The Making of a Photographer

Born on October 2, 1949, in Waterbury, Connecticut, Annie Leibovitz grew up in a military family that moved frequently across the United States. It was this itinerant upbringing, and an early habit of recording places and faces she feared losing, that first drew her to image-making. She enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute in the late 1960s, intending to study painting, but a darkroom class changed everything. Within a short time, photography had become her primary language.

In 1970, at 21, Leibovitz walked into the offices of Rolling Stone magazine in San Francisco with a portfolio of photographs. Jann Wenner, the magazine’s founding editor, was struck by what he saw and gave her an assignment immediately. Her first published photograph ran on the cover of Rolling Stone in January 1971: a portrait of John Lennon taken during a session that would become one of the defining moments of her early career. She was hired as a staff photographer, and by 1973 had been named the magazine’s chief photographer, a title she held until 1983, during which time she produced some of the most memorable celebrity portraiture of the era.

The thirteen years she spent at Rolling Stone established the visual grammar that would define her reputation. She photographed musicians, actors, athletes, and politicians with an intimacy that felt genuinely earned rather than performed. Her subjects included the Rolling Stones on tour, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bette Midler. Her approach was immersive: she would spend extended time with subjects, often traveling with them, building enough trust that the camera seemed to disappear. The resulting photographs felt less like posed portraits and more like brief, honest glimpses into private lives.

Vanity Fair, Vogue, & the Portrait at Scale

In 1983, Leibovitz transitioned to Vanity Fair, where she would spend the next several decades producing work that would extend and deepen her reputation. The editorial budgets and production scale available at Vanity Fair allowed her to realize increasingly ambitious visual concepts. Her portraits from this period are among the most widely reproduced magazine images in American publishing history: Demi Moore, visibly pregnant, photographed nude on the August 1991 cover; Whoopi Goldberg submerged in a bath of milk; a reclining Keith Haring covered in body paint. These images were not simply photographs; they were cultural events.

Alongside her editorial work for Vanity Fair, Leibovitz has contributed extensively to Vogue, photographing fashion campaigns and portraits for both the American and international editions. Her advertising clients have included American Express, Honda, and Louis Vuitton. The latter campaign, which featured major cultural figures, including Mikhail Gorbachev, Catherine Deneuve, and Keith Richards, in travel settings, became one of the most celebrated advertising series of the 2000s.

December 8, 1980, produced what many consider the most significant single photograph of her career. In the hours before John Lennon’s assassination, Leibovitz photographed him curled around Yoko Ono in their Dakota apartment. The image, a nude Lennon in fetal embrace around a fully clothed Ono, ran on the cover of Rolling Stone following his death and has since become one of the most iconic photographs of the twentieth century. Leibovitz was the last professional photographer to photograph Lennon alive.

Museum Recognition & Institutional Legacy

In 1991, Leibovitz became the first woman to stage a solo exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The show, drawn from two decades of portraiture work, established her within a tradition of formal portraiture that extended well beyond magazine photography. The accompanying monograph, Photographs: Annie Leibovitz 1970–1990, remains a key reference for collectors and researchers.

Subsequent exhibitions have included Women (1999), a collaboration with writer Susan Sontag featuring portraits of women from diverse backgrounds and professions; American Music (2003), which documented musicians across genres; and A Photographer’s Life: 1990–2005, which originated at the Brooklyn Museum before traveling internationally. That exhibition was significant for its candor; it interwove professional editorial work with deeply personal photographs documenting the final years of Susan Sontag’s life and the early childhood of Leibovitz’s daughters.

Her work is held in the permanent collections of major institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In 2006, she was named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress. She is currently represented by Hauser & Wirth, one of the world’s leading contemporary art galleries, a relationship that situates her work firmly within the contemporary fine art market rather than solely within the world of editorial photography.

