In New York the auction of the year: from Banksy to Picasso via Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein

In America they already define it as the auction of the year: 41 lots – between modern and contemporary art – make up the New York Evening Sale of 20th Century & Contemporary Art by Phillips. The works for sale are sensational pieces by Banksy, Pablo Picasso, Roy Lichtenstein, Yayoi Kusama and Anna Weyant. The appointment is for May 17, 2023.

Leading the auction is an outstanding painting by Banksy, Banksquiat. Boy and Dog in Stop and Search, executed following a 2017 exhibition dedicated to Jean-Michel Basquiat by the Barbican Center in London. In particular, the British artist was inspired by Basquiat’s Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump, from 1982. Banksy reinterprets the imagery by rewriting the title, thus changing the meaning of the work. Basquiat’s Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump is a summer scene. The two protagonists bask in the sun in relief refreshed by the water of a hydrant. The “political” version of Banksy, on the other hand, presents the male figure being searched by members of the London Metropolitan Police. His hands, which in the original are raised for play or exaltation, here become a clear gesture of «hands up». Estimate 8-12 million dollars.

Equally unmissable it is Head of a woman in a chignon by Pablo Picasso, which is being offered at auction for the first time and has never been on public display. Picasso made it in 1952, the last year of his love with the artist Françoise Gilot. Here the woman with her hair in a bun looks out of a gray window with black bars. Portrayed in the artist’s classic cubist style, the painting feeds on the portraiture tradition of art history to decompose and recompose it in an unprecedented solution. That he would go to school. Estimate 6-9 million dollars.

After the acquisition by Agnes and Frits Becht, also the two early works of Yayoi Kusama – Blue Spots and Red Stripes – have not been auctioned again in sixty years. These are two sculptures where shapeless creatures spotted with polka dots overlap until each void is filled. Phillips, by the way, brings particular luck to Kusama, who collected her world record here. The estimate is 2.5-3.5 million dollars.

Interesting story related to Self-Portrait (Fright Wig) by Andy Warhol and to the collector who is now offering it for sale. É Richard Polsky, who used the work as the cover of his book I Bought Andy Warhol and I Sold Andy Warhol (Too Soon). The work is part of Warhol’s last self-portrait series and was sold at auction in 2005 for 800,000 – 1.2 million dollars.

Among other must-haves An Ungainly Figure ($1.2-1.8 million) by Robert Motherwell e On the Road ($1.5-2 million) by Helen Frankenthaler, the latter being offered for the first time at auction.

Contemporary front led by Guitar Girl by Yoshitomo Nara, which depicts a young girl in a blue dress growling as she tears apart her guitar. The figure is one of Nara’s classic characters, Ramona (from the Ramones band), who embodies youthful rebellion and fierce self-determination. A strange mix between otafuku (or okame) theatrical masks and the iconic aesthetic of American rock and roll. Estimate 2-3 million dollars.