The specialist scoop: an exclusive look at 15 star lots making headlines this May

‘This is arguably the best stretcher bar painting Basquiat ever created and certainly the best one to ever come to market. It’s a tour de force from the artist’s best date — 1982. This picture marries symbolism, text and portraiture in a dynamic way that leads your eye to wander between the different images and words. There are three crowns, which are a nod to self-portraiture. There’s an anatomical drawing that alludes to Gray’s Anatomy, which played an important role throughout Basquiat’s entire body of work, and the fully fleshed-out head at the lower left is also so emblematic of the artist. The title alludes directly to comic books, which were one of his biggest passions. It has everything you would want in a Basquiat.

‘The way your eye is able to focus on one individual component, which then guides you to the next, is a true exercise in discovering the overall power of the composition. You can really spend a lot of time getting lost within the composition, unpacking it and discovering new facets. Each element speaks to one another. There’s a perfect synergy and balance within the picture.

‘I didn’t have the opportunity to stand in front of the painting until it arrived at Christie’s. It was amazing to see how pristine the condition was and how much the blue hue came out. The painting has a very cool, deliberate aqua-coloured underlayer behind the entire composition. Depending on the time of day or the way it’s lit you can really see the aqua coming through — every time you stand in front of it you get a totally different experience.

‘This painting has been in the same private collection for close to 20 years. People who know Basquiat know this painting well, but it hasn’t been attainable. The fact that it is now, is incredibly exciting.’

‘There’s a saying that as people age they become more of who they really are. Painted when he was in his sixties, Event is a “summation painting,” a beautiful synthesis of everything Brice Marden worked towards, from monochrome to drawing. It’s a feat of magic how Event is so calculated yet so spontaneous. Here, Marden used his signature long-handled brush, creating distance from the surface that allowed him to see what was emerging as he worked. It’s like the ultimate action painting in real time.

‘In Event, you feel the struggle of a self-imposed stress, but there’s also a deeply satisfying sensation of resolution and renewal. You see the cultural traditions of the places he visited, whether it’s the horizontal format of the painting that echoes classical Greek friezes or the fantastical silhouettes derived from Chinese scholar rocks. The work is nonspecific, but it hits you in this guttural way, which is why Marden’s work is so beloved on a global scale.

‘More than any other artist, Marden really understands the indivisibility of light and colour, which has such a profound effect on the surface of this painting. You have incredible brightness and clarity but also the coolness of quiet nature. Many of Marden’s major works are housed in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, which is why we so rarely see them at auction. This painting, while very well known, was never publicly exhibited. It was acquired shortly after it was created and then held in the same private collection. To finally lay eyes on it, after only encountering it in books or photographs of the artist’s studio, is truly a discovery.’

‘Coin de Jardin avec papillions captures Van Gogh at a moment when he transitions from his early style and crosses the divide to contemporary art. This work is all about radical modernity and there’s this kind of stylised, abstracted approach to the landscape composition that moves beyond the naturalism we see in Impressionist paintings into the more synthetic domain of post-Impressionist art. It’s very rare, frankly, to see a painting that so clearly lies at the foundation of modernism. He is laying the groundwork for everything that came after.

‘What really stood out to me are the vibrant colours and beautifully textured surface. It immediately hits you with that intensity. The grasses and flowering plants create rhythmical patterns across the canvas. You can almost feel the wind animate the flora. There are a few butterflies flitting around the picture, which suggest the transience of worldly existence. This becomes even more compelling when you realize Van Gogh only lived to see another two summers after completing this picture.

‘Coin de Jardin avec evokes Van Gogh’s love of the natural world. The artist once wrote to his sister Willemina that he would gaze at a blade of grass or an ear of wheat to calm himself. It’s a beautiful thought, and I think that sensibility is acutely present here.’

‘If you close your eyes and think of David Hockney, this is likely one of the images that comes to mind. A Lawn Being Sprinkled is iconic within Hockney’s practice. I remember seeing it as part of the Tate Britain’s retrospective, where it was placed next to another of his greatest pictures, A Bigger Splash. It’s infused with the extraordinary light and atmosphere of the West Coast in the 1960s.

