The pause button comes off the art world next week as the summer-sales blackout ends. Both Christie’s and Sotheby’s will test the market with moderately priced contemporary art. And the timing could not be better, because the financial press is fixated on being the first to predict the imminent bursting of the contemporary art bubble.

Christie’s leads off with its First Open sale Monday, September 10. Contemporary art expert Jonathan Laib has put together 335 lots that in an earlier phase of the art cycle would have seemed close to a marquee sale in both quantity and quality. In the current market, this sale is a teaser and test run for the upcoming auction season.

The star lot is an early Basquiat — “Untitled” (1982), estimated at between $1.2 million and $1.8 million — that will be prized for its date and some of the imagery, if not the colors or composition. Thereis also Richard Prince’s “Untitled (Cowboy)” (1999), estimated at between $100,000 and $150,000, which should excite collectors. The photograph’s size and imagery give it an intimacy that is different from most of the other prized “Cowboy” works.

A beautiful Morris Louis painting, “Number 39” (1962), estimated at between $250,000 and $300,000; some Alex Katz and Eva Hesse landscapes, and a large Louise Nevelson installation might have gotten lost in the coming November sale. Despite the heavy breathing about the art bubble, that sale is rumored to be a monster. With no real evidence of a market slowdown at the upper end of the market — yet — Mr. Laib is focused on the undervalued precincts. Rather than a flight to quality, he sees “people looking for works that have yet to blossom in the market.”

Thustheotherhighlightedworks are revelations. Two Alice Neel portraits of Roberta Johnson Roensch and Edward Burns Roensch Sr., painted between 1943 and 1946 and held by the Roensch family ever since, have real potential to break out. The pictures are estimated at between $50,000 and $70,000, but there is already talk of the Roberta Johnson Roensch topping $300,000.

A series of five Robert Smithson paintings being sold by an Italian dealer bring a new dimension to an artist primarily known for his environmental works such as “Spiral Jetty.” Martin Eder, a Leipzig School painter, is represented by the large “Time Goes By Fast” (2004), estimated at between $120,000 and $180,000, as is Dirk Skreber, who was the star of the first First Open sale just a few years ago.

Sotheby’s midseason Contemporary art sale next Wednesday, September 12, also highlights art and artists that would get overshadowed in the main event. But Sotheby’s takes a slightly different approach, by focusing on a specific band of the market. “There are certainly people who cannot afford the very high end of the market,” Sotheby’s head of the midseason sale, Jennifer Roth, said. “This sale is for collectors who can afford to buy comfortably in the $10,000-30,000 range. They find a lot of meat here.”

With 472 lots underscoring her point, the sale brings forth artists who were big in the 1960s and 1970s but never became stars. Ms. Roth made an Allan D’Arcangelo painting the cover of one of the two catalogs. Not as famous as Tom Wesselman, who is represented by a wonderful but small nude — “Stockinged Nude #6” (1980), estimated at between $25,000 and $35,000 — D’Arcangelo is one of a number of Pop artists who are gaining attention as prices for Pop painters such as Mel Ramos rise out of reach.

Roth also points to Friedl Dzubas, an overlooked color field painter, coming back into prominence. Her “All in One” (1972) is estimated at between $50,000 and $70,000.

Other highlights of Sotheby’s sale include canvases by Elmer Bischoff and Paul Wonner, as well as significant numbers of work by Sam Francis, Karel Appel, Victor Vasarely, and Yayoi Kusama. Two early Alex Katz landscapes — “Landscape with Yellow House,” estimated at between $20,000 and $30,000, and “Untitled” (c. 1954), estimated at between $15,000 and $20,000 — are striking. As is a gorgeous Hans Hoffman work on paper, “Untitled” (1949), estimated at between $10,000 and $15,000.

Whatever prices are achieved in these sales, they won’t be a true measure of the health of the art market. If they fall flat we will hear talk of a flight to quality. If they soar, it won’t be conclusive evidence that the appetite for $70 million Warhols remains unsated. And since the credit and real estate markets have yet to settle into a directional trend, the art market is likely to hang fire, at least, until it doesn’t.