Franz Marc: The Search for a Better World”

Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (K20)

  12.9.2026 – 24.1.2027

The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen presents the first comprehensive exhibition of the Expressionist and co-founder of *Der Blaue Reiter* (The Blue Rider), Franz Marc (1880–1916)—marking the first major solo exhibition of his work in a German museum in over twenty years.

Franz Marc (1880–1916) is one of the most important artists of German Expressionism and a key figure in the development of modern art. His work is captivating, characterized by vibrant colors, an intense connection to nature, and especially by his powerful depictions of animals. Marc was also part of a far-reaching artistic network spanning Paris, Berlin, and Munich. 
Together with Wassily Kandinsky, he founded the editorial group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider ), thus decisively shaping the development of modern art.

Vibrant colors, poignant themes, and world-famous animal paintings – the exhibition “Franz Marc: The Search for a Better World” at the K20 invites visitors to rediscover the life and work of this extraordinary artist. 

The first comprehensive solo exhibition in 20 years offers a unique opportunity to experience 120 masterpieces from all phases of Franz Marc's (1880–1916) career in one place. Highlights of the exhibition include his iconic animal paintings and impressive depictions of nature, which are among the most celebrated works of classical modernism.

Luminous colors, moving themes, and world-famous animal paintings—what makes the art of Franz Marc (1880–1916) so fascinating to this day? The exhibition *Franz Marc: The Search for a Better World* at the K20 invites visitors to rediscover the life and work of this outstanding artist. Until January 24, 2027, there is a unique opportunity to experience masterpieces from all phases of Marc’s career in a single location.

The exhibition *Franz Marc: The Search for a Better World* invites visitors to rediscover Franz Marc: it reveals how deeply the artist was embedded in the vibrant art and cultural scene prior to the First World War—and the impressively diverse evolution of his work between 1905 and 1914. From early animal depictions to Cubist-inspired abstractions, the exhibition traces the path of a seeker—an artist who longed for an earthly paradise during an era defined by a belief in progress. For Marc, his paintings were enclaves of harmony—but also visions of a new, ideal world—with which he fought against the rationalization and mechanization of the environment and the intellectual shallowness of society.

A Seeker. As the title *The Search for a Better World* suggests, the exhibition responds to a longing for peace and a life in harmony with nature—a need that was as pressing then as it is today. For Franz Marc, this search was simultaneously an exploration of his own artistic identity. In barely eight years, he traversed almost the entire spectrum of modern art’s evolution, moving from Post-Impressionism to abstraction. The exhibition traces his shifting motifs and painting styles, reveals the surprising ruptures and persistent doubts that characterize his work, and offers new insights into Marc’s stance on the social upheavals and the looming war.

Franz Marc’s (born Feb. 8, 1880, in Munich; died March 4, 1916, in Braquis near Verdun, France) artistic journey began at the Munich Academy, where he initially engaged with Naturalism and Art Nouveau. 

His friendship with the Swiss animal painter Jean-Bloé Niestlé (1884–1942), which began in 1905, reinforced and focused his interest on depicting animal subjects. For Marc, the goal was not so much naturalistic reproduction as it was grasping the inner essence of the animals. Marc himself described his primary approach as painting animals "as they themselves view the world and feel their own being" (Letters, April 8, 1915). These animal paintings are rooted in a pantheistic worldview that perceives animals as the embodiment of a divinity lost to humanity. 

In 1903 and 1907, Marc traveled to Paris and studied both old and new French art at the Louvre. He was particularly captivated by Post-Impressionism and Fauvism, and especially by painters such as Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) and Paul Gauguin (1848–1903). 

From 1908 onwards, Marc’s understanding of composition and color underwent a fundamental shift. For Marc, color was not merely a means of heightening expression but held a deeper symbolic significance. Drawing on sources such as Wolfgang von Goethe’s theory of color, he developed his own color theory: yellow embodied femininity, gentleness, and sensuality; red represented the brutal and the earthbound; and blue stood for the spiritual, the intellectual, and the masculine. Through this high-contrast—Expressionist—concept of color, Marc sought to make metaphysical dimensions visible in his paintings.

