The Emily Fisher Landau Collection: An Era Defined

NEW YORK

NEW YORK | 8–9 NOVEMBER 2023

THE EMILY FISHER LANDAU COLLECTION: AN ERA DEFINED

8–9 NOVEMBER 2023 N11349 N11371

Cover: Lot 10, Pablo Picasso, Femme à la montre, 1932.

Art © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York This page: Lot 13, Ed Ruscha, Securing the Last Letter (Boss), 1964 (detail). Art © Ed Ruscha

Lot 4, Mark Tansey, Triumph Over Mastery II, 1987 (detail).

Art © 2023 Mark Tansey

AUCTIONS IN NEW YORK

ALL EXHIBITIONS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

EVENING AUCTION:

Wednesday 1 November

Sunday 5 November

8 NOVEMBER 2023 | 6:00 PM

10 AM - 5 PM

1 PM - 5 PM

Thursday 2 November

Monday 6 November

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10 AM - 5 PM

Friday 3 November

Tuesday 7 November

10 AM - 5 PM

10 AM - 5 PM

+1 212 606 7000

Saturday 4 November

Wednesday 8 November

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10 AM - 5 PM

10 AM - 1 PM

DAY AUCTION: 9 NOVEMBER 2023 | 11:00 AM

1334 York Avenue New York, NY 10021

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TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PROPERTY IN THIS SALE, PLEASE VISIT SOTHEBYS.COM/N11349

ENQUIRIES

SALE NUMBER

EVENING N11349 “FISHER” DAY N11371 “LANDAU” BIDS DEPARTMENT

+1 212 606 7414 fax +1 212 606 7016 bids.newyork@sothebys.com Telephone bid requests should be received 24 hours prior to the sale. This service is offered for lots with a low estimate of $5,000 and above.

SALE COORDINATOR

Jacqueline Dishner Jacqueline.Dishner@sothebys.com +1 212 894 1086 POST SALE SERVICES

For payment, delivery and collection +1 212 606 7444 fax +1 212 606 7043 uspostsaleservices@sothebys.com FOR EVENING SALE CONDITION REPORTS CONTACT

Carly Gamson Specialist Assistant Vice President Contemporary Art Carly.Gamson@sothebys.com FOR DAY SALE CONDITION REPORTS CONTACT

Alya Sama Associate Specialist Contemporary Art Alya.Sama@sothebys.com

Opposite: Lot 17, Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1968.

Art © Cy Twombly Foundation Previous spread: Lot 14, Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait, 1986 (detail). Art © 2023 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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CONTENTS

5 AUCTION & EXHIBITION INFORMATION

6 ENQUIRIES

28 THE EMILY FISHER LANDAU COLLECTION EVENING SALE, NEW YORK LOTS 1–31

345 CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS FOR BUYERS

351 AUTHENTICITY GUARANTEE

352 BUYING AT AUCTION

354 254

IMPORTANT NOTICES GLOSSARY OF TERMS

THE EMILY FISHER LANDAU COLLECTION DAY SALE, NEW YORK LOTS 101–182

355 INDEX OF ARTISTS

344 HOW TO BID

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” I F A P E R S O N I S A T R U E C O L L E C TO R , N OT H I N G W I L L S TA N D I N T H E I R WAY TO G E T W H AT T H E Y WA N T. ” EMILY FIS HER LANDAU

Lot 3, Agnes Martin, Untitled #1, 1995 (detail). Art © 2023 Estate of Agnes Martin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Emily Fisher Landau in front of Fernand Léger’s Étude pour Les Constructeurs in her Manhattan home in 2002. Photo by Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times. Art © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

BY J O S E P H G I OVA N N I N I

W

ith the courage of her inquisitive eye and the proceeds from a large Lloyd’s settlement for a major jewelry theft, Emily Fisher Landau embarked in 1968 on what would become one of America’s pre-eminent private collections of modern and contemporary art. Eventually she would sometimes find herself

sharing the same sentence with Peggy Guggenheim, favorably compared: collectors of the

art of their time, both bought out of conviction and a love of art they believed in.

Collecting for Fisher Landau, a life-long New Yorker, was and remained personal: she bought only what she liked and intended to live with. But in the driving and thriving New York artistic mileau of her prime collecting years, 1968 to about 2000, what was at first a tentative journey, starting with a Calder mobile that she took home on a bus, became immersive: weekly studio visits, exhibition openings, museum committees, face-to-face encounters with artists, friendly bonds with the movers, shakers, and makers of the art world. Like an ambassador, she shuttled between what was largely still the separate Uptown and Downtown art nexuses in New York, finding her own way, amassing a highly personal collection that captured a time and place in American art history.

An autodidact acting at her own initiative, for decades she went to school on all that New York offered, including the real-life tutorials of sitting on acquisition committees, first at the Museum of Modern Art and then at the Whitney Museum of American Art. A high school graduate who skipped secretarial school to go instead to hear big bands, like Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Duke Ellington at the movie houses, what she didn’t know she learned.

Art could become a way of life for Fisher Landau because of Manhattan’s unique art ecosystem, starting with the casual serendipities of the street. It was on East 57th one day that she chanced on a poster in a window featuring a Josef Albers painting of squares within squares, advertising a show upstairs at Pace. “It startled my eye, so minimal,” she remembered years later. “From the moment I saw that Albers, I knew I loved simplicity.” She went up to the gallery, met Arne Glimcher, founder of Pace, and soon after started collecting Albers, and then Agnes Martin. Neither was an obvious choice, especially given the ongoing momentum of

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Abstract Expressionism in New York. An overlooked, large Mondrian canvas followed. She collected against the grain rather than with it—only what she liked.

Within a year, Glimcher invited her to see a Picasso, Dubuffet and Léger, all leaning against a wall in his office, which she and her husband bought off the floor. Picasso’s Femme à la montre and Dubuffet’s Gambade à la rose will be presented this fall. The Léger, a graphic white-blackgray-beige painting of a skyscraper under construction, hung in her Manhattan home for many years.

Pace introduced her not just to ranking modernist artworks but to the artists themselves. Glimcher’s thenbusiness partner Fred Mueller invited Fisher Landau to parties in his elegant, Minimalist apartment on Gracie Square. Mueller collected in depth (which became a model for her collecting), and he collected the works of living artists (who seemed to come with the artworks to his apartment). It was at Mueller’s soirées that Fisher Landau met Andy Warhol, Louise Nevelson, and Robert Rauschenberg, et al., circulating among their works. The paintings acquired a living dimension for her, a personality.

Her love of simplicity, however, did not mean Fisher Landau confined herself to simplicity. She was open-minded and complex, and her collection, a reflection of her character, was itself open-minded Lot 29, Jean Dubuffet, Gambade à la rose, 1950, and Lot 27, Franz Kline, Untitled, 1959, in the living room of Emily Fisher Landau’s New York home. Design © Aman & Meeks Interiors. Photo © Karen Fuchs.

Art © 2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; 2023 The Franz Kline Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

and it became complex. Besides the Minimalism, she collected figurative pieces, gestural and conceptual work, abstraction, and eventually graffiti art.

Modernist classics, both intimate and monumental, characterized the early years of her collection, which

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Left: Emily Fisher Landau and Ed Ruscha at his studio in Venice Beach, 1985. Image © Courtesy Fisher Landau Center, New York Opposite: Lot 13, Ed Ruscha, Securing the Last Letter, 1964, installed in Emily Fisher Landau’s New York home. Design © Aman & Meeks Interiors. Photo © Karen Fuchs. Art © Ed Ruscha

she hung in her Park Avenue apartment. The Picasso, Dubuffet and Léger, the trio that she had found at Pace, stayed together on three walls of a living room furnished with glasstopped bronze tables by Diego Giacometti. Fisher Landau told stories about the paintings with the fondness of someone speaking of friends. She remembered that when Leo Castelli visited and saw the three masterpieces, he said, “It doesn’t get any better than that.” She bought the brooding Untitled Rothko in the dining room from the series originally intended for the Four Seasons restaurant. “You have a feeling you’re going to walk through that color,” she said, “that the painting’s a door.” The introspective Rothko hung on a wall adjacent to an extroverted action painting by Franz Kline, and opposite a pair of Ming chairs, with attenuated lines stunning in their elegance. Mueller had pointed the pair out to her. She listened.

She came to know many of the artists in her core modernist collection. Glimcher introduced her to Rothko, whom she visited in his studio shortly before his suicide. Then there was Warhol, who twice painted her portrait. “I was very fond of Andy. He was a gentleman.” Through her discovery of Agnes Martin’s work, she came to know and admire her: “She’d meditate until something came to her. She painted what she saw in her mind’s eye.”

In about 1980, the direction of her collecting changed when she met Bill Katz, a set and restaurant designer who initiated what Glimcher has called Part II of her collecting life.

Katz had designed her apartment, and as a denizen of the heated Downtown art scene, he knew many artists and the small, plucky galleries springing up, often with emerging talent, especially in the East Village. With his contacts and knowledge of the burgeoning scene, they

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Right: Emily Fisher Landau. Courtesy Fisher Landau Family.

Opposite: Installation view of A Remarkable Gathering: The Fisher Landau Family Collection, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, 2022.

Photo: Gretel Sarmiento / Florida Weekly.

embarked on what was, for Fisher Landau, a new phase of collecting. On weekly “shopping”

[ E M I LY F I S H E R L A N D A U ] I S A

safaris, they visited galleries and artists in their studios, several before lunch (usually at

G R E AT E X A M P L E O F T H E

Arezzo on West 22d Street), and several after. Fisher Landau laughed as she remembered all the flights of stairs in the loft and tenement buildings—“the pleasure of all those steps,”

P R E M I E R C O L L E C TO R S W H O

she said. And then there were more serendipities of the New York sidewalk. Sometimes she

C O L L E C T N OT J U S T F O R

would buy a work off the street. One day she and Katz bumped into Keith Haring on Houston.

T H E M S E LV E S B U T F O R

Katz introduced them. She would collect Haring. They became friends.

The safaris were full of surprises. She enjoyed the hunt. She enjoyed herself.

In galleries less traveled, they “discovered” Glenn Ligon, a conceptual artist then little

NAMES. SHE COLLECTED

known. Buying at the “right moment,” she supported young careers. Frustrated that many

A RT I STS. A N D H E R C H O I C ES A R E

of the more established galleries hung works that were presold or promised, studio visits

TOTA L LY U N P R E D I C TA B L E . I

allowed her to buy from artists directly. She acquired more than a half dozen pieces by Brian Duffy. She would visit painter Christopher Wool, who worked on the same floor, at the same

B E L I E V E S H E ’ S P E G GY

time. Many artists lived within short distances of each other, including Neil Jenney, Kiki

G U G G E N H E I M R E I N C A R N AT E D. ”

Smith, and David Wojnarowicz.

LEONARD LAUDER

She became a familiar and trusted presence, an insider from the outside. Perhaps because she had wanted to study art before her practical father enrolled her in secretarial school, she understood them. The artists also knew that she was buying art to keep rather than flip: she was not an investor. They respected her commitment, and the willingness of a single woman then in her 70s to collect a key thrown down to the street and then climb all those flights.

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Lot 23, Willem de Kooning, Untitled XV, 1983, installed in Emily Fisher Landau’s Palm Beach home. Design © Aman & Meeks Interiors. Photo © Karen Fuchs. Art © 2023 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Below left: Emily Fisher Landau and Ellsworth Kelly at the Pratt Institute Scholarship Gala, New York, October 2010. Photo © Dario Cantatore / Getty Images Below right: Emily Fisher Landau and Jasper Johns at Fisher Landau’s 90th birthday celebration hosted by The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 2010. Photo © Nick Hunt/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Largely reactive, she collected what her eye saw and liked, Katz acting as a curator who preselected whom they would visit. Sometimes she bought several pieces a day—fifteen small-scale biomorphic abstractions from the then little-known Thomas Nozkowski for example. She bought an entire Rodney Graham show of conceptual work off the walls, and did the same for a show of Glenn Ligon. She took risks and became a force in the market, respected as an informed patron with a sophisticated eye and a loyalty to artists she followed.

Fisher Landau didn’t confine herself to a theme or a single school. There were, however, areas of interest. Dyslexic, she developed, counterintuitively, an affinity for word paintings, and bought Ed Ruscha in depth. They became friends.

But even a large Park Avenue apartment didn’t have the wall space for her rapidly expanding collection. To start with, the doorways weren’t large enough for loft-sized paintings, which Fisher Landau discovered when she bought a Twombly that didn’t fit. With the Twombly, she started storing works at Judson’s Warehouse in Long Island City, taking one room and then more, until she realized that she was buying art without the possibility of seeing and living with it. Partially to see what she owned, she organized a half dozen shows in the lobbies of Fisher Brothers office buildings on Park Avenue, two a year.

Rather than stopping collecting, she and Katz went shopping again, this time for a building of her own where she could store and visit the art. Perhaps it could be fitted with an apartment.

They found a three-story decommissioned parachute-harness factory in Queens, and Fisher Landau hired London-based Max Gordon, the architect who had famously transformed a paint

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Emily Fisher Landau and Ed Ruscha at the Whitney Museum of American Art Gala, New York, October 2013.

Photo © Nicholas Hunt/ Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

N E V E R S TO P LO O K I N G . N E V E R S TO P L E A R N I N G .

A R T I S T H E G R E AT E S T T E A C H E R . ” E M ILY FIS HE R LAN DAU

factory in London for the Saatchi Collection. She wanted, she told Gordon, a building that felt “calm, clear and logical,” and he produced one of New York’s early Minimalist spaces, taking the building back to sandblasted concrete floors and ceilings and featuring the mushroom capitals of its columns. Gordon achieved a Zen sense of emptiness by eliminating anything extraneous and simply revealing the raw shell. He carved out a small apartment on the top floor so Fisher Landau could visit, entertain, and stay over. She furnished the interiors with tubular aluminum pieces by 1930s industrial designer Warren McArthur, bought at Robert Miller’s Gallery on 57th Street, but also at used furniture shops and even flea markets. “In those days, you could still do that. We had a very good time looking,” she remembered.

With the converted factory, her collection was effectively divided, the Picasso, Dubuffet, Léger, Rothko, Kline and many others staying on Fifth Avenue (though the apartment would be occasionally refreshed by something from the collection at the factory). She originally wanted the factory to serve as a gallery away from home for private viewing and storage, but in 1991 she established The Fisher Landau Center for Art, first opening it to the public on an appointment basis, and then as a staffed private museum. Exhibitions drew from the 1200 artworks in the collection: monographic shows—Donald Baechler, Neil Jenney, Kiki Smith—and thematic shows, such as one on word paintings and another featuring works dealing with wood.

Leonard Lauder, chairman emeritus of the Whitney and a close friend, said that he had never seen the collection until he visited the Center. “It had a great impact on me. No one really knew what was there.” He was “astounded” by the checklist, which led him to credit her eye, which he thought was all the more responsive for not having been academically trained: she did not see contemporary art through art history. “Brilliant and fresh, curious and sophisticated, it’s one of the best [eyes] that I’ve come across. She is a great example of the premier collectors who collect not just for themselves but for posterity. She didn’t collect names. She collected artists. And her choices are totally unpredictable. I believe she’s Peggy Guggenheim reincarnated.”

With the speculative pressures in the art market after 2000, Fisher Landau collected less but continued to support the Center and to work with the Whitney and, of course, to live with her life-long favorites in her apartment, including the Picasso, which always occupied a central position of honor over the sofa in the living room. In 2010, she pledged almost 400 works to the Whitney.

Fisher Landau died in 2022 at the age of 102.

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M O R E FO R TO M O R R OW T H A N FO R TO DAY A LEGACY OF PHILANTHROPY

BY J A M E S R E G I N ATO

E

mily Fisher Landau loved nothing more than encouraging emerging talent and sharing her love of art. In doing so, she assembled a preeminent collection of contemporary art and became a remarkably effective philanthropist.

Easily one of the greatest art patrons of the last century, Emily Fisher

Landau assembled an inimitable collection of modern and contemporary art – 120 works of which are coming to auction at Sotheby’s on 8–9 November. Her collection was born from her dedication to artists and the organizations that buttress them. In equal measure, she supported artists personally and museums institutionally.

“I like the fact that the Whitney isn’t afraid to expose the public to the work of young artists before they are accepted,” she said after the joined the board of that institution in 1989. Not long afterwards, she established an endowment to fund the Whitney Biennial, knowing that it was a cornerstone of the museum’s objective to present work by risktaking contemporary artists, many of whom were not yet recognized.

“She just jumped in with both feet,” says Mrs. Landau’s daughter, Candia Fisher. “When she committed herself to something, she was all in.”

Clockwise from far left: John Baldessari, What This Painting Aims to Do, 1967. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Gift of Emily Fisher Landau. Art © 2023 John Baldessari

Ed Ruscha, Give Him Anything and He’ll Sign It, 1965. Whitney Museum of American Art. Gift of Emily Fisher Landau. Art © Ed Ruscha

David Wojnarowicz, Untitled, 1990. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Gift of Emily Fisher Landau. Art © 2023 Estate of David Wojnarowicz

Richard Prince, Man Crazy Nurse #1, 2003.

Whitney Museum of American Art. Gift of Emily Fisher Landau. Art © 2023 Richard Prince

Peter Cain, 500 SL #1, 1992. Whitney Museum of American Art. Gift of Emily Fisher Landau.

Art © 2023 Peter Cain.

Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery

Georgia O’Keeffe, Ladder to the Moon, 1958. Whitney Museum of American Art. Gift of Emily Fisher Landau.

Art © 2023 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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Barbara Kruger, Untitled (We Don’t Need Another Hero), 1987.

Whitney Museum of American Art. Gift of Emily Fisher Landau. Art © 2023 Barbara Kruger

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In recognition of her leadership, the Whitney named the fourth floor of its Marcel Breuer–designed landmark building on Madison Avenue, soon to be Sotheby’s New York headquarters, in her honor. Yet Landau subsequently threw her support behind the museum’s then-controversial plans to relocate to the Meatpacking District closer to the city’s major contemporary art galleries. Though only after she had done her due diligence: “Emily has been downtown to see the site. She loves the energy there,” the Whitney’s director, Adam D. Weinberg, noted in 2010.

That year, Landau announced a historic gift to the museum – 367 works in all media by nearly 100 key figures in American art, including Carl Andre, Willem de Kooning, Glenn Ligon, Jasper Johns, Agnes Martin, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Cy Twombly and Andy Warhol. According to

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Above left: Exterior of the Fisher Landau Center for Art. Photo © Courtesy Cushman and Wakefield

Weinberg, the donation ranks among the foremost gifts of collections to the Whitney, alongside

Above right: Emily Fisher Landau Galleries at the Breuer Building, New York, 2023

who, in her words ‘portray the world we are living in now.’”

Opposite: Emily Fisher Landau seated in front of Lot 20, Mark Rothko’s Untitled, 1958. Courtesy Fisher Landau Family.

Art © 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

those of founder Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and longtime trustee Leonard A. Lauder.

“I have been continually inspired by her keen eye for talent and deep curiosity about all that is new,” Weinberg comments. “Mrs. Landau consistently supported risk-taking artists Even as Landau dedicated herself to the Whitney, she opened the Fisher Landau Center for Art, housed in a 25,000-square-foot former parachute-harness factory in Long Island City, which architect Max Gordon reimagined for her. Initially, Landau planned to use the building to store her 1,500-work collection. Soon enough, she thought it would make a wonderful exhibition and study space. From 1991 to 2017, the Center presented – free of charge to the public – insightful exhibitions of works by such luminaries as Johns, Rauschenberg, Ruscha and Twombly.

Once a year, however, when Landau hosted the annual presentations of the Columbia University School of Visual Arts MFA Thesis Exhibitions, the building was filled with brandnew creations (some with the paint barely dry) by total unknowns. “It was the highlight of her year – the day these kids had their opening,” Candia Fisher recalls. “None of them had had a gallery show before, and they were ecstatic to have their work shown. My mother loved supporting these young, emerging artists – it was so in her wheelhouse.”

“Never stop learning. Never stop looking. Art is the greatest teacher,” Landau once stated.

Named by the French government a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in recognitions of her arts patronage, Mrs. Landau also sat on committees at MoMA and on the boards of the Metropolitan Opera, SITE Santa Fe and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in New Mexico.

Outside the art world, she established the Fisher Landau Foundation for research on dyslexia and assistance to dyslexic children – she herself was dyslexic – and the Fisher Landau Center for the Treatment of Learning Disabilities for children, adolescents and adults at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. “She was very hands on. She helped developed programs and always followed up,” says Candia Fisher. “She put her money where her mouth was.”

“She probably has been one of the most important trustees in Whitney history,” remarks Mr. Lauder of Emily Fisher Landau. “With her own museum, she was a great example of the premier collectors in history who collect not just for themselves but for posterity. She was buying more for tomorrow than for today.”

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E V E N I N G A U CT I O N 8 N OV E M B E R 2 0 2 3 6 : 0 0 P M

Lot 23 Willem de Kooning, Untitled XV, 1983 (detail).

Art © 2023 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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JOSEF ALBERS 1 888 - 1976

H O M AG E TO T H E S Q UA R E : Y E L LO W RESONANCE signed with the artist’s monogram and dated 57 (lower right); signed, titled, dated 1957 and variously inscribed (on the reverse) oil on Masonite, in artist’s chosen frame 40 by 40 in. 101.6 by 101.6 cm.

Executed in 1957.

This work will be included in the Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings by Josef Albers currently being prepared by the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, and is registered under JAAF 1957.1.85. $ 1,500,000-2,000,000

PROVENANCE

L I T E R AT U R E

Sidney Janis Gallery, New York

“The Art Galleries: The Whitney Annual,” The New Yorker, vol. 33, nno. 41, 30 November 1957, p. 100

Gimpel Fils Ltd., London (acquired from the above in 1959) Robert Elkon Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in May 1968 by the present owner EXHIBITED

New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Annual Exhibition of Sculpture, Paintings, Watercolors & Drawings, November 1957 January 1958, no. 44 New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, Albers: 70th Anniversary Exhibition, March - April 1958, no. 5 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Five Decades of Passion, Part One: The Eye of the Collector, 1968-1988, January - April 2009

Marjorie Welish, “Artful Balance,” House and Garden, vol. 157, no. 5, May 1985, pp. 164-65, illustrated in color Peter H. Falk, The Annual & Biennial Exhibition Record of the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1918-1989, Michigan, 1991, p. 64 Exh. Cat., New York, Whitney Museum of American Art (and travelling), Legacy: The Emily Fisher Landau Collection, 2011, no. 1, p. 20, illustrated in color Mark Stephen Archer, The New Formal: Interiors

by James Aman, New York, 2016, fig. 1, pp. 20, 31, illustrated in color (in installation)

West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, A Remarkable Gathering: The Fisher Landau Family Collection, March - September 2022

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endered in lucid shades of yellow at an impressive and immersive scale, Josef Albers’ Homage to the Square: Yellow Resonance from 1957 is a superlative

example from Alber’s most acclaimed body of work, his Homages to the Square, regarded today as one of the most iconic series of twentieth century art. The present work, a consummate combination of concentric hues of ochre, white and cadmium yellow, is the transcendent summation of the artist’s revolutionary painterly enterprise. Charged with atmospheric depth, Homage to the Square: Yellow Resonance utilizes the optical effects of varying chromatic contrasts to illustrate the relativity of color and suggests that visual experience can be simultaneously scientific and subjective. Acquired in 1968 and remaining in her collection for over fifty years, Homage to the Square:

Yellow Resonance retains particular significance for Emily Fisher Landau. She first came across Albers’ work that same year, illustrated on a poster in the window of Pace Gallery, and this fortuitous encounter

Above right: Kazemir Malevich, Suprematist Composition (with Yellow, Orange and Green Rectangle), 191516. Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Image © Luisa Ricciarini / Bridgeman Images.

Opposite: Josef Albers with his class at Black Mountain College, c. 1946. Photo © Genevieve Naylor/ Corbis via Getty Images

spawned one of the greatest collecting endeavors

the pantheon of American postwar art, from former

to date. “From the moment I saw that Albers,” Fisher

pupil Mark Rothko’s absorptive oil paintings to the

Landau recalled, “I knew I loved simplicity. Albers

Minimalist works of Donald Judd. First conceived in

was my beginning point as a collector.” Exceptional in

1950 and consuming the last twenty-six years of his life,

its effervescent vibrancy and sublime aura, Homage

the Homage to the Square series was an exploration of

to the Square: Yellow Resonance epitomizes the

chromatic behavior when hues were situated against

ultimate achievement of the tenets that birthed this

one another in one of four predetermined templates

iconic series.

of nested squares. Albers famously emphasized an

Albers’ theories on chromatic relationships

approach that was based on dialogue, juxtaposition,

tabulated the basis for his own practice, serving as

and, most paramount, experimentation, but by

the conceptual linchpin to which each one of his

standardizing the geometric construction of each

paintings, prints and works on paper are hinged. His

work, he could manipulate color in isolation. Albers

ideas manifested themselves in his seminal and

considered color not as the tool to articulate his

culminating series, Homages to the Square. Not only

subject, but as the very content of painting itself.

was this series the most critically lauded in his career,

Despite the title of the series, which might suggest the

but also one whose effects can be traced throughout

primacy of the square as a symbol or signal, Albers

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palette knife to apply unadulterated paint directly from the tube and onto his works, lending them a sense of palpable immediacy. A purist, he only occasionally added white to adjust each hue, more often choosing to depend on unalloyed pigments.

Albers’ meticulous attention to chromatic harmony is evinced in the bold and dynamic composition of the

I K N E W I LO V E D S I M P L I C I T Y. A L B E R S WA S M Y B E G I N N I N G P O I N T A S A C O L L E C TO R . ”

the viewer in a syncopated array of golds, each

EMILY FIS HER LANDAU

leveled the paint by hand to create a homogeneous surface, allowing the viewer to completely focus on and become immersed in the effects of the colors as they respond to one another. His choice of contrasting pigments creates a sense of depth and perspective in an otherwise flat pictorial plane and achieves this with remarkable clarity in the present work.

Luminescent, cerebral and utterly magnetic,

called the “independence and interdependence” of pure

Homage to the Square: Yellow Resonance is an

pigments. As one of the foremost scholars on the artist,

exemplar of Albers’ intellectually rigorous conceptual

Nicolas Fox Weber, noted in Josef Albers’ monumental

practice. Having painted many doors as a craftsman,

1988 retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim

Albers’ father taught his son to always begin at the

Museum, New York: “The Homages become, in a

center and then move outward to the edges – this,

generalized way, living beings. As such, like much great

importantly, would keep his shirt sleeves clean. As

late work, they grapple with ultimate, essential truths.

articulated by Kelly Feeney, this history is beautifully

Grounded solidly in their craft, they touch upon sublime

echoed in Albers’s culminating body of work, and

mysteries…. They conquered the gap between speaker

especially in the present work: “The Homages operate

and statement, between writer and words, between

like doors – physically, optically, psychologically,

painter and medium: Josef Albers and the Homages

and metaphorically. They are entrances, exits, and

were one” (Nicolas Fox Weber, “The Artist as Alchemist,”

thresholds, beginnings and endings. Sometimes it is

in Exh. Cat., New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim

not clear on which side of the door we are. The door

Museum, Josef Albers: A Retrospective, 1988, p. 48).

opens both out and in, onto the past, the present, and

Albers notably preferred Masonite panels to

onto an endless, inescapable hall of doors…. And the

canvas, because he could turn the boards to their

possibilities are both limited and limitless, just as

rough side to provide unique texture to his works.

Albers conceived of his paintings…” (Kelly Feeney, Josef

Rather than using a brush, Albers elected to use a

Albers: Works on Paper, Alexandria, 1991, p. 86).

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F R O M T H E M O M E N T I S AW T H AT A L B E R S ,

present work. Uniquely powerful, the work envelops register enlivened by the next. Albers painstakingly

simply considered the square a vessel for what he

Frank Stella, Kingsbury Run, 1963. Sold at Sotheby’s New York for $4.1 million in May 2019.

Private Collection. Art © 2023 Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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GEORGIA O’KEEFFE 1 887 - 19 86

P I N K T U L I P ( A B ST R AC T I O N - #7 7 T U L I P) signed with the initials OK in the artist’s star device, titled and dated 1925 (on the original backing board) oil on canvas 32 by 12 in. 81.3 by 30.5 cm.

Executed in 1925. $ 3,000,000-5,000,000

PROVENANCE

The artist Acquired from the above in June 1985 by the present owner EXHIBITED

Brooklyn Museum of Art, International Exhibition of Modern Art Assembled by The Société Anonyme, November 1926 - January 1927, no. 267 (titled Abstraction II) New York, The Intimate Gallery, Fifty Recent Paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe, February - April 1926 New York, The Intimate Gallery, Georgia O’Keeffe: Paintings, 1926, January - February 1927 (titled Abstraction No. II) Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; Art Institute of Chicago; Dallas Museum of Art; and New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Georgia O’Keeffe: 1887 - 1986, November 1987 February 1989 Santa Fe, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Inaugural Exhibition, June 1997 - January 1998 Greenwich, Bruce Museum of Arts and Science, In Search of the Dream: The American West, February - June 2002, no. 83, p. 57, illustrated in color

36

Roslyn, Nassau County Museum of Art, Four Originals: Cassatt, O’Keeffe, Nevelson and Frankenthaler, September 2003 - January 2004, pp. 37-38 and 77, illustrated in color Santa Fe, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum; Washington, D.C., Smithsonian American Art Museum; West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams: Natural Affinities, May 2008 - September 2009, pp. 48 and 164, illustrated in color New York, Whitney Museum of American Art; Washington, D.C., Phillips Collection; and Santa Fe, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Georgia O’Keeffe: Abstraction, September 2009 - September 2010, no. 91, p. 102, illustrated in color New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Stream of the Unknown: Selections from the Collection, February - April 2011 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Visual Conversations: Selections from the Collection, September - December 2012 West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, A Remarkable Gathering: The Fisher Landau Family Collection, March - September 2022

T H E E M I LY F I S H E R L A N DAU C O L L EC T I O N : A N E R A D E F I N E D | E V E N I N G AU C T I O N

L I T E R AT U R E

Jack Cowart, Sarah Greenough and Juan Hamilton, Georgia O’Keeffe: Art and Letters, Washington, D.C., 1987, no. 40, n.p., illustrated in color John Loughery, “Georgia O’Keeffe, Art and Letters by Jack Cowart, Juan Hamilton and Sarah Greenough: Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887 1986,” Woman’s Art Journal, vol. 10, no. 2, Autumn 1989-Winter 1990, p. 41 Barbara Buhler Lynes, Georgia O’Keeffe: Catalogue Raisonné, vol. I, New Haven, 1999, no. 478, p. 265, illustrated in color

essence, compelling her viewer to experience the

Jonathan Stuhlman, Georgia O’Keeffe, Circling Around

natural world in a new and more profound way. The

Abstraction, Manchester, Vermont, 2007, p. 47). Vibrant

present work exceptionally demonstrates how the

hues of pink, yellow and green dissolve into softened

artist utilized this subject not only to explore color

gradients as the sharply defined forms of the tulip and

and form, but also to experiment with the powerful

its stem slowly fade away. The success with which

relationship between realism and abstraction.

O’Keeffe blends color and form into a harmonious

At the recommendation of her university instructor

F

rom 1918 to 1932, Georgia O’Keeffe executed

during her lifetime and beyond, Fisher Landau

more than two hundred floral subjects,

frequently visited O’Keeffe at her New Mexico home,

captivated by the visual potential and beauty

and acquired a number of paintings from the artist—

of natural forms. “It is only by selection,

both for her personal collection and museum donation.

by elimination, by emphasis that we get to the real

Pink Tulip (Abstraction - #77 Tulip) was exhibited

meaning of things,” the artist proclaimed in 1922 during

in quick succession after its execution in 1925 at The

her first published interview (“I Can’t Sing, So I Paint!

Intimate Gallery, the preeminent exhibition space for

Says Ultra Realistic Artist; Art is Not Photography–It

American modernism at the time, operated by fellow

Is Expression of Inner Life!: Miss O’Keeffe Explains

artist and O’Keeffe’s husband, Alfred Stieglitz. In the

Subjective Aspect of Her Work,” New York Sun, 5

exhibition brochure for her 1926 solo show, O’Keeffe

December 1922). Her early experimentation with

famously wrote, “I have painted what each flower is

carefully abstracted, enlarged floral compositions in

to me and I have painted it big enough so that others

the 1920s would go on to define the remainder of her

would see what I see” (Exh. Cat., New York, The

artistic career. O’Keeffe’s flowers remain her most

Intimate Gallery, Fifty Recent Paintings by Georgia

highly sought after and influential paintings more than

O’Keeffe, 1926). Her concern for the simplification of

a century later, further underscoring her ingenuity and

forms and bold colors applied in fluid brushstrokes

impact on the trajectory of twentieth century art. The

to render this tulip demonstrate O’Keeffe’s

present work, acquired directly from the artist in June

imaginative spirit as well as her keen awareness of

of 1985 and held in Emily Fisher Landau’s acclaimed

her art historical predecessors. As she essentializes,

collection for nearly 40 years, is no exception. A

crops, and enlarges the blossom, she leaves the

longstanding supporter of O’Keeffe’s practice both

realm of pure objectivity and instead presents its

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arrangement is central to the allure of Pink Tulip. Her

Alon Bement, O’Keeffe read Wassily Kandinsky’s

pigments are daring and bright, yet delicately applied.

Concerning the Spiritual in Art shortly after its 1914

“Your color was the most exciting thing in this year’s art

translation into English. “Sharp colors are well suited

world,” fellow artist Charles Demuth wrote to O’Keeffe

to sharp forms,” wrote Kandinsky—a methodology that

in 1926 after seeing Pink Tulip featured at her Intimate

O’Keeffe brilliantly incorporates into Pink Tulip (Wassily

Gallery show (Charles Demuth letter to Georgia

Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, as quoted in

O’Keeffe, dated 7 March 1926).

Right: Georgia O’Keeffe, Music, Pink and Blue No. 2, 1918. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Gift of Emily Fisher Landau.

Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Opposite left: Hilma af Klint, Group IX/UW, No. 25, The Dove, No. 1, 1915. Image © Fine Art Images / Bridgeman Images / Courtesy of Stiftelsen Hilma af Klints Verk. Art © 2023 Hilma af Klint Opposite right: Barnett Newman, The Beginning, 1946. The Art Institute of Chicago.

Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 Barnett Newman Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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I H AV E PA I N T E D W H AT E A C H F LO W E R I S TO M E A N D I H AV E PA I N T E D I T B I G E N O U G H S O

than the painting,” O’Keeffe stated in 1922, expressing her admiration for the medium (Patterson Sims, Georgia O’Keeffe, A Concentration of Works from the Permanent Collection of the Whitney Museum of

T H AT OT H E R S W O U L D S E E

American Art, New York, 1981, p. 21). However, the

W H AT I S E E . ”

vibrancy of O’Keeffe’s palette and her nonliteral

G EORG IA O’ KEEFFE, QUOTED IN EXH. CAT. , NEW YORK, THE INTIMATE GALLERY, F IF TY RECENT PA INTING S

BY G EORG IA O’ KEEF F E, 1926, N.P.

approach to capturing a subject’s essence resonated with audiences in a manner that early twentieth century photography could not quite achieve.

Through its spiraling forms and dynamic sense of motion, Pink Tulip was avant-garde for the 1920s. Its

Splitting her time between Manhattan and Lake

bold use of color pays homage to color theory, while

George throughout the 1920s, O’Keeffe sought

the harmonious blend of sharp and fluid forms recall

inspiration in her immediate surroundings. “She

the fragmented approach to painting explored by

could revel in her garden with riotous color at the

Cubists in the prior decade. Abstract yet referential,

Stieglitz family house at Lake George,” explains

O’Keeffe’s ability to engage with the natural world in

curator Elizabeth Hutton Turner (Elizabeth Hutton

such an expressive and exciting manner continues to

Turner, “O’Keeffe as Abstraction,” in Georgia O’Keeffe:

inspire future generations of contemporary artists in

Abstraction, New York, 2009, p. 72). From leaves and

their approach to nature.

plants to small garden fruits, O’Keeffe vowed to make her art “as objective as I can make it” in a letter written to a friend one year prior to the execution of Pink Tulip (Sarah Greenough, “Georgia O’Keeffe: A Flight to the Spirit,” in Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries, Washington, D.C., 2001, p.

453). However, the elongated petals and expressive application of color present in this work signal a shift in O’Keeffe’s artistic career—one in which abstraction seeps into her perception of the world. In this way, Pink Tulip embodies a unique moment in O’Keeffe’s early career and a precursor to her later engagement with pure abstraction in the 1960s.

By 1925, O’Keeffe’s involvement with the country’s leading photographers through Stieglitz’s 291 gallery Right: Pablo Picasso, La Lecture, 1932. Sold at Sotheby’s London for $30.5 million in February 2011. Private Collection. Art © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

had become increasingly impactful on her practice.

The resonance between photographic methods and O’Keeffe’s systematic enlargement of forms is apparent in her magnified floral compositions more so than her previous body of work. “Some of the photography being done in America today is more living, more vital

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AG N E S M A R T I N 1 91 2 - 20 0 4

UNTITLED #1 signed and dated 1995 (on the reverse) acrylic and graphite on canvas 60 by 60 in. 152.4 by 152.5 cm.

Executed in 1995. $ 3,500,000-4,500,000

PROVENANCE

L I T E R AT U R E

Pace Wildenstein, New York

Joan Simon, “Perfection is in the Mind: An Interview with Agnes Martin,” Art in America, vol. 84, no. 5, May 1996, p. 82, illustrated

Acquired from the above in October 1995 by the present owner EXHIBITED

New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Recent Acquisitions, December 1995 - October 1996 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Visual Conversations: Selections from the Collection, September - November 2012 West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, A Remarkable Gathering: The Fisher Landau Family Collection, March - September 2022

Marisa Bartolucci, “Palm Beach Modern,” Town and Country, May 2000, pp. 172-175, 204, 208, illustrated in color (in installation) Mary Lance, Agnes Martin: With My Back to the World, New Mexico, 2002 (video) Arne Glimcher, Agnes Martin: Paintings, Writings, Remembrances, London, 2012, p. 154, illustrated Mark Stephen Archer, The New Formal: Interiors

by James Aman, New York, 2016, p. 134, illustrated in color (in installation) Julie L. Belcove, “Emily Fisher’s Loft-Style Home in Florida is a Modern Seaside Getaway,” Architectural Digest, 3 April 2017, illustrated in color (in installation) (online) Tiffany Bell, ed., Agnes Martin: Catalogue Raisonné: Paintings, New York, 2017 - ongoing, no. 1995.001, illustrated in color (online)

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T H E E M I LY F I S H E R L A N DAU C O L L EC T I O N : A N E R A D E F I N E D | E V E N I N G AU C T I O N

Agnes Martin near her home in Cuba, New Mexico, 1974. Photo © Gianfranco Gorgoni

E

ngaging numerous dichotomies with a grace and integrity that verges on the sublime, Agnes Martin’s Untitled #1 achieves a sensitive equilibrium between the subtle

poetry of delicate mark making and the muscular prose

of the Modernist grid. Her paintings present themselves as portals into her uniquely spiritual sensibility, yet they manifest themselves within an ordered regimen. At the command of Martin’s brush, notions of composition and perspective are stripped bare, resulting in a simultaneously serene and intellectually rigorous canvas. Her gently articulated manipulation of geometry and classical perfection contrast with the solidity of her pictorial structure. Minimalist abstraction thus serves not as a clinical device but rather as a means of revelation: the unalloyed perfection of the surface engenders an immersive recognition of beauty, calm and self-reflection in its viewer. A refined expression of Martin’s conceptual program and paragon of her mature output, the present work was acquired in 1995, the year of its execution, by Emily Fisher Landau, who maintained a lasting relationship with the artist as both patron and friend. Peaceful and profound, Untitled #1 resolutely testifies to the elegance and expression possible within minimal

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means and represents her most influential contribution

unmistakably presages the spiritual power of Martin’s

to twentieth century discourse on the value of painting.

later canvases. Even as it paradoxically suggests a

Consistently working within the stability of the

reduction to the barest artistic bones of graphite

square, Martin employed the cool, mathematical logic

overlaid on pigment, the resulting masterpiece is

of the line to pare down her compositions to the most

breathtaking in its sophisticated luminescence.

elemental forms. The continuous horizontal bands of

Although Martin’s work aligns visually with an

Untitled #1 suggest a distilled landscape, but its rigid

abstract sensibility in its denial of representational

formal order is softened by the humanity of the artist’s

or figurative subject matter, her paintings also reject

touch. Atmospheric shades of blue, subtly delineated

the exaltation of the male gesture. In response to

by graphite, emanate a tender sensitivity, while her

their fevered action painting, Martin embraced a

tempered geometric vocabulary maintains a graceful

more meditative approach, which led to her adoption

coolness. A contemplative union of color and form,

of the square and the grid. Her use of this classically

the present work boasts Martin’s inimitable technical

Minimalist structure, however, did not signify an

control through its subdued tonality and marks a

alignment with the tenets of that movement, which

departure from her earlier paintings of the 1960s: she

sought to erase the personal aspect of art and

gradually shifted away from her chromatically hazy

remove all traces of the artist’s hand. Instead, Martin

application of sheer washes towards comparably

underlined her artistry with a graphite signature, as

thicker, more substantial surfaces of undiluted

the subtle inconsistencies and occasional hesitancy of

pigment, blanketing the weave of the canvas. Far from

her lines reassert her real and very human presence in

smothering the work’s energy, however, the added

the work. These lines are laid down on muted grounds

tactility of the surface creates a depth and vitality that

of softened hues that mark a further contrast to the

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dramatic palettes of the Abstract Expressionists and

A masterpiece of the artist’s signature aesthetic

bold primary colors of Minimalism. Describing the

strategies, the meditative magnetism of Untitled #1 lies

subtle force of the artist’s oeuvre in terms particularly

not in the symmetrical regularity of her neat lines but in

evocative of the present work, scholar Anna C. Chave

the singular sophistication with which she manipulates

reflects: “Rather than overlooked by critics, Martin’s

mark, material and method to create works of truly rare

quiet technique caused them to look all the more

sensitivity. When viewed from a distance, the repeated

thoroughly, just as we may be impelled to lean forward

horizontal lines appear straight and ordinary, virtually

and concentrate more intensely when a speaker’s voice

disappearing into the hushed tonality of the expanse.

is exceptionally soft” (Anna C. Chave, “Agnes Martin:

Upon closer inspection, however, each ruling is entirely

Humility, The Beautiful Daughter,” in Exh. Cat., New York,

unique, characterized by slight irregularities where

Whitney Museum of American Art, Agnes Martin, 1992,

Martin picked up her pencil, paused, and then resumed,

p. 138). As beautifully embodied in Untitled #1, Martin’s

or where the textured surface of the paint discreetly

exceptional works resonate with a quiet stillness that is

diverts the path of her hand. Without any other

at once deeply personal and transcendent.

distractions, the eye follows the gossamer thin strands

Right: Georgia O’Keeffe, The White Flower (White Trumpet Flower), 1932.

San Diego Museum of Art. Image: Bridgeman Images. Art © 2023 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Opposite left: Mark Rothko, White Band No. 27, 1954. Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

Art © 2023 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Opposite right: Robert Ryman, Untitled, 1965. The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 Robert Ryman / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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W H E N I T H I N K O F A R T, I T H I N K O F B E A U T Y… B E A U T Y I L L U S T R AT E S H A P P I N E S S : T H E W I N D I N T H E G R A S S , T H E G L I S T E N I N G WAV E S F O L LO W I N G E A C H OT H E R , THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS — ALL SPEAK OF HAPPINESS.” AGN ES MA RT I N , ‘B EAU T Y IS T HE M YST E RY O F LIFE ’ IN : E X H. CAT., NEW YO R K , WH ITN EY MUSEU M O F A M E R ICAN ART, AG N ES M ARTIN , 19 92 , P. 10

as they traverse the monochrome canvas from left to

artist’s iconic striated facture, Untitled #1 elicits an

right. Far from impersonal, these wavering undulations

incomparable sensation of serenity, aptly summarized

reflect the variations of pressure and density inherent

by the artist herself: “I want to draw that quality

to the human touch. Such remarkable dynamism is

of response from people who leave themselves

heightened by the work’s scale: facing this work, the

behind, often experienced in nature, an experience

viewer is enveloped in its meditative hum, and absorbs

of simply joy…My paintings are about merging, about

the calm serenity that is such a celebrated feature

formlessness…A world without objects, without

of Martin’s praxis. For its emotive, monochromatic

interruption” (the artist cited in Ann Wilson, “Linear

color palette and consummate expression of the

Webs: Agnes Martin,” Art and Artists, 1966, pp. 48-49).

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Norham Castle, Sunrise, c. 1845. Tate, London. Image: Art Resource, NY

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M A R K TA N S E Y b. 1 9 4 9

T R I U M P H OV E R M A ST E RY I I oil on canvas 97 ⅛ by 68 ⅛ in. 246.7 by 173 cm.

Executed in 1987. $ 8,000,000-12,000,000

PROVENANCE

Curt Marcus Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in October 1987 by the present owner EXHIBITED

Milwaukee Art Museum, 1988: The World of Art Today, May - August 1988, no. 64, pp. 47, 112, illustrated Frankfurt, Frankfurter Kunstverein Schirn Kunsthalle, Prospect 89, March - May 1989, p. 191, illustrated in color and p. 224 Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art; and Kyoto, National Museum of Modern Art, A Perspective on Contemporary Art - Color and/or Monochrome, September 1989 - February 1990, pp. 88-89, illustrated in color New York, Tony Shafrazi Gallery, The Last Decade: American Artists of the 80’s, September - October 1990, p. 127, illustrated in color and p. 137 New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Charade of Mastery: Deciphering Modernism in Contemporary Art, October 1990 January 1991, pp. 6-7, illustrated New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Paint and Painted, May 1993, n.p.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Milwaukee Art Museum; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; and Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Mark Tansey, June 1993 - November 1994, no. 17, pp. 56-57, illustrated in color and p. 114

50

New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Painting and Sculpture: Selections from the Collection, May 2007 - January 2008 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Five Decades of Passion: Part One: The Eye of the Collector, 1968-1988, January - April 2009 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Unforgettable: Selections from the Emily Fisher Landau Collection, February - April 2011 West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, A Remarkable Gathering: The Fisher Landau Family Collection, March - September 2022 L I T E R AT U R E

Richard Martin, “Mark Tansey’s Triumph Over Mastery,” Arts Magazine, vol. 62, February 1988, p. 23, illustrated in color Exh. Cat., Kunsthalle Basel, Mark Tansey, 1990, p. 8 Andy Grundberg, “Review/Art: Attacking Not Only Masters but Mastery as Well,” The New York Times, 23 November 1990, p. C29, illustrated Arthur C. Danto, Mark Tansey: Visions and Revisions, New York, 1992, illustrated in color (on the cover) (detail), and pp. 22-23, illustrated in color Christopher Knight, “Art Review: Tansey’s Talent to Amuse: Mid-Career Survey at County Museum,” Los Angeles Times, 22 June 1993 (online) Ted Loos, “Tansey’s Triumph,” Art & Antiques, February 1994, p. 55, illustrated in color

T H E E M I LY F I S H E R L A N DAU C O L L EC T I O N : A N E R A D E F I N E D | E V E N I N G AU C T I O N

Gilian Wohlauer, Kathryn Potts and Trevor Fairbrother, Mark Tansey and Connections: Mark Tansey (brochure), Boston, 1994, illustrated in color (on the cover) and pp. 2-3, illustrated in color Helene E. Roberts, ed., Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art, vol. 2, Chicago, 1998, p. 680 Mark C. Taylor, The Picture in Question: Mark Tansey & The Ends of Representation, Chicago, 1999, p. 36 Teel Sale and Claudia Betti, Drawing: A Contemporary Approach, Belmont, 2004, p. 229, illustrated Mark Stephen Archer, The New Formal: Interiors by James Aman, New York, 2016, p. 71, illustrated in color (in installation) William Chapman Sharpe, Grasping Shadows: The Dark Side of Literature, Painting, Photography, and Film, Oxford, 2017, p. 221, illustrated in color John Thomason, “Norton’s New Exhibition a Trove of Contemporary Art Riches,” Boca Magazine, 16 March 2022 (online)

Detail of Michelangelo, The Last Judgement, 1536-1451. Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.

A

dialogue between epochs embodied in a

on the shifting paradigms of artistic creation in an

sweeping monochromatic tableau, Triumph

uncertain era of postmodernity. Not only was Triumph

Over Mastery II from 1987 sees Mark

Over Mastery II prominently illustrated on the cover

Tansey contemplate the dialectical conflict

of Arthur Danto’s 1992 monograph of the artist, Mark

between our reverence for history and our relentless

Tansey: Visions and Revisions, but this masterwork

march of progress. With one arm holding onto a

has also appeared in some of Mark Tansey’s most

ladder, the other brashly sweeping a paint roller, the

paramount international museum exhibitions, including

figure in the present work methodically erases Christ’s

his major 1993-1994 retrospective, Mark Tansey, which

image in Michelangelo’s sixteenth-century The Last

traveled from the Los Angeles County Museum of

Judgement, painting over it with the renegade and

Art to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, among

revolutionary nothingness of pure white. Rife with

other institutions. Extending a bleak reminder of the

latent allegory and mythology, Mark Tansey’s illustrious

fragility of human accomplishment, the present work

oeuvre offers a layered painterly historiography of

powerfully expands upon the philosophical concerns

the philosophical conundrums that preoccupy the

explored in Tansey’s earlier sister painting, Triumph

human condition, and here, the artist meditates

Over Mastery, which now resides in the Museum of

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Mark Tansey, Triumph Over Mastery, 1986.

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Art © 2023 Mark Tansey

The present work illustrated on the jacket cover of Arthur C. Danto, Mark Tansey: Visions and Revisions, New York 1992. Art © 2023 Mark Tansey

asserts to revise or reject the core tenets of

unavoidable Oedipal struggle at the heart of art history:

modernism—indeed, to “triumph over mastery”—

each new wave of artists, including Tansey himself,

then Tansey contributes to, yet laments, the artistic

must upend the ideas championed by generations past.

progressivism of his contemporary age. Just as

Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Triumph Over Mastery

upraised almighty to pass heavenly judgment on the

II is further distinguished by its exceptional provenance,

destiny of souls. Even more, the painter has coated over

having remained in the esteemed collection of Emily

the shadow of his own left hand, too, which disappears

Fisher Landau since she acquired it in 1987 from Curt

along with Michelangelo’s mural depiction of the

Marcus Gallery, New York, one of Mark Tansey’s earliest

tortured souls damned to descend upon hell’s shores.

principal dealers.

