Many auction houses have released their highlights of the New York Auction Season 2020, including masterpieces from , Francis Bacon,Pablo Picasso,Roy Lichtenstein,Clyfford Still,ED Ruscha,Jean-Michel Basquiat,Joan Mitchell. We will summarize these works and analyze their market value for your reference.

Highlight One：

Bacon's Sixth Epic Triptych up to now
Triptych Inspired By The Oresteia Of Aeschylus

This triptych is inspired by the ancient Greek tragedy trilogy written by Aeschylus in the Fifth Century B.C. Although Aeschylus is the source of inspiration for many of Francis Bacon's works, Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus is the only one named after Aeschylus. The work has been preserved at the Astrup Fearnley Museum in Oslo since it was purchased by Norwegian collectors at the Mabolo Gallery in London in 1984, for the first time in 36 years.

Bacon once said in 1979, " Triptych is my favorite thing. In terms of the quality of my works, I often think that maybe triptych is of the best quality." He has a limited creative career, drawing a total of 28 triplets. And the market also gave the best feedback to the triplets. In 2014, Bacon 's triptych appeared at the auction for the first time. So far, only five of them have been auctioned. Among the top 10 works of him, all of them are listed. At present, the most expensive work is Three Studies of Lucian Freud, which was shot in 2013 for $142,405,000. The work on the market this time is the sixth triptych so far, with a valuation from the industry of more than $60 million.

The same type of work is recorded

Highlight Two：

Clyfford Still's Top Work First Shot in 50 Years
Ph-144 (1947-y-no.1)

Ph-144 (1947-y-no.1) is a work of Clyfford Still collected by the Anderson family for nearly 50 years. This is also the first time when the work has been shot. As 95% of Still's works are hidden in the Clyfford Still museum, it is not only his work on auction for the first time in 50 years, but also a work that Still attaches great importance to. 1947-y-no.1 is a work selected by Still himself in 1959 from the “Paintings by Clyfford Still” in New York, which further proves the importance of this work. The exhibition, planned by the artist himself, is Still's first large-scale solo exhibition and one of the most important exhibitions in his career.

Since 1946, the artist began to teach at the California Institute of art in San Francisco. In the following four years, he has created many classic paintings. Seven of the artist's personal top 10 paintings came from this period. And this masterpiece represents his ability in the peak period. It realizes the whole combination of form, space and line. Its pure power of picture is as convincing as the power of nature. The same series of 1947-y-no. 2 has been also among the Top 2 expensive art works of the artist, which was shot in 2011 for us $32 million. This is also one of the best works of Clyfford Still in the auction market since 2011.

The same type of work is recorded

Highlight Three：

Lichtenstein's classic "Naked" series in his later years
Nude with Joyous Painting

Naked" series is Roy Lichtenstein's masterpiece in his later years. In the 30 years after the early creation represented by "nurse", his scenes and themes did not directly come from comics, until "naked" series. In his series of 20 paintings, he again created with the inspiration of the cartoon heroine, which was the theme that made him famous in pop art movement in the early 1960s. "Nude with Joyous Painting" is the landmark work of the series. From the technical level, it can be seen that the artist's excellent painting skills can be seen in this work. In this work, nearly 50 colors are used –which is quite different from the early famous works that only use red, yellow, blue and black.

"Ben-day-dot" is the main theme of Roy Lichtenstein's creation. Nude women series is a combination of nude women and the western classic theme of pop's artistic creation. At present, there are two pieces of nude series in the artist's personal TOP10 - 1996's Sexual Girl with a turnover of $31.5 million in 2013 and 1995's Nude with Red Shirt with a turnover of $28 million in 2012.

The same type of work is recorded

Highlight Four：

Lichtenstein's Iconic Works of the 1960s
White Brushstroke I

White brushwork I has appeared in many pioneering exhibitions in Roy Lichtenstein, including the artist's early solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1969, and Roy Lichtenstein, a large travelling exhibition held by the Guggenheim Museum in 1993. This work comes from the brushwork series, which is regarded as the leading masterpiece of pop art movement. This series includes 15 works from 1965 to 1966 in total. At present, eight of them are stored in large museums such as Chicago Art Institute and Whitney American Art Museum in New York. White strokes I is one of the few left works from private collectors and the landmark works of strokes series.

The experience of white brush I is extraordinary. It was purchased by the founder of ferus, the legendary Gallery in Los Angeles, when it first appeared, and collected by an important private collection institution in the United States 30 years later. Red and white strokes and yellow and white strokes in the same series were shot in 2017 and 2006, respectively, with good results.

