I cons: Back to Madison, presented by Etihad Airways, brings forward some of the most extraordinary works ever handled by Sotheby’s.

At first glance, Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation and Gerhard Richter’s Zwei Kerzen (Two Candles) seem to belong to entirely different worlds. One emerged from the noise and urgency of downtown New York in the late 1980s, the other from a painter known for restraint, blur, and quiet intensity. And yet, for Kim Gordon, the connection between them was immediate. The scale, the intimacy, the way an image could carry meaning without explanation — it all felt closer to a record sleeve than a museum wall.

As Icons: Back to Madison opens at the Breuer Building, Gordon reflects on how Richter’s candle painting became a kind of visual Trojan horse, wrapping something radical in a deceptively familiar form. Her memories move fluidly between art, music, and the slower rituals of looking that once defined cultural discovery. In tracing this unlikely link, the conversation returns to a larger question: how certain works slip into collective memory, quietly shaping how generations learn to see, listen, and remember.

Gerhard Richter’s Zwei Kerzen (Two Candles) appears inside the Breuer Building on free and public exhibition from 13-21 December alongside 24 iconic works as Sotheby’s celebrates the opening of our new global headquarters on Madison Avenue.