Expect to see some new things this month at the Phillips galleries in Southampton. The auction house is adding several highlights from upcoming sales and hosting a weekend of watch appraisals, starting Friday.
In visual art, new items to be seen include two works by Roy Lichtenstein, who for many years kept a studio in Southampton until his death in 1997. "Diana" and "Ajax" were commissioned by Gianni Versace to hang in his Milan residence. Lichtenstein had finished the paintings before Versace's murder, also in 1997, but they were still in his studio. Donatella Versace, the designer's sister, took the paintings for her brother's townhouse in New York, where they hung for many years.
The works have a Greco-Roman inspiration and also offer hints of a late style of the artist, with softer outlines and colors blended with his more familiar hard-edged illustrative style.
Diana, the Roman goddess of the moon and hunt, was a popular subject in his late career. According to Phillips, "Lichtenstein incorporated his early studies of Diana's profile into this interior, as if he had been waiting for this moment to showcase her on a finished canvas." The painting includes a nod to the Versace logo with the Greek key pattern in the carpet.
Ajax, of Greek origin, was a fighter in the Trojan War. While Diana appears like a ghostly goddess only glimpsed in a mirror, Ajax seems to have rushed into this modern room of neoclassical design like an anachronistic interloper conjured up by the style of the furnishings. Phillips notes that the bold fruit still life in the painting above his head recalls print ads that Lichtenstein was known for at the beginning of his career.
Other works by Lichtenstein at the auction house are earlier, "Girl in Mirror," from 1964, and "Shipyard Girl," from 1965. These can be seen through Sept. 6 as presentation by Phillips X, a division of the auction house devoted to private sales and curated exhibitions with a focus on 20th and 21st-century art and artists.
Through Saturday at Phillips, highlights from a September London auction of David Hockney's work include unique art, editions, and photographs. One highlight is "Afternoon Swimming," from 1979, an "iconic swimming pool composition that demonstrates the artist's skill with lithography." Other works are "Tyler Dining Room" and "Celia in a Wicker Chair." They are all part of a collection to be sold by prominent South African collectors and the owners of a historic house in Cape Town to fund new acquisitions of contemporary artists in that country.
Robert Kennan, the head of editions for Phillips in Europe, said the Hockney auction will offer collectors a chance to acquire work at all price points from £1,000 to £250,000.
Those interested in valuations of their watches can take them in during regular hours and can also see some of the timepieces that will be available in a sale in New York City in December.
