Enjoy the Phillips report below
PHILLIPS REVEALS EARLY HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE MAY MODERN & CONTEMPORARY ART MARQUEE SALES
Evening Sale on 19 May to Feature Major Works by Bontecou, Dubuffet, Richter, and Warhol
Selections from the Morning and Afternoon Sessions on 21 May Span Over a Century of Genres, from Impressionism to Contemporary Art
Lee Bontecou Plate 166, 1985-2001 Estimate: $1,200,000–1,800,000
NEW YORK – 15 APRIL 2026 – Phillips is pleased to announce highlights from its forthcoming Modern & Contemporary Art marquee auctions, including the Evening Sale on Tuesday, 19 May and the Morning and Afternoon Sessions on Thursday, 21 May — all taking place at 432 Park Avenue. Together, the sales present a curated selection of masterworks spanning the late 19th century through the present day.
Among the Evening Sale’s highlights is Lee Bontecou’s Plate 166 (1985–2001), the most important two-dimensional work by the artist ever to come to market. One of her few works on canvas and the culmination of a decades-long cycle of drawings from the 1980s and 1990s, Plate 166 was included in the major 2003 traveling retrospective of Bontecou’s work, jointly organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and presented at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2004. This luminous, expansive pastel composition, defined by sweeping, wave-like forms, embodies Bontecou’s notion of the “worldscape,” where landscape, organism, and imagined terrain converge into a single field of energy and transformation, animated by the medium’s capacity to gather and diffuse light across its surface.
Another top highlight is Andy Warhol’s 4 Colored Marilyns (Reversal Series) (1979–1986), from the artist’s celebrated Marilyn Reversals. Created more than two decades after his iconic 1962 portraits, the Reversals mark a pivotal development in Warhol’s practice, using photographic negatives to transform the image into a high-contrast chromatically reduced composition. Offered just weeks ahead of what would have been Monroe’s 100th birthday on 1 June, the work embodies the subject’s lasting cultural presence and Warhol’s role in shaping her image as a modern icon.
The sale is further distinguished by Gerhard Richter’s Besen (1984), a major example from the artist’s continuously developed Abstrakte Bilder and among the “Free Abstracts” of the mid-1980s, a pivotal group that marked his shift toward a more gestural and materially driven mode of painting. Executed shortly before the squeegee became Richter’s primary tool around 1986, the painting reflects a transitional moment in which brushwork and dragged paint coexist within a more varied, responsive surface. Besen combines saturated color fields with horizontal bands that scrape and reorder the surface, enacting a logic in which painterly gesture is continually disrupted and reconstituted through mechanical intervention.
Rounding out the Evening Sale highlights is Jean Dubuffet’s Barbe des rites (1959), among the earliest and most fully realized oil paintings from the artist’s Barbes, or “Beards,” series. Created at a pivotal moment when Dubuffet reintroduced the human figure after several years devoted to the quasi‑abstract Texturologies, the work applies his material language of earth‑like surfaces and dense mark‑making directly to the body. Dominated by a beard rendered in thick, heavily worked paint, with facial features reduced to minimal signs, Barbe des rites collapses portrait and landscape and signals a renewed engagement with figuration in the artist’s practice.
Modern & Contemporary Art continues on 21 May, beginning with the Morning Session at 10:00 AM ET followed by the Afternoon Session at 2:00 PM ET. The Morning Session’s highlights include Robert Rauschenberg’s South Haunt (Borealis) (1990) from the artist’s highly experimental Borealis series and a direct outcome of the Rauschenberg Overseas Cultural Interchange (ROCI). Created using photographs taken during his international travels between 1984 and 1991, the Borealis works combine silkscreen, metal supports, and chemical “corrosions” inspired in part by the aurora borealis. South Haunt (Borealis) was included in Rauschenberg’s landmark 1998 retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Early highlights from the Afternoon Session include Beatriz Milhazes’ Paraty (2001–2002), which draws from the artist’s personal connection to the Brazilian coastal town of the same name. The composition brings together floral motifs and geometric forms in a densely structured surface, reflecting Milhazes’ interest in ornament, color, and pattern. Executed using her characteristic transfer technique, Paraty is representative of the work that broadened her international reputation in the early 2000s.
Also included is KAWS’ UNTITLED (CHUM, HOUSTON STREET) (2000), a unique, hand‑painted work on paper featuring CHUM, the artist’s iconic character based on the Michelin Man. Closely related to KAWS’ “ad interventions” of the mid‑1990s through mid‑2000s, the work was originally installed in a bus shelter on Houston Street in New York in 2000. Unlike many earlier interventions painted over existing advertisements, this work began as a blank sheet cut to the exact dimensions of a bus shelter display. Its stark white imagery on a black ground recalls Keith Haring’s subway drawings and underscores KAWS’ early engagement with the visual language of public space, exemplifying the intersections of art, street culture, fashion, and advertising central to his practice.
Auctions
Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale 19 May 2026 | 5:00 pm ET Click here for more information: https://www.phillips.com/auction/NY010326/overview
Modern & Contemporary Art: Morning Session 21 May 2026 10:00 am ET Click here for more information: https://www.phillips.com/auction/NY010426/overview
Modern & Contemporary Art: Afternoon Session 21 May 2026 | 2:00 pm ET Click here for more information: https://www.phillips.com/auction/NY010526/overview
Auction viewing: 9-19 May 2026 Location: 432 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022
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ABOUT PHILLIPS Phillips: where the world’s curious and bold connect with the art, design, and luxury that inspires them. As a leading global platform for buying and selling 20th and 21st century works, Phillips offers dedicated expertise in the areas of Modern and Contemporary Art, Design, Photographs, Editions, Watches, and Jewels. Auctions and exhibitions are primarily held in New York, London, Geneva, and Hong Kong, with representative offices based throughout Europe, the United States, and Asia. Phillips offers a regular selection of live and online auctions, along with items available for immediate purchase. Phillips also offers a range of services and advice on all aspects of collecting, including private sales and assistance with appraisals, valuations, and financial planning. Visit phillips.com for further information. Phillipsauctionhighlights#sunstormfinearmagazine.com#fineartmagazineblog.blogspot.com#sunstormfineartmagazine.com#springart fun#artfunforever | |||||||
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