Sotheby’s will hold the seventh edition of its NOW! sale online from 4 to 11 March 2021, an eclectic selection spanning contemporary art, photography, design, and works from Africa and Oceania. This year the exhibition is curated by the French rock photographer Claude Gassian.
Gassian has photographed leading figures of the international music scene for nearly five decades, from James Brown and Mick Jagger to Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, Neil Young, Jack White, Miles Davis and Daft Punk. The sale offers several of his iconic prints, among them portraits of Keith Richards (est. 3,000 to 6,000 euros), Prince (est. 3,000 to 6,000 euros) and a 1973 image of David Bowie as his alter ego Ziggy Stardust (est. 1,000 to 2,000 euros).
The contemporary section is led by Tracey Emin’s neon When I go to sleep I dream of you inside of me, 2003 (est. 50,000 to 70,000 euros), which renders the artist’s own handwriting in light. Also on offer are an untitled 1982 oil by Jean-Pierre Pincemin (est. 35,000 to 55,000 euros) and an untitled 1971 watercolour by Simon Hantaï (est. 30,000 to 40,000 euros), marked by the folded technique that defined his work from the 1960s.
Design highlights include a ‘ Culbuto’ rocking chair and ottoman by Marc Held, designed in 1967 (est. 4,000 to 6,000 euros); a pair of reclining chairs of around 1963 by the Danish designers Preben Fabricius and Jørgen Kastholm (est. 10,000 to 13,000 euros); and a Djinn sofa by Olivier Mourgue, a 1965 model from the series that featured in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (est. 1,000 to 1,500 euros).
Photography beyond Gassian’s work includes Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Hall of Thirty-three Bays, 1995 (est. 10,000 to 15,000 euros), from a group of images made in the Sanjusangen-do temple in Kyoto, and Sugimoto’s Time Exposed, 1991, a set of 51 lithographs (est. 15,000 to 20,000 euros).
The arts of Africa and Oceania section presents a monumental tree-fern statue from the Vanuatu archipelago (est. 8,000 to 12,000 euros), a Baule statue from Côte d’ Ivoire once in the Charles Ratton collection (est. 10,000 to 15,000 euros), and a Maori architectural panel from New Zealand from the Lucas Ratton collection (est. 20,000 to 30,000 euros).
(Press Release)