Abstraction. A trip to Paris in 1912 with his friend and fellow artist August Macke (1887–1914)—during which they visited Robert Delaunay (1885–1941) and Sonia Delaunay (1885–1979) twice—marked a quantum leap in the painting of both artists. Although Franz Marc had been familiar with the Cubist works of Georges Braque (1882–1963) and Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) since 1910, it was Robert Delaunay’s light-filled, crystalline "window" paintings that inspired his own prismatic compositions.

In the months before

PUBLICATION

This publication, released to coincide with the first monographic exhibition on Franz Marc in over twenty years, traces the development of his work from 1904 to 1914. From his early works to the increasing dissolution of forms under the influence of Cubism, the volume offers a comprehensive view of his oeuvre, his artistic relationships, and his world of ideas. With approximately 130 illustrations and essays by Uwe Fleckner, Katja Förster, Susanne Meyer-Büser, and Livia Wermuth, the catalogue provides a multifaceted insight into the work of this extraordinary artist.

Images

Werktitel / Title of the work: Franz Marc, Der Traum, 1912, Öl auf Leinwand, 100,5 × 135,5 cm, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid 

Werktitel / Title of the work: Franz Marc, Die kleinen gelben Pferde, 1911, Öl auf Leinwand, 66 × 104 cm‚ Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, erworben 1957

Werktitel / Title of the work: Franz Marc, Die verzauberte Mühle, 1913, Öl auf Leinwand, 130,2 × 90,8 cm

Werktitel / Title of the work: Franz Marc, Fuchs (Blauschwarzer Fuchs), 1911, Öl auf Leinwand, 50 × 63,5 cm‚ Von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal

Werktitel / Title of the work: Franz Marc, Katzen, Rot und Weiß, 1912, Öl auf Platte, 52 × 35 cm, Privatsammlung

Werktitel / Title of the work: Franz Marc, Kinderbild (Katze hinter einem Baum), 1910/11, Öl auf Leinwand, 70,2 × 50 cm, Privatsammlung

Arp. Heads or Tails

This Fall, Hauser & Wirth presents ‘Arp. Heads or Tails,’ the first New York exhibition in nearly fifteen years dedicated to the seminal German-French modernist. Organized by Curatorial Senior Director Alexis Lowry, in collaboration with the Stiftung Arp e.V., Berlin/Rolandswerth, this presentation takes Arp’s late Threshold sculptures as a point of departure, situating this pivotal but underexamined body of work within the trajectory of Arp’s long career of aesthetic and philosophical inquiry. 

The exhibition’s design takes inspiration from Arp’s studio in Locarno, Switzerland, and traces a line from his early cut-outs and reliefs to his mastery of form as a tool for reconfiguring and transforming our perception of space. ‘Heads or Tails’ presents key examples from the Threshold series alongside a selection of rarely exhibited works on paper and late sculptures. The juxtaposition reveals how elements of Arp’s visual language migrated across materials and forms, accruing new meaning through a process of perpetual reinvention. 

The exhibition coincides with the release of ‘Arp: Paper’ from Hauser & Wirth Publishers, a survey of nearly two hundred works—many never before exhibited or published—that situates paper at the very heart of the artist’s practice. 

Arp described the Threshold sculptures, which date from 1958 onwards, as an extension of his established practice of cutting and collaging paper, writing that the works resulted from ‘the same principle of cut-out forms, now applied to space.’ Unlike his earlier engagements with three-dimensional form—primarily self-contained, biomorphic structures—these objects appear as if torn directly out of a picture plane. ‘

Ruhende / Allongée (Reclining)’ (1960), for example, enlarges and remixes motifs from drawings such as ‘

Stuhl und Flasche / Chaise et bouteille (Chair and Bottle)’ (1926) 

and ‘Vegetale Nacht / Nuit végétale (Vegetal Night)’ (1938), becoming a ‘threshold’ not as a fixed boundary but as a point of passage into greater dimensionality—an opening out into the world. The freestanding object is animated by the viewer’s movement around and through it, taking on a new shape and meaning as it is experienced from multiple points of view. 

