Ugo Rondinone, a Swiss artist who has an exhibition on view at Guild Hall and a house in Mattituck, will sponsor a multi-lot benefit auction during Sotheby’s Contemporary Curated sale next Thursday.
The artist, a survivor of bladder cancer, will include one of his own sculptures and 14 other artworks from many of his friends to benefit research into urologic oncology at New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. One of the significant lots will be by Elizabeth Peyton, a North Fork neighbor. Bosco Sodi and Adam McEwen, who have shown their work in East Hampton, have contributed to the auction, as have Peter Halley, Pat Steir, Sarah Lucas, and Carroll Dunham.
Mr. Rondinone was diagnosed in 2017 with a disease he had never heard of until then. He said in a statement for Sotheby’s that he soon found out it was quite common, with 429,800 new cases and 165,100 deaths this year alone in this country. “Despite the high incidence rate, treatment of bladder cancer has not changed much over the past 25 years.”
Two doctors affiliated with Cornell University’s Weill Medical College are now working on new immunological treatments for the disease. The artist is supporting their research by raising money for and awareness of the illness and the lack of research funding currently dedicated to it.
The exhibition for the auction will open tomorrow, and the afternoon sale next week begins at 2 p.m. Those interested in supporting the initiative can send checks to “Bladder Cancer Research Fund at NY Presbyterian Hospital,” care of Dr. Douglas Scherr, 525 East 68th Street, Starr 900, New York, N.Y. 10065.