Fine Art for the Fall

Think of Santa Monica and you tend to picture things like convertibles, sunscreen and surfboards. Yet nestled in the heart of this affluent Californian seaside town youll find Santa Monica Auctions, the longest running independently owned boutique fine art auction house in the country. Santa Monica Auctions has been championing modern and contemporary art for over 30 years now, all the time coupled with a passionate desire to bring accessibility and transparency to the world of art collecting. 

On Sunday, November 20, Santa Monica Auctions will hold their Annual Fall sale. Among the 234 expertly curated lots on offer are works ranging from paintings and prints to sculptures, photographs, and artist multiples. Featured artists include Raymond Pettibon, Patrick Nagel, Annie Leibovitz, Dorothea Lange, Jasper Johns, Kenny Scharf, Catherine Opie, and more. Lets be honest, who needs leaf-peeping when you can spend your fall bidding on oustanding art a stones throw from the ocean?

Edward Hopper is most popularly known for his iconic oil paintings, yet he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching. A fine example sells here as Lot 57, taken from his Six American Etchings Series I and titled Night Shadows, one of approximately 500 signed by Hopper in pencil.

Patrick Nagal, on the other hand, is best known for his illustrations for Playboy magazine and 80s supergroup Duran Duran, for whom he designed the cover of the best selling album Rio. The Annual Fall sale contains an enticing sample of Nagals work, including Lot 84 (left) & Lot 87, pieces typical of the artists output.

Wolfgang Tillmans was the first photographer and non-English person to be awarded the Tate annual Turner Prize. Lot 115 - Deer Hirsch, a print from 1995, is typical of the artists penchant for staging his images, with Tillmans choosing the clothes and the location, as well as setting his models up in specific positions.

Raymond Pettibon came to prominence in the early 1980s in the southern California punk rock scene, creating posters and album art for groups that included Black Flag. Lot 65 (left) & Lot 64 are classic examples of Pettibons work, the later being used for the back cover of The Minutemen album, Buzz or Howl 

Titled Applause, Lot 25 is laced with the typically ironic wit of its creator, Banksy - the English graffiti artist, political activist and film director of unverified identity. Banksys satirical street art and subversive epigrams executed in a distinctive stenciling technique have carved him a unique place in the 21 Century art world. 

Santa Monica Auctions Annual Fall sale is set down for Sunday, November 20 and contains 234 expertly curated lots. Look now at the full catalog.