News-Antique.com - Nov 30,-0001 - PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Diana Phillips
Matthew Weigman
Patricia Fox Madara
T (212) 606 7176
F (212) 606 7841
New York, New York – Sotheby’s sale of Contemporary Art on the evening of May 10th will feature outstanding
post-war works of art by such artists as Roy Lichtenstein, Willem de Kooning, Andy Warhol and Alexander
Calder, as well as works by dynamic, younger artists, including Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Cecily Brown,
Elizabeth Peyton and Lisa Yuskavage. Highlighting the evening will be Lichtenstein’s iconic Pop painting
entitled Sinking Sun (estimate upon request). The works will be on public exhibition at Sotheby’s in New York
from May 6th through noon on May 10th.
“This seductive, beautiful painting is one of the great icons of the 20th century,” commented Tobias Meyer,
Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art. “Sinking Sun captivates the viewer in its image of hope and nostalgia,
and embodies all of the qualities you want in a pristine Pop masterpiece.”
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Sinking Sun, Roy Lichtenstein’s rare and magnificent Pop painting from 1964, occupies a peerless position both
within the artist’s prodigious oeuvre and within the wider context of American Pop Art. Sinking Sun stands at the
apogee of Lichtenstein’s highly acclaimed comic strip paintings for which the artist received international fame in
the early 1960s. Bold in ambition and scale (measuring 68 by 80 in.), it is a distillation of Lichtenstein’s highly
distinctive comic book-derived iconography. With its immaculate, exquisite finish, Sinking Sun is the epitome of
the artist’s painstaking hand-painted process that insistently removed all expressionistic gesture. The highlight of
the 1964 Landscapes exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery, Sinking Sun was acquired by Dennis and Brooke Hopper,
and for many years graced the walls of their Los Angeles home. For the past 30 years it has been part of a
prominent New York Collection of Pop and American Contemporary Art.
This spring, Sotheby’s is pleased to offer several
important works of art on behalf of the
ExxonMobil Foundation. Included in the
Contemporary evening sale is a monumental
work by Alexander Calder from 1975 entitled
Flying Dragon. Estimated at $6/8 million and
measuring nearly 30 feet tall, this classic
example of one of Calder’s greatest stabiles
possesses a graceful, curving silhouette that
belies the weight of the material and sheer size
of the elements. The electric red paint adds an
element of anticipation and expectation as the
mythological figure soars into the air. In a delightful contradiction related to a masterful interplay of positive and
negative space in the round, the massive work is given the unique visual buoyancy that is the hallmark of Calder’s
monumental work.
Also from the ExxonMobil Foundation will be Jean Dubuffet’s Le Tissu Social, an acrylic and paper collage on
paper mounted on canvas in two panels from 1977 (est. $1.2/1.8 million). From another important collection
comes Jean Dubuffet’s Trinité-Champs-Elysées (est. $3/4 million), one of the most enthralling and enchanting
paintings from the artist’s most highly esteemed and consequential series, Paris Circus. Executed in 1961, it
