LONDON – 12 JUNE 2025 – Phillips is pleased to unveil highlights from the upcoming Modern & Contemporary Art Evening & Day Sale, taking place on 26 June in London. This season’s auction presents a vibrant mix of 20th century icons and contemporary trailblazers, featuring standout works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Elizabeth Peyton, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Nicole Eisenman, and John Chamberlain. A major highlight of the sale is REVEALED: Important Works by Christo & Jeanne-Claude, a landmark group of over 30 works from a distinguished Japanese private collection.

Further highlights include notable works by Ugo Rondinone, Martha Jungwirth, Michel Majerus, Jadé Fadojutimi, Soumya Netrabile, Yu Nishimura, Joseph Yaeger, and Poppy Jones.

The full catalogue is now available online , and the exhibition opens to the public at Phillips’ Berkeley Square galleries from 19 June until the auction on 26 June at 3pm. Olivia Thornton, Phillips’ Head of Modern & Contemporary Art, Europe, said, “This season’ssale captures the breadth and dynamism of the category, from the raw energy of Basquiat to the monumental vision of Christo & Jeanne-Claude.

We are honoured to present REVEALED, arare and timely tribute to two of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. As we mark milestone anniversaries for Christo & Jeanne-Claude and their landmark projects, the timing of this sale is especially significant. We are also proud to showcase works by anew generation of artists shaping today’s cultural landscape, including Yu Nishimura, Joseph Yaeger, and Poppy Jones.”

Leading the sale is Jean-Michel Basquiat’s MP, a portrait of Michael Patterson, a young photographer and stylist who moved in the same vibrant New York club scene as Basquiat. The painting transforms Patterson into a totemic figure of Black youth and creative power, enriched with collaged blues lyrics, cryptic symbols, and references to identity and resistance. Basquiat was only twenty-four years old at the time of the present work’s execution in 1984, and already an established figure on the international art scene. This exceptionally rare work is the second of only two portraits of Michael Patterson and the only known instance of Basquiat painting a subject directly from life.

A major highlight of the sale is REVEALED: Important Works by Christo & Jeanne-Claude , a landmark selection of over 30 works from a distinguished Japanese private collection. Assembled by a devoted collector of postwar art over several decades, the collection reflects afar-reaching vision shaped by a close personal relationship with Christo and Jeanne-Claude. In 2010, following Christo’s passing, works from the collection were loaned to Issey Miyake’s museum 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT in Tokyo for a commemorative exhibition. Now, as the collector establishes anew foundation to support contemporary art in Japan, they have chosen to part with key international works.

This exceptional grouping arrives at a poignant moment, as 2025 marks the 90th anniversary of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s birth —both born on 13 June 1935— and major milestones in their career: 40 years since The Pont Neuf Wrapped in Paris, 30 years since Wrapped Reichstag in Berlin, and 20 years since The Gates in New York. Featuring works tied to these seminal projects, the collection offers a timely and deeply personal tribute to the artists’ legacy and a rare insight into a deeply personal, decades-long collecting journey.

Highlights from the Young British Artists include Damien Hirst’s Invocation , aluminous tondo from his acclaimed Kaleidoscope series. Made from intricately arranged jewel-toned butterfly wings, the work evokes Gothic windows and religious iconography, meditating on beauty, mortality, and the passage of time. Also featured is Tracey Emin’s poignant neon Its not me Thats Crying Its my Soul, a raw, handwritten expression of grief and emotional vulnerability. A version of this work was exhibited in Tracey Emin / Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul at the Munch Museum, Oslo, in 2021–2022.

Spencer (Two Palms) is aluminous and psychologically charged portrait by Elizabeth Peyton that captures New York artist Spencer Sweeney. Created at a pivotal moment in Peyton’s career, the work marks her shift toward intimate portrayals of friends and collaborators. With its ethereal palette and echoes of Manet and Schiele, Spencer (Two Palms) exemplifies Peyton’svital role in the revival of contemporary figurative painting.

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s Pearl For AMackerel (estimate: £450,000–650,000 ) is apivotal group portrait that exemplifies her distinctive approach to contemporary figuration. Painted in 2010 in asingle sitting, the work blends historical references with acontemporary gaze, depicting three women in quiet conversation, rendered with fluid brushwork and arich chiaroscuro palette.

Another standout highlight of the sale is Nicole Eisenman’sMaquette: Sketch for aFountain (Reclining Figure). This playful yet poignant bronze sculpture distills the artist’sdistinctive blend of humour and social critique, reimagining classical forms through acontemporary lens to challenge norms of beauty, gender and public space.

John Chamberlain’sEtruscan Romance is acommanding example of the artist’ssignature fusion of industrial material and expressive form. Standing nearly three metres tall, the monumental sculpture transforms compacted salvaged steel into adynamic composition of colour, rhythm, and movement.

Featured in the artist’s landmark 1986 retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the work reflects Chamberlain’s belief in the poetic potential of the readymade. John Chamberlain Etruscan Romance , 1984 Estimate: £300,000 - 500,000 Additional sale highlights include works by Ugo Rondinone, Martha Jungwirth, Michel Majerus, Jadé Fadojutimi, Soumya Netrabile, Yu Nishimura , Joseph Yaeger, and Poppy Jones.

(Press Release)