A diptych painting by Brice Marden, who died last year at the age of 84, will be auctioned in May at Christie’s, which expects the work to sell for between $30 million and $50 million.
event, a large-scale canvas produced between 2004 and 2007, will be offered during a New York evening sale dedicated to works made during the 20th and 21st centuries. If the work reaches its low estimate, its sale will set a new record for Marden.
Born in Knoxville, New York, Marden led studios in Hydra, Marrakech, Nevis, Tivoli and Manhattan until his death. event is part of the series “The Propitious Garden of the Airplane Image”, a group of six paintings that contain his signature scribbled shapes.
Similar works brought him fame in New York and led to career retrospectives at the Guggenheim Museum in 1975 and the Museum of Modern Art in 2006.
event it left Marden’s studio in New York in 2007, when it was acquired by a private collector, who never loaned the work to an exhibition where it could be displayed publicly.
Before the sale, the canvas will be on view during the opening days of the 17th edition of Art Dubai, a major Middle East fair, where it will be on public display for the first time since Marden finished it 17 years ago. .
The May sale will take place in the same week as other evening sales at competing auction houses, Sotheby’s and Phillips.
Marden’s current record stands at $30.9 million, set by the sale of Add-ons (2004–7) at Christie’s in 2020.