As he remains perched quietly at work, the tranquility

Standing high on a ladder and wielding a paint

of the anonymous painter stands in jarring contrast

roller, our bare-backed protagonist in Triumph Over

to the monumental cultural loss and existential self-

Master II covers with broad, irreverent sweeps of

erasure that is implicit in his sacrilegious actions. Or,

whitewash one of human history’s most gloried and

one might argue, he is an avant garde revolutionary

epic artifacts: Michelangelo’s Renaissance magnum

bravely paving way for an immaculate canvas—a

opus, The Last Judgement fresco, located in the Sistine

tabula rasa full of inaugural potential, a blank slate

Chapel of Vatican City. He resolves to replace the

for new creative vision.

canonical masterpiece with the profane bareness of

Michelangelo’s Renaissance heralded a radical and

in the present work is as exacting as the technique

revolutionary departure from the Middle Ages, Tansey

of fresco painting that he references: first applying

is radically self-conscious that each successive artistic

a heavily gessoed ground to the surface, Tansey

movement must build upon—and sometimes, against—

successively adds layer upon layer of paint to build up

the storied accomplishments of its predecessors.

a rich surface from which he carves and swipes away

Tansey’s own silhouette eclipses Michelangelo’s iconic

with a variety of tools. Working within the limited six-

self-portrait in The Last Judgement, his omnipotent

hour time frame before his paint dries and becomes

painterly gestures paralleling Christ’s powers to

unpliable, Tansey operates under formidable time

either redeem or condemn in the fresco. Indeed, the

constraints. Through his additive and reductive method,

fictional painter in Triumph Over Mastery II reifies this

Tansey takes on the triple role of draftsman, painter

Triumph Over Mastery II witnesses Tansey

white painting, thus enacting the modernist device

poignantly grappling with such cyclical contradictions

of painterly effacement famously championed by the

that are intrinsic to the artist’s role: as both creator

likes of Kazimir Malevich, Robert Rauschenberg, or

and destroyer, the artist is one who is simultaneously

Robert Ryman. Amidst this iconoclastic procedure, the

beholden to tradition while driven and expected to

painter continues by obliterating the central, muscular

challenge it. In this context, the title itself posits a

figure of Christ, having already erased His hand, once

paradox: if the art historical project of postmodernism

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Notably, Tansey’s mastery over his chosen medium

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and sculptor at once. His images thus emerge from the monochromatic abyss by means of a constant process of wiping and pulling pigment away in order to render the painstaking details that fill the vast expanse. In Triumph Over Mastery II, Tansey’s subtractive process and muted palette of crimson and white suffuse the canvas with a somber and elegiac sensibility, not only underscoring the gravity of the allegorical scene that he visualizes, but also offering a sobering and nostalgic revelation into the broader ethics of historical advancement.

In Triumph Over Mastery II, the timeless clash between the classical and the contemporary ignites a paradoxical discourse on the cyclical nature of art history, one that sees Tansey masterfully extend the mechanics of figurative painting into the philosophical domains of human progress and cultural evolution.

In a review of Tansey’s 1993 retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art where the present work was prominently featured, Susan Kandel succinctly observes, “Art history bills itself as an orthodoxy, a linear progression of techniques, movements and prescriptions. Tansey insists that the history of art is more complex, a circle, perhaps; more likely, a synchronous web” (Susan Kandel, “Nothing Nostalgic About Tansey’s Works,” Los Angeles Times, 1 July 1993, online). In the end, the painter in Triumph Over Mastery II who dares to overwrite the art historical legacy of Michelangelo is of the same primordial red that he is attempting to hide with white. Tansey seems to suggest that it is ultimately an impossible and an absurd task – to divorce oneself from the shadows of time, to liberate culture from the relics of human civilization; instead, the artist warns against the perils of triumphalism that so pervade his contemporaneous postmodern zeitgeist.

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Top left: Michelangelo, Studies for the Libyan Sibyl, c. 1510-11. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Bottom left: John Baldessari, What Is Painting, 1968. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 John Baldessari

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5

GLENN LIGON b. 1 9 6 0

U N T I T L E D ( I LO ST M Y VO I C E I FO U N D M Y VO I C E ) signed, titled and dated 1991 (on the reverse) oil stick, gesso and graphite on wood panel 80 by 30 in. 203.2 by 76.2 cm.

Executed in 1991. $ 2,500,000-3,500,000 PROVENANCE

Max Protetch Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in June 1991 by the present owner EXHIBITED

Japan, Fukui Fine Arts Museum; Tokushima Modern Art Museum; Nishionomiya, Otani Memorial Art Museum; and Trenton, New Jersey State Museum, Dream Singers, Story Tellers: An African American Presence, November 1992 - March 1994, no. 150, pp. 55, 136, illustrated in color, and p. 235 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Fighting Words: Voices of Dissent: Social, Political and Environmental Statements, February - April 2008 New York, Whitney Museum of American Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Fort Worth, Modern Art Museum, Glenn Ligon: AMERICA, March 2011 - May 2012, no. 22, pp. 104-105, illustrated in color (detail), p. 105, illustrated in color and p. 273 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Visual Conversations: Selections from the Collection, September - April 2013 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Literary Devices, October 2014 - March 2015

58

Tate Liverpool; and Nottingham Contemporary, Glenn Ligon: Encounters and Collisions, April October 2015, p. 37, illustrated in color and p. 277 West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, A Remarkable Gathering: The Fisher Landau Family Collection, March - September 2022 L I T E R AT U R E

Glenn Ligon, Yourself in the World: Selected Writings and Interviews, New Haven, 2011, p. 14 Carol Vogel, “The Inside Story on Outsiderness,” The New York Times, 24 February 2011, Section AR, p. 1 Lynne Cooke, “Glenn Ligon: Encounters and Collisions,” Artforum, vol. 54, no. 3, November 2015, p. 295 Thelma Golden, “Elsewhere,” Studio: The Studio Museum in Harlem Magazine, Summer/Fall 2015, p. 30 John Thomason, “Norton’s New Exhibition a Trove of Contemporary Art Riches,” Boca Magazine, 16 March 2022, illustrated in color (online) Florence Waters, “Encounters and Collisions: Glenn Ligon looks back on history in his latest, exploratory exhibition,” Wallpaper, 14 October 2022 (online)

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D

ensely layered almost to the point of

York; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,

illegibility, Untitled (I Lost My Voice I

Washington, D.C.; and the Orange County Museum

Found My Voice) from 1991 is the affecting

of Art, Costa Mesa, among others. The present work

paragon of Glenn Ligon’s iconic Door

stands as a fervent monument to the Black American

series. Possessing literal and metaphorical gravity

fight for visibility, a poignant visual metaphor for

in its repetitious, inky crescendo of text, the present

the fragmented experience and representation of

work brings to the fore through formal and chromatic

both the Black individual and artist in the United

complexities the realities of racial visibility. Of the

States. Drawing on rhetorical passages from writers

rare and limited series of works known as Door

who negotiated the prospects of Blackness in an

Paintings, Untitled (I Lost My Voice I Found My Voice)

oppressively white America, among whom are James

is distinguished for its inclusion in one of Ligon’s most

Baldwin, Ralph Ellison and Zora Neale Hurston,

important traveling retrospectives, organized by the

Ligon fuses radically abstracted text with symbolic

Whitney Museum of American Art, and comparable

poeticism. Acquired by Emily Fisher Landau in the

examples of the Door series are held in such esteemed

year of its execution and remaining in her collection

museum collections as the Whitney Museum of

ever since, Untitled (I Lost My Voice I Found My Voice)

American Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New

is widely considered one of the most significant

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. waves to a crowd after delivering his I Have a Dream speech, Washington D.C., August 1963. Photo © Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Below: Installation view, Glenn Ligon: AMERICA, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2011. Glenn Ligon; Courtesy of the artist, Hauser & Wirth, New York, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, and Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris Opposite: Glenn Ligon.

Photo © Paul Mpagi Sepuya

paintings by the artist, representing the pinnacle of

I was using for the paintings to have the same kind

Ligon’s achievements and serving as an extraordinary

of gravitas as the text. I was also looking at Warhol’s

monument to the existential powers of looking: at art,

diamond dust paintings and became intrigued by the

at society and ultimately, at ourselves.

idea of the addition: material that is laid on top of the

Ligon’s Door Paintings first debuted at the

paint and changes it…obscures the text while making

Whitney Biennial in 1991 to wide critical acclaim.

it more present and sculptural. There is always that

Layering black oil stick on a gessoed wood

push/pull in the work, of the desire for legibility and

panel, Ligon creates claustrophobic channels of

disappearance of the text” (the artist cited in Exh.

formulaically stenciled letters repeatedly spelling

Cat., Toronto, The Power Plant (and travelling), Glenn

out: “I LOST MY VOICE I FOUND MY VOICE.”

Ligon—Some Changes, 2005, p. 173). In Untitled (I

Simultaneously decipherable yet concealed, the

Lost My Voice I Found My Voice), Ligon eschews the

malleable oil stick collapses to lose its delineating

words’ complete legibility and denies them their full

clarity as it cascades the length of the human-scaled

semantic capacities as the voices of protest that they

panel. When describing the genesis of the technical

would otherwise communicate, formally capturing

innovations explored in the series, Ligon has cited

the contradictions of existence.

several sources of inspiration, among them jazz for

Unlike comparable works from the series which

the rhythmic, syncopated placement of words and

often have a direct textual source, the present work’s

Andy Warhol for the materiality and inclusion of coal

message is far more rhetorical, and before it, we are

dust in other examples: “I wanted the material that

interminably mesmerized by our efforts to decipher the

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I WA N T E D T H E M AT E R I A L T H AT I WA S U S I N G F O R T H E PA I N T I N G S TO H AV E T H E S A M E K I N D O F G R AV I TA S A S T H E T E X T. I WA S A L S O LO O K I N G AT WA R H O L’ S D I A M O N D D U S T PA I N T I N G S A N D B E C A M E I N T R I G U E D B Y T H E I D E A O F T H E A D D I T I O N : M AT E R I A L T H AT I S L A I D O N TO P O F T H E PA I N T A N D C H A N G E S I T…O B S C U R E S T H E T E X T W H I L E M A K I N G I T M O R E P R E S E N T A N D S C U L P T U R A L . T H E R E I S A LWAY S T H AT P U SH/P ULL IN THE WORK , OF THE DESIRE FOR LEGIBILIT Y AND DISAPPEARANCE OF THE TEXT” THE ARTIST CITED IN EXH. CAT. , TORONTO, THE P OWE R P L A NT (A ND TRAV E L L I NG), GLEN N LI GON — SOME CHA NG ES, 2005.

elusive and unattainable essence of these mesmeric

eye travels down the panel. Just as James Baldwin

hieroglyphs—an oscillating negotiation of form and

reflected on how Americans have made “an abstraction

content. Here, the alternating repetition of “I LOST MY

of the Negro,” here the increasing illegibility of Ligon’s

VOICE” and “I FOUND MY VOICE” evokes the poetic

chosen phrase creates an overall abstraction in relief.

semantic devices Martin Luther King, Jr. employed

The anthropomorphic scale of the painting creates the

in the iconic speech he delivered during the March

conditions for a profound yet dizzying experience which

on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August

harnesses the disquieting racial undertones of Ligon’s

1963, “I Have a Dream.” In the Door series, Ligon

work, yet the message’s content acts as a triumphant

both underscores and destabilizes societal myths

reclamation of a fraught and violent history.

attached to Blackness and being, and the conceptual

Untitled (I Lost My Voice I Found My Voice)’s

foundations of these earlier paintings would remain

execution in 1991 aligns it with an upending of

a touchstone throughout his practice. The series was

international order: from the havoc of the AIDS crisis

conceived when Ligon, in 1990, was moving a discarded

to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the conclusion

door in his downtown Manhattan studio and realized

of the Gulf War to the beginning of apartheid’s end in

its weight and solidity rendered it the ideal support. Its

South Africa – the precarity of this moment and the

dimensions further made it a perfectly scaled referent

intensity of the history Ligon has inherited are palpable

to the human body for texts that speak in the first

as ever in this present work. Rife with formal and

person about the body and the self. Ligon began by

theoretical complexities, Untitled (I Lost My Voice I Found

priming the surface of the door with a mixture of gesso,

My Voice) stands as the evocative, poignant exemplar

marble dust and raw umber Tints-All before firmly

of Ligon’s widely celebrated conceptual motivations.

pressing his oil stick through a stenciled template

His marriage of the visual and the textual confronts

letter by letter. The laborious, painstaking process is

viewers with the ever-necessary contemplation of race,

immediately palpable upon viewing the completed

sexuality, representation and language in a uniquely and

work, as the letters begin to lose regularity as the

powerfully coincident process of reading and looking.

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Right: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Pegasus, 1987.

Private Collection. Art © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York.

Opposite: Andy Warhol, Race Riot, 1964. Private Collection. Art © 2023 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

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JASPER JOHNS b. 1 9 3 0

F L AG S signed, dated 1986 and variously inscribed (on the reverse) oil on canvas 25 ⅝ by 33 ⅛ in. 65 by 84.1 cm.

Executed in 1986. $ 35,000,000-45,000,000

PROVENANCE

L I T E R AT U R E

Leo Castelli Gallery, New York (LC# 308)

George Boudaille, Jasper Johns, New York, 1989, no. 103, p. 128, illustrated in color

Acquired from the above in August1987 by the present owner EXHIBITED

New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Paint and Painted, May 1993 - April 1995, n.p.

New York, The Waldorf Astoria (Residence of US Ambassador to the United Nations), Art in Embassies Loan to the United States Mission to the United Nations (Governor Bill and Barbara Richardson), June 1997, no. 10 (on loan) New York, The Waldorf Astoria (Residence of US Ambassador to the United Nations), Art in Embassies Loan to the United States Mission to the United Nations (Richard and Kati Marton Holbrooke), May 2000 - Winter 2001, no. 29 (on loan)

Richard Holbrooke, A Movable Feast of American Art: The Official Residence of the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Washington D.C., 2000, p. 4 Celestine Bohlen, “Building Art Collections for Artists of Diplomacy,” The New York Times, 2 November 2000, p. E5, illustrated Mark Stephen Archer, The New Formal: Interiors

by James Aman, New York, 2016, p. 128, illustrated in color (in installation) Roberta Bernstein, ed., Jasper Johns: Catalogue Raisonné of Painting and Sculpture, Volume 3, Painting, 1971-2014, New Haven, 2017, no. P255, pp. 158-159, illustrated in color

New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Visual Conversations: Selections from the Collection, September 2012 - April 2013 West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, A Remarkable Gathering: The Fisher Landau Family Collection, March - September 2022

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Robert Rauschenberg, Untitled [Jasper Johns with Flag Painting, Pearl Street Studio], c. 1955. Art © 2023 Robert Rauschenberg Foundation; 2023 Jasper Johns / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

F

or over six decades, Jasper Johns has pursued an unprecedented painterly interrogation of image-making that, in its virtuosic ingenuity and unswerving resolve,

constitutes one of the greatest artistic achievements of the twentieth century. A triumph of painterly and conceptual rigor alike, Johns’ Flags presents one of the most significant pictorial emblems from the artist’s oeuvre in exceptional form. At the young age of twenty-four, Johns dreamt of painting the illustrious

American flag, an act which would launch him on an artistic journey spanning decades, beginning with his first iteration in 1954. Executed thirty years later

T H E PA I N T I N G O F A F L A G I S A LWAY S A B O U T A F L A G , B U T I T I S N O M O R E A B O U T A F L AG T H A N I T I S A B O U T A B R U S H - S T R O K E O R A B O U T A C O LO R O R A B O U T T H E P H Y S I C A L I T Y O F T H E PA I N T, I T H I N K . ” JAS P ER JOHNS, CITED IN EXH. CAT. , OXFORD, MUS EUM OF MODERN ART (AND TRAVELLING), JASPER J OHNS DRAWING S, 1974, P. 13

in 1986, Flags is an important example of the artist’s nearly endless reworking of this iconic subject, here rendered in the iconic red, white and blue palette and mirrored twice, a reflection of the artist’s longstanding interest in doubling. In his painstaking rendering of this quintessentially American symbol, Johns relies on the ‘readymade’ image, unraveling the uncertain distinction between signifier and signified—between that which is seen and that which is implied—bringing to the fore the viewer’s own agency in perceiving and constructing the world around us. Flags is marked by an incredibly rich surface, and by the complementary ground layer of orange and green, which lends the composition an impressive sense of sculptural depth. Treasured in the most eminent personal collections and renowned

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Left: Robert Rauschenberg, Buffalo II, 1964. Private Collection.

Image © Bridgeman Images. Art © 2023 Robert Rauschenberg Foundation /Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Opposite: Andy Warhol, Sixteen Jackies, 1964.

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Art © 2023 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

I ’ M N OT W I L L I N G TO A C C E P T T H E R E P R E S E N TAT I O N O F A T H I N G A S B E I N G T H E R E A L T H I N G , A N D I A M F R E Q U E N T LY U N W I L L I N G TO W O R K W I T H T H E R E P R E S E N TAT I O N O F T H E T H I N G A S , YO U K N O W, A S S TA N D I N G F O R T H E R E A L T H I N G . I L I K E W H AT I S E E TO B E R E A L , O R TO B E M Y I D E A O F W H AT I S R E A L . A N D I T H I N K I H AV E A K I N D O F R E S E N T M E N T A G A I N S T I L L U S I O N W H E N I C A N R E C O G N I Z E I T. ” JAS P ER JOHNS IN AN UNPUBLIS HED INTERVIEW WITH DAVID SYLV ESTE R R ECOR DE D FOR THE BBC, S P RING 1965, PUBLIS HED IN EXH. CAT. , OXFORD, MUS EUM OF M ODE R N A RT (A ND TRAV E L L I NG), JASPER J OHNS DRAWING S, 1974, P. 1 5

objects” (David Sylvester, “Saluting the Flags,” in Exh. Cat., London, Anthony d’Offay Gallery, Jasper Johns Flags 1955-1994, 1996, p. 12). With each stroke, duplication, and deliberate rotation, Johns challenges the viewer’s preconceptions of an aesthetic object, forcing a reconsideration of medium and form.

From within the pre-ordained parameters dictated by the flag’s strict design erupts a tightly controlled chaos of sharp staccato strokes. Flickers of orange, green, and yellow disobey the boundaries set forth by museum collections around the world, variations on

Johns’ output; standing before the present work, the

the alternating stripes and strictly traditional palette;

Johns’ Flags belong to such prestigious institutions as

image we see is both a flag and a painting of a flag,

the lower right corner in particular appears to devolve

the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Metropolitan

destabilizing traditional borders between the painted

into alternative hues like a tattered flag beginning to fray in the wind. With each of the fifty white stars firmly

Museum of Art, New York; Whitney Museum of

image and that which it represents. Since making his

American Art, New York; Museum Ludwig, Cologne;

first Flag painting in 1954-55, Johns systematically

planted at their customary coordinates, the terrain

Kunstmuseum Basel; and Museum Moderner Kunst

broke down the homogenous unit of the flag,

of swift blue strokes in which they are embedded

Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, testament to its remarkable

duplicating the form and rendering it in a side-by-side

encircles them, disrupting their purported regularity:

relevancy. Directly acquired from Leo Castelli Gallery

format with visibly rough brushstrokes that revealed

as the blue imperfectly borders on the five-point

the year after its execution, Flags constitutes the

the very process of creation. By rotating the flag to a

perimeter of every star, Johns’ hand trespasses the

ultimate summation of Johns’ signature artistic

vertical orientation, Johns negotiates the very idea of

prescribed straight lines, covering some edges while

concerns: the modification of familiar images to engage,

the flag. This arresting punch is amplified through the

leaving around others some hints of the underlying

of Johns’ technique, “This is the way Cézanne used to

explore, and expose the ways in which art creates

physical coercion of its design. The composition still

orange. Even within the traditional red, white, and

paint, in broken planes composed of adjacent values;

meaning within the mind’s eye.

says ‘flag’, yet not in the way one expects. As David

blue, Johns deploys strokes of varying tones, some

imparting pictorial flatness to things which the mind

Sylvester wrote, “In a Johns, marks of varying tempo,

lighter, some darker, imbuing the composition with

knows to be atmospheric and spatial. Johns, with

matter of fact, Flags exemplifies that tautly thrilling

weight and direction caress and bruise and elaborate

the impression of movement and shadow, as if it were

that same type of brush work that hovers midway

ambiguity which marks the very best examples of the

and disrupt and erode the familiar forms of everyday

fluttering in the breeze. In 1962, Leo Steinberg wrote

between opaque canvas and spatial illusion, does the

At once intimate and uncanny, mysterious and

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FIXED HABITS OF SEEING, FEELING, AND THINKING RENDER T R U T H I N V I S I B L E . A F L I C K E R O F G R AC E O C C U R S W H E N T H E S E N S E S A R E AWA K E N E D A N D N E W WAY S O F E X P E R I E N C I N G T H E W O R L D, E V E N O R D I N A R Y O B J E C T S I N T H E W O R L D, P R O V I D E A G L I M P S E O F T H AT T R U T H . ” ROBERTA BERNSTEIN AND EDITH DEVANEY, “ SOMETHING RES E M BL I NG TRUTH,” I N E XH. CAT. , LONDON, ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, JASPER J OHNS, 2017, P. 1 2

In the early 1960s, Johns famously instructed

reverse: allowing an atmospheric suggestion to things

its constituent parts, is the crux of Johns’ visual

which the mind knows to be flat” (Exh. Cat., London,

intelligence, providing an image arrested squarely in

Anthony D’Offay Gallery, Jasper Johns Flags, 1996, p.

the process of its own creation both on the canvas

12). Johns’ Flags enthralls because it forces the viewer

and in our minds. In the artist’s own words, “I’m not

to ask questions that challenge our preconceptions

willing to accept the representation of a thing as being

about the status of an aesthetic object; it makes us

the real thing, and I am frequently unwilling to work

truly examine the subject.

As in in the artist’s Targets, Maps, and Numbers,

with the representation of the thing as, you know, as standing for the real thing. I like what I see to be real, or

Johns’ use of the American flag as a founding motif

to be my idea of what is real. And I think I have a kind

harnessing the image’s inherent invisibility: by virtue

of resentment against illusion when I can recognize

of its familiarity, it becomes something “seen and not

it” (the artist in an unpublished interview with David

looked at, not examined…things the mind already

Sylvester recorded for the BBC at Edisto Beach, South

knows” (the artist cited in Exh. Cat., London, Royal

Carolina, Spring 1965, published in Exh. Cat., Oxford,

Academy of Arts, Jasper Johns, 2017, p. 12). By Johns’

Museum of Modern Art, Jasper Johns Drawings, 1974,

intent, then, the viewer is not impeded by the need

p. 15). In perhaps his most subversive and inspired

to comprehend the image; it is intrinsically legible,

act of conceptual subterfuge, however, Johns’ painting

facilitating immediate absorption in the extraordinarily

does, ultimately, retain the resonance of the thing

luxuriant physical and material properties of the

itself: hung upon the wall, Flags achieves a solemn

painting. This competing tension between legibility

significance equally worthy of post-modern critical

and surprise, and between the whole image and

analysis as of a salute.

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influence of New York School Abstract Expressionism.

himself: “Take an object, do something to it, do

The achievement of artists like Willem de Kooning,

something else to it” (Jasper Johns quoted in: Exh. Cat.,

Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Clyfford Still made

Philadelphia Museum of Art and Whitney Museum of

American painting the discursive leader at mid-century.

American Art, New York, Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror,

While these artists each staked out particular styles

2021, p. 280). Evoking the Duchampian spirit of

as their own—with action painting and color-field at

borrowing, reconfiguring, and recontextualizing given

the fore—they were united by a distinctly American

forms, Johns’ seminal Flags marks a critical revelation

male sensibility, shaping the identity of artistic practice

in the trajectory of the artist’s incisive, piercingly

by the large-scale expression of the self. In response

intelligent career. Johns emerged in a period where

to this overwhelming authority of Americana, Johns

the artistic climate was dominated by the hegemonic

painted the American flag, offering an alternative

Right: Frank Stella, The Marriage of Reason and Squalor, II, 1959. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Opposite: René Magritte, Décalcomanie, 1966. Private Collection.

Image © Banque d’Images, ADAGP / Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 C. Herscovici, Brussels / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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Roy Lichtenstein, Brushstrokes, 1965.

Private Collection.

Art © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

to Abstract Expressionism by reintroducing

seeing and knowing, the present work interrogates

representation into painting while provoking the very

traditional modes of reading and interpreting images,

tenets of the style so predominant at the time. Even

diverting the traditional desire for understanding

in the face of its intentional neutrality, the flag was

to provoke increased looking. Not having to invent

iconoclastic, causing a critical rupture in the foundation

a compositional structure as a starting point left

set forth for Johns and his contemporaries by the

Johns free to experiment in more radical ways. In

preceding generation of painterly heavyweights.

engineering an extraordinarily painterly facsimile of an

Johns famously said, “Using the design of the

image that is aggressively direct, Johns’ Flags makes

American flag took care of a great deal for me

strange something that is universally familiar. In the

because I didn’t have to design it. So I went on to

everyday barrage of visual stimuli, unconsciously we

similar things like the targets—things the mind

filter that which we will give our attention, ignoring the

already knows. That gave me room to work on other

instantly recognizable images that our mind already

levels” (Ibid., 1996, p. 15) The flag became a vehicle

knows. Yet, the luscious surface of the work—unusual

for Johns to explore how an image is made through

to the typical treatment of a flag—draws our notice

medium and method, concentrating thoughtfully

and makes us look again with renewed curiosity and

on the means of picture-making rather than the

bewilderment, emphasizing the metaphysical tension

end. Forever concerned with the tension between

between what we see and what we know.

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A N DY WA R H O L 1 928 - 19 87

THE SHADOW signed and dated 1981, stamped by The Estate of Andy Warhol, stamped

by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and numbered PA51.002 (on the overlap); numbered PA51.002 (on the stretcher) acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas 60 by 60 in. 152.4 by 152.4 cm.

Executed in 1981. $ 2,000,000-3,000,000

PROVENANCE

L I T E R AT U R E

Estate of the artist

Bob Brink and Sig Bokalders, “Homing In On Art: Art Collectors Derive Emotional Pleasure From Plying Their Pastime,” Palm Beach Illustrated, January 2002, pp. 96-100, 176-177, illustrated in color

Private Collection Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York Acquired from the above in February 2000 by the present owner EXHIBITED

New York, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Andy Warhol: Myths, January - February 2000 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Visual Conversations: Selections from the Collection, September - December 2012

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Frayda Feldman & Jörg Schellmann, Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962-1987, Milan, 2003, fig. 16, p. 30, illustrated in color Julie L. Belcove, “Emily Fisher’s Loft-Style Home in Florida is a Modern Seaside Getaway,” Architectural Digest, December 2011, p. 132, illustrated in color (in installation) Mark Stephen Archer, The New Formal: Interiors

by James Aman, New York, 2016, pp. 126, 130, 131, illustrated in color (in installation)

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Detail of Andy Warhol’s Shadows, 1978-79, installed in Andy Warhol, Shadows, Dia Art Foundation, New York, 2018. Photo © Bill Jacobson / Courtesy of Dia Art Foundation. Art © 2023 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

work has remained in Emily Fisher Landau’s collection for over two decades, and other works containing

only on his shadow to retain an air of inaccessibility.

this uncanny double portrait are held in such major

Throughout his entire career, Warhol employed his self-

museum collections as The Museum of Modern Art,

portraiture as a means of identity construction, and

New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New

in The Shadow we witness the complete conflation

York and the Tate, London. Lauded for his catalytic

of the artist and the sensational style for which he

recalibrations of American Pop, Warhol, alongside a

garnered so much fame and attention. In the tireless

posse of omnipresent, universally recognizable faces,

performance of his carefully preened persona, Warhol

asserts his status as an icon in his own right.

established an aura of both exposure and anonymity.

Executed just six years before his unexpected

“I’d prefer to remain a mystery,” the artist once said in

death, the artist’s self-effacing portrait in The Shadow

his typical, impassive deadpan. “I never like to give my

reflects Warhol’s lifelong concerns with the transience

background and, anyway, I make it different all the time

of life, conveying a prophetic consciousness of his fate.

I’m asked.” (the artist quoted in: Exh. Cat., Stockholm,

Warhol’s evasive and enigmatic manner of depicting

Moderna Museet, With Andy Warhol, 1967, n.p.)

himself is likewise a thread from his earlier production.

S

hown in profile in fluorescent scarlet and

popular culture—into which Warhol, notably, places

pink, burgundy and navy, Warhol and his

himself. Uncle Sam and Mickey Mouse, Santa Claus

shadow appear four times over in his 1981

and Superman happily coexist in Warhol’s electrically

The Shadow: a mysterious and haunting

hued court, leaving the viewer struck simultaneously

immortalization of his meticulously cultivated artistic

by fascination and anxiety. These are the contemporary

persona. The artist’s gaze alarmingly direct yet his

celebrity’s predecessors, spectral and saturated

face shrouded in harsh chiaroscuro, The Shadow

in a pumped-up rainbow, and Warhol looks on as

presents a resounding image of Warhol as both man

both prophetic creator and participant. Marrying

and legend, challenging the act of self-depiction with

themes and processes developed over the course of

unrivaled experimentation and intensity. The Shadow

Warhol’s titanic career, The Shadow joins his punchy

belongs to Warhol’s Myth series, in which Warhol

self-portraiture and chromatically brilliant silkscreen

conjures characters from the pantheon of American

technique with the recurring shadow motif. The present

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work, he unsheathes himself from his costume, relying

In the present work, Warhol looks over his shoulder

In his first series of self-portraits as an established

and casts a distorted, elongated shadow on the wall

artist, created from 1963-64, Warhol shrouds himself in

behind him. Under the theatrical lighting exaggerated

dark sunglasses and a trench coat, but in the present

further by the filter of his Polaroid camera, Warhol

Andy Warhol, SelfPortrait, 1981. The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh. Image © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. Art © 2023 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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Francis Bacon, Self Portrait with Injured Eye, 1972. Private Collection.

Art © The Estate of Francis Bacon / DACS London 2023. All rights reserved.

I F YO U WA N T TO K N O W A B O U T A N DY WA R H O L , T H E N J U S T LO O K AT T H E S U R FA C E O F M Y P I CT U R ES, M Y M OV I ES A N D ME AND THERE I AM; THERE’S N OT H I N G I N B E T W E E N . ” ANDY WAR H O L QUOT E D IN: GR E TC H E N B E RG, “ANDY: M Y T RU E STO RY,” LOS ANGE LES FR E E PR ESS, 17 M ARC H 19 67, P. 3

contradictions offer clarity on the inclusion of this self-portrait in his Myths series. This moment of congratulation is met with vulnerability: he has cemented his place as an American icon, but the icons amongst which he situates himself are all notably past, a feeling for and fear of the closeness of an inevitable end. and his shadow appear conjoined. He once again

More than any artist before him, Warhol’s image

calls upon the shadow as a tool, which appeared

was inextricably bound to his art, as he lived within the

in his early portraiture and reappeared in his later

realm of celebrity that his work so crucially examined.

abstractions. Here, it obscures nearly half of his

The Shadow epitomizes a lifelong obsession with image

face, reading as an opaque field and precluding

and identity, life and death, and depicts an artist who

any clear delineation of the contours on his proper

had become just as famous as the legion of celebrity

right side. Throughout the 1960s, Warhol used the

sitters he had painted. Here the visage of the artist is

shadow to mystify and obscure his silkscreened icons,

of such closely choreographed clarity and obfuscation

harnessing its associated symbolism to enhance a

that we remain desperate to understand him, even once

reading of transience and mortality. In the 1970s, he

we cease to look. The silkscreen captures every minute

isolated the motif and abstracted it, transforming

detail of his face, from his lips, elegantly outlined, to

the shadow from an element of his canvases to

his gaze over his shoulder. If Warhol’s credo was the

the sole subject of them. Warhol’s re-visitation of

seductive surface, here it reaches its apogee – he has

the motif in the final decade of his career, however,

compressed his identity, his interiority, his secrets in the

signals his attempts to mask his persistent fears,

totalizing flatness of this canvas. It is in the spectacular

insecurities and doubts, both serving as an aesthetic

moments of introspection that characterize the artist’s

and metaphorical aid. Oxymoronically, the shadow,

last years that his conceptual premise reaches its height:

despite its association with darkness and absence,

the marriage of man and myth, the confrontation of

is inherently an ephemeral replication of a physical

death, and the incontestable gravity and immortality of

object: an indication of life. The shadow’s connotative

Warhol’s work in the contemporary world.

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AG N E S M A R T I N 1 91 2 - 20 0 4

G R E Y STO N E I I signed, titled and dated 1961 (on the reverse) oil, gold leaf and pencil on canvas 72 by 72 in. 182.9 by 182.9 cm.

Executed in 1961. $ 6,000,000-8,000,000

PROVENANCE

Robert and Dorothea Elkon, New York (acquired directly from the artist) Elkon Gallery, New York

Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; and Munich, Haus der Kunst, Regarding Beauty: Perspectives on Art Since 1950, October 1999 April 2000, no. 27, p. 136, illustrated

Acquired from the above in April 1986 by the present owner

Dia Beacon, ...going forward into unknown territory... Agnes Martin’s Early Paintings 195767, May 2004 - April 2005, no. 9, n.p.

EXHIBITED

Dia Beacon, ...unknown territory... Agnes Martin’s Paintings from the 1960’s, April November 2005, no. 7, n.p.

New York, Robert Elkon Gallery, Agnes Martin: Eight Paintings 1961-1967, March 1972 Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Institute of Contemporary Art; and Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, Agnes Martin, January March 1973, p. 35 New York, Robert Elkon Gallery, Agnes Martin: Paintings 1961-1967, May - June 1976 New York, Tony Shafrazi Gallery, American Masters of the 60’s, May - June 1990, p. 18-19, illustrated in color New York, Mary Boone Gallery, Agnes Martin Paintings: 1959-1969, February 1991 New York, Whitney Museum of American Art; Milwaukee Art Museum; Miami, Center for the Fine Arts; Houston, Contemporary Art Museum; Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia; and Santa Fe, Museum of Fine Arts, Agnes Martin, November 1992 - May 1994, illustrated in color (front and back cover) (detail), pp. 40-41, 183, illustrated in color (New York); and pp. 72-73, illustrated in color (Madrid) Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Negotiating Rapture: The Power of Art to Transform Lives, June - October 1996, no. 36, p. 98, illustrated Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; and SITE Santa Fe, Convergences: Agnes Martin/Richard Tuttle, April - October 1998, no. 1, n.p., illustrated in color, and p. 77

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New York, Drawing Center; and Santa Monica Museum of Art, 3x Abstraction: New Methods of Drawing; Hilma af Klint, Emma Kunz, and Agnes Martin, March - August 2005, pp. 206-07, illustrated New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Painting and Sculpture: Selections from the Collection, May 2007 - January 2008 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Five Decades of Passion Part One: The Eye of the Collector, 1968-1988, January - March 2009 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Unforgettable: Selections from the Emily Fisher Landau Collection, February - April 2011 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Visual Conversations: Selections from the Collection, November 2012 - April 2013 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Intuitive Progression, August 2016 - October 2017 West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, A Remarkable Gathering: The Fisher Landau Family Collection, March - September 2022 L I T E R AT U R E

James Bishop, “Reviews and Previews: Agnes Martin,” ARTNews, vol. 71, no. 2, April 1972, p. 55 David Bourdon, “Agnes Martin,” Village Voice, 17 May 1976, p. 111

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Allen Ellenzweig, “Reviews: Agnes Martin,” Arts Magazine, vol. 51, September 1976, p. 26 Eleanor Heartney, “Geometry of Spirit,” ARTNews, vol. 92, no. 2, February 1993, p. 105, illustrated Donald Kuspit, “Reviews: Agnes Martin,” Artforum, vol. 31, no. 7, March 1993, p. 92, illustrated Donna Tennant, “In Search of Perfection: The Art and Life of Agnes Martin,” Museum and Arts Magazine, September 1993, p. 29, illustrated James Meyer, ed., Minimalism, London, 2000, p. 56, illustrated Lynne Cooke, Karen Kelly and Barbara Schröder, eds., Agnes Martin, New Haven, 2011, p. 38, illustrated Mona Schieren, “Zur Transmission asianistischer Denkfiguren. Transkulturelle Ästhetisierungen im Werk von Agnes Martin,” Migration und künstlerische Produktion, Bielefeld, 2013, pp. 77 and 79, illustrated Mona Schieren, “Linienrisse. Befragungen des Textilen und Repräsentationskritik bei Agnes Martin,” Bild-Riss, Textile Studies, no. 7, Berlin, 2015, pp. 159-160, illustrated Mona Schieren, Agnes Martin: Transkulturelle Übersetzung, Munich, 2016, pp. 296-297, illustrated Christina Bryan Rosenberger, Drawing the Line: The Early Work of Agnes Martin, Oakland, 2016, p. 191 (titled Greystone II) John Thomason, “Norton’s New Exhibition a Trove of Contemporary Art Riches,” Boca Magazine, 16 March 2022 (online) Tiffany Bell, ed., Agnes Martin: Catalogue Raisonné: Paintings, New York 2017 - ongoing, no. 1961.003, illustrated in color (online)

Below: The present work illustrated on the cover of Exh. Cat., Agnes Martin, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1992. Art © 2023 Estate of Agnes Martin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Opposite: Agnes Martin in her studio on Ledoux Street, Taos, New Mexico, 1953. Photo © Mildred Tolbert / Courtesy of the Harwood Museum of Art, Gift of Mildred Tolbert. Art © 2023 Estate of Agnes Martin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

A

n exceptionally rare and exquisitely

Grey Stone II belongs to a pivotal early moment

rendered example from Agnes Martin’s

in the artist’s career between 1958-63, when she was

early career, Grey Stone II elegantly

experimenting with a diverse range of media and

encapsulates the sublime expressiveness

produced some of her most unique and important

within minimal means that has come to define the

canvases. The culmination of a rigorous and intensive

artist’s unique brand of mark-making. Executed in

process applying graphite lines, adhesive, gold leaf and

1961, the present work is a remarkably early example

oil paint, the present work demonstrates Martin’s acute

of Martin’s signature “grid” paintings, which stand as

fascination with materiality while also pre-figuring her

her most influential contribution to the discourse on

mature compositional format. These early grids were

painting in contemporary art. Painstakingly rendered

constructed from a holistic system of coordinates

using pencil, oil paint, and gold leaf, Grey Stone II is

that preserves symmetry as it hovers equidistant

further distinguished as one of only five works from

from the edges of a square canvas; this cool and

the artist’s corpus featuring this rarified gilt material.

calculated systematic organization bears a kinship to

Of the other four paintings which incorporate this

Piet Mondrian’s famed exclusion of curves and circles

medium, two large-scale examples are housed in such

in favor of the rectilinear, yet its precise geometry

prestigious institutional collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art—with the remaining two measuring only 12 inches. The present work, at 72 inches square, is the largest example remaining in private hands. Widely exhibited over five decades, and held in Emily Fisher Landau’s private collection for nearly forty years, Grey Stone II is a unique and deeply significant example of Martin’s best work. Inspiring contemplation, even meditation, Martin’s paintings hint at spirituality as inherent in nature and allude to a transcendental reality. The grid, rendered in delicate pencil lines and soft daubs of blue-grey pigment, captures the artist’s touch and presence, defying the aesthetic predilection for bold statement and formal clarify that defined the dominant schools of painting in the early 1960s. At a distance, the almost Pointillist dots of paint blur and elide into a single hazy form, resulting in a sense of enveloping meditative calm. Emblematic of Martin’s quintessential emotive abstract mode, Grey Stone II is an extraordinary masterwork by one of the twentieth century’s greatest painterly masters.

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At the time the present work was created, Martin had recently moved to New York from New Mexico at the urging of her dealer, Betty Parsons. She settled

is belied by the visibly hand-drawn gestures that

companionship, affection, and joy, as embodied by

re-center the artist’s touch. As Tiffany Bell described

Friendship (1963, The Museum of Modern Art, New

of these early experimental grids, “All convey a strong

York), a sister painting to the present work. In Grey

impression of the painstaking effort it must have taken

Stone II, Martin achieves a richly complex surface

to make them—it is as though the energy of a Pollock

evocative of natural phenomena, like driftwood or

drip painting has been stretched out and carefully

beach stones, interspersed with luminous detail that

sustained over time” (Tiffany Bell, “Happiness is the

glimmers like soft sunlight. The result is an elegant

Goal,” in Exh. Cat., London, Tate Modern, Agnes Martin,

tension between the redolent physical material and

2015, p. 27). By 1964, Martin had abandoned her use

the gridded perfection of the dot structure. The

of other media in favor of “humble” materials such as

meticulous application of gold leaf, combined with

ink, colored pencil and acrylic, a move which effectively

the individual dabs of stone-grey oil paint, highlight

“collapses the distinction between painting and drawing,”

the artist’s hand and process of making, while

and establishes the foundation of her output for the

the starkly minimal means and rigorously precise

following four decades (Tracey Bashkoff, “Agnes Martin,”

composition superimpose a geometric framework on

audio transcript, Solomon R. Guggenheim, New York, 3

the expressive subject. As the artist has explained,

October 2016, online). Thus, Grey Stone II embodies a

“When I first made a grid I happened to be thinking of

brief yet crucial moment in Martin’s career.

the innocence of trees and then this grid came into

The use of gold leaf aligns Martin’s canvas with a

color and scale of her signature grid.

Reducing painting to the simplest of mark-making

in a studio community in Coenties Slip, established in

processes, while exceeding their own means in

abandoned shipping lofts on the waterfront of lower

grandeur of scale and expression, Martin’s works from

Manhattan. Home to a generation of young artists

this period are simultaneously intuitive and intellectual,

such as Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Ellsworth

intimate and universal. She was able to see the ethereal

Kelly, and Robert Indiana, Martin found a kinship within

sublime in the physical realities of life and believed art

this community forging new paths outside the more

could capture that essence; as she noted, “The miracle

established school of Abstract Expressionist machismo.

of existence, is that we are able to recognize perfection

Her studio on the Slip was an ascetic, 100-foot-

in beauty. Beauty is unattached; when a beautiful rose

long former sailmaker’s loft, which suited Martin’s

dies beauty does not die because it is not really in the

monastic sense of discipline; in this chilly space, her

rose. Beauty is an awareness in the mind” (the artist in

work became increasingly geometric and austere,

Exh. Cat., New York, Whitney Museum of American Art,

culminating in such resolved masterworks as Grey

Agnes Martin, 1992, p. 93-94). Martin felt deeply that

Stone II. Influenced by the avant-garde artists in her

an artist should aspire to represent and reveal reality

milieu, the years Martin spent experimenting in New

through their creations, not in a literal sense but in a

York were undoubtedly some of her most formative,

deeper and more emotive, philosophical and profound

as she established and honed her signature aesthetic.

manner. Grey Stone II thus represents an early yet

Martin’s output for the following four decades would

fully realized expression of the central tenets that have

build upon the visual and conceptual foundation

defined Martin’s inimitable career.

Above: Helen Frankenthaler, Mountains and Sea, 1952. Helen Frankenthaler Foundation on extended loan to The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.. Art © 2023 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Right: The present work installed in Agnes Martin, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1992. Photo © Geoffrey Clements. Art © 2023 Estate of Agnes Martin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

my mind, and I thought it represented innocence, and

wealth of art historical precedents, from early Italian

I still do, and so I painted it and then I was satisfied”

Renaissance painting, to sixteenth and seventeenth

(the artist interviewed by Suzan Campbell, transcript,

century Japanese folding screens, to Gustav

Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution,

Klimt’s ethereal portraiture. A symbolic material

Washington, D.C., 15 May 1989, pp. 10-11). Grey Stone

suggestive of beauty, wealth, and rarity, Martin

II thus superbly embodies the intimate expressiveness

uses it to imply warm, illuminating feelings such as

that is a hallmark of Martin’s practice.

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established in her New York environs, varying only the

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G R E Y ST O N E I I , 1 9 6 1 OIL, GOLD LEAF AND PENCIL ON LINEN 74 ¾ BY 7 3 ¾ I N .

T H E P R E S E N T WO R K

AG N E S M A R T I N ’S G O L D L E A F PA I N T I N G S T H E P R E S E N T W O R K I S O N E O F O N LY T H R E E PA I N T I N G S A G N E S MARTIN MADE WITH GOLD LEAF AND GESSO ON A LARGE-SCALE F O R M AT. T H E OT H E R T W O E X A M P L E S A R E B OT H H E L D I N M A J O R MU SEUM COLLECTIONS.

DETAIL

FRIENDSHIP, 1963 G O L D L E A F A N D O I L O N C A N VA S 7 5 BY 7 5 I N .

M U S E U M O F M O D E R N A R T, N E W YO R K

T TK

NIGHT SEA, 1963 C R AYO N , G O L D L E A F A N D OIL ON LINEN 7 2 BY 7 2 I N .

SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

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A L E X A N D E R CA L D E R 1 898 - 1976

RED COMBER incised with the artist’s monogram (on the base) sheet metal, brass, wire and paint 21 ¾ by 24 ½ by 8 ¼ in. 55.2 by 62.2 by 21 cm.

Executed in 1962.

This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A04809. $ 1,500,000-2,000,000

PROVENANCE

L I T E R AT U R E

Perls Galleries, New York

Martin Filler, “An Artful Oasis,” House Beautiful, no. 140, March 1998, pp. 74-83, illustrated in color

Brook Street Gallery, London (acquired in 1965) Private Collection, Bloomfield Hills Donald Morris Gallery, Inc., Birmingham Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in February 1987 by the present owner

Julie L. Belcove, “Collected Wisdom,” Architectural Digest, December 2011, pp. 130, 133, illustrated in color Mark Stephen Archer, The New Formal: Interiors

by James Aman, New York, 2016, pp. 126, 130, 131, illustrated in color (in installation)

EXHIBITED

New York, Barbara Mathes Gallery, Contemporary Group Show, January - February 1987 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Five Decades of Passion Part One: The Eye of the Collector, 1968-1988, January - April 2009

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D

elicately and harmoniously balanced, Red

is motion” (the artist quoted in “Objects to Art Being

Comber is an intimately scaled window

Static, So He Keeps It in Motion,” New York World-

into the superlative ingenuity, exacting

Telegram, 11 June 1932).

precision and extraordinary sculptural

Over the next four decades, Calder pushed

choreography for which Alexander Calder is most

sculpture into the realm of the dynamic, the

celebrated. A product of the artist’s ceaseless kinetic

autonomous, the ambulatory. His sculptures unify

investigations, the present work bears the refined

natural forces and manmade worlds, simultaneously

formal vocabulary and elegant equilibrium between

capitalizing on principles of incalculable airflow and

weight and counterweight that mark Calder’s most

human manipulation. Under his direction, sculpture

exploratory, daring stabiles and mobiles. In Red

came to life, and Red Comber serves as a microcosm

Comber, a brass arc balances precisely on the tip of

of Calder’s broader conceptual and intuitive program,

a triangular scarlet base, with one end tightly coiled

in which the interplay of volume, time and space is not

into itself and the other supporting a network of

only observable but heightened. The gravitas of his

seven circular disks. The suspension and connection

oeuvre is particularly palpable in his standing mobiles:

of these discrete elements incited an aesthetic and

though they occupy a finite surface area atop the

mechanical revolution in twentieth century sculpture

surface on which they rest, they emanate a presence

that captivated Emily Fisher Landau, one of whose

and command over the surrounding space. Activated

first acquisitions was a work by Calder. Executed in

by the slightest changes in the air, Red Comber springs

1962 and acquired in 1987, Red Comber has remained

to life, pivoting and oscillating in seamless motion. In

in her collection for over thirty years, standing as

graceful yet unpredictable ebbs and flows, the present

an example from one of the most pivotal decades in

work’s stunningly simple economy of means produces

the artist’s career. Red Comber fully captures and

infinite permutations of kinetic paths.

represents the inquisitive mind that introduced time

In Red Comber’s rhythmic movements, Calder’s

and motion into static sculpture, cleaving open new

revelatory engagement with time and matter crystallizes

possibilities for the medium and inciting a catalytic

before the viewer. Through simple cut metal and

recalibration of twentieth century artmaking.

wire, Calder was able to challenge the status quo of

Calder was the product of a familial artistic

contemporary sculpture and upend the presupposed

legacy and undeniably both inherited and shaped the

role and social function of the discipline. Through the

breakthroughs of his Modern predecessors and peers.

singularity of his vision Red Comber bewitches its

In 1923, after deciding to become a painter, Calder

beholder, a resplendent display of Calder’s artistic powers.

dedicated himself solely to his practice, taking courses at the Arts Students League and traveling frequently Right: Joan Miró, The Nightingale’s Song at Midnight and Morning Rain, 1940. Private Collection. Image: Bridgeman Images. Art © 2023 Joan Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

J U S T A S O N E C A N C O M P O S E C O LO R S , O R F O R M S , S O O N E C A N C O M P O S E M OT I O N S . ” ALEX A N DER CA L DER QUOT E D IN E X H. CAT. , LO N D O N , TAT E M O D E R N, ALE X AND E R CALD E R : PE RFO R MI N G SCU LPT U RE , 20 1 5, P. 24

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Opposite: Alexander Calder’s Roxbury studio, 1975. Image: Bridgeman Images. Art © 2023 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

between the United States and France over the next decade. During his transatlantic sojourns, Calder quickly ensconced himself in the pioneering Modernist milieu along such masters as Piet Mondrian, Man Ray, Fernand Léger, Jean Arp, Marcel Duchamp and Joan Miró, who would become a great friend to the artist.

Taking his peers’ developments in abstraction one step further, Calder famously questioned, “Why must art be static?... You look at an abstraction, sculptured or painted, an intensely exciting arrangement of planes, spheres, nuclei, entirely without meaning. It would be perfect, but it is always still. The next step in sculpture

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PA B LO P I CA S S O 1 881 - 1973

FEMME À L A MONTRE signed Picasso (upper left); inscribed Boisgeloup and dated 17 Août XXXII. (on the stretcher) oil on canvas 51 ⅛ by 38 ⅛ in. 130 by 97 cm.

Executed on 17 August 1932.

