This Expressionist work tells the story of a mysterious old knight and his new young wife (his fourth), Judith, who is determined to bring light into Bluebeard's bleak existence by opening the doors, literally, that contain his secrets.

The sale reflected more conservative offerings than Christie's has had in recent seasons, with works mostly from before 1980 and a strong emphasis on classical Abstract Expressionist work.

He shows an Abstract Expressionist work from the 1950's, and pleasant but silly paintings featuring pink nudes from the 1960's.

Their dark limbs angled against swirling white ocean ripples creates an all-over pattern that has the swiftness and energy of an Abstract Expressionist work.

For the San Francisco Ballet's 50th-anniversary gala in 1983, he reconstructed excerpts from "Ballet Mecanique," an Expressionist work of 1933 by Adolph Bolm, the company's founder.

Worried about what he began to see as the too-easy dynamics of his Abstract Expressionist work, he set out one day from Berkeley to look for "something that might make a good painting."

She is known for her Romantic Expressionist work.

Another Abstract Expressionist work, Clyfford Still's "Untitled" (1946-47), also went unsold.

After the death of Piet Kramer in 1961, no architectural institution or museum was interested in his Expressionist work.

One particularly Abstract Expressionist work, with indistinct shapes against a dark void, has white splatters.