Top picks from Contemporary Online, selected by our experts

‘Warhol was always attuned to how media shapes memory and public consciousness, but Flash (1968) marks a pivotal reassertion of the artist’s photographic vision within Pop art.

‘In this set of 11 metallic and colourful screenprints incorporating newswire photographs, teletype text and public domain images from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Warhol uses repetition and detachment to reframe tragedy as spectacle. It’s a critique of pop culture and mass media, one that’s as relevant today as it was in the 1960s.’ 

‘Ed Ruscha’s Limited Palette (1989) is part of his Silhouette series, which departed from his earlier explorations of text as imagery and signified a new chapter for the artist.

‘This painting has been in the same prominent California collection since the 1990s. It’s the only known painting of a palette by Ruscha, though he created two other palette works on paper. Ruscha commented that the title is a play on the limited colour palette of the series, consisting of mostly monochromatic works. The work highlights new avenues the artist was exploring at the time — cut through with his signature cheeky sense of humour.’ 

‘Rind (1955) is indicative of the unprecedented quality and diversity of works in the upcoming M.C. Escher: The Art of Infinity sale. A classic composition by the artist, this woodcut is a portrait of Escher’s wife, inspired by the imagery in H.G. Wells’ science fiction novel The Invisible Man. Through the prism of mathematical and geometric shapes, it explores the idea of infinity, a theme throughout Escher’s oeuvre.

‘This print is quite closely tied to another offering, the double portrait Bond of Union (1956). To me, Rind is Escher’s initial investigation into this composition via highly detailed woodcut, and Bond of Union is a continuation of this spherical and science-fiction inspired image.’

‘One of the most innovative printmakers of her time, Helen Frankenthaler worked closely with Tyler Graphics — a leading print studio in Bedford, New York — using a variety of techniques to achieve painterly qualities in her etchings and prints.  

‘In this etching, many different colours were created with just three copper plates. Unlike typical multicolour prints requiring a separate plate per hue, Frankenthaler employed a blended roller, applying multiple ink colors simultaneously to a single plate. Additionally, she used the Sugar Lift technique where maple syrup is painted onto a copper plate. When heated, the syrup adheres to the plate and allows the ink to create ethereal, translucent washes, as in the thin veils of colour seen here.’  

‘Billy Al Bengston began experimenting with hearts in 1958. He called these works Valentines when they premiered at Los Angeles’s Ferus Gallery on 14 February 1960. The artist sometimes gifted them to close friends, and they were considered his highest tokens of affection.

‘This one, Alice in Transylvania (c. 1960), has incredible provenance, coming from the Ferus Gallery, which helped launch Bengston’s career in addition to those of many Pop artists including Ed Ruscha, Roy Lichtenstein and Ken Price. In this painting, the heart is surrounded by an abstract block of bright yellow. Bengston often named these Valentine paintings after silver screen actresses, so this could be reminiscent of film stars such as Alice Brady or Alice Faye. The colour really pops and is what initially drew me in — it makes an immediate impression.’

‘In 1971 John Baldessari was invited to do a show at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design but was unable to attend because there was no travel stipend. Instead he sent instructions to the curator to have students at the college write I will not make any more boring art repeatedly on the blank walls of the gallery. By the end of the show, nearly all the walls were covered by this sentence.

‘This print, the first of Baldessari’s career, was made in conjunction with the show and is emblematic of the tone he set throughout his oeuvre. He was a conceptual artist who always approached things with a bit of irony and humour. A lot of people get a kick out of this work; it’s amusing but also a sly critique of major artistic movements of the time.’  

‘This painting by Kenneth Noland hails from the collection of the prominent British sculptor Sir Anthony Caro. It was painted in 1964, the year Caro began teaching at Bennington College. At the time, Bennington was this incredible meeting point for major Abstract Expressionists and Colour Field artists in the United States. It was there that Caro and Noland became close friends and collected each other’s works in depth.

‘And For, a stripe painting Noland gifted to Caro, represents a bold departure from the dominant gestural painting of the time. It also tells a story of friendship between two artists, underscoring the interconnected nature of the art world and upending the myth of the artist as an isolated figure.’

‘In 1959 Andy Warhol, his mother, Julia Warhola, and the prominent American interior designer Suzie Frankfurt collaborated on one of the funniest and most whimsical cookbooks ever made, Wild Raspberries. Frankfurt contributed the recipes, Warhola did the calligraphy and Andy made prints illustrating dishes like A&P Surprise and Baked Hawaii.

‘The vibrant hand colouring in this book is lovely, as are the watercolours and tissue paper inlay. The cookbook itself is witty and quirky. You can see the influence of extravagant 1950s foodstuffs and how that played into Warhol’s later masterpieces like the Campbell’s Soup Cans series and his fascination with commercial America.’

‘Shio Kusaka grew up attending her grandmother’s tea ceremonies in Japan, where she closely observed ceramic vessels that would later inspire her own practice. Kusaka draws upon a range of ancient techniques, and yet her oeuvre feels closer to modern and contemporary aesthetics.  

‘What intrigues her about making pottery is the irregularities and imperfections that make each work unique. All her ceramics have a one-of-a-kind look that reveal her distinct language, and we can see this reflected here in her embrace of organic shapes and patterns. This work from 2010 is particularly exciting because it’s being offered without a reserve, which means bidding can start at just $100.’