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Judith Neisser’s Art, $10.8m Worth of It, Shines at Sotheby’s

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Quietly included in Sotheby’s Contemporary art sale next week is some of the collection of Judith Neisser, a fixture in Chicago and Aspen where she was a pillar of the art and museum community. A trustee of both the Art Institute of Chicago and Museum of Contemporary art there, Neisser was a collector of minimalism and conceptual art. She was also an accomplished writer on art. Many of her works have been donated but Sotheby’s has 32 works with a combined low estimate of $10.8m on offer. A few other works will be sold next year.

Next week, a clutch of works by Robert Ryman, Cy Twombly, Donald Judd and Lucio Fontana will be featured in the Evening sale of Contemporary art.

An additional 28 works from the collection will open the day sale (lots 101 – 128).

Across several decades, Chicago-based collector Judith Neisser amassed an extraordinary collection of Contemporary art that is widely acclaimed for its special emphasis on Minimalist and Conceptual Art. The thematically-cohesive collection is distinguished by its explorations of the monochrome, seriality, and minimalist abstraction, and stands as a testament to Judith Neisser’s remarkable taste, prodigious scholarship, and patronage of the arts.

Sotheby’s will offer works from Judith Neisser’s collection across our Evening and Day Auctions of Contemporary Art this November. The Evening Auction features: Robert Ryman’s 1961 Untitled, an important example of the artist’s early work that has remained in her collection since 1997 (pictured right, estimate $1.8/2.5 million); Lucio Fontana’s Concetto spaziale, executed in metallic gold and epitomizing the essence of the artist’s iconic career (estimate $1.5/2 million); Donald Judd’s Untitled, an exceptional work composed entirely of galvanized iron and executed during Judd’s most transformative period (estimate $1.5/2 million); and Cy Twombly’s Untitled, painted in 1970 during the apex of the artist’s celebrated Blackboard works (estimate $2.5/3.5 million).

Christie’s Says Signac Record Should Fall in Februaryi

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Christie’s is promoting a collection of Impressionist art as well as drawings, sculpture, English and European decorative arts, not to mention 20th Century design. The bulk of the collection which is being sold to fund a charity will go on the block in December. Five paintings from the collection will be held for the London sales of Impressionist and Modern art in February. Leading that sale is a work by Paul Signac. Christie’s claims this is the most important work by Signac to come to market in two decades.

Le Port au soleil couchant, Opus 236 (Saint-Tropez) (1892) is one of the first works that Signac painted in St Tropez where he had gone after the death of his friend Georges Seurat. The work is offered with an estimate upon request. Christie’s believes this painting will set a new record for the artist. In 2007, a buyer paid $14m for one of Signac’s works. That suggests Christie’s estimate range for the work will be £12-18m.

Here’s Christie’s release on the entire collection:

Christie’s will offer an eclectic and carefully curated collection, titled An Adventurous Spirit: An Important Private Collection Sold to Benefit a Charitable Foundation, across two London sales in December 2018 and February 2019. Major works from the collection will be exhibited together in an exhibition in London during Christie’s Classic Week in early December.An Adventurous Spirit provides a remarkable view of a unique collection across many fields, from Impressionism to 20th Century Design, which was shown in beautiful homes in London, Saint Tropez and Saint Barths. Visitors to the galleries will witness a recreation of the extraordinary mis-en-scène, with masterpiece paintings presented alongside the great objects and artworks as they were shown in these exquisite homes. The Collection Sale on 13 December 2018, will describe the discerning eye of a significant collector, embracing paintings, drawings, sculpture, English and European Decorative Arts and 20th Century Design. Following the Collection Sale, five major paintings by Paul Signac, Gustave Caillebotte, Félix Vallotton, Edouard Vuillard and Giovanni Boldini will be highlights of the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale on 27 February 2019. This inspirational and deeply personal collection provides evocative insights into the creative joy of collecting and connoisseurship and the matching of fine objects with Impressionist artworks.

Jussi Pylkkänen, Global President, Christie’s: “Every object and every painting in the collection has been chosen with considerable care and with a grand design in mind. These were homes of wonderful contrasts, filled with joy, and with refined objects which caught the eye and the imagination. The Signac is amongst the finest of the artist’s great Opus paintings, and certainly amongst the greatest of Signac’s works in private hands. The Caillebotte and the Vallotton are also museum quality pictures which will challenge the world records for the artists. Both were bought here at Christie’s and it is a privilege to be handling these works again and to see them exhibited as they have been shown by this great collector, and a close friend, for so many years.”

