An early de Kooning collage, a painted Giacometti bronze and one of Picasso’s first portraits of Marie-Thérèse Walter, these treasures from the collection of the late art patron David Solinger It could bring in $100 million at Sotheby’s this fall.
With 90 lots offered in four sales in New York and Paris, it’s the latest treasure to hit the market. Estimated $1 billion art From the estate of Christie’s Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
A dedicated auction of 23 lots will take place on November 14th in New York, followed by a day sale and two auctions in Paris.
Solinger, who died in 1996, acquired most of his post-war art in the 1950s, and most of the pieces he purchased remain in collections to this day, reflecting how previous generations of collectors did business. You can catch a glimpse of how it was.
A television and advertising lawyer, Solinger was a Sunday painter and avid gallery fan, working with artists like Alexander Calder and dealers like Pierre Matisse, and buying directly from the studios of de Kooning and Giacometti. was doing. His clients included artists Louise Nevelson and Hans Hoffmann.
“He immersed himself in contemporary art,” said Oliver Barker, chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, who helped secure the collection after the death of Solinger’s second wife earlier this year. “This is his capsule of this moment in the collection, when the center of the art world has moved from Paris to New York.”
The top lot is from de Kooning collage (1950), estimated $18 to $25 million. A vibrant and richly textured surface made up of layers of paper, paint, charcoal and silver thumbtacks. collage It has been featured in several important exhibitions, from the MoMA’s landmark 1968-69 touring tour to the 2016-17 ‘Abstract Expressionism’ exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts London, London.
Solinger saw Giacometti’s work for the first time Trois hommes qui marchent (Grand Plateau) At the artist’s studio in Paris. He commissioned an artist to paint three of his figures in different shades of gold, which were then purchased through the Parisian gallery His Marg. Estimated between $15 million and $20 million.
Picasso’s femme dan un forteuil It was painted in 1927, just three weeks after the Spaniard met 17-year-old Walter. In this painting of her two women, Picasso combines curvaceous lines that symbolize his new love interest with sharp, angular shapes that represent Picasso’s wife, Olga. The work is estimated at $15 million to $20 million. According to Sotheby’s, during World War II the painting was sent to MoMA for safekeeping. After the war, it was returned to France. Solinger purchased it from Picasso dealer Daniel Henry Kahnweiler.
Solinger was the first non-Whitney president of the Whitney Museum of American Art, opening the museum to the public and driving the financing of Marcel Breuer’s building.
MoMA’s founding director, Alfred Bahl, commissioned Solinger to purchase the museum’s first Franz Klein painting, a 1950 painting. chiefHe agreed, and the artist later made an oil sketch on the pages of Solinger’s phone book. That sketch is now part of a collection headed for Sotheby’s.
Solinger’s collection includes many examples of European post-war painting, including works by Jean Dubuffet and Nicolas de Stael.
A painting by Joan Miró woman, etoile (1945) Estimated between $15 million and $20 million. Abstract by De Stael 1951 Constitution Estimated at $1.5 million to $2 million.
“This is the photo I bought in 15 seconds,” Solinger once told an interviewer. “I had never heard of De Staal. I had never seen a picture of him. It was love at first sight.” He paid $800 for it.
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