Her Most Iconic Photographs

A handful of images have come to define Leibovitz’s public identity as a photographer:

• John Lennon and Yoko Ono (1980) — Taken hours before Lennon’s assassination, this gelatin silver print is among the most reproduced photographs of the twentieth century.
• Demi Moore, Pregnant (1991) — The Vanity Fair cover that redefined how pregnancy was represented in mainstream media and generated international debate.
• Whoopi Goldberg in a Milk Bath (1984) — A conceptually daring image that remains among her most discussed early works.
• Keith Haring with Body Paint (1986) — A collaboration that merged the visual languages of two distinct artistic practices.
• Queen Elizabeth II (2007) — Commissioned portraits taken at Buckingham Palace, which generated significant press coverage and became landmarks of official royal portraiture.
• Caitlyn Jenner (2015) — The Vanity Fair cover that generated the magazine’s highest newsstand sales in decades.

These images are not simply well-known. They occupy a specific place in the broader history of photography as a medium capable of shaping public perception, reframing cultural narratives, and functioning as historical documents of their moment.

Collecting Leibovitz: What to Know

For collectors interested in acquiring work by Annie Leibovitz, understanding the structure of her market is essential. Her photographs exist in several distinct formats, and the format, print date, and edition size all have a direct bearing on value.

Print Formats & Media

Leibovitz’s photographs are produced in three primary media:

• Gelatin silver prints: The traditional photographic medium used for her black-and-white work from the Rolling Stone era and beyond. Vintage gelatin silver prints — those produced at or near the time the photograph was taken — are the most sought after by serious collectors and carry a premium over later editions.
• Chromogenic (C-print) prints: Used for her color photography, particularly the Vanity Fair and Vogue work. These are typically available in limited editions and represent the most accessible tier of her market for collectors entering at a mid-range price point.
• Digital inkjet (pigment) prints: Used for more recent work and large-format editions. These prints are often produced in very small editions and are associated with her gallery representation through Hauser & Wirth.

Edition Size & Print Date

Edition size matters significantly in Leibovitz’s market. Smaller editions command higher prices; a print issued in an edition of five will typically outperform one issued in an edition of fifty, all else being equal. Print date is equally important: vintage prints, those produced close to the time the photograph was taken, consistently achieve stronger results at auction than later reprints, even of the same image. Collector preference for vintage prints reflects the historical and material authenticity of the object rather than the image alone.

Provenance also plays a meaningful role. Prints that can be documented to private sales through Hauser & Wirth or major photography galleries, or that carry exhibition history, are generally more desirable to institutional buyers and serious private collectors.

Price Ranges at Auction

The market for Leibovitz photographs spans a wide range. At the entry level, signed prints from later editions, particularly color work from the 1990s and 2000s, have sold at auction for low thousands. Mid-tier examples, particularly vintage gelatin silver prints of iconic subjects, typically realize between $5,000 and $30,000. Major works — large-format prints, unique or near-unique vintage examples, and images with significant cultural resonance — have reached six figures at major auction houses. The John Lennon and Yoko Ono gelatin silver print from 1970 is among the most actively traded of her works, with realized prices at auction varying based on print date, size, and condition.

Collectors new to photography will find useful context in Clars’ fine art photography department, which handles a range of vintage and contemporary photographic works across price points.

Annie Leibovitz at Clars Auctions

Clars Auctions has handled Annie Leibovitz’s work at auction, including a gelatin silver print of John Lennon and Yoko Ono (1970), measuring 11″ × 7.5″ and signed, which sold for $6,300. The print originated from the same session in which Leibovitz captured Lennon for what would become the January 1971 cover of Rolling Stone, one of the pivotal early milestones of her career.

Works by Leibovitz appear at auction infrequently relative to collector demand, particularly vintage prints of her most recognized subjects. When they do come to market, they tend to attract sustained interest from collectors building collections in American photography, modern portraiture, and twentieth-century cultural history.

For Buyers

If you are building a collection in American photography or fine art portraiture, we recommend reviewing our auction calendar and live catalogs to stay informed when a Leibovitz work enters one of our sales. Our team of fine art specialists is also available to assist with research and pre-sale inquiries.

New to the auction process? Our guide for first-time bidders walks you through registration, bidding options, and what to expect on sale day. You can also explore ways to buy, including absentee and telephone bidding.

