New York, 15 April 2026 - Phillips has announced early highlights from its forthcoming Modern & Contemporary Art marquee auctions in New York, anchored by an Evening Sale on Tuesday, 19 May and continuing with Morning and Afternoon Sessions on Thursday, 21 May, all taking place at 432 Park Avenue. Together the sales present a curated selection of masterworks spanning the late 19th century through the present day, led at the top of the Evening Sale by Gerhard Richter's Besen, estimated at $6,500,000 to $8,500,000, and a major Andy Warhol from the Marilyn Reversals.
The Evening Sale brings together major works by Lee Bontecou, Jean Dubuffet, Gerhard Richter, and Andy Warhol, while the Morning and Afternoon Sessions on 21 May span over a century of genres, from Impressionism to contemporary art. Public viewing runs from 9 to 19 May at 432 Park Avenue.
The Evening Sale highlights
Among the Evening Sale's highlights is Lee Bontecou's Untitled (1985 to 2001), described by the house as the most important two-dimensional work by the artist ever to come to market. One of her few works on canvas and the culmination of a decades-long cycle of drawings from the 1980s and 1990s, it was included in the major 2003 traveling retrospective of Bontecou's work, jointly organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and presented at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2004. This luminous pastel composition, defined by sweeping, wave-like forms, embodies Bontecou's notion of the "worldscape," and carries an estimate of $1,200,000 to $1,800,000.
Another top highlight is Andy Warhol's 4 Colored Marilyns (Reversal Series) (1979 to 1986), from the artist's celebrated Marilyn Reversals. Created more than two decades after his iconic 1962 portraits, the Reversals use photographic negatives to transform the image into a high-contrast, chromatically reduced composition. Offered just weeks ahead of what would have been Monroe's 100th birthday on 1 June, the work is estimated at $4,000,000 to $6,000,000. The sale is further distinguished by Gerhard Richter's Besen (1984), a major example from the artist's continuously developed Abstrakte Bilder and among the "Free Abstracts" of the mid-1980s, executed shortly before the squeegee became Richter's primary tool around 1986. It carries the highest estimate of the group at $6,500,000 to $8,500,000. Rounding out the Evening Sale highlights is Jean Dubuffet's Barbe des rites (1959), among the earliest and most fully realized oil paintings from the artist's Barbes, or "Beards," series, created at a pivotal moment when Dubuffet reintroduced the human figure after several years devoted to the quasi-abstract Texturologies. It is estimated at $2,000,000 to $3,000,000.
The Morning and Afternoon Sessions
Modern & Contemporary Art continues on 21 May, beginning with the Morning Session at 10:00 am ET followed by the Afternoon Session at 2:00 pm ET. The Morning Session's highlights include Robert Rauschenberg's South Haunt (Borealis) (1990), from the artist's highly experimental Borealis series and a direct outcome of the Rauschenberg Overseas Cultural Interchange (ROCI). Created using photographs taken during his international travels between 1984 and 1991, the work was included in Rauschenberg's landmark 1998 retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and is estimated at $300,000 to $500,000. Among other masterworks of the session is Alfred Sisley's Les Bords du Canal à Moret, Bords du canal à Moret-sur-Loing (1894), a refined landscape depicting the canal that runs through the town of Moret-sur-Loing, where the artist lived during the final decade of his life. It stands as a strong example of the late landscapes that define his contribution to Impressionism, and carries an estimate of $300,000 to $500,000.
Early highlights from the Afternoon Session include Beatriz Milhazes' Paraty (2001 to 2002), which draws from the artist's personal connection to the Brazilian coastal town of the same name and brings together floral motifs and geometric forms in a densely structured surface, executed using her characteristic transfer technique. It is estimated at $300,000 to $500,000. The session also features KAWS' UNTITLED (CHUM, HOUSTON STREET) (2000), a unique, hand-painted work on paper featuring CHUM, the artist's iconic character based on the Michelin Man. Closely related to KAWS' "ad interventions" of the mid-1990s through mid-2000s, the work was originally installed in a bus shelter on Houston Street in New York in 2000, and is estimated at $250,000 to $350,000.
Key lots and estimates
The sale arrives as Phillips marks its 230th anniversary in 2026, celebrating more than two centuries at the forefront of the global market for Modern & Contemporary Art, Design, and Luxury. Founded in 1796 by the auctioneer Harry Phillips, the house holds its principal auctions in New York, London, Geneva, and Hong Kong.
Estimates do not include the buyer's premium; prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyer's premium.
(Press Release)
