Auction Highlights: Modern & Post-War Art — May 22, 2025

At Auction Thursday, May 22 at 12 pm eastern.

This auction brings together the many subcategories of Modernist art, offering a tremendous range of techniques and philosophies. Highlights by artists from nearly every continent come together to show that in work both abstract and figurative, experimentation and the influence of the era can be seen. Notable artists in this sale include Yvonne Thomas, Fernand Leger, Benny Andrews, Clara Etso Ugbodaga-Ngu, Vu Cao Dam, Saul Steinberg, Mark Tobey, and others.

Jamini Roy was born in West Bengal India, now Calcutta. He studied art at the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Calcutta, where he was taught practical Western illustration and fine art painting techniques. His mature style blends modernist simplification of forms with folk painting styles seen in work sold by street vendors in the Bengal region.

Art influences across the Atlantic have existed as long as ships have made the voyage. Arshile Gorky borrowed from Cezanne, Picasso, and Matta before finding his unique expressive style. Hans Hofmann, an integral European Modernism practitioner and instructor, moved to the United States, where he influenced multiple generations of artists.

As the impact of Abstract Expressionism sent waves of influence across the Atlantic, Zao Wou-Ki, a Chinese artist who moved to Paris in 1948, seized on the similarities found in the expressive action painters’ works and those of the calligraphic works found in traditional Chinese art.