Christie’s lined up paintings by Basquiat, Polke, and Richter for its major Frieze Week sale.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Four Big, 1982. Est. £7.5 million–£9.5 million ($9.3 million–$11.8 million). Courtesy Christie’s.
Christie’s has lined up major paintings by tried and true art market titans for its evening sale of post-war and contemporary art during Frieze Week on October 4th.
The sale will be led by a large, early Jean-Michel Basquiat, Four Big (1982), which is expected to sell for between £7.5 million and £9.5 million ($9.3 million–$11.8 million). Also hitting the auction block will be one of Gerhard Richter’s squeegee paintings, the nearly 10-foot-wide Abstraktes Bild (559-1) (1984), which is expected to fetch between £6.5 million and £9.5 million ($8.1 million–$11.8 million), and a Sigmar Polke “Rasterbilder” painting that hasn’t been publicly displayed since 1983, Alpenveilchen/Flowers (1967), which Christie’s expects will command a price between £5 million and £7 million ($6.2 million–$8.7 million). Rounding out the upper echelon of the sale is a painting from 1960 by Pierre Soulages, Peinture 146 x 114 cm, 6 mars 1960, which could go for between £4 million and £6 million ($4.9 million–$7.4 million).
Sigmar Polke, Alpenveilchen/Flowers, 1967. Est. £5 million–£7 million ($6.2 million–$8.7 million). Courtesy Christie’s.
A younger generation of market stars will also be featured in the evening sale, including Tschabalala Self, KAWS, Nicolas Party, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Jonas Wood, and Loie Hollowell.
The equivalent sale last year brought in a total of £84.6 million ($109.4 million), with works by Francis Bacon, Jean Dubuffet, and Keith Haring leading the way. That put the sale short of Christie’s pre-sale low estimate, due in part to major lots by Jeff Koons and Richter failing to sell. The auction house is banking on Richter this year as well, with a total of three of his paintings from the collection of Italian bank UniCredit being auctioned off, including the enormous, aforementioned Abstraktes Bild (559-1).
