Immediately preceding the Curated sale was Part I of Sotheby’s and Miss Porter’s School’s benefit auction, By Women, For Tomorrow’s Women, which brought an impressive $3.9 million and achieved a new artist record for Carmen Herrera. The school will use their full proceeds from the sale to support financial aid for its students.

Charlotte Van Dercook, Head of Sotheby’s Contemporary Curated auctions in New York, remarked: “We are overjoyed with the results of today’s sale, which achieved our highest-ever total in the Curated auction series for second season in a row. Sotheby’s had the privilege of again presenting a masterwork by Kerry James Marshall, whose Untitled (Painter) brought the second-highest price for the artist at auction. Following the morning’s white-glove sale of works by women artists to benefit financial aid at Miss Porter’s School, three of our top ten prices in today’s Curated sale were achieved by Alice Neel, Louise Bourgeois and Yayoi Kusama. It is with this tremendous momentum that we look to London for our Contemporary Art auctions next week.”

Today’s Contemporary Curated sale was led by Kerry James Marshall's Untitled (Painter), which brought the second-highest auction price for the artist when it sold for $7.3 million, soaring past its $2.5 million high estimate after a six-minute bidding battle between at least five collectors.

Marking a pivotal shift in the canon of contemporary art, the oil from 2008 embodies Marshall’s commitment to rewriting the tenets of race and representation. In the present work, the artist challenges the hegemonic archetype of the artist, forging a commentary on the privileges and assumptions inherent to artmaking, by inserting a black female subjectivity into this rarified space. Uniting abstraction with an unapologetically raced and gendered presence, the work is an exploration of the foundations of culture, in the view of the artist, to reimagine the “mythic image of the painter,” and reflect on the nature of art itself. Uniting abstraction with an unapologetically raced and gendered presence, the work is an exploration of the foundations of culture, in the view of the artist, to reimagine the “mythic image of the painter,” and reflect on the nature of art itself.

The finest painting by Jack Whitten ever to appear at auction, Special Checking from 1974 established a new auction record for the artist when it sold for an outstanding $2.7 million, shattering its $500,000 high estimate. A powerful example of Whitten’s Slab paintings, the large scale canvas was featured on the cover of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s exhibition catalogue  of works from this celebrates series. Fresh to the market, the work was the first Slab painting to appear at auction following the artist’s death in January 2018. The new top price for Whitten’s work comes on the heels of Sotheby’s record-breaking sale of his Ancient Mentor I in our Contemporary Art Evening Auction this past November, achieving $2.2 million against its $1.2 million high estimate.

Painted in 2008, George Condo’s Smiling Girl with Black Hair brought another top price of the auction when it sold for $1.3 million. A highly refined example of his ability to manipulate the traditional notions of portraiture, the present work shows Condo eschewing a strict adherence to physical appearance as a criteria for successful portraiture, instead striving to capture the nuances of myriad emotional states inherent to the contemporary experience as a means of reflecting both the individual experience and a broader shared culture. Bringing together multiple states of consciousness, the present work recalls the varied emotional states and inner turmoil of Francis Bacon’s various tormented characters, compressed into a single figure.

Making a rare appearance in Sotheby’s Contemporary Curated sale, Alice Neel’s Connie from circa 1945 sold for $920,000, surpassing its highest estimate of $500,000 and establishing the second-highest price for the artist at auction. Executed shortly after the artist lost the support of the Works Progress Administration for her involvement with the Communist Party, this early work that reveals the artist at a point of flux and transition, referencing myriad art historical sources and crafting a composition that, despite its multiple references, is unique. Acquired directly from the artist the same year that it was created, Connie exemplifies Neel’s ability to visually depict the sensation of interpersonal intimacy. Although Neel avoided strict naturalism in her widely celebrated oeuvre, Connie has a singular specificity, divulging minute details about the subject that breathes life into her depiction.

BY WOMEN, FOR TOMORROW’S WOMEN

Preceding the Contemporary Curated auction, the first offering of Sotheby’s and Miss Porter’s School’s benefit auction By Women, For Tomorrow’s Women totaled an impressive $3.9 Million – well in excess of its $2.8 million high estimate, and with an exceptional 100% of lots sold.

Marking the first-ever all-women artist benefit auction at a major auction house, the initial group of 26 works offered in today’s live auction were led by Carmen Herrera’s Blanco y Verde from 1966-1967, which established a new auction record for the artist when it sold for $2.9 million, besting its $2 million high estimate. The work had been donated to the sale by auction Co-Chair Agnes Gund.

Saara Pritchard, Senior Specialist in Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Department in New York, remarked: “As we enter Women’s History Month, we are thrilled with the results of today’s sale that will benefit financial aid for exceptional young women and allow future leaders to attend Miss Porter’s School. It has been an honor to work on behalf of the school, as well as the auction’s esteemed Co-Chairs Agnes Gund (MPS ’56) and Oprah Winfrey. Today’s offering established a number of auction records for pioneering and inspiring women artists – proof that the market wants to recognize these extraordinary women whose work has been historically undervalued. We could not have asked for a better start, and we look forward to continuing this momentum for the 17 outstanding lots currently on offer in our online-only sale.”

Over the course of several months, 43 pieces by 41 pioneering women artists have been donated to create this distinct offering of modern and contemporary works. Miss Porter’s School will use their full proceeds from the sale to support financial aid for its students.

Sotheby’s sales of By Women, For Tomorrow’s Women are ongoing, with 17 works now open for bidding in our Contemporary Art Online sale through 7 March.

CONTEMPORARY ART ONLINE & THE FORM OF IDEASNow Open for Bidding

Sotheby’s auctions of Contemporary Art continue with Contemporary Art Online (22 February – 7 March) and a dedicated online-only sale, The Form of Ideas (22 February – 8 March).

Featuring 230+ lots, this season’s Contemporary Art Online sale is distinguished by the 17 works on offer to benefit Miss Porter’s School, as well as an impressive ensemble of pieces from the collections of celebrated patrons Judith Neisser and David Teiger, among others. The auction also includes works by renowned artists such as Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, Lee Krasner, Alex Katz, John Wesley, Sam Gilliam, Marlene Dumas, Laura Owens and Richard Hambleton, and offers both new and established collectors with the opportunity to acquire works at accessible price points below $100,000.

Presented alongside Contemporary Art Online, The Form of Ideas is a unique offering of 30 lots from the distinguished collection of Arnold and Marie Fordes – California-based collectors who focused on a range of important and intellectually rigorous artists from the Post-War period onward. Working closely with the curator Paul Schimmel, the Fordes created a bold collection focusing on generations of international artists working in Minimal and Conceptual frameworks, such as Niele Toroni, Fred Sandback, John Miller, Vito Acconci, Tony Cragg and Jenny Holzer, among others.  In addition to the grouping of lots from the collection that is offered in the Contemporary Curated sale on 1 March, this sale offers the opportunity to acquire important works at price points below $50,000.