaries, Richter approached his abstract paintings with painstaking care, obsessively seeking the conceptual boundary between purpose and chance in painting."

The lot has an estimate of $8,000,000 to $12,000,000.  It sold for $8,986,000 including the buyer's premium as do all results mentioned in this article.

Richter's "A. B. Still," which had been acquired at Sotheby's in 1991 for $264,000, sold for $33,900,000, nicely over its $30,000,000 high estimate.

Lot 6, "A. B. St. James," by Gerhard Richter, oil on canvas, 78 3/4 by 102 3/8 inches, 1988

Lot 6 is a larger and darker oil on canvas by Richter that measures 78 3/4 by 102 3/8 inches.  It was painted in 1988.  The catalogue devotes 14 pages to the lot, which has been widely published.  It is one of 13 works that the artist named after the St. James section of London and towers of the Chapel of Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London.

"Like a sunset, glorious and lumiscent in reflecting the chromatic intensity of stunning optical effects, Richter's canvas evokes the beauty frequently called forth by the contingency of natural phenomena: 'amid the paintings' scraped and layered pigments' describes Robert Storr, 'shoals, riptides and cresting waves' reinforce an impression of venturing beyond abstraction," the catalogue entry notes.

It now has an estimate of $20,000,000 to $30,000,000.  It sold for $22,737,500 to Dominique Levy.

Lot 7, "Untitiled," by Willem de Kooning, oil on canvas, 55 by 59 3/8 inches, 1977

Lot 7 is a very lush abstraction punctuated by bright strong reds, whites and dark greens by Willem de Kooning (1904-1997) (See The City Review on a de Kooning exhibition.)  An oil on canvas, it measures 55 by 59 3/8 inches and was painted in 1977.  It was once in the collection of the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art in Las Vegas and was illustrated in the catalogue of the 2011 de Kooning show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.  The catalogue entry remarks that it engulfs "the viewer in a glorious tumult of light, sound, touch, and color" adding that the artist's paintings of this period "with their massively congested, luminous color, their contrasts between  flowing and broken forms, attain at their best a total painterliness in which marks and image coalesce completely and every inch of canvas quivers wtih teeming energy."

The lot has an estimate of $8,000,000 to $12,000,000.  It sold for $10,362,500.

Lot 4, "Untitled XXXIX," by Willem de Kooning, oil on canvas, 70 by 80 inches, 1983

Lot 4, "Untitled XXXIX" is a 1083 abstraction by de Kooning that is an oil on canvas that measures 70 by 80 and hung in The White House from 1993 to 2001.  It has an estimate of $8,000,000 to $12,000,000.  It sold for $9,800,000.

Lot 18, "Unitited #9," by de Kooning, oil, charcoal, and pencil on paper mounted on canvas, 20 1/8 by 15 3/8 inches, 1958

Lot 18 is a very strong but small abstraction by de Kooning that is entitled "Untitled #9."  An oil, charcoal and pencil on paper mounted on canvas, it measures 20 1/8 by 15 3/8 inches and was painted in 1958.  It was exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1983.  It has an estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. It sold for $1,332,500.

Lot 9, "Dein Aschenes Haar, Sudamith," by Anselm Kiefer, oil and straw on canvas, 51 1/4 by 67 inches, 1981

Lot 9 is a large and good work by Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945) entitled "Dein Aschenes Haar, Sudasmith."  An oil and straw on canvas, it measures 51 1/4 by 67 inches and was created in 1981.  It reflects the artist's admiration for Paul Celan, a Romanian Jew, who wrote a haunting allegory on the horrors of war while he was in a concentration camp and the title of the painting reflects the poem's last lines.  The golden straw at the lower left is meant to be a metaphor for Aryan identity and the rest of the field represents the dark hair turned ashen from smoke of the Jews.  The lot has an estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000.  It passed but was later put up again and sole for $1.75 million to applause.

Lot 8, "Untitled #29," by Robert Ryman, oil on unstretched sized linen, 10 3/4 inches square, 1963

Lot 8 is a nice oil on unstretched sized linen by Robert Ryman (b. 1930) that is entitled "Untitled #29."  It measures 10 3/4 inches square and was created in 1963.  It has an estimate of $1,000,000 to $1,500,000.  It sold for $1,332,500.

Lot 14, "Untitled," is an acrylic and artificial resin on polyester fabric by Sigmar Polke, 60 3/4 by 52 7/8 inches, 1998

Lot 14 is a large untitled work on fabric by Sigmar Polke (1941-2000).  It measures 60 3/4 by 52 7/8 inches and was created in 1998.  It has an estimate of $2,500,000 to $3,500,000.  It sold for $3,132,500.

Lot 2, "Untitled (Study for Gate)," by Jim Hodges, various chains, 69 by 62 inches, 1991

Lot 2, "Untitled (Study for Gate)," is a spider-web like work of various chains by Jim Webb (b.1957).  It measures 69 by 62 inches and was created in 1962.  It has an estimate of $600,000 to $800,000.  It sold for $1,332,500.