Estimate Upon Request

PROVENANCE

L I T E R AT U R E

Galerie Beyeler, Basel (acquired directly from the artist in 1966)

Christian Zervos, Picasso 1930 à 1935, Paris, 1936, p. 53, illustrated (titled Peinture and dated 1933)

Pace Gallery, New York (acquired from the above in 1968) Acquired from the above in November 1968 by the present owner EXHIBITED

Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Picasso Works 1932 to 1965, February - March 1967, no. 4 New York, Whitney Museum of American Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, Picasso and American Art, September 2006 - August 2007, pl. 101, p. 192, illustrated in color (exhibited in New York only) West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, Picasso’s Muses, November 2014 - February 2015 Miami, Pérez Art Museum (on loan in 2018) West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, A Remarkable Gathering: The Fisher Landau Family Collection, March - September 2022

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Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso: Oeuvres de 1932 à 1937, vol. VIII, Paris, 1957, no. 132, pl. 54, illustrated (titled Femme Assise à la MontreBracelet and dated 1933) Julio E. Payró, Picasso y el ambiente artísticosocial contemporáneo, Buenos Aires, 1960, p. 41 Roland Penrose, Pablo Picasso and Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Picasso, Basel, 1967-68, pl. 49, p. 85, and p. 152, illustrated in color Christopher Czwiklitzer, Picasso Posters, New York, 1970-71, pl. 253, p. 345, illustrated (on the poster for the 1967 Galerie Beyeler exhibition) Marjorie Welish, “Artful Balance,” House and Garden, vol. 157, no. 5, May 1985, pp. 164-65, illustrated in color Joseph Giovannini, “All About the Art - Emily Fisher Landau Chooses Her Palette In New York,” Architectural Digest, October 2002, pp. 240-247, illustrated in color

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Corey Kilgannon, “Artworks are This 90-YearOld’s Best Friend,” The New York Times, 30 September 2010, online, illustrated Antonio Sánchez Podadera, Antonio Romero Márquez and Julio César Jiménez Moreno, Genial Picasso, Malaga, 1996, p. 188 Josep Palau i Fabre, Picasso: From the Minotaur to Guernica (1927-1939), Barcelona, 2011, no. 343, p. 199, illustrated in color (dated early 1932) Mark Stephen Archer, The New Formal: Interiors

by James Aman, New York, 2016, pp. 14, 20, illustrated in color (in installation) Exh. Cat., Paris, Musée Picasso, Picasso 1932: Année érotique, 2017-18, p. 146, illustrated in color (titled Femme assise au bracelet montre) John Thomason, “Norton’s New Exhibition a Trove of Contemporary Art Riches,” Boca Magazine, 16 March 2022 (online)

T H E R E I S N O D O U B T T H AT 1 9 3 2 M A R K S T H E P E A K O F F E V E R - P I TC H I N T E N S I T Y A N D A C H I E V E M E N T, A Y E A R O F R A P T U R O U S M A S T E R P I E C E S T H AT R E A C H A N E W A N D U N FA M I L I A R S U M M I T I N B OT H H I S PA I N T I N G A N D S C U L P T U R E . ” WILLIAM RUBIN IN EXH. CAT. , NEW YORK, THE MUS EUM OF MODE R N A RT, P I CASSO AN D P ORTRAI TU R E: REPRESENTATION A ND TRA NSFORMATION, 1996, P. 361

A

mong the representations of ardor and desire in the canon of twentieth-century art, Picasso’s sensuous depictions of his lover and muse Marie-Thérèse Walter

reign supreme. Executed in 1932 at the pinnacle of Picasso’s impassioned affair, Femme à la montre

exists as one of the most resolved and complex depictions from this highly charged year.

The rapturous period from which Femme à la montre originates has been described by the artist’s biographer John Richardson as Picasso’s annus mirabilis or ‘year of wonders.’ In 1932, Picasso worked at a feverish pace, ceaselessly inspired by his new muse’s presence and the longing felt in her absence. Utterly consumed by his l’amour fou—the Surrealist notion of an obsessional, Right: Pablo Picasso, Tête de femme, Boisgeloup, 1932. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Opposite: Photographs of Marie-Thérèse Walter, 1930. Photo © Courtesy Archives Maya Widmaier Picasso.

vortex-like desire—each work from this period reads like an entry in a diary, documenting the pair’s evolving relationship. Among the artist’s 1932 works, it is the monumental canvases like Femme à la montre, which unapologetically announce Marie-Thérèse’s presence, that are most widely acclaimed for their singular importance in Picasso’s oeuvre.

At the same time, the occasion of Picasso’s fiftieth birthday in October 1931 had stirred something within the artist as he confronted his own legacy. Though

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Picasso was widely regarded as one of the greatest

to his bourgeois presentation. Behind the façade,

painters of the day, his closest artistic rival Henri

however, Picasso had grown restless in his work and

Matisse had garnered wide acclaim in the 1920s for his

marriage. In 1927, a chance encounter outside the

ornate Odalisques, while Picasso’s own work, which

Galeries Lafeyette with the seventeen-year-old Marie-

vacillated between latent Cubist and Neoclassical

Thérèse Walter set in motion one of the greatest

idioms, had at times confounded critics. Furthermore,

love affairs of Picasso’s life. Taken at once with the

the sweeping Matisse retrospectives, first at Galeries

young woman, Picasso approached Marie-Thérèse,

Georges Petit in 1931, and later that year at New York’s

stating “I am Picasso! You and I are going to do great

Museum of Modern Art (the institution’s first ever

things together’” (Marie-Thérèse quoted in Exh. Cat.,

monographic exhibition) proved a sort of gauntlet

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Picasso and the

thrown down for Picasso. Some questioned whether

Weeping Women, 1994, p. 143). Shortly thereafter, the

the celebrated Father of Cubism would soon be

two embarked upon an affair which would define a

relegated to the past. It was in this pivotal moment in

decade of the artist’s production.

Picasso’s career that Femme à la montre was created.

Picasso’s infatuation took on near-mythic

Above left: Pablo Picasso, Le Rêve, 1932.

Private Collection.

Image © Succession Picasso/ Bridgeman Images. Art © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Above left: Pablo Picasso, Nu au fauteuil noir, 1932. Private Collection. Image © Succession Picasso/ Bridgeman Images. Art © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Above right: Pablo Picasso, Nu au plateau de sculpteur, 1932.

Private Collection.

Image © Succession Picasso/ Bridgeman Images. Art © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Above right: Pablo Picasso, Le Miroir, 1932. Private Collection.

Image © Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2023 / Bridgeman Images. Art © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

hidden even from the artist’s innermost circle of

effect on Picasso, and his rapturous desire for the

friends. As a result, Marie-Thérèse’s identity is hidden

young woman brought about a wealth of images that

in Picasso’s earliest works, obscured by his Surreal

have been praised as the most erotic and emotionally

biomorphic interpretations, hinted at in shadowy

uplifting compositions of his long career. Augmented

profiles or tantalizingly suggested in the still lifes

by the forbidden nature of their years-long relationship,

which conceal the initials ‘MT.’ As Françoise Gilot would

Picasso’s unleashed passion is nowhere more apparent

later write, Marie-Thérèse was “the luminous dream

than in his 1932 depictions of his muse.

of youth, always in the background but always within

Picasso’s paintings from this time abound with

reach, that nourished his work… Marie-Thérèse, then,

the traits and subtleties of his new muse; replete with

was very important to him as long as he was living

Marie-Thérèse’s sensuous curves, golden hair and

with Olga because she was the dream when the reality

Grecian features, these works serve as an ode to his

was someone else” (quoted in Exh. Cat., London, Tate,

clandestine lover. It was in a series of monumental

Picasso 1932 - Love, Fame, Tragedy, 2018, p. 18).

paintings executed in 1932 that Picasso at last

Their furtive liaison resulted in scores of coded

announced Marie-Thérèse as an extraordinary new

proportions, the likeness of Marie-Thérèse spilling out

images of his lover, eventually culminating in the

presence in both his life and his art. In June of that year,

rising from the bohemian ranks of Montmartre to a

onto canvas after canvas, in sculpture and on paper.

undeniably bold and sensuous portraits of 1932 at the

a sprawling retrospective of the artist’s work opened

tony studio on rue La Boétie, with his marriage to

Due to the age difference and Picasso’s marriage to

apex of their relationship. His muse’s potent mix of

at Galeries Georges Petit to a rapt and abundant

Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova in 1918 only adding

Olga, their relationship remained a secret and was

physical appeal and sexual naïveté had an intoxicating

audience—the sort of blockbuster-like crowds that

The previous two decades had witnessed the artist

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… M Y D E A R M T… I LO V E YO U M O R E T H A N T H E TA S T E O F YO U R M O U T H , M O R E T H A N YO U R LO O K , M O R E T H A N YO U R H A N D S , M O R E T H A N YO U R W H O L E B O DY, M O R E A N D M O R E A N D M O R E A N D M O R E T H A N A L L M Y LO V E F O R YO U W I L L E V E R B E A B L E TO LO V E . ” PABLO PI CASSO I N A L E T T E R TO M AR IE-T HÉ R ÈS E WALT E R , QUOT E D IN E XH . CAT., VANCOUVE R ART GALLE RY, PICASSO : T H E A RT I ST A N D HIS M USES, 20 16, P. 73

were unheard-of at the time. Picasso was directly

his growing sculpture practice. The monumental plaster

involved in the organization of the exhibition and

busts which resulted from this intensive period in turn

selected the works to be hung, including many of

inspired the increasingly dynamic and biomorphic figures

the recent large-scale portraits of Marie-Thérèse. It

that define his 1932 canvases.

was on this occasion in Paris that Olga, upon seeing

Executed in August of that year, Femme à la montre

Picasso’s numerous references to another woman’s

depicts a smartly dressed young woman seated in

face and figure, was alerted to the new presence

an armchair against a striking blue background. Back

in her husband’s life. Until the exhibition, Picasso’s

in Boisgeloup after the opening of his retrospective

relationship with Marie-Thérèse had been a secret affair,

in Paris, Picasso enjoyed a calmer environment

the evidence of which he had kept sealed away at the

free of pre-exhibition stresses and time constraints.

studio he maintained in Boisgeloup.

Consequently, the present work displays a heightened

In the seclusion of his new country home and

level of detail and pictorial complexity compared to

expansive studio at Boisgeloup, the voluptuous figure of

related compositions from earlier in the year, resulting

Marie-Thérèse took center stage. Converted from a stable,

in one of the most compelling portrayals of his Golden

Picasso’s new studio at last allowed enough space for

Muse ever created.

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Above left: Pablo Picasso, Baigneuse et cabine, August 1928. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Art © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Above right: Pablo Picasso, Figure et profil, 1928. Musée Picasso, Paris. Art © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Pablo Picasso, MarieThérèse coiffée d’un beret, 1927. Private Collection. Art © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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Rendered in volumetric curves and set against geometric delineations of her dress and chair, MarieThérèse conveys a sense of poise and assuredness. Her gaze is directed at the viewer, the illuminated half of her visage mirrored and joined by the shaded half—like sun and moon—in the characteristic implication of Picasso’s own presence. The brilliant blue background against which Marie-Thérèse is posed is exceptional for seated portraits from the period. While the bold primary color is seen in a few of the reclining nudes, Femme à la montre is the only depiction to offer the numinous backdrop to such a powerful extent, lending the seated Marie-Thérèse a reverential, almost hallowed aura like a mandorla surrounding a Madonna.

The present work is further distinguished by the crisply articulated lines and geometric forms of the armchair and pattered dress, each element carefully offset by contrasting colors and shapes. MarieThérèse’s green checked blouse can be read a direct reference to the patterned tapestries and garments found within Matisse’s canvases from the period, like his 1927 Femme à l’eveil, which was included in The Museum of Modern Art’s 1931 retrospective on Matisse.

Accordingly, Femme à la montre acts not only as an ode to Picasso’s Madonna, but also as a direct riposte to his greatest artistic rival.

The upright posture of Picasso’s sitter and sheer scale of Femme à la montre lend his muse an enhanced impression of maturity and agency in contrast to the more naïve and objectified scenes of slumber and reverie. Absent the attributes that often accompany her Top right: The present work illustrated on the exhibition poster for Picasso, Galerie Beyeler, Paris, 1967. Art © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Bottom right: Henri Matisse, Femme à l’eveil, 1927. The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

in other compositions, such as a book or a mandolin, Marie-Thérèse’s figure and stylized attire are the main focus in the present work. The primacy of the sitter’s wristwatch is of particular importance, the timepiece alluding to the drawn-out period of secrecy while the lovers awaited an official end to the artist’s marriage.

A nod to the contemporary times—a wristwatch was previously considered a masculine accessory—as well as a reference to an item gifted by Picasso to the sitter, the watch reiterates an inherent link to the artist within the portrait. One of the earliest appearances of the accessory in his paintings is found in a portrait of

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I T ’ S T R U E T H AT PA I N T I N G I S K E P T A L I V E B Y P I C A S S O A LO N E , B U T H O W M A R V E LO U S LY. W E S AW T W O PA I N T I N G S T H AT H E J U S T F I N I S H E D…T H E Y W E R E N E I T H E R C U B I S T N O R N AT U R A L I S T… B U T B E LO N G E D TO A N E R OT I C I S M O F G I A N T S . W E L E F T O V E R W H E L M E D. ” DANIEL-HENRY KAHNWEILER AFTER A VIS IT TO P ICASSO’S STUDI O I N M A RC H 193 2 (QUOTED IN EXH. CAT. , NEW YORK, GAG OS IAN GALLERY, L’A M OU R FOU: P I CASSO AN D MAR I E-TH ÉR ÈS E, 20 1 1 , P. 63 )

The decorative armchair also plays a crucial role in the composition of Femme à la montre.

The rectangular pentimenti in the top portion of the background suggests that Picasso may have originally envisioned a larger armchair for his muse before subsequently reducing the chairback to halfheight. By contrasting more of his sitter directly against the brilliant blue backdrop, Picasso lends an even greater aura to his lover as her presence fills and dominates the composition.

It is almost impossible to escape the presence of the seated female figure in Picasso’s oeuvre, from his depictions of his earliest lovers like Fernande Olivier to his final muse and second wife, Jacqueline Roque, as each woman took her rightful, if temporary, his wife from 1917, Portrait d`Olga. More than a decade

ominousness of wristwatches in Picasso’s imagery has

later, the motif resurfaced in Femme à la montre, yet

to do with ‘time corroding love’” (John Richardson, A

its wearer has been supplanted by a new lover. In the

Life of Picasso, The Triumphant Years 1917-1932, New

present work, Marie-Thérèse metaphorically borrows

York, 2010, p. 107). Viewed in this context, the watch

the timepiece from Olga, just as she has borrowed

acts as a vanitas device much like those found in the

Picasso’s affections. The prominence of the watch at

works of Old Masters like Rembrandt and Velázquez

the center of Marie-Thérèse’s lap further suggests the

whom Picasso so revered. Picasso would return to the

latent erotic connection of the object.

motif of the watch in 1936—the year when he finally

According to John Richardson, “Picasso must

broke with his wife and began to fall out of love with

have given Olga a wristwatch, just as, years later, he

Marie-Thérèse—in a withering portrait alternately

would give one to Marie-Thérèse Walter. Lydia Gasman

believed to depict each woman. In the 1936 picture, a

believes that wristwatches held a special significance

hunched figure looks somberly into a mirror, her bridal

for Picasso. Marie-Thérèse developed a superstitious

crown slipping off her head as a shadowy presence of

reverence for her watch… According to Gasman the

another woman looms behind her.

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Above: Pablo Picasso’s sculpture atelier at Boisgeloup, 1931. Photo © Archives Olga RuizPicasso / Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz.

Art © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Opposite: Pablo Picasso, Portrait d’Olga dans un fauteuil, 1918. Musée National Picasso, Paris.

Image © Succession Picasso/ Bridgeman Images. Art © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

place on the throne. The most iconic seated portraits of Picasso’s oeuvre date from the 1930s when Olga, Marie-Thérèse and later Dora Maar vied for primacy of place in the artist’s life. As Steven A. Nash observed, “The most common motif is a half-length figure seated in a chair, reminiscent in format of so many portraits of seated popes and cardinals from past centuries… [The seated figure] was a reliable template of psychological investigation… Indeed,

Though each portrait varies in style, depicting

the range of emotion portrayed in these expressive

different women in precise moments in Picasso’s

women runs from humor and joy to utter abjection”

life, these seated, attentive figures acted as an ideal

(Exh. Cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,

audience for the artist and served as a vehicle for

California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Picasso and

expressing the alternately palpable and dwindling sexual

the War Years 1937-1945, 1998-99, p. 33).

tension between the painter and his model. From the

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Below: Pablo Picasso and Ernst Beyeler at Mougins, 1969. Art © Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

fragmented Fernandes of his Cubist years, to the harpy-

of the greatest portraits of his young lover, Picasso’s

like depictions of Olga and the surreal, sensual curves

subsequent muses are felt—the artist’s signature in

of Marie-Thérèse, Picasso’s seated women each have

Femme à la montre notably appears to be executed

a monumental, edifying presence and are invariably

in Jacqueline’s red nail varnish. As the artist’s

depicted with a powerful sense of psychological drama.

granddaughter Diana Widmaier Picasso wrote of such

Dearly kept in the artist’s personal collection for

works, “You can hardly avoid associating the dominant

decades, Femme à la montre was signed by Picasso

red of Picasso’s signature with the red nail polish of

decades after its execution, likely at the time of the

Jacqueline, the companion of his final years” (Diana

1966 sale to Ernst Beyeler. By this period, Marie-

Widmaier Picasso, Picasso, ‘Art Can Only Be Erotic’,

Thérèse was long a figure of the artist’s past. In 1961,

New York, 2005, pp. 29-30).

Picasso and his second wife Jacqueline Roque had

This exquisite composition of Femme à la montre

settled in a villa in the hilltop town of Mougins where

is matched by an illustrious provenance dating back

they would spend the rest of their lives. Even in one

to Ernst Beyeler, the Swiss dealer and collector whose

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impeccable collection of modern works would later

privilege. Feeling of how nervous I was, he charmingly

become the basis of the Beyeler Foundation. Beyeler

told me to go ahead in choosing, he however would

became captivated by Picasso’s works in the 1950s

put things back he did not want to sell. So I started

and soon befriended the artist, often quoting Picasso’s

selecting from two vaults that were filled with his

maxim that art’s purpose is “to wash the dust of

paintings…Femme à la montre is among the finest, and

everyday life from the soul.”

most unique renderings of Picasso’s companion, muse

A letter from Beyeler to Emily Fisher Landau in

and lover Marie-Thérèse Walter” (Ernst Beyeler in a

2006 describes how the dealer hand-selected the

letter to Emily Fisher Landau, 20 November 2006).

present work from Picasso’s studio in Mougins: “This

Femme à la montre remained in the collection of

important work…belongs to a legendary group of

Emily Fisher Landau since she acquired the work in

paintings that I was allowed to purchase directly from

1968. For the last fifty-five years, the work held pride of

Picasso’s stock back in 1966. I was allowed into his

place above the mantle in her apartment. Never before

studio in Mougins in order to choose directly from his

offered at auction, Femme à la montre is a tour de force

treasured paintings. This was not only an unparalleled

of Picasso’s famed 1932 artistic production and one of

gesture of friendship but altogether a very rare

the finest examples of his portraiture ever created.

Left: Pablo Picasso, Portrait de MarieThérèse, 1937. Musée National Picasso, Paris.

Image: Bridgeman Images. Art © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Right: Pablo Picasso, Portrait de Dora Maar, 1937. Musée Picasso, Paris. Image © Succession Picasso/ Bridgeman Images. Art © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Opposite: Cecil Beaton, Pablo Picasso, Rue la Boétie, 1933. Photo © The Cecil Beaton Studio Archive at Sotheby’s.

Art © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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P I CA S S O & M A R I E -T H É R È S E T H E M O N U M E N TA L S E AT E D P O R T R A I T S O F 1 9 3 2

F E M M E À L A M O N T R E I S O N E O F O N LY T H I R T E E N M O N U M E N TA L S E AT E D P O R T R A I T S O F M A R I E -T H É R È S E PA I N T E D B Y P I C A S S O I N 1 9 3 2 , F I V E O F W H I C H A R E I N M U S E U M C O L L E C T I O N S . W I T H I T S E M P H AT I C PA L E T T E , G R A C E F U L L I N E A N D A S S E R T I V E P R E S E N C E , F E M M E À L A

M O N T R E I S A R G U A B LY T H E M O S T R E S O LV E D A N D C O M M A N D I N G O F

Figure assise dans un fauteuil rouge Jan 1932 51 1/8 by 38 3/8 in. 130 by 97.5 cm.

Femme à la fleur 10 April 1932 63 3/4 by 51 1/8 in. 162 by 130 cm.

Musée Picasso, Paris

PRIVATE COLLECTION

La Dormeuse au miroir 14 Jan 1932 51 1/8 by 38 1/8 in. 130 by 97 cm.

Femme dans un fauteuil jaune April 1932 45 5/8 by 35 in. 116 by 89 cm.

Femme nue dans un fauteuil rouge 27 July 1932 51 1/8 by 38 1/4 in. 129.9 by 97.2 cm.

PRIVATE COLLECTION

PRIVATE COLLECTION

TATE, LONDON

T H E P O R T R A I T S R E M A I N I N G I N P R I VAT E H A N D S .

La Lecture

La Ceinture jaune

2 Jan 1932

6 Jan 1932

51 1/8 by 38 3/8 in. 130 by 97.5 cm.

51 1/8 by 38 1/8 in. 130 by 97 cm.

MUSÉE PICASSO, PARIS

PRIVATE COLLECTION

Femme à la montre 17 Aug 1932 51 1/8 by 38 1/8 in. 130 by 97 cm.

THE PRESENT WORK

Le Sommeil 23 Jan 1932 51 1/4 by 38 1/4 in. 130.2 by 97.2 cm.

Le Rêve 24 Jan 1932 51 1/4 by 38 1/4 in. 130.2 by 97.2 cm.

Femme au fauteuil rouge 27 Jan 1932 51 1/4 by 38 1/8 in. 130.2 by 97 cm.

Femme tenant un livre Fall 1932 51 3/8 by 38 1/2 in. 130.5 by 97.8 cm.

Femme assise près d’une fenêtre 30 October 1932 57 1/2 by 44 7/8 in. 146 by 114 cm.

CATHERINE HUTIN BLAY

PRIVATE COLLECTION

MUSÉE PICASSO, PARIS

NORTON SIMON MUSEUM, PASADENA

PRIVATE COLLECTION

(DAUGHTER OF JACQUELINE ROQUE)

○

11

JASPER JOHNS B. 1930

S AVA R I N signed in pencil Jasper Johns, dated ‘82 and numbered 2/2 (lower right) monotype over lithograph on Rives BFK wove paper image: 39 ⅞ by 29 ⅝ in. 101.2 by 75.2 cm. sheet: 50 ⅛ by 38 in. 127.4 by 96.8 cm.

Executed in 1982; this impression is number 2 of 2, with the blindstamp of the publisher, ULAE. $ 1,200,000-1,800,000

PROVENANCE

L I T E R AT U R E

Universal Limited Art Editions, West Islip

Judith Goldman, Jasper Johns: 17 Monotypes, ULAE, West Islip, 1982, no. 5, illustrated in color (another example)

Acquired from the above in March 1982 by the present owner EXHIBITED

Barry Walker, The American Artist as Printmaker (23rd National Print Exhibition), Brooklyn Museum, 1983,

Brooklyn Museum, The American Artist as Printmaker (23rd National Print Exhibition), October 1983 - January 1984, no. 41, p. 74, illustrated

Richard S. Field, The Prints of Jasper Johns: 1960-1993, A Catalogue Raisonné, ULAE, West Islip, 1994, no. S25, illustrated

Saint-Paul de Vence, Fondation Maeght, Jasper Johns: L’Ouevre Graphique de 1969 a 1985, May June 1986, no. 90, p. 38

Susan Dackerman and Jennifer L. Roberts, Jasper Johns Catalogue Raisonné of Monotypes, New York, 2017, no. M25, pp. 80-81, illustrated in color

New York, Museum of Modern Art; Kunsthalle Frankfurt; Madrid, Centro Reina Sofia; Vienna, Weiner Secession; Fort Worth Art Museum; and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Jasper Johns: A Print Retrospective, May 1986 - December 1987, pp. 18, 44, 143, and p. 101, illustrated in color (another example) (New York); pp. 17, 42, 137, and p. 99, illustrated in color (another example) (Frankfurt); pp. 18, 35, 134, and p. 91, illustrated in color (another example) (Madrid) Dallas Museum of Art; Hanover, Dartmouth College, Hood Museum of Art; Cleveland Museum of Art; and Philadelphia Museum of Art, Jasper Johns: Process and Printmaking, January 1998 - March 1999

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Opposite: Jasper Johns in his Stony Point studio, 1976. Photo © Hans Namuth. Art © 2023 Jasper Johns / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

(ULAE 220) that were rejected from the edition due

of printmaking” (Wendy Weitman, Exh. Cat., New

to a variance in paper tone. Rather than destroying

York, The Museum of Modern Art, Jasper Johns:

the proofs, Johns set them aside and returned to

Process and Printmaking, 1996). As demonstrated

them the following year to use as the basis for a

in the present work, Johns’ intellectual inventions

series of seventeen monotypes. Thus, Johns began

in printmaking allowed him to turn the utmost

Below: Jasper Johns, Painted Bronze, 1960.

The Museum of Contemporary Art, New York. Image © Bridgeman Images. Art © 2023 Jasper Johns / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

a remarkable episode of acute exploration into the

time and attention to the semiotics of medium and

monotype process: to produce each unique work,

pictorial language. Operating in the tradition of the

Johns painted directly onto a sheet of Lexan, applied

Duchampian readymade, Johns turned to everyday

it to one of the Savarin proofs and then ran both

motifs such as the paintbrush-filled Savarin can,

through the press to transfer the monotype image

rendering them across mediums and invigorating his

to the lithograph. In doing so, Johns set himself a

representations with innovative variation.

compelling challenge, as the printed image served as a pre-existing structure to which his painted modifications needed to adapt. The resulting synthesis yielded images that were each distinct in composition and color palette, yet all bearing the intimate mark of the artist’s personal affect.

Here, Johns’ iconic formalist crosshatches are enlivened by overlaying handprints in saturated colors; the wood grain and the Savarin can itself are rendered in richly complex hues. These modifications inject a vitality into the present composition that sets it apart from many of the other Savarin monotypes.

The handprints are deliberate and relentless—making visible the gesture of creation—yet childlike and effervescent all at once. Further, the image of the paintbrush-filled coffee can, which first appeared in Johns’ oeuvre as the sculpture Painted Bronze in 1960, serves as a surrogate for the persona of the artist: the instruments used in art-making act as a substitute for himself. This iconography, combined with the physicality of his handprints, characterize the present

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work as a self-portrait of Jasper Johns by proxy. His xecuted in 1982, Savarin is a striking

delicate nuances of his painterly touch operate in

essence dominates the aura of the monotype, all while

exemplar of Jasper Johns’ career-

tandem with the precise mastery of his printmaking

allowing his signature forms to stand on their own.

defining commitment to invention and

process to perform a contemplative investigation into

For Johns, the act of interrogating the formal

experimentation. In the present work, Johns

notions of form and objecthood.

ontology of his subject matter is integral to his aesthetic spirit. Johns was consumed “with the

takes an idiosyncratic and exuberant approach to his

True to Johns’ innovative nature, Savarin found

otherwise stately, signature motifs of the paintbrush-

its origins in a group of proofs initially intended for

repetition of images in changing contexts—an

the 1981 edition of the lithograph of the same subject

obsession perfectly aligned with the capabilities

filled Savarin can and serial crosshatches. Here, the

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ROBERT INDIANA 1 928 - 2018

FO U R S I X E S upper: signed and variously inscribed (on the reverse) left: variously inscribed (on the reverse) lower: dated 1964•5 and variously inscribed (on the reverse) right: signed, dated 1964•5 and variously inscribed (on the overlap) and variously inscribed (on the reverse) oil on canvas, in four parts overall: 68 ¼ by 68 ¼ in. 173.4 by 173.4 cm.

Executed in 1964-65. $ 600,000-800,000

PROVENANCE

The artist

New York, Indiana Place, Robert Indiana, Summer 1971

EXHIBITED

Austin, University Art Museum, University of Texas at Austin; Norfolk, Chrysler Museum of Art; Indianapolis Museum of Art; Purchase, Neuberger Museum, State University of New York; and Indiana, Art Center of South Bend, Robert Indiana, September 1977 - July 1978, no. 21, p. 57

Boston, Institute of Contemporary Art, Multiplicity, April - June 1966, no. 12, n.p., illustrated (titled 69)

New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Painting and Sculpture: Selections from the Collection Curated by Bill Katz, May 2007 - January 2008

Paris, Galerie Stadler, Art Objective, April - May 1967, n.p.

New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Five Decades of Passion Part Two: The Founding of the Center, 1989-1991, November 2009 - April 2010

William Katz, New York (acquired as a gift from the artist in 1968) Acquired from the above in July 1990 by the present owner

San Marino, Palazzo dei congressi, Nuove tecniche d’immagine: Sesta biennale d’arte Repubblica di S. Marino, July - September 1967 Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Institute of Contemporary Art; San Antonio, Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute; and Indianapolis, John Herron Art Institute, Robert Indiana, April - September 1968, no. 15, pp. 29, 48, illustrated

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West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, A Remarkable Gathering: The Fisher Landau Family Collection, March - September 2022

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L I T E R AT U R E

Ted James Jr., “Art: Pop-Op-Pop...,” Women’s Wear Daily, 6 May 1966, p. 24, illustrated Art Gallery Guide, New York, May 1966, illustrated Ein Domberger Siebdruck-Kalender: 1969, Stüttgart, 1968, p. 2, illustrated in color Elizabeth Sverbeyeff and Sue Nirenberg, “Six in the Arts and How They Live: Robert Indiana,” House Beautiful, February 1970, p. 54, illustrated in color (in the artist’s studio) Exh. Cat, Paris, Galerie Denise Rene, Robert Indiana, 1971, n.p., illustrated William Katz and Robert Indiana, Robert Indiana: The prints and poster of 1961-1971, New York, 1971, p. 93 Carl Weinhardt Jr., Robert Indiana, New York, 1990, p. 116

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adiating with colorful vitality and geometric

abstract quotidian signs, such as highway markers—or

complexity, Four Sixes is a masterful

in the case of the present work, a business calendar

example of the timeless and experimental

found in an office supply store—as a key component

visual lexicon that cements Robert Indiana

of his visual vocabulary. Fascinated by the universality

as an icon of Pop Art. Fascinated by American culture,

of minimalist forms as accepted shorthand for

the artist drew his motifs from captivating advertising

complex concepts, he often subverted this recognition

campaigns and insignia that populate quotidian life,

by altering the color or orientation of these forms

employing basic shapes like diamonds, circles, and

to present them with new significance, both

squares to ground his works in a familiar geometric

highlighting their original meanings and offering fresh

framework. However, Indiana defamiliarizes this

interpretations. Indiana incorporates all these elements

common visual language and masterfully elevates

in Four Sixes. Here, the number 6 is continuously

it to a symbolic commentary on the banalities and

rotated 90 degrees on each of the four panels, creating

vicissitudes of a contemporary American experience.

a hypnotic sense of never-ending movement, or of

Executed in 1964, Four Sixes appropriates the

being caught in a state of constant cyclical motion.

ubiquitous number 6, a favorite number of the artist’s,

The number 6 bore particular significance

as a self-referential vehicle of expression for the greater

to Indiana; as he has explained, “I’m particularly

American identity. Attesting to its importance, the

interested in two because it takes a couple of people

present work has been notably featured in several

to make love, and six because my father was born

major retrospective exhibitions. Furthermore, Four

into a family of six members in the month of June, he

Sixes has exceptional provenance, having been installed in the artist’s Spring Street studio, it was gifted to the artist’s lifelong friend Bill Katz in 1968.

Emily Fisher Landau later acquired the work directly from her close friend Katz who assisted her with building her collection in 1990 where it has remained for the past three decades. A quintessential example Right: Jasper Johns, 0 Through 9, 1961.

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY Opposite: Robert Indiana, Bill Katz, and friend in Indiana’s Spring Street studio, New York, c. 1969. Photo © Hans Namuth. Art © 2023 Morgan Art Foundation Ltd. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

of Indiana’s iconographic practice, Four Sixes bears all the hallmarks of the radical lexicon of visual appropriation that has solidified the artist’s legacy as a titan of 20th century art history.

The 1960s bore witness to a veritable assault of images—printed, painted, photographed, stenciled, and copied—that introduced a new set of signs, symbols, and imagery into the cultural canon. Pop artists set out to incorporate this shared visual experience into their work. Although the essence of Indiana’s work quotes the same bright colors and urban elements, his literary quality, coded poetry, and repeated geometry distinguishes his work from his Pop contemporaries.

In the early 1960s, Indiana chose to concentrate on

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worked for Phillips 66, and he went west on Highway

explosively polychromatic works. In displacing the

66 when he left my mother, passing all those little signs

number six and removing its context, the artist asks his

on farmers’ fences that say “use 666,” which is also

viewer to examine the number for its form, rather than

the sign of the devil – that’s how my mother felt about

its meaning. The number is a stylistic element, a curved

him because he had left her, you see. And it’s a nice

shape ensconced within a red circle tucked inside a

number. I’m not fond of all numbers, but I’m very fond

vibrant blue square. Colors, like numbers, had special

of two and six” (the artist quoted in Jan Garden Castro,

meaning to the artist: green and red signified the prime

“More Famous than John Dillinger: A Conversation with

of life for Indiana, while blue typically represented

Robert Indiana,” Sculpture 28, no. 2, 2009, p. 45).

life’s later years. The merging of these colors and their

Further evidence of his numerical obsession,

subsequent associations with a number that represents

Indiana assigned numbers zero through nine to

a shift toward old age, Indiana has created a synergistic

the various stages of life, quantifying clandestine

work that radiates with kinetic energy. Indiana was a

manifestations of his spiritual reaction to past

master at selecting disparate elements and assembling

experiences. Within these parameters, Indiana leaves

them into a singular, mesmerizing work of art.

room for interpretation, bestowing upon his viewers

The present work was originally a gift from the

the ability to craft their own associations with the

artist to his lifelong friend Bill Katz, and was installed

Left: Charles Demuth, I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold, 1928. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Image: Art Resource, NY Right: The present work installed in Robert Indiana, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1968. Photo courtesy Robert Indiana Foundation. Art © 2023 Morgan Art Foundation Ltd. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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in the artist’s studio on Spring Street. After graduating

In works like Four Sixes, Indiana takes the language

from Johns Hopkins University, Katz moved to New

and visual imagery of mass media and transforms it

York City, where he befriended numerous artists of

into something specific and meaningful, creating a

the Pop generation, including icons Robert Indiana

connection between his individual experience and the

and Andy Warhol. Katz became lifelong friends with

anonymous everyman. The dramatic and chromatic

Indiana, a friendship that can be traced by numerous

Four Sixes transfixes the viewer, creating a call to

gifts, including Four Sixes. Katz was also a close friend

consciousness of the ways that symbols appear in

of Emily Fisher Landau, he assisted her with building

everyday life. Unifying the graphic tone of Pop with the

her collection throughout the many years of their

intellectual content of Conceptualism, Indiana pushed

friendship and she acquired the work from him in 1990.

the possibilities of artistic expression, cementing his

This provenance is testament to the piece’s important

legacy as one of the most influential artists in the

place within the art historical canon.

canon of American art history.

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ED RUSCHA b. 1 9 37

S EC U R I N G T H E L A ST L E T T E R ( B O S S ) signed, titled and dated 1964 (on the stretcher) oil on canvas 59 by 55 ⅛ in. 149.9 by 140 cm.

Executed in 1964. $ 35,000,000-45,000,000

PROVENANCE

Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles Ed and Audrey Sabol, Villanova, Pennsylvania (acquired by 1967) Leo Castelli Gallery, New York (LC# ER 13) Acquired from the above in February 1988 by the present owner EXHIBITED

Los Angeles, Ferus Gallery, Edward Ruscha, October - November 1964 New York, Pace Gallery, 5 at Pace, March 1965, p. 5, illustrated Philadelphia, Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association, How the West Has Done!

A Wild West Show, March 1966 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia Collects Art Since 1940, September - November 1986, p. 82, illustrated Newport Beach, Newport Harbor Art Museum; Seattle, University of Washington, Henry Art Gallery; Palm Springs Desert Museum; New York, Neuberger Museum, State University of Purchase; and Phoenix Art Museum, L.A. Pop in the Sixties, April 1989 - August 1990, no. 82, p. 133, illustrated in color and p. 136

New York, Whitney Museum of American Art and Frankfurt Museum of Modern Art, Views from Abroad: European Perspectives on American Art, October 1996 - May 1997 Philadelphia, Museum of American Art of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Pop/ Abstraction, February - April 1998 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Edward Ruscha, 2001 London, Hayward Gallery; Munich, Haus der Kunst; and Stockholm, Moderna Museet; Ed Ruscha: Fifty Years of Painting, October 2009 September 2010, pp. 90, 185, illustrated in color New York, Craig F. Starr Gallery, Ed Ruscha: Ace Radio Honk Boss, October 2018 - January 2019, no. 10, pp. 18, 21, illustrated in color and p. 19, illustrated in color (detail) West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, A Remarkable Gathering: The Fisher Landau Family Collection, March - September 2022 L I T E R AT U R E

Nancy Marmer, “Reviews: Edward Ruscha, Ferus Gallery,” Artforum, December 1964, vol. 3, p. 12 Irving Blum, “The Antic Art of Edward Ruscha,” Los Angeles Magazine, 1968, p. 32, illustrated

New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Articulations: Forms of Language in Contemporary Art, May - June 1995, p. 30

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David Bourdon, “A Heap of Words About Ed Ruscha,” Art International, 1971, pp. 26-28 Patricia Failing, “Ed Ruscha, Young Artist: Dead Serious About Being Nonsensical,” ARTnews, vol. 81, April 1982, p. 78 Ed Ruscha, Leave Any Information at the Signal: Writings, Interviews, Bits, Pages, Cambridge, 2002, p. 231 Exh. Cat., Philadelphia, The Gershman Y, A Happening Place: How the Arts Council Revolutionized the Philadelphia Art Scene in the Sixties, 2003, p. 18, illustrated in color Pat Poncy, ed., Edward Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume One: 19581970, New York, 2003, no. P1964.13, pp. 146-147, illustrated in color Richard D. Marshall, Ed Ruscha, London and New York, 2003, p. 42-43, illustrated in color Mark Stephen Archer, The New Formal: Interiors by James Aman, New York, 2016, p. 25, illustrated in color (in installation) John Thomason, “Norton’s New Exhibition a Trove of Contemporary Art Riches,” Boca Magazine, 16 March 2022, illustrated in color (online) Exh. Cat., New York, The Museum of Modern Art (and traveling), Ed Ruscha / Now Then: A Retrospective, Se ptember 2023 - January 2024, p. 159

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mblazoned in glowing orange, the word

Further probing the materiality of language, the present

“BOSS” thunders from a contrasting expanse

work is thus an exceptionally rare masterpiece from a

of midnight navy in Ed Ruscha’s Securing the

limited suite of only four large-scale Text paintings with

Last Letter (Boss) from 1964. The booming

the clamp motif, half of which now belong to prominent

clamor of the word here is interrupted only by the

institutional collections; notably, the sister painting

industrial C-clamp that squinches and compresses

to the present work, Not Only Securing the Last Letter

the final letter, warping the image with the full genius

but Damaging It as Well (Boss) resides in the Museum

of the artist’s semiotic subversion. Merging Pop Art,

Brandhorst, Munich, while Hurting the Word Radio #1 is

conceptualism, and a distinct West Coast sensibility

held in the Menil Collection, Houston. Further testifying

with an elemental graphic force, Ruscha’s Text

to its prodigious significance, Securing the Last Letter

paintings of the 1960s transformed ordinary language

(Boss) bears exceptional provenance, having only

into arresting visual statements that launched the artist

belonged to notable collectors Ed and Audrey Sabol

into the innovative forefront of American contemporary

prior to Emily Fisher Landau, who acquired the present

art. Heralding a milestone in his aesthetic evolution,

work in 1988 through Leo Castelli Gallery.

Securing the Last Letter (Boss) is one of only 24 large-

Theatrical in scale and cinematic in allure, in

scale paintings measuring over fifty inches that Ruscha

Securing the Last Letter (Boss), Ruscha spells out

executed in the seminal period between 1960 and 1965,

with bright, bolded letters a word that aptly parallels

and it develops from his earlier 1961 painting Boss, now

the palpable authority of its visual dynamism: “BOSS.”

held in the Broad Museum, Los Angeles, by introducing

The graphic potency and commanding associations

the unexpected image of a C-clamp into the word.

of the titular word strike both the eyes and the

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Below: Frank Stella, Jasper’s Dilemma, 1962.

Collection of Irma and Norman Braman. Art © 2023 Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Opposite: Ed Ruscha in front of Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles, 1963.

Photo: Jerry McMillan, Courtesy Ed Ruscha

mind like a boxer’s punch, a forceful expression of

C-clamp—a utilitarian metal device of mechanics and

dominance and cool. Any semantic association of

carpentry—introduces a trompe l’oeil that elevates

authority, however, appears undermined by the metal

text into object, language into art, colloquialism into

clamp that clenches onto the orange skin of the

critique: as Thomas Crow analyzes, “The accurately

final “S,” radically disrupting the presumed flatness

depicted clamp, like an illustration from a tool

of the given text and insisting on its sculptural

supply catalogue, shouts ‘actual size,’ as it reveals

physicality and symbolic potential instead. The

the orange letters to be made of some ostensibly

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The present work installed in Ed Ruscha: Fifty Years of Painting, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2009.

Art © Ed Ruscha

I L I K E T H E I D E A O F A W O R D B E C O M I N G A P I C T U R E , A L M O S T L E AV I N G I T S B O DY, T H E N C O M I N G B A C K A N D B E C O M I N G A W O R D A G A I N . ” THE ARTIST CITED IN THOMAS BELLER, “ ED RUSCHA” (1989), IN ALEXAND RA SC HWA RTZ, E D. , L EAV E A NY INFORMATION AT THE SIG NA L : WRITING S, INTERV IEWS, BITS, PAGES, CA M BR I DG E , 20 02 , P. 2 82

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The artist’s dramatic and seductive textual compositions of the 1960s are the result of his first road trip to California while on the way to art school from Oklahoma. Ruscha, who worked briefly as a commercial artist, found inspiration in the sudden ubiquity of advertising billboards, which spoke to America’s rising tides of prosperity and consumerism.

The colossal billboards of de-contextualized words and a constant barrage of images projecting onto

Below: Roy Lichtenstein, Whaam!, 1963. Tate, London. Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein Opposite: Andy Warhol, Double Elvis [Ferus Type], 1963. Image: Bridgeman Images. Art © 2023 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

or to a religious status,” the artist has said. “That’s

throughout Los Angeles, where Ruscha was living at

why taking things out of context is a useful tool to

the time. In Securing the Last Letter (Boss), the artist

an artist. It’s the concept of taking something that’s

may have adopted his source word from listening

not subject matter and making it subject matter”

to the radio, a theory underlined by the central

(the artist quoted in Richard D. Marshall and Ed

word in the C-clamp sister paintings Hurting the

Ruscha, Ed Ruscha, 2005, p. 133). Indeed, by 1962,

Word Radio #1 and #2. Regardless, text in Ruscha’s

Ruscha would expand his Text paintings on a larger

canvases functions just as importantly as abstract

scale, abandoning the painterly brushwork of his

ciphers that revel in their own ambiguity. “Isolated

earlier works for a near-mechanical graphic precision

as a single term, ‘boss’ hovers between noun and

that filled vast expanses with more emphatic and

adjective, or that move between parts of speech

monosyllabic words—such as the word “BOSS,”

effecting a transition from common language to

and resulted in a career-long obsession with text and

booming across the indigo canvas of the present

specialized slang signifying something superlatively

image. Intrigued by Jasper Johns’ use of readymade

work. Aggrandized and isolated, the words of Ruscha’s

good, admirable, or impressive” Thomas Crow writes

images as supports for abstraction, Ruscha began

paintings are stripped of context, forcing the viewer to

(Thomas Crow, ibid., n.p). Befitting of this term,

to consider how he could employ graphics to expose

reckon with the transcendent power of language.

Ruscha opts for a bold typography that mimics the

the endless expanse of the mythical West would become a major influence on his visual vernacular

painting’s dual identity as both object and illusion,

In 1961, “Boss of the Bay” had been the self-

lettering seen in movie posters, further accentuating

using words in his paintings as visual constructs. “I

awarded title and promotional catch phrase for the

the assertive drama of their graphic austerity in

like the idea of a word becoming a picture, almost

rock-and-pop hit radio station KYA in San Francisco,

the searing contrast between the depthless, blue

leaving its body, then coming back and becoming

later shortened to and advertised as “Boss Radio”

background and blazing orange text.

a word again” says Ruscha, “I see myself working with two things that don’t even ask to understand each other” (the artist quoted in Thomas Beller, “Ed Ruscha” (1989), in Alexandra Schwartz, Ed., Leave Any Information at the Signal: Writings, Interviews, malleable material… It is a C-clamp, its namesake letter parasitically making the nonsensical BOScS

Bits, Pages, Cambridge, 2002, p. 282) By blurring the taut boundaries between language,

out of Boss, deflating the boastful overtones of the

text, and visual object, Ruscha’s legendary Text

word and perhaps marking its having congealed into

paintings of the 1960s succinctly distilled the spirit

a commercialized cliché” (Thomas Crow, “Turn It Up:

of American consumerism and the explosion of mass

The Sounds of the Young Ed Ruscha” in Exh. Cat., Ed

media into the groundbreaking advent of Pop Art. Like

Ruscha: Ace Radio Honk Boss, Craig F. Starr Gallery,

Andy Warhol, who foregrounded brand names in his

New York, 2018-2019, n.p.). As with the very best

paintings of Campbell’s soup cans and Coca-Cola

of Ruscha’s seminal Text paintings, the artist here

bottles, Ruscha adopted as his subject matter an

transfigures the word “BOSS” into a vehicle for his

eclectic vocabulary of common words sourced from

formal and conceptual investigations, a signature

his everyday surroundings. “There are things that I’m

interplay of semiotics that has since shaped the

constantly looking at that I feel should be elevated

cornerstone of his prolific career.

to greater status, almost to philosophical status

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Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup with Can Opener, 1962.

Private Collection.

Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Squeezed to reverberate with Ruscha’s acerbic wit

contemporary kind of consciousness, a mode of thinking

and whimsy, Securing the Last Letter (Boss) refuses

that would not really have been possible until the late

a straightforward reading, instead interplaying motifs

1950s or 1960s... This state of mind is comparable to

of “high” and “low” culture with an aesthetic irony that

the television viewer’s stupor, another semi-meditative

has become synonymous the artist’s enduring legacy.

state in which words and images float on and off the

“Paradox and absurdity have just always been really

screen as the words float over the surface of Edward

delicious to me,” he has tellingly proclaimed (the artist

Ruscha’s paintings” (Jeffrey Deitch, Exh. Cat., New York,

quoted in Exh. Cat., Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth,

Tony Shafrazi Gallery, Edward Ruscha: Early Paintings,

Ed Ruscha: Road Tested, 2011, p. 288). The present work

1988, n.p.). With his masterful manipulation of text and

is an early paragon of Ruscha’s iconic output from the

imagery, the brilliant onset of which Securing the Last

early 1960s, a critical turning point in art history during

Letter (Boss) boldly embodies, Ruscha has pioneered a

which the tradition of painting intersected with a new

signature mode of painting that combined the tradition’s

contemporary culture of advertising and mass media. As

expressive, imaginative freedom with the regimented

Jeffrey Deitch pointed out, “Ed tuned in to a particularly

and commercial world of printed matter.

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ED RUSCHA’S LARGE-SCALE CLAMP PAINTINGS ART © ED RUSCHA

BOSS, 1961, 72 by 67 in.

THE BROAD, LOS ANGELES

THE PRESENT WORK

NOT ONLY SECURING THE LAST LETTER BUT DAMAGING IT AS WELL (BOSS), 1964 59 ¼ by 55 ⅛ in.

MUSEUM BRANDHORST, MUNICH

HURTING THE WORD RADIO #1, 1964 59 ⅛ by 55 ⅛ in., THE MENIL COLLECTION, HOUSTON

HURTING THE WORD RADIO #2, 1964 59 by 55 ¼ in.

PRIVATE COLLECTION. Sold Christie’s, New York, November 2019, for $52.5 million

Securing the Last Letter (Boss) is one of only 24 large-scale paintings measuring over fifty inches that Ruscha executed in the seminal period between 1960 and 1965, and it develops from his earlier 1961 painting Boss, now held in the Broad Museum, Los Angeles, by introducing the unexpected image of a C-clamp into the word.

In the artist’s prodigious oeuvre spanning 1958 to 2011, only 7 Text paintings are executed with the clamp motif. Of this limited and rare suite, only four are executed in the large square format.

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A N DY WA R H O L 1 928 - 19 87

S E L F- P O R T R A I T signed and dated 86 (on the overlap) acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas 80 by 80 in. 203.2 by 203.2 cm.

Executed in 1986. $ 15,000,000-20,000,000

PROVENANCE

Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London Acquired from the above in July 1987 by the present owner EXHIBITED

London, Anthony d’Offay Gallery, Andy Warhol, July - August 1986 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Paint and Painted, May 1993 - April 1995 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, We Are the World Figures & Portraits, November 2009 April 2010 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Visual Conversations: Selections from the Collection, September - December 2012 West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, To Jane, Love Andy: Warhol’s First Superstar, February - May 2014, p. 70, illustrated in color (in installation)

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Above: Gustave Courbet, The Desperate Man (Self-Portrait), 1835-45.

Private Collection.

Image © HIP / Art Resource, NY Opposite: Andy Warhol, series of Fright Wig Polaroids, 1986. The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh. Art © 2023 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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xecuted in 1986 as one of the final self-

other Fright Wig self portraits of the same 80-inch

portraits that Andy Warhol would create

format grace international museum collections

before his untimely death the following

including the Tate Gallery, London; the San Francisco

year, Self-Portrait endures as his last grand

Museum of Modern Art; the Andy Warhol Museum,

artistic gesture and embodies the artist’s ultimate

Pittsburgh; the Baltimore Museum of Art; and the

meditation on mortality, identity, and image: Warhol,

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. The present work

who dedicated his career to exploring the construction

is further distinguished for its inclusion in Warhol’s

of identity and the power of media, now turns to face

seminal 1986 exhibition at Anthony d’Offay Gallery,

his own mortality. Pulsating with the intensity of its

London, from which Emily Fisher Landau acquired it

confrontational gaze, Warhol’s unmistakable portrait

the following year. Piercing and all-consuming, Self-

emerges from inky black aura; he is obscured by a

Portrait presents a resounding memorial of both Warhol

veil of camouflage, the silkscreen overlay of which

the man and Warhol the artistic phenomenon.

graphically renders the dichotomy of inner and public

Warhol’s initial foray into self-portraiture began

self that pervaded Warhol’s enigmatic persona, while

as a student in Pittsburgh in 1948, with an irreverent

his patriotic palette of red, white and blue nod to the

painting that he submitted to the city’s annual artists’

American identity and broader cultural milieu in which

exhibition entitled The Broad Gave Me My Face, But

the artist operated. The present work’s monumental

I Can Pick My Own Nose. Whilst lacking the affected

80-inch format—exceeded only in scale by seven

cool of his later output, this stridently humorous

known 108-inch examples—endows it with a unique

and attention-seeking performance anticipates the

status as both an engulfing cenotaph and a highly

awareness of audience that would characterize the

personal encounter. Attesting to the undeniable and

artist’s subsequent self-reflections. Warhol would

universally acknowledged significance of these works,

return to self-portraiture in the 1960s—first in 1963-

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The present work installed in Andy Warhol: Self Portraits, Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London, 1986. Photo © Courtesy Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London. Art © 2023 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

64, then in 1966-67. In contrast to the long-idealized

distinguished, even further amplified by his famous

countenance, and intense gaze unmistakable, all cast in

view of a self-portrait stemming from an artist’s

fright wig. Camouflage, in this way, embodies Warhol’s

the electric and instantaneous glow of a camera flash—

introspective volition, from its genesis Warhol’s

critical commentary on the artifice inherent in fame

the composition offers a sense of unmediated access

self-portraiture was a means of performing for a

in his mature career, symbolizing the fraught tensions

and scrutiny to his portrait never before afforded

public other. Maintained through his aloof conduct in

between visibility and invisibility that he experienced

to his public. Amidst this act of radical revelation,

interviews, wild social calendar and the styling of his

as both artist and persona, while his red, white and

Warhol employs his recurring motif of camouflage to

physical appearance, his fastidiously constructed and

blue chromatic coating alludes to the American

deconstruct the underlying portrait, putting forth his

highly affected public image was almost as famous

culture that his legacy forever changed. Indeed, for

genius for contradiction in full display and drama: he

as his artistic production. And, from Marilyn Monroe

Warhol, the son of Slovakian immigrants in working

appears to hide in plain sight. “That could be a really

to Liz Taylor and Elvis Presley, Warhol assembled

class Pittsburg, fame in America was not merely

American invention,” Warhol has once stated. “The best

his legion of visual icons who, rendered in his unique

the province of actors, musicians, or politicians;

American invention—to be able to disappear” (the artist

Technicolor vision, came to define an entirely new

as he realized, fame could be harnessed by artists

quoted in The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to

aesthetic movement and celebrity culture of America

themselves, even manufactured.

