Phillips will be offering 250 works by blue-chip artists next September, among them are Pablo Picasso, Sigmar Polke, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Louise Bourgeois.
The collection of art offered for auction ranges from linocuts to lithographs, photo-collages and watercolors.
“This selection celebrates innovation in edition-making across the modern and contemporary categories and offers exciting opportunities to grow or start a collection with works by blue-chip and emerging artists side by side,” said Rebecca Tooby-Desmond, Head of Sale for Editions, in a statement.
Highlights of the sales include two rare-to-auction linocuts by Picasso of his second wife, Jacqueline Roque, both created while the Spanish painter was living in the south of France.
Although linocuts represent a relatively small part of Picasso’s oeuvre as a printmaker, he produced some of his most impressive compositions via this method between 1958 and 1963.
“Portrait de Jacqueline au chapeau de paille multicolore” and “Portrait de Jacqueline aux cheveux lisses” demonstrate his skill with the linocut process as well as his ability to master various printmaking techniques.
Picasso also embraced etching and lithography throughout his career, as shown in “Quatre femmes nues et tête sculptée” and “Jemme femme au corsage à triangles”.
The London sales will also feature a variety of pieces by David Hockney, including a double-portrait of himself in an imaginary conversation with Picasso.
“Artist and Model” is expected to fetch between £20,000 (about P1 million) and £30,000 (almost P2 million), an estimate far from Hockney’s auction record of £70 million (about P4 billion).
Other standout pieces include two screen prints of Andy Warhol’s most famous sitter, Marilyn Monroe, as well as “Reflections on Girl” by Roy Lichtenstein.
That print, which is estimated between £80,000 (about P5 million) and £120,000 (over P7 million), comes from a series of seven “Reflections” prints that Lichtenstein created at Tyler Graphics in Mount Kisco, New York between 1989 and 1990.
Women artists are also represented in the Evening & Day Editions auctions, with Nina Chanel Abney’s 2018 “Two Years and Counting” and Louise Bourgeois’ 1992 “Sainte Sébastienne”.
In her practice, Bourgeois frequently returned to the image of Christian martyr St. Sebastian, who she depicted as a female.
Like many of her prints, “Saint Sébastienne” was originally a drawing that she completed earlier in her career. She reworked the piece several times before coming to the final print. Its value is estimated between £10,000 (about P600,000) and £20,000 (about P1 million).
Phillips will hold its Evening & Day Editions auctions on Sept. 12 in London. All the works for the sales will on open to viewing by the public from Sept. 5. HM/JB
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