The exhibition’s namesake, ‘Wappen oder Zahl / Pile ou face (Heads or Tails)’ (1959) references this double-sided nature directly in its title while also invoking chance—a generative force throughout Arp’s creative process.

‘Das kleine Theater / Le petit théâtre (The Small Theater)’ (1959) exemplifies the Threshold series’ ability to draw surrounding space into the works themselves. An image within an image, ‘The Small Theater’ appears almost like a relief whose back panel has been removed, opening the composition to its environment. Here, the spaces between forms become as important as the forms themselves, transforming a principle central to Arp’s collages into a fully realized spatial experience. 

If Arp’s early collages and reliefs informed his Threshold sculptures, the later paper compositions on view, including a selection of Diptychs and watercolors from the 1960s, suggest that the exchange was reciprocal. In dialogue, these works—ripe with motifs that recur throughout his sculptural practice—reveal an artist continually revisiting and reconfiguring his visual vocabulary across mediums. 

The bronze sculptures presented in the round further underscore the fluidity of Arp’s practice, demonstrating how forms first explored in relief, collage and drawing repeatedly found new expression in sculpture, where they were transformed by scale, material and three-dimensional space. Viewed alongside these parallel bodies of work, the Threshold sculptures take on new significance. Created during the final decade of his life, they reveal an artist working simultaneously across multiple threads of inquiry, revisiting longstanding motifs while continuing to generate new forms and ideas. For Arp, the threshold was not simply a point of passage but a space of possibility—a concept that remained central to his understanding of artistic creation and life until the end. 

About the artist 

Hans Arp is a familiar figure of classical modernism and was a key contributor in the development of dada and surrealism in the early twentieth century. Focusing his attention on everyday objects and parts of the body. Arp created his own unique ‘object language’ using a nonsensical vocabulary: plate, fork, knife, clock, tie, moustache, lips, breasts. With a playful hand he juggled the dominant art currents of the early twentieth century, combining seemingly contradictory geometric and organic formal idioms with the artistic ‘-isms’ of his epoch. Turning his back on the increasingly modernized turn-of-the-century society, Arp created biomorphic works whose organic, amoeboid forms highlighted his fascination with the physiological processes of procreation, growth and death, and counteracted the rectilinear structures of cubism. Arp studied the natural world for inspiration, while documenting the evolution of an imaginary world. Combined with his late bronze sculptures from the 1950s, these works sought to give form to natural forces—clotting, hardening, congealing and fusing—all of which weresymbols of eternal cycles in nature for Arp. 

Born in Strasbourg, in Alsace, then part of Germany (now France), in 1886 Arp was raised bilingual, French and German, and additionally Alsatian, which was fundamental for his work. After studying at Strasbourg’s Ecole des Arts et Metiers, Kunstschule Weimar and Académie Julian, Paris he co-founded the Swiss Artists association ‘Der Moderne Bund’ and the dada movement in Zurich. Arp participated the first surrealist exhibition in 1925 in Paris alongside Klee, Picasso and many others. 

In the 1930s, the Zurich-based art historian Carola Giedion-Welcker recognized the relevance of Arp’s vision of nature, and saw in his works the ‘invisible made visible, the search for a visual language capable of capturing the spiritual realms beyond the world of appearances.’ 

Arp’s innovative and influential practice prefigured the fluxus movement, inspired artists such as Anthony Caro and Joan Miró, and made way for the great contemporary performance artists. His first major solo exhibition in the USA was shown in 1949. Arp was awarded the Grand Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale in 1954. In the 1960s he received the GrandPrix National des Arts and the German Federal Cross of Merit. The first Arp retrospective was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1958. Although his later practice is often overlooked, Arp continued to produce sculpture and poetry until his death in 1966, building an extraordinary body of work that evolved beyond Dada, particularly in his increasingly experimental poetry.

