Auction Highlights: Contemporary Art

Our June 6 Contemporary Art auction will offer an array of artwork spanning five decades of original works, prints, and multiples.

The sale will begin with the works of abstract expressionists, including Joan Mitchell, Mary Abbott, and Willem de Kooning. Other Post-War lots include an early collage on canvas by Domenico “Mimmo” Rotella, circa 1959, which we are particularly excited to share with you, as it has not been exhibited publicly in over 50 years. Swann will also offer a naturalistic bronze sculpture by Elisabeth Frink, Warrior, 1956— a familiar subject for the artist.

We are pleased to offer an exhilarant selection of Pop Art, including two wonderful screenprints printed and published by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles, Roy Lichtenstein’s Water Lily, 1993, and Composition I, 1996. Andy Warhol’s Life Savers screenprint from his Ads portfolio, 1985, and The Souper Dress, 1966-67, which captures the essence of the Pop movement with its amalgamation of fashion, art, and advertising, will also be offered. In the same spirit of Pop Art is Ronnie Cutrone’s Ultra Brite Barbie, 1990, which offers collectors a delightful, campy nostalgia.

More late twentieth-century highlights from fine art presses include Keith Haring’s vibrant Growing (Plate 4), 1987; David Hockney’s Cleanliness Is Next to Godliness, 1964-65; and Ed Ruscha’s Insects, portfolio of six screenprints, 1972, which Siri Engberg described as “one of Ruscha’s most masterfully illusionistic print projects” and incorporates encapsulated soil from the artist’s elementary school in Oklahoma City. Swann has the pleasure of offering a selection of prints by Howard Hodgkin, sold on behalf of The Eugene J. Prakapas and Dorothy Prakapas Collection in memory of Thomas C. Mendenhall, to benefit a scholarship fund at Yale University. These color prints, some with hand coloring, span almost 25 years of Hodgkin’s printmaking.

We have an exceptional section of works from the twenty-first century, including paintings by Hunt Slonem and Russell Young, and look forward to presenting contemporary print collectors with Chuck Close’s technically brilliant etching, Phil (Spiral), 2014, and Damien Hirst’s provocative set of six screenprints, New Religion, 2005.