Albada Jelgersma Collection ‘A Seminal Moment’ for Old Master Market, Says Christie’s

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In what Christie’s is calling a “seminal moment for the Old Master market,” the December sales of Old Master paintings in London will feature two sales comprising the collection of Eric Albada Jelgersma and his wife, Marie-Louise. The Albada Jelgersma paintings will get their own Evening sale. The rest of the collection of furniture, drawings, silver and the like will fill a a 350-lot day sale. These sales will take place December 6 & 7. The Evening sale will feature a pair of Frans Hals portraits, above, estimated at between £8-12m, and works by Judith Leyster and Anthony van Dyck.

Here’s Christie’s release:

Christie’s will offer a landmark, two-part sale of The Eric Albada Jelgersma Collection in London on 6 & 7 December. This is one of the most important private collections of Golden Age Dutch and Flemish pictures to have been formed in living memory, revealing the unerring eye of Eric Albada Jelgersma and his wife Marie-Louise Albada Jelgersma for outstanding quality.

Christie’s will devote a special, stand-alone Old Masters Evening Sale to The Eric Albada Jelgersma Collection comprising over 40 paintings, including works by the greatest artists from the 17th century, notably Frans Hals, Anthony van Dyck, Jan Breughel the Elder, Judith Leyster and Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder.

This sale is led by the finest pair of portraits by Frans Hals to remain together in private hands: Portrait of a gentleman, aged 37 and Portrait of a lady, aged 36 (estimate: £8-12 million) and includes arguably the most important Golden Age painting by a female artist left in private ownership, Merry Company by Judith Leyster (estimate: £1.5-2.5 million).

The Collection Sale will take place the following day and will comprise over 350 lots of furniture, decorative objects, sculpture, antiquities, silver, Asian works of art and a selection of the Old Master paintings. The quality and range of the Old Master paintings and works of art within the collection is extraordinary, and their appearance together at auction will constitute an historic pair of sales. Highlights will be on public view at Christie’s New York from 26 to 30 October and in Hong Kong from 23 to 26 November, ahead of the pre-sale exhibition opening in London on 30 November.

Si Newhouse’s Francis Bacon Study Offered at Christie’s

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With comparisons to the Mona Lisa and Picasso’s Dora Maar, Christie’s is pulling out the stops for Si Newhouse’s Francis Bacon small portrait of Henrietta Moraes that the auction house just announced for the November sales. Newhouse played an important role as a collector launching the current contemporary art market with his aggressive buying in the late 1990s that established important prices and demand. Over the last two decades, many of his significant pieces have been sold and re-sold at stratospheric mark-ups. The power of the Newhouse provenance is not necessarily reflected in the $14m low estimate on the Bacon being offered here. Katya Kazakina spoke to Tobias Meyer, who is handling the dispersal of Newhouse’s art collection, about the original acquisition in 2007. Kazakina says Newhouse, who was not afraid to pay good prices for works of quality he wanted to own, paid $9m for the work.

Here’s Christie’s release on the painting:Continue Reading

Sotheby’s Unveils $90m Collection Led by 3 Kandinskys, 3 Vlamincks

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Sotheby’s has been lying in wait to announce their big collection for the November Impressionist and Modern art sales in New York. Featuring three Kandinskys with a combined low estimate of $55m, this European owner’s collection has several works featured at the Courtauld Insitute in London for fifteen years.

Sotheby’s press release goes into greater detail, including descriptions of the Maurice Vlaminck works that are also a key part of the collection:Continue Reading

Four of Picasso’s Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie’s from Rose-Walters Collection

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Pablo Picasso, Femme au béret orange et au col de fourrure (Marie‐Thérèse) (1937) ($15-20m)

The sale of four of Pablo Picasso’s women from the collection of Washington, DC real estate developer Sam Rose and his wife, Julie Walters is Christie’s novel entry into the November sales cycle. The bulk of the value of the four works on offer representing one of Picasso’s wives and three of hisvcompanions—Marie-Thérèse Walter, Dora Maar, Françoise Gilot and Jacqueline Roque—is in the Marie-Thérèse pictured above. The combined low estimate for the four works is $28m. Behind the $15m Marie-Thérèse are two works with $5m low estimates, the Dora Maar and Jaqueline Roque, followed by Françoise Gilot’s portrait at $3m. Gilot, still living at 96 years of age, has experienced something of a surge in late-life interest in her own art works.

Here’s Christie’s release on the collection:Continue Reading

Di Donna Galleries Shows Pérez Simón’s Treasures

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Emmanuel Di Donna has an interesting glimpse into the collection of a Mexican telecom operator Juan Antonio Pérez Simón who, like his partner Carlos Slim Helú, owns a great deal of art. Slim built a museum in Mexico City, designed by his son-in-law, to show his works.  Pérez Simón has instead chosen to pack up 18 works vouchsafed to Di Donna Galleries. When art dealers exhibit collectors works there’s always a guessing game about the motivations of each party. Is the gallerist supporting an important client by giving him the focus, visibility and talking points his collection might not receive simply making loans and impressing guests? Or are these works being given an airing to see who might be inspired to make a (healthy) offer?

