Lot 121: NOAH DAVIS (1983-2015), “The Casting Call,” 2008 (oil and acrylic on canvas, 60 x 62 inches / 152.4 x 157.5 cm). | Estimate $1 million-$1.5 million. SOLD for $2,002,000 fees included. RECORD
RESULTS WERE MIXED for exceptional works by Black artists featured in The Now & Contemporary Evening Auction at Sotheby’s New York on Nov. 18. Two important and heavily promoted paintings by contemporary masters of figuration, went unsold: “Arriving Soon” (1973) by Barkley L. Hendricks (1945-2017), a fascinating tableau featuring a female subject, a Coke machine, and balloons; and Kerry James Marshall‘s Untitled (2008) captures a moment of Black romance with a couple gazing out at the sea shore.
By contrast, “Casting Call” (2008) by Noah Davis (1983-2015) surpassed $2 million, setting a new record at auction for the late artist who envisioned the Underground Museum in Los Angeles. The painting is a tightly composed scene presenting a chorus of women—dancers we assume—standing on graphic a black-and-white checkered floor with their hands raised above their heads in response to an unseen determiner of their fate.
“Before Gerhard Richter there was Cassi” (2017) by Henry Taylor surpassed the estimate ($800,000-$1.2 million) reaching $2,063,000, the artist’s second highest result at auction. (Taylor’s $2.48 million record was set in 2023.) Particularly notable, “Alvorada – Música Incidental Black Bird” (2020) by Brazilian artist Antonia Obá was a record breaker, blowing past expectations and eclipsing $1 million, yielding nearly 10 times the low estimate.
Meanwhile, a sculpture by Simone Leigh, and paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Rashid Johnson, and Reggie Burrows Hodges performed in the range of estimates.
The auction was held at the Breuer building at 945 Madison Avenue, which Sotheby’s acquired in 2023. The brutalist building designed by Marcel Breuer opened in 1966 as the Whitney Museum of American Art. (The Whitney Museum departed in 2014 and reopened in its new Renzo Piano-designed building in The Meatpacking District in 2015.) More recently, the landmark was utilized by The Frick and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Sotheby’s at The Breuer, the auction house’s new world headquarters, opened to the public earlier this month and hosted its inaugural sales on Tuesday evening. First up was a special sale dedicated to the collection of Leonard A. Lauder. The auction yielded a blockbuster result. Gustav Klimt’s circa 1914-16 painting “Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer)” sold for $234 million, becoming the second-highest price ever paid for a painting at auction.
The Now & Contemporary Evening Auction immediately followed the Lauder sale, offering 43 lots. The top lot was Basquiat’s “Crowns (Peso Neto)” (1981), which sold for $48.3 million. The sale total was $178,514,000. The Marshall and Hendricks paintings were the only lots that didn’t find buyers. CT
* ALL SOLD PRICES include auction house premium fees
Lot 102: HENRY TAYLOR, “Before Gerhard Richter there was Cassi,” 2017 (acrylic on canvas, 84 x 66 inches / 213.4 x 167.6 cm). | Estimate $800,000-$1.2 million. SOLD for $2,063,000 fees included
Lot 103: ANTONIO OBÁ, “Alvorada – Música Incidental Black Bird,” 2020 (oil on canvas, 70 ⅛ by 80 ¾ inches, 178 x 205 cm). | Estimate $100,000-$150,000. SOLD for $1,016,000 fees included. RECORD
Lot 106: KERRY JAMES MARSHAL, Untitled, 2008 (acrylic on fiberglass, in artist’s frame, 79 ⅛ x 115 ⅜ inches / 201 x 293 cm). | Estimate $10 million-$15 million. UNSOLD
Lot 118: BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS (1945-2017), “Arriving Soon,” 1973 (oil and acrylic on canvas, in two parts, overall: 72 ⅝ by 105 ¼ inches / 184.5 by 267.3 cm). | Estimate $9 million-$12 million. UNSOLD
Lot 120: JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (1960-1988), “Crowns (Peso Neto),” 1981 (acrylic, oilstick and paper collage on canvas, 76 ¼ x 94 ¼ inches / 193.6 by 239.4 cm). | Estimate $35 million-$45 million. SOLD for $48,335,000 fees included
Lot 122: SIMONE LEIGH, “Sphinx,” 2021 (bronze and platinum leaf, 50 ¼ x 38 x 23 ½ inches / 127.6 x 96.5 x 59.7 cm), Number 1 from an edition of 3 plus 2 artist’s proof. | Estimate $700,000-$1 million. SOLD for $889,000 fees included
Lot 129: Lot 129: RASHID JOHNSON, “Anxious Red Painting August 20th,” 2020 (oil on canvas, 94 x 120 ⅛ inches / 238.8 by 305.1 cm). | Estimate $1 million-$1.5 million. SOLD for $1,244,600 fees included
Lot 143: REGGIE BURROWS HODGES (b. 1965), “Hurdling: Sky Blue,” 2020 (acrylic and pastel on canvas, 68 by 51 ½ inches / 172.7 by 130.8 cm). | Estimate $300,000-$400,000. SOLD for $444,500 fees included
BOOKSHELF
“Noah Davis” was published on the occasion of the artist’s international survey, which arrives at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in January 2026. With texts by Diana Campbell and Diane Lima, “Antonio Obá” unpacks two decades of the Brazilian artist’s oeuvre and features “Alvorada – Música Incidental Black Bird” (2020), his record-setting work, on the cover. “Kerry James Marshall: The Histories” accompanies the artist’s current exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Another new volume, “Kerry James Marshall: Rythm Mastr. This Is How It Begins,” explores his graphic comic series, which originated in the late 1990s. Published last year, “Barkley Hendricks: Solid!” is the first comprehensive exploration of the artist’s practice. “Henry Taylor: B Side” accompanied the artist’s mid-career survey, which featured his painting “Before Gerhard Richter there was Cassi” (2017). Published earlier this year, “Reggie Burrows Hodges: The Reckoning” examines a new series of paintings “centered around the motif of reflective surfaces.” Also consider, “Simone Leigh” and “Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers.” Numerous volumes explore the life and work of Jean-Michel Basquiat. “Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Making of an Icon” by Doug Woodham is a new biography of the artist and the exhibition catalog “Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure©” documents the retrospective organized by the artist’s family a few years ago.