MORE IMAGES

Untitled (Composition)

1958-1965

Knospe auf Schale / Bourgeon sur coupe (Bud on Bowl)

1960 (cast 2021)

Untitled

1966

Schwellengestaltung / Seuil-configuration (Threshold Configuration)

1959 (casting date unknown, before 1977)

Untitled

1965-1966 c.

Siamesisch / Siamois (Siamese)

1960 (cast 1984)

Diptychon (Diptych)

1962 c.

Christie's Monsoon: The Peter Simon Collection October 14-15

  Christie's is delighted to present Monsoon: The Peter Simon Collection, highlighting its London Marquee Week in October 2026. Offered in three dedicated auctions with an Evening Sale, a Day Sale plus an online sale collectively comprising nearly 200 works, this selection from the personal collection of British businessman Peter Simon, the founder of Monsoon, will be offered during Frieze Week when international art market attention turns to London, and represents the highest value single-owner collection offered to date at Christie's London in a single Marquee Week.

A pioneering collecting journey

The Peter Simon Collection stands as one of Britain's foremost Modern and Contemporary Art collections. It embodies the same wide-ranging curiosity, intuitive selection, and global perspective that has defined the career of Peter Simon, founder of Monsoon, the renowned international fashion brand. Just as he sought out the finest hand-crafted textiles across India for Monsoon's unique hand-block printed fabrics, Simon's approach to art shows a discerning eye developed over a lifetime immersed in colour, craftsmanship and design.

The works offered in these sales span the history of Modern and Contemporary art, connecting the St Ives School with European Modernism, Abstract Expressionism with Op Art, and the School of London with contemporary painting from around the world. Major works by masters of modern and contemporary art (such as Francis Bacon, Piet Mondrian, Joan Miró, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso and Hurvin Anderson, amongst others) are presented alongside lesser-known and rarely seen pieces, each selected for its individual character and story. Across the Collection, a sensitivity to colour, texture and composition emerges as a defining thread, revealing the instinctive eye of a collector whose passion for creativity and visual culture has extended from fashion into art.

Interwar Modernism and The School of London

Encouraged and advised by some of the most respected figures in the UK and international art market, Simon developed a deeply personal approach to collecting in the early 1990s, favouring works by British modern masters and contemporary artists whose use of colour, composition, and emotional resonance reflected his own visual sensibility. Simon's early interest in art began close to home, with Francis Bacon's work striking a particular chord.  The collection includes two outstanding paintings from distinct stages of the artist's career. 

Painted in 1978, Figure in Movement (estimate: £14,000,000-18,000,000) is one of Francis Bacon's finest single-panel works, distinguished by its luminous, dramatic palette. Bathed in radiant, glowing colour it offers a staggering image, rendered with striking contrasts of sculptural solidity and dissolving brushwork, drawing on influences from Michelangelo and Muybridge. The painting reflects the artist's newfound contentment during this period: the figure, aglow with life, spirals out of the darkness and into the light. 

Study for a Figure (circa 1945; estimate: £4,000,000-6,000,000) is a rare and historic work within the artist's oeuvre, and an extraordinary response to his seminal masterpiece Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (1944, Tate, London), which caused a sensation when it was unveiled shortly before the end of the Second World War, announcing Bacon's arrival as an artist.

Works by Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth represent important contributions to Modernism. 

Hand-carved from a single piece of wood, Nicholson's 1934 (relief) (estimate: £1,000,000-2,000,000) is an extremely rare example in the white reliefs series that cemented his international reputation. Hepworth's work on paper, The Hands and The Arm (1948; estimate: £150,000-250,000), one of what are now known as her Hospital Drawings, was created during the three years she spent sketching directly in operating theatres in London and the West Country.

Other important artists from the School of London, Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff, are also offered – Study of Primrose Hill (1973-1974; estimate: £2,000,000-3,000,000) is a joyful and dynamic painting of one of Auerbach's most beloved North London landscape subjects.  Christ Church, Stormy Day, Summer (1994: estimate: £400,000-600,000) by Kossoff was included in his exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 1995, followed by his major retrospective at the Tate Gallery the following year.

