RELEASE | Christie’s Prints and Multiples Fall Sales

New York – This Fall, Christie’s Prints and Multiples department in New York will offer a series of four live and online sales throughout October. The annual fall live sale of Prints and Multiples (20-21 October) will be held in three sessions, including 200 lots that span the 19^th century to the present day. The sale comprises works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Edvard Munch, as well as prints by Andy Warhol, Donald Judd, and Roy Lichtenstein. Highlights include an exceptional collection of linocuts by Pablo Picasso from the Nick and Raquel Newman Collection.

During October the department will also hold a series of online auctions beginning with Robert Motherwell Prints from the Dedalus Foundation (22 September – 8 October), a dedicated online-only sale of prints by Motherwell. Following this auction will be two single-artist online sales of Matisse on Paper: Prints & Drawings from the Estate of Jacquelyn Miller Matisse (8-22 October) and The Sleep of Reason: Francisco Goya’s Los Caprichos (8-23 October).

Prints and Multiples | 20 Rockefeller Plaza, New York | 20-21 October

A highlight of the live sale is the Nick and Raquel Newman Collection of Linocuts by Pablo Picasso. Picasso carved his first linocut in 1939 – a contribution to an album of poems and prints published to commemorate Czechoslovak martyrs against Nazi occupation – but began in earnest after the war, in Vallauris, the village above Cannes where he had made pottery since 1947. From 1951 to 1964 he created linocut posters that were used to advertise the town’s ceramic crafts and bullfights. Picasso realized in his explorations during this time that the technique did not need to be confined to poster manufacture. In this medium more than in any other, Picasso desired to create images in color, as the lino-blocks produced characteristically flat and saturated tones. His subsequent engagement was intense – lasting just five years – but during this short period he created more than 100 linocut compositions. They include bullfights, portraits of Jacqueline Roque, nudes, musicians, clowns and a series of still lifes. Many of the images represented in the collection of Nick and Raquel Newman are of these beloved subjects, emblematic of Picasso’s intuitive ability to recognize and exploit the possibilities inherent in any medium in which he chose to work. Explore the viewing room here.

Matisse on Paper: Prints & Drawings from the Estate of Jacquelyn Miller Matisse | 8-22 October

Christie’s presents an online-only auction of prints and drawings by Henri Matisse. These works on paper are offered directly from the Estate of Jacquelyn Miller Matisse. At Mme Matisse’s request, the majority of her estate will benefit charitable causes including The Alzheimer’s Research Institute, The National Foundation for Autism Research, Société Française du Cancer and The Art Institute of Chicago. With 36 lots to browse, come explore these dynamic works by one of the defining modern masters of the 20th century. Estimates start at US $2,000 and bidding opens at 10am EST on 8 October.

The Sleep of Reason: Francisco Goya’s Los Caprichos | 8-23 October

Christie’s presents an online-only auction of Francisco Goya’s Los Caprichos, a landmark series of prints published at the dawn of the 19th century. Widely regarded as ‘last old master and the first modern’ artist, Goya challenged outmoded traditions and superstitions that dominated the lives of his fellow Spaniards. However, ridiculing the church and state risked making powerful enemies, not least the dreaded Inquisition, and Goya employed allegory and illusion to cover his tracks. The impressions on offer are all from a First Edition copy, published by the artist in 1799, and were formerly in the collection of a member of the Spanish aristocracy.