Obsessed this week
Top auction lots I would absolutely fight for.
Lately I've been paying attention to the works that hit my senses. Not a perfect collection, not something that needs to resolve into a single idea, just a set of pieces that hold my attention for different reasons. Some are instinctive, some are precise, some challenge you a little, some feel immediate.
They don't match, and I don't want them to. This is just what I like right now, and that feels like a good enough reason to pay attention.
Here are a list of my favorite lots coming to auction this week—I'm the one constantly refreshing the big four websites, scouring social media for new talent, and opening every gallery newsletter, so you don't have to.
Hunt Slonem (b. 1951). Ocelots, 1989. Oil on canvas.
Heritage Auctions
Slonem at this moment is still raw in the best way. Before the market fully caught up, before the repetition became iconic, there's a looseness here that feels closer to instinct than strategy. The ocelots aren't just decorative, they're rhythmic. Almost like breath.
You live with this and it changes the room. Because this painting is alive.
Alex Katz (b. 1927). The Striped Shirt, 1980. Aquatint in colors on Arches paper.
Heritage Auctions
Katz makes restraint feel like confidence. There's nothing extra here, and that's the entire point. Clean, graphic, immediate.
It's the kind of work that sharpens your eye over time. You start noticing how little is actually needed to make something feel complete.
I'll never be able to write how I felt walking through the Guggenheim with his most recent (though not first) career retrospective. Katz is a master editor, and an inimitable once in a generation talent.
Aaron Siskind, F102, 1957. Gelatin silver print
Rago Auctions
This is where photography stops documenting and starts translating. Siskind pulls abstraction out of the real world without losing its weight.
It reads like a painting until you remember it isn't. AND I will never forget the Siskind that got away from me…
Cindy Sherman, Madonna, 1975. Gelatin silver print.
Rago Auctions
Early Sherman always carries a kind of mystery. You can feel the construction happening. Identity being tried on, questioned, held at a slight distance.
This isn't about religion (or Pop stars). It's about image-making. About how easily we believe what we're shown.
Owning this feels like owning the beginning of a conversation that never really ends.
Harland Miller, Hell...It's Only Forever 1, 2020. Woodcut printed in colours.
Forum Auctions: Modern & Contemporary Editions
Miller understands timing. Humor that lands because it's true. Language that feels familiar until it shifts slightly and becomes something else.
This is the work people gather around. I'm obsessed with the colors and close to mind nostalgic feeling of material.
Marilyn Minter, Parched, 1999. Enamel on metal
Freeman's: Post-War & Contemporary Art
Minter pushes beauty past comfort. Hyper-saturated, hyper-controlled, almost too close. You don't just look at it, you feel your own reaction to it.
That tension is the point. Desire, excess, surface, all held right at the edge.
If you haven't, watch her speak… about anything. You'll fall in love with her entire body of work.
Without a doubt, I would hang all of these together. But the point is, I know what I like and what I love. There's a really, really important difference.
There are plenty of things I like coming to market—but that's not the point.
I haven't included the estimates for these lots on purpose—because I don't (and don't recommend) an acquisition because it's a 'bargain' or a lower-than-average price.
In fact, I think you'll be surprised at almost every single estimate range here.
What matters is building a wide net within which to search, obsess, and ultimately, understand yourself.