Contemporary Art Evening Auction



Lot 36, "Brother's Sausage," by Jean-Michel Basquiat, acrylic, oilstick and paper collage on canvas, 48 by 187 1/2 inches, 1983

Following the auction of the Steven and Ann Ames Collection November 17, 2016, Sotheby's will hold its regular Contemporary Art Evening Auction, which is highlighted by large works by Basquiat, Hockney, Stella and Bradford..

Lot 36 is "Brother's Sausage" by Jean-Michel Basquiat 1960-1988) which is an acrylic, oilstick and paper collage on canvas that measures 48 by187 1/2 inches.  It was painted in 1983 and has been widely exhibited and published. 

The catalogue entry provides the following commentary:

"Set against a backdrop of Basquiat's unique symbolic lexicon - an alternative reality inhabited by mythic beasts, cartoon heroes and food packaging - and filtered through his unique experience as a black artist of rising fame, this expressive panorama offers a psychologically coded evocation of the painter's direct cultural milieu:  the artistic hub of downtown Manhattan in the pivotal year of 1983.  Expressing the coalescence of a burgeoning avant-garde art scene amidst an urban landscape bedecked with street-art and the ephemeral detritus of consumerism, Basquiat gives cinematic form to the heterogeneous vigrancy of a new creative epicenter, underscored by the infant rhythms of hip-hop and the clatter of metropolitan life."

It has an estimate of $15,000,000 to $20,000,000.  It sold for $18,650,000.

Lot 28, "Let's Make Christmas Mean Something This Year," by Mark Bradford, mixed media and collage on canvas, 102 by 143 3/4 inches, 2007

Lot 28 is a darkly combustible work by Mark Bradford (b. 1961) that is entitled "Let's Make Christmas Mean Something This Year."  A mixed media and collage on canvas, it measures 102 by143 3/4 inches and was created in 2007.

The catalogue provides the following commentary:

"Drawing from the constant proliferation of ad-hoc signs, leaflets and printed commercial advertising that surround him in South Central Los Angeles, Bradford weaves an expressive civic tapestry.  Marrying geometric abstraction and organic forms he furiously overwrites, erases and reveals both word and image through successive gestural layering.  His result is a labyrinthrine web of collaged paper that provides an investigative metaphor for the regenerative vibrancy of metropolitan life."

The lot has an estimate of $3,000,000 to $4,000,000.  It sold for $4,737,500.

Lot 43, "Woldgate Woods, 24, 25 and 26 October, 2006," by David Hockney, oil on canvas, two parts, 72 by 144 inches overall

Lot 43, a two-part oil on canvas by David Hockney (b. 1937), is entitled "Woldgate Woods, 24, 25 and 26, 2006," and measures 72 by 144 inches overall.  The catalogue entry notes that the artist "transforms the bucolic North of England itno something visionary: an Edenic panorama of chromatic wonder that radiates with pure ebullience."  The entry also noted that "Hockney's renown as Britain's greatest living painter will only be further cemented with the openiung of his comprehensive career retrospective at the Tate Britain in February 2017.  The lot has an estimate of $9,000,000 to $12,000,000.  It sold for $11,712,500.

Lot 34, "Study for Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)," by David Hockney, graphite, gouache, tape and paper collage on paper, 13 7/8 by 18 3/4 inches, 1972

An earlier and much smaller Hockney is Lot 34, "Study for Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)."  The graphite, gouache, tape and paper collage on paper was created in 1972 and measures 13 7/8 by 18 3/4 and the artist reportedly created the image by accident when two photographs happened to be next to one another on his floor.  The study is for one of the artist's iconic and well-known paintings that is in a private collection.  The lot has an estimate of $700,000 to $1,000,000.  It sold for $2,052,500.

Lot 51, "Pratfall," by Frank Stella, acrylic on canvas, 129 1/2 inches square, 1974

Lot 51 is a large acrylic on canvas by Frank Stella (b. 1936) that is entitled "Pratfall."  It measures 129 1/2 inches square and was painted in 1974.  It was once in the Gund Collection in New York which sold it at Sotheby's New York May 13, 2003 for $624,000.  In 2013, it was sold again, at Christie's New York, for $2,853,000.  At this auction it has an estimate of $3,500,000 to $4,500,000.  It sold for $8,900,000.

Lot 40,  "Moonshine Sonata," by Hans Hofmann, oil on canvas, 78 by 84 3/8 inches, 1961

Lot 40, "Moonlight Sonata," by Hans Hofmann is a large and dashing abstract oil on canvas that measures 78 by 84 3/8 inches.  It was painted in 1961.  It has been very widely exhibited and published.  It has an estimate of $1,800,000 to $2,500,000.  It sold for $3,492,500.

