Above: Ebony G Patterson…bearing witness…
Sotheby’s is honored to unveil the sale contents of the third (RED) Auction supporting the fight against AIDS, which has been curated by art and architecture stars Theaster Gates and Sir David Adjaye in collaboration with musician and activist Bono.
Centered on the theme of light and the color red, the collection of contemporary art and design will be exhibited and auctioned during Art Basel in Miami Beach and Design Miami/. Sotheby’s will conduct a live auction on the evening of 5 December 2018 at the Moore Building in the Miami Design District, with international bidding available in real-time on sothebys.com. Sotheby’s will also hold a complementary online auction, open for bidding from 12 November – 7 December.
Beginning on World AIDS Day (1 December), the 50+ works on offer across the (RED) Auctions will be exhibited publicly by Gagosian at the Moore Building. The viewing will extend through 7 December.
To date, (RED) has generated more than $500 million for the Global Fund to support lifesaving HIV/AIDS programs in Africa. Proceeds from this year’s auction will continue to support community-based programs in Africa through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, while also providing assistance to the HIV fight through community-strengthening programs in Chicago with the Rebuild Foundation – an organization championed by Theaster Gates.
Oliver Barker, Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe and the auctioneer for the (RED) Auctions, said: “We are honored to work with Bono, David and Theaster to continue the successful tradition of (RED) Auctions at Sotheby’s. The 2008 sale was a groundbreaking event in the history of charitable auctions, and the second sale in 2013 upheld that legacy. We look forward to furthering this tradition in December, and raising much-needed funds for the fight against AIDS.”
SEAN SCULLY
Red, 2018
Estimate $350/450,000
Sean Scully’s work draws on the traditions of European painting while being invigorated with the distinct character of American abstraction. Scully’s varied practice encompasses printmaking, sculpture, watercolors and pastels, but he is best known for rich, largescale abstract paintings – including Red – in which stripes or blocks of layered color are a prevailing motif.
THEASTER GATES
A Flag for the Least of Them, 2018
Estimate $450/500,000
Theaster Gates creates work that focuses on space theory and land development, sculpture and performance. Drawing on his interest and training in urban planning and preservation, he redeems spaces that have been left behind. Known for his recirculation of art-world capital, Gates creates works that focus on the possibility of the “life within things.” In all aspects of his work, he contends with the notion of Black space as a formal exercise – one defined by collective desire, artistic agency, and the tactics of a pragmatist.
JENNIFER GUIDI
Energy of Love (Painted Universe Mandala SF #4F, Red, Natural Ground), 2018
Estimate $120/150,000
The technique for Jennifer Guidi’s Universe Mandala series begins with the application of a drawing to a flat surface of sand derived from various sources such as maps, constellations, ancient depictions, and the artist’s imagination. The drawing is then covered with an oil paint mandala, leaving a trace to be detected underneath, allowing the drawing in the sand to come in and out of focus and prompting the viewer to explore the pure sensory experience of color, texture, luminosity, and form. Guidi provokes a contemporary version of the sublime, one in which the smallest details are of no less consequence than the totality of the big picture.
MARC QUINN
(RED) Eclipse, 2018
Estimate $150/200,000
Marc Quinn’s circular Anthropocene paintings of eclipses relate to his earlier series of iris paintings (We Share Our Chemistry with the Stars) and similarly use forms found within nature. These works derive their compositions from scientific photographs of various total and partial solar eclipses around the world. They are also taken at different times throughout the past 100 years, the earliest being from 1907. By using such a diverse timescale the artist shows the seeming immutability of cosmic cycles in comparison to the finite nature of human time. (RED) Eclipse was specially created to reflect the theme of this year’s auction: (RED) and Light.
YINKA SHONIBARE MBE
Red Lantern Kid, 2018
Estimate $100/150,000
Yinka Shonibare MBE’s interdisciplinary practice uses citations of Western art history and literature to question the validity of contemporary cultural and national identities within the context of globalization. In Red Lantern Kid, the child figure – dressed in the artist’s signature Dutch wax fabric – represents the hope and optimism for future generations, while the lantern symbolizes hope in the wake of advancing medical research. The featured names on the globe are prominent activists, performers or supporters who agitated for the rights of AIDS sufferers at the height of the epidemic in the 1980s.