B and back again, Orlando, 1975, p. 113). Nevertheless

beginning in the 1960s. Yet despite being the most

In Self-Portrait, each individual printed raster is

evoking the primacy of raw unedited film or the printed

famous American artist of his time, Warhol remained

discretely discernable and brought into the sharpest of

newspaper, the slick and glistening graphic rendering

a private individual, shielded by the characters he

focus, chiming in sonorous contrast as Warhol’s starkly

recalls the stars of the silver screen whom Warhol had

played and the masks he wore, to which he alludes

illuminated countenance emerges in spectacular

venerated in his early career, and indeed whose fame

in Self-Portrait. Designed originally for purposes of

chromatic patterning from an abstract darkness. The

he had now come to surpass.

concealment and disguise, the camouflage pattern

perfected clarity of the transferred image in Self-

in Self-Portrait becomes a nuanced paradoxical

Portrait reveals the artist at the apotheosis of his

the Electric Chairs series that were so seminal to his

motif when applied to the figure of Warhol himself:

iconic silkscreen method: starkly anchored by Warhol’s

career, Warhol had always exhibited a preoccupation

rather than blending into the background, Warhol is

disembodied visage – his iconic fright wig, pallid

with sudden death, even before Valerie Solanas entered

With the preceding Death and Disaster series and

the Factory and nearly killed him in 1968. In the present

Moving away from the vibrant monochrome

work, the mysterious image of the artist’s features

colors used for his silver-screen stars, in the present

indeed seems to convey an intuitive awareness of his

camouflaged silkscreen, we find the most melancholic

own impending death: from his sunken cheeks and

manifestation of Warhol’s prophetic epiphany: a true

parted lips to his incredibly penetrating stare, Warhol’s

legend is a posthumous legend. As the twentieth

likeness becomes distinctly skull-like. He used as his

century’s paragon of Pop Art and maven of American

source for these paintings a Polaroid photograph—the

mass culture, Warhol faces his own mortality in Self-

instantaneous image-capturing method which had

Portrait from 1986, revealing the most iconic vision of an

guided his portrait practice of the previous decade.

artist so famously obsessed with the transience of life and

Warhol wore a black turtle-neck sweater for his portrait,

the enduring power of image. Emerging from slick, black

which, when filtered through the stark contrast of

lamina and shaded with graphic contours of red, white

the monochrome silk-screen, allows the neck to

and blue camouflage, the most recognizable American

disappear completely. The result is an eerie illusion of a

artist of all time simultaneously appears and disappears

disembodied head floating in a black void. The macabre

in front of our eyes. “If you want to know about Andy

existentialism locked in this image was not lost on

Warhol, then just look at the surface of my pictures, my

contemporary critics, as John Caldwell notes, “The new

movies and me, and there I am,” the artist once professed.

painting… has by contrast with them a strange sense of

“There’s nothing behind it” (the artist quoted in: Hal Foster,

absoluteness. Perhaps this comes in part from the fact

“Death in America,” in Annette Michelson & Benjamin H.

that the artist’s neck is invisible, or it may derive from

D. Buchloh, Eds. Andy Warhol, Cambridge, 2001, p. 71).

the oddly lit nimbus of hair that seems posed forever

Paradoxically knowable and unknowable, concealed and

over his head. Certainly the portrait derives part of its

emergent, vulnerable and guarded, the present portrait

power from the sense that we are being given a rare

of duality captures the quintessence of Andy Warhol

chance to witness the aging of an icon” (John Caldwell,

during the final years of his life and inducts the artist

“A New Andy Warhol at the Carnegie”, Carnegie

into the limited cadre of great self-portraitists who have

Magazine, 1987, p. 9).

masterfully defined the genre’s captivating history.

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Philippe de Champaigne, Vanitas Still Life with a Tulip, Skull and HourGlass, c. 1700. Musée de Tessé, Le Mans. Image © Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY

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R O B E R T R AU S C H E N B E R G 1 925 - 20 08

SUNDOG signed, titled and dated 1962 (on the reverse) oil and silkscreen ink on canvas 60 by 60 in. 152.4 by 152.4 cm.

Executed in 1962. $ 8,000,000-12,000,000

PROVENANCE

L I T E R AT U R E

Leo Castelli Gallery, New York (LC# RR-120)

Robert Rauschenberg, “Random Order,” Location, vol. 1, Spring 1963, p. 27, illustrated in color

William Janss, Sun Valley (acquired from the above in 1962) Leo Castelli Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in May 1986 by the present owner EXHIBITED

New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Robert Rauschenberg: The Silkscreen Paintings 1962-64, December 1990 - March 1991, no. 1, pp. 26, 125, 171, illustrated in color New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Paint and Painted: Paintings and Sculptures from the Collection, May 1993 - April 1995 Roslyn, Nassau County Museum of Art, Contemporary American Masters: The 1960s, June - September 1999, p. 45, illustrated, and p. 93 Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Rauschenberg: Express, November 2006 January 2007, no. 13, pp. 45 and 83, illustrated in color New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Unforgettable: Selections from the Emily Fisher Landau Collection, February - April 2011 New York, LX Arts, On the Turn: Selections from the Collection of Emily Fisher Landau, October February 2020

146

Alberto Boatto, Pop Art in U.S.A., Milan, 1967, p. 50, illustrated Andrew Forge, Rauschenberg, New York, 1969, pp. 133, 227, illustrated Andrew Forge, Rauschenberg: Modern Artists, New York, 1972, no. 36, pp. 17, 81, illustrated Calvin Tomkins, Off the Wall: Robert Rauschenberg and the Art World of Our Time, Garden City, 1980, p. 305 Lisa Susan Wainwright, “Reading Junk: Thematic Imagery in the Art of Robert Rauschenberg from 1952 to 1964,” PhD dissertation, University of Illinois, ChampaignUrbana, 1993, p. 222 Exh. Cat., New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective, 1997, pp. 209, 562 Branden W. Joseph, Random Order: Robert Rauschenberg and the Neo-Avant-Garde, Cambridge, 2003, p. xiv Exh. Cat., Baltimore Museum of Art, Slide Show: Projected Images in Contemporary Art, 2005, p. 37, illustrated in color Exh. Cat., New York, Gagosian Gallery, Robert Rauschenberg, 2010, p. 24

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B

roadcasting an entrancing cacophony of

importance, Sundog was notably illustrated on the

visual stimuli across its rich surface, Sundog

cover of “Random Order,” a manifesto published by

from 1962 is an indisputable testament to

Rauschenberg in Location magazine shortly after the

Robert Rauschenberg’s voracious creativity.

completion of his first series of silkscreen paintings;

More than simply a visual artist, Rauschenberg was

the project illustrated Rauschenberg’s interest in

truly a poet of forms who constantly sought to free

finding connections among the disparate events of

his images from the confines of visual language and

daily life, establishing the crucial conceptual foundation

its prescribed logic, instead presenting his viewer with

that would define his entire career. In a testament to

an array of literal and associative referents that at

its importance within Rauschenberg’s seminal and

once beg and categorically deny interpretation. The

groundbreaking oeuvre, Sundog was previously owned

present work is one of the very first in a series of black-

by esteemed collector Bill Janss, who amassed one of

and-white silkscreens that Rauschenberg began in

the foremost art collections of the twentieth century,

October 1962, having recently moved into a spacious

before being acquired by Emily Fisher Landau in 1986;

new studio in Lower Manhattan. Sundog deploys his

it has remained in her distinguished collection for

radical new method to powerful effect, juxtaposing

nearly 40 years. With its clever amalgamation of art

a variety of images and gestures into a distinctly

historical references, 1960s newsmedia imagery and

contemporary brand of collage. Demonstrating its

characteristic painterly finesse, Sundog endures as one

Right: Willem de Kooning, Painting, 1948.

The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Opposite: Robert Rauschenberg in his Broadway studio, New York, 1962. Photo © Attributed to Steve Paxton / Photograph Collection, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Archives, New York. Art © 2023 Robert Rauschenberg Foundation /Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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of Rauschenberg’s greatest silkscreens, making it a

struggle to cope with an ever-changing, ever-expanding

precious relic from an unforgettable era.

world” (Roni Feinstein in Exh. Cat., New York, Whitney

Taking its title from the natural occurrence of the same name, in which colored spots of light appear on either side of the sun; caused by the refraction of

Museum of American Art, Robert Rauschenberg: The Silkscreen Paintings, 1962-64, 1990-91, pp. 77-78).

The complexity of enigmatic imagery and the sheer

light through ice crystals, this scientific phenomenon

painterly finesse of bravura brushwork exhibited in

has myriad mythical, historical, and superstitious

Sundog exemplify the pictorial flair of Rauschenberg’s

associations. For instance, the term “sun dog” may

iconic 1960s masterworks. The dominant screened

have originated in Greek mythology, when it was

image, taken from a Life Magazine photograph of

believed the god Zeus walked his dogs across the sky,

engineers working on a satellite, is juxtaposed with

and that the bright “false suns” in the sky on either

an image of an athletic swimmer in open water, as

side of the sun’s disk were the dogs. Further, in King

well as a billowing plume of smoke that implies both

Henry VI, Part III, William Shakespeare dramatized

a rocket blast-off and an atomic cloud. The source

the appearance of “three suns” before the Battle of

image for this cloud is taken from an American Airlines

Mortimer’s Cross in 1461; the Yorkist commander, later

advertisement in the September 24, 1962 issue of

Edward IV of England, convinced his initially frightened troops that it represented the three sons of the Duke of York, and Edward’s troops won a decisive victory. And, in folk wisdom, the appearance of sundogs is a portent of imminent rain. Rauschenberg’s use of the term underlines his interest in creating connections across eras, belief systems, and media.

In an extended analysis of Sundog for the Whitney Museum’s exhibition catalogue, Robert Rauschenberg: The Silkscreen Paintings, Roni Feinstein writes: “Although Sundog … suggests a landscape — a heavenly Right: © Life Inc., 1962.

All rights reserved.

A LT H O U G H S U N D O G … S U G G E S T S A L A N D S C A P E — A H E AV E N LY O R B A P P E A R S AT R I G H T A N D A C LO U D S C A P E AT L E F T — I T S P R I M A R Y S U B J E C T S E E M S TO B E M A N ’ S E F F O R T S TO K E E P PA C E W I T H E V E N T S A N D C H A N G E S O F T H E M O D E R N , T E C H N O LO G I C A L W O R L D. ” RO N I F EI N ST E IN IN E X H. CAT. , N EW YO R K, W H IT NEY M USEU M O F AM E R ICAN ART, RO B E RT RAUSCH E NB E RG: T H E S I L KSC RE E N PA IN TIN G S, 19 6 2 -6 4 , 19 9 0 -91 , P. 77

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Opposite: The present work installed Robert Rauschenberg: The Silkscreen Paintings 1962-64, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1990.

Photo © Photograph Collection, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Archives, New York. Art © 2023 Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

orb appears at right and a cloudscape at left — its primary subject seems to be man’s efforts to keep pace with events and changes of the modern, technological world. At the center is a giant radio transmitter/receiver (designed to exchange signals with the satellites and space vehicles launched from the earth); the tiny figures of a few men climbing the structure are dramatically silhouetted upon it. The radio dish stands as both a symbol for advanced technology and as an emblem for the world itself… At the lower left in Sundog is a male swimmer doing the crawl. The swimmer, whose figure recurs in numerous works, seems to be Rauschenberg’s Everyman, a symbol of the human

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right quadrant, where emphatic black, grey, and white

I ’ M S U C H A P U S H O V E R F O R C O LO R A N D I D I D N ’ T WA N T

strokes evoke the spontaneous gestures of the Abstract

T H AT TO I N T E R F E R E W I T H W H AT I WA S T R Y I N G TO W O R K O U T. ”

Expressionists. Throughout Rauschenberg’s career,

ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG QUOTED IN EXH. CAT. , NEW YORK, WHI TNEY M US EUM OF A M E R I CA N A RT,

often at important transitional moments, he drained

ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG : THE SIL KSCREEN PA INTING S, 1962 -64, 1990 -91 , P. 14

his works of color in favor of a monochromatic palette.

As he explained to art critic Calvin Tomkins, “I’m such a pushover for color and I didn’t want that to interfere with what I was trying to work out” (Ibid., p. 14).

Together, the photographic imagery and expressionist finesse combine to form a veritable treatise on the role

of the artist’s canvas. As such, this work exemplifies

reality is ever more complex” (Ellen H. Johnson, “The

and status of painting in twentieth century art history.

Ellen Johnson’s articulation of the essence of the

Image Duplicators — Lichtenstein, Rauschenberg, and

In September 1962, the year in which the present

artist’s silkscreen practice: “Rauschenberg gives

Warhol,” Canadian Art, vol. XXIII, no. 1, January 1966, p.

work was painted, Rauschenberg visited Andy Warhol’s

new power to the dynamic means of the Cubists; he

17). A brilliant summation of this definitive description,

studio with Ileana and Michael Sonnabend just as

speeds up the simultaneous viewpoint befitting a

Sundog is simultaneously archetypal of a seminal series

Warhol was experimenting with the silkscreen method

more mobile observer and a faster changing world;

within the career of one of the most influential artists of

himself. Both artists shared an affinity for imagery

his distortions in scale are more fantastic; his shifts in

the twentieth century, whilst also monumentalizing the

culled from popular culture and mass media, as well as

space and meaning are more abrupt; and the dialogue

proliferation of mass-media imagery that so profoundly

the flatness of the silkscreen process. By incorporating

between substance and illusion and between art and

characterized the historic moment of its creation.

into the realm of fine art a method of image-making previously confined to the domain of commercial advertising, these two giants of the twentieth century forever shifted the dynamic of painterly discourse within the canon of art history. Though exercised to diametrically opposed ends — Warhol sought the explicit dismissal of the significance of the artist’s touch by emphasizing the coolly repetitive, mechanistic Newsweek, underlining the artist’s interest in advancing

process; whereas Rauschenberg devised a heady mix

technology and flight. Rauschenberg’s fascination

of imagery that fundamentally retained something of

with the imagery of the “space age” appears and

the expressive and painterly — both artists used the

reappears throughout the silkscreen paintings of the

silkscreen method to seize upon the prevailing desire

60s; unlike the pervading narrative in the press at the

of the moment to strip away the recent past and

time, which positioned space exploration as a unique

re-examine the nature of painting.

condition in human history, Rauschenberg emphasized

In contrast to his earlier Combine paintings,

the historical connections between old and new

which were muscular collages of mundane found

technology, underlining the enterprise as one stage

objects, the silkscreen paintings are two dimensional

in a continuous human drive to learn and explore the

collages, in which images (not objects) are enjambed

unknown. Balancing the crisp, mechanical imagery of

and conflated. In Sundog, Rauschenberg’s images

these screened images, Rauschenberg adds a further

relinquish all ties to temporality, operating instead

contrast with his coarse, gestural brushstrokes. His

within a limitless expanse of past and present, as if

most lavish, painterly brushwork is visible in the upper

our own memory were recorded within the confines

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Right: Cy Twombly, Synopsis of a Battle, 1968. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond.

Art © 2023 Cy Twombly Foundation Opposite: Robert Rauschenberg, Crocus, 1962. Sold at Sotheby’s New York for $11 million in November 2021. Private Collection. Art © 2023 Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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RAU SCHENBERG GIVES NEW P OWER TO T H E DY N A M I C M E A N S O F T H E C U B I S T S . . . T H E D I A LO G U E B E T W E E N S U B S TA N C E A N D I L L U S I O N A N D BETWEEN ART AND REALITY IS EVER MORE COMPLEX.” ELLEN H . J O H N SO N , “T HE IM AG E DUP LICATO RS – LIC HT E NST E IN, RAUSC H EN B ERG, A N D WAR HO L,” CA N AD IA N A RT, VO L. X X II I, N O. 1, JA N UA RY 1966, P. 17

○

16

ED RUSCHA b. 1 9 37

P L E N T Y B I G H OT E L R O O M ( PA I N T I N G FO R T H E A M E R I C A N I N D I A N ) signed and dated 85 (on the reverse) oil on canvas 84 by 60 in. 213.4 by 152.4 cm.

Executed in 1985. $ 5,000,000-7,000,000

PROVENANCE

Leo Castelli Gallery, New York (LC# ER 235) Acquired from the above in March 1987 by the present owner EXHIBITED

New York, Leo Castelli Gallery, Edward Ruscha, February - March 1986 New York, Tony Shafrazi Gallery, What It Is, September - October 1986, n.p., illustrated Mexico City, Centro Cultural Arte Contemporáneo, Leo Castelli y Sus Artistas: XXX Años de Promocion del Arte Contemporaneo, June - October 1987, no. 138, p. 171, illustrated in color and p. 279 Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou; Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen; Barcelona, Centre Cultural de la Fundacio Caixa de Pensions; London, Serpentine Gallery; and Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art; Edward Ruscha, December 1989 - February 1991, no.

26, p. 49, illustrated in color and p. 79 (Paris); no. 23, pp. 64-65, illustrated in color and p.124 (Rotterdam, London, and Los Angeles); and no. 23, pp. 86-87, illustrated in color and p. 139 (Barcelona)

156

New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Articulations: Forms of Language in Contemporary Art, May - June 1995, p. 8, illustrated and p. 30 New York, Whitney Museum of American Art; and Frankfurt, Museum for Moderne Kunst; Views from Abroad: European Perspectives on American Art 2, October 1996 - May 1997, p. 71, illustrated in color New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Ed Ruscha: Paintings and Works on Paper, 19642002, April 2003 - March 2005 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Fighting Words: Voices of Dissent: Social, Political and Environmental Statements, February - April 2008 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Visual Conversations: Selections from the Collection, September - April 2013 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Literary Devices, October 2014 - March 2015

T H E E M I LY F I S H E R L A N DAU C O L L EC T I O N : A N E R A D E F I N E D | E V E N I N G AU C T I O N

L I T E R AT U R E

Vivien Raynor, “Review: Leo Castelli,” The New York Times, 14 February 1986, p. C31 Dave Hickey, “The Song of the Giant Egress,” Ed Ruscha: New Paintings and Drawings, London 1990, p. 11 Rolf Lauter, “A European Look at American Art: The Whitney Museum of American Art New York is Guest of Frankfurt’s Museum of Modern Art,” ARTkaleidoscope, February - May 1997, p. 6, illustrated in color Edgar Otte, ed., “Views from Abroad,” Vogue Deutsch, May 1997, p. 8, illustrated in color Richard D. Marshall, Ed Ruscha, London, 2003, pp. 197 illustrated in color Robert Dean, ed., Edward Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume Three: 19831987, New York, 2007, no. P1985.16, pp. 154-155, illustrated in color

R U S C H A’S R E L AT I O N S H I P W I T H T H E S U R R E A L I ST S I S M O R E F R AT E R N A L T H A N F I L I A L . B OT H A R T I ST I C ST R AT E G I E S D E R I V E F R O M T H E SY M B O L I ST T R A D I T I O N , B U T W H E R E A S T H E I C O N O G R A P H Y O F T H E S U R R E A L I ST S D E R I V E S F R O M T H E L A N G U AG E O F T H E S U B C O N S C I O U S, R U S C H A’S I C O N O G R A P H Y A R I S E S F R O M T H E I N T E R S E CT I O N O F C U LT U R A L A N D A U TO B I O G R A P H I C A L M E TA P H O R . ” ANNE LIVET IN EXH. CAT. , SAN FRANCISCO MUS EUM OF MODE R N A RT, TH E WOR KS OF ED RUSC H A, 1982 , P. 17

word “hotel” is used both critically and sardonically, a

A

n American flag blows adject to its flagpole,

1985 would also mark the first year the American flag

suspended in the wind and ostensibly

would appear in Ruscha’s oeuvre, the present work

untethered in Ed Ruscha’s uncanny Plenty

being the second ever time he included the motif. Here,

Big Hotel Room (Painting for the American

the flag stands as an intellectually loaded appropriation

Indian) from 1985. Punctuated by four black “censor

of the symbol that so many of his Pop peers – Jasper

strips,” the inclusion of text with which Ruscha had

Johns, Claes Oldenburg, among others – interpreted

become so synonymous has been redacted. In the

and incorporated in their most seminal works, now

1960s, Ruscha first powerfully asserted that language

functioning as a testament to Ruscha’s longstanding

itself was representation – that text could be legible as

interest in the American West and solemn tribute

both words and objects – thus pushing the boundaries

to the indigenous peoples of the United States to

of the then-nascent Pop movement. In 1985, however,

whom this work is dedicated. Ruscha channels the

he begins to not only omit text but employ a device

political, cultural and art historical resonance of the

that signals its erasure, making the present work one of

American flag into Plenty Big Hotel Room (Painting

the earliest examples of this suggestive breakthrough.

for the American Indian) and turns it onto itself. The

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T H E E M I LY F I S H E R L A N DAU C O L L EC T I O N : A N E R A D E F I N E D | E V E N I N G AU C T I O N

North American continent is proven facile, Americana

signifier Ruscha described as “luxury in a land taken

sentiments are made ironic and the nationalist valence

over from the Indians” (the artist quoted in Robert

of the ubiquitous flag is upended. Ruscha, whose text-

Dean, ed., Edward Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonné of

centric paintings earned him international acclaim two

the Paintings, Volume Three: 1983-1987, New York,

decades earlier, proves himself continually innovative in

2007, p. 154). Further impressed upon the viewer by

his semantic sleight of hand. Simultaneously signaling

the present work’s monumental scale and surreal

absence and presence, the black bars of Plenty Big

modulations of color and shadow, the claim to the

Hotel Room (Painting for the American Indian) and

Right: Andy Warhol, The American Indian (Russell Means), 1976.

Private Collection. Art © 2023 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Opposite: Richard Prince, Untitled (Cowboy), 1989. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 Richard Prince

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eerily free-floating flag testify to the gravity of this

a large flag above the Santa Monica Freeway. Once

moment in Ruscha’s career and his keen attention to

part of the storied Route 66, this highway has come

the full connotative nuances and broader historical

to serve as a metaphor for the perceived freedom of

implications of the words and images he relies upon.

opportunity, rugged hardiness and idealized lifestyle

Billowing at the command of the wind and

of the American West, and it was the very road Ruscha

dramatically illuminated, the painted flag here is

drove when he moved from his hometown of Oklahoma

immediately understood to be its referent, but the

City to Los Angeles in 1956. This stretch of highway

image is not entirely coherent: the flag is not tied to

was also the primary route taken by those leaving the

its pole. As the canvas’ compositional logic unravels

Midwest for California in the 1930s during the Great

before the viewer, the flag’s associations with the

Depression, now concretized in collective memory by

triumph of Manifest Destiny begin to collapse as well.

such iconic novels as John Steinbeck’s The Grapes

The American flag, infinitely deployed in American

of Wrath, and has taken on a mythic quality in its

media, homes and public spaces, dichotomously

promises of transformation. Many of the cultural and

stands an iconic nationalist image and fraught

geographical landmarks Ruscha passed on his own

symbol of conquest, disenfranchisement and theft.

drive, from the Rocky Mountains to Standard Oil gas

The design for Ruscha’s interpretations of the flag

stations, would profoundly inspire his later output.

originated from the artist’s photographic studies of

These historic and autobiographical elements further

Above: Ed Ruscha, Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas, 1963.

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth.

Art © Ed Ruscha Opposite: The present work installed in Edward Ruscha, Castelli Gallery, New York, 1986. Photo © Courtesy Castelli Gallery. Art © Ed Ruscha

heighten the underlying narrative of the present

Erin Wright commented on the present work, “with

work, as Ruscha tackles myth and reality, personal

the American flag seen as a symbol of hegemony, the

history and national legacy.

plenty big hotel room of the title […] in tandem with

In a clever, Johnsian gesture, Ruscha’s use of his “censor strips” toys with what we understand or know

its dedication to the American Indian would suggest reservation (with both meanings of the word) as well as

to be true and here subverts it before our eyes. Ruscha

what is transitory, nomadic, and vanishing.” (the artist

began exploring the use of redacted text in 1985 with

quoted in Robert Dean, ed., Edward Ruscha: Catalogue

reverse stenciled censor strips, created by blocking out

Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume Three: 1983-1987,

a rectangle of gessoed canvas with tape and leaving it

New York, 2007, p. 154)

unpainted. The formal properties of these strips allude

In the complete absence of words Ruscha still

to de-classified censored government documents,

achieves a poetic sonority. Departing from the rote

heightening the political implications baked into the

stylistic replication of his 1961 Metropolitain or the

iconography, and communicate the pervasive silencing

impassive deadpan tone of his 1979 I Don’t Want

of indigenous voices in the ownership and management

No Retro Spective, Ruscha takes a decisively more

of land that was theirs. Although Ruscha’s images

evasive shift. In Plenty Big Hotel Room (Painting for the

purport a kind of apoliticism, his “censor strips” betray

American Indian) we see Ruscha at his most skeptical

a different position. Functioning as an aesthetic and

of the country he’s lived in his whole life and of the

ontological play on what the mind assumes when left

limits and untapped possibilities of text. Ruscha, a

to its own devices, Ruscha’s redacted “text” is not text

forerunner of Pop Art, imbues his peers’ proto-Pop

at all; there are no words underlying the strips that

representations of the American Flag with an affecting,

have been covered, and they were never there to begin

Surrealist bent and, in the process, observed that

with – so successful is Ruscha in this conceptual coup,

something is wrong: the flag is unattached from its pole,

however, that we interpret that to be the case. “This

the text has been redacted, the land has been stolen.

is Ruscha at his most slyly ironic,” Robert Dean and

He leaves the question of what we do next to us.

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17

CY T WO M B LY 1 928 - 2011

UNTITLED oil-based house paint and wax crayon on canvas 67 ⅞ by 86 in. 172.4 by 218.4 cm.

Executed in 1968. $ 20,000,000-30,000,000

PROVENANCE

L I T E R AT U R E

Robert Rauschenberg, New York

Laura de Coppet and Alan Jones, The Art Dealers, New York, 1984, p. 92, illustrated

Acquired from the above in January 1986 by the present owner EXHIBITED

New York, Leo Castelli Gallery, Cy Twombly, November - December 1968 Royal Dublin Society, ROSC ‘71, The Poetry of Vision, October - December 1971, no. 141, p. 229, illustrated

Heiner Bastian, ed., Cy Twombly: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume III, 1966-1971, Munich, 1994, no. 62, p. 145, illustrated in color Marisa Bartolucci, “Palm Beach Modern,” Town and Country, May 2000, pp. 172-175, 204, 208 Mark Stephen Archer, The New Formal: Interiors by James Aman, New York, 2016, p. 41, illustrated in color (in installation)

New York, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, Exhibition of Work by Newly Elected Members and Recipients of Awards, May - June 1987, no. 30, n.p.

New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Paint and Painted: Paintings and Sculpture from the Collection, May 1993 - April 1995 West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, A Remarkable Gathering: The Fisher Landau Family Collection, March - September 2022

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Above: Willem de Kooning, Attic, 1949. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Opposite: Robert Rauschenberg, Vintage Proof (VP) contact sheet with images of Cy Twombly…, 1952. Photos © 2023 Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Contact Sheet: Attributed to Rauschenberg Studio Staff, 1952

A

t once gracefully executed and

Twombly’s extraordinary artistic practice. Bearing

dramatically scaled, Cy Twombly’s

remarkable provenance, Untitled was previously held

Untitled is a captivating exemplar of the

in the collection of the artist Robert Rauschenberg;

artist’s renowned Blackboard paintings.

acquired from Rauschenberg by Emily Fisher Landau in

Executed in 1968, the present work is amongst the

1986, Untitled stands as a testament to Fisher Landau’s

most gesturally expressive invocations of the urgent,

enduring patronage of both artists.

interrogatory mark-marking which distinguishes the

An enigmatic and lyrically rendered composition,

very best examples of this celebrated series. Even

Untitled is emblematic of the artist’s pivotal Blackboard

within that rarified group, the present work rises to the

paintings, which characterize the apex of Twombly’s

fore: unlike those Blackboards restrained to neat rows

inimitable output. Twombly emerged as an artist in

of tightly coiled reverberations, or those which dissolve

New York in the mid-1950s, developing a graffiti-like

into complete frenetic abandon, the present work sees

style influenced by Abstract Expressionist automatism.

Twombly express the exact, thrilling boundary between

While prevailing tendencies of the period sought to

control and anarchy, order and chaos, intention

abandon historical narratives altogether, Twombly

and accident. Here his lines appear to coalesce into

directed his focus toward ancient, classical, and

heart-shaped forms that bloom across the surface,

modern poetic traditions, developing a highly unique

before ultimately dissolving into abstraction. Further

pictorial language that found its purest expression in

distinguished by its exceptionally rich surface of

a remarkable vocabulary of signs and marks and the

splashes, drips, and smears in dynamically varied hues

fusion of image and text. Executed between 1966 and

of grey, slate, and steel blue, Untitled is a spectacularly

1971, Twombly’s Blackboards marked a distinct shift

realized example of the ever-present tension between

from his Baroque paintings of the early 1960s, which

legibility and abstraction, gesture and expression,

were characterized by their extravagantly textured

signifier and signified that lies at the very heart of

surfaces and bodily smears of red, pink, and white.

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The present work installed in Cy Twombly, Castelli Gallery, October 1967. Photo © Courtesy Castelli Gallery. Art © 2023 Cy Twombly Foundation

E AC H L I N E I S N OW T H E ACT UA L E X P E R I E N C E W I T H I T S O W N I N N AT E H I S TO R Y. I T D O E S N OT I L L U S T R AT E — I T I S T H E S E N S AT I O N O F I T S O W N R E A L I Z AT I O N . ” CY TWO MB LY QUOT ED I N M ARY JACO BUS, RE ADI N G CY T WO MBLY: P OE TRY IN PAIN T, P R IN C E TO N , 2016, P. 82

Beginning in the latter half of the 1960s, the artist radically returned to his monochromatic artistic roots, galvanizing them with an erotic charge and embarking on an entirely new style of painting, which bridged Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, and Pop, akin to his pioneering peers Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. Systematically repeating his sensuous loops on canvas in order to communicate that which neither visual image nor written word could accomplish alone, Twombly began presenting calligraphy as a moving image. Over seven feet long and five feet high, the expanding progression of spiraling lines and burgeoning forms distinguishes Untitled amongst the magnificent set of lasso-loop paintings made in this period that mark the culmination of a dramatic and extraordinary era in Twombly’s career.

In the present work, the viewer is left to puzzle over the intricate arrangement of Twombly’s notations, which billow across the canvas in a flowing array of spiraling forms, in some places

to the riveting lassoed lines. In 1968, Twombly

visualizations of constellations, through which the

resembling hearts, in others dissolving into clouds.

produced his Synopsis of a Battle and Orion series;

artist interprets space and time. Like the Italian

form as well as its concomitant intellectual and

The spectacular scale of the present work amplifies

his Blackboard paintings of the same moment

Futurists Giacomo Balla and Umberto Boccioni,

narrative history in a kind of relativism, reducing it to

the momentum of Twombly’s curving shapes that

were simultaneously influenced by the build-up to

Twombly sought to capture the dynamism and

a rationality of ‘black and white’ that is at the same

superimpose lines and forms across the canvas. Fully

the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing, which Twombly,

trajectory of movement in Untitled, mirroring the

time the structural sum of all movement” (Heiner

emergent in some areas and barely perceptible in

like Rauschenberg, followed closely, fascinated by

visual language of mathematical formulae and

Bastian, Ed., Cy Twombly: Catalogue Raisonné of the

others, the negative space establishes a counterpoint

space travel. Twombly’s forms appear like abstract

complex equations across a chalkboard. As explained

Paintings, Volume III 1966-1971, Munich, 1994, p. 23).

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by Heiner Bastian, “Cy Twombly tries to shatter

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P O E T RY A N D R E P O RT I N G, F U RT I V E G EST U R E A N D ÉC R I T U R E A U TO M AT I Q U E , S E X U A L C AT H A R S I S A N D B OT H A F F I R M AT I O N A N D N E G AT I O N O F T H E S E L F. A S F U L L O F A M B I G U I T Y A S L I F E I T S E L F. . .T W O M B LY ’ S ‘ W R I T I N G ’ H A S N E I T H E R SY N TA X N O R LO G I C , B U T Q U I V E R S W I T H L I F E , I T S M U R M U R I N G P E N E T R AT I N G TO T H E V E R Y D E P T H S O F T H I N G S . T H E M A R K S A R E E L U S I V E S I N C E T H E Y I N S T I N C T I V E LY M A K E F O R T H E E S S E N T I A L . ” P IERRE RESTANY, THE REVOLUTION OF THE SIG N, 1961, IN: NI COL A DE L ROSC I O, E D. , W R I TI N GS ON CY TWOMBLY , MUNICH 2002, P. 47

Calligraphic and painterly, this magnificent

graphic monochrome, their signature white-and-

canvas cleverly evokes the chalklike notations of an

gray “chalkboard” look evokes the formal austerity

educational lecture whilst remaining utterly illegible,

of Minimalism, while still retaining the idiosyncratic

revealing Twombly’s unique pictorial language. Working from the bottom of the painting and flourishing

touch of the artist’s hand.

Animated by an orchestra of ovular forms that

upwards, the series of expressive forms seem to flow

dance across its surface, Untitled recalls a plethora

continuously, expanding and blossoming outwards.

of visual referents, from the liberal energy of

Recalling the palimpsest-like nature of Roman graffiti,

Jackson Pollock’s action paintings, to the automatist

Right: Cy Twombly, Leda and the Swan, 1962.

The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 Cy Twombly Foundation Opposite: Cy Twombly, Untitled, 2007. Sold at Sotheby’s New York for $58.8 million in November 2021. Private Collection. Art © 2023 Cy Twombly Foundation

However, whereas the Italian revival of Futurism

express both a ceaseless effort and persistent inability

was predominantly for its rational, semi-scientific

to depict an emotion that is quite simply beyond

dissection of movement, Twombly seems to have

representation. Rendered in interspersing strokes

reacted more intuitively to the dispersion of forms in

across the canvas, the present work embodies

which analytic precision collides with a spontaneous,

the artist’s singular ability to mediate urgency and

energetic flux. For Twombly, the fractured dissolutions

immediacy with control and order to interrogate

of movement became a metaphorical means of

our very understanding of mark-making. Evoking

conveying agitations of the soul.

It is through these varying marriages of philosophy

the forms in Untitled were in part inspired during

technique of the Surrealists, to the typological Palmer

Twombly’s time in Rome, where he settled permanently

Handwriting drills. In undertaking the challenge of

in 1957, before returning to New York a decade later. As

capturing movement in time and space, Twombly

new method of mark-making. Art critic Pierre Restany

Twombly described, “Generally speaking my art has

aligned himself to the godfather of the Avant Garde,

has described Twombly’s mode of expression as:

evolved out of the interest in symbols abstracted, but

Marcel Duchamp. Like the shadows of Duchamp’s

“poetry and reporting, furtive gesture and écriture

never the less humanistic; formal as most arts are in

Nude Descending a Staircase, the ethereal figures

automatique, sexual catharsis and both affirmation

their archaic and classic stages, and a deeply aesthetic

– which alternately resemble figure-eights, love-

and negation of the self. As full of ambiguity as life

sense of eroded or ancient surfaces of time” (Cy

hearts, or frustrated scribbles – multiply, recede and

itself...Twombly’s ‘writing’ has neither syntax nor

Twombly quoted in Nicola del Roscio, Ed. Writings on

climb through the surface of the canvas. The linear

logic, but quivers with life, its murmuring penetrating

Cy Twombly, Munich, 2002, p. 199). Twombly’s first

repetition of Twombly’s painting also recalls Futurist

to the very depths of things. The marks are elusive

Blackboard paintings marked a period when he began

investigations into the cinematic decomposition of

since they instinctively make for the essential” (Pierre

to transition from an empty white ground to one of

forms in motion, specifically Umberto Boccioni’s

Restany, The Revolution of the Sign, 1961, in: Nicola

subtle gray using an oil-based house paint. Its look

States of Mind III: Those Who Stay and its charting of

Del Roscio, ed., Writings on Cy Twombly, Munich

and aesthetics that Twombly generates an entirely

mimicked the appearance of an elementary-school

a contemporary psychological topography. While this

2002, p. 47). A sublime confluence of line, form,

chalkboard. While his earlier paintings and drawings

represented a new departure in Twombly’s work, the

and sheer emotional urgency, Untitled evokes the

on a predominately white background might feature

Futurist principle of movement in space had been of

chalklike notations of an educational lecture whilst

scattered daubs of vermillion, purple or even pink,

utmost importance to the artistic investigations of a

remaining utterly illegible. Setting out to articulate

the Blackboard paintings are notably restrained. In

whole generation of Italian artists for over a decade.

the inexplicable, Twombly’s Blackboards lyrically

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the richly worked surface of an archaic palimpsest, Untitled endures as a paragon from one of the most iconoclastic figures of the twentieth century.

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18

PIET MONDRIAN 1 87 2 - 19 4 4

C O M P O S I T I O N ( U N F I N I S H E D) charcoal on canvas 45 ⅛ by 45 ⅛ in. 115 by 115 cm.

Executed in 1938. $ 8,000,000-12,000,000

PROVENANCE

Estate of the artist Harry Holtzman, New York (acquired from the above in 1944) Pace Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in August 1970 by the present owner

The Hague, Gemeente Museum; Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art and New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Piet Mondrian: 18721944, December 1994 - January 1996, no. 182, p. 308, illustrated in color (dated circa 1938-40) New York, PaceWildenstein, Mondrian/ Reinhardt: Influence and Affinity, October December 1997, no. 11, illustrated in color (dated circa 1938-1940)

EXHIBITED

Art Gallery of Toronto; Philadelphia Museum of Art; and The Hague, Gemeente Museum, Piet Mondrian: 1872-1944, February - August 1966, no. 109, pp. 214-215 (Toronto and Philadelphia); no. 120, pp. 190-91 (The Hague), illustrated (titled New York City No. 5 and dated 1941-42)

L I T E R AT U R E

Joseph Mascheck, “Mondrian the New Yorker,” Artforum, vol. XIII, no. 2, October 1974, p. 61 Maria Grazia Ottolenghi, L’Opera completa di Mondrian, Milan, 1974, no. 458/1, illustrated (incorrectly oriented)

Houston, University of St. Thomas, Six painters: Mondrian, Guston, Kline, De Kooning, Pollock, Rothko, February - April 1967, no. 11, p. 33, illustrated (titled New York, dated circa 1941 and catalogued with incorrect dimensions)

Exh. Cat., Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie (and traveling), Mondrian: Drawings, Watercolors, New York Paintings, 1980, fig. 14, pp. 56-57, illustrated (titled New York City No. 5 and incorrectly oriented)

New York, Pace Gallery and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mondrian: The Process Works.

An Environment and Drawings 1921-1942, April - August 1970, p. 49, illustrated (in installation image of New York, Pace Gallery, Mondrian: The Process Works. An Environment and Drawings 1921-1942, 1970) and p. 59, illustrated (titled Classic drawing no. 29 and dated 1941-42)

Yve-Alain Bois, L’Atelier de Mondrian: Recherches et dessins, Paris, 1982, fig. 19, pp. 24-25, illustrated

170

Marjorie Welish, “Artful Balance,” House and Garden, vol. 157, no. 5, May 1985, p. 168, illustrated in color (in installation)

T H E E M I LY F I S H E R L A N DAU C O L L EC T I O N : A N E R A D E F I N E D | E V E N I N G AU C T I O N

Joop M. Joosten, Piet Mondrian: Catalogue Raisonné of the Work of 1911-1944, vol. II, New York, 1998, no. B290, p. 399 Mark Stephen Archer, The New Formal: Interiors by James Aman, New York, 2016, p. 29, illustrated in color (in installation) John Thomason, “Norton’s New Exhibition a Trove of Contemporary Art Riches,” Boca Magazine, 16 March 2022 (online) Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD), eds., “Composition (unfinished), 1938,” Piet Mondrian: Catalogue Raisonné, no. B290, illustrated in color (online)

The present work installed in Piet Mondrian: 1872-1944, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1995. Photo © Mali Olatunji. Art © 2023 Mondrian/Holtzman Trust

E

xecuted in London in 1938, Piet Mondrian’s

As the 1930s drew to a close, Mondrian began

vacated. For an artist with such staunch conceptual

comrades there, appeared not to care about his

Composition (unfinished) is counted among

to sense the impending danger in Paris, where he’d

ideals, the increasingly figural works of painters like

studio, and felt threatened” (quoted in Hans Janssen,

the limited body of the artist’s process

settled after the First World War. The prevailing

Fernand Léger and Jean Hélion came as a betrayal

Piet Mondrian, A Life, London, 2022, p. 368).

works—those which bear the trace of the

politics of the day had cast a pall over Europe and the

to the cause of abstraction. Holed up in his studio,

By 1938, Mondrian had made the decision to leave

artist with every line, intersection and erasure, and

Nazi condemnation of all things ‘other’ or ‘strange’

Mondrian grew estranged from the life he’d created

France. However, the expense and difficulty obtaining

illuminate the master’s methods. Its repetition of line

had extended to the arts, with the 1937 Entartete

in Paris. He began to dream of a future in New York,

a visa for the United States proved prohibitive at the

and shifting junctures reveal the artist’s meticulous

Kunst exhibition—in which Mondrian’s work featured

where along with Britain, his market seemed more

time, and he instead set his sights on London. With the

deliberation over time—the sorts of characteristic

(unbeknownst to him at the time)—only solidifying the

favorable. As painter Maud van Loon described of

help of his friend, painter Winifred Nicholson, Mondrian

revisions typically hidden by subsequent layers of

regime’s hostility toward Modernism.

Mondrian at the time, “It was if he were obeying an

made his way from to Paris to Calais and eventually to

paint—and charts the evolution of Mondrian’s late work in one monumental canvas.

172

The Paris that Mondrian had once adored and the circles he frequented now seemed cold and

T H E E M I LY F I S H E R L A N DAU C O L L EC T I O N : A N E R A D E F I N E D | E V E N I N G AU C T I O N

inner voice. Suddenly he didn’t like Paris any more.

London, leaving many of his personal effects behind.

He was already increasingly turning away from his

As Hans Janssen describes in his biography of the

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Left: Kazimir Malevich, Suprematist Composition: White on White, 1918. The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Image: Art Resource, NY Opposite: Piet Mondrian’s Paris studio, 1944. Photo © Harry Holtzman. Art © 2023 Mondrian/ Holtzman Trust

artist, Nicholson looked to Mondrian with wonder at

Mondrian identified as cosmic or universal rhythm.

his seeming delight during their train journey. “’Look

He had gradually come to realize that good painting

how they shoot past, across the horizon, here, and

moved by itself and of itself. It had its own inner rhythm

again, and again, and again.’ Mondrian made gestures

that came from the interaction between the visual

in the air every time a telegraph pole shot past the

elements, of which position and proportion were the

window of the train. The vertical stop this caused set

most important as far as Mondrian was concerned. And

the whole landscape in motion for him. No wallowing

rhythm, when directly experienced, made life feel more

in the romance of trees and undulating hills, in the light

real and even lifted it to a higher plane” (Hans Janssen,

of the sun or the beauty of natures; it was rhythm that

Piet Mondrian, A Life, New York, 2022, p. 24).

mattered’” (Ibid., p. 369).

It was this heightened sensitivity to rhythm which

With these new works, Mondrian had set out to ‘negate art’ and to eradicate the concept of form as

guided Mondrian from this time onward. Whereas his

he’d constructed it earlier in his career. By reducing his

pictures of the 1920s were squarely concerned with his

palette and increasing the frequency of lines, Mondrian

Neo-Plastic ideals and the careful balance of opposites,

aimed to create a greater sense of motion, drawing

the works from the late 1930s and 1940s abounded

the eye from juncture to juncture. From 1932 onward,

with a newfound sense of motion and tempo—what

Mondrian’s double line appears as an essential element

he termed ‘dynamic equilibrium’—as evinced in the

within his work, incorporated within his compositions

syncopated lines within Composition (unfinished).

not as a form itself but rather as a sort of pause used

As Hans Janssen described, “[Mondrian] regarded rhythm in art more like ‘structuring in time,’ This creates

to break up the negative space, thereby obliterating the perception of the white space as a solid form.

a special kind of time. As such, music—and above all

Yve-Alain Bois summarizes Mondrian’s paradigm

dance—transcends reality, as does a work of art if it

shift in the 1930s, stating: “The next step was to be

has attained that special structuring. This was what

the abolition of line as form by ‘mutual oppositions,’

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which he explicitly attempted in his New York

nearly half of the 160 works in the show. Writing in the

works… Nonetheless, this ultimate destruction

exhibition catalogue, Joop Joostens underlines the

was only feasible once the possibility of repetition

particular significance of Mondrian’s ‘unfinished’ works

was fully accepted. In ‘A New Realism,’ Mondrian

in understanding his aesthetic objective. Speaking

stated that ‘the plurality of varied and similar forms

about Composition with Yellow (unfinished) (formerly

annihilates the existence of forms as entities. Similar

of the Deutsche Bank Collection) and related works

forms do not show contrast but are in equivalent

with charcoal underdrawings from 1934, Joostens

opposition. Therefore they annihilate themselves

states: “This painting/drawing and the two that follow

more completely in their plurality’… Only syncopated

provide further insight into Mondrian’s working

repetition is capable of simultaneously destroying the

process, which involved a succession of tentative

‘objective’ expression of forms or elements of form

probings, each element being balanced and readjusted

(that singular, individual quality, independent of our

in relation to the others. Color was not added after the

perceptions that makes a square a square and not a

establishment of the basic linear composition. Rather,

circle or a rhombus) and their ‘subjective’ expression,

it was gradually introduced during that process, the

the gestaltist transformation of these forms by our

placement and thickness of each line being adjusted

subjective vision which necessarily recreates other

and readjusted as the color planes evolved and

limitations” (Yve-Alain Bois, “Piet Mondrian, ‘New York

finally became defined” (Exh. Cat., The Hague, Haags

City,’” Critical Inquiry, Winter, 1988, vol. 14, no. 2, p. 250).

Gemeente Museum (and travellilng) Piet Mondrian:

In 1994, Composition (unfinished) was featured

1872-1944, December 1994 - January 1996, p. 300).

in The Museum of Modern Art’s retrospective of the

The present work also marks a pivotal step in the

artist, the first of its kind to present Mondrian’s 1930s

course of Mondrian’s stylistic evolution as a bridge

and 1940s works in such great depth, accounting for

between his Paris and New York works, existing within

works at a picture for many months. For years almost… he alters the distances between the black lines to get micrometrical differences. Infinitesimal. But the amazed spectator sees only a square. He does not see that it is the perfect relationship between existence and nonentity. The square marking the limits of the outermost zone of art” (quoted in Joop Joostens, Piet Mondrian, Catalogue Raisonné of the Work of 19111944, vol. II, New York, 1998, p. 159).

According to Joosten’s catalogue raisonné, the artist’s two-year period in London resulted only five canvases which remained in their original state, with a small number of additional works later reworked in New York. Of these five, only one other London work is held in private hands; the remaining three paintings belong to the collections of The Peggy Guggenheim a near-liminal space as each shifting line divulges the

Collection, Venice, Fondation Beyeler, Basel and The

artist’s continual consideration of space and rhythm.

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Like the

Historically dated anywhere between 1938-1942,

other four London canvases, Composition (unfinished)

Joosten links the work to Mondrian’s London period,

accentuates the artist’s multiplication of line and

citing the artist’s letter to Harry Holtzman from 10

dramatic reduction of color characteristic of his 1930s

December 1938 in which the artist states, “I have

works. However, more so than in any other London

two greater pictures size 115 square that are in the

picture, the complex web of overlapping lines in the

beginning and made under good impression of my

present work foreshadows the prismatic experiments

new surrounding. I think they are better but they shall

which followed in New York. In subsequent paintings

not be ready for the spring because I have also to

like New York City, 3 (unfinished), which also bear the

finish smaller ones that I began in Paris” (Ibid., p. 308).

traces of preliminary charcoal outlines, Mondrian

Composition (unfinished) is the only surviving canvas

begins to move away from the thick black lines which

of this specific scale.

previously constrained flat areas of color and instead

In a 1935 essay comparing the paintings of

composes his line with pure color. The series of New

Mondrian and the Russian Constructivist, Kasimir

York City works reiterate a similar grid as apparent

Malevich, French critic Anatole Jakovski concluded

in the present work, solidifying the fundamental

that Malevich was, ultimately, no match for Mondrian.

importance of Composition (unfinished) in the

Expounding on Mondrian’s time-intensive process

progression of the artist’s stylistic evolution. With

in his article, Jakovski recognized the theoretical

the increasing complexity of line and additional

brilliance and exacting detail at the heart of his

subsegments within the composition, the present work

practice. His descriptions of Mondrian’s working

becomes a sort of road map for the inventive tape

method bespeak the evident fastidiousness

paintings of the early 1940s, ultimately culminating in

underlying Composition (unfinished): “P. Mondrian

the kinetic masterworks like Broadway Boogie Woogie.

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Left: Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942-43. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image: Art Resource, NY © 2023 Mondrian/Holtzman Trust Opposite: Piet Mondrian in his Paris studio, 1934.

Image: Bridgeman Images. Art © 2023 Mondrian/Holtzman Trust

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JEAN (HANS) ARP 1 886 - 19 6 6

TO R S E V ÉG É TA L numbered II/V and stamped with the raised monogram HA (on the interior of the base) bronze height: 52 ½ in. 133.5 cm.

Conceived in 1959; this example cast by Georges Rudier on 4 October 1961. $ 1,000,000-1,500,000

PROVENANCE

Galerie Denise René, Paris (acquired directly from the artist) Galerie Beyeler, Basel (acquired from the above on 26 January 1962) Pace Gallery, New York (acquired from the above on 8 January 1968) Acquired from the above in August 1970 by the present owner EXHIBITED

Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Arp, Bissier, Nicholson, Tobey, October - December 1963, no. 8, illustrated L I T E R AT U R E

Exh. Cat., Paris, Galerie Denise René, Arp, Sculptures et Tapisseries Récentes, 1960, no. 6, illustration of the marble Jean Clay, “The Art of Jean Arp,” Réalités, no.