For Sellers

If you own a work by Annie Leibovitz — whether a vintage print, a signed later edition, or a large-format gallery work — Clars Auctions is well-positioned to help you understand its current market value and bring it to the right buyers. Our specialists provide professional appraisals for fair market, insurance, and estate purposes, and our established presence in fine art and photography auctions means your consignment reaches a targeted, qualified collector base.

We work with individual sellers, estate executors, fiduciaries, and institutions. To begin, you can request a complimentary valuation online, contact our team directly, or visit us at our auction house in Oakland, California.

Two of our modern and contemporary highlights this November come from American artists who draw inspiration from their surroundings in very different ways.

First is Jim Dine (American, b. 1935), an Ohio-born multimedia artist who has been associated over the years with Neo-Dada, Pop Art, and Abstract Expressionism. Dine has often utilized found objects in his work, including sculptures influenced by classical Greece and a well-known collection of Pinocchio statues, and continued to take inspiration from the everyday in his two-dimensional pieces. Dine’s 1962 exhibition at the Pasadena Art Museum, titled New Painting of Common Objects, celebrated the ordinary with depictions of neckties, tools, and hats, displayed not as they so commonly were as background objects, but front and center, the star of the painting.

During this period, Dine landed on bathrobes while searching for a way to reinvent the self-portrait. Dine sought to depict the self without a face, and thus adopted an object most intimate and familiar with which to experiment, using different styles and methods to manipulate the mundane robe. The piece in this month’s auction is titled Kindergarten Robes and dated to 1983. This large-scale woodcut print shows two coarsely rendered robes, tied at the waist with sleeves positioned toward the hips, in large swaths of yellow, blue, red, and green. The absence of a body within the robes is notable, but their well-worn wrinkles imply that it does have a history, and its positioning (which is the most frequently seen in Dine’s robes) imbues the empty articles with their own personality. Kindergarten Robes is being offered with an estimate of $6,000–$9,000.

Brian Alfred is a contemporary artist and musician originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After earning a fine arts degrees from Penn State and Yale and attending an artist’s residency at the Skohegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Alfred held successful solo shows at galleries in Tokyo, London, and New York City. Alfred’s interest in blending mediums includes a career in music that overlaps with the visual arts, and many of his animation videos feature soundtracks from sonic collaborators.

Alfred’s paintings often depict stagnant cityscapes, skylines, and landscapes devoid of people. The precise, flat method with which Alfred applies color to canvas creates a surreal atmosphere in which the world around us is reduced to form atmosphere. The acrylic on canvas, titled Overpass, in our November sale depicts a large freeway overpass with gray bridges crisscrossing one another over a pale blue sky. Patches of grass are visible below, and tall signs hover on the right side, advertising gas, food, and lodging to the invisible passers-by. The starkness of the canvas is punctuated by the absence of even one car on the road, hovering in a place between peace and unease. Overpass will be offered with an estimate of $8,000–$12,000.

Clars in collaboration with exhibited.at is honored to host the discussion: Craftsmanship in the Realm of Analog and Digital on November 20th, which takes a closer look at the works of contemporary artists featured in our Artists to Watch Auction, Katie McCann and Carolina de Bartolo.

This event will take place on November 20th and run from 1–1:40 PM PST with Q&A to follow. The engaging panel, celebrating the Artists to Watch Auction on November 21st, brings together artists Katie McCann and Carolina de Bartolo, whose artworks featuring botanicals blend both tradition with innovation. Through contrasting approaches — McCann’s intricate, hand-cut collage work and de Bartolo’s AI-assisted compositions — the artists reveal how nature can be interpreted and reimagined within both analog and digital realms. The discussion will delve into the unique process of each artist as they walk us through their art, illuminating the varied landscapes of craftsmanship, creativity, and nature.

The discussion will be moderated by Rodania Leong, founder exhibited.at The Artists to Watch section (lots 2980–2993) will lead the Fine Art Collectors Auction on November 21st, starting at 10 AM PST.

Katie McCann is an English artist currently living in Berkeley, California who works primarily in collage and mixed media. Her work has been exhibited and sold across the USA, Europe and Asia and she has illustrated book and album covers. McCann’s artwork is also a part of the 60 Box Public Art Project in the City of Berkeley and she recently designed two labels for La Cidrerie du Condroz. McCann is one of 50 female collage artists to appear in the book Collage by Women: 50 Essential Contemporary Artists (Promopress Editions, 2019).

