Born on June 17, 1931, in National City, Calif., Mr. Baldessari is best known for paintings that block out people's faces with brightly colored dots and for teaching (mainly at CalArts and UCLA) a generation of artists, including David Salle, Mike Kelley and Tony Oursler.

While most artists hide from museum shows that feature their contemporaries --as if to pretend they were the only artist alive--Mr. Baldessari, a giant, smiling, bewhiskered bear of a man is a frequent sight at major openings.

"He was not part of the fad in the early 21st century, when artists just out of grad school were selling for tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars," said Shlomi Rabi, photography specialist at Phillips de Pury. "But they were the first to burn out when the art market crashed. ... People saw [that Baldessari] had created a body of work worth discussing."

In addition to his obscured-face paintings, he also experimented with photography and video art early on; in his 1971 piece I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art, he repeats the title's phrase onscreen for several minutes.

Mr. Baldessari is also remembered for doing something in 1970 that, given art's new treatment as an asset class, would be almost unthinkable today: He burned 13 years of his paintings. In The Cremation Project, the ashes were baked into cookies and placed in an urn. The resulting piece included the cookie recipe.

On Oct. 8, Phillips de Pury will auction Life's Balance (With Brushes), 1996--two "color-coupler prints, flush-mounted on board" and three feet high. The presale estimate is $30,000 to $50,000.  The same artwork was sold 12 years ago this

Perriand (1903-1999) was known for creations mixing natural woods and metal that seemed bold despite their simple forms. Along with innovative desks, chairs and storage units, Perriand's varied body of design and interior-architecture work includes design fixtures for the Salvation Army headquarters in Paris, the League of Nations building for the United Nations in Geneva and ski resorts in Savoie.

The designer's career took an unexpected turn with her appointment as an adviser on industrial design to the Japanese Ministry of Trade and Industry in 1940. Trapped by a naval blockade, she spent much of World War II being shaped by a traditional, mostly purist, Japan. Stimulated by the minimalist way of living that she encountered, her subsequent work featured cleaner lines and incorporated regional materials-more woods-and traditions.

This Bench with drawer and side table, executed in 1958, is made of oak, plastic-laminate-covered wood, oak-veneered wood and fabric. About 102 inches long, and expected to bring from $18,000 to $25,000, it goes on the block at Phillips de Pury in London on Sept. 28 (www.phillipsdepury.com).

The market for Perriand's work has been climbing in tandem with a general upswing in prices for 20th-century design. An influential retrospective of her career at the Design Museum in London in 1998 didn't hurt, either. In May, Christie's auction house sold a rare limited-edition ash-olive, formica and plastic sideboard designed by Perriand for $298,000. That was nearly triple the price that it had been expected to bring.

editorial@observer.com

This week, works by the artist are for sale at Christie's auction house, and Phillips de Pury is auctioning the artist's 2004 painting Duel (July 4th). Phillips is predicting a price of $400,000 to $600,000-a full estimate considering the recent market. It shows two Lincoln-esque statesmen blowing each other to bits, in the style of Hamburger Hill. Around them, bombs explode, entrails splatters willy-nilly and the earth is soaked black with blood.

Is the painting worth that estimate? The artist still has his influential fans: One of his paintings hangs in the Core Club, real estate developer Aby Rosen's private midtown enclave for collectors. So potential bargain hunters, take note: Like the South, Barnaby Furnas may rise again.

Auctioneers said that they worked backward this year in putting together the sales. They would determine an artist whose prices might not have run up so much in recent years, and specifically “go into the market and try to find work by that artist,” said Tobias Meyer, a vice chairman of Sotheby’s. Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, for example, “was not like Jeff [Koons], very much in a separate universe. We felt it was really right for a move into the market.” Once the property was in-house, the impulse was to price it low, said Brett Gorvy, deputy chairman of Christie’s Americas, to ensure as much interest in it as possible. The hope: bidding wars. After all, the rich are still rich and are apparently eager to forget the art market’s swoon, as evidenced by the success of some recent auctions. As one collector put it, “Collecting is like smoking. When you learn cigarettes are bad for you, do you really stop?”

