Interior Designer Sasha Bikoff Picks Her Favorite Artworks from Our 40 Under 10 Auction

The designer tells us about her favorite prints from the sale.

Designer Sasha Bikoff. Courtesy of Sasha Bikoff Interior Design.

Designer Sasha Bikoff got her career off to a running start.

Early in her professional life, she did a stunning apartment overhaul in the historic Dakota building in New York—with her mother as her first client, no less. Bikoff’s work has been in demand ever since, with commissions coming in from Hamptons property owners and fashion industry insiders. With her sensibility, it makes sense: she’s established herself as a unique source for vintage pieces and antiques, juxtaposing elements from wildly different eras into a style that is wholly her own.

Bikoff's design of a private country home in the Hudson Valley. Courtesy of Sasha Bikoff Interior Design.

Bikoff’s design of a private country home in the Hudson Valley. Courtesy of Sasha Bikoff Interior Design.

With her appreciation for eclectic tastes, we knew Bikoff would appreciate our current artnet Auctions sale, 40 Under 10. Live for bidding now through March 12, the online auction includes over 40 prints from the 1960s to today, and features works by Jonas Wood, Banksy, Alex Katz, and Barbara Kruger.

What’s better, each print is listed under $10,000.

Below, Bikoff explains which works especially caught her eye and why.

 

Still Life with Blonde (1999)

Tom Wesselmann

Tom Wesselmann, <i>Still Life with Blonde </i>(1999). Courtesy of artnet Auctions.

Tom Wesselmann, Still Life with Blonde (1999). Courtesy of artnet Auctions.

“This piece is a great way to add color and fun into a room,” Bikoff says. “Tom Wesselmann is one of my favorite artists because of his use of contrasting bright colors and glamorized women subjects.”

The screenprint is replete with Wesselmann’s favorite recurring imagery—flowers, fruit, and a blonde female figure—making it an ideal entry point for collectors new to his market.

 

Archaeopteryx Lithographica (2015)

Jonas Wood

Jonas Wood, <i>Archaeopteryx Lithographica</i> (2015). Courtesy of artnet Auctions.

Jonas Wood, Archaeopteryx Lithographica (2015). Courtesy of artnet Auctions.

Los Angeles artist Jonas Wood puts the world around him into his work. His subject matter often includes classical Greek ceramics, and there’s a delightful friction in the way that Wood reinterprets, flattens, and abstracts vessels into something that feels very new—which is exactly what Bikoff appreciates here.

“The playfulness of a work of art displayed in a work of art makes for a very whimsical experience,” she says. “But what’s really interesting about this piece is that it’s a contemporary take on an ancient subject matter.”

It’s worth noting that Wood’s interest in Greek pottery really took off after meeting his wife, the ceramicist Shio Kusaka, who inspired him to make an artist’s book based on antiquities from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

 

Brain/Cloud (With Seascape and Palm Tree) (2009)

John Baldessari

John Baldessari, <i>Brain/Cloud (With Seascape and Palm Tree)</i> (2009). Courtesy of artnet Auctions.

John Baldessari, Brain/Cloud (With Seascape and Palm Tree) (2009). Courtesy of artnet Auctions.

Bikoff calls the imagerey in this cinematic John Baldessari work “both surrealist and delightful,” and we completely agree. Since 1973, the artist has been exploring photography as a way to create collage compositions by blending a variety of media, and Brain/Cloud is exemplary of his Conceptualist, Postmodern approach. It also clearly illustrates the influence of Surrealist painter René Magritte, whose own work featured unlikely juxtapositions that form haunting, dreamlike narratives.

Despite the strangeness of the scene, Bikoff notes that there is something ultimately calming about this work, “as it combines natural and peaceful elements,” and that it ultimately projects a positive underlying message. And isn’t there something to be said for art that manages to challenge and soothe?

 

Strength (1983)

Ed Ruscha

Ed Ruscha, Strength (1983). Courtesy of artnet Auctions.

A classic example of Ed Ruscha’s use of type, this lithograph from 1983 manages to deliver high impact with a few simple elements and his judicious word choice. “The juxtaposition from dark to light in this piece is striking,” Bikoff notes. “And while it’s simple, the word ‘strength’ gives it an incredible amount of energy.”

Ruscha’s self-designed Boy Scout Utility Modern font is a distinctive part of his artistic lexicon, and this work is especially desirable for collectors looking for something new: Strength has not come to auction in over 20 years.

 

Purple Hat (Ada) (2017)

Alex Katz

Alex Katz, <i>Purple Hat (Ada)</i> (2017). Courtesy of artnet Auctions.

Alex Katz, Purple Hat (Ada) (2017). Courtesy of artnet Auctions.

“The female portrait has always been a favorite subject for me,” Bikoff says. Which makes her selection of Alex Katz’s elegant Ada no surprise. “Here, her violet accessories and her bright red lips reveal a unique character, elegance, and charm, while her gaze makes her universal and relatable.”

As one of the most important proponents of figurative art, Alex Katz has been painting portraits for nearly 50 years, synthesizing a kind of color field abstraction with realism. The painter’s wife, Ada, is one of his most frequently recurring subjects, lending this colorful print a particular intimacy and familiarity for lovers of his work.

Find more artworks like these over at artnet Auctions’s 40 Under 10 sale, which is live for bidding now through March 12.


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