Decorative Arts

Blue-Chip Names Anchor Showplace’s Art and Design Auction

Freya
May 20, 2026
4 Mins Read


Taking place at the height of the spring season, New York’s Showplace is gearing up for their Important Fine Art and Design Auction on Thursday, May 14, 2026. Bringing together everything from Old Masters to contemporary voices, painting and sculpture to decorative arts and important design, together the sale showcases an incredible breadth of art history. With iconic blue-chip names like Andy Warhol, Yayoi Kusama, and Alexander Calder to emerging names, we parsed through the 145 lots and rounded up a few key highlights below that inspire close watching.

Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Nets (1995)

An abstract artwork featuring a dense, rounded cluster of small, looped black marks forming a textured, organic shape at the center. The shape appears to glow with a soft blue halo against a dark, gradient background, all contained within a simple light-colored frame. Work leading the Showplace Important Fine Art and Design Auction.

Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Nets (1995). Est. $100,000–$200,000. Courtesy of Showplace, New York.

Shortly after moving to New York City from Japan, in 1958, Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) made one of her first “Infinity Nets” series. Predating the Minimalists, these intricate compositions evoke themes of infinite repetition and space—themes that have come to largely exemplify her oeuvre. Obsessive and idiosyncratic, while they critically echo the emotional tenor of her predecessors like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, they were revolutionary for their meticulous yet expressive execution. The present example from 1995 highlights the dynamic evolution of her process and creative vision, and the expansiveness of her creative vision even within the parameters first set out by the series decades earlier.

Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Yellow Fanny Pack (2021)

A stylized portrait painting of a young person wearing a bright yellow T-shirt and matching yellow crossbody bag, along with a red-and-white baseball cap. The figure’s skin is rendered in dark tones with intricate, light-colored line patterns across the face and arms. They gaze slightly to the side against a textured, pale gray background. Featured in the Showplace Important Fine Art and Design Auction.

Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Yellow Fanny Pack (2021). Est. $12,000–$18,000. Courtesy of Showplace, New York.

Ghanian painter Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe (b. 1988) is best known for his portraits of Black sitters against vivid, often monochromatic grounds. His signature use of shading and light in the rendering of his figures convey a sense of empowerment, personality, and agency. Coupled with his bold use of color, the artist has developed a visual language that speaks to not only the subject’s individual character but offers a glimpse into the artist’s internal creative world. Internationally exhibited, he was named the Rubell Museum’s Artists-in-Residence in 2021 and is considered at the forefront of the next generation of West African art stars.

Alexander Calder, Paradis (1976)

A playful, colorful drawing featuring a blue-and-pink elephant with exaggerated features on the left, facing a stylized white horse with red patches on the right. A simplified human figure in bright yellow stands on the horse’s back, lifting one leg high in a dynamic pose. The figures are outlined in black with loose, expressive lines, set against a plain light background within a white frame. Featured in the Showplace Important Fine Art and Design Auction.

Alexander Calder, Paradis (1976). Est. $60,000–$80,000. Courtesy of Showplace, New York.

With vibrant, imaginative color and playful composition, Paradis (1976) by Alexander Calder (1898–1976) embodies the American artist’s uniquely lively style. While his abstract kinetic sculptures and mobiles are the most widely recognized of his work, the present piece recalls his seminal 1931 Cirque Calder, an expansive circus-themed piece replete with models of performers that move. His use of line in Paradis echoes his widespread use of wire in his practice, and evokes the articulated movements of his more complex sculptures.

Henri Martin, L’Eglise de Labastide-du-Vert (n.d.)

An impressionistic landscape painting in an ornate, cream-colored frame depicts a sunlit path leading to a church with a tall, pointed tower. Slender trees line the scene, their vertical forms partially obscuring the building. Small figures walk along the path, and the surrounding countryside is rendered in soft, blended colors of green, yellow, and blue, with distant hills in the background. Featured in the Showplace Important Fine Art and Design Auction.

Henri Martin, L’Eglise de Labastide-du-Vert (n.d.). Est. $60,000–$80,000. Courtesy of Showplace, New York.

Prolific French painter Henri Martin (1860–1943) was academically trained and garnered early attention and acclaim, receiving his first medal at the Paris Salon in the early 1880s. Working in the style of the Neo-Impressionists, his dreamy, frequently bucolic paintings were critically well received for their strong sense of atmosphere, as can be seen in L’Eglise de Labastide-du-Vert (n.d.).

Milton Avery, Untitled (Winter Landscape Scene) (n.d.)

A softly rendered landscape painting in muted tones shows a broad, pale field or open space bordered by trees and rolling hills. Darker, brushy greens and grays suggest wooded areas, while a section of reddish-brown, striped land appears to the right. Small, scattered figures dot the open area, and faint rooftops are visible in the foreground. The scene is framed by a simple, light-colored mat and frame. Featured in the Showplace Important Fine Art and Design Auction.

Milton Avery, Untitled (Winter Landscape Scene) (n.d.). Est. $20,000–$40,000.

Milton Avery (1885–1965) did not become a full-time artist until his early 40s, supported by his wife, the illustrator Sally Michel. Close friends with fellow artists and Modernists Adolph Gottlieb and Mark Rothko, bucking the trend of the time for total abstraction, Avery instead developed a personal style that synthesized elements of both abstraction and representation. With simplified forms, fields of color, and decisive brushwork, his compositions capture the emotional and psychological tone of his tableaux—whether of natural landscapes or interior scenes featuring members of his family.

Honore Daumier, L’Avocat Pathetique (ca. 1850)

A small, monochrome drawing centered within a wide blue mat and gold frame shows a robed figure with arms raised upward. The figure’s dark garment contrasts with the light background, and the loose, expressive lines suggest a dramatic or pleading gesture.

Honoré Daumier, L’Avocat Pathetique (ca. 1850). Est. $40,000–$60,000. Courtesy of Showplace, New York.

With an oeuvre comprised of several thousand sculptures, paintings, drawings, wood engravings, and lithographs, French artist Honoré Daumier (1808–1879) was one of the most prolific creators of the 19th century. Known best for his work that offered of-the-moment social or political commentary, and especially his satirical work and caricatures, Daumier’s practice offers an incisive glimpse into everyday life and concerns of everyday people from the period. Today, his work has risen to prominence again with his work Le Défenseur (ca. 1862/1865) going viral on social media.

The Important Fine Art and Design Auction will be held May 14, 2026, at 11 a.m. EST at Showplace, New York.



Source link

Share Article

Other Articles