Christie’s is holding a sale of 22 works by Contemporary artists to benefit Le Consortium in Dijon during its June 7th Art Contemporain sale in Paris. The three top lots are works by Wade Guyton from his latest series (above) Untitled, 2018, (150-200k EUR), a painting by Joe Bradley, Can, 2018, (150- 200k EUR) and an oil and screen print on paper by Christopher Wool, Untitled, 2016, (100- 150k) but also works by Brian Calvin, Roberto Cuoghi, Richard Prince, Valentin Carron, Ugo Rondinone, Charline von Heyl, Karen Kilimnik, Rachel Harrison, Roe Ethridge, Sturtevant, Fredrik Værslev, Alex Israel, Rodney Graham and David Hominal.

Following her recent retrospective at the Centre Pompidou, Sheila Hicks will open the session with Bâtons de parole, 2017 (20-30k EUR). French artists will include Pierre Huyghe, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Xavier Veilhan and François Morellet.

Christie’s press release explains the history of Le Consortium:

Last year, Le Consortium celebrated its fortieth anniversary. Since 2011, the museum has been housed in a 4,000 m2 building specially designed for that purpose by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban. However, the history of this institution, in a genre all its own, began in 1977; it started out on the second floor of an alternative library before moving to an old shop tucked into a far corner of the market square in the city centre of Dijon, in Burgundy. There,
young university students pursued their ambition of showing the art of their era. With a handful of passionate collaborators, founders Xavier Douroux and Franck Gautherot began holding exhibitions for avant-garde artists in the late 1970’s : Christian Boltanski in 1978, Hans Peter Feldmann in 1979, Annette Messager in 1980, Cindy Sherman and Daniel Buren in 1982.

Le Consortium has spent the early years of the 21st century holding début shows in France for many American artists, including Christopher Wool, Kelley Walker, Rachel Feinstein, Joe Bradley, Ugo Rondinone, Josh Smith, Rachel Harrison, Wade Guyton, Joe Bradley, Roe Ethridge, Brian Calvin, Alex Israel, Oscar Tuazon, Larri Pittman – while dedicating retrospective exhibitions to the work of Lynda Benglis, Dadamaino, Luigi Ontani or Phillip King.

Le Consortium collection is now on permanent exhibit on the building’s second story and comprises just over 350 works. It is mostly made up of pieces donated by artists whose work has shown at Le Consortium at some point, making it a living record of the museum’s exhibitions through the years.

François Pinault signs the introduction to the catalogue by paying tribute to Xavier Douroux, who died last year, co-founder of the centre with Franck Gautherot : “As I commend this wonderful, exemplary venture and lend my support to this sale, which has been organised for its benefit, I would also like to pay respectful, poignant tribute to the memory of our dear Xavier Douroux, who hosted me in Dijon on several occasions and helped me appreciate the quality of his choices. He was a tremendous sower of projects… we are reaping the extraordinary results.”