By Michele Leight

A sparkling "Baroque Egg with Bow (Turquoise/Magenta)" by Jeff Koons (b. 1955) from his "Celebration Series" has never come to auction before and leads Sotheby's Contemporary Art evening sale on May 12, 2009.

Lot 9, it is made of high-chromium stainless steel with transparent color coating. It measures 83 1/2 by 77 1/2 by 60 inches and was executed between 1994 and 2008. It is one of five versions and this one is uniquely colored. It has an estimate of $6,000,000 to $8,000,000. It sold for $5,458,500 including the buyer's premium as do all results mentioned in this article. After the auction, Tobias Meyer, the auctioner told the press conference that "Koons is a world-class aritst with a very devoted collecting community and the price was a very serious amount of money for a very serious work of art." "It's a very different world, apples and oranges" from when his major works sold for more than $20 million, Mr. Meyer emphasized, adding that "the market is alive and well," and that "new buyers were absolutely there"and that the auction house was seeing more activity than last November.

The 39 of the 48 offered lots sold for a total of $47,033,500 including the buyer's premiums. The pre-sale estimate, which did not include the premiums was $52,020,000 to $72,730,000.

"Monumental in scale and joyously effusive in spirit, the handling and precision of the scupture is astonishing," the catalogue entry for the lot proclaims, adding that it is part of his "Celebration" series that "focuses on toys, presents, and other small childhood objects, all rendered with spectacular attention to detail and phemnomal realism." The series consists of more than 20 sculptures and 16 paintings.

Other highlights of the auction include Martin Kippenberger's "Untitled," with an estimate of $3,500,000 to $4,500,000, which is the catalogue's cover illustration, Robert Rauschenbers's "Transom," a rare Twombly, a delicate and graceful Calder, and a superb Basquiat entitled "Red Man One."

Lot 7, "Untitled," by Martin Kippenberger (1953-1997) is a self-portrait painted in 1988 that was based on David Douglas Duncan's famous photograph of Picasso in his swimming trunks. At a press preview, Alex Rotter explained that Kippenberger had wanted to be the world's greatest painter but here he has donned Picasso's garb but depicts himself rather unflatteringly, reflecting probably that his quest will not succeed. It sold for $4,114,500, an auction record for the artist who is the subject of a major exhibition now at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

"This is obviously a very different market from just a year ago," said Alex Rotter, Head of the Contemporary Art Department in New York. "Therefore we decided on quite a different approach for this season's sale. We wanted to ensure that we had an excellent representation of iconic names, which we achieved."

"We also wanted to include artists whose works have been somewhat scarce and whose appeal, as a result, has remained consistent, among them Kippenberger, Wool, Gober, Wall and Munoz, all of whom have been celebrated with recent exhibitions and major museum retrospectives. And so, together with their work, we have included rare and choice examples by Rauschenberg, Calder and Twombly," Mr. Rotter added. Lot 13, "Myo," is an oil based house paint and earth on canvas painted in 1951 by Cy Twombly (b. 1938). It measures 30 by 40 1/4 inches and was executed in 1951. It has an estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $338,500.

Lot 20, "Transom," by Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) was painted in 1963, after his ground breaking Combine Paintings. "Transom" is one in a luscious series of experimental photo-silkscreens Rauschenberg helped pioneer with Andy Warhol that incorporated photographic images from print media, laid down in his now universally recognized collage style. Unlike the Combines, this powerful, Colored Silkscreen Painting is two dimensional, signifying Rauschenberg's return to the canvas. Art and life fuse as the Velasquez' "Rokeby Venus" co-exists with swathes of red, yellow and blue wash, New York City water towers, an army helicopter and an open cube. It has an estimate of $4,000,000 to $6,000,000. It failed to sell and was passed at $3,400,000.

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988( was influenced by Robert Rauschenberg's Combines, and he used collage, paint, and constructive elements such as wood in many of his paintings. Lot 23, "Red Man One," evokes noble African masks and primitive paintings with energy and vitality. Graffiti infused iconography and the artist's trademark crown - this one more like Lady' Liberty's, or a crown of thorns than a monarch's - combine to form a human figure unlike any in contemporary art. "Red Man One's" skeleton is incised on his body, a nod to Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical drawings, which fascinated Basquiat. It has an estimate of $3,000,000 to $5,000,000. It sold for $3.554.500.