Lot 42, "Untitled," by Mark Rothko, oil on canvas, oil on paper laid on canvas, 52 by 40 1/2 inches, 1969

Lot 42 is a good black and deep blue, untitled, abstract oil on paper laid on canvas by Mark Rothko (1903-1970).  It has an estimate of $3,500,000 to $4,500,000.  It sold for $4,512,500.

Lot 53, "L'Adieu a la Fenetre," by Jean Dubuffet, oil on burlap, 35 by 45 3/4 inches, 1949

Lot 53, "L'Adieu a la Fenetre," is an oil on burlap by Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) that measures 35 by 45 3/4 inches.  It was painted in 1949.  It has been widely exhibited including a show last June at the Acquavella Galleries in New York.  It has an estimate of $1,800,000 to $2,500,000.  It sold for $2,892,500.

Lot 47, "Lenin," by Andy Warhol, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, 72 1/4 by 48 inches, 1985

Lot 47 is an acrylic and silkscreen ink portrait of "Lenin" on canvas by Andy Warhol (1928-1987).  It measures 72 1/4 by 48 inches and was painted in 1985, about a decade after the artist's portraits of Mao.  It has an estimate of $4,000,000 to $6,000,000.  It sold for $8,112,500.

Lot 38, "Self-Portrait," by Andy Warhol, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, 80 by 76 inches, 1986

Lot 38 is a large self-portrait by Andy Warhol that is an acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas that measures 80 by 76 inches.  It was painted in 1986.  It has an estimate of $20,000,000 to $30,000,000.  It sold for $24,425,000.

Lot 55, "Turista che mangia un panino," by Michelangelo Pistoletto, silkscreen on stainless steel, 47 1/4 by 90 1/2 inches, 1975

Lot 55 is a silkscreen on stainless steel by Michelangelo Pistoletto (b. 1933) that is entitled "Turista che mangia un panino."  It was painted in 1975 and measures 47 1/4 by 90 1/2 inches. It has an estimate of $1,000,000 to $1,500,000.  It sold for $1,572,500.

See The City Review article on the Fall 2012 Impressionist & Modern Art auction at Sotheby's New York
See The City Review article on the Fall 2012 Impressionist & Modern Art day auction at Sotheby's New York
See The City Review article on the Spring 2012 Impressionist & Modern Art auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Spring 2012 Impressionist & Modern Art auction at Christie's
See The City Review article on the Fall 2011 Impressionist & Modern Art auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Fall 2011 Impressionist & Modern Art auction at Christie's
See The City Review article on the Spring 2011 Impressionist & Modern Art auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Spring 2011 Impressionist & Modern Art auction at Christie's
See The City Review article on the Fall 2010 Impressionist & Modern Art evening auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Fall 2010 Impressionist & Modern Art evening auction at Christie's
See The City Review article on the Spring 2010 Impressionist & Modern Art evening auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Spring 2010 Impressionist & Modern Art evening auction at Christie's
See The City Review article on the Fall 2009 Impressionist & Modern Art evening auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Fall 2009 Impressionist & Modern Art evening auction at Christie's
See The City Review article on the Spring 2009 Impressionist & Modern Art evening auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Spring 2009 Impressionist & Modern Art evening auction at Christie's
See The City Review article on the Fall 2008 Impressionist & Modern Art evening auction at Christie's
See The City Review article on the Fall 2008 Impressionist & Modern Art evening auction at Sotheby's

See The City Review article on the Sotheby's evening auction May 10, 2000 of Impressionist & Modern Art
See The City Review article on the May 11, 2000 auction at Sotheby's of Impressionist & Modern Art, Part 2
See The City Review article on the Sotheby's Impressionist & Modern Art Auction, Part I, Nov. 11, 1999
See The City Review article on Part Two of the Sotheby's auction November 11, 1999 of Impressionist & Modern Art
See The City Review article on the Christie's Nov. 8, 1999 evening sale of Impressionist & Post Impressionist Art
See The City Review article on the morning auction Nov. 9, 1999 of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Art at Christie's
See The City Review article on the afternoon auction Nov. 9, 1999 of Impressionist and Twentieth Century Works on Paper at Christie's
See The City Review article on the Christie's Nov. 9, 1999 evening auction of Twentieth Century Art
See The City Review article on the Christie's Nov. 10, 1999 day auction of Twentieth Century Art
See The City Review analysis of Part 1 of the Sotheby's auction May 11, 1999 of Impressionist and Modern Art
See The City Review analysis of Part 2 of the Sotheby's May 12, 1999 auction of Impressionist and Modern Art
See The City Review article on the Christie's May 12, 1999 auction of Impressionist Art and 19th Century Art
See The City Review of the Christie's May 13, 1999 auction of 20th Century and Modern Art
Recap of the Spring 1998 Impressionist and Modern Auctions