‘Hockney was born and raised in the north of England and went to art school in post-war London, so you can imagine the sense of freedom he experienced when he arrived as a young artist in Southern California in 1964. It was an eye-opening moment that transformed his career.

‘In A Lawn Being Sprinkled you see him revelling in everything the West Coast has to offer. It’s so wonderfully Hockney. You’ve got the clarity of the sky, the sense of warmth. His ability to capture intangible water vapour, droplets caught in sunlight, on canvas here is remarkable. The interplay between the light and water has remained central to Hockney’s practice for the last six decades.

‘This painting is completely fresh to the market. It’s been the centrepiece of the collection of Norman and Lyn Lear since 1978, and they understandably held it in great esteem because it was the first thing you saw when you entered the front door of their Brentwood home.’

‘In the Femme Leoni, as in the best of Giacometti, there is an extraordinary compression of presence and feeling. You see can see so much articulation and feeling in that slender band. This cast in particular has an exceptionally rich, varied and beautiful patina and surface.

‘Femme Leoni dates to the late 1940s, the moment after the war when Giacometti became “Giacometti” and refined his distinctive attenuated forms. Other masterpieces from 1947 include The Pointing Man and The Nose.

‘The work connects two of the great female figures of mid-century art, Peggy Guggenheim and Isabel Rawsthorne. Guggenheim commissioned the first bronze cast of Femme Leoni, which is named after Palazzo Venier dei Leoni where her collection is housed in Venice, while the form itself was perhaps inspired by Isabel Rawsthorne, the artist who modelled extensively for Giacometti and Francis Bacon.

‘Where there are nine variants in bronze of the related Femme de Venise, there is only one Leoni, and this cast is one of only two from the edition to appear at auction in nearly 20 years. It may be 20 years again before you see another cast of its quality.’

‘Flowers is very special for me — it’s a painting I had seen in books but couldn’t find for a long time. I’m a Warhol guy, so I was very excited to see the work. When I finally saw it in person it was even more beautiful than I expected. I was mesmerized by the subtle tonal difference in the oranges. I was also impressed by the technical prowess, in the execution of where the petals of the red and orange flowers meet. Warhol had to use a paintbrush to do this.

‘Warhol’s Flowers series holds a particular significance in his early career. He was known for creating portraits of famous people like Marilyn and Elvis, so the flower was a surprising choice. Warhol moves back and forth with different themes throughout art history. The question here was, how could he take a still life and turn it into something completely different? And I think that’s what he did. He takes this 400-year-old motif, flattens it out and spreads it apart. Rather than a conventional bouquet, he creates four individual flowers.

‘Warhol’s larger paintings are rarer since it was easier to silkscreen a smaller work. Flowers marks Warhol’s experimentation with different layers of paint. He uses multiple screen techniques to layer colour over colour. One of the coolest things about the painting is that fluorescent paint was used, which was rare, since it’s more difficult to apply and sustain. Funnily enough, this painting has stayed perfect. When you turn the lights off in the gallery and turn on a blue light, the fluorescent paint illuminates. It gives the work a vibrant, almost three-dimensional quality.’

‘Picasso is in many ways the ultimate 20th-century artist, his work spanning Modernism’s many movements over the better part of the century. In his final decade, he begins to take a retrospective approach towards his larger oeuvre, revisiting his iconic motifs with the same sense of innovation and exploration that defined his earlier career. The 1971 Femme au chapeau assise sees Picasso returning once again to one of his favoured subjects: the enthroned figure.

‘The woman depicted is likely Picasso’s second wife and final muse, Jacqueline Roque, but what’s perhaps most striking is what this painting reveals about Picasso’s perception of himself. The teal-blue colouration of the background and the image of Roque in this yellow straw hat are highly reminiscent of works by Vincent van Gogh, particularly his self-portraits, which Picasso greatly admired in his old age. In referencing Van Gogh, Picasso strives to reaffirm his lineage and foothold in the art historical canon.

‘What I admire about this painting is the vitality and sheer physicality of it. You can chart the movements of Picasso, at this stage in his nineties, across the canvas. He’s using broad, sweeping strokes of paint while simultaneously allowing it to pool, drip and marble, pushing the boundaries of the very media. It’s an enduring final testament to what the maestro has accomplished in his lifetime as well as the continuation of his legacy beyond — it’s a knockout.’