Exceptional pieces by Joan Miró, Fernand Léger, Piet Mondrian and Pablo Picasso illustrate the influence of the European avant-garde that fuelled the cross-pollination with the British art scene during this era. 

Piet Mondrian's 1935 Composition A, with Double Line and Yellow (estimate: £8,000,000-12,000,000) exemplifies near-extreme minimalism, revealing the artist's Neo-Plastic search for perfection. 

In Joan Miró's 1925 Peinture (Les amants – Adam et Eve) (estimate: £7,000,000-10,000,000), an evocative moment between a pair of lovers unfolds against an expansive, loosely brushed ground, belonging to the artist's revolutionary series known as the dream paintings.

Fernand Léger and Pablo Picasso are also featured with different interpretations of the still-life: 

Léger's Le Siphon (estimate: £3,000,000-5,000,000) belongs to a rare and important group of Purist-inspired still lifes that he created in 1924, at a time when he was moving between his classically inspired, monumental figure scenes. Pablo Picasso's Crâne, lampe, poireaux, pichet (1945; estimate: £3,000,000-5,000,000), painted just days before Europe celebrated the end of the Second World War and last seen in a public exhibition over twenty-five years ago, also offers a multi-layered meditation on the same timeless subject.

Colour, Pattern and Form

Another significant theme throughout the Collection bears witness to Simon's love of colour, form and pattern, honed by hours spent reviewing prints with Monsoon's fashion and textile designers, and guided by an innate understanding of shades, textures and composition. 

Alighiero Boetti's Mappa, created in 1988 (estimate: £2,000,000-3,000,000), is an emblematic example of this: a vibrant work from the artist's celebrated Mappe (Maps) series, hand-sewn silk embroideries that depict the world's landmasses fragmented into nation-states, with flags filling their irregular outlines to create a melee of colour, pattern and symbol. They were produced in partnership with Afghan weavers who crafted the maps to Boetti's instructions.

With its blue and red arabesques dancing through bright white space, Untitled (1984; estimate: £4,500,000-6,500,000) is an elegant painting from Willem de Kooning's triumphant late period. 

A dazzling spectacle of wonder, Baroque Egg with Bow (Blue/Turquoise) (1994-2008; estimate: £1,500,000-2,000,000) is an icon of Jeff Koons's practice and a great example within his Celebration series. Spanning more than two metres in height, Diamond Dust Shoes (1980; estimate: £1,800,000-2,500,000) is a monumental work from Andy Warhol's spectacular series of the same name, in which the artist returned to the motif that had first propelled him to fame as a commercial illustrator in the 1950s, when he had been dubbed 'the Leonardo da Vinci of the shoe trade' by Women's Wear Daily. 

Bridget Riley's work is presented in the sales across three pivotal decades (the 1960s, 70s and 2010s): Streak 2 (1979, estimate: £3,500,000-5,500,000), formerly held in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, boasts an exceptional exhibition history – it featured in major retrospectives at Tate Britain, London in 2003 and the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh in 2019.

Crossing Frontiers

As Monsoon expanded worldwide, so did Simon's artistic horizons. At the start of the millennium, he began looking at contemporary art globally, supporting Latin American and African artists long before many British museums did. At the same time, he began collecting key British artists whose practice explores themes of travel and displacement. Together, these works demonstrate Simon's commitment to collecting art that interrogates themes of place, migration, memory and the natural world, uniting artists from diverse backgrounds and generations.

Hurvin Anderson's Last House (2013, estimate: £2,000,000-3,000,000) is a large-scale painting included in the artist's 2017 Turner Prize exhibition and his 2026 Tate retrospective. Despite its Caribbean appearance and tropical warmth, the work is based on the Palm House at Kew Gardens in London. 

Brazilian Beatriz Milhazes is represented by five pieces across the sales, including 

O mar (The sea) (1996, estimate: £700,000-1,000,000), an important early composition that draws on the vibrant visual language of Rio's coastline, Brazilian Baroque influences, and traditional craft techniques such as embroidery and crochet (included in her 2023 solo show at Turner Contemporary, Margate and Tate St. Ives).  

