Clars Auctions is pleased to announce highlights of its Important Fine Art Auction taking place on February 19th, featuring a dynamic selection of postwar, modern, and contemporary works alongside important American prints.

Highlights include a monumental mixed-media canvas by Abstract Expressionist Conrad Marca- Relli, Untitled (circa 1970s), estimated at $15,000–$20,000; Richard Diebenkorn’s vibrant aquatint with drypoint, Folsom Street Variations III (Primaries) (1986), estimated at $12,000–$18,000; and Richard Pettibone’s incisive Pop Art reinterpretation, Andy Warhol Brillo Box (1964) (1967), also estimated at $12,000–$18,000. Additional highlights include California Impressionist works by Granville Redmond and Charles P. Reiffel, as well as notable works by Ellsworth Kelly, Victor Vasarely, Edward S. Curtis, Anthony Quinn, and John James Audubon. Together, these works underscore the breadth and quality of the auction, offering collectors opportunities across multiple movements, media, and price points.

Featured in the auction is Richard Pettibone (American, 1938–2024), a pivotal conceptual Pop artist known for re-creating iconic works of his contemporaries in miniature. Drawing from the Dada tradition of Marcel Duchamp, Pettibone appropriated widely recognized images — such as Andy Warhol’s Marilyn screenprints and Roy Lichtenstein’s comic-strip paintings — in works he described as both homage and critique. His Andy Warhol Brillo Box (1964), created in 1967 after Warhol’s famed facsimile boxes, exemplifies Pettibone’s recursive approach to mass-produced imagery, raising enduring questions about authorship, value, and consumer culture in postwar American art.

Another major focus of the auction is an extensive group of paintings by Margaret Keane (American, 1927–2022), spanning the early 1960s. Keane is internationally renowned for her iconic depictions of wide-eyed figures and for her remarkable personal and artistic story. During her marriage, her former husband Walter Keane falsely claimed authorship of her work, a claim later disproven in a landmark courtroom “paint-off” following their divorce. Keane was ultimately recognized as the true creator of the famed “Big Eyes” paintings. Her influence extends across fine art and popular culture, and her life inspired the 2014 film Big Eyes, directed by Tim Burton and starring Amy Adams. Four paintings by Keane are offered in the February auction, with estimates ranging from $6,000–$9,000 to $10,000–$15,000.