126, May 1961, p. 59, illustration of the marble (titled Torso) Exh. Cat., Geneva, Galerie du Perron, Hommage à Jean-Hans Arp, 1962, no. 21, illustration of the marble

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Giuseppe Marchiori, Arp, Milan, 1964, no. 119, pp. 137 and 139, illustrated Exh. Cat., New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, Exhibition of Sculpture by Jean Arp, 1968, no. 21, illustration of another cast Eduard Trier, Jean Arp, Sculpture, His Last Ten Years, Stuttgart, 1968, no. 204, pl. 21, pp. 20 and 111, illustration of the marble Exh. Cat., New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, Exhibition of Sculpture in Marble, Bronze & Wood Relief of Jean Arp, 1980, no. 24, n.p., illustration of another cast and illustration of another cast (installed in New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, Exhibition of Sculpture by Jean Arp, 1968) Cathy Silver, “Interiors: Mrs. Sheldon Landau,” Avenue, vol. IV, no. 8, May 1980, p. 54, illustrated (in a photograph of the Fisher Landau home) Marjorie Welish, “Artful Balance,” House and Garden, vol. 157, no. 5, May 1985, pp. 164 and 166-167, illustrated in color (in a photograph of the Fisher Landau home) Edward Lucie-Smith, Sculpture Since 1945, Oxford, 1987, pl. 5, pp. 84-85, illustration of the marble

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Joseph Giovanni, “All About the Art—Emily Fisher Landau Chooses Her Palette in New York,” Architectural Digest, October 2002, pp. 240241, illustrated in color (in a photograph of the Fisher Landau home) Exh. Cat., New York, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Arp. Line and Form, 2000-02, no. 36, illustration in color of another cast Exh. Cat., Cologne, Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Biomorph! Hans Arp im Dialog mit aktuellen Künstlerpositionen, 2011, p. 69, illustration in color of another cast Arie Hartog, ed., Hans Arp: Skulpturen—Eine Bestandsaufnahme / Sculptures—A Critical Survey, Ostfildern, 2012, no. 204, p. 149, illustration of another cast

Below: Constantin Brancusi, L’Oiseau dans l’espace, 1924.

Philadelphia Museum of Art. Image: Bridgeman Images. Art © Succession Brancusi / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Opposite: Jean Arp in his Clamart studio, c.

1950. Photo © Michel Sima. Art © 2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

his long career. Eduard Trier argued, “Arp’s figures

sculpture. I do not give up until enough of my life has

are always torsos. The language of his form demands

flowed into its body” (the artist quoted in Herbert

this—it knows no extremities. A display of subtlety,

Read, Arp, London, 1968, p. 87). Rooted in the spirit

gesticulating forms that express some ingenious

of Arp’s Dada heritage, this detachment from the

idea would certainly have been anathema to him.

interference of the conscious mind resonated with

Arp knows only the torso, but not as a fragment

fellow Surrealist artists including Joan Miró and Yves

of something originally whole” (Edward Trier, Jean

Tanguy, whose amorphic forms similarly resisted

Arp: Sculptures 1957-66, London, 1968, pp. IX

categorization. Unencumbered by formal restraints,

and XI). Although subtly reminiscent of human

Torse végétal transforms with each new vantage

anatomy, the present work transcends the human

point. The artist, through the present work, invites

figure to become an evocative object that invites

the viewer to join him in marveling with fresh eyes at

manifold interpretations. Arp’s abstract language

our surroundings to unveil the fundamental elements

integrates the vocabulary of his predecessors, from

hidden in everyday forms.

the serpentine curves of classical sculpture to the dramatic physicality of Auguste Rodin and the formal purity of Constantin Brancusi.

This cast of Torse végétal is singular among the five bronzes executed in this edition for its sumptuous patination. Sepia and golden tones swirl and blend to painterly effect, making evident the materiality of his medium. Margherita Andreotti details, Arp favored the patina used in the present work: “Arp’s desire not to detract from the clarity of his forms made him prefer…a dark, opaque

E

patina obtained through natural oxidation over a legantly harmonizing elements evocative of

their powers of spatial expression precisely through

shiny, reflective one…A shiny, gold patina…distorts

the natural world and features suggestive of

these organic and rounded masses which swell and

Arp’s artistic intentions not only by obscuring the

human anatomy, Torse végétal is a singular

bulge with a life of their own and whose expansive

clarity of line that was important to him but also by

testament to Jean Arp’s distinct ability

movements suggest the existence of an imaginary

conferring on the work a precious, remote, ethereal

to capture the sense of life in an object reduced to

energy center at the heart of the works themselves”

quality entirely at odds with the informality and

its essential form. The present work, conceived in

(Exh. Cat., Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Jean Arp,

earthy concreteness of most of Arp’s sculptures”

1959 and cast in 1961, dates to the final decade of

L’invention de la forme, 2004, p. 52).

(Marghertia Andreotti, The Early Sculpture of Jean

the artist’s life and the apex of his mature sculpture

As echoed by its title, the fluidly undulating

Arp, Ann Arbor, 1989, pp. 153-154).

practice. Its sinuous, elongated form buds with

silhouette of Torse végétal simultaneously evokes

voluptuous outgrowths, perfectly embodying Arp’s

both the anthropomorphic, rooted in the human form,

tenet that metamorphosis and intuition reflected the evolutionary and generative processes of nature

At the core of Arp’s artistic principles was the

primary aim to dissolve the bounds between natural

and the botanical. The present bronze is among the

and human creation. “Stemming from simple,

most refined expressions of a motif fundamental to

itself. Arp expounded, “Often some detail in one of

primordial forms—most frequently that of an embryo,

Arp’s oeuvre: the subject of his very first sculptures

my sculptures, a curve or a contrast that moves

a simple head, a navel, a bud, or even an amoeba,”

in the round executed in 1930, torsos remained

me, becomes the germ of a new work...Sometimes

Uwe Schramm describes, “Arp’s sculptures deploy

central to his impulse towards pure form throughout

it will take months, even years, to work out a new

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M A R K R OT H KO 1 903 - 1970

UNTITLED signed and dated 1958 (on the reverse) oil on canvas 91 ⅞ by 69 ½ in. 233.4 by 176.5 cm.

Executed in 1958. $ 30,000,000-40,000,000

PROVENANCE

Estate of the artist The Pace Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in April 1981 by the present owner EXHIBITED

Kunsthalle Basel, Mark Rothko: Kaaba in New York, February - May 1989, pp. 42, 72, illustrated in color L I T E R AT U R E

Marjorie Welish and Henry Bowles, “Artful Balance,” House and Garden, vol. 157, no. 5, May 1985, pp. 166-67, illustrated in color (as Maroon and Gray) David Anfam, Mark Rothko: The Works on Canvas - Catalogue Raisonné, Washington, D.C., 1998, no. 637, p. 499, illustrated in color Mark Stephen Archer, The New Formal: Interiors by James Aman, New York, 2016, p. 22, illustrated in color (in installation) John Thomason, “Norton’s New Exhibition a Trove of Contemporary Art Riches,” Boca Magazine, 16 March 2022 (online)

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Mark Rothko’s Seagram Murals installed in Tate Modern, London, 2008. Photo © Tate Photography / Marcus Leith and Marcella Leith.

Art © 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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I

lluminated by an enigmatic and mesmeric inner

complete Seagram series, only four remain in private

radiance, Untitled profoundly demonstrates the

hands — with all the others housed in the permanent

extraordinary alchemical genius that characterizes

collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington

Mark Rothko’s inimitable oeuvre. Painted in 1958,

D.C., the Tate in London, and the Kawamura Memorial

at the apex of his artistic and critical achievements,

DIC Museum of Art in Sakura, Japan. In its own

the present work was completed in preparation for

right, this shimmering canvas embodies the artist’s

his infamous Seagram Murals. Indeed, partially titled

remarkable ability to evoke the sublime and inspire

“Seagram Mural Sketch,” Untitled is directly related

powerful, universal emotions through pure, elegant

to Section Four of the mural series, now held in the

abstraction. Untitled appears to glow from within, a

collection of the Tate, London, in its composition and

window-like grey form focusing our eye on the dark

inverted color scheme. Of the thirty paintings in the

red center, which softly burns like the embers of a

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Above: Clyfford Still, Untitled, 1960. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 Clyfford Still / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Opposite: Mark Rothko in his New York studio, 1952. Photo: Kay Bell Reynal. © 2005 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

nascent flame. Form and color, the two fundamental

approached by architect Philip Johnson and Phyllis

elements of Rothko’s signature philosophical approach

Lambert, heiress to the Seagram fortune, to produce

to painting, are here mystically united to transform

a series of works for the Four Seasons restaurant on

the canvas into a breathtaking physical expression

the ground floor of the Seagram’s new headquarters

of the human condition. Enveloping the viewer in the

on New York’s Park Avenue. The story of the Seagram

grand scale of its meditative aura, the present work

Murals has since become the stuff of legend: although

heralds the creative crescendo of the artist’s legendary

Rothko initially seized upon the commission with

career and demonstrates the spectacular chromatic

vigor, producing a magnificent series of large-scale

chemistry that has cemented Rothko’s place as one of

canvases in a portentous scheme of reds and blacks,

the greatest masters of twentieth-century painting.

he ultimately withdrew from the contract and returned

The dramatic and emotive pairing of grey and maroon exemplified by the present work is emblematic

the hefty fee he had been paid. Considering the murals to be among his greatest artistic achievements,

of the meditative palette for which Rothko is celebrated,

Rothko instead presented nine of the monumental

and indeed conjures the twilight mystery the artist

paintings to Tate Gallery in London, which offered an

sought to impart in his canvases. By the time this work

environment conducive to the lingering contemplation

was executed in 1958, Rothko had moved away from

and introspection these soaring canvases invite. Dore

the brilliant yellows, vibrant pinks, and sumptuous

Ashton, the critic and close friend of the artist, has

oranges of his earlier paintings and instead embraced

posited that the shift in his palette, solidified by the

a more somber and ominous palette, marking the

murals, offered Rothko the opportunity to deal “with

beginning of what is now widely regarded as the most

the exasperation at the general misinterpretation of his

significant period of his career. In that year, Rothko was

earlier work—especially the effusive yellow, orange and

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I WA S M U C H I N F L U E N C E D S U B C O N S C I O U S LY B Y M I C H E L A N G E LO ’ S WA L L S I N T H E S TA I R C A S E R O O M O F T H E M E D I C E A N L I B R A R Y I N F LO R E N C E . H E A C H I E V E D J U S T T H E K I N D O F F E E L I N G I ’ M A F T E R – H E M A K E S T H E V I E W E R S F E E L T H AT T H E Y A R E T R A P P E D I N A R O O M W H E R E A L L T H E D O O R S A N D W I N D O W S A R E B R I C K E D U P, S O T H AT A L L T H E Y C A N D O I S B U T T T H E I R H E A D S F O R E V E R A G A I N S T T H E WA L L . ” ” MARK ROTHKO, QUOTED IN JAMES BRES LIN, MA RK ROTHKO: A BIOG RA PHY, CHICAG O, 20 1 2 , P. 40 0

pink of three years back. He seemed to be saying in

against the wall” (the artist quoted in James Breslin,

these new foreboding works that he was never painting

Mark Rothko: A Biography, Chicago, 2012, p. 400).

luxe, calme and volupté, if we had only known it” (Dore

It was then that Rothko began to experiment with

Ashton quoted in Exh. Cat., London, Tate Modern,

varying permutations of the floating window frame,

Rothko: The Late Series, 2008, p. 20).

as exemplified by Untitled, and continued into several

Painted while Rothko was deeply absorbed in the early stages of his Seagram project, Untitled reveals

panels of the final Seagram Murals.

A veritable feast for the senses, the ethereal surface

many of the key themes that would dominate that

of Untitled immerses the viewer in meditative depths

momentous series, and invokes the same hushed

of pigment, its captivating compositional dynamism

grace and transcendent intensity associated with

bespeaking the full maturation of the artist’s career-

those renowned masterworks. Profoundly influenced

long rigorous investigation into the absolute limits of

by a visit to Michelangelo’s vestibule in the Laurentian

painterly abstraction. Seeking to establish a pure and

Above: Barnett Newman, Vir Heroicus Sublimis, 1950-51. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 Barnett Newman Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Opposite: Caravaggio, The Calling of Saint Matthew, c. 1599-1601.

Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome. Image © Bridgeman Images

spectrum of reds to his palette, as scarlet, maroon, currant, and mahogany collide and coalesce into a ground like molten lava. Cast against this rich dusky field is the enigmatic window-like rectangle of ashy grey, its shadowy washes of foggy charcoal forming a mysterious portal, the edges of which flicker here and there to reveal flashes of the underlying ruby, garnet, and vermilion. The rich warmth of the saturated, sensuous bloodlike tones is elegantly counterbalanced by the cool obsidian shroud; the ineffable tension between the smoldering crimson and the implicitly tragic darkness powerfully expresses a deep

Library in Florence, Rothko’s initial concept for the

direct form of painting that could collapse the gap

psychological truth. This spiritual, even divine,

Seagram project was to create a similar sense of an

between transcendent idea and material expression,

quality is a hallmark of Rothko’s mature paintings,

all-encompassing environment. As he explained, “I was

Rothko radically simplified his canvas into a few fields

when he had finally achieved what he always strove

much influenced subconsciously by Michelangelo’s

of radiant color. Each passage is carefully built up,

to convey. As John Elderfield has explained: “His

walls in the staircase room of the Medicean Library

tone upon tone, in a multitude of diaphanous layers,

pictures are designed to deliver transcendence…

in Florence. He achieved just the kind of feeling I’m

each a subtly different register than the last, the

to provide access to hidden but immanent truths

after — he makes the viewers feel that they are trapped

cumulative effect being a composition that resonates

of the universe—not merely to struggle with that

in a room where all the doors and windows are bricked

with a visceral magnetic pull that draws the viewer

transcendence, those truths (what would be a

irresistibly inward. Here, he summons the complete

doubter’s way), but to actually convey them. For

up, so that all they can do is butt their heads forever

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Michelangelo, Study for a door for the Biblioteca Laurenziana, San Lorenzo, Florence, c.

1526. Image © Artefact / Alamy Stock Photo

Rothko, in an interpretation that we can scarcely fathom now, a picture could offer immediate access to the divine” (John Elderfield, “Transformations,” in Seeing Rothko, Los Angeles, 2002, p. 101).

Though captivating even upon first glance, the fullness of Rothko’s exquisite gift for crafting intricately developed compositions only reveals itself through prolonged contemplation of his canvases. Visible across the expansive surface of the present work is the remarkable power of Rothko’s brush, the full range of his formal repertoire — from broad, theatrical sweeps of pigment to feathery staccato wisps — evincing his painterly mastery. For instance, the hazy crepuscular gray of the foregrounded rectangle appears to slide forward and backward, before and behind the central scarlet region, as the edges of each form flicker where Rothko’s brush has left whisks of paint behind. While deeply saturated at their cores, the borders of each form commingle gently in vaporous whispers, allowing the transitions between tones to be absorbed with greater intimacy, increased sensitivity, and at slower rhythms.

Indeed, it is the edges of these color fields that are most compelling in Rothko’s praxis. As early as 1958, the

Rothko, who wanted viewers to stand close to his

year of the present work, Dore Ashton identified these

work in order to fully immerse their fields of vision, a

passages as the most significant area of Rothko’s work:

painting’s size was crucial in successfully conveying

“I would like to suggest that the… edges, the quavering

the transcendental mood and solemn reverence he

areas of light, the completely ambiguous extremities of

sought. As he explained in a 1951 symposium, he

Rothko’s forms — present for the past five years — are

painted on a large scale “precisely because I want to

the crucial carriers of Rothko’s complex expression”

be intimate and human. To paint a small picture is to

(Dore Ashton, “Mark Rothko at Sidney Janis Gallery,

place yourself outside your experience, to look upon an

1958,” Arts & Architecture, vol. 75, April 1958).

experience as a stereopticon view or with a reducing

It is these edges in Untitled that invite a deeper

glass. However you paint the larger picture, you are in

engagement, a more careful observation, allowing

it. It isn’t something you command” (the artist quoted

the viewer to fully appreciate the fluctuating depth,

in “A Symposium on How to Combine Architecture,

ethereal boundaries, and reverberating pull of pulsating

Painting, and Sculpture,” Interiors 10, May 1951, p. 104).

color. In the presence of this commanding work,

Rothko’s enveloping compositions, metaphysically

the viewer is drawn inward, toward an experience

articulated through color, form, scale, and a sense

of exultation and solemnity, absence and presence,

of space, evinced the artist’s deep-rooted desire

humanity and the divine. Measuring nearly eight feet

to communicate directly and viscerally the poetic

in height, it was executed on a larger-than-life scale,

grandeur of emotions we all share. Untitled is amongst

as a parallel to the scale of its emotive subject. For

the finest manifestations of his great ambition.

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ED RUSCHA b. 1 9 37

M I N T (G R E E N ) signed and dated 1968 (on the reverse) oil on canvas 60 by 55 in. 152.4 by 139.7 cm.

Executed in 1968. $ 10,000,000-15,000,000

PROVENANCE

Alexander Iolas, New York Alexander Iolas Gallery, New York Private Collection Leo Castelli Gallery, New York (LC# ER 46) Acquired from the above in February 1988 by the present owner

New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Ed Ruscha: Paintings, 1962-2002, April 2003 March 2005 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Stream of the Unknown: Selections from the Collection, February - April 2011 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Language As Representation, September 2016 August 2017

EXHIBITED

New York, Alexander Iolas Gallery, Edward Ruscha: Paintings, January - February 1970, no. 7, p. 21, illustrated in color and p. 34 Santa Monica, James Corcoran Gallery, The Early Show: California Art from the Sixties and Seventies, 1987 (illustrated in color on the announcement) New York, Gagosian Gallery, Edward Ruscha: Romance with Liquids, Paintings 1966-1969, January - February 1993, pp. 68-69, illustrated in color New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Edward Ruscha, 2001

192

L I T E R AT U R E

Carter Ratcliff, “Reviews, New York: Edward Ruscha, Iolas,” Art International, March 1970, pp. 71, illustrated Pat Poncy, ed., Edward Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume One: 19581970, New York, 2003, no. P1968.17, pp. 290-291, illustrated in color Richard D. Marshall, Ed Ruscha, London and New York, 2003, pp. 54-55, illustrated in color Pierre Sterckx, 50 géants de l’art américains: Comment New York à détrôné l’Europe, Paris, 2007, pp. 202-203, illustrated in color

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R U S C H A D I S C O V E R E D A N E V E N M O R E B I Z A R R E WAY TO O B J E C T I F Y WO R D S BY S P E L L I N G T H E M O U T I N I L LU S I O N I ST I C S P L AS H ES O F L I Q U I D. E X E R C I S I N G A D U A L P E R V E R S I T Y, H E T R A N S F O R M S W O R D S I N TO T H R E E - D I M E N S I O N A L P H Y S I C A L O B J E C T S … B U T I N A S TAT E O F S U C H L I Q U I D I T Y T H AT T H E Y A R E A P PA R E N T LY D I S S O LV I N G B E F O R E O U R E Y ES. I T I S AS I F T H E S P I L L E D A N D ST I L L Q U I V E R I N G H A D M I R A C U LO U S LY H A L F - G E L L E D I N T H E F O R M O F A W O R D, A N D N O W T H R E AT E N E D TO E VA P O R AT E I N A N E Q U A L LY S T R A N G E FA S H I O N . ” DAVID BOU RDO N , “A H E AP O F WO R DS ABOUT E D RUSC HA,” ART INT E R NAT IO NAL, 20 NOVE M B E R 197 1

A

s the word emerges with spectral liquid

dimensional substance itself, settling in the precarious

brilliance, “Mint” seizes the graphic yellow

evanescence of elemental liquid form before a stark

canvas with its sheer viscosity in Ed

yellow background that recalls the artist’s aesthetic

Ruscha’s Mint, capturing the duality of

origins in commercial art and graphic advertisement.

transience and endurance that challenges the very

First exhibited at Alexander Iolas Gallery in 1970 and

fixity of semiotic meaning. Executed in 1968, Mint

acquired by Emily Fisher Landau from Leo Castelli

belongs to a highly limited series of twelve large-

Gallery in 1988, Mint is a paragon of Ruscha’s canonical

scale “liquid” or “wet” word paintings Ruscha created

art historical legacy, rippling with the mesmerizing

between 1966 and 1969, nine of which now reside

innovations of his painterly breakthrough.

in distinguished museum collections including The

Left: Ed Ruscha, Adios, 1967. Glenstone, Potomac. © Ed Ruscha Opposite: The present work installed in collector Alexandre Iolas’ Athens home, c. 1970.

Photo © Courtesy Vice News. Art © Ed Ruscha

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In Ruscha’s canvases, words—typically seen as

Art Institute of Chicago and The Broad Museum, Los

stable and concrete—become fluid and ephemeral,

Angeles. In this pivotal and provocative corpus, Ruscha

seeming to dissolve and reassemble before our very

continues to radically disrupt the act of reading by

eyes to question the fixed nature of meaning and

depicting text as if formed from water, oil, or another

representation. Initially inspired by the synthesis of Pop

fluid matter, launching his painterly wordplay to

and conceptualism pioneered by contemporaries such

new conceptual terrain while further probing the

as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, Ruscha

malleability of language that has remained the

began creating text paintings in the early 1950s that

cornerstone of his career-long oeuvre. Indeed, with Mint,

married the regimented world of printed matter with

Ruscha’s choice text metamorphosizes into a three-

the expressive freedom of painting. Ruscha retained

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to evaporate in an equally strange fashion” (David

critic Rosalind Krauss (Rosalind E. Krauss, “Reviews:

Bourdon, “A Heap of Words About Ed Ruscha,” Art

Washington,” Artforum, May 1971). Indeed, the

International, 20 November 1971).

Thus venturing beyond the boundaries of

Surrealist facets of paintings like Mint can be directly attributed to a strong presence of European Surrealism

conventional painting, Ruscha’s liquid mirage of

in Los Angeles during the late 1950s, during when

language and landscape in Mint not only draws upon

Ruscha first arrived in the city and would witness

his Abstract Expressionist predecessors, but also

key exhibitions of Man Ray, Yves Tanguy, and René

enacts an image-word perversion that conjures the

Magritte at the Copley Gallery. However, adopting

whimsy of the Surrealists. “At first, Ruscha’s word

everyday vernacular and graphics as his staple subject

paintings appear to be an extension of Surrealist

matter, Ruscha would cunningly manipulate the core

imagery… The monochrome grounds which darken

tenets of Surrealism to reinterpret the aesthetics

in value as they move toward the upper margin of

of commercial Americana at its height during the

the pictures recall the indeterminate spatial reaches

mid-twentieth century. As Krauss continues, “Unlike

of Tanguy’s painting and support the same kind of

Tanguy’s, Ruscha’s fields have a certain specificity…

dream-related content of a gravitational field,” writes

The grounds address themselves to nothing

Right: Ed Ruscha, Annie, Poured from Maple Syrup, 1966.

Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena. © Ed Ruscha

an aesthetic interest in such tensions between text

Spilled, splashed, and suspended in liquid atop

and image from earlier experiences as a commercial

a yellow canvas, the shimmering outlines of the

sign painter, manifesting these concerns as he

alphabetic letters undulate and waver as they spell out

distorted words in seemingly endless permutations.

“Mint” in the present work, gently rippling like a small

Beginning with Annie, Poured from Maple Syrup from

puddle of water. Ruscha’s eponymous word choice here

1966—now in the permanent collection of Norton

suggests a pristine condition, a state of freshness and

Simon Museum, Pasadena—Ruscha’s beguiling “liquid”

perfection that stands in stark contrast to the constant

paintings command the visual potency of painting to

state of liquid flux in which it remains entrapped.

evoke the familiar appearance of wet surfaces, such

“Ruscha discovered an even more bizarre way to

as when raindrops descend upon an outdoor sign, or

objectify words by spelling them out in illusionistic

when shapes appear in condensation on the surface

splashes of liquid,” writes art critic David Bourdon in a

of a glass window. Signifying a key bridge between

1971 review of the artist’s paintings. “Exercising a dual

the material and the abstract, Mint is exemplary

perversity, he transforms words into three-dimensional

of Ruscha’s fusion of form and concept, with the

physical objects… but in a state of such liquidity that

illusionistic transparency of its letters compelling

they are apparently dissolving before our eyes. It is

viewers to contemplate the layers of perception and

as if the spilled and still quivering had miraculously

meaning beneath its text.

half-gelled in the form of a word, and now threatened

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Opposite: Salvador Dali, The Great Masturbator, 1929. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid. Image © Alinari Archives / Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 Salvador Dalí, Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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particularly inherent in the picture-making, and

relationship between representation and meaning,

instead record the kind of manipulation of color that is

provoking a moment of pause from the viewer, and

common to commercial culture” (Ibid).

preventing any straightforward notions of reading,

A masterpiece of liquid allure, Mint witnesses

seeing, or comprehending. Arrested in time and yet

Ruscha’s painterly meditation on the artifice of

perpetually evolving, the liquid pictorial surface of

everyday language and meaning as he deftly draws

Mint sees the full genius of Ruscha by reflecting his

attention to the evanescence and ethereality of

intuitively radical connection between typography

words themselves. Throughout his remarkable career,

and word; as Ruscha has said himself about his

Ruscha has maintained an extraordinary conceptual

process, “Splash something here, or change a

consistency that serves as the foundation for his

gesture… I envisioned a painting and then painted

numerous groundbreaking stylistic explorations, within

it. It was quick. There was much less room between

which his series of “liquid” paintings such as Mint

my mind and the painting” (the artist quoted in an

ranks unequivocally high. For all the immediacy of

interview with Walter Hopps, Exh. Cat., Gagosian

his images, there is an ever-present undercurrent of

Gallery, New York, Edward Ruscha: Romance with

semiotic paradox that complicates the seemingly direct

Liquids, Paintings 1966-1969, 1993, p. 110).

Roy Lichtenstein, Brushstroke with Spatter, 1966. The Art Institute of Chicago.

Image © The Art Institute of Chicago / Art Resource, NY. Image © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

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M A R K TA N S E Y b. 1 9 4 9

I N STA L L I N G T H E L E N S signed (lower left); signed, titled and dated 1993 (on the reverse) oil on canvas 77 ¼ by 64 ¼ in. 196.2 by 163.2 cm.

Executed in 1993. $ 4,000,000-6,000,000

PROVENANCE

L I T E R AT U R E

Curt Marcus Gallery, New York

Carol Diehl, “Reviews: Installing the Lens and Other Thorny Jobs,” ARTNews, vol. 93, no. 2, February 1994, p. 135, illustrated in color

Acquired from the above in December 1993 by the present owner EXHIBITED

New York, Curt Marcus Gallery, Twenty-eight Pictures, October - December 1993

“New York: Mark Tansey, Curt Marcus,” ARTNews (Japan edition), vol. 1, no. 3, May 1994, p. 88, illustrated

New York, Fisher Landau Center, Barbara Ess, Barbara Kruger, Neil Jenney: Recent Acquisitions, December 1995 - October 1996 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Stream of the Unknown: Selections from the Collection, October 2010 - April 2011 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Visual Conversations, January - April 2013 (extended exhibition only)

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layers of paint to reveal the overall image. Rendering the canvas impressively in a single tonal range, Tansey

musings of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.” At the

imbues his paintings with a distinct mystique that

crux of this text, Socrates asks Glaucon to imagine

connects them with his litany of visual and rhetorical

a cave populated by chained prisoners who believe

archival source material: as the artist has stated, “In

that the shadows cast by objects and events outside

the beginning I was attracted to monochrome—black

are, in fact, reality. Trapped and unaware of their own

and white—because everything I liked was in it, from

limited perspective, the prisoners of the cave are, like

reproductions of Michelangelo to scientific illustrations

the laborers at the end of the cavern in Installing the

to Life magazine photos. Because this simple but

Lens, not seeing reality but instead, a mere shadowy

versatile syntax was shared by art, fiction and

representation of it—a parable for the invisible

photographic reality, it made possible another level of

truths that lurk beneath the apparent surface of

pictorial fiction, where aspects of each could commune”

things. Extending this allegory into the mechanism of

(the artist quoted in Arthur C. Danto, Mark Tansey:

images, Tansey questions the very nature of realism

Visions and Revisions, New York 1992, p. 128).

itself, seeking to expose the façade inherent in

The focal point of Installing the Lens presents

S

aturated in a sundry of mythical blue, Mark Tansey’s Installing the Lens unravels

ranging from Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” to the common idiom “light at the end of the tunnel.” Charged and confound viewers, the present work is exemplary

career. The cerulean hue is as otherworldly as the

of Tansey’s engagement with the basic theoretical

metaphysical image itself, an impossible picture of a

concerns of painting.

crevices, a group of anonymous laborers work to

artist—the subterranean cave, which recurs in a

the very problem that we face with the notion of

number of Tansey’s most celebrated paintings from

‘reality’. The problem or question is, which reality?”

In Installing the Lens, Tansey’s resolutely cobalt palette generates the grisaille and sepia-

install a structural lens artifact; together, Tansey’s

like atmosphere of a fictive snapshot depicting a

scene constructs an optical illusion that parallels

cavernous tunnel, at the end of which obscured figures

the structure of the human eye, extending a visual

work to install a lens. Inspired by photographs and

metaphor for the fallibility of human sight and images.

executed with meticulous detail, Tansey’s carefully

Probing the ever-shifting boundaries between reality

planned compositions are borne from a subtractive

and representation to explore the phenomenology of

painting process whereby he covers the canvas in

visual perception, Tansey here variously interweaves

monochromatic pigments before steadfastly removing

202

“I think of the painted picture as an embodiment of

with intellectual intensity and allusions that captivate

have preoccupied the artist throughout his illustrious

cavernous tunnel where, zooming beyond its shadowy

pictorial representation, or the fallibility of the image.

a significant conceptual and visual motif for the

labyrinthine literary and philosophical references

with a visual dissertation on symbolic concerns of optics and philosophy that

this period to reference the sacred philosophical

T H E E M I LY F I S H E R L A N DAU C O L L EC T I O N : A N E R A D E F I N E D | E V E N I N G AU C T I O N

Right: Ed Ruscha, Level as a Level, 2002. Private Collection. Art © Ed Ruscha Opposite: René Magritte, La Clef des Champs, 1936.

Museo Nacional ThyssenBornemisza, Madrid.

ImageL Art Resource, NY Art © 2023 C. Herscovici, Brussels / Artists Rights Society, (ARS), New York

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T H E R E I S R E A L LY V E R Y L I T T L E T H AT I S V I S I B L E I N T H E F O R M AT O F A P I C T U R E . T H E VA L U E O F T H I N K I N G I N T E R M S O F A C R O S S R O A D S O R P I C TO R I A L I N T E R S E C T I O N I S T H AT I F N OT A L L T H AT M U C H I S V I S I B L E , T H E N W H AT L I T T L E T H E R E I S O U G H T TO I N V O LV E V I TA L T R A J E C TO R I E S A N D P O I N T S O F C O L L I S I O N A N D E N C O U N T E R B E T W E E N A VA R I E T Y O F C U LT U R A L , F O R M A L , O R F I G U R A L SY S T E M S ” M A RK . TA N SEY, QUOT E D IN ART HU R DAN TO, M AR K TAN S EY: VISIO NS AND R EVISIO NS, NEW YO R K , 19 92 , P. 132

neither be wholly captured nor distilled.

Exemplified by the schisms of representation that he materializes in Installing the Lens, Tansey’s critical oeuvre unravels modes of perception and representation, continuously testing the eye and eluding narrative clarity in favor of incredulous wonder. When postmodernist thought gained traction in the 1970s with the pioneers of the Pictures generation—artists such as Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince, and Louise Lawler—art concerned with the mechanics of picture-making, and representation intentionally evaded painting. Committed to searching the archives for means of persistently questioning the nature of images, Tansey returned to figuration with full force. In such consummate examples of his practice as Installing the Lens, not only does Tansey invoke the visual vocabulary of the long-cherished genre of history painting, but he also draws from mass media source material to create a uniquely contemporary image.

“Tansey’s paintings can be understood as still another response to the crisis of the pictorial that has plagued the artist ruminated. “In a painted picture, is it the

art since the onslaught of media imagery,” writes Donald

depicted reality, or the reality of the picture plane,

Kuspit. “Whether or not deliberately, the media image

or the multidimensional reality the artist and viewer

has become an instrument of social control by reason

exist in? That all three are involved points to the fact

of its tendency toward schematic acknowledgment

that all pictures are inherently problematic” (Ibid,

of realities…Tansey counterattacks by making the

p. 132). Despite their semblance of truth, images

media image casually allusive and absurd.” Indeed, as

created by the modern lens do not offer a holistic

in Installing the Lens, the artist radically “reinvents

or omniscient mode of perception; photographs

the seriousness of the image by making it a realm of

and paintings, Tansey reminds us, are instead mere

uncanny implications beneath its ‘straight’ surface”

representations of a perceived “reality” that can

(Donald Kuspit, “Mark Tansey at Curt Marcus Gallery,” Artforum, September 1986, online).

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Caspar David Friedrich, Chalk Cliffs on Rügen, circa 1818. Museum Oskar Reinhart am Stadtgarten, Winterthur.

Image © HIP / Art Resource, NY

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23

W I L L E M D E KO O N I N G 1 904 - 19 97

UNTITLED X V signed (on the stretcher) oil on canvas 79 ⅞ by 70 in. 202.9 by 177.8 cm.

Executed in 1983. $ 6,000,000-8,000,000

PROVENANCE

Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London Acquired from the above in July 1987 by the present owner

New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Five Decades of Passion: The Eye of the Collector, January - April 2009 West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, A Remarkable Gathering: The Fisher Landau Family Collection, March - September 2022

EXHIBITED

London, Anthony d’Offay Gallery, Willem de Kooning: Recent Paintings 1983-1986, November 1986 - January 1987, no. 4, n.p., illustrated in color Stamford, Whitney Museum of American Art, Enduring Creativity, April - June 1988, pp. 16-17, illustrated New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Paint and Painted: Paintings and Sculptures from the Collection, May 1993 - December 1994 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Minneapolis, Walker Art Center; Bonn, Kunstmuseum; and Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen; Willem de Kooning: The Late Paintings, The 1980s, October 1995 April 1997, no. 18, pp. 98, 125, illustrated in color

L I T E R AT U R E

Richard Shone, “Willem de Kooning,” Vogue, November 1986, p. 10 Julie L. Belcove, “Collected Wisdom,” Architectural Digest, December 2011, p. 130, illustrated in color Richard Schiff, Between Sense and de Kooning, London, 2011, no. 101, p. 259, illustrated in color Mark Stephen Archer, The New Formal: Interiors

by James Aman, New York, 2016, pp. 11, 132, illustrated in color (in installation) John Thomason, “Norton’s New Exhibition a Trove of Contemporary Art Riches,” Boca Magazine, 16 March 2022 (online)

New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Painting and Sculpture: Selections from the Collection Curated by Bill Katz, July 2007 January 2008

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Left: Willem de Kooning in his East Hampton studio, 2000. Photo © Edvard Lieber. Art © 2023 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

E

Below: Yves Klein, ANT 130 Untitled Anthropometry, 1960.

Museum Ludwig, Cologne. Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

xecuted in 1983, Untitled XV singularly

a kind of drawing. A process of subtraction makes an

embodies the vibrancy and calligraphic

addition, a stately flurry of draftsmanly gestures. De

lyricism of Willem de Kooning’s final

Kooning has always layered and elided his forms. Now

decade—an unparalleled masterwork and

he reminds us that he does the same with his methods”

triumphant apotheosis of the abstract vernacular he

(Carter Ratcliff, “Willem de Kooning and the Question

developed so tirelessly over his titanic fifty-year career.

of Style,” in Willem de Kooning: The North Atlantic Light,

In 1981, de Kooning inaugurated a corpus of hauntingly

1960-1983, Amsterdam, 1983, p. 22). The forms wind

poetic abstractions that consumed his practice for

and meander, as if uncontainable by the picture plane,

the remainder of his life, and nowhere is his genius as

extending beyond the edges of the canvas and into

a colorist and draftsman so concentrated than in his

the air around us. The white pigment de Kooning so

mature output. In the present work, ribbons of cerulean

judiciously applies underneath, however, is not simply

and cadmium red pirouette across an expanse of white,

a void or background. It is as luxurious, luminous and

curling and unfurling across underpainted passages

intensely present as the crimson and ultramarine, even

of yellow. Acquired in 1987, only a few years after its

containing the subtlest pockets of yellow. By conflating

execution, Untitled XV has remained in Emily Fisher

figure and ground, and drawing upon the purity of the

Landau’s collection for more than three decades, a rare jewel distinguished for its gem-like chromatic clarity and sumptuous quality of line. The buoyant dynamism of these bands of scarlet and blue stands not only as a miraculous compositional balancing act but also as a testament to de Kooning’s protean style. The radical experimentation that transpired every decade of his working life culminates in the present work: ceaseless, repeated investigations of line, color and form embody the visceral interplay between strength and sensuality, delicacy and mass, marrying the resolved restraint of his later work with the palpably vigorous energy of his earlier Women and East Hampton scenes. A paragon of his mature output, Untitled XV is the product of a truly inimitable visionary at the height of his creative powers.

OF THESE WORKS, A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER COUNT AMONG T H E M O S T R E M A R K A B L E PA I N T I N G S B Y A N YO N E T H E N A C T I V E A N D

Heightened by its reduced palette, the treatment of line in the present work is utterly sensual, characterized in equal parts by tension and harmony,

A M O N G T H E M O ST D I ST I N CT I V E , G R AC E F U L , A N D M YST E R I O U S

and is the result of a technical breakthrough: describing

D E KO O N I N G H I M S E L F E V E R M A D E . ”

de Kooning’s methods in his late paintings, Carter

ROBE RT STO RR , “AT L AST LIG HT,” IN E X H. CAT. , SAN FRAN CISCO M USEU M O F M O D E R N ART, W ILLE M DE KO O NING: TH E LAT E PA I N T I N GS, T HE 19 80 S, 19 9 6, P. 3 9

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Ratcliff observed, “Something extraordinary happens in the 1980s. Dragging a wide metal edge through heavy masses of paint, de Kooning turns scraping into

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Willem de Kooning, Excavation, 1950. The Art Institute of Chicago.

Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

primary colors, de Kooning empowers his marks to

sinuous curvatures nod to his Woman series of the

float and dance, capturing a timeless and ineffable

1950s, and the wispy, horizontal and vertical textures

vivacity and marking a major achievement of pictorial

recall the Long Island beaches that inspired his 1970s

distillation. Here, the full breadth of de Kooning’s

abstractions. The content of the 1980s paintings,

mastery freely unfolds before us.

however, has been radically simplified and illuminated,

While consistent with the unmistakable traces of

leaving behind the baroque flair of his earlier work

de Kooning’s remarkable touch—detectable even in

to find a distilled fusion of color and line. Like Henri

his first canvases—Untitled XV in particular boasts

Matisse, whose late work, particularly his remarkable

an enlivened spirit, confidence and appetite for

corpus of cutouts, similarly stages a collapse of the

adventure. The artist’s celebration of line had been

distinction between color and line, de Kooning achieves

ascendant throughout his career, but his mature

in the present work what can be considered the final

works bear a rhythm, cadence and ethereal levity

goal of his career-long inquiry into the very nature of

unseen until the last decade of his life. Much like the

abstract art. As Gary Garrels described, “In the 1980s

Heroic works of Pablo Picasso or late cutout works

works, the essential procedures and techniques were

by Henri Matisse, de Kooning’s 1980s paintings

not changed but simplified, and the vocabulary of

contain the sustained energy and technical finesse

forms was retained but clarified” (Gary Garrels, “Three

of his earlier achievements. In the present work, the

Toads in the Garden: Line and Form,” in Exh. Cat., San

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211

The present work installed in the exhibition Willem de Kooning: The Late Paintings, The 1980s, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1996.

Image: Walker Art Center.

Art © 2023 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

S O M E T H I N G E X T R AO R D I N A RY H A P P E N S I N T H E 1 9 80 S. D R AG G I N G A W I D E M E TA L E D G E T H R O U G H H E AV Y M A S S E S O F PA I N T, D E KO O N I N G T U R N S S C R A P I N G I N TO A K I N D O F D R AW I N G . A P R O C E S S O F S U BT R ACT I O N M A K ES A N A D D I T I O N, A S TAT E LY F L U R R Y O F D R A F T S M A N LY G E S T U R E S . D E KO O N I N G H A S A LWAY S L AY E R E D A N D E L I D E D H I S F O R M S .

N O W H E R E M I N D S U S T H AT H E D O E S THE SAME WITH HIS METHODS.” CARTER RATCLIFF, “ WILLEM DE KOONING AND THE QUESTION OF STYLE,” IN WIL L EM DE KOONING : THE NORTH ATL A NTIC L IG HT, 1960 1983, AMSTERDAM, 1983, P. 22

Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (and

at my command... I am more certain the way I use

travelling), Willem de Kooning: The Late Paintings, the

paint and the brush.” (The artist cited in Exh. Cat.,

1980s, 1996, p. 26).

Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Willem de

By way of de Kooning’s prodigious instincts and

Kooning: Paintings, 1994, p. 199) Through its organic

certainty of his hand, Untitled XV bears every sign of

forms, Untitled XV boasts every sign of this certainty,

the artist’s many gifts at their most intense: chromatic

presenting a dual celebration of the material world

brilliance, formal balance and counterbalance and an

and pure, unadulterated abstraction. Here, poetry is

overwhelming sense of dynamism. “I feel that I have

made plastic, music is made material and an exacting,

found myself more,” the artist mused in the last years

pristine equilibrium is found: the ultimate coda for the

of his career, “the sense that I have all my strength

career of one of art history’s most daring innovators.

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E L L S WO R T H K E L LY 1 923 - 2015

B L AC K W H I T E signed, dated 1970 and numbered 436B (on the stretcher); numbered 436A (on the stretcher) oil on canvas, on two joined panels 70 by 107 ½ in. 177.8 by 273.1 cm.

Executed in 1970. $ 2,000,000-3,000,000

PROVENANCE

L I T E R AT U R E

The artist (until 1997)

John Coplans, Ellsworth Kelly, New York, 1971, no. 195, p. 262, illustrated in color

Matthew Marks Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in May 1997 by the present owner EXHIBITED

Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum; London, Hayward Gallery; Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou; and Baden, Staaliche Kunsthalle, Ellsworth Kelly: Paintings and Sculptures 19631979, December 1979 - September 1980, no. 8, p. 63, illustrated (Amsterdam); no. 3, pp. 38-39, 61 illustrated (Paris)

Exh. Cat., New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Ellsworth Kelly, 1973, pp. 88, 90, illustrated in color Mark Stephen Archer, The New Formal: Interiors

by James Aman, New York, 2016, p. 128, illustrated in color (in installation)

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting: 1980-1985, November 1986 - November 1987 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Visual Conversations: Selections from the Collection, September - December 2012

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A

seminal masterwork, Black White from

that shattered the boundaries between Minimalism,

1970 dates to the peak of Ellsworth Kelly’s

Hard Edge Painting, Op-Art, and Color Field painting.

highly acclaimed mature practice and is an

A quintessential example of the artist’s celebrated

incomparable embodiment of the artist’s

series of relief paintings which spanned over six

profound impact on twentieth century art. Within this

decades, Black White typifies the apex of Kelly’s iconic

monochromatic binary is a resolved culmination of the

disruptions of the two-dimensional picture plane, which

artist’s career-long inquiry within artmaking’s liminal

not only advanced but redefined abstraction in the last

spaces: what lies between painting and sculpture,

century. Held in the distinguished collection of Emily

abstraction and derivation, absence and presence are

Fisher Landau for nearly 30 years, Black White stands

made material in the two joined triangular panels of the

as a testament to Kelly’s radical inquiry into the very

present work. Lauded early in his career as a champion

foundations of artistic expression through his rigorous

of postwar American artistic identity, Kelly worked

conceptual enterprise.

alongside such burgeoning icons as Jasper Johns,

Kelly first rose to critical acclaim in the 1950s,

Frank Stella, and Robert Rauschenberg, but it was the

during which he had his first exhibition at the Betty

radicality, sculptural gravitas, and complete embrace

Parsons Gallery in 1956, following his return from Paris

of color and form in Kelly’s joint-panel compositions

in 1954. The conceptual framework of Kelly’s shaped

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Above: Piet Mondrian, Tableau I: Lozenge with Four Lines and Gray, 1926. The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 Mondrian/ Holtzman Trust Opposite: Agnes Martin, Jack Youngerman, and Ellsworth Kelly on the roof of 3-5 Coenties Slip, New York, 1958. Photo © 2023 Hans Namuth Estate / Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona

T H E F O R M S F O U N D I N T H E VA U LT I N G O F A C AT H E D R A L O R E V E N A S P L AT T E R O F TA R O N T H E R O A D S E E M E D M O R E VA L I D A N D I N ST R U CT I V E A N D A M O R E VO LU P T U O U S E X P E R I E N C E T H A N E I T H E R G E O M E T R I C O R A C T I O N PA I N T I N G . I N S T E A D O F M A K I N G A P I C T U R E T H AT WA S A N I N T E R P R E TAT I O N O F A T H I N G S E E N ,

Left: The present work installed in Ellsworth Kelly, Paintings and Sculptures 1963-1979, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1979.

Photo © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation. Art © 2023 Ellsworth Kelly

Below: Agnes Martin, Words, 1961. Private Collection. Art © 2023 Estate of Agnes Martin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

O R A P I C T U R E O F I N V E N T E D C O N T E N T, I F O U N D A N O B J E C T A N D ‘ P R E S E N T E D ’ I T A S I T S E L F A LO N E . ” ELLSWO RT H K EL LY, QUOT E D IN D IAN E UP R IG HT, E L LSWORT H K E LLY: WO R KS O N PAPE R , 1987, P. 9

Executed in 1970, Black White was completed in Spencertown, after Kelly left Manhattan to move upstate that same year. Its stark geometry is perhaps inspired by the artist’s newfound perspective, as he interrogated Manhattan’s skyline from the doorsteps of his Catskills farmhouse. The expansive silence of his new home brought tranquility to Kelly’s mind and reminded him that “we see many different kinds of shapes. Roofs, walls, ceilings are all rectangles, but we don’t see them that way. In reality they’re very elusive forms” (the artist in conversation with Charles Hagan, “The Shape of Seeing: Ellsworth Kelly’s Photographs,” Aperture Magazine, Fall 1991, p. 4). Unbound by the constraints posed by objective representation, Black White unifies figure and ground into one entity—a single shape wedded to monochromatic fields. Perfectly balanced within the scope of the most fundamental elements of painting: color, shape, and form, Black White stands as a shining example of Kelly’s rigorous examination of the foundations of artistic endeavor.

canvases stems from his years in France, where artist

forms found in the vaulting of a cathedral or even a

John Cage and Hans Arp encouraged him to experiment

splatter of tar on the road seemed more valid and

with chance and tension, spurring his interest in

instructive and a more voluptuous experience than

geometric abstraction. The composition in Black White

either geometric or action painting. Instead of making

brilliantly captures Kelly’s bold employment of form and

a picture that was an interpretation of a thing seen, or

hue to create tension as a source of pictorial energy.

a picture of invented content, I found an object and

Using only the purest and simplest shapes and colors,

‘presented’ it as itself alone” (the artist quoted in Diane

Kelly’s monochromatic scheme of tonal opposition

Upright, Ellsworth Kelly: Works on Paper, 1987, p. 9).

culminates in a dramatic tension of depth and vibrancy

Here, the arresting complexity of the stark white form

to rival the full color wheel. There is a specific sensuality

juxtaposed with its equal in darkest black creates a

and intimacy in Kelly’s articulation of two forms,

remarkable optical effect, lending an sensational depth

touching or barely touching; as Kelly described, “The

and intricacy to the monochromatic forms.

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RICHARD PRINCE b. 1 9 4 9

M Y F I R ST G I R L signed, titled and dated 1989 (on the overlap) acrylic and silkscreen on canvas 75 ¼ by 58 in. 191.1 by 147.3 cm.

Executed in 1989. $ 2,500,000-3,500,000

PROVENANCE

Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York Laura Carpenter Fine Art, Santa Fe (acquired from the above in 1989) Acquired from the above in August 1991 by the present owner EXHIBITED

New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Literary Devices, October 2014 - March 2015 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Language As Representation, September 2016 January 2017 West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, A Remarkable Gathering: The Fisher Landau Family Collection, March - September 2022

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R

endered in ink blue lettering upon an ochre

A C H I L D O F ‘ 6 8 , P R I N C E E M B R A C E D R E B E L L I O N A S A S TAT E

background, My First Girl is a quintessential

O F M I N D. T H E G E N E R AT I O N A L B E L I E F I N C H A L L E N G I N G

example of the deadpan, provocative irony

A U T H O R I T Y A S A WAY O F L I F E — A N E C E S S I T Y B O R N I N A N T I WA R

that defines Richard Prince’s seminal

Monochromatic Joke series. Daring his viewers to take

M A R C H E S O N WA S H I N GTO N , R A C E R I OT S T H R O U G H O U T

a lewd one-liner for a work of fine art, Prince began

T H E U N I T E D S TAT E S , A N D S T U D E N T P R OT E S T S A R O U N D T H E

utilizing found jokes in 1985 during an extended stay

W O R L D — I N F O R M S T H E V E R Y FA B R I C O F H I S A R T. ”

in Los Angeles. “It was there that he really understood what he was doing with the jokes and cartoons,”

NANCY S P ECTOR, “ NOWHERE MAN,” IN EXH. CAT. , NEW YORK, THE SOLOM ON R . GUG G E NHE I M M US EUM (AND TRAVELING), RICHA RD PRINCE: SPIRITUA L A MERICA , 20 07-0 8, P. 2 2

posited curator Lisa Phillips. “Perhaps it was the dark side of LA, where the worlds of Hollywood and TV rub up against the counterculture: the cults, serial murderers, dropouts, end of the roaders–the other side

linguistic essentials and devoid of artistic gesture, the

of paradise” (Lisa Phillips, “People Keep Asking: An Introduction,” in: Exh. Cat., New York, Whitney Museum

typed-out gags were silkscreened against backgrounds

of American Art (and traveling), Richard Prince,

of flat and strident color. Inciting and matter of fact,

1992, p. 42). Further demonstrating his disregard

Prince’s jokes would present as the antithesis of the

for the established artistic milieu of his time, Prince

era’s dominant Neo-Expressionist style: “they seemed

wryly inserts ‘low’ culture into a ‘high’ art backdrop.

to be a joke on painting,” noted Lisa Whitney, “and a

Subversive and irreverent, Prince’s My First Girl deploys

joke on the idea that art is something to be labored

humor as a universal human condition.

over’’ (Ibid., 1992, p. 45).