McCann creates intricate, hand cut collages which reflect her Victorian obsession with faeries, flora and fauna. From her extensive collection of books, prints and pages that are antique, forgotten and foxed with age, she cuts out images, categorizes them and then eventually pieces them together like a complex paper jigsaw puzzle. McCann’s collages are places where beauty is strange, creatures are curious and a sense of wonder prevails. At times they can be like tiny cabinets of curiosity reflecting the variety of the natural world and its peculiar beauty or they can become a wallpaper pattern, lush and dense, with hidden meanings and metaphors.

McCann shares, “Frost Flowers are a rare winter phenomenon where frozen air causes ice formations to bloom from plant stems, each unique and fleeting. Inspired by their delicate beauty and Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s floral portraits, I created a collage reflecting nature’s secrets.” The portrait is made of hundreds of hand-cut pieces of paper, featuring a headpiece of pearls, jewels, and flowers in shades of grey and white. Her face is crafted from tiny flowers, her dress from paper beads, and she wears a botanical sash, evoking a regal figure from an icy, magical realm. This piece celebrates the connection between humanity and the extraordinary occurrences in nature.

For California-based visual artist Carolina de Bartolo, generative AI is both a tool and an object of investigation. In her artistic practice, de Bartolo fuses old media and styles with new technologies to ask whether image-generating software is merely an extension of the collective memory, or can it truly create novel art? Central to her work are notions of remix and iteration influenced by her decades of experience in the fields of graphic design and typography. With the belief that images with universality better encourage spectator imagination and participation, de Bartolo seeks to create artworks that evoke familiarity over uncanniness as she explores intersections of human and machine creativity by considering the aesthetics of the past through contemporary contexts. In addition to her sought after expertise on AI art, Carolina de Bartolo is the author of the acclaimed book, Explorations in Typography and she was formerly the Creative Director at Art Blocks and taught at Academy of Art for over 20 years.

The piece in our November auction highlights a recurring motif in de Bartolo’s artwork—dandelions! These delicate flowers, often disdained as mere weeds, symbolize resilience, transformation, and the ephemeral nature of life. A gaggle of dandelions, bathed in the warm glow of a fiery vermillion sunrise, are presented in a style that blurs the lines between drawing and photography. Exhibited at the Sausalito Public Library in early 2024, this piece is presented as a hanging scroll, printed on archival paper and hung with wooden rods top and bottom. Both the central image of the dandelions and the surrounding “fabric” pattern are AI-generated, reflecting the artist’s ongoing exploration of the fusion between traditional artistic practices and cutting-edge technology.

The creation process begins with a prompt that defines the composition, color palette, and style, drawing inspiration from historical traditions and references to vintage artworks. These prompts are then iteratively refined and processed through various AI models, including image-to-image models, which are used to refine details, adjust lighting, color balance, and optimize the overall visual quality.

Founded by former Christie’s specialist Rodania Leong, exhibited.at focuses on art, community and innovation — empowering artists, curators, and galleries with the ability to archive their rich exhibition history while providing guidance on diverse art initiatives. Together with Clars — the exceptional art appraisers and auctioneers who have over fifty years of expertise in hosting Bay Area auctions — this collaboration harnesses the expertise of both exhibited.at and Clars.

Join us in celebrating the featured artists’ innovation and enduring impact! For more information or any questions, please reach out to [email protected] and [email protected].

A noteworthy piece in our Important Summer Fine Art Sale is a serigraph by American Pop art pioneer, Roy Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein was one of the most prominent figures to come out of the Pop Art movement and is most known for his comic strip-inspired paintings, prints, and sculptures.