The same type of work is recorded

Highlight Five：

A Large Scale Representative Work of ED Rusha in His Early Period
Annie

Annie is a pioneering work by ED Ruscha in his early years, which is nearly 2-meter-high and 1.7-meter-wide. It embodies the unique creative technique of the Los Angeles artist and makes him one of the most respected artists in the contemporary era. Behind the simple visual effect of Annie is a complex image. The painting is divided into two parts. The lower part is in large dark blue, while the upper part writes "Annie" in bright red on a golden background, while the black outline of the letters is directly borrowed from comic elements.

Annie is the painting of ED rusha in 1962. The inspiration of this work comes from the cartoon Little Orphan Annie, which is different from the alphabetic works in the top list at present. It is not only full line font, but also close to the style of cartoon. This is also the first one of more than ten works named "Annie" by artists in decades. At present, there are two alphabetic works in the top two of the list of Rushan people, and the most expensive work, Hurting The Word Radio #2, was shot in New York last year for $52.48 million.

The same type of work is recorded

Highlight Six：

The First Half of Picasso's Les Femmes d'Alger Series
Les Femmes D'alger (Version 'f')

From December 1954 to February 1955, Pablo Picasso created 15 canvas works inspired by Eug è ne Delacroix " Les Femmes d'Alger", each of which was identified by the letters from"A" to "O". Among them, the "O" version was sold in New York in 2015 for more than $179 million, making it the most expensive art in the history of auction. The sixth piece in the series, or the “F version”, is the one to be shot this season. The highlight of F version is that it connects the first half of the whole series (using standard size canvas) and the second half of the series (the size of the work is much larger), which serves as a link between the past and the future. Compared with other paintings in the same series, this one can best express the greenhouse environment of the harem.

In June 1956, Victor and Sally Ganz bought all the paintings of Les femmes d'alger series from Galerie Louise leiris Gallery in Paris for $212,500 (equivalent to $2 million in 2019). Later, Ganz and his wife sold the ten paintings of the series to saidenberg Gallery, and they kept the versions of "C", "H", "K", "M" and "O", which have been shot now.

The same type of work is recorded

"F version" is the conclusion of the first half of Pablo Picasso's "Algiers woman" series. It is the peak of the first half of the series. The light white tone appearing in the previous version of "Algiers woman" is no longer seen again. Instead, the heavy and expressive Matisse pattern and color are interwoven.

The same type of work is recorded

Highlight Seven：

Rare and Large-Scale Works of Jean Mitchell in the Important Period Reappear in the Market
Noël

Born in 1925, Joan Mitchell was one of the few female painters of her time who received criticism and praise in public. Noël was first exhibited at a solo exhibition in Galerie klipstein und Kornfeld, Bern, Switzerland, in October 1962. This abstract painting is part of a series of paintings by Joan Mitchell shortly after he moved to Paris in 1959. Large paintings of this period are rarely seen in the auction market. Barney a. ebsworth, a great American Art Collector, once collected 12 hawks at 3 o'clock of the same period for $14 million. It has been the first time that the painting on auction since 1995.

In recent years, the appreciation rate of Joan Mitchell's works has accelerated. Her current record of $16.625 million is blueberry, her work of 1969, shot in 2018. Although the estimated price of no ëL is far from the current Top 1 of Joan Mitchell, due to the third-party guarantee, the position equivalent to at least the artist's personal top 7.

The same type of work is recorded

Highlight Eight：

Masterpiece of Basquiat in His Last Year

Victor 25448

Victor 25448 was created in Jean-Michel Basquiat's last year, which is different from some of his works in earlier times that described racial violence. Although the works' central conflict is not apparent, its image represents the physical and emotional difficulties faced by Basquiat in the last year of his life. The black man's face is bandaged and his eyes are X-shaped, indicating that he is the victim of violence. This is a cartoon-like cruel scene. This work is also one of the largest scale works of Basquiat.

The state of the characters in Victor 25448 is in sharp contrast to the victorious boxers illustrated by Basquiat during his rapid rise of fame in 1981 and 1982, such as Untitled in 1982. If Untitled is a portrait of Basquiat standing as the winner at the most hopeful moment in his life, then Victor 25448 reveals the desperation that plagued him in the last year of his life.

The same type of work is recorded

After watching these highlights, have you been moved? The epidemic has hit the whole industry, but there is always a way for auction houses to fight with it. They have made innovations and improvements in platforms, formats, tools and other aspects, so that you don't have to worry about the epidemic. I hope you can put your favourite work into your bag this season!

Sotheby's New York

Christie's New York

Phillips New York

Click on the image to get the detailed valuation report, from which you shall have more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the performance of the artist in the secondary market.