The Collection also features two major works by Cecily Brown: The Quarrel II (2013, estimate: £2,000,000-3,000,000), a dynamic depiction of figures in conflict, and 

The Wine Faced Sea (2016–17, £2,000,000-3,000,000), which evokes the mythic shipwrecks and “wine-dark sea” from Homer's epic poems. Further works by Michael Armitage, Glenn Ligon, and Portia Zvavahera enrich this thematic selection, exploring dreams, space, and time through the lens of memory and personal history.

Peter Simon, Founder of Monsoon: “In the early days at Monsoon I would sit with fashion and textile designers sifting portfolio after portfolio to select works on paper which we would convert onto fabric for clothing collections. A critical part of the DNA of Monsoon is the colours and the prints. In retrospect, I realise this work happily honed an ability to recognise good composition with colour balance – having developed an eye for a good print I find it helpful to zero in on the best combination of colour and composition in a picture. I focused on the British artists who first attracted me, as well as more contemporary artists then emerging on the scene, always aiming to build links and foster dialogue across different worlds. It gives me great pleasure to now offer part of my collection to others, freeing my mind and my walls to start in a new direction. I hope these works can thrill their new owners and enhance their lives in the way they have done for me.”

Joseph Braka, Specialist, Post War & Contemporary Art, Christie's: “The Peter Simon Collection is one of the finest and boldest collections ever assembled in the United Kingdom. Whilst deeply rooted in the masters of 20th Century British Painting, the Collection was one of the first in the country to evolve and encompass art from across the globe. Stemming from an instinctive understanding of colour and line, honed by forming and running Monsoon since 1973, it stands as an emblem of Peter Simon's own journey: pioneering, borderless, vibrant and of the highest quality. The Collection shows us all that one does not have to be cornered into one genre, one period, one movement, one place. Christie's is honoured to present Monsoon: The Peter Simon Collection and celebrate its thirty-five years of groundbreaking vision.”

Katharine Arnold, Vice-Chairman 20/21, Christie's: “Peter Simon has built an extraordinary collection, unbridled by geography and time. It reflects many aspects of his own life, his travels around the world driven by curiosity and in search of inspiration. Exploring each picture, we discover something new about the artist who made it, and the time in which it was made. Within the modern chapter of the Collection, we encounter pivotal moments in history, the dreams of the 1920s that gave way to the realities of the 1940s. From the decades which follow, we find pictures that share an interest in how we see, how the eye works. Others that rejoice in pure rapturous colour and others still that question who we are, where we belong, and how we choose to live. Some look to the past, Old Masters and Classical Art in order to find answers to the future. The Collection contains some of the most exciting contemporary artists making work today. Where else do you see Hurvin Anderson, Cecily Brown and Glenn Ligon hanging alongside Miró, Léger and Mondrian. Peter has created one of the most dynamic and international collections of 20th and 21st Century art ever assembled in the UK. The collector is present everywhere, and it is a privilege to be sharing Peter Simon's ambition and vision with a new audience.”

Monsoon: The Peter Simon Collection will be presented in a special exhibition, open to all, taking over the galleries at Christie's London from 26 September to 1 October 2026. Please visit christies.com for more information and opening times. 

MONSOON: THE PETER SIMON COLLECTION – AUCTION CALENDAR

• 14 October 2026 – Monsoon: The Peter Simon Collection Evening Sale
• 15 October 2026 – Monsoon: The Peter Simon Collection Day Sale
• 1–20 October 2026 – Monsoon: The Peter Simon Collection Online Sale

Christie's Hong Kong 20th/21st Century Autumn 2026 Sales

 

                        Works by Basquiat, Kusama, Zao Wou-Ki and Richter                                                  Anchor a Compelling Season of Global Artistry                                                                                                                                                                                                           Live Auctions | 29 - 30 September                                          Public Preview | 22 – 29 September

Post-War & Contemporary Art

Hong KongAPAC8 September 2026

             

Hong Kong – Christie's announces the Hong Kong 20th/21st Century Autumn Sales, which will be held live on 29 and 30 September at Christie's Asia Pacific headquarters at The Henderson. The season is defined by a compelling selection of works by some of the most renowned names in global modern and contemporary art, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Yayoi Kusama, Zao Wou-Ki, Gerhard Richter, Paul Cézanne, Liu Ye, and many others.