Executed in 1989, My First Girl is Richard Prince’s

A tangential departure from the re-photographs that established Prince as part of the public

paramount gender-bending joke, serving as testament

consciousness in the early 1980s, Prince’s radical

to the belief that his complete oeuvre can be best

Monochromatic Joke series would test his newfound

understood as a struggle to reconcile his own

relationship with painting. In embrace of an American

masculine identity. A culturally provocative ‘anti-

cultural influence, Prince belongs to the first generation

masterpiece,’ the present work is an amalgamation of

weaned on glossy magazines, ubiquitous television

hard-edge abstraction and off-color wit, all in the name

and rampant consumerism. “A child of ‘68,” as Nancy

of subverting the serious. With suggestions of innuendo,

Spector described him, “Prince embraced rebellion as

My First Girl reveals the attitudes and tensions typically

a state of mind. The generational belief in challenging

buried beneath the surface of social interactions.

authority as a way of life–a necessity born in antiwar

Presented with a deadpan sensibility, My First Girl

unattributed and unsigned puns–quoted without

is at once disarmingly immediate and resonant, yet

license and represented in a pragmatic manner–make

marches on Washington, race riots throughout the United States, and student protests around the world– informs the very fabric of his art” (Nancy Spector, “Nowhere Man,” in: Exh. Cat., New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (and traveling), Richard Prince: Spiritual America, 2007-08, p. 22). What started as the handwritten transcription of jokes and cartoons quickly transformed, as Prince chose to abolish any trace of illustration on the canvas. Stripped down to their bare

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Right: Edward Ruscha, OOF, 1962. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © Ed Ruscha Opposite: Marcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q., 1919. Private Collection.

Art © 2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Estate of Marcel Duchamp

subversive in its underlying intent.

In the vein of “fifties-style, middle America, blue

a damning indictment of the notions of authorship and originality that the art world deems sacrosanct. In the

collar, Borscht Belt humor” (Ibid., p. 42), Prince’s

antiheroic pursuit of destabilizing our already accepted

Monochromatic Joke paintings can be read as criticism

reality, Prince focuses on the ordinary with a deliberate

with a vengeance. By bluntly isolating issues of

redundancy. As such, cultural provocation is the fiber

sexuality, race and class in the form of an ostensibly

that binds the overall tenor of his comprehensive

playful one-liner, he exposes a society built on

artistic practice, and specifically his striking

malevolence and perversity. At the same time, these

Monochromatic Jokes.

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26

R O B E R T R AU S C H E N B E R G 1 925 - 20 08

V I TA M I N oil, printed paper, cardboard, rubber, plastic, nails and hooks on canvas 60 by 54 by 7 in. 152.4 by 137.2 by 17.8 cm.

Executed in 1960 and 1968. $ 4,000,000-6,000,000

PROVENANCE

L I T E R AT U R E

The artist

Marjorie Welish, “Artful Balance,” House and Garden, vol. 157, no. 5, May 1985, pp. 164-65, illustrated in color

Acquired directly from the above in May 1982 by the present owner EXHIBITED

New York, Leo Castelli, Summary 1959-1960, May - June 1960 (prior to the addition of the cardboard element)

John Thomason, “Norton’s New Exhibition a Trove of Contemporary Art Riches,” Boca Magazine, 16 March 2022 (online)

Des Moines Art Center, Six Decades of American Painting of the Twentieth Century, February - March 1961 (prior to the addition of the cardboard element) Oberlin College, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Three Young Americans, January 1963 (prior to the addition of the cardboard element) New York, Washington Square Galleries, World Show, June 1964 (prior to the addition of the cardboard element) New York, Museum of Modern Art, In Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, October - November 1968 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Paint and Painted: Paintings and Sculptures from the Collection, May 1993 - April 1995 New York, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Paintings and Sculpture, December 2001 April 2003 Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art; Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou; and Stockholm, Moderna Museet, Robert Rauschenberg: Combines, May 2006 - May 2007, no. 117, p. 138, illustrated in color

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A

work of remarkable intimacy, vitality,

terms by which art was made and considered, deviating

and ingenuity, Vitamin is a magnificent

from a delineation of singular meaning and mode. The

summation of Robert Rauschenberg’s most

present work, titled after the nutrient essential to living

defining format within his utterly unique

organisms, exemplifies the artist’s desire to work in the

practice. Rauschenberg’s Combines, of which Vitamin

gap between art and life as it juxtaposes vibrant green

is a quintessential example, signaled a revolution in the

gestural painting and everyday materials, including a

history of American art. Through an embrace of non-

commercially branded cardboard box, to evoke the

traditional materials, a concern for formal composition,

movement and changeability of life. Every inch of

and a rejection of the contemporaneous art historical

this superb piece’s richly variegated surface serves

narrative, Rauschenberg redefined the traditional

to describe Rauschenberg’s distinctive conceptual

boundaries between painting and sculpture, developing

project, one that remained steadfastly creative and

a new means of artistic expression and sensitivity

experimental for over sixty years.

toward the framework of modern art. These threedimensional works, such as Vitamin, reinvented the

With a celebrated sense of invention, Rauschenberg brilliantly fused the once disparate genres of painting

Left: Jasper Johns, Painting with Two Balls, 1960. Collection of the artist. Art © 2023 Jasper Johns / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY Opposite: Robert Rauschenberg and his dog Laika in the chapel at 381 Lafayette Street, the present work pictured behind him.

Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Archives, New York. Photo: William S. Wilson, 1967. Art © 2023 Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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and sculpture into a distinctive aesthetic, thus

Combines represent the invention of a hybrid form of

devising his own unique challenge to the preceding

art that draws from the vocabularies of both painting

decades of innovation, as well as contributing the

and sculpture and invests objects with a sense of

ultimate breakthrough for the visual arts in the second

drama and theatricality as they become part of a

half of the twentieth century. As a student at Black

larger whole… At a time when the primacy of New York

Mountain College in 1950-52, Rauschenberg was

School painting remained relatively unchallenged, the

greatly influenced by the work of John Cage as well

Combines paved the way for a new direction in art”

as Dadaist collage, all contributing to his appreciation

(Paul Schimmel, “Autobiography and Self-Portraiture

for chance and accident in free-form composition. In

in Rauschenberg’s Combines,” in Exh. Cat., Los

defiance of Renaissance perspective, he began to

Angeles, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Robert

build his pictures out into the viewer’s space so that

Rauschenberg: Combines, 2005, p. 211).

they came to operate somewhere between painting

Vitamin is distinguished amongst the Combines

and sculpture, in a new frontier of the visual arts

by a particular gestural dynamism and compositional

described by Rauschenberg as “combine-paintings.” He

elegance. Featuring some of Rauschenberg’s most

translated this dichotomy into his art with the use of

gestural painting of the period, the extraordinary visual

found objects in the service of painting, merging them

dynamism of the saturated green, yellow, black, and

into landscapes of pigment, sculpture, and object. As

white pigment invites associations to such heroic

Paul Schimmel recounts: “Robert Rauschenberg’s

figures of Abstract Expressionism as Willem de Kooning

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RAUSCHENBERG’S COMBINES REPRESENT THE INVENTION OF A H Y B R I D F O R M O F A R T T H AT D R AW S F R O M T H E V O C A B U L A R I E S O F B OT H PA I N T I N G A N D S C U L P T U R E A N D I N V E S T S O B J E C T S W I T H A S E N S E O F D R A M A A N D T H E AT R I C A L I T Y A S T H E Y B E C O M E PA R T O F A L A R G E R W H O L E … AT A T I M E W H E N T H E P R I M A C Y O F N E W YO R K S C H O O L PA I N T I N G R E M A I N E D R E L AT I V E LY U N C H A L L E N G E D, T H E C O M B I N E S PAV E D T H E WAY F O R A N E W D I R E C T I O N I N A R T. ” PAUL SC H I MMEL , “AU TO B IO G RAP HY AN D S E LF-P O RT RAIT UR E IN RAUSC H E NB E RG’S CO M B INES,” IN E XH . CAT., LOS A N GEL ES, T H E MUSEU M O F CO N T E M P O RARY ART, ROB E RT RAUSCH E NB E RG: CO M B INES, 2005, P. 2 1 1

and Franz Kline, as, coursing down the canvas, the

affixed the open cardboard box in 1968. Its branded logo

extensive drips of paint emphasize the energetic

of a runner wearing a t-shirt for Milgray Electronics Inc.

machismo with which the color has been applied.

is still visible beneath the green paint; Rauschenberg

Challenging the privileged status of color and gesture

may have added the box because these visual elements

upon canvas in the dominant abstract lexicon, however,

resonated with his ideas of movement, change, and

Rauschenberg invests his canvas with the linguistic

the ephemerality of life. Further, Rauschenberg’s

texture of printed paper, and the protruding volume of

incorporation of a page from a “don’t forget” notepad

the cardboard box, plastic disc, and rubber ring. Though

draws added attention to time and the process of

the composition was first created in 1960, Rauschenberg

memory, reinforcing the theme of life’s changes. The

Opposite: The present work installed in Robert Rauschenberg: Combines, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2004.

Photo © Brian Forrest, courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art. Art © 2023 Robert Rauschenberg Foundation /Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Right: Willem de Kooning, Merritt Parkway, 1959.

Detroit Institute of Arts.

Image: Bridgeman Images. Art © 2023 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

muscularity of Rauschenberg’s painterly brushstrokes

and Pablo Picasso’s innovative sculptural oeuvre.

is offset by his embrace of such contemporary debris,

However, in its remarkable, near opulent vibrancy and

with the ephemerality of these discarded materials

gestural bravado, Vitamin illustrates Rauschenberg’s

coming to the fore. The bravura combination of collaged

innovative mode of painterly and sculptural fusion in

objects and expressionistic, highly colored paint-strokes

his Combines of the period. As described by Calvin

is emblematic of the artist’s seemingly endless ability for

Tomkins, “Rauschenberg’s real motive was curiosity, an

brash, restless experimentation.

intense and constantly renewed curiosity about what a

In the years 1958-60, immediately preceding

picture was or was not, and his curiosity led him to test,

Vitamin’s execution, Rauschenberg’s neighborhood

more and more radically, the boundaries that other

was rapidly transformed by the construction of the

people had set up around art” (Calvin Tomkins, Off the

South Street Elevated Highway and, subsequently,

Wall: A Portrait of Robert Rauschenberg, New York, 1980,

the towering sixty-story behemoth of the new Chase

p. 86). Rauschenberg worked tirelessly to disrupt these

Manhattan Bank skyscraper. Drawing upon the energy

traditional distinctions, creating inventive works such

of his ever-changing environs and the urban detritus

as Vitamin, which are distinguished by the singular

of the city, the Combines integrate found objects in

dynamism and compositional elegance that define his

a manner reminiscent of Marcel Duchamp’s anti-art

inimitable career.

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27

FRANZ KLINE 1 91 0 - 19 62

UNTITLED signed and dated ‘59 (on the reverse) oil on canvas 49 ½ by 40 ¼ in. 125.7 by 102.2 cm.

Executed in 1959. $ 3,000,000-5,000,000

PROVENANCE

EXHIBITED

Sidney Janis Gallery, New York

Kunsthalle Basel, Bilanz Internationale Malerei seit 1950, June - August 1964, no. 99

Peter Schub, New York (acquired from the above in December 1959) G. David Thompson, Pittsburgh (acquired from the above) Private Collection, Basel (acquired from the above) Galerie Beyeler, Basel (acquired by 1962) Pace Gallery, New York (acquired from the above in March 1969) Acquired from the above in November 1969 by the present owner

Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Amerikanische Kunst aus Schweizer Besitz, October - November 1966, no. 68 West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, A Remarkable Gathering: The Fisher Landau Family Collection, March - September 2022 L I T E R AT U R E

Marjorie Welish, “Artful Balance,” House and Garden, vol. 157, no. 5, May 1985, pp. 164-165, illustrated in color Mark Stephen Archer, The New Formal: Interiors by James Aman, New York, 2016, p. 19, illustrated in color (in installation)

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Right: Kazimir Malevich, Supremus No. 50, 1915.

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Image © Fine Art Images / Bridgeman Images Opposite: The present work installed in Bilanz Internationale Malerei seit 1950, Kunsthalle Basel, 1964. Photo © Courtesy of Kunsthalle Basel. Art © 2023 The Franz Kline Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

A

t once rigorously architectural and

friend, Willem de Kooning. A draftsman to the core,

W H E N I LO O K O U T T H E W I N D O W — I ’ V E A LWAY S L I V E D I N T H E C I T Y —

unrestrainedly dynamic, Untitled invokes

Kline rigorously focused on structure, whether in the

images of towering structures and roaring

force of broad individual strokes or the refined balance

I D O N ’ T S E E T R E E S I N B LO O M O R M O U N TA I N L A U R E L . W H AT I D O S E E —

automotive forces that, while entirely

of layering black over white or white over black, all

O R R AT H E R , N OT W H AT I S E E B U T T H E F E E L I N G S A R O U S E D I N M E B Y

abstract, articulate the artist’s fascination with the

within the confines of a single canvas such as Untitled.

T H AT LO O K I N G — I S W H AT I PA I N T. ”

revolutionary industrial and urban forms of the modern

As testament to its indefatigable visual potency, the

age. Painted in 1959 at the very apex of Kline’s most

present work has held a privileged position within the

revered stylistic period, Untitled powerfully manifests

illustrious collection of Emily Fisher Landau for over

Kline’s internalized response to the gritty and urban

five decades, since it was acquired from Pace Gallery in

environs of Manhattan, an atmosphere ingrained into

1969. Kline’s signature pictorial language was founded

the very core of the Abstract Expressionist identity.

on the dynamic juxtaposition of the two essential

The fast-paced, brash city is a formative undercurrent

and basic chromatic components that have come to

to much of the Action Painting that established New

describe his legacy, and Untitled, as a quintessential

York as the new center of the art world in the post-war

example of the artist’s enduring aesthetic influence,

years of the mid-twentieth century, and this propulsive

ultimately celebrates the inherent tension between

atmosphere was deeply embedded in the energetic

these two dichotomous forces.

and symbiotic compositions that poured forth in the

The tracery of broad strokes that demarcate the

1950s from the brushes of both Franz Kline and his

architectonic structure of Untitled retell the narrative

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THE ARTIST CITED IN EXH. CAT. , WAS HINGTON, D.C. , THE P HI L L I PS COL L ECTI ON (A ND TRAV E L L I NG), F RA NZ KL INE: THE COLOR A BSTRACTIONS, 1979, P. 16

of its execution, as well as the speed and vigor of the

its highly architectural upward surge of pigment

artist’s practice. Kline’s signature style of thick, broad

bisected and interrupted by equally dominant

brushstrokes, applied with an unerring calculation

diagonals, is redolent of the exoskeletal construction

cloaked as apparent spontaneity, betrays little sign

ubiquitous to the soaring skyscrapers of Manhattan.

of the careful study with which he planned each

Untitled thus offers an abstracted reference to

composition. Untitled is infused with an energy that

the infrastructure of the city, as the framework of

implies the rhythms of the streets of cosmopolitan

traversing lines form a scaffolding to support the

life; the dramatic centrality of the present work, with

power of Kline’s paintbrush and a bustling intersection

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work. His emphasis on ‘feeling’ as the proper criterion for a painter was not casual. Those great diagonals he favored reflected his inner rhythms, his own way of vaulting into the grand spaces he envisioned. How endemic to his whole being those diagonal trajectories were, can be gauged by the way he danced… He had an impulse to shoot out into space, to slam through a wilderness of black and white and reach a climax of total freedom… He dances as he paints, beating out an idiosyncratic rhythm over sustained periods, and then suddenly, and with élan, breaks the rhythm dramatically by shooting out one foot in a precipitous accent grave movement” (Dore Ashton, “Kline as he was and as he is,” in Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Ed., Franz Kline: 1910-1962, 2004, p. 28).

Many of Kline’s greatest paintings are marked by an impressive and iconic simplicity, as evinced by the tectonic elegance of Untitled. No less an observer than Elaine de Kooning famously stated, “It was Kline’s unique gift to be able to translate the character and the of painterly bravura. Informed as it was by Kline’s

speed of a one-inch flick of the wrist to a brushstroke

immediate surroundings, the present work thrives in

magnified a hundred times” (Exh. Cat., Washington,

its celebration of the tactile presence of provocatively

D.C., Gallery of Modern Art, Franz Kline Memorial

painted surfaces, with a dramatic tension between

Exhibition, 1962, p. 16). With its gentle wisps of white

form and gesture, surface and volume, process and

that surround the black web that spans the canvas’s

speed equal to the innovations of his fellow Abstract

vast expanse, the present work belies the misleading

Expressionists at mid-century.

assumption that Kline simply painted heavy black

Like the work of his contemporaries Willem

strokes over white backgrounds. Rather, the artist

de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Joan Mitchell,

unerringly alternated between the two colors to achieve

Kline’s paintings possess an enduring power and

a taut, unified composition and atmospheric grounds,

dynamism traceable to their alignment with what

improvised through a strong instinct for symmetry.

critic Harold Rosenberg famously termed “Action

One senses that each application of one color invited

Painting.” In works like Untitled, visible brushstrokes,

a corresponding gesture from the other, so that the

drips, splashes, and other forceful gestures serve as

balanced dynamism of Untitled evokes a strong kinetic

evidence of the vigorous physical action that took

response from the viewer as if we too are standing at

place upon the canvas. As Dore Ashton remembered

Kline’s window, looking upon the churning metropolis

of Kline, “Every nerve was enlisted while he was at

below and absorbing its ineffable energy.

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Left: Willem de Kooning, Black Friday, 1948.

Princeton University Art Museum. Image: Art Resource, NY. Art © 2023 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Opposite: The artist photographed in his studio, New York, 1961. Photo © Fred W. McDarrah / Getty Images. Art © 2023 The Franz Kline Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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28

GEORGIA O’KEEFFE 1 887 - 19 86

D RY WAT E R FA L L titled and dated 51 (on the original backing board) oil on canvas 30 by 16 in. 76.2 by 40.6 cm.

Executed in 1951. $ 1,200,000-1,800,000

PROVENANCE

L I T E R AT U R E

The artist

Doris Bry and Nicholas Calloway, eds., George O’Keeffe: In the West, New York, 1989, pl. 64, p. 91, illustrated in color

Acquired directly from the above in November 1985 by the present owner EXHIBITED

Santa Fe, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Inaugural Exhibition, June 1997 - January 1998 Santa Fe, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum; Columbus Museum of Art; and Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Georgia O’Keeffe and New Mexico: A Sense of Place, June 2004 - May 2005, pl. 46, pp. 103 and 133, illustrated in color (with incorrect dimensions) Santa Fe, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum; West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art; Washington, D.C., Smithsonian American Art Museum; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams: Natural Affinities, May 2008 - September 2009, pp. 83 and 165, illustrated in color

Georgia O’Keeffe: Paintings, London, 1994, no. 23, illustrated in color Martin Filler, “An Artful Oasis,” House Beautiful, vol. 140, issue 3, March 1998, pp. 78-79, illustrated in color (in situ) Barbara Buhler Lynes, Georgia O’Keeffe: Catalogue Raisonné, vol. II, New Haven, 1999, no. 1226, p. 764, illustrated in color Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, Full Bloom: The Art and Life of Georgia O’Keeffe, New York, 2004, p. 445 Mark Stephen Archer, The New Formal: Interiors by James Aman, New York, 2016, p. 12, illustrated in color (in installation)

West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, A Remarkable Gathering: The Fisher Landau Family Collection, March - September 2022

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F

ollowing major retrospectives at The Art

working in the American Southwest completely

Institute of Chicago and The Museum of

transformed her approach to painting and therefore

her winter and spring months in Abiquiu and the fall and

Modern Art in 1943 and 1946 respectively,

the content of her late works.

summer seasons at Ghost Ranch allowed O’Keeffe to fully

national attention for Georgia O’Keeffe’s

Museum of American Art, New York, 1981, p. 7). Spending

Completed in 1951, Dry Waterfall was executed at

immerse herself in the desert topography. As such, her

art was at an all time high. In the fall of 1950, An

the height of O’Keeffe’s artistic career and the peak of

1950s pictures sought inspiration in the quiet yet awe-

American Place held a five-year survey of her work

her dedication to New Mexican subject matter. “I can not

inspiring beauty of Abiquiu.

as their final exhibition before closing permanently in

tell you how pleased I am to be back in this world again –

O’Keeffe’s appreciation for the New Mexico

the wake of Alfred Stieglitz’s death. Beyond O’Keeffe’s

what a feeling of relief it is to me,” she wrote in a letter to a

landscape surfaced in the summer of 1929, following

commercial success at the start of the decade, her

friend dated 1950 (letter from Georgia O’Keeffe to William

a stay in Taos with her artist friend, Rebecca Strand.

decision to permanently move to New Mexico in 1949

Howard Schubart, dated 26 October 1950, as quoted

“You know I never feel at home anywhere like I do out

for the remainder of her life marked a critical moment

in Patterson Sims, Georgia O’Keeffe, A Concentration

here,” she wrote in a letter to Henry McBride that same

in her artistic career. Her commitment to living and

of Works from the Permanent Collection of the Whitney

year. “I finally feel in the right space again, I feel like myself again and I like it” (letter from Georgia O’Keeffe to Henry McBride, dated 1929 from Taos). The desert had an immediate impact on O’Keeffe and her artistry, prompting annual returns to New Mexico until she settled there permanently, exactly twenty years later.

A stark contrast to the skyscrapers in Manhattan and barns and floral subjects at Lake George that historically occupied her mind, the cliffs near Ghost Ranch soon consumed the majority of O’Keeffe’s oeuvre.

“I go out of my back door and walk for fifteen

Above: Richard Diebenkorn, Ocean Park #122, San Francisco Museum of Art. Art © 2023 Richard Diebenkorn Opposite: Todd Webb, Georgia O’Keeffe in Canyon de Chelly, 1957.

Photo © Todd Webb Archive

New Mexico heat. The weathered surface of the sun-

minutes and I am some place that I’ve never been

baked cliffs fades from light brown to deep red from

before, where it seems that no one has ever been

one edge of the canvas to the other. By repeatedly

before me,” O’Keeffe exclaimed of New Mexico’s

studying individual waterfalls, cliffs, and hills in

appeal (Georgia O’Keeffe, as quoted in Carol Taylor,

her backyard, O’Keeffe masterfully executes each

“Lady Dynamo-Miss O’Keeffe, Noted Artists, Is a

crack and fissure within the terrain. Dry Waterfall is

Feminist, New York World Telegram, 31 March 1945,

a testament to the artist’s deep familiarity with the

p. 9). Dry Waterfall depicts an area of sharp cliffs

American Southwest, a result of decades of careful

located near the artist’s adopted hometown of

study of the New Mexican landscape dating back

Abiquiu, a site whose heroic scale and deep grooves

over twenty years.

proved visually stimulating to O’Keeffe. She revisited

Emily Fisher Landau acquired the present work in

the motif on several occasions, rising early in the

November of 1985, a few months prior to the artist’s

morning to capture the scintillating crevices of the

passing in March of 1986; it has resided in Fisher

cliffs at various times of day in the slowly changing

Landau’s personal collection for nearly forty years.

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JEAN DUBUFFET 1 901 - 19 8 5

GAMBADE À LA ROSE signed and dated 50 (lower right) oil on canvas 51 by 63 ¾ in. 129.5 by 161.9 cm.

Executed in December 1950. $ 3,000,000-4,000,000

PROVENANCE

L I T E R AT U R E

Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York

Max Loreau, ed., Catalogue des travaux de Jean Dubuffet, Fascicule VI: Corps de dames, Lucerne, 1965, no. 116, p. 84, illustrated

Alfonso Ossorio, New York (acquired from the above by 1952)

Acquired from the above in November 1981 by the present owner

Exh. Cat., London, Thomas Gibson Fine Art, Fourteen Paintings: De Kooning, Dubuffet, Ossorio, Pollock, Still, 1976, n.p., illustrated in color

EXHIBITED

Michel Thévoz, Dubuffet, Geneva, 1986, p. 61, illustrated in color

New York, Museum of Modern Art, The Work of Jean Dubuffet, February - April 1962, no. 71

Exh. Cat., Cologne, Museum Ludwig, EuropaAmerika: die Geschichte einer

New York, Pace Gallery, De Kooning/Dubuffet: The Women, November 1990 - January 1991, no. 46, pp. 13, 92-93

künstlerischen Faszination seit 1940, 1986, no. 12, p. 122, illustrated

Pace Gallery, New York

Mildred Glimcher and Jean Dubuffet, Jean Dubuffet: Towards an Alternative Reality, New York, 1987, pp. 112-113, illustrated in color Andreas Franzke, Dubuffet, Cologne, 1990, no. 2, p. 15, illustrated Mildred Glimcher, Adventures in Art, 40 Years at Pace, New York, 2001, p. 323, illustrated in color Exh. Cat., Washington D.C., The Phillips Collection (and travelling), Angels, Demons, and Savages: Pollock, Ossorio, Dubuffet, 2013, n.p., illustrated and illustrated on the cover (in installation) Mark Stephen Archer, The New Formal: Interiors by James Aman, New York, 2016, p. 18, illustrated in color (in installation)

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A

n early and quintessential manifestation

manifests the narrative of artistic development in

of Jean Dubuffet’s inimitable aesthetic

the Post-War era, having been held in the esteemed

revolution, Gambade à la rose demonstrates

collection of artist Alfonso Ossorio, a close friend of

the raw and textured tactility that

Dubuffet. Acquired by Emily Fisher Landau in 1981,

characterizes his most important work. Executed on

the present work has remained in her distinguished

an imposing scale, the present work is one of a group

collection for over forty years, attesting to its lasting

of ten canvases described in the artist’s catalogue

importance.

raisonné as “mind-blowing and visionary” (Max Loreau,

Dubuffet pursued the idea that art should be a

Catalogue des travaux de Jean Dubuffet: Corps de

direct reflection of emotion and instincts, without being

dames, Fascicule VI, Paris, 1965). Painted in 1950, the

sullied by the distorting effects of what he called art

same period during which he developed his now iconic

culturel—academic training and historical conventions.

Corps de Dames series, these works are celebrated

As he explained, “Nothing seems to me more false,

for their revolutionary approach to the female form.

more stupid, than the way students in an art class are

Indeed, the titular rose, with its blooming head and

placed in front of a completely nude woman standing

prominent thorns, acts as a visual metaphor for the

motionless on a table, and stare at her for hours.

challenges of idealized standards of feminine beauty.

The normal conditions under which a man has seen

Like ancient hieroglyphs carved into coarse stone,

unclothed bodies are thus disregarded in a perfectly

Dubuffet’s crudely etched monochrome figures seem

insane fashion, and insane too is the idea that under

to float in an undefined landscape, their anti-aesthetic

such conditions anyone could possibly reconstruct

forms swelling in protest against traditional standards

anything resembling the image of a naked woman as

of artistry and convention. Gambade à la rose further

it exists normally in an ordinary man’s memory” (the

Right: Pablo Picasso, Baigneuse, 1928. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes.

Image © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY Art © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Opposite: Jean Dubuffet in his Paris studio, 1951. Photo © Robert Doisneau / GammaRapho / Getty Images.

Art © 2023 Fondation Dubuffet, Paris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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artist cited in Exh. Cat., Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn

Alongside Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

Museum and Sculpture Garden, Jean Dubuffet 1943-

and Willem de Kooning’s Woman paintings, Dubuffet’s

1963: Paintings Sculptures Assemblages, 1993, p. 74).

women stand as some of the most important renditions

Influenced by Hans Brinzhorn’s book Artistry of the

of the female figure in the twentieth century. These

Mentally Ill, Dubuffet coined the term Art Brut, meaning

radically different interpretations were the artists’

“raw” or “outsider” art, to classify a mode of creation that

response to the classical tradition which had dominated

functioned outside the aesthetic norm and celebrated,

art for centuries, but Dubuffet’s paintings went much

instead, the quotidian and the commonplace.

further. As Peter Selz wrote in 1962 of Dubuffet’s figures,

In Gambade à la rose, Dubuffet irreverently

“These pictures… are surely among the most aggressively

disarms the accepted traditional deception of

shocking works known to the history of painting. By their

naturalistic perspective, accentuating his figures’

brutal attack on “Woman” they violate our sacred and

two-dimensionality through a linear syntax of

dearly held concepts of mother, wife, mistress, beloved,

reductive and simplified forms. Filling the entire

daughter, and sister, as well as the very principles of

picture plane, their cavorting bodies command,

beauty derived from erotic desires in most cultures…

stretch and expand to fill the space they occupy, a

Some of the bodies are like geographic maps in which

far cry from the elegant classicism of ancient Greece,

schematic signs for arms, breasts, buttocks, thighs,

or the idealized goddesses of nineteenth century

appear as though they were conventional symbols…

salon painting. Dubuffet’s radically distorted women

They are primordial women, who in all their repulsive

are further emphasized by his treatment of pigment:

brutality speak most revealingly about the human

the scored, scraped, and carved surface, thickly

animal, at times satisfied, at times alarming, but always

rendered in viscous oil paint, accentuates the raw,

grotesque” (in Exh. Cat., New York, Museum of Modern

distorted lines of the flattened figures.

Art, The Work of Jean Dubuffet, 1962, p. 48).

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Willem de Kooning, Two Women with Still Life, 1952. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Art © 2023 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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FERNAND LÉGER 1 881 - 19 55

L’ É TO I L E R O U G E ( L E S P LO N G E U R S ) signed F. Léger. and dated 42 (lower right); signed, dated and titled L’Étoile rouge (on the reverse) oil on canvas 32 by 27 in. 81.3 by 68.6 cm.

Executed in 1942. $ 1,500,000-2,000,000

PROVENANCE

Valentine Gallery, New York (probably acquired directly from the artist) Perls Galleries, New York (acquired by 1962) Acquired from the above in June 1968 by the present owner EXHIBITED

New York, The Museum of Modern Art; Bloomfield Hills, Cranbrook Art Museum and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, European Artists in the United States, November 1945 - June 1946 New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Fernand Leger: Five Themes and Variations, February - April 1962, no. 18, pp. 21 and 36, illustrated L I T E R AT U R E

André Verdet, Fernand Léger, Le dynamisme pictural, Geneva, 1955, no. 37, illustrated (titled Les Plongeurs and catalogued with incorrect dimensions) Georges Bauquier, Fernand Léger, catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, 1938-1943, Paris, 1998, no. 1105, pp. 202-203, illustrated in color Mark Stephen Archer, The New Formal: Interiors by James Aman, New York, 2016, p. 12, illustrated in color (in installation)

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linear clarity characteristic of Léger’s distilled late

movement: “In 1942, when I was in New York I was

works. A dense, intricate medley of interchangeable

struck by the advertising projectors on Broadway

appendages and depersonalized faces, the divers

which played upon the street,” Léger recalled. “You’re

convey humanity at its essence. L’Étoile rouge (Les

talking to someone and all of a sudden he becomes

Plongeurs) heralds the boldly contoured renderings

blue. As soon as that color passes another comes and

of the acrobats, construction workers and campers

he becomes red or yellow. That kind of color, the color

that dominate the masterworks of Léger’s final

of the projector is free; free in space. I would like to

decade that celebrate modern life.

Extraordinary in its separation of color and form into two nearly distinct practices, L’Étoile rouge (Les Plongeurs) typifies Léger’s interrogation of the bounds

A

vivacious synthesis of bold linearity and

inspired him to begin a series based on this subject

dazzling hue, L’Étoile rouge (Les Plongeurs)

matter. His five-year American exile, however, formed

from 1942 is an early example of the radical

the catalyst for a completely new form of human

reconceptualization of figuration, color and

The artist recounted: “I left for the United States and

acclaimed late career. The present work is one of

one day went to a swimming pool there. The divers

the very few oil paintings from the artist’s seminal

were no longer five or six but two hundred at once. Just

Les Plongeurs series remaining in private hands;

try and find yourself! Whose is that head? Whose is

others belong to numerous preeminent institutions

that leg? Whose are those arms? I hadn’t a clue. So

including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York;

I scattered the limbs in my picture. I think I was far

The Art Institute of Chicago and the Musée national

closer to the truth in that than Michelangelo was when

Like many of his avant-garde contemporaries, Léger fled France for the United States in 1940 in fear

he studied the detail of the muscles of each limb” (the artist quoted in Werner Schmalenbach, Fernand Léger, Cologne, 1977, p. 110). L’Étoile rouge (Les

of retaliation from the encroaching Nazi regime. While

Plongeurs) constitutes one of the first instances in

awaiting transit on ship from Marseille to New York, the

which the divers are fully devoid of three-dimensional

artist witnessed a group of diving dockworkers that

modeling and are instead articulated with the sharp

248

Painting in Space, 2016, p. 220).

Léger’s radical reinterpretation of essential artistic

between figurative and abstract painting, as well as his

tenets, embodied in the present work, produced a

commitment to the expressive potential of color. The

profound effect on American artists ranging from

divers are suspended amidst amorphous planes of

Ellsworth Kelly to Alexander Calder in subsequent

unmodulated cobalt, vermillion and cadmium yellow

years. L’Etoile rouge (Les Plongeurs) triumphantly

in a daring reassessment of pictorial space. Reflective

affirms the continual stylistic reinvention that marks

of his New York environs, these fields of color radiate

Léger as one of the greatest contributors to twentieth

a luminescence that heightens the divers’ spirited

century art.

figuration in this series and Léger’s subsequent oeuvre.

space that formed the cornerstone of Fernand Léger’s

d’art moderne, Paris.

have the same thing in my canvases” (the artist quoted in Exh. Cat., Cologne, Museum Ludwig, Fernand Léger:

T H E E M I LY F I S H E R L A N DAU C O L L EC T I O N : A N E R A D E F I N E D | E V E N I N G AU C T I O N

Above: The present work installed in Five Themes and Variations, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1962. Photo © Archive Photos/Getty Images.

Art © 2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris Opposite: Joan Miró, Peinture (L’Air), 1938.

Sold at Sotheby’s London for $14.6 million in June 2019. Art © 2023 Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

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A N DY WA R H O L 1 928 - 19 87

E M I LY F I S H E R L A N DAU signed and dated 82 (on the overlap); numbered by the Foundation PO 50.933 (on the stretcher) acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas 40 ⅛ by 40 ⅛ in. 101.9 by 101.9 cm.

Executed in 1982. $ 500,000-700,000

M Y FAV O R I T E A R T I S T I S P R O B A B LY A N DY WA R H O L .

W H AT I R E C O G N I Z E D I N H I M — O R W H AT I F E LT — WA S T H E I N F L U E N C E H E H A D O N OT H E R A R T I S T S . ” EM ILY F I SH ER L A N DAU

PROVENANCE

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York Acquired from the above in June 2003 by the present owner L I T E R AT U R E

Mark Stephen Archer, The New Formal: Interiors by James Aman, New York, 2016, p. 32, illustrated in color (in installation) John Thomason, “Norton’s New Exhibition a Trove of Contemporary Art Riches,” Boca Magazine, 16 March 2022, illustrated in color (online)

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T H E E M I LY F I S H E R L A N DAU C O L L EC T I O N : A N E R A D E F I N E D | E V E N I N G AU C T I O N

Fisher Landau captures the esteemed collector in

not only for fifteen minutes, but, in this incarnation

stunning graphic form.

caught permanently on canvas, ‘forever’” (Henry

he encountered and strove to immortalize them in

Geldzahler, “Andy Warhol: Virginal Voyeur,” in: Exh. Cat.,

the grand tradition of Greco-Roman statuary mixed

portraits, Warhol extended his repertoire of subjects

Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art, Andy Warhol:

with a distinctly alternative and underground version

to include the eminent figures of Manhattan, his

Portraits, 1993, p. 26).

of Hollywood. In doing so, he turned everybody into

Already notorious by the mid-1960s for his celebrity

Warhol’s late portraits are a testimony to his

adopted home. From prominent art collectors, dealers,

productive life. Warhol was fascinated by the people

a star and lent everlasting life to an entire society…”

notorious individuals, and public officials to his panoply

infatuation with the mythology of fame and American

(Tony Shafrazi, ed., Andy Warhol: Portraits, New York

of movie stars and first ladies, Warhol’s portraits

culture—even once he had achieved worldwide

2007, p. 14). With its flat planes of saturated color and

canonized the who’s who of New York. To create these

recognition himself. Explained by Tony Shafrazi, “The

dynamic linework, Emily Fisher Landau embodies

paintings, Warhol employed a semi-mechanized silk-

portrait paintings of Warhol represent his largest body

Warhol’s signature style and ethos which largely

screening process which allowed for the possibility of

of work and span the longest period of his prolific and

defined his way of life and his oeuvre.

mass production. Using his infamous Polaroid camera and with a stylist in tow, Warhol placed his subjects in expert poses and captured them on multiple rolls of film. Warhol was keenly aware of the potential of

T

photography to shape meaning and to both reflect and here is perhaps no greater testament to

reaffirm the wider cultural obsessions of the American

Emily Fisher Landau’s enduring legacy as a

public. His captivation with the ephemerality of popular

beloved patron of the arts than the portrait

culture, as well as his concern with appearances and

Andy Warhol made of her in 1982. Warhol’s

representation, made the Polaroid a fitting initial

portrait paintings are among the most significant

medium for his portraits. This Polaroid would then

works from his expansive career which transformed

be converted into a negative and enlarged on acetate

the meaning of celebrity. His commissioned portraits

which Warhol used to create a silkscreen as well as

are of particular note, mapping subcultures from

trace the sitter’s features onto the canvas.

Hollywood actors, American sports stars, and drag

Characterized by rich dark outlines and bright,

queens, to major art world figures such as Landau.

isolated areas of color, Warhol’s extensive process

Commissioned portraits allowed Warhol not only to

results in an idealized interpretation of his subjects.

perfect his craft, but also to become closer to his

Emily Fisher Landau is ornamented with thoughtful

subjects and the world of society and wealth in which

color blocking: powdery blue eyeshadow and soft pink

they lived. Through Warhol’s quintessential silkscreen

lipstick enhance her kind features. Her sophisticated

technique and visual vocabulary, he transformed

glance and head just slightly tilted reveal glimmering

simple Polaroid photographs into statements of status

earrings and effortlessly styled black hair. Akin to the

and stardom. Befitting the importance of both Warhol’s

portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy, and

artistic mastery and Landau’s lasting philanthropic

Elizabeth Taylor, Emily Fisher Landau includes only the

legacy, another example of this portrait is held in the

most fundamental attributes while still maintaining

permanent of the Whitney Museum of American Art,

likeness. As a result, this likeness becomes typified and

New York. A striking paragon of Warhol’s portraiture

iconized, reflecting Warhol’s obsession with consumer

practice and a reflection of the lasting relationships

culture and the dramatic glamor of celebrity. As

its sitter formed with the artists she supported, Emily

described by Henry Geldzahler, “Everyone was a star,

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Above: Andy Warhol, Silver Liz, 1963. Private Collection. Image © Bridgeman Images. Art © 2023 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Opposite: Emily Fisher Landau celebrating Martin Fisher’s 70th birthday at the Pierre Hotel in New York, 1970.

Photo courtesy Fisher Landau family.

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DAY A U CT I O N 9 N OV E M B E R 2 0 2 3 1 1 : 0 0 A M

LOT 101

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101

○

102

BOB THOMPSON

E L L S WO R T H K E L LY

19 37 - 1966

1 923 - 2 015

THE SEARCH

M AG N O L I A

signed and dated ‘63 (on the reverse)

signed, titled and dated May 21 1966

oil on canvas

(on the verso)

8 by 10 in. 20.3 by 25.4 cm.

graphite on paper

Executed in 1963.

29 by 23 in. 73.7 by 58.4 cm.

PROVENANCE

Executed in 1966.

PROVENANCE

Vanderwoude Tannenbaum Gallery, New York

Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above circa 1980 by the present owner

Acquired from the above in December 1992 by the present owner

$ 30,000-40,000

$ 80,000-120,000

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T H E E M I LY F I S H E R L A N DAU C O L L EC T I O N : A N E R A D E F I N E D | DAY AU C T I O N

LOT 102

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103

PA B LO P I CA S S O 18 81 - 1973

NU COUCHÉ ET TÊTE DE FEMME signed and dated 9.10.69. (lower right) pencil on paper 21⅜ by 27⅞ in. 54.3 by 70.8 cm.

Executed on 9 October 1969.

PROVENANCE

Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris Paul Haim & Co., Paris The Pace Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in February 1972 by the present owner $ 400,000-600,000

P I C A S S O I S T H E PA I N T E R O F WO M A N : G O D D E S S O F A N T I Q U I T Y, M OT H E R , P R AY I N G M A N T I S, B LOW N - U P B A L LO O N , W E E P E R , H YST E R I C, B O DY C U R L E D I N A B A L L O R S P R AW L E D I N S L E E P, P I L E O F AVA I L A B L E F L E S H , C H E E R F U L P I S S E R , F R U I T F U L M OT H E R O R C O U R T E S A N : N O PA I N T E R H A S E V E R G O N E S O FA R I N U N V E I L I N G T H E F E M I N I N E U N I V E R S E I N A L L T H E C O M P L E X I T Y O F I T S R E A L A N D FA N TA SY L I F E .”

M ARIE- L AU RE B ERN A DAC IN E X H. CAT. , LO N D O N , TAT E GALLE RY, LAT E PICASSO , 1988, P. 80

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P

icasso’s Nu couché et tête de femme is a

Nu couché et tête de femme stands apart from

captivating and exceptionally large drawing

other works in this series due to the variety and

that shows the artist experimenting with

strength of lines the artist employs to convey figure and

his unique visual language in order to depict

shape, creating an explosive composition. The reclining

one of his most studied subjects: the artist and his

figure’s face is astonishingly worked; overlapping

muse. Throughout the 1960s, Picasso was consumed

features suggest the artist’s attempt to represent

by a series of works representing the painter and

three-dimensionality while retaining a sense of spatial

his, often nude, model, executing several variations

flatness, as well as capture multiple perspectives in

on the theme. This proved to be one of his most

a single image. In this sense, the figure’s treatment

passionate and energetic projects to date, inspired

reflects the Cubist language that Picasso developed

by the final love of his life, Jacqueline Roque. In many

earlier in his career. It also bears the influence of the

compositions illustrating this subject, the looming

Old Masters, whose impact on Picasso’s oeuvre cannot

head is a male, almost invariably implying the artist

be overstated. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s

himself. Interestingly, in the present work, the artist has

Picasso completed several series explicitly based on

inverted the usual roles and the reclining figure is male

old master paintings, such as Velázquez’s Las Meninas

while the elegant profile is undoubtedly Jacqueline’s

and Delacroix’s Les Femmes d’Alger. The subject of

striking face. Unlike many other twentieth-century

the latter, raven-haired women with large almond eyes,

artists, rather than employing a professional model,

plainly reflect Jacqueline’s features. In the present

Picasso considered his young wife Jacqueline his muse,

composition, the artist references Titian and Ingres,

and from their marriage in 1961 until his death, painted

whose La Grande odalisque he could not have failed to

her more than any of his previous lovers. Jacqueline’s

see at the Louvre. Fusing art-historical precedent with

consistent presence adds another layer of intimacy

modernist anatomical and spacial distortion, Ingres

to the works from Picasso’s late period, blurring the

and his odalisque offered Picasso a natural vehicle

distinction further between viewer and voyeur.

through which to experiment with form and space.

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Opposite: Detail of the present work Above: Jean-AugusteDominique Ingres, Grande Odalisque, 1814.

Musée du Louvre, Paris.

LOT 105

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104

KEN PRICE

b. 1949

19 3 5 - 2012

THE KEY

1914

signed (lower right); titled (upper left)

acrylic on fired ceramic

graphite on paperboard

16½ by 7½ by 8 in. 41.9 by 19 by 20.3 cm.

image: 10½ by 8⅜ in. 26.7 by 21.3 in. sheet: 15 by 12 in. 38.1 by 30.5 cm.

Executed in 1983.

PROVENANCE

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105

M A R K TA N S E Y

Executed in 1984.

LOT 104

○

PROVENANCE

Willard Gallery, New York

Curt Marcus Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above in October 1984 by the present owner

Acquired from the above in February 1991 by the present owner

$ 40,000-60,000

$ 80,000-120,000

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106

JOSEF ALBERS

○ PROVENANCE

107

JOSEF ALBERS

PROVENANCE

18 8 8 - 1976

Galerie Beyeler, Basel (acquired from the artist in April 1972)

1888 - 1976

James Lord, Paris (acquired directly from the artist as a gift in December 1969)

S T U DY F O R H O M AG E TO T H E S Q U A R E : S E L : E . B . 8

Pace Gallery, New York (acquired from the above)

S T U DY F O R H O M AG E TO T H E S Q U A R E : F U L L WA R M T H

Robert Elkon Gallery, New York

incised with the artist’s monogram

Acquired from the above in June 1980 by the present owner

incised with the artist’s monogram

(lower right); signed, titled and dated 1964

(lower right); signed, titled, dated 1967 and

(on the reverse)

inscribed for James love from Josef Albers

oil on Masonite

Thanksgiving 1969 (on the reverse)

16 by 16 in. 40.6 by 40.6 cm.

oil on Masonite

Executed in 1964.

$ 300,000-500,000

Acquired from the above in January 1974 by the present owner

18 by 18 in. 45.7 by 45.7 cm.

Executed in 1967.

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ED RUSCHA b. 1937

1984 signed and dated 1967 (lower left) graphite on paper 14⅝ by 23 in. 36.7 by 58.4 cm.

Executed in 1967.

PROVENANCE

Betty Asher, Beverly Hills Mark Kelman, New York Tony Shafrazi, New York Acquired from the above in January 1989 by the present owner $ 300,000-400,000

W H E N I D R E W 1 9 8 4 — I N 1 9 6 7— I WA S T H I N K I N G A B O U T T H E B O O K A N D T H E TA L K AT T H E T I M E T H AT B I G B R OT H E R WA S WATC H I N G YO U. I P U T T H AT TO G E T H E R W I T H T H E S E N E W F U N N Y N U M E R A L S O N M Y C H E C K ST U B S, A N D I WO N D E R E D W H Y T H E Y H A D I N V E N T E D T H I S N E W VO C A B U L A R Y O F N U M B E R S. I T H O U G H T W E M AY N E V E R R E AC H T H AT N U M B E R O N O U R C A L E N DA R B E C A U S E W E M I G H T H I T S O M E A R M AG E D D O N . I A LWAYS L I K E D T H E I D E A T H AT I T WA S A F E W Y E A R S B E FO R E I T S T I M E T H AT I H A D M A D E T H I S STAT E M E N T I N T H I S WO R K .

B E YO N D T H AT, I T WA S F U N TO M A K E .”

ED RUSC H A C I T ED I N A LISO N M ART IN O, “ 19 84 D ID N ’ T E N D T H E WO R LD AFT E R ALL,” LOS AN GEL ES MAGA Z I N E , 16 J ULY 20 14 (O N LIN E )

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CY T WO M B LY 1928 - 2 011

UNTITLED signed with the artist’s initials, dated May 82 - March 1984 and inscribed Stones are our Food (center) oil, wax crayon, colored pencil and graphite on paper 44½ by 30 in. 113 by 76.2 cm.

Executed in 1982-84.

PROVENANCE

Sperone Westwater, New York Acquired from the above in April 1984 by the present owner $ 400,000-600,000

T H E I N I M I TA B L E A R T O F T WO M B LY C O N S I ST S O F H AV I N G I M P O S E D T H E M E D I T E R R A N E A N E F F E CT W H I L E STA R T I N G F R O M M AT E R I A L S ( S C R ATC H E S, S M U D G E S, S M E A R S, L I T T L E C O LO R , N O AC A D E M I C FO R M S ) W H I C H H AV E N O A N A LO GY W I T H T H E G R E AT M E D I T E R R A N E A N R A D I A N C E . [ H E E VO K E S A ] W H O L E L I F E O F FO R M S, C O LO U R S, A N D L I G H T W H I C H O C C U R S AT T H E F R O N T I E R O F T H E T E R R E ST R I A L L A N D S C A P E A N D T H E P L A I N S O F T H E S E A .”

ROLA N D BA RT H ES QUOT E D IN : E X HIB IT IO N CATALO GUE , NEW YO R K , W H IT NEY M USEU M O F AM E R ICAN ART, CY TWO MBLY: PA I N T I N G S A N D D RAW IN G S 19 5 4 -1977 , 1979, P. 16

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A

vibrant and large-scale example of Cy

The explosive vitality of Untitled poetically reflects

Twombly’s extraordinary body of works on

the phenomenon of the life-giving stone, as vibrant

paper, Untitled executed between 1982-1984

magentas, greens, yellows, and blues pour forth with

translates onto paper the artist’s signature

a furious energy. The composition compressed within

gestural vigor, as liberated swirls of oil, wax crayon and

the lower half of the sheet, different colors, with

colored pencil merge and attenuate in a magnificent

contrasting materials in distinct line styles, vibrate with

conflation of the graphic and the painterly. In the years

a vital energy. What initially appears as the tension-

between 1982 and 1984, Twombly produced a unique

filled graffiti markings reminiscent of Twombly’s earlier

and remarkable series of five large-format drawings of

drawings ultimately reveals itself to be water flowing

which the present work is a part. These artworks were

outward to nourish the earth. The inscription, “stones

a visual response to an article in National Geographic

are our food,” conjures the subtle and poetic image, and

which described stones that had the intriguing ability

yet despite this hint, Twombly’s mark making remains a

to absorb water during the rainy season and release

collection of highly charged abstract expressions. Each

it during times of drought, thereby ensuring the land’s

individual line within the composition is characterized

moisture as a result, life. This phenomenon formed a

by a nervous, brittle, angular, and wiry nature, with

poetic image in Twombly’s mind. Learning that these

each carrying its own unique message. It is in their

stones were typically found in Armenia, the homeland

individuality that these lines hold more content

of the renowned artist Arshile Gorky, Twombly thus

individually than they do collectively. Outstanding for

dedicated this series to the older artist. Twombly held

its proliferation of vigorously scrawled instances of

a deep admiration for Gorky’s bold and unconventional

vivid color, the present work is remarkably complex in

approach to art, a sentiment that had been strengthened

its assortment of diverse markings, reverberating with

when he attended Gorky’s retrospective at the

a primal urgency characteristic of Twombly’s unique

Whitney Museum of American Art in 1951. In his

pictorial expression.

Left: Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1952, Museum of Modern Art, New York © 2023 Cy Twombly Foundation Right: Arshille Gorky, Untitled, 1944. Private Collection. Art © 2023 The Arshile Gorky Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Opposite: The present work installed in Emily Fisher Landau’s New York home. Design © Aman & Meeks Interiors. Photo © Karen Fuchs. Art © 2023 Cy Twombly Foundation

own work, Twombly’s confident and expressive line work resonated with the wild and energetic strokes characteristic of Gorky’s art.

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110

W I L L I A M B A Z I OT E S 19 12 - 1963

MORNING signed (lower right); signed, titled and dated 1959 (on the reverse) oil on canvas 60 by 48 in. 152.4 by 121.9 cm.

Executed in 1959.

○ PROVENANCE

Kootz Gallery, New York Sidney Janis Gallery, New York Alexander Lerner, New York Private Collection, New York Hirsch & Adler Modern, New York Acquired from the above in June 1982 by the present owner

$ 200,000-300,000

111

PAU L K L E E 1879 - 1940

STR AHLENBÄU ME (R ADIANT TREES) signed (lower right); titled, dated 1915 and numbered 249 (on the artist’s mount) watercolor and pen and ink on paper laid down on the artist’s mount sheet: 5⅜ by 4½ in. 13.7 by 11.5 cm. mount: 10¼ by 8⅝ in. 26 by 21.9 cm.

