New York – Beginning February 25, Christie’s New York will host a series of four online only sales dedicated to the artists defining contemporary art today. The sales include: First Open | Online, which  encompasses jewelry by Alexander Calder alongside cutting-edge contemporary art from Tomoo Gokita and Nicole Eisenman; BEEPLE ǀ THE FIRST 5000 DAYS, a single lot sale that marks the first-ever purely digital artwork (NFT) to be sold by a major auction house; Contemporary Art Asia presents a prominent private American collection as well as works by Tsuyoshi Maekawa, Chiyu Uemae, Vu Cao Dam, Aya Takano, Hajime Sorayama, Javier Calleja, Josh Smith and more; and ABOUDIA | Noutchy in New York City, a sale dedicated to the Brooklyn-based artist whose large-scale, mixed-media paintings and drawings echo those of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The preview exhibitions are available to view online, and may be visited at our Rockefeller Center galleries by appointment only.

FIRST OPEN | 25 FEBRUARY – 11 MARCH

This spring, Christie’s is pleased to present a special First Open online-only auction, featuring a diverse selection of post-war and contemporary art for new and seasoned collectors alike. Led by two illustrious paintings by Sam Gilliam, First Open also features works by Janet Taylor Pickett, John Kacere, CRASH, and Jennifer Steinkamp. Special offerings include a grouping of Alexander Calder jewelry alongside cutting-edge contemporary art from Tomoo Gokita and Nicole Eisenman. 

ABOUDIA | NOUTCHY IN NEW YORK CITY | 25 FEB. – 12 MAR.

Christie’s is pleased to present Noutchy in New York City, an online sale of all new paintings and works on paper by the artist ABOUDIA. Created at his studio in Abidjan over the course of the last year in isolation, these works incorporate memories of the artist’s native Cote d’Ivoire and draw inspiration from the pulse of city streets. The paintings and drawings alike incorporate found materials from the artist’s milieu in a painterly homage to nouchi, the youthful slang of cosmopolitan French-Africa and also the name of the artist’s dog and closest companion in lockdown (affectionately misspelled, “Noutchy”). Heavily layered with the vitality, spontaneity and emotive bravado of graffiti, ABOUDIA’s art draws on both the joys and hardships of his native country and city life to conjure phantasmagorical visions in paint, oil stick and collage. The sale will be accompanied by an intimate exhibition from March 4 to 8 at Christie’s, Rockefeller Center galleries.

CONTEMPORARY ART ASIA | 25 FEB. – 12 MAR.

This spring’s Contemporary Art Asia online sale is led by a collection of works from a prominent private American collection, alongside works by Tsuyoshi Maekawa, Chiyu Uemae, Vu Cao Dam, Liu Ye, Chen Ke, Walasse Ting, Yoshitomo Nara, Zhan Wang, Takashi Murakami, and Kenny Scharf. The sale also extends a frontier overview of the contemporary art scene with works by Haegue Yang, Aya Takano, Hajime Sorayama, Javier Calleja, Nina Chanel Abney,  Emily Mae Smith, Tatsuo Miyajima, and Josh Smith. 

BEEPLE | THE FIRST 5000 DAYS | 25 FEB. – 11 MAR.

Christie’s is honored to present Beeple | THE FIRST 5000 Days, a single-lot sale that marks the first time a purely digital NFT-based work of art has ever been offered by a major auction house. On 1 May, 2007, Mike Winkelmann, a leading digital artist best known as Beeple, set out to create and post a new work of art every day of his life going forward, and has not missed a single day in 13 years. These works, which are now known as Everydays, form one of the most celebrated bodies of work in the history of digital art. The First 5000 Days comprises every single individual image from Beeple’s first 5,000 Everydays arranged in a monolithic composition of the artist's own design. Running from 25 February to 11 March, this unique online sale is an important milestone in the development of the market for digital art. The First 5000 Days has been minted in partnership with Makersplace.