Christie’s – Going Once

This week’s stories

Everything you need to know about modern sculpture

How Rodin, Duchamp, Giacometti, Judd, Lalanne and more — all offered in our 20/21 auctions in New York — redefined the medium

Hot contemporary artists: from a maker of ‘intimate doppelganger avatars’ to a ‘vivid’ chronicler of London’s 1980s Black history

Big names at surprising prices: Vuillard, Delaunay, Signac, Man Ray and Picasso, all with low estimates of less than $50,000

How Grace Wu assembled the world’s finest collection of Ming furniture — and why some of it is to be offered in Hong Kong

Leighton and Landscape in London — the paintings made on his travels that reveal a more personal side of the artist

All the world’s a stage: actor Lionel Erdogan, star of Spiral and currently treading the boards in As You Like It, picks out favourite paintings and sculptures on offer in our Paris Old Masters sales

Editor’s picks

Portrait of François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture depicts a hero of the Haitian revolution, the first successful slave revolt in modern history. Painting it, in 1804-05, was a defiant act by Alexandre François Louis de Girardin, since Toussaint had been deported and imprisoned by the French authorities, dying behind bars in 1803

Estimate: €200,000-400,000

21‌ November‌, Paris

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Made more than 2,100 years ago, this bronze-inset jade cup from the Han dynasty was used to hold wine. The surface of the jade is incised with cloud patterns, while the bronze frame has bear motifs. Bears were seen as a symbol of strength in Han culture, which is why they appear on the vessel’s legs, the parts carrying its weight

Estimate: HK$300,000-500,000

29‌ November‌, Hong Kong

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When the Australian artist Sidney Nolan visited the Antarctic in January 1964, he was amazed by the colours he saw there. Antarctica, a painting made that year, is a record of his wonder. ‘I had expected only the white of ice and snow,’ he recalled, ‘but this is not so. It is black, ochre, dark green and blue, with an oyster-coloured sky and an indigo sea’

Estimate: £15,000-25,000

19‌ November‌, London

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‘I grew up in Nashville,’ the artist Red Grooms once said. ‘I wished desperately that it had a bigger skyline and that the streets had more people on them.’ Hence his move to New York, where he created teeming scenes such as Deli, from 2006, a hand-cut three-dimensional lithograph in a Plexiglas case, packed with a cast of cartoon-like city dwellers

Estimate: $2,000-3,000

until 19‌ November‌, Online

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BROWSE ALL

What’s on

Closing soon | London

Royal Drawing School selling exhibition: Best of The Drawing Year 2024, until 17‌ November‌

Last days to view | New York

20th/21st Century Art sales in New York, until 22‌ November‌

Live for browsing | London

Finest and Rarest Wines, 26 and 27‌ November‌

Spotlight on

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Abstract Expressionism — how a distinctly American style of painting emerged from post-war New York, casting off traditionalism and breaking boundaries

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The ceramics of Pablo Picasso, who designed hundreds of editions over three decades, many from his workshop studio in Vallauris on the Côte d’Azur

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Alexander Calder: the youngest artist ever to have a retrospective at MoMA, who transformed 20th-century sculpture with his ‘drawings in space’ mobiles

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Donald Judd (1928-1994), Untitled, 1987. Galvanized iron and translucent green Plexiglas, in 10 parts. Each: 6 x 27 x 24 in (15.2 x 68.6 x 61 cm). Overall: 120 x 27 x 24 in (304.8 x 68.6 x 61 cm). Estimate: $4,000,000-6,000,000. Artwork: © 2024 Judd Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966), Femme debout, sans bras, conceived in 1958; this bronze version cast in 1963. Bronze with brown patina. Height: 25½ in (65 cm). Estimate: $3,000,000-5,000,000. Artwork: © Succession Alberto Giacometti / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY 2024 / François-Xavier Lalanne (1927-2008), Important pair of ‘Chameaux’, 1974. Wool, leather, patinated aluminium, painted metal, foam rubber, wood. Closed (each): 45½ x 92⅞ x 40½ in (115.5 x 236 x 103 cm). Open (each): 45½ x 92⅞ x 57⅛ in (115.5 x 236 x 145 cm). Estimate: $4,000,000-6,000,000. Artwork: Les Lalanne © 2024 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York, NY/ ADAGP, Paris, France / Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), In Advance of the Broken Arm, conceived in 1915 and executed in 1964. Wood and galvanized-iron snow shovel. Height: 51⅝ in (131.2 cm). Estimate: $2,000,000-3,000,000. Artwork: © Association Marcel Duchamp / ADAGP, Paris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 2024. All offered in the 20th Century Evening Sale on 19‌ November‌ 2024 at Christie’s in New York / Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) Pumpkin, 2022. Fibreglass reinforced plastic and urethane paint, in three parts. 96½ x 102 x 102 in (245 x 260 x 260 cm). Estimate: $6,000,000-8,000,000. Offered in the 21st Century Evening Sale on 21 November at Christie’s in New York. Artwork: © Yayoi Kusama // Denzil Forrester (b. 1956), Street Music, 1989. Oil on linen. 49 x 73 in (124.3 x 185 cm). Estimate: $80,000-120,000. Offered in the 21st Century Evening Sale on 21‌ November‌ 2024 at Christie’s in New York. Artwork: © Denzil Forrester // Grace Wu, founder of The Grace Wu Bruce Gallery // Frederic, Lord Leighton, P.R.A. (1830-1896), The Bay of Cadiz — Moonlight (detail). Oil on canvas. 20.5 x 29 cm. Leighton House, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Purchased with support from the Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and The Friends of Leighton House // Lionel Erdogan at the Théâtre Hébertot with works offered in the Old Masters sales at Christie’s in Paris. Photo: © Nina Slavcheva // Tom Cubitt (b. 1992), Evening (detail). Coloured pencil on paper. 57 x 56 cm. Part of Best of The Drawing Year 2024 | Royal Drawing School, until 17‌ November‌ 2024 at Christie’s in London. Courtesy of the Royal Drawing School // Arshile Gorky (1904-1948), Untitled, circa 1943 (detail). Crayon, ink and graphite on paper. 17 x 22 in (43.2 x 55.9 cm). Estimate: $2,000,000-3,000,000. Offered in the 20th Century Evening Sale on 19‌ November‌ 2024 at Christie’s in New York

Everything you need to know about modern sculpture

Hot contemporary artists: from a maker of ‘intimate doppelganger avatars’ to a ‘vivid’ chronicler of London’s 1980s Black history

Big names at surprising prices: Vuillard, Delaunay, Signac, Man Ray and Picasso, all with low estimates of less than $50,000

How Grace Wu assembled the world’s finest collection of Ming furniture — and why some of it is to be offered in Hong Kong

Leighton and Landscape in London — the paintings made on his travels that reveal a more personal side of the artist

All the world’s a stage: actor Lionel Erdogan, star of Spiral and currently treading the boards in As You Like It, picks out favourite paintings and sculptures on offer in our Paris Old Masters sales

Editor’s picks

What’s on

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Private Sales: Our best kept secret

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