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Specialists' Picks from Prints & Multiples

New York | Online | Ending 28 April
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S otheby's Prints & Multiples auction, open for online bidding through 28 April, features a colorful array of prints from some of the biggest names in Modern and Contemporary art – including Donald Judd, Jeff Koons, David Hockney and Andy Warhol, to name just a few. We've asked department specialists to choose some of the most intriguing pieces up for auction – click through the slideshow to learn more, and place your bids.

Past Auction
Prints & Multiples
17–28 April 2020 | 12:00 PM EDT | New York

Specialists' Picks from Prints & Multiples

  • Robert Motherwell
    Burning Elegy (Walker Art Center 520)
    Estimate $40,000 – 60,000

    Lithograph printed in colors with handcoloring, 1991, initialed in pencil and inscribed 'AP 9/12', an artist's proof aside from the numbered edition of 36, on TGL handmade paper, with the blindstamp of the printer and publisher, Tyler Graphics, Ltd., Mount Kisco, New York, framed
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  • David Hockney
    Hotel Acatlán: Two Weeks Later (Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo 271)
    Estimate $50,000 – 70,000

    "While each of Hockney’s representations of the courtyard at the Hotel in Acatlán are notable for the artist’s exploration of space and changing viewpoints, I find the distorted perspective of this iteration particularly alluring. The inclusion of the figure at lower right (the artist himself?) and the several opened doors expands the space beyond the already large-scale panorama and counteracts the claustrophobic tension of some of the other prints in the series."
    - Chanler Rutherfurd, Associate Specialist, Prints
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  • John Armleder
    Nutnaabul
    Estimate $15,000 – 20,000

    "Here’s why I want a mirrored skull, besides it being a pretty badass, chic thing to hang on my wall: it is the very apex of self-referential. I gaze at this anthropomorphic art but really, I’m looking right back at myself. John Armleder’s multiple defines the notion that you are what you own."
    – Molly Steiger, Vice President, Senior Specialist, Prints
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  • Andy Warhol
    The Shadow (See Feldman & Schellmann II.269A)
    Estimate $40,000 – 60,000

    "Andy Warhol has become an almost fabled figure and if, like me, you didn’t hang out with him at Studio 54 or are too young to claim that ‘Andy’ was a friend, it makes perfect sense that his self-portrait The Shadow was included in his Myths portfolio alongside Superman and Santa Claus. Here’s an example in a different, distinct color combination whose profile contributes to the notion of an elusive, storied and truly UNIQUE character."
    – Meaghan Hecksher, Administrator, Prints
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  • Donald Judd
    Untitled (Schellmann 261–270)
    Estimate $150,000 – 250,000

    The present portfolio, a complete set of 10 prints, comprises one of Donald Judd’s final printmaking projects before his death in 1994. While the artist’s previous editions were persistently spare and monochromatic, here he breaks away and uses vibrant contrasting colors. He remains true in his devotion to sharp edges and seriality but rather than leaving areas void of ink, he fills each entire sheet, and it is the colors, not their forms, that create the variation from one print to the next.
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  • John Currin
    Milestones
    Estimate $20,000 – 30,000

    "I’m a fan of John Currin’s work because to me, it is the fine art equivalent of pairing a couture dress with old Converse sneakers. His subjects are detailed figures that strike me as being like a Renaissance portrait set in a grittier contemporary landscape. Milestones exemplifies Currin’s intentional and finely rendered juxtaposition of the past and the present.
    – Molly Steiger, Vice President, Senior Specialist, Prints
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  • Richard Diebenkorn
    Ochre
    Estimate $15,000 – 25,000

    "I once wrote a catalogue note on Richard Diebenkorn and quoted a New Yorker article that called him the “Malibu Matisse,” and imagined him cruising the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Diebenkorn’s Ochre conjures for me a sunny sky above cool ocean waves, maybe with a snack bar or pictorial parking lot in the upper right corner. It is the very essence of where I would like to be rather than stuck inside on this cold, rainy, morning!"
    – Molly Steiger, Vice President, Senior Specialist, Prints
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  • Jeff Koons
    Gazing Ball (da Vinci Mona Lisa)
    Estimate $60,000 – 80,000

    "You hear so much about the Mona Lisa smile – it’s even the title of an early 2000s teen movie – what are the thoughts behind that beguiling smirk? Here she is holding a crystal ball - possibly predicting her future hanging in the Louvre with hordes of hungry tourists jostling to get a look at her smaller than expected form? In his inimitable way, Jeff Koons makes me rethink traditional art history by adding a philistine twist to this revered image."
    – Molly Steiger, Vice President, Senior Specialist, Prints
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  • Agnes Martin
    Untitled
    Estimate $35,000 – 45,000

    "I love everything Agnes Martin produced, and this suite is no exception, probably because her art is everything I am NOT but wish to be: cool, reductive, almost but not quite monochromatic, simple yet deep, and Canadian (!). I never tire of looking at her linear pastels and primary color washes – they calm me down, much needed in the present climate."
    – Mary Bartow, Senior Vice President, Head of Department, Prints
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  • Joan Miró
    Le Grand Sorcier (Dupin 453)
    Estimate $20,000 – 30,000

    Etching, aquatint and drypoint printed in colors with carborundum, 1968, signed in pencil and inscribed 'H.C.', an hors commerce impression aside from the numbered edition of 75, on Mandeure rag paper, printed and published by Maeght, Paris, framed
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  • Pablo Picasso
    La Pique Cassée (Bloch 921; Baer 1244)
    Estimate $20,000 – 30,000

    "I love the tension in this print caused by the newly broken lance and the entangled mass of limbs, but I have to wonder… why is the horse the only one who seems concerned in this situation?"
    – Chanler Rutherfurd, Associate Specialist, Prints
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