The print featured in the June sale is titled Reverie and dates to 1965. Pictured is a young woman with blonde hair and a melancholy expression, holding a microphone while a speech bubble over her head reads the lyrics, “The melody haunts my reverie.” This lyric — taken from the song Stardust by Tin Pan Alley musicians Hoagy Carmichael and Mitchell Parish — was written in 1927 and popularized during the 1930s big band era. The retro feel of the imagery is characteristic of Lichtenstein’s work, as is the comic-style dot work, bold color, and thick, black lines. Reverie was created for a portfolio, titled 11 Pop Artists published by Original Editions, that included 2 other prints by the artist as well as prints by Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselman, and other major names in the Pop Art movement.

In addition to the aforementioned work, we are also pleased to offer abstract sculptures by Claire Falkenstein, a life-size bronze gown by Karen LaMonte, a suite of six bullfighting paintings by LeRoy Neiman, an abstract expressionist oil by Tancredi Parmeggiani, and much more in our Important Summer Fine Art Sale on June 20th.

Clars in collaboration with exhibited.at is honored to present the visionary inaugural auction: Artists to Watch: California. This section will lead the Spring Modern + Contemporary Art + Design Auction held on March 21st, 2 PM PDT.

Founded by former Christie’s specialist Rodania Leong, exhibited.at focuses on art, community and innovation — empowering artists, curators, and galleries with the ability to archive their rich exhibition history while providing guidance on diverse art initiatives. Together with Clars — the exceptional art appraisers and auctioneers who have over fifty years of expertise in hosting Bay Area auctions — this collaboration harnesses the expertise of both exhibited.at and Clars whilst delving into the rich history and allure of California art.

California has long been a force for artistic innovation, and this auction aims to showcase the work of ten pioneering artists based in the Golden State. A few of the artists who will be featured in this inaugural sale are Gabe Weis and Alexa Arnold.

Gabe Weiss is a mixed media and NFT artist living in the Bay Area. The self-taught artist is inspired by street art and stoic philosophy and uses a stream-of-consciousness approach to his work to explore perceptions of reality. His physical and digital works are shown internationally. This past year, his work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, Picasso Museum, Seattle Art Fair, and various galleries throughout Asia and the United States. Gabe is committed to sustainability in his craft. By reusing older materials found around the house, such as cereal boxes, maps, and old dictionaries to create timeless works, he hopes his work inspires others to reuse materials as part of their art practice.

Alexis Arnold is a mixed media visual artist in Oakland, CA. Her artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Aspen Art Museum, Napa Valley Museum, Whatcom Museum, Beaux-Arts Mons Belgium, Atlanta Airport, Bergdorf Goodman, di Rosa, and The NY Hall of Science. Alexis’ work is included in the collections of SFMOMA, Meta, VCU, MediaMath, Costa Cruises, University of Pittsburgh, and others.

The history of art in California holds profound significance, reflecting a dynamic intersection of cultural, social, and environmental influences. As a beacon of creativity and innovation, California has been a canvas for diverse artistic movements — from the early 20th-century Bohemian enclaves to the rise of contemporary art hubs. The state’s artistic legacy truly encapsulates the spirit of experimentation and cultural diversity unique to California, its rich history nourishing the evolution of artistic expression and societal shifts, and the transformative power of the Californian landscape on the creative imagination.

With this inaugural auction, we take great pride in introducing ten esteemed artists who persistently enrich the tapestry of California art. Their work resonates with audiences and collectors worldwide, serving as pioneers in the evolution of artistic expression. We invite you to immerse yourself in this presentation, offering an opportunity to discover, connect, and support those instrumental in shaping the lasting legacy of California’s art history.

Join us in celebrating their creativity, innovation, and enduring impact! For more information or any questions, please reach out to [email protected] and [email protected].

This March we are excited to present several very special works in our Spring Modern + Contemporary Art + Design Auction.

We are privileged and honored to present a very important work by 1991 National Artist of the Philippines, Hernando Ruiz Ocampo. Ocampo stands as an iconic artist in the Philippines, being a leader of modernist painting in the country during the first half of the twentieth century. The monumental work by Ocampo in our March sale, one of only two made by the artist in this size, is titled Mga Kiti, which can be taken as a reference to either duck embryos or mosquito larvae. Dating to 1978, the scroll-like painting, done in acrylic paint on Tetoron fabric, showcases a repeating pattern of similar forms that echo human figures, the bodies of birds, lotus pods, and cellular structures.