Executed in 1915.

$ 80,000-120,000

PROVENANCE

The artist Lily Klee, Bern (acquired by descent from the above in 1940) Klee-Gesellschaft, Bern (acquired from the above in 1946) Curt Valentin (Buchholz Gallery), Berlin and New York (acquired in 1953) Clifford Odets, New York and Los Angeles (acquired in 1963) Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 15 May 1969, lot 52 (consigned by the estate of the above) The Pace Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in August 1970 by the present owner

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AG N E S M A R T I N 19 12 - 2004

UNTITLED inscribed Drop the drop (lower right); signed and dated 63 (on the verso) ink on paper image: 9 by 9 in. 22.9 by 22.9 cm. sheet: 10 by 10 in. 25.4 by 25.4 cm.

Executed in 1963.

PROVENANCE

Robert Elkon Gallery, New York Private Collection Jeffrey Hoffeld Find Art, New York Acquired from the above in May 1985 by the present owner $ 80,000-120,000

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114

AG N E S M A R T I N 19 12 - 2004

UNTITLED signed and dated ‘63 (on the verso) red ink on paper image: 8¼ by 8¼ in. 21 by 21 cm. sheet: 11 by 11 in. 27.9 by 27.9 cm.

Executed in 1963.

PROVENANCE

Robert Elkon Gallery, New York

○

Private Collection

112

AG N E S M A R T I N 1912 - 2 0 0 4

UNTITLED signed and dated ‘60 (on the verso) ink on paper

PROVENANCE

Robert Elkon Gallery, New York Private Collection Jeffrey Hoffeld Fine Art, New York

Jeffrey Hoffeld Fine Art, New York Acquired from the above in June 1985 by the present owner $ 100,000-150,000

Acquired from the above in June 1985 by the present owner

image: 9½ by 9½ in. 24.1 by 24.1 cm. sheet: 11 by 11 in. 27.9 by 27.9 cm.

Executed in 1960.

$ 100,000-150,000

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115

KEN PRICE 1 935 - 2 01 2

FENCES glazed earthenware in wood and glass box 12½ by 12½ by 10½ in.

31.8 by 31.8 by 26.7 cm.

Executed in 1981.

PROVENANCE

Willard Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in October 1984 by the present owner $ 6,000-8,000

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116

J O H N M C L AU G H L I N 1 898 - 1976

A - 1960 signed and titled (on the reverse) oil on canvas 31⅞ by 51½ in. 81 by 130.8 cm.

Executed in 1960.

PROVENANCE

Nicholas Wilder and André Emmerich Gallery, New York Sotheby’s New York, Gay Men’s Health Crisis Benefit Auction, 22 November 1988, lot 42 (donated by the above)

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117

L U CA S S A M A R A S b. 1936

B OX # 4 6 wool yarn on wooden accordion box

Acquired from the above by the present owner

23 by 12¼ by 13¼ in.

$ 80,000-120,000

Executed in 1966.

58.4 by 31.1 by 33.7 cm.

PROVENANCE

Pace Gallery, New York Nancy Fitzhugh, Vermont Pace Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in June 1971 by the present owner

$ 100,000-150,000

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118

CY T WO M B LY 1928 - 2 011

TULIPS (III) signed, dated 1993 and numbered 2/10 in pencil (in the margin) Fresson print, in 6 parts each image: 11½ by 10⅞ in. 29.2 by 27.6 cm.

Executed in 1993, these prints are number 2 from an edition of 10.

PROVENANCE

Matthew Marks Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in 1994 by the present owner $ 50,000-70,000

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119 PROPERTY FROM THE FISHER FA M I LY C O L L E C T I O N

A N DY WA R H O L 1928 - 1987

D E TA I L S O F R E N A I S S A N C E PA I N T I N G S ( PAO LO U C C E L LO , S T. G E O R G E A N D T H E D R AG O N , 1 4 6 0) silkscreen ink on paper

60 by 83 in. 152.4 by 210.82 cm.

Executed circa 1984, this work is unique.

This work is stamped by the Estate of Andy Warhol and numbered A891.116 on the verso.

PROVENANCE

Estate of Andy Warhol The Estate of Rupert Jason Smith, New York Dorfman Projects, New York Jane Holzer, Palm Beach Emily Fisher Landau, New York (acquired from the above in March 2015) Acquired from the above by the present owner $ 450,000-650,000

T H E H I STO R Y O F A R T I S I T S E L F A N OT H E R C O N C R E T E M I R AG E , W I T H I T S STA R S A N D S U P E R STA R S O F E V E R Y AG E , A N D WA R H O L A B S O R B E D T H I S TO O I N TO T H E M AG M A O F H I S I M AG I N AT I O N .”

GERM A N O C EL A N T, SU P E R WAR HOL , N EW YORK, 2003, P. 10

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I

n 1984, Andy Warhol turned his focus away from

Details of Renaissance Paintings series. By cropping

his ubiquitous silkscreens of everyday, commercial

and distorting the original scale and color palette

objects and portraits of Hollywood’s elite to

of Uccello’s original painting, Warhol shockingly

focus his attention on the history of art itself

transforms the iconic Renaissance painting from

through his series Details of Renaissance Paintings.

the canon of Art History into a remarkable Pop spin-

In doing so, not only did Warhol pay homage to the

off. Just as Warhol’s earlier silkscreen works from

Renaissance masters, but he also placed himself as

the 1960s radically exalted the commodification

inheritor and predecessor of their revered lineage

of American consumer brands and products, the

by incorporating excerpts of their acclaimed works

composition of Details of Renaissance Paintings (Paolo

and thus dramatically expanding the scope of his

Uccello, St. George and the Dragon, 1460) similarly

oeuvre. In Details of Renaissance Paintings (Paolo

examines and subverts the ways in which we consume

Uccello, St. George and the Dragon, 1460), Warhol

artistic masterpieces.

appropriates Paolo Uccello’s circa 1470 painting Saint George and the Dragon using vibrant colors in a

The story of Saint George and the Dragon belongs to a popular collection of saint’s lives written by Jacopo

Above: Andy Warhol in front of The Last Supper (Yellow), 1986, at the opening of Andy Warhol – Il Cenacolo at Palazzo delle Stelline, Milan, January 1987. Art © 2023 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Opposite: Paul Uccello, Saint George and the Dragon, c. 1470.

The National Gallery, London.

episodes from the story of Saint George: his defeat of

Last Supper and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. As Warhol

the plague-bearing dragon that had been terrorizing

was formally trained as an artist at the Carnegie

the city, and the rescued princess bringing the dragon

Institute of Technology, it is not surprising that he

to heel using the belt from her dress as a leash.

turned to these Renaissance masters for inspiration,

Warhol crops Uccello’s mythical scene down to the

and soon, appropriated their laboriously detailed and

princess’s simple yet stoic profile and the dragon’s all-

painstakingly painted masterworks into essentialized

encompassing spotted wing at a drastically enlarged

silkscreens. Subsequently, Warhol transforms the

scale, essentially elevating a fraction of this art

work into easily reproducible commodities, curiously

historical masterpiece into a Pop art model. The subtle

subverting not only Uccello’s artistic intention, but

and darker palette of Uccello’s original painting is

the very principles held so highly within art historical

replaced by a cacophony of striking fluorescent colors

tradition. As such, Details of Renaissance Paintings

and asymmetrical linework which delightfully guide the

(Paolo Uccello, St. George and the Dragon, 1460)

eye and disguise the origins of the source image.

epitomizes Warhol’s illustrious reinvention of history

In other works from this series, Warhol borrowed

painting and keen awareness of the canonical

unique screenprint which acts as a crucial preparatory

de Vorgine in the 13th century, titled The Golden Legend.

imagery from universally recognizable paintings such

tradition where he would later cement his inimitable

investigation anticipating the later works in his

The original masterpiece by Uccello features two

as Leonardo da Vinci’s The Annunciation and The

cultural legacy.

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M A R K TA N S E Y b. 1949

O I L S K E TC H F O R M O N T S A I N T E -V I C TO I R E signed, titled and dated 1987 (on the reverse) oil and graphite on canvas 26 by 40 in. 66 by 101.6 cm.

Executed in 1987.

PROVENANCE

Curt Marcus Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in October 1987 by the present owner $ 1,200,000-1,800,000

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Below: Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire , c. 1902-06. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Opposite: Mark Tansey, Mont Sainte-Victoire , 1987. Private Collection.

Art © 2023 Mark Tansey

A

rmed with captivating erudition and

avant-garde and more concerned with embodying, or

virtuosic painterly skill, Mark Tansey

at least allegorizing, certain theses of post-structuralist

constructs an achingly beautiful scene in Oil

philosophy” (Arthur C. Danto, Mark Tansey: Visions and

Sketch for Mont Sainte-Victoire from 1987,

Revisions, New York, 1992, p. 134).

one that is as intellectual as it is enthralling, as intricate

effortlessness conspires with the narrative mode and the style of representational plainness to create a

An equivalence of opposites occurs as Tansey compels

triply underwritten conviction of pictorial candor. The

the viewer to consider the inherent contradictions

inscribed reality looks visually plausible, as if it were the

embedded within the act of representation.

artist’s good luck to have been there where and when

With preternatural ease, Tansey unravels modes

it happened, preserving the instant whose narrative, of

of perception and representation, perennially testing

course, it is up to us to tell…” (Arthur C. Danto, Mark

the eye and eluding narrative clarity in favor of

Tansey: Visions and Revisions, New York, 1992, p. 16).

incredulous wonder. By adhering to the conventions

Tansey’s extraordinary pictorial achievements are

of representational painting, Tansey encourages an

made possible by his stunningly seraphic technique.

instantaneous familiarity that he quickly corrupts,

After a meticulous preparatory process that begins

thereby making us aware of our own susceptibility

with the construction of a collage taken from his

to the artifice of cunning images. Tansey’s paintings

extensive archive of reference material sourced from

offer us the promise of authenticity in their naturalistic

newspaper, book, and magazine clippings, and private

style, yet quickly by their supernormal mélange of

photographs, Tansey’s dynamic method of painting is

constituent elements we decode a hyper-realist

excruciatingly time sensitive by contrast. As the paint

fantasy. Moreover, Tansey paints his picture in a

will dry in mere hours, Tansey must layer his pigment

monochromatic cerulean, arresting the photographic

onto a portion of the surface area on which he can work

image in a single color tone so as to heighten the

in a manner akin to the complexity of fresco painting.

veracity of the otherwise impossible image. As

For Tansey, approaching a work of art is the product

Arthur C. Danto describes, “This appearance of

of stretching, rotating, or cropping forms, combining

One of the preeminent artists of our time, Mark

as it is grand. Layered in temporal complexities,

Tansey’s compositions incorporate surrealist allegories

emotive motion, and cultural iconography, Tansey’s

and historical references in stunningly detailed vistas

Oil Sketch for Mont Saint-Victoire is emblematic of the

that border on the mythical. The landscape in Oil

artist’s distinguished monochromatic canvases and

Sketch for Mont Sainte-Victoire is deceptively legible in

deep-rooted philosophical inquisition into the veracity

its narrative power and technical clarity. This homage

of representation. With an expert perspicacity of his

to post-Impressionist master Paul Cézanne, however,

realist and surrealist predecessors, two of whom

necessitates deeper inquisition. The painting itself is

include Gustave Courbet and René Magritte, Tansey

an amalgamation of two of Cézanne’s most important

constructs a visual conundrum of a “picture within

recurring subjects: lounging nude bathers, and the

a picture” that necessitates the viewer to take a

Mont Sainte-Victoire. In Tansey’s work, three men in

careful second look. The present work is the full-sized

military dress encounter a rhythmic tableau of nude

preparatory study for the artist’s prodigious Mont

male bathers entering a tranquil lake beneath the

Saint Victoire (1987) one of the artist’s most significant

shadow of a large, distant mountain. Their reflections in

paintings described by Art Historian Arthur C. Danto as

the water, however, betray the image and introduce the

“pivotal for the direction Tansey’s work took after that,

philosophical theme of binaries into the work. The nude

less obsessed with ironizing the pretensions of the

male bathers become clothed and female, the phallic

286

mountain transforms into a womb-like cave, and the ephemeral clouds are rendered as immovable stone.

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Right: Paul Cézanne, The Large Bathers, 1900-06. Philadelphia Museum of Art.

I T H I N K O F T H E PA I N T E D P I C T U R E A S A N E M B O D I M E N T O F T H E V E R Y P R O B L E M T H AT W E FA C E W I T H T H E N OT I O N O F ‘ R E A L I T Y ’ .

T H E P R O B L E M O R Q U E S T I O N I S , W H I C H R E A L I T Y ? I N A PA I N T E D P I C T U R E , I S I T T H E D E P I C T E D R E A L I T Y, O R T H E R E A L I T Y O F T H E P I C T U R E P L A N E , O R T H E M U LT I D I M E N S I O N A L R E A L I T Y T H E A R T I S T A N D V I E W E R E X I S T I N ? T H AT A L L T H R E E A R E I N V O LV E D P O I N T S TO T H E FA C T T H AT A L L P I C T U R E S A R E I N H E R E N T LY P R O B L E M AT I C . ” THE ARTIST CITED IN ARTHUR C. DANTO, V ISIONS A ND REV IS I ON S , NEW YOR K, 1992 , P. 13 2

images, and photocopying them over and again until

Sainte-Victoire, Tansey is a virtuoso of narrative, culling

he has produced a preliminary study for the painting in

his themes from a litany of rhetorical sources and

the form of a collage. His images thus emerge from the

filtering them through his distinctly surreal imagination.

monochromatic abyss by means of wiping and pulling

Tansey’s prodigal ability to materialize the schisms of

pigment away in order to render the painstaking details.

representation is precisely what makes him a paragon

This subtractive process allows Tansey to excavate his

of figurative painting – a master tantamount to the art

images with archeological and photographic precision.

historical legends he cites.

Exemplified by the ingenuity of Oil Sketch for Mont

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JASPER JOHNS b. 1930

SUMMER signed and dated 1985 (lower right) watercolor on paper 11¾ by 9⅛ in. 29.8 by 23.2 cm.

Executed in 1985.

PROVENANCE

Bill Katz, New York (acquired directly from the artist as a gift in October 1985) Acquired from the above in 1998 by the present owner $ 200,000-300,000

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123

H E N R I M AT I S S E 1869 - 195 4

JEUNE FEMME signed and dated 10/43 (upper right) charcoal and estompe on paper 24⅛ by 16⅛ in. 61.2 by 41 cm.

Executed in October 1943.

PROVENANCE

Max Pellequer, Paris Private Collection, Switzerland The Pace Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in December 1969 by the present owner

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121

$ 250,000-350,000

A N DY WA R H O L

PROVENANCE

1928 - 1987

Robert Miller Gallery, New York

UNTITLED

Acquired from the above in May 1988 by the present owner

graphite and gouache on paper 28½ by 22 in. 72.4 by 59 cm.

Executed in 1962.

$ 180,000-250,000

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124

FERNAND LÉGER 18 81 - 1955

P E R S O N N AG E S A U C A M I O N D E G A R M E ( L E G A R AG E ) brush and ink on paper image: 17½ by 22¼ in. (45 by 56 cm.) sheet: 19¾ by 25½ in. (50 by 65 cm.)

Executed in 1955.

$ 150,000-250,000

○ PROVENANCE

Nadia Léger, Paris (acquired from the estate of the artist) Alex Maguy (Galerie de l’Elysée), Paris The Pace Gallery, New York (acquired from the above in November 1968) Mr. and Mrs. Lester Avnet, New York (acquired from the above in November 1968) The Pace Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in August 1970 by the present owner

125

ALEXANDER CA L D E R 1898 - 1976

L U N D ( M AQ U E T T E ) incised with the artist’s monogram (lower edge)

PROVENANCE

Hanover Gallery, London The Pace Gallery, New York (acquired from the above in 1970) Acquired from the above in 1970 by the present owner

sheet metal and paint 21¼ by 17½ by 15 in. 54 by 44.5 by 38.1 cm.

Executed circa 1968.

$ 500,000-700,000 Left: Alexander Calder, Lund, 1968. Lund City Collection. Art © 2023 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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126

A N DY WA R H O L 192 8 - 1987

M A R I LY N M O N R O E graphite on paper 32 by 24 in. 81.3 by 61 cm.

Executed in 1980.

PROVENANCE

Robert Miller Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in May 1988 by the present owner $ 80,000-120,000

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127

A N DY WA R H O L 192 8 - 1987

C A M P B E L L’ S TO M ATO S O U P graphite on paper 32 by 24 in. 81.3 by 61 cm.

Executed in 1983.

PROVENANCE

Robert Miller Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in May 1988 by the present owner $ 80,000-120,000

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Emily Fisher Landau in her Greenwich home standing beside Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe, 1980. Design © Aman & Meeks Interiors. Photo © Karen Fuchs. Art © 2023 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; 2023 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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ED RUSCHA b. 1937

UPHILL DRIVER signed and dated 1986 (on the reverse) acrylic on canvas 54 by 120 in. 137.2 by 304.8 cm.

Executed in 1986.

PROVENANCE

Leo Castelli Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in March 1987 by the present owner $ 800,000-1,200,000

I N [ R U S C H A’ S ] M I N D, T H E A N D I D E A L LY I N T H AT O F T H E VIEWER, THE SILHOUETTED VESSELS CAN SUMMON INDIVIDUAL MEMORIES A N D A S S O C I AT I O N S ( A S O R T O F PA N D O R A’ S B OX T H I N K I N G ) , D R AW N N OT F R O M L I V E D EXPERIENCES, BUT CONJURED I N H I S TO R Y T E X T B O O K S AND PROJECTED ON THE S I LV E R S C R E E N . ” EXH . CAT., N EW YO R K , M US EUM O F M O D E R N ART, ED RUSC H A N OW T H EN , P. 23 0

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directly engages with the American mythology of the promised land, portraying the nation as being in a literal uphill battle, teetering on the edge of endangering its myth of greatness. Ruscha explores the transformation of an everyday, mass-produced car into a poetic symbol, exemplifying his propensity for the unexpected and the surreal within the realm of Pop art. Uphill Driver captures the essence of an America at a crossroads, imbuing the image with a sense of fragility and mythic depth.

In the realm of contemporary art, Ruscha stands as an enigmatic figure, celebrated for his profound ability to capture the quintessential essence of America.

Executed with the energy and elemental graphic force that typify the artist’s extraordinary complex visual treatise on the conditions of painting, Uphill out altogether, replacing them by silhouetted images that are themselves enigmatic enough to force the

E

issue of language into the open and by floating white d Ruscha’s Uphill Driver, executed in 1986,

this time that Ruscha embarked on his series of

is exemplary of the artist’s career-defining

“grand horizontals,” which aimed to distance him

series of Silhouette paintings by way of

from excessive painterly effects. To achieve this, he

a hauntingly provocative image of a car

embraced the airbrush as his favored medium. This

poised on a steep hill. Ruscha’s Silhouette paintings,

development allowed Ruscha to achieve soft-edged

characterized by their black and white, hazily rendered

figures reminiscent of old Hollywood films, capturing a

airbrushed technique, boldly depart from the text-

dynamic sense of movement within a two-dimensional

based paintings that initially earned him critical acclaim.

plane. The result is a highly sophisticated composition

In Uphill Driver, the viewer encounters an eerie sedan,

that immerses the viewer through a masterful interplay

frozen in time and space as it ascends a steep incline.

of subject, perspective and form.

Above: Ed Ruscha, Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights, 1962.

Whitney Museum of American Art. Art © Ed Ruscha Opposite top: Peter Cain, 500 SL #1, 1992.

Whitney Museum of American Art. Gift of Emily Fisher Landau.

Art © 2023 Peter Cain.

Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery.

rectangles or underliners whose references are often

with the self-described parameters of this art up to this point, by creating the expectation of language and then purposefully not supplying it” (Dan Cameron, Ed Ruscha Paintings, 1990, p. 15).

The diagonal composition, a recurring theme in Ruscha’s oeuvre, plays a pivotal role in Uphill Driver.

Throughout his career, Ruscha has consistently

mere grayish blur. Ruscha’s use of the airbrush imparts

successfully amplifies a feeling of fragility within his

a palpable sense of mounting precarity, heightened by

canvases. The delicate layers of paint, seemingly

the inclusion of a striking diagonal element. As a lasting

suspended in transience, seem to hover over the

symbol of American cultural nostalgia, Uphill Driver

surface, evoking a profound sense of melancholia;

offers a singular expression of Ed Ruscha’s remarkable

a moment frozen in time. The act of painting itself

must traverse, and the struggle is writ large across

ability to imbue the quotidian with the unnatural.

becomes a metaphor for the ephemeral nature of

the canvas. This visual motif can be interpreted as a

human existence, with the medium serving as a vehicle

metaphor for the enduring challenges America faced

employed diagonals to infuse his paintings with dynamic visual tension and depth as seen in earlier iconic canvases like Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights from 1962 and Standard Station painting from 1966. In Uphill Driver, the diagonal line becomes the very hill the driver

period for Ruscha as a painter. Having explored

for expressing the emotional weight of the subject

in its pursuit of the mythic ideal during the turbulent

unorthodox mediums like gunpowder and vegetable

matter. Curator Dan Cameron aptly described Ruscha’s

1980s. Uphill Driver beckons viewers to immerse

dye during the 1970s, he triumphantly returned to

1980s canvases as follows: “In many of the works

themselves in the cultural landscape of the era, marked

large-scale canvases in the 1980s. It was during

from the 1980s, Ruscha has chosen to leave words

by intense economic and political upheaval. Ruscha

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in the contemporary art landscape.

somewhat with both our familiarity with his work, and

The use of airbrushed paint in Ruscha’s work

The mid-1980s marked an extraordinarily prolific

infusing the mundane with an uncanny sense of the extraordinary, solidifying his legacy as a visionary artist

supplied by the painting’s title. Here Ruscha is playing

A ghostly figure at the wheel is scarcely discernible - a

Opposite bottom: Richard Prince, Children, 2002.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. © 2023 Richard Prince.

Driver is testament to Ruscha’s remarkable talent for

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130

H E N R I M AT I S S E 1869 - 195 4

TÊTE DE FEMME signed with the artist’s initials (lower right) brush and ink on paper 14½ by 14¼ in. 36.8 by 36.2 cm.

Executed in 1952.

PROVENANCE

Estate of the artist Private Collection, Switzerland (acquired by 1960) Brook Street Gallery, London (acquired in 1968) Galerie Beyeler, Basel (acquired in 1969) The Pace Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in May 1970 by the present owner $ 100,000-150,000

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131

J UA N G R I S 1887 - 192 7

MUSICIEN signed and inscribed (lower left) charcoal and gouache on paper 12 by 9¼ in. 30.5 by 23.5 cm.

Executed in 1922.

PROVENANCE

S. Durand, Paris Galerie Beyeler, Basel The Pace Gallery, New York

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Acquired from the above in June 1969 by the present owner

129

CY T WO M B LY 1928 -2011

UNTITLED ( 1 4 PA P E R S F R O M S I LV E R W O O D )

PROVENANCE

$ 25,000-35,000

Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne Acquired from the above in May 1985 by the present owner $ 250,000-350,000

signed with the artist’s initials, dated April 24 85 and inscribed Lexington (lower right); titled (lower left) oil, acrylic, wax crayon and graphite on paper 22 by 22½ in. 55.9 by 57.2 cm.

Executed in 1985.

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132

JEAN DUBUFFET 19 01 - 1985

○ PROVENANCE

Galerie Daniel Cordier, Paris Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris

LE G R AND PORTE- BAR B E signed and dated 59 (lower right); titled and dated mai 59 (on the verso)

133

W I L L I A M B A Z I OT E S 1912 - 1963

Pace Gallery, New York

CHINESE DOG

Acquired from the above in August 1970 by the present owner

signed (lower right); signed, titled and dated oil on canvas

26½ by 20 in. 67.3 by 50.8 cm.

32¼ by 45 in. 81.9 by 114.3 cm.

Executed in 1959.

Executed in 1953.

$ 250,000-350,000

$ 150,000-200,000

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Salander O’Reilly Gallery, New York Jeffrey Hoffeld & Co., New York Acquired from the above in November 1984 by the present owner

1953 (on the reverse)

ink and paper collage on paper

304

PROVENANCE

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135

T E R RY W I N T E R S b. 19 49

T E S S E L L AT I O N F I G U R E S ( 1 ) signed with the artist’s initials (on the reverse) oil on linen 80 by 76 in. 203.2 by 193 cm.

Executed in 2011.

PROVENANCE

Matthew Marks Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in February 2012 by the present owner $ 30,000-40,000

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134

LO U I S E B O U R G E O I S 1911 - 2 01 0

N AT U R E S T U DY stamped with the artist’s initials (on the lower edge) bronze with black patina 30¼ by 20⅜ by 15¾ in.

76.8 by 51.8 by 40 cm.

Conceived in 1984 and cast in 1985, this work is number 3 from an edition of 6 unique variants.

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136

PROVENANCE

B RYA N H U N T

Robert Miller Gallery, New York

b. 19 47

Acquired from the above in June 1989 by the present owner

VELA

$ 400,000-600,000

copper foil on silk paper over spruce 7½ by 5¼ by 41½ in.

19.1 by 13.3 by 105.4 cm.

Executed in 1979.

PROVENANCE

Blum Helman Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in July 1983 by the present owner $ 10,000-15,000

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137

ED RUSCHA b. 1937

LIFE signed and dated 1984 (on the reverse) oil and enamel on canvas 84⅛ by 48⅛ in. 213.7 by 122.2 cm.

Executed in 1984.

PROVENANCE

Leo Castelli Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in December 1986 by the present owner $ 1,800,000-2,500,000

I L I K E T H E I D E A O F A WO R D B EC O M I N G A P I CT U R E , A L M O ST L E AV I N G I T S B O DY, T H E N C O M I N G B A C K A N D B E C O M I N G A W O R D A G A I N … I S E E M Y S E L F W O R K I N G W I T H T W O T H I N G S T H AT D O N ’ T E V E N A S K TO U N D E R S TA N D E A C H OT H E R . ” ED RUSC H A QUOT ED I N CALV IN TO M KIN S, “ E D RUSC HA’S L .A.,” T H E NEW YO R K E R , 2013 (O NLINE )

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E

ncapsulating Ed Ruscha’s career-long

in Los Angeles from his home in Oklahoma. Ruscha,

exploration of semiotics and text, Life from

who worked briefly as a commercial artist, found

1984 embodies the conceptual rigor and

inspiration in the sudden ubiquity of advertising

signature style that have come to define the

billboards, which spoke to America’s rising tides of

artist’s highly acclaimed practice. Held in the personal

prosperity and consumerism. The colossal billboards

collection of Emily Fisher Landau for nearly 40 years,

of de-contextualized words and the constant barrage

the work boasts an illustrious exhibition history, having

of images projecting onto the endless expanse of the

been exhibited at the Fisher Landau Center for Art

mythical West became a major influence on his visual

extensively from 1985 to 2017. Further attesting to

vernacular and resulted in a career-long obsession

the work’s importance, the painting was reproduced

with text and image. Intrigued by Jasper Johns’ use of

in a promotional poster for the Venice Art Walk by the

readymade images as supports for abstraction, Ruscha

Venice Family Clinic in 1988. Ed Ruscha is currently the focus of a long-awaited retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, open through January 2024, the most comprehensive exhibition of the artist’s work ever staged, and his first solo exhibition at the museum.

Emerging from an enigmatic dusk sky, the titular word, “LIFE” confronts the viewer in a theatrical crescendo of text and image. Perhaps an ode to the iconic LIFE magazine, the present work appears to utilize the magazine’s bold white typeface, though enlarged, pressed, and refitted within the composition for his own investigations. Hazily rendered, the word floats like clouds on a chromatic plane, echoing the opening credits to a film or a fleeting glimpse of a roadside billboard designed to captivate in an instant.

Significantly, Life reflects the first time the artist used an airbrush technique to render the text which achieves a resounding effect as the canvas reverberates with an atmospheric glow. The bright, fluorescent white letters burst forth from the canvas, pulling themselves out Right: Ed Ruscha’s LIFE, 1984, illustrated on a poster for the Venice Art Walk, Venice Beach, May 1988. Art © 2023 Edward Ruscha Opposite: Ed Ruscha in his Venice Beach studio, c. 1980. Art © 2023 Edward Ruscha

from the dimming twilight with an energetic bravado.

Prickling with electricity, “LIFE” comes in a flash, mimicking the blinding effect of oncoming headlights of a car speeding past on the highway.

Indeed, Ruscha’s dramatic and seductive textual compositions trace back to his first road trip to California in 1956, as he made his way across the country to begin art school at Chouinard Art Institute

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as movie backdrops. Defunct of function, they serve merely as stages for the drama of Ruscha’s words.

As Ruscha points out, “words are pattern-like, and in their horizontality, they answer my investigation into landscape. They’re almost not words – they’re objects that become words” (Richard D. Marshall, Ed Ruscha, London, 2003, p. 106). There is no apparent relationship between text and image, no implied narrative, no suggested purpose. It is in this deliberate distance between text and image that reveal the profundity of Ruscha’s canvases.

Life holds particular importance within Ruscha’s oeuvre with its revolutionary use of an airbrush technique for paint application. Unlike the mechanical precision applied to text in his earlier works, Ruscha’s adoption of the airbrush in Life results in a singular typeface entirely of Ruscha’s own making. Far from the crisp computerized fonts he uses in other text paintings of this period, the airbrushed letters in Life are elusive, fleeting symbols that seem to evaporate in the twilight zone. The airbrush would go on to dominate Ruscha’s future creative output, immediately taking center stage in his next series City Lights in 1986.

Beyond its revolutionary use of airbrush, the began to consider how he could employ graphics

present work also includes an early use of the ‘censor

to expose painting’s dual identity as both object

strip’ in Ruscha’s oeuvre. The ‘censor strip’ paintings

and illusion, using words in his paintings as visual

feature white or black boxes in places where Ruscha

constructs. The appropriation of the commonplace

might have previously included words, suggesting

chimes with Pop Art’s greatest ambassadors such as

either the concealment of a censor or blank space

Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Barbara Kruger,

waiting to be filled in by the viewer. In the present work,

who worked simultaneously with Ruscha throughout

the ‘censor strip’ appears as the stout white horizontal

much of the late Twentieth Century to deepen the

band quietly traversing the upper half of the letter

artistic exploration of commercial culture.

“L.” Created by reverse stenciling, the box is precisely

Marking a departure from his earliest works which reference American urbanscapes such as highways, gas stations, buildings, and signs in their

rendered, sharply contrasting the loosely defined, airbrush quality of the letters.

Constituting the beginning of a new chapter in

backgrounds, Ruscha’s later corpus of work from this

his career-long investigation of semiotics, Life was

decade takes the natural world as its subject, recycling

created during one of the artist’s most meaningful

images of theatrical sunsets, wheat fields, and in this

decades of rising critical and commercial acclaim

case, night skies. Shifting from a rich navy blue at

in which he was the subject of two acclaimed solo

the upper register into strokes of darker mauves and

retrospectives – his very first at the San Francisco

purples across the center of the canvas, and finishing

Museum of Modern Art in 1982, and another at the

in a warm, yellow along the bottom edge of the work,

Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 1989. Boldly

Ruscha deftly captures the natural rhythms of color in

examining the complex and symbiotic relationship

a post-sunset sky much like the graduated surfaces of

between text and image, Life encapsulates the subtle

Mark Rothko’s epochal color field paintings. Ruscha’s

interplay of aesthetic and conceptual concerns that

landscapes, whether manmade or natural, are as trite

exemplify the very best of Ruscha’s work.

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Above: Mark Rothko, No. 10, 1950. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Art © 2023 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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139

R O B E R T LO N G O b. 195 3

UNTITLED (HORSE HEAD NEBUL A) ○

138

ROSS BLECKNER

charcoal on paper PROVENANCE

b. 1949

Mary Boone Gallery, New York

GALAXY WITH BIRDS

Acquired from the above in February 1994 by the present owner

signed, titled and dated 1993 (on the reverse) oil on linen 84 by 60 in. 213.4 by 152.4 cm.

Executed in 1993.

$ 30,000-40,000

105 by 60 in. 266.7 by 152.4 cm.

Executed in 2008.

PROVENANCE

Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris Private Collection, Belgium (acquired from the above) Sotheby’s New York, 10 November 2011, lot 421 (consigned by the above) Acquired from the above by the present owner $ 100,000-150,000

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140

FRANCESCO CLEMENTE b. 195 2

HOUSE OF CARDS oil on linen 68 by 60¼ in. 172.7 by 153 cm.

Executed in 2001.

PROVENANCE

Gagosian Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in June 2003 by the present owner $ 40,000-60,000

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141

KARLA KNIGHT b. 195 8

H E A D S A N D TA I L S signed, titled and dated 1989-1990 (on the reverse) oil on linen 38 by 31 in. 96.5 by 78.7 cm.

Executed in 1989-90.

PROVENANCE

Lorence Monk Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in February 1990 by the present owner $ 5,000-7,000

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Francesco Clemente’s House of Cards, 2001, installed in Emily Fisher Landau’s New York home. Design © Aman & Meeks Interiors.

Photo © Karen Fuchs.

Art © 2023 Francesco Clemente

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142

JOHN BALDESSARI 19 31 - 202 0

D U C K / B I R D/ M I D G E T/ M A N ( I N TO P H AT A N D C A N E )

○ PROVENANCE

Sonnabend Gallery, New Yok Lisson Gallery, London Acquired from the above in May 1988 by the present owner

143

BARBARA KRUGER b. 1945

H E A R T ( D O I H AV E TO G I V E U P M E TO B E LO V E D B Y YO U ?)

oil tint and vinyl on black and white

silkscreen on vinyl, in artist’s frame

photographs, in 4 artist’s frames

111¾ by 111¾ in. 283.8 by 283.8 cm.

overall: 72½ by 71¼ in. 184.2 by 181 cm.

Executed in 1988.

PROVENANCE

Mary Boone Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in January 1989 by the present owner $ 400,000-600,000

Executed in 1988.

$ 250,000-350,000

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144

SHERRIE LEVINE b. 1947

U NTITLED (LE AD CH ECKS/ LE AD C H E VRO N : 4)

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146

signed, partially titled #4 and dated 1988

C H R I STO P H E R WO O L

(on the reverse)

b. 19 55

casein on lead

UNTITLED

40 by 20 in. 101.6 by 50.8 cm.

Executed in 1988.

signed, titled and dated 1990 (on the reverse)

PROVENANCE

enamel and acrylic on aluminum 96 by 72 in. 243.8 by 183 cm.

Mary Boone Gallery, New York

Executed in 1990.

Acquired from the above in June 1988 by the present owner

PROVENANCE

Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York

$ 120,000-180,000

Acquired from the above in April 1990 by the present owner $ 400,000-600,000

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145

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147

ST E V E WO L F E

LO R N A S I M P S O N

b. 1955

b. 19 6 0

UNTITLED ( A B Y A N DY WA R H O L # 2 )

T H E PA R K

stamped with the artist’s signature

overall: 68 by 80 in. 172.7 by 203.2 cm.

serigraph on 6 felt panels with 2 felt text panels

and date 1989 (on the reverse)

Executed in 1995, this work is number 1 from an

lacquer, silkscreen and oil on wood

edition of 3 plus 2 artist’s proof.

7 by 4¼ by 1 in. 17.8 by 10.8 by 2.5 cm.

Executed in 1989.

PROVENANCE

Diane Brown Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in December 1989 by the present owner

PROVENANCE

Sean Kelly, New York Acquired from the above in December 1995 by the present owner $ 60,000-80,000

$ 15,000-20,000

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148

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150

M A R K I N N E R ST

LO U I S E N E V E L S O N

b. 1957

1899 - 1988

F I R S T AV E N U E

L ARGE CRYPTIC I

signed, titled and dated 1988 (on the reverse)

wood painted black

oil and acrylic on board, in artist’s chosen frame

7 by 20 by 10¾ in. 17.8 by 50.8 by 27.3 cm.

19⅞ by 14¼ in. 50.5 by 36.2 cm.

Executed in 1970.

Executed in 1988.

PROVENANCE

PROVENANCE

Pace Gallery, New York

Curt Marcus Gallery, New York

Steve Shalom, New York (acquired from the above)

Acquired from the above in October 1988 by the present owner

Pace Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in January 1972 by the present owner

$ 6,000-8,000

$ 12,000-18,000

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149

M A R K I N N E R ST b. 1957

151

ROBERT R AU S C H E N B E R G

A S TO R P L AC E

192 5 - 2 008

signed (lower left); signed (on the reverse);

U N T I T L E D ( S A LVAG E S E R I E S )

signed (on the reverse of the frame) acrylic on board, in artist’s chosen frame 37½ by 31½ in. 95.2 by 80 in.

Executed in 2000.

PROVENANCE

Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in September 2000 by the present owner $ 6,000-8,000

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signed and dated 85 (lower left) acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas 32 by 38½ in. 81.3 by 97.8 cm.

Executed in 1985.

PROVENANCE

Acquired directly from the artist in January 1986 by the present owner $ 80,000-120,000

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152

JASPER JOHNS b. 1 930

THE SEASONS each signed in pencil and dated ‘87 (lower right); numbered 4/73 (lower left) The complete set of four etchings with aquatint printed in colors on Somerset wove paper plates: 19¼ by 12¾ in. 49 by 32.4 cm. sheets: 26¼ by 19 in. 66.6 by 48.4 cm.

Executed in 1987; this set is number 4 from the edition of 73 plus 13-16 artist’s proofs, each with the blindstamp of the publisher, ULAE.

$ 100,000-150,000

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153

JASPER JOHNS b. 1 930

V E N T R I LO Q U I S T Signed in pencil, dated 1986 and inscribed For Emily Landau (lower right); numbered 4/69 (lower left) Lithograph printed in colors on John Koller HMP wove paper image: 36⅜ by 24¼ in. 92.6 by 61.6 cm. sheet: 41⅜ by 29⅛ in. 105 by 74 cm.

Executed in 1986; this impression is number 4 from the edition of 69 plus 15 artist’s proofs,

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154

with the blindstamp of the publisher, ULAE.

J A M E S R O S E N Q U I ST

$ 20,000-30,000

1933 - 2 017

Thorden Wetterling Galleries, Stockholm

ENTER

Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York (acquired from the above in 1985)

signed and dated 1979 (on the reverse)

Acquired from the above in September 1985 by the present owner

oil on canvas mounted on board

PROVENANCE

36 by 36 in. 91.4 by 91.4 cm.

Executed in 1979.

$ 250,000-350,000

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155

BERND & HILLA BECHER 19 31 - 20 07 & 1934 - 201 5

○ PROVENANCE

Christine Burgin Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in 1991 by the present owner

156

T I M OT H Y GREENFIELDSANDERS

FR AMEWORK HOUSES

b. 195 2

signed and numbered sequentially in pencil

SELECTED WOR KS (15 PO RTR AITS O F ARTI STS)

(on the reverse) gelatin silver print, in 9 parts each image: 9⅜ by 7¼ in. 23.8 by 18.4 cm.

Executed in 1960-73.

$ 150,000-250,000

PROVENANCE

Acquired directly from the artist in 1992 by the present owner

signed, titled, dated and numbered in pencil (on the reverse of each) gelatin silver print, in 15 parts each image: 13⅜ by 10⅛ in. 34 by 25.7 cm.

Executed in 1982-92, these prints are from an edition of 10, 15 or 25.

$ 7,000-10,000

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ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE

A N A M E N D I E TA

1 946 - 1 989

UNTITLED

19 48 - 19 85

MICHAEL

mural-sized gelatin silver print 61¾ by 48 in. 156.8 by 121.9 cm.

platinum print on linen canvas with two silk

Executed in 1982-83/1992, this print

panels, in artist’s frame

is number 6 from an edition of 6

29 by 50 in. 73.7 by 127 cm.

Executed in 1987, this work is unique.

PROVENANCE

PROVENANCE

Estate of the artist

Robert Miller Gallery, New York

Galerie Lelong, New York

Acquired from the above in 1987 by the present owner

Laura Carpenter Fine Art, Santa Fe Acquired from the above in 1993 by the present owner

$ 50,000-70,000

$ 50,000-70,000

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ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE 1 946 - 1 989

L I LY signed, dated 87, and numbered 6/10 in ink (in the margin); the photographer’s stamp, signed and dated 1986 in ink, title, date, and number 6/10 in ink (on the reverse) gelatin silver print

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NAN GOLDIN b. 19 53

C O U P L E I N B E D , C H I C AG O

19⅛ by 19¼ in. 48.6 by 48.9 cm

signed, titled, dated 1977 and numbered

Executed in 1986, this print is number 6

22/25 in ink (on the reverse)

from an edition of 10.

PROVENANCE

Estate of the artist Robert Miller Gallery, New York

Cibachrome print 25¼ by 38 in. 64.1 by 96.5 cm.

Executed in 1977, this print is number 22 from an edition of 25.

PROVENANCE

Acquired from the above in 1993 by the present owner

Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

$ 20,000-30,000

Acquired from the above in 1998 by the present owner $ 8,000-12,000

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S H I R I N N E S H AT

H I R O S H I S U G I M OTO

b. 1957

b. 1948

U N T I T L E D ( F R O M ‘ S O L I LO Q U Y ’ )

S E A O F J A PA N , R E B U N I S L A N D

signed, titled, dated 1999 and numbered 4/5

signed in pencil (on the mount), title,

in pencil (on the reverse)

date 1996, and numbers 7/25 and 456

gelatin silver print

blindstamped (in the margin)

46⅛ by 61¾ in. 118.1 by 156.8 cm.

gelatin silver print

Executed in 1999, this print is number 4

16⅝ by 21¼ in. 42.2 by 54 cm.

from an edition of 5 plus one artist’s proof.

Executed in 1996, this print is number 7 from the edition of 25.

PROVENANCE

Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York

PROVENANCE

Acquired from the above in 2002 by the present owner

Sonnabend Gallery, New York

$ 30,000-50,000

Acquired from the above in 1998 by the present owner

Pace Wildenstein MacGill, New York

$ 20,000-30,000

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H I R O S H I S U G I M OTO

H I R O S H I S U G I M OTO

b. 1948

b. 1948

N O R T H AT L A N T I C O C E A N , C A P E B R E TO N I S L A N D

AVA LO N T H E AT R E , C ATA L I N A I S L A N D

signed in pencil (on the mount), title,

signed, titled, dated 1993 and numbered

date 1996, and numbers 19/25 and 464

10/25 and 251 in pencil (on the mount); title,

blindstamped (in the margin)

date 1993, number 10/25 and 251

gelatin silver print

blindstamped (in the margin)

16¾ by 21⅛ in. 42.5 by 53.7 cm.

gelatin silver print

Executed in 1996, this print is number 19

16½ by 21⅜ in. 41.9 by 54.3 cm.

from the edition of 25.

PROVENANCE

Sonnabend Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in 1998 by the present owner $ 20,000-30,000

Executed in 1993, this print is number 10 from an edition of 25.

PROVENANCE

Sonnabend Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in 1994 by the present owner $ 15,000-25,000

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G R E G O RY CREWDSON b. 1962

UNTITLED (BRIEF ENCOUNTER) Signed (on a label affixed to the reverse) Archival inkjet print 57 by 88 in. 114.8 by 223.5 cm.

Executed in 2006, this print is number 2 from an edition of 6.

PROVENANCE

Luhring Augustine, New York Acquired from the above in 2008 by the present owner $ 30,000-50,000

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RICHARD PRINCE b.1949

U NTITLED [FO U R WO R KS] i,.ii.,iv.: signed and dated 1986 (lower right) iii.: signed and dated 86 (lower right) i.: signed and dated 86 (on the verso) ink and graphite on paper each: 7¼ by 11½ in. 18.4 by 29.2 cm.

Executed in 1986.

PROVENANCE

Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York Zozobra Fine Art, Inc., Santa Fe Acquired from the above in August 1991 by the present owner $ 30,000-40,000

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NEIL JENNEY b. 1945

PA I N T A N D PA I N T E D titled (lower center of artist’s frame)

PROVENANCE

M. Anthony Fisher, New York (acquired directly from the artist in May 1987) Acquired from the above in June 1989 by the present owner

oil on canvas, in artist’s frame 48¾ by 73½ in. 123.8 by 186.7 cm.

Executed in 1970.

$ 150,000-200,000

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SUSAN R OT H E N B E R G 1 945 - 2 02 0

THE BLUE CHAIR signed, titled and dated 1987 (on the reverse) oil on canvas 78 by 71¼ in. 198.1 by 181 cm.

Executed in 1987.

PROVENANCE

Sperone Westwater, New York Acquired from the above in November 1987 by the present owner $ 80,000-120,000

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DONALD BAECHLER

L U CA S S A M A R A S

PETER SCHUYFF

1 95 6 - 2 02 2

b. 1936

b. 195 8

A U TO N O M Y O R A N A R C H Y # 2

S T I F F B OX # 1 4

UNTITLED

signed with the artist’s initials, titled and

rusted Cor-ten steel

oil on canvas

dated 2003 (on the reverse)

51 by 43 by 19 in. 129.5 by 109.2 by 48.3 cm.

114 by 24 in. 289.6 by 61 cm.

acrylic, paper and fabric collage on canvas

Executed in 1971, this work is number 1

Executed in 1991.

98¾ by 114¾ in. 250.8 by 291.5 cm.

from an edition of 3.

Executed in 2003.

PROVENANCE

PROVENANCE

Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York

PROVENANCE

Pace Gallery, New York

Cheim & Read, New York

Acquired from the above in March 1972 by the present owner

Acquired from the above in July 1991 by the present owner

Acquired from the above in May 2003 by the present owner

$ 10,000-15,000

$ 30,000-40,000

$ 30,000-40,000

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THOMAS N OZ KOW S K I 1944 - 2 019

UNTITLED signed (on the backing board) oil on canvas board 16 by 20 in. 40.6 by 50.8 cm.

Executed in 1984.

PROVENANCE

Rosa Esman Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in March 1985 by the present owner $ 8,000-12,000

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THOMAS N OZ KOW S K I 1944 - 2 019

UNTITLED ○

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signed (on the backing board) oil on canvas board 16 by 20 in. 40.6 by 50.8 cm.

ANSELM KIEFER

G A RY H U M E

b. 1945

b. 1 962

20 JAHRE EINSAMKEIT

THE OUTSIDER

Diane Brown Gallery, New York

titled (upper edge)

enamel on bronze

acrylic, graphite, sand and photo collage

72 by 35 by 35 in. 182.9 by 88.9 by 88.9 cm.

Acquired from the above in November 1988 by the present owner

on paper board

Executed in 2005.

$ 8,000-12,000

39½ by 27⅝ in. 100.3 by 70.2 cm.

Executed in 1971-91.

PROVENANCE

Marian Goodman Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in May 1994 by the present owner

Executed in 1988.

PROVENANCE

PROVENANCE

Matthew Marks Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in June 2007 by the present owner $ 80,000-120,000

$ 70,000-100,000

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MARKUS RAETZ 1 941 - 2 02 0

M E TA M O R P H O S E I I cast iron with concrete base overall: 77 by 14 by 13 in.

195.6 by 35.6 by 33 cm.

Executed in 1991-92.

PROVENANCE

Brooke Alexander Inc., New York Acquired from the above in August 1993 by the present owner $ 60,000-80,000

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DONALD BAECHLER 1 95 6 - 2 02 2

ROSE titled (on the stretcher) acrylic, paper and fabric collage on canvas 50¼ by 40¼ in. 127.6 by 102.2 cm.

Executed in 1995.

PROVENANCE

Kasmin Gallery, New York Acquired from the above in November 1995 by the present owner $ 15,000-20,000

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A L B E R T B I E R STA DT 1830 - 1902

SUMMIT OF SIERRA signed (lower right) oil on paper laid down on paperboard 19¼ by 14 in. 48.9 by 35.6 cm.

PROVENANCE

Mrs. Walter Mordecai Charles Newton Sotheby’s New York, 26 October 1984, lot 84 (consigned by the above) Alexander Gallery, New York (acquired from the above)

Sotheby’s New York, 23 September 1993, lot 87A (consigned by the above) Michael Altman, New York (acquired from the above) Zaplin-Lampert Gallery, Santa Fe Acquired from the above in 1998 by the present owner

Executed circa 1872.

$ 30,000-50,000

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JOHN BEERMAN

FA N N Y B R E N N A N

b.195 8

192 1 - 2 001

OUT OF THE CRADLE, E N D L E S S LY R O C K I N G

C O L L E C TO R ’ S I T E M signed with the artist’s initials

signed with the initials JTB and dated ‘85

(on the lower turning edge)

(lower right)

oil on panel

oil on Plexiglas in artist’s frame

2 by 2¾ in. 5.1 by 7 cm.

22⅛ by 18⅛ in. 56.2 by 47.3 cm.

Executed in 1990.

Executed in 1985.

PROVENANCE

PROVENANCE

Coe Kerr Gallery, New York

Lorence Monk Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above in October 1990 by the present owner

Acquired from the above in December 1985 by the present owner

$ 2,000-3,000

$ 5,000-7,000

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JOHN BEERMAN

FA N N Y B R E N N A N

b.195 8

192 1 - 2 001

A S O L I D P L AC E F O R YO U R F E E T

BIG HORN

signed with the initials JTB and dated ‘85

signed with the initials

(lower left)

(on the lower turning edge)

oil on Plexiglas in artist’s frame

oil on panel

21½ by 18 in. 54.6 by 45.7 cm.

2⅛ by 2¼ in. 5.4 by 5.7 cm.

Executed in 1985.

Executed in 1992.

PROVENANCE

PROVENANCE

Lorence Monk Gallery, New York

Coe Kerr Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above in December of 1985 by the present owner

Acquired from the above in October 1992 by the present owner

$ 2,000-3,000

$ 2,000-3,000

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Josef Albers’ Study for Homage to the Square: Full Warmth, 1967, Study for Homage to the Square: SEL: E.B. 8, 1964, and Homage to the Square: In Time, 1967, as well as Richard Prince’s Man Crazy Nurse #1, 2003, installed in Emily Fisher Landau’s New York home. Art © 2023 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; 2023 Richard Prince

HOW TO BID

CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS FOR BUYERS for New York Sales (formerly referred to as “Conditions of Sale”) 1.

Introduction

In these Conditions of Business for Buyers, “we”, “us” and “our” refers to Sotheby’s, Inc. and “you” and “your” refer to Bidders and Buyers. For New York Wine & Spirits auctions, “we”, “us” and “our” refers to both Sotheby’s, Inc. and Sotheby’s Wine. If you are an agent acting on behalf of a principal, “you” and “your” refer to both principal and agent. Capitalized terms will have the meaning set out in Condition 2.

These Conditions of Business for Buyers are the terms and conditions applicable to Bidders and Buyers in our New York auctions (both live and timed auctions). The Conditions of Business for Buyers include the Authenticity Guarantee and any other additional conditions that are expressly stated as applicable to a sale, and they may be amended by any oral or written announcement or notice prior to or during the sale. Our and the Seller’s relationship with Buyers and any Bidders in relation to the Lots offered in a sale is governed by these Conditions of Business for Buyers and the express representations and warranties and indemnity given by the Seller. In relation to a sale, where applicable, any reference by us to “Conditions of Sale” or “Terms of Guarantee,” should be understood to mean these Conditions of Business for Buyers and the Authenticity Guarantee, respectively. A sale contract is made directly between the Seller and the Buyer.

