LONDON – Christie’s Prints and Multiples online sale is now open for bidding, closing 24 March, and focuses on editions by leading 20th century Modern and Post-War masters. 

The auction showcases American Pop Art editions including Andy Warhol’s Paramount, from: Ads (1985, estimate: £30,000 - 50,000, illustrated above right) and Mao (1972, estimate: £45,000 - 60,000), as well as the iconic Roy Lichtenstein’s Forms in Space (1985, estimate: £40,000 - 60,000) and Robert Indiana’s Love (Red/Blue) (1991, estimate: £4,000 - 6,000, illustrated below right).

As part of a British section of the sale, we have a group of Howard Hodgkin prints from the renowned 107 Workshop, along with David Hockney’s Contrejour in the French Style (1974, estimate: £40,000 - 60,000). This offering is highlighted by Francis Bacon’s Miroir de la Tauromachie (1990, estimate: £25,000-35,000), the work draws inspiration from Miroir de la Tauromachie, a portfolio with text by the poet Michel Leiris. Bacon’s work comprises a set of lithographs after a series of bull fighting paintings from 1969 which can be seen reunited for the first time since they were executed at the current Royal Academy exhibition Francis Bacon: Man and Beast in London. Francis Bacon’s Etude pour un portrait de Pape Innocent X (1989, estimate: £15,000-25,000) is another print after a painting featured in the current Royal Academy exhibition.

Also featured is a collection of etchings by the acclaimed British-Portuguese artist Paula Rego, including works from her much loved Nursery Rhymes series. Amongst the group is a rare complete set of eight etchings, The Abortion Series (1999, estimate: £20,000-30,000). In 1998 Paula Rego executed a series of pastels triggered by the referendum in Portugal to review the law censoring legal abortion. Unusually for Rego, she produced a series of etchings after the paintings, a political decision motivated by her desire to spread her strongly held convictions on this issue. Each of Rego's subjects are depicted alone, in a sparse domestic setting, focusing our attention on the physical and mental anguish of the women.

Another important British artist featured is Bridget Riley. Untitled (Fragment 7) (1965, estimate: £15-20,000) is from an important early series of screenprints printed on the then futurist material of Plexiglas, and featuring her optical experiments with black shapes on a white ground.

Another highlight is a series of etchings by Ben Nicholson, Greek and Turkish forms (1968, estimate: £25,000-35,000), inspired by a summer spent cruising the Aegean in 1967. It represents the artist’s brief but intense engagement with the medium of etching and his collaboration with the printer François Lafranca.

Pablo Picasso’s Femme au Corsage à Fleurs (1958, estimate: £50,000 - 70,000) is a lithograph depicting his last great muse, Jacqueline Roque, and serves as one of the artist’s most impressive lithographic portraits. This impression originally belonged to Charles Sagourin, one of the three master printer’s at the renowned lithographic workshop of Atelier Mourlot in Paris, with whom Picasso collaborated.

Highlights from Prints & Multiples sale will be on view at Christie’s headquarters in London as part of the pre-sale exhibition from 11-23 March. This sale is offered alongside the Laugh now but one day we’ll be in charge: Banksy and 21st Century Editions online sale 1-15 March.