Auction introduction: The Modern Day sale draws together a century of paintings, drawings and sculpture from across Europe and the Americas to showcase the best of Impressionism through to Abstract Expressionism. The evolution of art in the modern era was shaped by movements, counter-movements and cross-currents that defy narrow categorizations by continent or medium. Sotheby’s team of Fine Arts specialists look forward to opening up new avenues for collectors by presenting major works by O’Keeffe, Guston, Motherwell, de Kooning, Davis, Botero, Matta and Tamayo alongside highlights by Chagall, Miro, Picasso and forerunners of the modern movement, Rodin, Degas, Renoir and Morisot. Provocative, daring and revolutionary: it is this persistent urge of successive generations of artists across the world to challenge established norms and preconceptions, and to reimagine what art might achieve, that has paved the way to the contemporary era.