Contemporary Curated

Sotheby’s Contemporary Curated auction is a powerful exhibition of the post-war period. The auction presents works from The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, and The Drawing Center as well as from private collections. It is curated by renowned chef Massimo Bottura. The resulting selection proves that a passion for food can extend to an appetite for painting and sculpture, bridging the gap between mediums.  

Just as Bottura has pushed the boundaries of what it means to be a chef, pieces so have many of the female artists here. Estimated in the millions, the auction has gathered works from some of the most significant contemporary female artists to date and placed them in like company.  Cecily Brown’s triptych Have You Not Known, Have You Not Heard from 2011 is a monumental abstract and figural painting full of flesh-colored movement.  The artist has said that viewing her work “should be a pleasurable, even a hedonistic experience” (from a conversation with Lari Pittman in Ibid, p. 27), and this lot wonderfully demonstrates the sentiment. Brown often references a host of sources in her creations, including works by Bosch, Cézanne, and Ruben, infusing her contemporary paintings with meaning and rooting them in the canon of art history. 

There is also a piece by trailblazing artist Joan Mitchell, Rufus’ Rock: Mistral from 1965. It is a wonderful abstraction of the Côte d’Azur, the artists’ chosen home for a tumultuous period of her life, and is a study on memory and nature. Several soft and tranquil drawings by Elizabeth Peyton are present. And there are other-worldly paintings by Yayoi Kusama that glow from within. Indeed, the auction virtually reads like a who’s who of important contemporary artists and includes works by Robert Rauschenberg, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Josef Albers, Andy Warhol, Kerry James Marshall, and Alex Katz. There are several sculptures and sculptural furniture available with the inclusion of Franz West’s chairs, and there is even a brooch by Alexander Calder. To view the complete catalog and register to bid go to Sotheby’s.