Featured: From Bloomsbury to Banksy - Highlights from our Modern Art Sale


June 2025

This summer’s Modern Art Sale at Duggleby Stephenson presents a curated selection of modern and contemporary works by some of the most compelling and influential names in 20th- and 21st-century art. From Bloomsbury elegance to contemporary provocation, from traditional brushwork to abstracted form, the sale showcases a rich spectrum of visual language. This carefully curated collection stands out for its quality, provenance, and the compelling dialogues it invites between artists, movements and ideas. We've selected just a handful of highlights to offer a glimpse of the breadth and depth of the sale.

 

Religious imagery takes centre stage in two powerful and opposing interpretations. Banksy’s Toxic Mary (Lot 31), a screenprint in colours from circa 2003, subverts the traditional Madonna and Child icon by replacing the infant’s nourishment with poison. Numbered 429/600, the print is a quintessential example of Banksy’s ability to shock and provoke while appropriating familiar forms. In striking contrast is 'Madonna and Child' (Lot 45), a plaster maquette sculpture cast after Henry Moore. A work of serene tenderness, it draws on Moore’s reverence for maternal themes and his experience as a war artist. Each work offers its own reinterpretation of classical composition, revealing how sacred symbolism continues to evolve across centuries and ideologies.

 

The Bloomsbury Group's refined modernism is represented by two of its central figures. Vanessa Bell’s Still Life of Poppies and Roses (Lot 9) is a tall, elegant oil on panel, signed with initials and bearing provenance from major London and American galleries. Its palette and composition embody Bell’s characteristic blend of intimacy and structural strength. In Duncan Grant’s The Farmstead at Charlston (Lot 12), a 1932 oil on paper laid to board, the Sussex countryside is rendered with colouristic confidence and lyrical ease. The painting was exhibited in the Leicester Galleries’ historic show of Sir Hugh Walpole’s collection.

 

Another conversation emerges between East Asian tradition and form. Ju Ming’s Taichi Series bronze (Lot 85), a dynamic figural sculpture, captures the poised energy of martial arts. Signed and numbered 1/20, and exhibited at Browse & Darby in 1991, the piece reflects the Taiwanese sculptor’s signature balance of movement and mass. Its dialogue with The Cancer Crab (Lot 88), a delicate watercolour attributed to Qi Baishi, is subtle but profound. Signed and sealed, the painting depicts a single crab with extraordinary vitality, in the style of one of China’s most beloved modern brush painters.

 

Among British works, Richard M. Firth’s Valsheda Britannia Westward and Shamrock – Racing off the Isle of Wight (Lot 26) captures a dramatic yacht race off the Isle of Wight in a large-scale oil on canvas. Claimed by the artist to be his most ambitious work in scale and subject, it includes more vessels than any of his previous paintings. By contrast, Sir Matthew Smith’s Still Life with Figurine (Lot 27) is a quiet and contemplative watercolour, dated c.1950 and exhibited at Browse & Darby. It features the artist’s hallmark colour modulation and is a fine example of his post-impressionist influence.

 

The surreal and the symbolic converge in Joan Miró’s Genève (Geneva) (Lot 3), a signed and numbered lithograph in colours. This limited edition (53/100) work on Arches paper reflects Miró’s late style – spontaneous, dreamlike, and entirely his own – and is one of many works by the artist included in the sale.

His work sits in good company, with the sale also featuring several signed etchings by fellow Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí, one of the most iconic and inventive figures of 20th-century art. Known for his technical brilliance and boundless imagination, Dalí helped shape the surrealist movement with his fantastical, often theatrical imagery. Together, these works underscore the enduring impact of surrealism in modern visual culture and the remarkable range of its expression.

 

From the world of contemporary photography comes Juergen Teller’s Kristen McMenamy – Casa Mollino No.3 Turin 2011 (Lot 81), a signed C-print from a limited edition of 100. Unfiltered and striking, the work captures the spirit of 1990s visual culture with stark, arresting intimacy. Teller's anti-glamour approach to photography, often blurring the line between fashion and fine art, helped define an entire generation’s aesthetic. His portrait of McMenamy is both iconic and unsettling, stripping away gloss to reveal raw presence.

Also in the contemporary sphere is Matthew Brannon’s Aperitif (Lot 69), a mixed media work combining acrylic and collage on canvas laid onto cardboard. Exhibited at The Ventriloquist at Office Baroque Gallery, Antwerp in 2012, the piece plays with the visual language of design and advertising while subtly unsettling it. With its layered textures, pared-back composition, and quietly ironic tone, Aperitif reflects Brannon’s ongoing interest in surface, suggestion, and the emotional detachment of modern life.

 

This remarkable collection spans continents, decades, and a rich spectrum of artistic expression – from the defiant voice of street art to the lyrical beauty of brush and line, from measured formality to bold experimentation. The full catalogue speaks for itself and is now open for viewing. Bidding is underway, offering a rare chance to acquire works of true cultural and artistic significance – whether your tastes lean toward the graphic energy of British modernism, the refined elegance of Chinese painting, or the provocative edge of contemporary art.

Bidding ends from 11am on Friday 11 July. Explore the catalogue and place your bids today. 

 
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