Global - A rich and varied programme of selling exhibitions will be held by Christie’s Private Sales team around the world and online across the summer months. The shows being held in Los Angeles, New York, London, online and in Monaco, demonstrate the continued growth of the Private Sales market at Christie’s and the knowledge and ambition of the global team.

Adrien Meyer, Global Head of Private Sales: “We have had a strong start to 2021 and will keep this momentum going over the next few months with so many of our clients wanting to see art where they are. The teams from around the world have responded with a rich offer, relevant to their local audience. 2020 was a record year for Private Sales reaching $1.5 billion (£1,165 billion). We are keen to hold their attention and welcome them wherever they are across the summer.”

American Abstraction
Los Angeles
To June 11
American Abstraction highlights works by abstract painters prominent during the eventful artistic period from the 1950s to 1970s in America. Characterized by the innovative deployment of color and form, and the introduction of new processes such as staining, artists including Sam Gilliam, Peter Bradley, Morris Louis, and Vivian Springford focused purely on the inherent nature of painting itself. Unfettered by the traditions of Europe, and abandoning the constraints of easel painting, these radically different artists championed their new techniques to unleash the full power of their expressive forms. 

Churchill and his Artistic Allies
London
1-16 June
An exhibition has opened in London of works by Sir Winston Churchill and the three artists who were most influential in his development as a painter: Sir John Lavery, Sir William Nicholson and Walter Richard Sickert. Encouraged firstly by Hazel Lavery, the wife of Sir John Lavery, painting proved to be one of the greatest pleasures of Churchill’s life, a passion which he was to pursue with unyielding enthusiasm until his death in 1965. Sir John Lavery was perhaps the most significant influence on Churchill. Painting together, Lavery taught Churchill about the importance of light and helped him to perfect the depiction of water. Walter Richard Sickert, who had been a childhood friend of Churchill’s wife, Clementine, became another influential figure in Churchill’s developments as a painter. Sickert helped with the preparation of canvases through under-painting of several layers, and the process of squaring up and enlarging images for transfer. For a few months in 1933 Sir William Nicholson Nicholson lived at Chartwell, Churchill’s home, passing on his love of the still life, his interest in and mastery with depicting contrasting surfaces, and his harmonious and carefully balanced palette.

Gloria Klein
New York
7-17 June TBC
This will be the first major solo show in New York dedicated to New York-based artist Gloria Klein works. Beautiful Structures recognizes the seminal role Klein played in organizing groundbreaking lesbian artists’ awareness initiatives in SoHo and the Lower East Side in the 1970’s. An artist central to the Pattern & Decoration movement, which has seen a renewal in interest over recent years, Klein’s work was featured in the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art’s With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art catalogue in 2019 and the Blanton Museum of Art’s Expanding Abstraction exhibition in the fall of 2020. Klein’s work was also prominently featured in A Lesbian Show—curated by Harmony Hammond in 1978 at 112 Greene Street Workshop—which is widely considered to be the first important lesbian art exhibition. As part of Christie’s’ celebration of LGBT Pride month, Beautiful Structures at Christie’s showcases the extraordinary talent of this newly rediscovered artist. 

Expanding Horizons
London
10 June – 30 September
With the expansion of trade in the 17^th century, the aesthetics of Asian works of art have been greatly admired in Europe. Luxury products such as porcelain, lacquer, wallpaper, silk and other finely-worked artefacts began flowing from East Asia into Europe. European decorative arts conceived in their image and spirit, have long been celebrated for their elegant designs as well as for their luxurious and costly finishes in the most avant-garde techniques. Bringing this same admiration for the Art of Asia into more recent history, post-war artists from the western tradition admired the abstraction of the eastern tradition, with artists including Sam Francis (American, (1923–1994) who travelled to Japan in 1957 and and Georges Mathieu (French, 1921-2012 ) known as the ‘western calligrapher’. Among contemporary works are two by Korean artist Minjung Kim best known for her ink paintings on burnt and then multi-layered mulberry Hanji paper.

Just as the cross-pollination between Eastern and Western art traditions inspired decorative traditions in the 16th and 17th centuries, so now interest in Asian Post-War and Contemporary Art among established and young 21st century global collectors, takes us full circle. The selling exhibition of around 30 pieces and held online at christies.com from June to September will combine an interactive digital viewing room, super-zoom technology for each work and additional content to ensure a wide, international audience can visit and find out more

Dream Big II
Online
25 June – 7 September
The second outing for Christie’s online selling exhibition of large-scale sculpture will be include two works of antiquity including this Roman marble torso of Hercules from circa 1-2 century A.D., offered alongside pieces by Fernand Léger, Giacomo Manzu, Roy Lichtenstein, Anish Kapoor, Salvador Dali and Niki de Saint Phalle. The works will be sold in-situ from their current homes around the world. Leveraging the significant digital advances in photography, video, augmented reality, rich content and virtual viewing spaces, Dream Big II will also provide a venue for artists whose work is less familiar, opening the virtual Christie’s doors to the joys of buying art for a landscape.

Christie’s Riviera: A Selling Exhibition
Cipriani, Monte Carlo, Monaco
3-18 July
Major impressionist, modern and contemporary works of art by artists from the 20^th and 21^st centuries will be presented including two remarkable sculptures by Alberto Giacometti, currently on view at the Grimaldi forum Le réel merveilleux and at the Foundation Maeght The Giacometti: A Family of Creators. Alongside these exceptional works of art exquisite jewels will also be included in this special Riviera selling exhibition, highlighted by a beautiful vintage Serpenti Diamond Watch by Bulgari alongside a selection of jewels signed by the Mumbai based jeweller Viren Bhagat.