Another featured work is a life-size ceramic kimono by American sculptor, Karen LaMonte. LaMonte is known for her sculptures of garments which appear to be draped over a human form but stand alone as if moving on their own. LaMonte works in glass, bronze, and ceramic, and the child’s kimono in our March sale is made of ceramic with a light blue celadon glaze.

Another sculpture highlight in the March sale is a bronze by Eric Goulder, titled The Woman. This figural piece depicts a nude woman seated while raising a hand to her mouth — a look of surprise on her face. The nearly life-size sculpture is formed in a highly realistic style displaying musculature and hair texture, as well as emotion and body language.

Moving on to our selection of paintings this March, we are pleased to offer two works by Bay Area Figurative Movement member, Henrietta Berk. Berk is celebrated for her emotive use of color and the strong element of movement in her painting. She often utilizes an impasto painting technique, which we see in both pieces in the March auction. One painting, titled Spanish Landscape, depicts a starkly lit town with a blazing orange sky over green fields and scattered buildings. The second piece, an untitled figurative painting, shows a young woman and man seated and talking in the grass. Speculation of this work and other similar pieces by Berk alleges that the couple is modeled after President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Another standout in the March auction is a large oil on canvas by Latvian-American painter, Raimonds Staprans. Staprans built a large following while practicing in San Francisco during the second half of the 20th century. He is known for bold color and painterly brushwork, often focusing on architectural landscapes and still lifes. The painting at Clars this month is a rare figural work depicting a female nude. Staprans maintains his signature bold color and audacious painting technique in his exploration of the human figure.

Also included this March are large paintings by Enrico Donati and Hunt Slonem, a work on paper and print by Bay Area artist Joan Brown, and much more.

This March at Clars, we are privileged and honored to present a very important work by 1991 National Artist of the Philippines, Hernando Ruiz Ocampo.

Ocampo stands as an iconic artist in the Philippines, being a leader of modernist painting in the country during the first half of the twentieth century. As a painter who ushered in an era of creative exploration in the country, Ocampo developed a singular style that expressed the Filipino experience through emotive color, form, and abstraction.

Ocampo was born and raised in greater Manila in 1911 and studied both law and writing — becoming an accomplished poet and fiction writer before approaching the visual arts. His early painting career is marked by experimentation with modes of expression, including a series titled Luetica, for which his visceral depictions of human mortality earned him strong reactions upon exhibition.

After the devastation of World War II in the Philippines, progressive artists worked to reflect the hardships and realities of life. Ocampo and his colleagues, including fellow National Artists Vicente S. Manansala and Cesar Legaspi, inaugurated a movement of distinctly Filipino Neo-Realism, combining modernist abstraction with figurative subject matter.

Neo-Realists took their inspiration from the struggles of workers, family life, poverty, and the local landscape. Although one can detect the influence of prior and concurrent movements in Europe and the United States — including Cubism and Vorticism as well as Social Realism — the Neo-Realists’ work was categorically unique in its blend of the Filipino experience with modernist aesthetics. Out of the many talented artists in his circle, Ocampo favored the freedom that abstraction afforded him in his work; and as he gained confidence in his practice, it became more symbolic and less objective in nature.

Ocampo continued to delve further into abstraction as his career progressed. His close peer, Cesar Legaspi, was quoted speaking about Ocampo’s creative evolution, stating, “I think the impact of those paintings was needed then as the controversy between the moderns and the conservatives was going full blast and we had to have some kind of exemplar as to how far and how powerful a new kind of art could be.”

While Ocampo did create paintings that used abstraction while still forming a recognizable scene, such as the landscape Reaching for the Moon and the mother and child figures in Break of Day, his most well-known pieces are those that allow for open interpretation and push viewers to investigate their own subconscious. Here, the painter relies on formal elements to create a sensory experience. The principles of color and shape were fundamental to Ocampo’s work in the later years of his career. One can identify his personal connection to the color orange in many of his works, and he uses amorphous and organic shapes like tiles to form imposing structures — painstakingly faceted with vivid tones to achieve depth and form.