Over the next 10 days, normal people wrestling with the recession may be shocked when the art bubble protects its inhabitants, but here’s a look at why it probably will and what insiders are talking about:

Who’s Buying?
For the first time ever, people from all over the world. Sotheby’s says it has paddle requests from 52 countries this year, up from 30 two years ago, according to Impressionist and Modern Art department head Simon Shaw. Highlights from the sale were toured to London (where Russian collectors generally shop), Hong Kong and Doha, Qatar, this spring. It’s not that foreign collectors have suddenly fallen for icons of Western culture: Art is seen as a highly liquid and mobile investment worldwide.

Who’s Hot?
“Ours is not a very young sale,” said Mr. Meyer. “It’s a segment of the market that is fluctuating wildly.” That said, a couple of younger artists do have works up for bid, including a first-timer in the New York evening auctions, Matthew Day Jackson. Born in 1974, he was a breakout star of the 2005 “Greater New York” exhibition at P.S.1. (Mr. Meyer said the artist was recommended by younger staffers in his office.)

But look for the works of 40-something conceptual sculptor Tom Friedman to climb. Several are included in the estate sale of thriller writer Michael Crichton at Christie’s, and record prices for masterpieces in the sale should lift Mr. Friedman’s prices also.

Who’s Winning?
In the centuries-old version of the Pepsi-Coke battle (both major auction houses were founded in the 1700s), Christie’s is the hands-down winner this season. The British auctioneer has the only two major estates on the block, the spectacular Crichton collection and the Frances Lasker Brody collection, with its impressive 1932 Picasso. (That year is something of a Holy Grail year for Picasso collectors: Casino magnate Steve Wynn, hedge funder Steve Cohen and Leslie Wexner of the Limited own other Picassos from the period.) The giant portrait of the artist’s curvy mistress, Marie-Therese, could bring in excess, or well in excess, of $50 million.

Sotheby’s has fewer highlights, but they include a gorgeous Henri Matisse vase of flowers, a vibrant red Mark Rothko and an acid-purple self-portrait of Andy Warhol. It carries an estimate of $10 million to $15 million.

Who Is Everyone Talking About?
Asher Edelman. The 1980s financier and collector, often referred to as one of the Wall Streeters Oliver Stone based the character Gordon Gekko on, has arranged to offer some art sellers what are essentially options on art, people close to the auctions said. In sophisticated financial transactions, his firm is agreeing, for a fee, to buy a work at a discounted price if it doesn’t sell at auction. And while the mechanism is raising some questions, some say he has had considerable interest in his “assurance” auction product.

How Will the Johns Do?
Among art worlders, there is no funnier joke than the following sentence, the headline of a recent wire-service story: “Michael Crichton’s art collection estimated at $75 million.” The reason it is so amusing to insiders is that the odds are decent that a single painting from the 150-work collection up at Christie’s will make more than that: Jasper Johns’ fabulous Flag. Crichton, who died in 2008 of cancer, was a friend of the painter’s, and the artwork hung, for years, in his bedroom. The heirs waited on the sidelines for the art market to recover before bringing his collection to market, finally deciding the time was right.

