Since 2020, Phillips has been offering previews of New York City auctions in its Southampton location. On June 25, it will bring the live bidding action to its gallery here with a sale of modern and contemporary prints and multiples.
Highlights of the sale will include works in edition by local art legends such as Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Frank Stella, and Robert Longo. There are also works by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Banksy, David Hockney, Sol LeWitt, Jasper Johns, and Alexander Calder among the 120 total lots in the sale. The full catalog is available at the Phillips website.
Lichtenstein's "Nude Reading" dates to 1994, very late in his career. It is from his "Nudes" series, the last major series he produced. A relief print in colors, it was published in an edition of 60. As in so many things, such as landscapes, interiors, still lifes, and even Abstract Expressionism, the artist adapted the genre to his own early style of cartoon illustration and signature Ben-Day dots, a return to form and an integration after experimenting with other modes of expression in previous years. The print has a sales estimate of $100,000 to $150,000.
In a similarly commercial style, Banksy's "Donut (Strawberry)" is a screen print published in 2009 after a painting he made of the same subject. The auction house noted that the source material is exceptional, as many of the artist's other prints were taken from images he stenciled on walls. But like most of the artist's work, this is a cultural commentary, even if absurd. It was made in reaction to the closing of 299 Krispy Kreme stores in 2007, which is also reflected in the edition size of 299, smaller than his typical press runs of as much as 600. It has an estimate of $60,000 to $90,000.
Phillips said the linocut "Portrait of Jacqueline From the Front," which Picasso made in 1962, is one of the artist's most important graphic images, considered to be "one of the key images" of Jacqueline Roque, his second wife." Picasso met her when she was 26 and he was 72. They were married for 11 years, until he died in 1973. Of his many lovers, she was his most recurrent subject. The auction house achieved a record price for a previous sale of a Picasso linocut in 2019. This piece has an estimate of $80,000 to $120,000.
An exhibition of the works will be on view starting Friday and will remain up through the sale, which begins at noon on the 25th.
