A diptych painting by Brice Marden, who died last year at the age of 84, will be auctioned in May at Christie’s, which is expecting the work to sell for between $30 million and $50 million.
Event, a large-scale canvas produced between 2004 and 2007, will be offered during a New York evening sale dedicated to work made during the 20th and 21st centuries. If the work reaches its low estimate, its sale will set a new record for Marden.
Born in Knoxville, New York, Marden managed studios in Hydra, Marrakesh, Nevis, Tivoli, and Manhattan until his death. Event is part of the series “The Propitious Garden of Plane Image,” a group of six paintings that contain his signature squiggled forms.
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Similar works brought him fame in New York and led to career retrospectives at the Guggenheim Museum in 1975 and the Museum of Modern Art in 2006.
Event left Marden’s New York studio in 2007, when it was acquired by a private collector, who never lent the work to an exhibition where it could be displayed publicly.
Ahead of the sale, the canvas will go on view during the opening days of the 17th edition of Art Dubai, a major fair in the Middle East, where it will be exhibited to the public for the first time since Marden completed it 17 years ago.
The May sale will take place in the same week as other evening sales at competing auction houses, Sotheby’s and Phillips.
Marden’s current record stands at $30.9 million, set by the sale of Complements (2004–7) at Christie’s in 2020.