Sotheby's

Bidders made quick work over Picasso’s Cubist masterpiece, ‘Arlequin (Buste),’ in the Sotheby’s saleroom on Tuesday night. A highlight from The Collection of Adele & Enrico Donati, the painting achieved $42.6 million in The Modern Evening Auction, presented in partnership with CELINE. ‘Arlequin (Buste)’ is one of Picasso’s defining works, painted in 1909 as he began to develop his signature Cubist style. With this painting, he revolutionized the rules of not just portraiture, but of two-dimensional representation itself. The New York Sales continue with The Modern Day Auction on 20 May. Register to bid at: https://bit.ly/4frgkqU

Giacometti’s rare bronze sculpture ‘La Clairière’ set a new auction record tonight at #SothebysNewYork. It achieved $23.1 million in The Modern Evening Auction, presented in partnership with CELINE, making it the most valuable cast of this form. ‘La Clairière’ offers a dramatic preview of the slender, elongated female figures that would feature prominently in Giacometti’s artistic production for the rest of the decade. The artist believed this composition to be one of the finest from this period of his career, describing it as “the first sculptures which are as I wanted.” The New York Sales continue with The Modern Day Auction on 20 May. Register to bid: https://bit.ly/4dyW7Nn

Simply too seated. Four bidders fought over this Matisse still life tonight at #SothebysNewYork, where it landed $48.4 million, almost double its high estimate. Watch as Helena Newman brings the hammer down after ten minutes of bidding in The Modern Evening Auction, presented in partnership with CELINE. Matisse once said that he didn’t paint the object in a still life, but “the emotion it produces upon me.” This is true for the subject of his 1919 painting, ‘La Chaise lorraine’: an everyday wooden chair. In Matisse’s hands, the wooden chair transforms into an emotional study of color and form. The New York Sales continue Wednesday with The Modern Day Auction. Register to bid at: https://bit.ly/4frgkqU

Is Picasso’s ‘Buste d’homme barbu’ a self-portrait or a portrait of the artist’s father? Here, Sotheby’s Zoë Zaneteas examines how this painting reflects Picasso’s state of mind as he contemplated his legacy at the age of 83, just eight years before his death. This painting is part of Picasso’s explosive late period, defined by speed and psychological intensity. The figure in ‘Buste d’homme barbu' takes inspiration from Picasso’s father, Don José, who was also his first art teacher. Picasso once said, “Every time I draw a man, I find myself thinking of my father…To me a man means ‘Don José’, and it will always be so, all my life…” By evoking his father’s image here, and painting with urgent, dynamic brushstrokes, Picasso pushes against the limits of time. Picasso’s late-period masterpiece stars in The Modern Day Auction, presented in partnership with CELINE. Register to bid in the 20 May sale: https://bit.ly/4wJpTb6

The Cubist masterpiece, ‘Arlequin,’ marks the moment Pablo Picasso became the Picasso you know today. Sotheby’s Allegra Bettini explains how this painting represents a turning point in the artist’s career. Created in the spring of 1909, ‘Arlequin’ anticipates the analytical Cubism that Picasso would develop later that year. It’s still a representational painting, but he compresses form and disrupts space. Picasso reduces the body and environment to their essential components, testing how he might begin to reorganize his compositions. ‘Arlequin’ is a highlight of A Night in May: The Collection of Adele & Enrico Donati. The painting is headed to The Modern Evening Auction on 19 May, presented in partnership with CELINE. Register to bid at: https://bit.ly/4dPvsNs

Why should Yves Tanguy's masterful paintings be in your collection? Read our Surrealism collecting guide to find out: https://bit.ly/4ujOEZP André Breton, co-founder of the movement, called Tanguy the "most Surrealist of Surrealists." Tanguy’s flawlessly finished canvases depict a dreamlike dimension, and one more intrinsic to the Surrealist ambition than any other. While Salvador Dalí employed very real objects and forms—clocks, elephants, bones, faces, figures—and René Magritte played with visual puns firmly placed in reality, Tanguy’s works introduce the viewer to a transcendental space with uniquely unidentifiable shapes and forms. This sets him apart from the other Surrealists and elevates his work into a realm of its own. Tanguy's 1939 painting, 'Aux Aguets Les Jours' is included in The Modern Evening Auction on 19 May as part of A Night in May: The Adele & Enrico Donati Collection.

Are you building a bronze sculpture collection? Read our collecting guide for everything you need to know: https://bit.ly/4wIA7bM For collectors, bronze can be an appealing category to explore because of its versatility and expansiveness. Bronze can be indoors, it can be outdoors. The range of scales and pricing makes for a broad and dynamic market. Whether you’re looking to learn more about bronze sculpture, or grow an extraordinary collection of your own, this is our guide to bronze sculpture and design, including links to many works starring in The New York Sales this week.

With this painting, Kandinsky harnesses the power of geometric form to convey tension, rhythm, harmony, and spiritual force. Here, Sotheby’s Lisa Dennison and Ealan Wingate take a closer look at the artist’s ‘Zwei schwarze Streifen (Two Black Stripes)’ from 1930. It’s a quintessential expression of the artist’s mature geometric abstraction, created in the final years of his Bauhaus tenure. This work is a highlight from A New Vista: The David and Shoshanna Wingate Collection and will star in The Modern Evening Auction at #SothebysNewYork, presented in partnership with CELINE. Register to bid to the 19 May auction: https://bit.ly/4uLIEbP

With this painting, Matisse captures the Mediterranean sunlight and saves it for us. The radiant ‘La Séance du matin’ is one of the most important works from Matisse’s Nice period. Here, Specialist Scott Niichel explores this compelling, hopeful canvas. After arriving in Nice at the end of the war, Matisse is so struck by the light and beauty of his new surroundings that his singular pursuit becomes depicting that light in paint. ‘La Séance du matin’ highlights a radical synthesis of light, color and space that defined Matisse’s Nice period. This painting will star in The Modern Evening Auction, presented in partnership with CELINE, on 19 May. Plan your visit to the exhibition, closing 18 May: https://bit.ly/3RacHf2

When you look at any Giacometti sculpture, two elements remain the same: his figures are extremely tall and extremely thin. Here, Sotheby’s Edith Eustis explains why. She examines ‘La Clairière,’ a Giacometti bronze that features nine forms standing in a glade. This sculpture shows the artist’s desire to capture what it means to encounter someone or something, and the thin figures seem almost like flickers of people appearing in the distance. He’s stripping them back as much as possible in order to find their essence. ‘La Clairiere’ is a highlight of A New Vista: The David and Shoshanna Wingate Collection. It’ll head to auction on 19 May, presented in partnership with CELINE. Register to bid: https://bit.ly/4uLIEbP