The MassArt Auction Returns to Bidsquare

For the second year in a row, Bidsquare is proud to virtually host the MassArt Auction - a highly anticipated, annual event made fully accessible, online, through two main events: the Live Auction, which will be held on Saturday, April 10 at 8:00 p.m. ET, and will once again be conducted by Karen Keane, auctioneer and CEO of Skinner, as well as, a Timed/Silent Auction catalog, with online bidding open from March 27th-April 11, 12pm EDT. Both the Live and Timed Auctions will be exclusively available via Bidsquare, register here to participate.

For over three decades, the MassArt Auction has served as the College's largest annual fundraiser and New England's biggest annual contemporary art auction. This signature event features an extraordinary array of artwork that continues to attract the most discerning collectors. MassArt Auction proceeds go to scholarships and support for academic programs that directly benefit students in need. 

"Bidsquare is excited to partner with Massachusetts College of Art and Design for the second year to use our platform to give back and support this year's signature art auction,” said Allis Ghim, CEO of Bidsquare. "The auction features a range of media from emerging to established artists, which resonates with our audience and we are excited to help raise funds for MassArt, providing vital scholarship aid and academic program support for deserving students."

Bidders can browse and place bids on more than 325 works by renowned artists including Blane De St. Croix ‘79, Emily Eveleth ‘87, Stanley Whitney and Kehinde Wiley, as well as rising art world talents. The works featured in this year’s auction span a variety of mediums such as painting, jewelry, sculpture and photography. Notably, some pieces reflect momentous events from the past year, including work inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic by Ellen Shattuck Pierce, Will Kastrinakis ‘21 and Carly Blais ‘15. MassArt will host, for the first time, four virtual preview parties that are free and open to the public. Preview party attendees may choose to participate in a selection of breakout sessions to learn more about the artwork featured in this year’s auction, watch artmaking process demonstrations, meet the artists, and learn about collecting art from industry professionals. See the full schedule of events here.

Here are some top highlights from this year's catalogs:

Lot 16: Kehinde Wiley, After La Negresse, 1872

Lot 16, Kehinde Wiley, After La Negresse, 1872 - 2007, Edition 15 of 250, Cast marble dust and resin, 11" x 10" x 9" / Estimate $17,000-$33,000

Kehinde Wiley is a contemporary African-American painter known for his distinctive portraits. Wiley melds references from many sources, including Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres's portraits of Napoleon Bonaparte, Islamic architecture, and hip hop culture. He received his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1999 and his MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2001. Exhibitions include Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic, which opened at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 2015. On February 12, 2018, Wiley unveiled the official presidential portrait of Barack Obama. Wiley's works are held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Denver Art Museum, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, among others.​​​

Lot 22: Ellsworth Kelly, Red-Orange (Rouge-Orange)

Lot 22, Ellsworth Kelly, Red-Orange (Rouge-Orange) 1964-65, Edition of 75, HC XIII/XIII, Lithograph on Rives BFK white paper with deckled edge / Estimate $10,875-$23,100

Ellsworth Kelly was born in 1923 in Newburgh, New York. He studied at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, from 1941 to 1943. After military service from 1943 to 1945, he attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts, Boston, from 1946 to 1948. In 1949, Kelly went to France and enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, under the GI Bill In France, he discovered Romanesque art and architecture as well as Byzantine art. He was also introduced to Surrealism and Neo-Plasticism, which led him to experiment with automatic drawing and geometric abstraction. In his work Kelly abstracts the forms in his paintings from observations of the real world, such as shadows cast by trees or the spaces between architectural elements.

Lot 7: Wangechi Mutu, Second born, 2013

Lot 7, Wangechi Mutu, Second born, 2013, Edition 18 of 35, 24k gold, collagraph, relief, digital printing, collage, and hand coloring / Estimate $18,250-$38,625

Wangechi Mutu addresses the politics of identity in her work by juxtaposing images and materials from historical and contemporary sources. Mutu received her MFA from Yale University. Her work has been the subject of solo shows at museums and institutions throughout the US and abroad including: Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, WIELS, Brussels; Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Miami Art Museum. Her work has also appeared in numerous group shows at institutions including: Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Gotesborgs Kunsthalle, Sweden; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Liverpool, UK; Minneapolis Institute of Art; and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. In 2010 Mutu received the Deutsche Guggenheim Artist of the Year, Berlin.