LEO VILLAREAL
Liminal Gradient for (RED), 2018
Estimate $40/60,000
Liminal Gradient for (RED) is an array of 1,024 LEDs and custom electronics contained within an acrylic diffuser. The custom software empowers the electronics to emit randomized gradients of red light. The work emphasizes Leo Villareal’s interest in creating preconceived environments from lowest common denominators including pixels or the zeroes used in binary code.
CONTEMPORARY DESIGN HIGHLIGHTS
SIR JONY IVE AND MARC NEWSON
The (RED) Diamond Ring
A Diamond Foundry® created diamond
This bespoke ring, created exclusively for the (RED) Auction, will be made to fit the buyer (up to a size 5)
Estimate $150/250,000
Sir Jony Ive, Apple’s Chief Design Officer, and renowned industrial designer Marc Newson – co-curators of the most recent (RED) Auction in 2013 – have designed this year a unique ring made exclusively for (RED) by Diamond Foundry®. Consistent with their mutual obsession with transforming raw material into objects of value, Ive & Newson’s design is singular, clear and un-compromised by the traditional metal settings and bands that have previously been required to create ‘diamond rings’. Theirs will be created by removing material rather than adding – an ambition made possible by the extraordinary scale of the stone which will enable the ring to be completely made of this material.
Creating a ring-shaped diamond is no small feat; the diamond block will be faceted with several thousand facets, some of which are as small as several hundred micrometers. The interior ring will be cylindrically cut out for the desired smoothness using a micrometer thick water jet inside which a laser beam is cast. The finished ring will have between 2000-3000 facets, which has never been seen before on a single piece. The gemstone will be created by Diamond Foundry®, the certified carbon neutral diamond producer who has pioneered and developed the proprietary technology to form diamonds safely and sustainably.
SIR DAVID ADJAYE
Washington Skeleton™ (RED) Side Chair [Set of Four]
Estimate $20/30,000
&
Washington Corona™ (RED) Coffee Table
Estimate $40/60,000
These unique metallic red versions of the Washington Corona Coffee Table and Skeleton Chairs were designed by Sir David Adjaye for Knoll, Inc. exclusively for the (RED) Auction and have been donated to the sale by Knoll, Inc. Both the table and chairs reflect the designer’s distinctive architectural and sculptural vision, translated into furniture form. Of the collection, Adjaye states “The Washington Collection is an investigation into form, materials, balance and weight. I wanted to create furniture that is playful and beautiful – appearing light yet also expressing monumentality.” The collection further draws on many elements of Adjaye’s design for The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
ZAHA HADID
Coffee Table Liquid Glacial Colour, 2012. Estimate $100/150,000
Zaha Hadid’s Liquid Glacial design embeds surface complexity and refraction within a startling fluid dynamic. The elementary geometry of the flat table top appears transformed from static to fluid by the subtle waves and ripples evident below the surface, while the table’s legs seem to pour from the horizontal in an intense vortex of water frozen in time. Together, pieces from the collection have been featured in exhibitions at: Serpentine Gallery, Tokyo Opera City Gallery, Seoul Design Foundation, Museum of Arts and Design, the Wilhelm Wagenfeld Foundation, and the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Australia.
ABOUT (RED)®
(RED) was founded in 2006 to engage businesses and people in the fight against AIDS. (RED) partners with the world’s most iconic brands that contribute proceeds from (RED)-branded goods and services to the Global Fund. (RED) Proud Partners include: Amazon, Apple, Bank of America, Beats by Dr. Dre, Belvedere, Claro, The Coca-Cola Company, Durex, MCM, Salesforce, SAP, Starbucks and Telcel. (RED) Special Edition partners include: aden+anais, Alessi, ALEX AND ANI, Andaz, Baxter of California, Bombas, Fatboy USA, Girl Skateboards, Mophie, S’well, Wanderlust and Vespa.
To date, (RED) has generated more than $500 million for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, to support HIV/AIDS grants in Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia. 100 percent of that money goes to work on the ground – no overhead is taken. Global Fund grants that (RED) supports have impacted nearly 110 million people with prevention, treatment, counseling, HIV testing and care services.
