Colin Gleadell uses the upcoming exhibition of Spanish collector Alicia Koplowitz, combined with his deep knowledge of the art market, to offer a portrait of a collection as it was amassed:
While arranged thematically in the museum, from Spanish Old Masters (Goya, Zurbaran), to Italian Grand Tour artists (Canaletto, Guardi), to the moderns (van Gogh, Gauguin) with a special Spanish focus (Picasso, Gris, Gonzalez), and the more contemporary (Rothko, Freud, Giacometti, Bourgeois) – each one a gem of its kind – there is also a hidden chronology of acquisition that is revealing. […]
In 2000 there was a ravishing Modigliani at $6.3 million; in 2001, a lovely, small Tahitian landscape by Gauguin at $6.6 million; in 2003 it was van Gogh’s gentle still life with Sweet Williams that caught her eye at £4.3 million; in 2004, a majestic, happy Rothko abstract at $17.4 million.
