Sotheby’s ‘Contemporary Discoveries’ Showcases Works From Wide Array Of Masters And Artists To Collect Now, Such As Móyòsóré Martins

An oversized set of clenched teeth outlined in red squiggly lips along with three eyes comprise a face, the mouth repeated as a smaller motif along with what could be clusters of googly eyes. The totemic figure fluidly blends abstraction and figuration, guiding our gaze to the center of the canvas and leading us into Móyòsóré Martins’ complex narrative.

“FEET” is emblazoned four times in the lower center of the canvas, as if positioning and propping up the abstracted figure. Martins’ birth year, “1986” is scrawled four times to the right, emphasizing the artist’s presence on the canvas. What could be a small orange shopping bag on the lower left is marked as “ART.”

The array of vibrant colors and gestural brushstrokes burst from Attestation (Vouch), oil stick, pigment, and charcoal mingling along with the inscriptions, motifs, and symbols that engage us on a journey through Martins’ dynamic practice and singular visual language.

Raised in Lagos, Nigeria, by a Nigerian mother from Ekiti state and a Brazilian father, Martins is a self-taught mixed-media artist who began experimenting at a young age. The New York-based artist’s oeuvre explores traditional Yoruba cultural roots through a contemporary lens.

The painting, estimated to fetch between $12,000 and $18,000, is featured in Sotheby’s Contemporary Discoveries, closing online March 15 at noon ET. The March Discoveries sales showcase a wide range of paintings, prints, photographs, digital art, and sculptures spanning media and geographies over the last 150 years. Contemporary Discoveries focuses on artwork created since the 1960s, offering works by a broad variety of artists such as Andy Warhol, Salmon Toor, Alex Katz, Helen Frankenthaler, George Condo, Kenny Scharf, and Willem de Kooning.

Romare Bearden’s The Lantern (1980) is a compact tour de force. The 6-inch-by-9-inch collage on board draws us into the Black experience. Bearden’s richly textured collages are often imitated but remain unrivaled. This depiction of a Black worker in a hat carrying a lantern through a lush landscape is expected to find a home for between $50,000 and $70,000.

Tom Wesselmann’s simple Pop Art lines in Monica Sitting in Hat and Beads (Color Variation No. 3) (1989) convey multitudes about sex and femininity infused with honor to counter a repressed culture. Bidding on the large scale enamel on laser-cut steel opens at $100,000 and could garner as much as $150,000.

Take a brazen stance as collector with Tracey Emin’s My Cunt is Wet with Fear (1998), a soft pink neon with a bold message. The work, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy of the Arts in London during Tracey Emin / Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul (November 2020-February 2021), is expected to sell for $5f 0,000 -$70,000.

This sale offers myriad opportunities to own works by masters at accessible prices, as well as emerging artists like Martins who continue to shape the course of contemporary art history.