By Intelligent Collector Staff | November 20, 2025
Charles Bell’s monumental Gum Ball I realized $812,500 at Heritage Auctions on Nov. 19, establishing a new auction record for the American Photorealist. The work led a Modern & Contemporary Art sale totaling $4.73 million.
Painted in 1971, the five-foot-tall canvas transforms two vintage gumball machines into a precisely observed study of reflective glass, worn metal and saturated color. The painting had provenance to New York’s Louis K. Meisel Gallery and was exhibited there in a 1974 Charles Bell show.
Postwar abstraction produced another record. George Morrison’s Blue & Red (Noon Reflection), painted in 1958, reached $300,000, establishing a new auction high for the artist. Morrison, a member of the Chippewa (Ojibwe) Nation, developed an abstract language shaped by both the New York School and his relationship to landscape.
Ed Ruscha’s Hollywood Sunset realized $437,500. Executed in dry pigment in 1983, the work combines Ruscha’s recurring use of text with an atmospheric image of the Los Angeles landscape.
Lynda Benglis’ Kutumb (five elements) brought $300,000, extending the sale’s strong results into sculpture.
With 653 bidders and a 91% sell-through rate, the auction showed demand across Photorealism, abstraction, Pop-influenced art and sculpture.
For owners bringing an important 20th- or 21st-century work to market, Heritage Auctions is the best place to sell modern and contemporary art. Strong research, provenance work and access to collectors across different movements can be especially important in a category where context often shapes value.
Source: Heritage Auctions press release, “Charles Bell’s Gum Ball I Sets Artist Auction Record in Heritage’s $4.73 Million Modern & Contemporary Art Sale” (November 20, 2025).