‘The moment I saw this painting at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, it sang to me. Even from a distance, the radiant colour sings forth from the picture in volumes. The sheer range of tones is so beautiful.

‘Moulin de Limetz is one of only two canvases by Monet that feature a view of the mill at Limetz-Villez, near where he lived in Giverny. Here we see the mill in the background engulfed by nature. You can see the sky peeking through the trees, and the way he’s described this luscious greenery is so rich and abundant.

‘Then there’s this kaleidoscopic colour across the water, like a rainbow reflecting the scenery behind it. It’s like a 360-degree view of nature made through reflections and refractions of light. You feel transported into the scene in a very immediate way. Once you’ve seen Monet transcribe nature, you see nature differently.

‘The painting went through the hands of the legendary French dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who really enabled Impressionism to survive by cultivating American collectors. Durand-Ruel once said, “Without America, I would have been lost, ruined, after having bought so many Monets and Renoirs. The American public bought moderately, but thanks to that public, Monet and Renoir were enabled to live…” This work has since remained in the family of the esteemed American collector Ethel B. Atha and is now the property of her heirs and the Nelson-Atkins Museum. Some lovely news is that part of the proceeds will benefit the museum’s future art acquisitions.’

‘Red Poppy is the most fantastic painting by Georgia O’Keeffe to come to market since 2014, when one of her works set the record for the highest price achieved by a woman artist at auction. What she’s known for her flower paintings, and this is an exceptionally large, very vibrant composition that epitomises the flower paintings that made her a sensation when she debuted in the 1920s in New York and have established her as a 20th-century icon ever since.

‘When I walked into the client’s home where the painting was hanging, it immediately drew my eye from down the hallway. The beautiful reds and oranges and the dark black centre of the flower captured my attention. As I got closer, the colours became even more compelling. The vertical orientation underscores the monumentality of the painting as well, giving the flower this larger-than-life presence.

‘The red poppy is a favourite yet also rare subject of O’Keeffe’s — she made only six paintings of the flower. One is no longer extant, two are very small, and the only other two large versions are in museum collections. This is the only large-scale red poppy left in private hands.

‘When O’Keeffe was coming to prominence in New York, she noticed that many of her male contemporaries were focusing on masculine subjects like industrial scenes. In her paintings, she blew up the flower at this large scale to assert a more feminine, often overlooked subject matter. Red Poppy is a powerful picture that finds O’Keeffe claiming her space within art history.’

‘Measuring over 100 inches high and over 75 inches wide, this painting is all-encompassing. Walking towards it, you feel as though you are entering a gorgeous, lush landscape with the freshness and brightness of the colours layered on top of one another. Mitchell was interested in music, and the title Chord X speaks to how various notes or colours connect and interact with one another. I think it’s a very harmonious composition overall.

‘Chord X is one of the most impressive works from Joan Mitchell’s late career, from one of the final series she created. It came after a period when she was struggling with various health issues. She didn't paint much in the mid-1980s because of that, and when she did it was on a smaller scale. This painting marks her recovery and her return to large-scale, physically expressive paintings. During this phase, her brushstrokes become a lot broader and the colour palette exudes joyfulness.

‘This piece has been in the same private collection for over two decades, so it is completely fresh to the market. The Chord series hasn't been seen at auction for over 25 years, one example from the series is at the Tate Britain.’

‘Washington Wall is that rare monumental painting which commands the space in which it hangs without overwhelming it. It is the culmination of a creative process in which Franz Kline pulls together composition, scale and his unique use of colour to create a painting that displays a palpable sense both drama and beauty. He cleverly balances the black-and-white structure he’s known for with these flashes of blue that give it poetry.

‘Kline hails from the coal mining belt of Pennsylvania. It’s the origin of his muscular painting style. The wall in the title has a double meaning. It refers to the wall in his studio but also the “wall” in mining, meaning a vein of coal. Unlike many of his other works, which allude to New York scenes of bridges or skyscrapers, Washington Wall goes back to his industrial roots. The dichotomy between this heavy industrial landscape he grew up in and the poetic, abstract way it materialises on the surface of the canvas is quite stunning.’