The monumental work by Ocampo in our March sale, one of only two made by the artist in this size, is titled Mga Kiti, which can be taken as a reference to either duck embryos or mosquito larvae. Dating to 1978, the scroll-like painting, done in acrylic paint on Tetoron fabric, showcases a repeating pattern of similar forms that echo human figures, the bodies of birds, lotus pods, and cellular structures. The background — painted a deep red that graduates into lighter crimson — recalls blood, with the small circles sprinkled throughout suggesting blood cells. Yellow linework traces throughout the length of the painting in a style reminiscent of batik, a medium originating in the neighboring country of Indonesia, and further separates the areas of red, black, and orange like cells dividing.

The lines and colors seem to undulate, expand, and contract — like compartments of breathing lungs. Like in much of his previous work, Ocampo utilizes color, specifically in the spectrum of orange, and creates a mosaic-like composition. Although the piece was commissioned by patron, Ginny Jacinto, the idea of regeneration may have been close to Ocampo’s own heart during its creation; the artist was in his late sixties and dealing with multiple health issues. Mga Kiti was Ocampo’s final painting before his death in December of 1978. Its themes of renewal, movement, and creation seem to be a summation of his work — the balance between figuration and abstraction, and a pure expression of life itself. Mga Kiti serves as a grand testament to Ocampo’s talents as a master of his craft both in formal composition, with his uncanny ability to evoke tactility and sensoriality, and as a translator of ideas, emotion, and the creative force from which all art originates.

A standout piece in our March Modern + Contemporary sale is this large acrylic on canvas painting by Los Angeles-based artist, Matt Gondek.

Gondek is known for colorful canvases with thick, bold lines depicting cartoon and comic book characters from the late 20th century, often exploding, melting, or in some way deconstructed through a darkly humorous lens.

The painting at Clars this month will look familiar to millennial collectors; the scene shows the characters from the Nickelodeon cartoon show Rugrats in a state of fragmentation. Followers of Clars will remember the Gondek painting in our November 2023 sale depicting 1990s Warner Brothers characters, Pinky and the Brain, which sold at auction for $12,600.

Clars is pleased to be offering over 70 works of art from the Collection of Allan Stone (by descent) on Thursday, March 21st in our Spring Modern + Contemporary Art + Design Auction.

From 1960 to 2020, Stone had a prominent New York City gallery that was known for showing artists such as: Wayne Thiebaud, Eva Hesse, Jack Whitten, as well as, Barnett Newman, Richard Estes, Yasuhide Kobashi, Robert Arneson, Cesar and Dorothy Grebenak among many others.

“How do I know when I’ve finished a painting? It’s when that element of surprise is there” (Joan Brown). This March at Clars we are proud to feature a work on paper and a print by one of the most well-loved modern artists of Bay Area origin.

Joan Brown was born in San Francisco in 1938 and continued to work in the area for her entire life, creating paintings, sculptures, and works on paper that celebrated the city of San Francisco and its surroundings. Brown began her art education at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute) where she began working with her mentor — fellow Bay Area icon, Elmer Bischoff — who she credited with encouraging her to focus on her own creative instincts and less on academic rules.

During her prolific career, Brown evolved stylistically from abstract expressionism to folk art-inspired figurative painting and became involved in the highly influential Bay Area Figurative Movement. Brown was married for a period to a fellow member of the movement, Manuel Neri, with whom she had a son who inspired much of her work during the 1960s. Brown also taught at several California universities during the 1960s, including the California School of Fine Arts, Mills College, and UC Berkeley.

As she matured in her practiced, Brown included more symbolism in her paintings, including spiritual and New Age ideas. This interest led her to travel the world and gather inspiration from various religions and cultures — installing mosaic obelisks honoring these new influences. Brown tragically passed away while installing one of these obelisks at Sai Baba’s Eternal Heritage Museum in Puttaparthi, India. The works included in the March auction are a gouache and pencil on paper piece, titled Running at Ocean Beach, which depicts the artist jogging at the famous San Francisco seaside, and a woodcut/lithograph, titled Golden Gate, depicting the renowned bridge at sunset with a swimmer and boater in the blue bay waters.