One of the finest works by the artist to appear at auction since Sotheby’s 2011 sales on behalf of the city of Denver to benefit the Clyfford Still Museum

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s masterwork ‘Untitled (Head)’ achieved $15.2 million, marking a new world auction record for a work on paper by the artist, as well as Sotheby’s highest-ever price for a work sold to an online bidder (following the Mitchell earlier this evening), following an eight minute bidding battle. The work represents one of the most accomplished of Basquiat's iconic ‘Heads’ on paper.

Sotheby’s offered a number of artists for the first time in our Contemporary Art Evening Auctions, including:

Vija Celmins, whose Night Sky #7 sold for $6.6 million – a new world auction record for the artist. The painting was included in Celmins’s major retrospective at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in 2019.

Matthew Wong, whose The Realm of Appearances sold for $1.8 million – a new world auction record for the artist (estimate $60/80,000). Sotheby’s established the previous record of $62,500 in our online Day Auction in May.

Tonight’s auction featured Roy Lichtenstein’s White Brushstroke I from 1965, which sold for $25.4 million. The work is one of the most striking examples from Lichtenstein’s iconic series of Brushstroke paintings, which comprises 15 canvases executed in 1965-66 that are regarded as pivotal masterworks of the Pop Art movement.

IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN ART EVENING SALE
Auction Total: $62.8 Million
Sale Estimate $54.9/77.7 Million
84.6% Sold by Lot

The final auction of the night featured 11 works from The Vanguard Spirit, which together achieved $26.6 million and set 5 new world auction records (estimate $16.3/23.7 million). The collection represents one of the most distinguished private assemblages of Surrealist and Modern Art from Latin America ever to appear at auction.

The group was led by Wifredo Lam’s Omi Obini from 1943, which sold for $9.6 million – a new world auction record for Lam

Painted at the apex of Lam’s career, the painting is only comparable to his masterwork The Jungle, also from 1943, which resides in the Museum of Modern Art, New York’s permanent collection

Seven works by women Surrealists in the collection totaled $13.7 million, led by two oils by Remedios Varo: Armonía (Autorretrato Sugerente) from 1956 which brought $6.2 million – a new world auction record for the artist; and Microcosmos (or Determinismo) from 1959 which achieved $1.8 million.

Realized in the final years of Varo’s life, the two works are exemplary of her signature fantastical imagery and complex narratives

The previous auction record for Varo was $ 4.3 million, set at Sotheby’s in November 2014.

Additional world auction records for female Surrealist artists were achieved for Leonor Fini, whose Figures on a Terrace (Composition with Figures on a Terrace; La Terrasse) from 1938 sold for $980,000 and Alice Rahon, whose Los Cuatro hijos del arco iris from 1960 brought $512,000.

Mario Carreño’s Cortadores de caña from 1943 also set a new world auction record for the Chilean artist, selling for $2.7 million

One of the most iconic images of la vanguardia Cubana, the work was included in the landmark MoMA exhibition Modern Cuban Painters, organized in 1944 by Alfred H. Barr.

The previous auction record for Carreño was $2.6 million, established for another 1943 work sold at Sotheby’s in May 2007

The running total for The Vanguard Spirit is $29.2 million, with additional works to be offered in tomorrow’s Contemporary Art Day Sale.

The final auction of the night was led by Pablo Picasso’s 1934 depiction of his golden muse Marie-Thérèse Walter, Tête de femme endormie (Head of a Sleeping Woman), which sold for $11.2 million

The work last appeared at auction in 1960, when it sold for £4,500 GBP, and has remained in the same collection for seven decades since it was acquired by Carmen and David Lloyd Kreeger in 1962

Two other works by Picasso also brought strong prices: Femme assise from 1929, a Surrealist painting which depicts his first wife, Olga Khokhlova, sold for $4.8 million; and Le reservoir, one of his finest landscape paintings from the 1950s, achieved $2.9 million