Lot 12: Nona Faustine, In Praise of Famous Men No More

Lot 12: Nona Faustine, In Praise of Famous Men No More, 2019, Edition 5 of 20 Silkscreen / Estimate $7,450 - $15,000

Nona Faustine is a photographer and visual artist born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts and The International Center of Photography at Bard College's MFA program. Faustine's images have been published in a variety of media outlets such as Artforum, New York Times, Huffington Post, Hyperallergic, The Guardian, New Yorker Magazine, and Los Angeles Times. Faustine's work has been exhibited at Harvard University, the Studio Museum of Harlem, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, Schomburg Center for Black Research, the International Center of Photography, Saint John's Divine Cathedral, and the Tomie Ohtake Institute. Her work is in the collections of the David C. Driskell Center, the Studio Museum of Harlem, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Carnegie Museum. In 2019, Faustine was the recipient of the NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship, the Colene Brown Art Prize, and the Anonymous Was A Woman grant. In January 2020, she participated in the inaugural class of Kehinde Wiley's Black Rock Senegal Residency.

Lot 13: Richard Artschwager, Corner Splat II

Lot 13, Richard Artschwager, Corner Splat II, Laminate on aluminum in two parts / Estimate $15,000-$30,000

Richard Artschwager (1923-2013) was an American sculptor and painter. During the 1950s he designed and made furniture in New York, but after a fire that destroyed most of the contents of his shop in 1958 he turned again to art, initially painting abstract pictures derived from memories of the New Mexican landscape. 

From 1962, Artschwager also painted grey acrylic monochrome pictures, basing his images on black-and-white photographs, characteristically of modern buildings as shown in property advertisements. Gradually his paintings became more complex and mysterious, the surface subsumed in a pattern of flickering light. His emphasis, however, remained on ambiguities of perception-on the interaction of observation and illusion-especially in sculptures conceived as hybrids of recognizable objects.

Lot 255: Joel Janowitz, Clasp, 2011

Lot 255, Joel Janowitz, Clasp, 2011, Oil on linen / Estimate $3,600-$9,000

Joel Janowitz received his MFA from UCSB. His work was recently exhibited at Gallery Kayafas, and will be shown at Schoolhouse Gallery, Provincetown. He is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, four Mass Artist Grants, and had a recent residency at the Manship Residency. HIs work is in the collections of the Whitney, MFA Boston, Harvard, Yale, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Lot 101: Caleb Charland '04, A Color Spectrum with the Rising Sun, Schoodic Peninsula, Acadia National Park

Lot 101, Caleb Charland '04, A Color Spectrum with the Rising Sun, Schoodic Peninsula, Acadia National Park, 2019, Edition 1 of 5 (as of now) Archival Inkjet Print / Estimate $3,400-$6,000

Caleb Charland earned a BFA in photography from MassArt in 2004, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, as a Trustees Fellow, in 2010, and was a participant at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2009. In 2016 Charland received the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant in photography.

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Both catalogs feature highly valuable and important works of art from museum quality artists, giving seasoned art collectors much to choose from. However, it's worth noting that the MassArt Auction also includes vibrant, more accessibly priced artworks in their Timed Auction catalog for new collectors to enjoy with pieces beginning as low as $45 - $300:

Lot 311: Leslie Shershow '06, Drifter

Lot 311, Leslie Shershow '06, Drifter, dition 2 of 25, Aluminum, luminescent film, resin / Starting bid $180

Leslie Shershow received her BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and her MFA from San Diego State University. Her work was recently exhibited at Galerie Marzee, and was selected for the 2021 Schmuck Exhibition in Munich. She has held residencies at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, and the Haystack Open Studio Residency. She has been a recipient of the One for the Future Award.

Lot 175: Susan Bunbury M'87, Alter Egos III

Lot 175, Susan Bunbury M'87, Alter Egos III, 1990, Monoprint / Starting bid $180

Susan Bunbury has a master's degree in printmaking from MassArt and bachelor degrees in both painting and in art history from the University of Georgia. She has been based in the Boston area since graduating from MassArt in 1987 and has pursued a successful professional career as a graphic designer working for companies such as Fidelity and PTC.

Lot 224: Will Kastrinakis '21, siiick, 2020

Lot 224, Will Kastrinkakis '21, siick, 2020, Charcoal / Starting Bid $300

Will Kastrinakis will receive his bachelors in communication design at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2021. His work had been held in various restaurants and museums in the Berkshires, including the Norman Rockwell Museum, Berkshire Museum, Baba Louie's Pizzeria, and others.

View both Massachusetts College of Art and Design Foundation auction catalogs and register to place your bids, on Bidsquare.com.

*Featured artist biographies and descriptions courtesy of Massachusetts College of Art and Design Foundation auction catalogs.

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