The Modern Evening Auction will feature masterpieces by Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, René Magritte, Paul Signac, Georgia O’Keeffe and more.
Upcoming Auction
Modern Evening Auction
13 May 2025 | 7:00 PM EDT | New York
Alberto Giacometti, ‘Grande tête mince’
Grande tête mince is a sculptural masterpiece by Alberto Giacometti – an arresting, hand-painted bust of his brother, Diego, that distills decades of exploration into perception, presence and form. Simultaneously intimate and universal, it captures Giacometti’s lifelong quest to depict the elusive “truth” of seeing. Its striking silhouette – knife-blade thin from the front, powerfully dimensional in profile – creates a visual tension that demands both distance and closeness. The richly worked, uniquely painted surface, with tones of black, brown and gray, enhances its haunting immediacy. A pinnacle of Giacometti’s mature style, this sculpture stands alongside L’Homme qui marche and L’Homme au doigt as a defining icon of 20th-century art.
Lot
Alberto Giacometti
Grande tête mince
Estimate Upon Request
Modern Evening Auction
13 May 2025 | 7:00 PM EDT | New York
Pablo Picasso, ‘Homme assis’
Created during the late apogee of Pablo Picasso’s life, Homme assis is a bold testament to the artist’s enduring vigor and inventiveness. Inspired by Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers and Old Masters like Rembrandt and Velázquez ,as well as the radiant light of the Mediterranean, the painting merges personal memory with painterly abstraction. Its vivid palette, graphic composition and symbolic musketeer avatar reflect Picasso’s confrontation with mortality and his embrace of legacy. Exhibited at the Palais des Papes in 1970, the work exemplifies the spontaneous brilliance of his late period – where raw expression and energy triumphed. As Picasso said, “I have less and less time, and I have more and more to say.”
Lot
Pablo Picasso
Homme assis
Estimate: 12,000,000 – 18,000,000 USD
Modern Evening Auction
13 May 2025 | 7:00 PM EDT | New York
Paul Signac, ‘Saint-Georges. Couchant (Venise)’
Paul Signac’s Great-Granddaughter's Emotional Reunion with His Masterpiece
A masterpiece of Paul Signac’s celebrated Venetian series, Saint-Georges. Couchant (Venise) captures the golden light of San Giorgio Maggiore at sunset. Painted in 1905, the work exemplifies Signac’s mature Neo-Impressionist technique: bold, mosaic-like brushstrokes and radiant color harmonies. Departing from strict Divisionism, Signac infused the canvas with expressive freedom and shimmering luminosity, aligning himself with past Venetian masters while pushing modern painting forward.
Lot
Paul Signac
Saint-Georges. Couchant (Venise)
Estimate: 7,000,000 – 10,000,000 USD
Modern Evening Auction
13 May 2025 | 7:00 PM EDT | New York
Fernand Léger ‘La Jeune fille au bouquet’
Striking a perfect balance between figuration and abstraction, La Jeune fille au bouquet exemplifies Fernand Léger’s unique postwar style: bold, modern and deeply human. Painted in 1921, the work merges classical composure with industrial dynamism, distilling form and color to their essentials. Beyond its artistic achievement, this canvas holds a remarkable provenance – looted by the Nazis in 1940, recovered through Rose Valland’s heroic Resistance efforts and restituted to its rightful owner in 1947, La Jeune fille au bouquet has been preserved in a distinguished private collection for nearly seven decades.
Lot
Fernand Léger
La Jeune fille au bouquet
Estimate: 5,000,000 – 7,000,000 USD
Modern Evening Auction
13 May 2025 | 7:00 PM EDT | New York
Rene Magritte, ‘La Traversée difficile’
An Eye-Opening Look at René Magritte’s 'La Traversée difficile'
Lot
René Magritte
La Traversée difficile
Estimate: 10,000,000 – 15,000,000 USD
Modern Evening Auction
13 May 2025 | 7:00 PM EDT | New York
Wassily Kandinsky, ‘Studie für Improvisation 10’
Studie für Improvisation 10 (Study for Improvisation 10) from 1910 marks a crucial moment in Wassily Kandinsky’s evolution toward pure abstraction. Among the important group of Improvisation paintings, which the artist considered to be among his most important experimental works, the present work is a study for Improvisation 10, now in the collection of the Fondation Beyeler, Basel. Achieving the artist’s most beloved figurative landscape motifs with his revolutionary mode of abstraction, Studie für Improvisation 10 (Study for Improvisation 10) is a powerful illustration of Kandinsky’s pioneering pictorial language.
Lot
Wassily Kandinsky
Studie für Improvisation 10 (Study for Improvisation 10)
Estimate: 6,000,000 – 8,000,000 USD
Modern Evening Auction
13 May 2025 | 7:00 PM EDT | New York
Théo van Rysselberghe, ‘Flottille d’Arnemuiden’
Executed in 1896, the luminous Flottille d’Arnemuiden stands at the height of Théo van Rysselberghe's Neo-Impressionist oeuvre, illustrating the pivotal moment of transition between the artist’s Pointillist methods, informed by the likes of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, and the more dynamic, elongated brushwork that defines his mature output. The seascape is among the most venerated motifs within van Rysselberghe’s body of work, and this Flemish subject matter – the coast along Arnemuiden, a town in the Netherlands near his native Ghent – alludes to both his heritage and an Impressionist inclination towards atmosphere.
Lot
Théo van Rysselberghe
Flottille d’Arnemuiden
Estimate: 5,000,000 – 7,000,000 USD
Modern Evening Auction
13 May 2025 | 7:00 PM EDT | New York