Whatever the motivation, Di Donna has combed through the 10,000 objections Pérez Simón owns to select these 18 paintings by Rothko, Dalí and Cézanne. Here’s how Di Donna describes the show:Continue Reading

Fondation Louis Vuitton’s Basquiat Show Puts Owners on Display

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One of the unexpected benefits of Bernard Arnault’s new Jean-Michel Basquiat show opening at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in October is the way the show is bringing together a group of far-flung works. Some 120 paintings will be in the show and a number of collectors like Yusaku Maezawa and Laurent Asscher have taken to Instagram to announce the works from their collections that will be making the journey. Curiously, as Carol Vogel reveals in her WSJ magazine preview of the show, Bernard Arnault is going to great lengths to keep his Basquiats anonymous:

Over the past 30 years he has amassed a world-class Basquiat collection. Asked just how big his holdings are, he would only admit that they total more than a dozen works and hang in all his homes, including his apartment in Paris, his house in the south of France and another place in the French countryside.

Arnault is lending a number of his paintings and drawings to the upcoming show at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, although neither he nor anyone involved in the show’s creation will say which ones. Contemporary art experts familiar with Basquiat’s work believe that among the loans from Arnault’s personal collection is the 1982 painting Portrait of the Artist as a Young Derelict. He is said to be lending a number of drawings as well. Arnault was so committed to making this show different from any preceding Basquiat exhibition that he wrote personal notes to collectors asking for loans and allowed the curators free rein to select from his own holdings.

The WSJ story also reveals at least one other new owner of a Basquiat joining the company of Larry Gagosian and Peter Brant, who will host the show at the opening of his Brant Foundation’s New York outpost in the Spring of 2019. Brant is the biggest lender to the Basquiat show:

Fifteen works from his holdings will be in the show, making him its biggest lender. Others contributing works include the philanthropists Lenore and Herbert Schorr, who were some of Basquiat’s earliest collectors; the Los Angeles philanthropists Eli S. and Edythe L. Broad; the Mugrabi family, who are New York–based dealers; the fashion designer Valentino Garavani and his longtime partner, Giancarlo Giammetti; and the Marieluise Hessel Collection at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Many labels in the show will read “private collection,’’ but according to several contemporary art experts, two of these mystery lenders are the Greek shipping magnate Philip Niarchos and Lorenzo Fertitta, the Las Vegas casino owner.

A New Exhibition in Paris Explores Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Work (WSJ. Magazine)

Al-Thanis Negotiating Paris Space for Art Exhibitions

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The Al-Thani family is finalizing a deal to have an exhibition space for its art in Paris. Le Monde reports that the Al-Thani family are in negotiations with a private developer representing the French state which has plans to re-develop L’hôtel de la Marine on the Place de la Concorde into a retail-office-and-cultural space. The French government and the Qatari government have been looking for ways to solidify ties in the current global climate. Le Monde says the Al-Thani family plan to use the space, which will open in 2020, to have a rotating exhibition of their art holdings:

According to our information, the National Monuments Center (CMN), which is running the private property on behalf of the State, is in the process of signing an agreement with Qatar so that the emirate can present it on a rotating basis. for twenty years, paying 20 million euros, the Al-Thani art collection, named after the ruling family.

The project was presented on Tuesday, September 4th, before the board of CMN, which manages a hundred buildings some quite prestigious in Paris, the Arc de Triomphe or the Pantheon. Joined by telephone, its president, Philippe Bélaval, did not want to comment on this information: “I do not deny or confirm. “

Undoubtedly the millions paid by the Al Thani family to the National Monuments Center (MNC) to exhibit are at the heart of the latest discussions. The amount will not be negligible to run a site – the Center expects 600,000 entries a year – when the state lacks money to maintain its heritage. 

Karshan Collection, Led By Richter’s Hände, Featured at Phillips

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Phillips has announced the sale of works from the Estate of Howard Karshan. Over the course of nearly fifty years, Howard Karshan and his wife, Linda, assembled one of the most significant collections of modern and post-war paintings and works on paper. The collection encompasses an incredible array of works by artists ranging from Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Sam Francis, and Cy Twombly, to Gerhard Richter, Georg Baselitz and Bruce Nauman, among many others.

Painted in 1963, Richter’s Hande is estimated at between £2-3m. Other works from the Karshan’s collection included in the London Evening sale in October. Georg Baselitz’s Untitled 1967 work; Cy Twombly’s untitled work from 1969; Richter’s Busch from 1985. An additional 50 lots from the Karshans will be in the day sale with examples by Joseph Beuys, Signmar Polke, Blinky Palermo and Jean Dubuffet. There are also works by Agnes Martin, Dan Flavin, Carl Andre, Robert Smithson, Raymond Pettibon and Wayne Thiebaud.

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