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American artist, Barbara Kruger’s series of 9 lithographs ‘Untitled (We Will No Longer Be Seen And Not Heard) 1985’ will be seen and talked about when it comes up for sale in Bonhams’ Modern and Contemporary Prints auction on March 14.

Born in New Jersey in 1945, Kruger trained and worked as a graphic designer before turning to work full-time on her art. From the late 1970s she began to make work based on carefully worded slogans laid over images culled from old photograph annuals, how-to handbooks and magazines. The work sends out messages of outrage laced with humour, questioning the representation of power in social relations as seen in mass media images.

“The spectators who view my work don’t have to understand that (art history) language. They just have to consider the pictures that bombard their lives and tell them who they are to some extent.”

Kruger’s work has appeared on electronic signs in Times Square and other public spaces, on posters, T-shirts, billboards and flyposters in addition to major exhibitions around the world. The nine colour lithographs, 20.5” x 20.5” each showing snapshots of hands in different positions have ‘We Will No Longer Be Seen And Not Heard’ printed, one word on each. Rarely seen on the open market, this important series of prints is estimated to sell for £8,000 – 12,000.

Also starring in the sale will be a stunning group of three Howard Hodgkin prints from the Venetian series (£7,000 – 10,000 each). Hodgkin pushed at the boundaries of printmaking with his highly innovative use of hand-colouring bringing an immediate and painterly touch to his work.

Venetian Views, 1995, comprises four prints, Morning, Afternoon, Evening – not available in this sale – and Night, showing the changing appearance of Venice throughout the day. Each image is startlingly different and it is difficult to believe that they were all produced from the same set of 5 printing plates. These hand-painted etching and aquatints developed from an original idea to produce a series of small images that could be put together to become one large print depicting the ‘fragments’ of Venice. Hodgkin became increasingly involved in the project which took a year to complete, resulting in work that is unlike anything he had produced before. ‘Venice, Morning’ and ‘Venice, Afternoon’ are made up from 16 separate sheets of paper, and ‘Venice, Night’ is a diptych.

Other highlights of the sale include:

Ben Nicholson – ten etchings from the Architectural Suite 1965 will be offered separately with estimates from £800 to £2,000. These are delicate line etchings of architectural subjects including Palaestra, Verona, Siena, Pharos, Lucca and Pisa

Lucien Freud – Suzanna 1996, etching £5,000 – 7,000

10 Supastore Supastars Portfolio – an editioned set of lithographs by artists including Gary Hume and Tracy Emin, £1,500 –2,000

Victor Pasmore – Stromboli 1980, etching/aquatint, £1,500 – 2,000

Prints by a range of modern and contemporary artists including Craigie Aitchison, RB Kitaj, Andy Warhol, David Hockney, John Piper and Edward Bawden.

For more details visit the Bonhams web site.