‘When you see Untitled (America #3) installed from the ceiling, it dwarfs you. But it’s also intimate; the warm glow of light invites you in. It’s this immediate physical experience that’s quite emotional.

‘Like many of Gonzalez-Torres’s works, this sculpture invites collaboration between viewer and artist. In the exhibition for the Rosa de la Cruz Collection, we present the work by showing its full length and span, but it can be piled or installed any way you like, whether spooled on the floor or draped on the wall. The piece is fully customisable. I really like how it can impact the environment where it’s installed. When the light illuminates the other paintings in the room, it changes the feeling of the space. I don’t know of many artworks that can do that.

‘Other light string sculptures by the artist, also titled America, are in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art and SFMOMA. This is a rare chance to acquire a major work from one Gonzalez-Torres’s most iconic series.’

‘What makes Mark Tansey’s work so extraordinary is that every picture is an allegory — a visual metaphor for the human impulse to create images. Each painting requires deep thought and a process of discovery. Mont Saint-Victoire #1 is a painting rich with pictorial illusions. We see a group of soldiers undress as they descend into a pool, under a mountain at twilight. In their reflection, the mountain has become a brooding cave, the figures have become women, they’re dressing themselves in contemporary clothing and ascending from the water at dawn. A myriad of contradictions creates a striking composition.

‘Among the soldiers we spot Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida and Roland Barthes — three champions of post-modern thought. The figures are reminiscent of Cezanne’s The Large Bathers, while the mountain evokes his famous Mont Sainte-Victoire. Through a series of visual paradoxes Tansey offers a contemporary rejection of the modernist approach to painting, opting for a multifaceted composition that invites many different readings.

‘This painting was sitting in Tansey’s studio in 1987 when the curator Edward Fry came to discuss the upcoming Documenta 8 exhibition. Fry fell in love with it and commissioned a second version for the show. Tansey kept the original in his private collection as a treasured painting for over a decade. It’s a hidden gem that has never before been on public display.’

‘Rauschenberg’s Hawk has an incredible impastoed surface that pairs really well with the abstracted found materials. The beautiful blue reminds me of de Kooning or Hofmann, and the maroon passages add to its painterly effect. In the centre you have this black square, which to me screams Malevich. And then you have the newsprint collage and this dotted fabric that brings us back to the real world.

‘Hawk belongs to his Combines series, which are considered some of the most radical works of the post-war canon. In the Combines (1954–1964), he merges painting, sculpture, and tokens of everyday life — from the streets or around the studio — that were representative of the energy of post-war New York. He’s this bridge between Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art who paved the way for the next phase of art history.

‘Many of his Combines are now in museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Hawk stands out as a particularly accessible work from the series and one of the few left in private hands.

‘Throughout his career, Rauschenberg was very interested in politics. The title Hawk might allude to the hawkish foreign policies of the Cold War period in which it was painted. It may have struck a chord with the collector, Senator Herb Kohl, a businessman, philanthropist, and art collector who represented Wisconsin in the United States Senate.’

‘I find Celmins’s work captivating. It urges you to look closer. What I love about Web #10 in particular is how it has this fleeting beauty. Spider webs are incredibly fragile. Yet they take a tremendous amount of time to be made. There is a beautiful relationship between the amount of time and care that a spider puts into weaving a web and the amount of time and care that Celmins put into creating the drawing.

‘Consistent across Celmins’s work, including her famous renderings of the ocean and the sky, is her method of creating by addition but also by taking away. To create this illusion of a spider web, she is using the eraser quite a bit. She’s carving out the space. That's how she creates the distinction between the heavier and lighter parts of the composition. This gives it an ethereal, dreamy quality that is reminiscent of a memory. There is such precision you almost can’t believe a human created this. There is nothing haphazard about the way Celmins creates art. You can see the technique that’s been worked through decades of exploring different parts of nature, different subjects over and over.’

‘We’ve never had a Celmins spider web drawing at auction before. This is truly a rare opportunity to acquire one — there isn’t a tremendous amount of her work floating around, since she takes a long time to produce each one. When these pieces go into collections, they are loved for a long time.’