Where’s Damien?
On Sept. 16, 2008, the day after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and the date generally given as the start of the recession, a Sotheby’s auction in London of works by Damien Hirst brought $201 million. This season features very few works by the British art superstar. Said one collector: “There’s a sense of ‘Why bother?’ It’s time to see other people.”

apeers@observer.com

Phillips de Pury & Co. will auction off 50 pieces of jewelry worn by 50 Cent, Biz Markie, MC Lyte, Kanye West, Notorious B.I.G and Tupac Shakur in an auction called "Hip Hop's Crown Jewels." [FWD]

Mr. Blackwell has regained consciousness; the 85-year-old fashion arbiter is still hospitalized and battling an infection. [Yahoo]

MTV will host its own version of a modeling reality show that will include fitness training that will help models get down to their "ideal size." [The Cut]

Victoria Beckham will not bring her collection to Bryant Park this September. [FWD]

Matthew Mellon's new girlfriend, Nicole Hanley, may replace his ex Noelle Reno at Degrees of Freedom, Mellon's fashion company. [NY Post]

This morning, the world discovered that wonderful Zaha Hadid will be showing--and selling--her first collection of haute furniture late this fall at Chelsea's Phillips de Pury.

Why furniture? Why now? "Well, I mean, it started 20 years ago," the vacationing Ms. Hadid told The Real Estate by phone. "It was part and parcel of the whole idea of interior space--how pieces fit in with the fluid space."

In the early 80s, Ms. Hadid's first solo project was a house on Eaton Place (it won her an Architectural Design Gold Medal). "'How would you furnish these spaces?'" she asked herself then. The answer: "they weren't just, like, purely always functional pieces, but large objects that divide space and add to space."

Why has it taken so long to present her first furniture collection? "It's been very hectic."

The Phillips press release touted Ms. Hadid's "direct dialogue" with its space. But: "I didn't think about them putting in the gallery per se," she pointed out. "You have to work with a domestic space, or a lobby, or a work environment." If December's $296,000 sale of Aqua Table is any indication, the cost of landing a Hadid piece for your personal enviornment will be wildly steep.

Or maybe not. "I've always been interested in doing limited edition pieces, but also mass produced pieces. She pointed to her Alessi tea set, (which, predictably, Bloomberg News recently complained wasn't actually usable.)

But maybe functionality doesn't matter when furniture costs a quarter-million dollars. "It so happens that the Aqua Table has a different version as a production piece--more affordable. Most of our work can exist," she added, referring to mass production (or her version of it). "Though it's quite different."

How much does the commoner table cost? "10,000 pounds or something." $19 grand, at least, is cheaper than $296. "The market is ready. Because of the technology"--especially computerized modeling--" the whole system has changed."

But the artful questions are still the same: "What does it mean to occupy a space with large pieces or small pieces?" Ms. Hadid wondered. "Linear objects or different geometry? And the way they sit next each other? What is exciting is the possibility of achieving that through different production."

Those differences may allow for a shift away from the extremities of expense. "It's no longer one or the other. Not necessarily with these pieces, but let's say I can do a show that's exclusive, and then I can do another for mass production. They don't have to be the same! One's repertoire can be big."

Speaking of repertoire, Phillips has announced that this furniture will be Ms. Hadid's "first work to be made and seen" since her Guggenheim retrospective. "It was a great show. My only--let's say, not apprehension--but I was very sad that we did not do the central installation in the rotunda. But in a way the show works without it well."

Will the Phillips show be more perfect? "The furniture is really a lot of fun."

- Max Abelson

Some breaking news from the Nation of Starchitecture: Zaha Hadid's very first collection of furniture will be shown--and sold--late this fall at Phillips de Pury's Chelsea HQ. The pieces in Seamless will be produced by the voguish new Established & Sons, whose prototype of Ms. Hadid's Aqua Table was sold by Phillips in December "for a record breaking sum of $296,000."

"It's like flying over water," Ms. Hadid said about the work before its auction.

In today's Phillips press release she adds: 'These unique furniture pieces are a direct evolution of our architectural language: soft meets sharp, combining repetition and variation, whilst balancing the smooth transition between otherwise disparate elements of furniture." Whilst indeed.

Seamless, running from November 27 to December 15, will show Ms. Hadid's first work produced since the ongoing Guggenheim retrospective.

Stay tuned to The Real Estate for an interview with the glorious furniture designer herself.

- Max Abelson