The 20th/21st Century Evening Sale on 29 September is led by two iconic contemporary works: 

Jean-Michel Basquiat's Ancient Scientist (estimate: HK$56,000,000-76,000,000 / US$7,200,000-9,700,000) – a commanding 1984 work dominated by one of the artist's emblematic skull-like figures, alongside the auction debut of 

Yayoi Kusama's A-Pumpkin (YHP) (estimate: HK$48,000,000-68,000,000 / US$6,200,000-8,700,000), a painting of significant scale centered on the artist's most enduring motif – the pumpkin .

The Evening Sale's Asian art selection includes a distinguished Chinese modern offering, led by

Zao Wou-Ki's rare, large-scale Voie Lactée – 09.11.56 (estimate: HK$45,000,000-75,000,000 / US$5,800,000-9,600,000) from the artist's celebrated Oracle Bone period. Painted in 1956, the work transforms ancient Chinese scripts into a dazzling constellation of calligraphic forms, evoking Zao's poetic vision of the cosmos. 

Making its auction debut is Chu Teh-Chun's Automne (Autumn), the only snow scene rendered in an autumnal palette from the artist's acclaimed Snow Landscape series. At the centre of the Chinese contemporary lineup is Liu Ye's Blue Sea, which is among Liu's largest naval paintings and a pinnacle of the celebrated series.

The Evening sale is further enriched by a group of Western Modern and Post-War works. Highlights include Gerhard Richter's Abstraktes Bild (estimate: HK$38,000,000-55,000,000 / US$4,900,000-7,000,000) – one of only 27 red-dominant abstractions from 1991, executed with his signature squeegee; 

Paul Cézanne's L'Assiette bleue, a significant still life from the series that transformed modern painting, widely exhibited at leading institutions worldwide, and now offered at auction in Hong Kong for the first time; and a striking testament to Henri Matisse's late genius, a figure painting presented from The Denver Art Museum Foundation pairs his celebrated chromatic sensitivity with a radical simplicity that is both intimate and deeply modern. Following the debut of an Old Master in the Hong Kong Evening Sale last Spring, this season includes a rare atmospheric landscape by Baroque master Sir Peter Paul Rubens – one of only two left in private hands and appearing at auction for the first time in over 200 years.

The Day Sales on 30 September present a dynamic selection of international modern and contemporary art. The 20th Century Day Sale is led by Gerhard Richter's Abstraktes Bild (estimate: HK$8,000,000-12,000,000 / US$1,100,000-1,500,000), with works by Zao Wou-Ki, Marc Chagall, and Cheong Soo Pieng, alongside a Paul Delvaux painting which adds to the series' Surrealist offering. The 21st Century Day Sale features Yoshitomo Nara's iconic Q&A (estimate: HK$12,000,000-18,000,000 / US$1,600,000-2,300,000), and key examples by Christine Ay Tjoe, Jonas Wood and Andy Warhol. Further complementing the season is Between Worlds: Property from a Distinguished Private Collection, a visionary collection offered across the Evening and Day Sales, bringing together works by Wang Guangyi, Derek Fordjour, Harold Ancart, and more.

20th/21st Century Evening Sale | Select Highlights

20th Century Day Sale | Select Highlights

21st Century Day Sale | Select Highlights

In 2026, Christie's, the world-leading art and luxury business, is celebrating its 40th Anniversary in Asia. Over the last four decades, Christie's has established itself as Asia's leading house, orchestrating many of the region's most historic and record-breaking sales of exceptional objects and collections, driving region-wide expansion, and pioneering digital innovations that have redefined the way Asian collectors connect with and experience the industry. To celebrate this milestone, Christie's is presenting a year-long programme of art and luxury sales, exhibitions and events across the region.