"Red Man One" references the African traditions of ornamenting the body and face with paint. This dignified stereotype of African heritage gave Basquiat a fresh "take" on the urban, African American male, offering a graceful antidote to the ugly realities of racism. Basquiat used pigment aggressively, magnificently, like war paint. It says as much about his struggle for identity and stature as his childlike iconography, and strong, often angry drawing, the perfect armor for his vulnerability. "Red Man One" challenges the viewer like a proud warrior, ready to engage in battle. This superb portrait is mounted on an unpretentious frame of found materials, probably made by the artist.

Sotheby's will offer 5 paintings by Andy Warhol (1928-1987) in the evening sale, including a beguiling purple and black "Mona Lisa," from the Estate of Andy Warhol and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Lot 4, "Kellogg's Cornflakes (Los Angeles Type)," created in 1970 for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which retains fifty seven of the 100 in the series, and Lot 32, "Fifteen One Dollar Bills," from 1962, that references American consumerism and desire, and according to Sotheby's catalogue for this sale is one of a small group of works on paper created with the use of a wood block mounted with a metal relief dollar design. Lot 22 has an estimate of $1,500,000 to $2,000,000. It sold for $1,762,500. Lot 4 has an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. It sold for $482,500. Lot 32 has an estimate of $750,000 to $1,000,000. It sold for $902,500.

In "Double Mitered Maze," Lot 33, illustrated above with Anthony Grant, Senior International Specialist, Contemporary Art, Sotheby's, was painted in 1967 by Frank Stella (b. 1936). The alkyd on canvas measures 62 1/4 by 124 3/4 inches and and has an estimate of $1,200,000 to $1,800,000. It failed to sell and was passed at $850,000. It combines his signature geometric patterns with vibrant colors, leaving behind his earlier monochromatic palette.

Lot 42, "Flin Flon," is an acrylic on canvas that measures 108 inches square and was executed in 1970. It was originally from the Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, and is all curves and wall power. It has an estimate $700,000 to $1,000,000. It failed to sell and was passed at $600,000. A gorgeous blue, green, red, pink and yellow Dan Flavin (1933-1996), Lot 41, "Untitled (to Alex and Nikki)," is 144 inches high and has an estimate of $300,000 to $400,000, while his exceptionally beautiful "'Monument' for V. Tatlin," Lot 28, is a glowing tower of cool white fluorescent light, originally from Pace Wildenstein has an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. Lot 41 passed at $240,000. Lot 28 sold for $482,500.

Three very different sculptures by Calder, David Smith and Claes Oldenberg offer a counterpoint to wall art. Lot 21, "Typewriter Eraser," by Oldenberg has an estimate of $350,000-450,000, originally from Leo Castelli Gallery, New York

Illustrated above is Lot 19, "Large Circle (Voltri)," by David Smith (1906-1965), created during Smith's trip to Italy in 1962, when he was invited to submit two works to the "Festival of Two Worlds" in Spoleto, Italy, an annual tradition since 1958. Fortuitously, Smith found he had access to abandoned industrial sites in neighboring Voltri, a treasure trove of the "found" mechanical components and industrial detritus he delighted in, leftover from factories that once made parts for cars, trucks that could be forged and re-worked into cutting edge, yet timeless sculptures like this: " ...the great quiet of stopped machines - the awe...exceeded that of visits to museums in Genoa or even the ancient art in other cities. The beauties of the forge shop...the found tombs of early twentieth century" (David Smith, ed, by Garnett McCoy, New York, 1975, pp. 156-158, courtesy Sotheby's catalog for this sale). The lot has an estimate of $2,500,000 to $3,500,000. It sold for $2,602,500.

The heft of Smith's sculpture contrasts dramatically with the extraordinary delicacy of an early Alexander Calder (1898-1976). Lot 15 is entitled "Ebony Sticks in Semi-Circle," and was created in 1934. It has an estimate of $1,000,000 to $1,500,000 and has been in the same private collection for almost 50 years, acquired after it was exhibited in Chicago at the Renaissance Society in an exhibit of Calder's work in 1935. It looks as contemporary as anything created today. It sold for $3,554,500!

A seminal work from the 1980s and 1990s is an untitled work, Lot 6, by Robert Gober (b. 1954). It is a disembodied cast wax torso covered in musical notations transcribed from sheet music he found in the street. A similar torso exists in "The Garden of Earthly Delights," by Hieronymous Bosch, minus the hair. This is one of only two sculptures inspired by Bosch's painting, and it was included in Gober's mysterious, 1991 installation at the Jeu de Paume in Paris. The lot has an estimate of $2,500,000 to $3,500,000. It was passed at $2,400,000 and after the sale Mr. Meyer said that it was "a very important and very rare" work by the artist and that he was "very confident it will sell after the sale."

Lot 12 is a marvelously tactile large sculpture entitled "Stamens of Sorrow" by Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929). A fabric covered wood box construction it is filled with cotton, wire stamens and spray paint and has 120 parts, each 14 1/4 by 9 5/8 by 5 1/2 inches. It was created in 1985 and has an estimate of $700,000 to $1,000,000. It sold for $758,500, an auction record for a sculpture by the artist.

Lot 40 is an untitled work by Donald Judd (1928-1994) that is made of cor-ten steel and red plexiglass. Executed in 1989, it measures 40 by 40 by 30 inches and it has an estimate of $300,000 to $400,000. It sold for $338,500.

Lot 5 is an ethereal video installation by the always very poetic Bill Viola (b. 1951). Entitled "The Last Angel," it focuses on angels as the link between heaven and earth, and there is no medium more suited to conveying a sense of other-worldliness or transition than video. Here Viola hones in on the amorphous properties of water - a consistent theme for Viola, who almost drowned as a child. The experience was more peaceful than traumatic for him however, and it transposes to superb videos like this that have a soothing, hypnotic effect, like an ultra-sophisticated lava lamp: "The most important place where my work exists is not in the museum gallery or in the screening room, or on the television, and not even on the video screen itself, but in the mind of the viewer who has seen it." (Robert Violette and Bill Viola, eds. Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House: Writings 1973-1994, London 1995, p 173, courtesy Sotheby's catalogue for this sale). The work is shown on a 50-inch plasma screen with speakers and it is 1 from an edition of 5. It has an estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $386,500.

Joan Mitchell and Cecily Brown's paintings span several decades and share sophisticated, organic imagery and lush brush work that make them highly desirable in any collection of contemporary art today. Lot 47, "Girls Eating Birds," by Brown (b. 1968) has an estimate of $700,000 to $900,000. It sold for $1,202,500.

Lot 17, "Untitled," by Joan Mitchell (1925-1992) was painted in 1960 and measures 49 3.4 by 43 inches. It has an estimate of $1,200,000 to $1,800,000. It sold for $1,202,500.

Lot 38, "Red Self-Portrait," by Yan Pei-Ming (b. 1960) is a oil on canvas that measures 137 3/4 inches square and was executed in 2007. It has an estimate of $700,000 to $900,000. It sold for $626,500.

Lot 49, Kara Walker's powerful "KKK: "the Prescript of the Order of the invisible Empire - It's Peculiar Objects' listed under Moonlit skies by the Grand Cyclops amid his hooded hench-men...a Negress, deep in the Woods Beyond, overhears," by Kara Walker (b. 1969), is self-explanatory, skillfully deploying silhouettes. It was executed in 2001 and measures 78 by 186 inches. It has an estimate of $150,000 to $200,000. It sold for $206,500.

Lot 14 is a strong representational painting by Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993) entitled "Cane Chair Outside." An oil on canvas, it measures 32 by 27 inches and it was painted in 1959. It has an estimate of $1,800,000 to $2,500,000. It was passed at $1,500,000.

Lot 29 is a very bright and bold and colorful abstraction by Gerhard Richter (b. 1932). It is an oil on canvas that measures 79 by 63 1/8 inches and was dated in 1984. It has an estimate of $1,800,000 to $2,500,000. It sold for $1,762,500.

An untitled work by Christopher Wool, Lot 3, sold for $1,874,500 breaking his previous auction record of $1,810,276.

Auction records were also set for Dan Colen for an untitled work, Lot 5, that sold for $386,500 and for Juan Munoz, Lot 37, which sold for $698,500.

There is much to delight and entice at this sale, spanning many decades of contemporary right up to the present. The works of art have been chosen with care, and are compelling in different ways.