In some cases, we act as agent for the Seller, and in some cases a Sotheby’s Group Company may own a Lot and/or may have a legal, beneficial or financial interest in a Lot as a secured creditor or otherwise. For New York Wine & Spirits auctions, Sotheby’s Wine acts as agent for the Seller (though in some cases a Sotheby’s Group Company may own a Lot and/or may have a legal, beneficial or financial interest in a Lot as a secured creditor or otherwise), and Sotheby’s Inc. conducts the auction.

By registering for an auction, including through our Online Platforms, you agree to be bound by these Conditions of Business for Buyers.

1. BROWSE

2. REGISTER

3. BID

Go to sothebys.com or the Sotheby’s app to find works you are interested in.

Sign up to place bids.

Bid before and during the auction, from anywhere in the world.

We may change these Conditions of Business for Buyers from time to time in our sole discretion, without notice to you or to the Seller, by posting such changes on the Sotheby’s website at www.sothebys.com. It is your and the Seller’s responsibility to periodically check the Conditions of Business for Buyers for changes by clicking the link “Conditions of Business.” You will know if these Conditions of Business for Buyers have been revised since your last review by referring to the “Last Modified” date at the bottom of this page. If you do not agree to the current Conditions of Business for Buyers, you should refrain from registering to bid in an auction.

2. Defined Terms Authenticity Guarantee: the guarantee we provide as principal to the Buyer in relation to a purchased Lot, as set out in Condition 15. In relation to a sale, where applicable, any reference by us to the “Terms of Guarantee” should be understood to mean the Authenticity Guarantee.

Bidder: any person or entity registered to bid in a sale.

Buyer: the buyer of record of a Lot.

FOR ASSISTANCE WITH REGISTRATION AND BIDDING Enquiries@sothebys.com US +1 212 606 7000 UK +44 (0) 20 7293 5000 HK +852 2822 8142 sothebys.com/bidonline FOLLOW US @SOTHEBYS

Buyer’s Expenses: any costs or expenses, plus any applicable VAT, due to us from the Buyer in respect of the purchase of a Lot. Buyer’s Premium: the commission the Buyer must pay to us as part of the Purchase Price for auction Lots. The Buyer’s Premium rate is subject to change at any time. The current Buyer’s Premium rate for all auctions except Wine & Spirits is 26% of the Hammer Price for a Hammer Price

up to and including $1,000,000, 20% of any amount of the Hammer Price in excess of $1,000,000 up to and including $4,500,000, and 13.9% of any amount of the Hammer Price in excess of $4,500,000. For Wine & Spirits auctions, the Buyer’s Premium rate is 24% of the Hammer Price for all Lots. Buyer’s Premium is subject to any applicable VAT and/ or sales or use tax.

Catalogue descriptions and condition reports may refer to imperfections of a Lot or Referenced Content, but Lots or Referenced Content may have other faults not expressly referred to in the Catalogue or condition report. Illustrations are for identification purposes only and may not convey full information as to the actual condition of a Lot or Referenced Content.

Catalogue: the list of Lots offered in a sale and associated information, available on our website, any Sotheby’s Group application and, in some cases, in printed form.

(b) You accept responsibility for carrying out your own inspections and investigations of Lots in which you may be interested. You should inspect a Lot before bidding to determine and to satisfy yourself as to its condition, size, description and whether it has been repaired or restored, as applicable, and we accept bids on Lots solely on this basis. Condition reports may be available to assist when inspecting Lots. Lots may be available for viewing in person at our premises or another location and viewing information will be available on our website. For any NFT Lot, in addition to the foregoing, you are solely responsible for reviewing and inspecting the smart contract, if available, prior to your purchase.

Hammer Price: for each auction Lot sold, the last price accepted for the Lot by the auctioneer or acknowledged by the Sotheby’s online bidding system, or in the case of a postauction sale, the agreed sale price.

Lot: an item (or more than one item grouped as one) of property offered for sale. In some cases, a Lot may be, or may be accompanied by, an experience (an “Experience”).

A Lot may be or include an NFT (or more than one NFT), and the term “NFT” may be used to refer to any such Lot. NFT: a non-fungible token established on a blockchain.

Online Platforms: our websites, any Sotheby’s Group application, and any other online means through which we enable Bidders to bid on Lots in our sales.

Overhead Premium: the fee the Buyer must pay to us as part of the Purchase Price for auction Lots, as an allocation of overhead costs relating to our facilities, property handling and other administrative expenses. The Overhead Premium rate is subject to change at any time. The current Overhead Premium rate is 1% of the Hammer Price. Overhead Premium is subject to any applicable VAT and/or sales or use tax.

Parcel: a group of Lots of the same type and quantity of wine. There may be some discrepancies between the different Lots in a Parcel with respect to level, condition or otherwise, as set out in the catalogue descriptions for each Lot. Purchase Price: for auction Lots, the Hammer Price plus the Buyer’s Premium, Overhead Premium, any applicable VAT and/or sales or use tax, and any applicable artist resale right royalty payable by the Buyer on a qualifying Lot. Referenced Content: with respect to an NFT, the metadata (excluding any legal terms and conditions embedded or referenced therein), content, digital asset and/or physical item, if any, to which the NFT relates.

Reserve: the confidential minimum Hammer Price at which an auction Lot can be sold.

Seller: the person(s) or entity(ies) on whose behalf we are offering a Lot for sale. Where a Sotheby’s Group Company owns a Lot, Sotheby’s acts in a principal capacity as Seller.

Sotheby’s, Inc.: the company incorporated in New York, with its headquarters at 1334 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021.

Sotheby’s Group: Sotheby’s Holdings UK Limited and any entities in which it holds, from time to time, directly or indirectly, more than 50% of the issued share capital; and each, a “Sotheby’s Group Company.”

Sotheby’s Wine: the company incorporated as 72nd and York Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sotheby’s, Inc., d.b.a.

Sotheby’s Wine.

VAT: any applicable Value Added Tax or goods and services tax, or an amount in lieu of Value Added Tax or goods and services tax, as the case may be, at the prevailing rate.

3. The Lots (a) All Lots are offered for sale in the condition they are in at the time of the sale. You acknowledge that many Lots are of an age and type such that they are not in perfect condition.

(c) You acknowledge that our knowledge of each Lot is partially dependent on information provided by the Seller, and we are not able to and do not carry out exhaustive due diligence on each Lot. Information provided to you regarding any Lot, including any estimates, information in the Catalogue, condition reports, or information in respect of the age of hand-coloring in maps, atlases or books, is a matter of opinion only and not a representation of fact. This information is dependent upon, among other things, the condition of the Lot, the degree of research, examination or testing that is possible or practical in the circumstances, and the status of generally accepted expert opinion, research and scientific or technical analysis at the time of cataloguing.

Any estimates should not be relied upon as a prediction of the selling price or value of a Lot and may be revised from time to time in our absolute discretion. (d) If the Lot is an NFT, you acknowledge and agree that our staff are not information technology or data experts, and that by bidding in the auction of the NFT, or otherwise purchasing or acquiring the NFT, you accept that NFTs are subject to inherent technological risks which may affect their performance now or in the future. You further acknowledge and agree that the characterization and regulatory scheme governing NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and blockchain technology is uncertain and undetermined, that your purchase and/or receipt of the NFT complies with applicable laws and regulations in your jurisdiction, and that new regulations or policies may materially adversely affect the sale or resale of the NFT. (e) If the Lot is an NFT, you acknowledge and agree that the NFT may be subject to resale royalties, including to a Sotheby’s Group Company, through application of the smart contract or other technical solution on any subsequent resales of the NFT. On any such resale by you, you may be obligated to collect and remit to the appropriate party resale royalties as applicable, and you are responsible for any network fees and/or gas fees that may apply to such payments as well as any transaction duties imposed by law. (f) We reserve the right to withdraw any Lot from an auction or to cancel an auction, whether prior to or during the auction, and we will not be liable to you for any claims, causes of action, liabilities, damages, losses, or expenses in connection with such withdrawal or cancellation. (g) Unless otherwise specified, all auction Lots are offered subject to a Reserve. The Reserve for a Lot cannot exceed the Lot’s low estimate. In a timed auction, you acknowledge that we may reduce the Reserve for any Lot at any time during the auction, provided it has been agreed with the Seller prior to any such reduction.

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(h) Each Lot offered will be referenced by its Lot number assigned in the Catalogue. Unless we specify otherwise, bids must be on a per-Lot basis. (i) Experiences will be fulfilled by the relevant entity or entities specified in its description in the Catalogue. We do not plan, host, operate, fulfill, endorse, verify, vouch for, investigate or vet any Experience. For each Experience, any incidental costs and expenses such as fees for travel, food or lodging are the sole responsibility of the Buyer unless otherwise expressly stated in the Experience description. (j) The Buyer is solely responsible for identifying and obtaining any necessary export, import, firearm, endangered species or other permit for a purchased Lot. Any symbols or notices in the Catalogue reflect our reasonable opinion at the time of cataloguing and are included for informational purposes only. Without prejudice to Condition 3(k), neither we nor the Seller make any representations or warranties as to whether any Lot is subject to export or import restrictions or any embargoes. The denial of any permit or license will not justify cancellation or rescission of the sale or excuse any delay in payment. We will not deliver a firearm to a Buyer unless the Buyer has first supplied evidence to our satisfaction of compliance with this Condition. (k) DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES: (i) All Lots are offered for sale “AS IS,” without any guarantee, representations or warranties by us or the Seller, except for the express representations and warranties given by the Seller and the Authenticity Guarantee, which we, as principal, provide to the Buyer. We and the Seller disclaim all implied warranties, including but not limited to merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, except in so far as such obligations cannot be excluded by law. Neither we nor the Seller give you any guarantee, representation or warranty as to the correctness of the Catalogue or other images or descriptions of the condition, completeness, size, quality, rarity, value, importance, medium, frame, provenance, exhibition history, or literary or historical relevance of any Lot, and no statement anywhere, whether oral or written, will be deemed such a warranty, representation or assumption of liability. Except as expressly set forth elsewhere in these Conditions of Business for Buyers, neither we nor the Seller make any representations or warranties as to whether any Lot is subject to copyright or whether the Buyer acquires any copyrights, including but not limited to, any reproduction rights in any Lot. (ii) In the case of NFTs, in addition to the above and except for the express representations and warranties given by the Seller and the Authenticity Guarantee, which we, as principal, provide to the Buyer, neither we nor the Seller make any representations or warranties as to the following: (1) whether the NFT or any Referenced Content is subject to copyright; (2) the nature, character, contents, condition, behavior, operation, performance, security, integrity, metadata, persistence, quality, technical details or terms of the smart contract, NFT or the Referenced Content, including without limitation any further iterations of the same; (3) that the smart contract, NFT or Referenced Content or the delivery mechanism for the NFT does not contain vulnerabilities, viruses or malware or other harmful components, or that either will function as any bidder or Buyer expects or without error or mistake; (4) the uniqueness of the Referenced Content; (5) that the NFT is reliable, correctly programmed, compatible with your or others’ computer systems, up-to-date, errorfree, compatible with your digital wallet or meeting your requirements, or that defects in the NFT can or will be corrected; or (6) the accuracy or reliability of any simulation or videos depicting the intended performance of the NFT or the Referenced Content, whether displayed on our websites or on any other platform.

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4. Buyer Representations and Warranties (a) You represent and warrant to us and the Seller that at all relevant times: (i) your bids on any Lot are genuine and are not the product of any collusive or other anti-competitive agreement and are otherwise consistent with any applicable antitrust laws; (ii) your performance under these Conditions of Business for Buyers has not and will not violate any applicable law, regulation or code in any jurisdiction; (iii) regarding any Lots containing alcoholic beverages, where required by applicable law, you are properly licensed, permitted or otherwise authorized to purchase, receive, possess and/or cause to transport alcoholic beverages; (iv) your purchase of a Lot and, if you are acting as an agent on behalf of a principal, the arrangement between you and your principal, will not facilitate tax crimes; (v) you have no knowledge or reason to suspect that (1) the funds used to purchase a Lot are connected with the proceeds of criminal activity, or (2) you or your principal, if applicable (or, if you are an entity, any person(s) or entity(ies) with a beneficial or ownership interest in you), are under investigation, charged with, or convicted of any substantive or predicate money laundering or economic sanctions crime, terrorist activity, tax evasion or act in violation of any anti-bribery or anti-corruption laws or regulations; (vi) you (and your principal, if applicable) are not, nor are you (or your principal, if applicable) owned (in whole or in part), controlled, or acting on behalf of, an entity or individual that is: (1) the subject of economic sanctions, embargoes or other trade restrictions in any jurisdiction, including those administered and enforced by the United States, European Union or any of its member states, United Kingdom, United Nations Security Council, or other applicable sanctions authority (collectively, “Sanctions”), or (2) located, organized, or resident in a country or territory that is the subject of Sanctions (including Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, the Russian Federation and Belarus) (collectively, “Sanctioned Jurisdictions”); (vii) you (and your principal, if applicable) are currently in compliance, and for the past five years have complied, with applicable Sanctions, anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism, and anti-bribery or anti-corruption laws; (viii) the Purchase Price will not be funded directly or indirectly by or from anyone that is the subject of Sanctions or located, organized, or resident in a Sanctioned Jurisdiction; (ix) no party directly or indirectly involved in the transaction is the subject of Sanctions or is owned (in whole or in part) or controlled by any individual or entity that is the subject of Sanctions or otherwise located, organized, or resident in a Sanctioned Jurisdiction, except as expressly authorized in writing by the government authority having jurisdiction over the purchase and with our prior express written consent; (x) if you are acting as agent on behalf of a principal, you have taken steps reasonably designed to ensure compliance with Sanctions, anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism, and anti-bribery or anti-corruption laws, including but not limited to, conducting appropriate due diligence on your principal and screening source of funds. You will retain and make available upon request the documentation evidencing such due diligence for at least five years after the purchase, and all commissions payable to you for this consignment have been authorized by your principal; (xi) your purchase will not cause (or otherwise result in) us, Sellers, or anyone else to violate any Sanctions, anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism, or anti-bribery or anti-corruption laws; and

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(xii) you have full legal authority without any further action or other party’s consent to enter into and perform under these Conditions of Business for Buyers and to give these representations and warranties; if you are an entity, the individual bidding on your behalf is authorized to do so and the entity is duly incorporated or formed, validly existing and in good standing in the jurisdiction where it is incorporated or formed. (b) We may, in our sole discretion, rescind the sale of a Lot if we reasonably determine that (i) any of the Seller’s representations or warranties is inaccurate, incomplete or breached; or (ii) the sale has subjected or might subject us or the Seller to liability.

5. Indemnity You shall indemnify and hold us, each Sotheby’s Group Company, our and their respective officers and employees, and the Seller harmless against any and all claims, causes of action, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including but not limited to reasonable attorneys’ fees), arising out of or in connection with any inaccuracy, incompleteness or breach of any of your representations or warranties or breach of your obligations under these Conditions of Business for Buyers to the fullest extent permitted by law.

6. Bidding (a) You must create an account and provide the requested information in order to bid. We may require financial references, guarantees, deposits or other security, as we determine necessary or appropriate. (b) To bid on a Lot containing an NFT, you must have a digital wallet capable of supporting and accepting the NFT. (c) To bid on any auction Lot designated as a “Premium Lot,” you must complete the required Premium Lot preregistration application. We must receive your application at least 3 business days prior to the commencement of the auction, and our decision whether to accept your application will be final. Online bidding may not be available for Premium Lots. (d) We advise Bidders to place their bids directly, either in person at the auction (where available) or through our Online Platforms. If you elect to bid or to participate in an auction held through an Online Platform, you are responsible for making yourself aware of all salesroom notices and announcements, which will be available on the Online Platforms. (e) We also accept written bids and telephone bids, by arrangement with the Bids Department. A written bid, also known as an absentee bid, is where a Bidder submits a maximum bid ahead of a live auction, which will be executed on the Bidder’s behalf by the auctioneer at the lowest bid increment possible, as may be determined at the auctioneer’s discretion, and never for more than the maximum amount the Bidder indicates. Written bids and telephone bids are offered as a courtesy for no additional charge, at the Bidder’s risk and subject to our other commitments at the time of the auction. We will seek to carry out written bids, endeavoring to ensure that the first received of identical written bids has priority. We will not accept liability for failure to place written or telephone bids. (f) For certain sales, Bidders are permitted to submit via the Online Platform a maximum bid before the start of a live auction (an “Advance Bid”). Advance Bids will be executed on your behalf automatically up to your predefined maximum value in response to other bids placed on the Lot, including bids placed by us on behalf of the Seller, up to the amount of the Reserve (if applicable). The current leading bid will be visible to all Bidders; the value and status of your Advance Bid will be visible only to you, unless it is the leading bid. Once the live auction begins, the auctioneer will open

bidding at the current leading bid. The system will continue to bid on your behalf up to your predetermined maximum bid, or you may continue to bid via the Online Platforms during the live auction at the next increment. (g) All bidding will be in the currency of the sale location. As a courtesy to Bidders, a currency board is operated in many salerooms for live auctions for informational purposes only.

Online Bidders will not be able to see any such currency conversion board that may be displayed in the auction room. (h) We reserve the right to refuse or revoke permission to bid before or during a sale for any reason. For live auctions with bidding in person, we may refuse admission to the auction. For timed auctions, we also reserve the right to deactivate your account at any time prior to, during, or after an auction. (i) For timed auctions, live auctions with Advance Bidding, and online sales, you may cancel a bid after you place it only if (i) the description of or the condition report for the Lot has been materially revised after the bid was placed; or (ii) a notice regarding the Lot has been posted on our website after the bid was placed. Other than in the foregoing limited circumstances, you agree that any bid you place, regardless of the means by which you have done so, is final and you will not be permitted to amend or retract it. For all auctions and sales, should your bid be successful, you irrevocably agree to pay the full Purchase Price and any applicable Buyer’s Expenses. We are not responsible for any errors that you make or that are made through your Sotheby’s account in placing a bid on a Lot. 7.

Conduct of an Auction

(a) An auction is by its nature fast-moving and bidding may progress very quickly. In a live auction, the auctioneer will commence and advance the bidding at levels and in increments the auctioneer considers appropriate (including by reference to any advance bids made). The auctioneer has discretion to vary bid increments in the auction room and on the telephone but Bidders using Online Platforms may not be able to place a bid that is less than a whole bidding increment above the previous bid. (b) In a timed auction, bidding opens at an amount that is at or below the low estimate for the Lot and escalates in bid increments that we determine. We may vary the amount of the bid increments during a timed auction. Lots will be closed sequentially, either by the online system or, in some cases, by a live auctioneer. If closed by the online system, Lots will close sequentially in 30-second or one-minute intervals (as indicated on the sale page) unless a bid is placed within one minute of a Lot’s scheduled closing time, in which case we will extend the sale of that Lot by two minutes from the time of the last bid and such extensions may be repeated for a maximum period of two hours. The extension of any Lot’s closing time does not affect any other Lot’s closing time; therefore, it is possible that Lots will close out of numerical Lot order. (c) With respect to Parcels, at the auctioneer’s discretion, the successful Bidder of the first Lot in a Parcel will have the option, but not the obligation, to purchase in consecutive order one or more of the remaining Lots in the Parcel, each at the same successful bid price as the first Lot. If any Lots in the Parcel are not purchased, the auctioneer will open the bidding on the next unsold Lot in the Parcel, and the successful Bidder of that Lot will have the option, but not the obligation, to purchase in consecutive order one or more, if any, of the remaining Lots in the Parcel, each at the newlyestablished successful bid price. (d) The auctioneer (or, in a timed auction, the online system) may open bidding on any Lot by placing a bid on behalf of the Seller below the Reserve. The auctioneer

and Sotheby’s representatives may further bid by placing successive or consecutive bids for a Lot up to the amount of the Reserve, or if there is an irrevocable bid on the Lot, up to the amount of the irrevocable bid. In a timed auction, such bids will be counted toward the total bid count displayed on the Online Platform. (e) The auctioneer (or, in a timed auction, the online system) may refuse or reject any bid, including bids that have previously been accepted, withdraw any Lot, or reopen or continue the bidding (including after the fall of the hammer or, in a timed auction, the close of a Lot). If the Reserve for a Lot is not met, the auctioneer may withdraw the Lot from sale, and the auctioneer or online system will announce that the withdrawn Lot has been “passed”, “withdrawn”, “returned to owner,” “unsold,” “bought-in” or the equivalent. (f) In the case of error or dispute with respect to bidding, either during or after the auction, we in our sole discretion may refuse any bid, withdraw a Lot, determine who the Buyer is, continue or re-open the bidding, cancel the sale of a Lot, or re-offer and re-sell a Lot (including after the fall of the hammer or, in a timed auction, the close of a Lot), and take such other action as we reasonably deem appropriate.

In the case of any dispute, our sale record will be absolute and final. In the event of any discrepancy between any online records or messages provided to you and our sale record, our sale record will prevail. Where we decide to cancel the sale of a Lot or to re-offer and sell a Lot following an error or dispute with respect to bidding, we will notify the Buyer of such decision as soon as reasonably practicable. (g) Subject to Conditions 7(e) and 7(f), the Buyer will be: in a live auction, the highest Bidder accepted for a Lot at the fall of the hammer; in a timed auction, the highest Bidder accepted for a Lot on the close of the Lot; in the case of a Bidder bidding as agent, such Bidder’s principal will be the Buyer. This means that, subject to Condition 7(e), the sale contract between the Buyer and the Seller is concluded on the striking of the auctioneer’s hammer in a live auction, or on the close of a Lot in a timed auction, whereupon the Buyer becomes liable to pay the full Purchase Price and any applicable Buyer’s Expenses. The sale contract between the Seller and the Buyer of a Lot will be final at the end of the auction session. (h) Any post-auction sale of Lots will be made pursuant to these Conditions of Business for Buyers.

8. Payment (a) Generally. (i) Buyers will be invoiced after the sale. For online Bidders, the purchase information shown in the “My Bids” section of the Sotheby’s App and in the “Account Activity” section of “My Account” on our website is provided for your convenience only. In the event of any discrepancy between the online purchase information and the invoice we send you following the sale, the invoice will prevail. We may process payments through third-party service providers, which may post operating rules related to payment on their respective websites and change such rules from time to time. For credit card payments, you authorize us, and our third-party service providers, to immediately charge your selected payment method for all amounts presented to you in the checkout and purchase process. (ii) For auction Lots, the Buyer’s Premium and Overhead Premium will be added to the Hammer Price on a per-Lot basis and are payable by the Buyer as part of the Purchase Price. (iii) The Buyer also must pay as part of the Purchase Price any applicable sales tax, compensating use tax, VAT, consumption tax, goods or services tax or other indirect

taxes, luxury tax, excise tax, and duties or tariffs (collectively, “Taxes”), as well as any applicable artist resale right royalty, on the purchase of a Lot where and as required by applicable law. We will collect any applicable Taxes and artist resale right royalty on the purchase of a Lot where and as required by applicable law. The Buyer shall pay the Purchase Price in full without any deduction for taxes of any kind, unless such deduction is required by law. In any such case, the amount due to us from the Buyer will be increased to an amount that after deduction for any such taxes leaves an amount equal to the Purchase Price. (iv) Payment of the Purchase Price for a Lot and any Buyer’s Expenses is due from the Buyer in the currency of the relevant sale (except to the extent permitted in Condition 8(b)) immediately upon conclusion of the auction, notwithstanding any requirements for export, import or other permit. The Buyer’s obligation to pay the full Purchase Price and any applicable Buyer’s Expenses is absolute and unconditional and is not subject to any defenses, setoffs or counterclaims of any kind whatsoever. (v) We will not accept payment from a source other than the Buyer. If you are registered to bid as a company, your company will need to pay for any purchases in the name of the company via an accepted payment method. Partial payment for a Lot is not permitted. (vi) Title in a purchased Lot will not pass to the Buyer until we have received the full Purchase Price in cleared funds.

We will release a Lot to the Buyer or Buyer’s agent after we have received from the Buyer the full Purchase Price and any applicable Buyer’s Expenses in cleared funds and appropriate identification of the Buyer and Buyer’s agent (if any), unless we are prevented from doing so by an event beyond our control. Any earlier release does not affect the passing of title or the Buyer’s unconditional obligation to pay the full Purchase Price and any applicable Buyer’s Expenses. (b) Payment in cryptocurrency: for Lots eligible for payment in cryptocurrencies, payments made in cryptocurrency shall be subject to the terms in this Condition 8(b) in addition to the terms set forth in Condition 8(a) above. (i) We will accept payment in cryptocurrency only for Lots designated as eligible for such in the Catalogue or by any oral or written announcement or notice prior to or during the sale, and only in the following cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and USD Coin (USDC). (ii) The amount due will be the cryptocurrency equivalent at the time payment is made of the amount invoiced, and Buyer will be responsible for applicable network fees required to successfully conduct the transaction on the blockchain. (iii) Any payment in cryptocurrency must be made within ten (10) business days of your receipt of the invoice from us, and payment must be made between the hours of 9:00am and 12:00pm Eastern Time, Monday through Friday (and not on a U.S. public holiday). (iv) Payment must be made from an account or digital wallet in your name maintained with one of the following platforms: (1) Coinbase Custody Trust; (2) Coinbase, Inc. (including Coinbase, Coinbase Pro and Coinbase Prime accounts); (3) Fidelity Digital Assets Services, LLC; (4) Gemini Trust Company, LLC; or (5) Paxos Trust Company, LLC. Partial payments from multiple digital wallets will not be accepted, and we may require you to provide documentation to confirm that you own the wallet used to make payment. (v) Payments in cryptocurrency will not be accepted other than in accordance with this Condition 8(b). If you make payment in cryptocurrency other than in accordance with Condition 8(b), including where we determine or reasonably believe, in our sole discretion, that any of your

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representations and warranties are inaccurate, incomplete or breached, we may, in our sole discretion, return those funds to you, hold you responsible for all third-party fees (including, without limitation, network fees, taxes, transfer fees, etc.), and require you to pay in the fiat currency of the sale. In addition, in the event we make any refund of Taxes to you and you paid such Taxes using cryptocurrency, you understand and agree that we may, at our sole discretion, refund you (1) the same amount(s) of the same cryptocurrency that you paid to us for such Taxes; (2) the amount(s) in fiat currency that we invoiced to you for such Taxes; or (3) the fiat currency equivalent at the time the refund is made of the amount(s) of cryptocurrency that you paid for such Taxes. In no circumstance will you be entitled to receive any appreciation on the value of the cryptocurrency that you provided to us as payment in connection with a refund. (vi) Once you initiate a cryptocurrency transaction, the transaction cannot be reversed; this is inherent in the nature of cryptocurrencies and not a policy set by us. You are responsible for verifying that you have sent the correct amount to the correct digital wallet address. (vii) If you make payment in cryptocurrency from a digital wallet or account, you represent and warrant the following: (1) you own the digital wallet and the cryptocurrency used to make payment; (2) the digital wallet or account is not directly or indirectly hosted, operated, or otherwise controlled by anyone that is the subject of Sanctions or located, resident, or organized in a Sanctioned Jurisdiction; (3) the cryptocurrency or any other assets in the digital wallet or account used for the bid or purchase were not sourced from anyone that is the subject of Sanctions or located, resident, or organized in a Sanctioned Jurisdiction; and (4) your payment in cryptocurrency will not cause (or otherwise result in) us, Sellers, or anyone else to violate any Sanctions, anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism, antibribery or anti-corruption laws, or any other applicable laws. We may, in our sole discretion, refuse payment in cryptocurrency from any Buyer if we reasonably determine any of the Buyer’s representations or warranties are, or would be as a result of such payment, inaccurate, incomplete or breached. (viii) We shall have no liability for any payment made by you in cryptocurrency that is not received by us for whatever reason. (ix) You acknowledge the risks inherent to the use of cryptocurrency, including without limitation the risk of faulty or insufficient hardware, software, and internet connections; the risk of introduction or intrusion of malicious code or software; the risk of hacking or unauthorized access to your digital wallet or information stored therein, or of theft or diversion of funds therefrom; volatility and unstable or unfavorable exchange rates; and the risk of unfavorable regulatory intervention and/or tax treatment in relation to transaction in such currency. We will have no liability for any of the foregoing.

9. Consequences of Late- or Non-payment (a) The Buyer is required to pay the full Purchase Price for a Lot and any applicable Buyer’s Expenses in cleared funds within five days of the auction. If the Buyer fails to do so without our prior agreement, the Buyer will be in default.

In such case, without prejudice to any rights or remedies the Seller may have, we may in our sole discretion exercise one or more of the following rights or remedies in respect of each Lot for which the Buyer has failed to pay in full, to the fullest extent permitted by law, in addition to any and all other rights or remedies available to us or the Seller by law or in equity:

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(i) store the Lot at our premises or, if the Lot is an NFT, in our or the Seller’s digital wallet, or elsewhere at the Buyer’s sole risk and expense; (ii) cancel the sale of the Lot; (iii) set off any amounts owed to the Buyer by a Sotheby’s Group Company against any amounts outstanding from the Buyer in respect of the Lot or any damages suffered by us as a result of breach of contract by the Buyer; (iv) apply any deposits and/or payments made to us by the Buyer as part of the Purchase Price and Buyer’s Expenses towards such Lot or any other Lot purchased by the Buyer, or to any shortfall on the resale of any Lot pursuant to paragraph (viii) below, or to any damages suffered by us as a result of breach of contract by the Buyer; (v) reject future bids from the Buyer or render such bids subject to payment of a deposit; (vi) charge interest at the annual percentage rate of 6% above the prime rate, but in no event greater than the maximum rate permitted by law, from the date on which payment is due to the date the Purchase Price and relevant Buyer’s Expenses are received in cleared funds (both before and after judgement); (vii) retain or exercise a lien over any of the Buyer’s property that is in the possession of a Sotheby’s Group Company, in which case we will inform the Buyer, and we may thereafter arrange the sale of such property and apply the proceeds to the amount outstanding; (viii) resell the Lot at the Buyer’s expense either at auction or by private sale, with estimates and reserves set at our discretion, and in the event such resale is for less than the sum of the Purchase Price and applicable Buyer’s Expenses for that Lot, the Buyer will remain liable for the shortfall together with all costs incurred in such resale; (ix) commence legal proceedings to recover the Purchase Price and Buyer’s Expenses for that Lot, or to claim damages for the Buyer’s breach of contract, together with interest and the costs of such proceedings on a full indemnity basis; and (x) release the name and address of the Buyer to the Seller to enable the Seller to commence legal proceedings to recover the amounts due and legal costs, and in such case, we will take reasonable steps to notify the Buyer prior to releasing such details to the Seller. (b) In the event the Buyer fails to pay any or all of the Purchase Price for a Lot and we elect to pay the Seller any portion or all of the sale proceeds, the Buyer acknowledges that we will have all of the rights that the Seller would otherwise have against the Buyer for any such amount, whether at law, in equity, or under these Conditions of Business for Buyers. (c) A defaulting Buyer will be deemed to have granted and assigned to us and each other Sotheby’s Group Company a continuing security interest of first priority in any property or money of or owing to such Buyer in the possession, custody or control of us or any other Sotheby’s Group Company, in each case whether at the time of the applicable sale, the default or if acquired at any time thereafter, and we and each other Sotheby’s Group Company may retain and apply such property or money as collateral security for the obligations due to us or to any other Sotheby’s Group Company. We and each other Sotheby’s Group Company will have all of the rights accorded a secured party under the New York Uniform Commercial Code. A defaulting Buyer hereby agrees that we and each other Sotheby’s Group Company may file financing statements under the New York Uniform Commercial Code without the Buyer’s signature.

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10. Collection and Delivery of Purchases (a) The provisions of this Condition 10(a) apply to all Lots (or portions of Lots) that are not NFTs: (i) The Buyer is obliged to arrange collection of purchased Lots no later than 30 calendar days after the date of sale, or if applicable, within the time stipulated in the relevant sale information available on our website. (ii) Except as set out in this Condition 10(a)(ii), all packing and handling are at the Buyer’s risk. We will not be liable for any acts or omissions of third-party packers or shippers.

For Lots from a Wine & Spirits auction where we arrange for domestic shipping at your request on your behalf, we will charge you a non-refundable fee at a rate of 1% of the Purchase Price for all domestic shipments arranged. Such fee covers property handling and administration and bearing liability for loss or damage to the Property while in our possession. We will only be liable for breakage or loss during transit. All packages must be inspected upon receipt and breakage or loss reported to us immediately upon delivery of the property. We will not refund any shipping charges, packing charges, or fees. (iii) If you request Sotheby’s to assist with shipping purchased Lots to you, we will include a shipping quote outlining the Buyer’s shipping costs (the “Buyer’s Shipping Quote”). For international Buyers, the Buyer’s Shipping Quote will be exclusive of any taxes or duties, and it is your responsibility to ascertain and pay all international duties, custom charges, taxes, charges and tariffs owed to the appropriate government entity or that otherwise need to be paid prior to shipment and/or delivery including any third-party charges necessary to facilitate shipment. Once you have accepted the Buyer’s Shipping Quote and we have received in full the Purchase Price, applicable Buyer’s Expenses and you have paid in full the amount stated in the Buyer’s Shipping Quote by the payment deadline, we will arrange shipment of the Lot to you to the address you provided on your account following conclusion of the sale.

Purchased Lots cannot be delivered to P.O. boxes, and we are unable to arrange delivery to those locations specified as excluded zones in the shipping costs calculator that is available on the Online Platform. If you request delivery of a Lot to any such destination, we reserve the right to require you to collect the Lot from us or to arrange delivery of the Lot by a third-party carrier. (iv) If the Buyer pays the Purchase Price and Buyer’s Expenses but fails to collect a Lot within 30 calendar days of the conclusion of the auction, we will store the Lot at the Buyer’s expense and risk at our premises or with a third party. Regarding uncollected Lots from a Wine & Spirits auction, if a purchased Lot remains uncollected after 90 days, we may send it to our wine warehouse, upon which time applicable state and local sales tax will be charged.

The Buyer hereby agrees to the Virtual Cellar Terms of Use, Storage Terms of Use and Auto-Renewal Policy with regard to the storage of such Lot(s), which can be found at https:// www.sothebyswine.com/ny/storage. (v) If a purchased Lot is not collected within six months of the auction, the Buyer authorizes us, having given notice to the Buyer, to arrange a resale of the Lot by auction or private sale, with estimates and reserves at our discretion.

Any such sale conducted by a Sotheby’s Group Company will be conducted under the standard Conditions of Business for Sellers and the Conditions of Business for Buyers, if any, applicable to the relevant sale. If the Lot sells, we will be entitled to deduct from the sale proceeds our standard seller’s commission and any other costs we incur in selling the Lot, and any excess will be remitted to the Buyer. (b) The provisions of this Condition 10(b) apply to all Lots (or portions of Lots) that are NFTs:

(i) In order to receive an NFT, you must have a digital wallet that is capable of supporting and accepting the NFT, that you own, and to which you have access. You understand and acknowledge that not all digital wallets can support storage of a non-fungible token, and that if your wallet does not support storage of the NFT purchased by you, you may not be able to access that NFT. If you fail to provide us with an address for a digital wallet that is capable of supporting and accepting the NFT within five business days of the conclusion of the sale, we may, in our sole discretion, treat the NFT as transferred to you for purposes of Condition 11(a)(iii), treat the NFT Lot as a Lot for which the Buyer has failed to pay in full for purposes of Condition 9, and hold you responsible for all resulting third-party fees (including, without limitation, custodial fees, insurance, network fees, taxes, transfer fees, etc.). (ii) We or the Seller will mint or transfer the NFT to the digital wallet that you have specified, after you have met the conditions in Condition 8 and subject to any additional timing or criteria included in the Catalogue or other descriptions of the Lot. We or the Seller will transfer the NFT to the wallet address specified by you and are not responsible for confirming that you have supplied us with the correct or a valid address. We and the Seller are not responsible if the transfer of the NFT to your wallet fails, unless such failure is the result of us sending the NFT to a wallet address other than the one provided by you.

11. Risk and Responsibility for Lots (a) Risk and responsibility for a purchased Lot will transfer to the Buyer as follows: (i) for Lots (or portions of Lots) that are not NFTs in live auctions: on the earlier of: (1) collection of the Lot, or (2) the 31st calendar day after the sale, or if applicable, the expiry of the time specified in the special sale information available on our website, except that risk and responsibility for wine or spirits casks will transfer to the Buyer upon the fall of the hammer. For any Lots stored at a third-party location and not available for collection from our premises, your provision to us of instructions authorizing the release to you or your agent shall constitute collection by the Buyer. (ii) for Lots (or portions of Lots) that are not NFTs in timed auctions: (1) if we dispatch the Lot to the Buyer (using the method of shipping the Buyer specified for the Lot), when the Lot comes into the physical possession of the Buyer or the Buyer’s designated agent or (2) if collection by the Buyer is available, when the Buyer or the Buyer’s designated agent collects the Lot, except that in either of the foregoing, risk and responsibility for wine or spirits casks will transfer to the Buyer upon the fall of the hammer. If you choose to exercise any right you may have to cancel the contract for the purchase of the Lot (in accordance with the procedure set out at Condition 12 below), you acknowledge that the Lot is at your risk and that you should therefore insure the Lot against loss or damage until it is returned to us. (iii) For Lots (or portions of Lots) that are NFTs: After transfer of the NFT to the digital wallet specified by you, you are responsible for secure storage of the NFT in the wallet or other storage mechanism you use to receive and/or hold the NFT. You are solely responsible for any risks associated with the transferring, creating, holding, storing, or use of NFTs or a digital wallet, as applicable, including network failures or disruptions; corrupted wallet files; viruses, phishing, bruteforcing, hacking, security breaches, mining attacks, or other means of attack against the NFT; risk of losing access to the NFT due to loss of private key(s); custodial or buyer error; regulatory interference in one or more jurisdictions; token taxation; personal information disclosure; uninsured losses; failure to provide appropriate maintenance (including without limitation hosting); and other unanticipated risks. Neither we nor the Seller will not be responsible for any such risks or losses.

(b) Once risk passes to the Buyer, the Buyer irrevocably releases us and each other Sotheby’s Group Company, our and their respective officers and employees, agents, warehouses and the Seller, from any and all claims, causes of action, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including but not limited to reasonable attorneys’ fees) for loss of or damage to the Lot. (c) Before risk and responsibility for a purchased Lot transfers to the Buyer in accordance with this Condition 11, we assume liability for loss or damage to a Lot, subject to the exclusions set out in paragraph (d) below. In the event of loss or damage for which we have assumed liability, we will determine the extent of depreciation to the Lot, if any, caused by the loss or damage and compensate the Buyer in respect of that loss up to the amount of the Purchase Price paid by the Buyer for the Lot. (d) We will not be liable for any loss or damage (1) caused by any process undertaken by independent contractors engaged with your consent, including but not limited to for restoration, conservation, framing or cleaning; (2) caused to frames or to glass covering prints, paintings or other flat works; or (3) caused by changes in humidity or temperature (as long as we take reasonable care in handling the Lot), normal wear and tear, gradual deterioration or inherent vice or defect (including woodworm), war, any act or acts of terrorism (as defined by our insurers), nuclear fission, radioactive contamination, or chemical, bio-chemical or electromagnetic weapons. If the Lot is an NFT, in addition to the above, we will not be liable for any loss related to damage or corruption to the Referenced Content, failure of the NFT to reference the Referenced Content, or loss of, or other security or persistence issues related to, the Referenced Content. (e) Upon your receipt of payment from us for any loss or damage to a Lot in accordance with this Condition 11, you, on your own behalf and on behalf of your insurer(s), irrevocably release us and each other Sotheby’s Group Company, our and their respective officers and employees, agents, warehouses and the Seller from all liability for loss of or damage to such Lot and irrevocably waive all rights and claims that you might have against us or any other Sotheby’s Group Company, our or their respective officers or employees, agents, warehouses or the Seller in connection with the same.

12. Consumer Cancellation (a) Timed Auction Cancellation of Purchase (i) If you are a “Consumer” (namely a person acting for purposes that are wholly or mainly outside of your trade, business, craft or profession) who habitually resides in the European Union or United Kingdom and the Seller is a “Trader” (namely a Seller acting for purposes relating to their trade, business, craft or profession, whether acting personally or through another person acting in the trader’s name or on the trader’s behalf), then you have the right to cancel your online purchase of goods (except for goods that are personalized or made to the Buyer’s specifications) (the “Consumer Cancellation Right”) for any reason during the period of 14 calendar days after you or your designated agent (other than the carrier) acquires physical possession of the Lot or, if the Lot is an NFT, after the date that you have submitted payment but before we or the Seller have initiated the transfer of the NFT to the wallet specified by you (the “Consumer Cancellation Period”). Once, however, we or the Seller have initiated the transfer of the NFT to the wallet specified by you, you agree that you will no longer have the right to cancel the sale under the terms of this Condition.

By submitting a bid, you hereby consent to us transferring the NFT Lot to you immediately following your payment and that upon such transfer you will lose any right of withdrawal or cancellation you may have under the Consumer

Cancellation Right. To exercise the Consumer Cancellation Right in relation to a Lot, the Consumer must (1) notify us of intention to cancel by a clear statement (e.g. a letter sent by post, fax or email or you may use the model cancellation form provided in Condition 12(c)) prior to the end of the Consumer Cancellation Period, and (2) return the Lot to us in the same condition as when you or your representative received it, by no later than 14 calendar days after providing notice of intent to cancel. (ii) You shall return the Lot or deliver it to us at such address as we may specify for the purpose, without undue delay and in any event no later than 14 calendar days from the day after which you notify us of your intention to cancel your purchase of the Lot. This deadline is met if you send back the Lot before the period of 14 calendar days has expired. You must bear the direct costs of returning the Lot. If we had arranged for the Lot to be delivered to you, we estimate that the cost of returning the Lot by the same means is likely to be similar to the cost of delivery, but it is not possible for us to be more accurate as to this cost due to the many variables involved in our worldwide business model and the means by which a return might be made. (iii) If the foregoing conditions for exercising the Consumer Cancellation Right are met, we will reimburse the Buyer for Purchase Price, if paid, plus standard delivery charges, if we are required to do so in accordance with the Consumer Cancellation Right. We will not process the reimbursement unless and until the Lot is returned to us or you have supplied us with evidence of having returned the Lot to us. (iv) We will make the reimbursement to the Buyer using the same method of payment as the Buyer used for the initial transaction, unless expressly agreed otherwise. We will not charge the Buyer any fee in connection with processing the reimbursement. (v) We will not reimburse the Buyer for any supplementary costs that arose if you chose a type of delivery other than the least expensive type of standard delivery offered by us or any import duties you incur as a result of you returning the Lot to us. We are entitled to deduct from the reimbursement the amount of any loss in value of the Lot that is caused as a result of unnecessary handling by you. (vi) If you exercise a Consumer Cancellation Right pursuant to this Condition 12 and you paid any amount(s) due using cryptocurrency, we may, at our sole discretion, refund you (1) the same amount(s) of the same cryptocurrency that you paid to us; (2) the amount(s) in fiat currency that we invoiced to you; or (3) the fiat currency equivalent, based on the exchange rate quoted by a financial entity designated by us, at the time the refund is made of the amount(s) of cryptocurrency that you paid. In no circumstance will you be entitled to receive any appreciation on the value of the cryptocurrency that you provided to us as payment in connection with a refund. (b) Cancellation of Delivery Services (i) If you are a Consumer who habitually resides in the European Union or United Kingdom, then you have the right to cancel the contract for any delivery services in connection with your purchase of a Lot (the “Services Cancellation Right”) for any reason during the period of 14 calendar days after the conclusion of the contract for delivery services (the “Services Cancellation Period”). (ii) If you request us to begin performance of the delivery services during the Services Cancellation Period and subsequently decide to exercise your right to cancel the provision of services during the Services Cancellation Period, you shall pay us the cost of the services that have been performed by the time you exercise your cancellation right. We will make any reimbursement due to you not later than 14 days after the date on which we are informed

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about your decision to cancel the services. We will make the reimbursement to you using the same method of payment as you used for the initial transaction, unless expressly agreed otherwise. We will not charge any fee in connection with processing the reimbursement. (c) To exercise a Consumer or Services Cancellation Right, you must notify us of your intention to cancel by a clear statement (e.g. a letter sent by post, fax or email) prior to the end of the Consumer or Services Cancellation Period.

Alternatively, you may use the following model cancellation form: To: Sotheby’s [insert the name of the company within the Sotheby’s Group conducting the relevant sale] I/We* hereby give notice that I/We* cancel [my/our online purchase of the following goods[*]][the provision of the following delivery services [*]], Ordered on [*]/received on [*], Name of Consumer(s): Address of Consumer(s): Signature of Consumer(s) [only if the notification is in hard copy] Date: [*] Delete as appropriate 13. Exclusions and Limitations of Liability (a) Generally (i) Neither we nor the Seller will be liable for errors or omissions in the glossary of terms, if any, or the Catalogue or other descriptions of the Lot, though if we discover a material error or omission in such materials prior to the auction, we will endeavor to provide a correction, time permitting. (ii) We reserve the right to withdraw any Lot before the conclusion of the sale and will have no liability to you for such withdrawal. Regarding Experiences, we reserve the right to withdraw any Experience before or after the sale, and we will have no liability to you for such withdrawal. (iii) We offer the Online Platforms as a convenience to clients. The application that enables participation via the Online Platforms is optimized for broadband connectivity (DSL or cable modem). Broadband or other internet capacity constraints, corporate firewalls and other technical problems beyond our reasonable control may create difficulties for some users including, for example, in relation to accessing an auction via the Online Platforms and in maintaining continuity of such access. Neither we nor the Seller will be liable to you for any failure to execute bids through our Online Platforms, or errors or omissions in connection therewith, including, without limitation, errors or failures caused by (1) any loss of connection between you and our Online Platforms; (2) a breakdown on or problem with our Online Platforms or other technical services; or (3) a breakdown or problem with your internet connection, computer, mobile device or system. (iv) We are not liable to you for any acts or omissions in connection with the conduct of the auction or for any matter relating to the sale of any Lot, other than as set out in the Authenticity Guarantee, or as may be required by applicable law. (v) The Seller of any Lot is not liable to you for any acts or omissions in connection with any matter relating to the sale of such Lot, other than a breach of the express representations and warranties given by the Seller. (vi) Unless we own a Lot offered for sale, we are not responsible for any breach of these Conditions of Business

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for Buyers by the Seller. (vii) Neither you nor we nor the Seller will be liable for any special, consequential, indirect, incidental or punitive damages. (viii) With respect to Experiences, no Sotheby’s Group Company, nor our and their respective officers and employees, will be liable for any negligent act or omission of any person or entity providing any goods or services arising out of or in connection with the fulfillment of an Experience or the Buyer’s participation in the Experience, or for any claims, causes of action, liabilities, damages, losses, or expenses (including but not limited to reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or in connection with the Buyer’s interaction with the Seller or any third party in connection with an Experience. (ix) Without prejudice to Conditions 13(a)(i)-(viii), our and the Seller’s aggregate liability to you under these Conditions of Business for Buyers for any claim relating to a Lot will not exceed the amount of the Purchase Price of the Lot actually paid, except in the case of our willful misconduct or fraud, or in the case of death or personal injury caused by our negligent acts or omissions. (b) In addition to the terms set forth in Condition 13(a) above and without limiting Condition 3(j) above in any way, NFTs shall be subject to the additional terms in this Condition 13(b). (i) We are only selling the ownership rights to the NFT and in no way are we responsible for any resales or secondary market sales of the NFT or the Referenced Content or any iterations of the same. Any copyright(s) in and to the NFT and Referenced Content, including but not limited to, any reproduction rights in any Referenced Content, remain with the creator(s) thereof, and the purchase of the NFT does not constitute an assignment of any copyright(s) in and to the NFT or Referenced Content. If you purchase an NFT, then, including without limitation, these Conditions of Business for Buyers, and any Listing Terms, we hereby grant you a worldwide, non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free license to use, copy and display the NFT and the Referenced Content for such purchased NFT solely for the following purposes: (a) for your own personal, non-commercial use; (b) as part of a marketplace that permits the purchase and sale of your NFTs; or (c) as part of a third party website or application that permits the inclusion, involvement, or participation of your NFT. This license only lasts as long as you are the valid owner and holder of the NFT associated with the Referenced Content. If you sell or transfer the NFT to another person, this license will transfer to such other owner or holder of the NFT, and you will no longer have the benefits of such license. All rights not expressly granted herein are reserved. (ii) You agree that you may not, nor permit any third party to do or attempt to do any of the following without our (or, as applicable, our licensors’) express prior written consent in each case: (a) modify the Referenced Content for NFTs in any way, including, without limitation, the shapes, designs, drawings, attributes, or color schemes; (b) use the Referenced Content for your NFT to advertise, market, or sell any third party product or service; (c) use the Referenced Content for your NFT for any derogatory or defamatory purpose that creates harmful associations or a risk of harm, damage or liability to any of the Sotheby’s Group Companies, e.g., in connection with images, videos, or other forms of media that depict hatred, intolerance, violence, cruelty, or anything else that could reasonably be found to constitute hate speech or otherwise infringe upon the rights of others; (d) sell, distribute for commercial gain (including, without limitation, giving away in the hopes of eventual commercial gain), or otherwise commercialize merchandise that includes, contains, or consists of the Referenced

T H E E M I LY F I S H E R L A N DAU C O L L EC T I O N : A N E R A D E F I N E D | E V E N I N G AU C T I O N

Content for your NFT; (e) attempt to trademark, copyright, or otherwise acquire additional intellectual property rights in or to the Referenced Content for your NFT; (f) create, sell or attempt to create or sell fractionalized interests in the Referenced Content or any NFT; or (g) otherwise utilize the Referenced Content for your NFT for your or any third party’s commercial benefit. (iii) If the Referenced Content associated with your NFT contains third party copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks, know-how, patent rights or any other intellectual property rights recognized in any country or jurisdiction in the world (collectively, “Third Party IP”) (e.g., licensed intellectual property from any rights holder, such as music performance rights or publicity rights), you understand and agree as follows: (a) you will not have the right to use such Third Party IP in any way except as incorporated in the Referenced Content for your NFT, and subject to the license and restrictions contained herein; (b) depending on the nature of the license granted from the owner of the Third Party IP, we may need to (and reserve every right to) pass through additional restrictions on your ability to use the Referenced Content; (c) to the extent that we inform you of such additional restrictions, you will be responsible for complying with all such restrictions from the date that you receive the notice, and that failure to do so will be deemed a breach of the license contained herein; (d) such third party owns and retains all right, title and interest in and to such Third Party IP except as expressly licensed hereunder; and (e) the licensor of such Third Party IP shall be a third-party beneficiary of (but not a party to), and entitled to enforce, these Conditions of Business for Buyers against you with respect to such Third Party IP. (iv) Transfer of ownership to an NFT will not guarantee that you will continue to have access to the Referenced Content to which it relates and you further acknowledge and agree to the risks associated with purchasing, using, transferring, and owning NFTs, as applicable, including, but not limited to, telecommunications, network, server, or blockchain failures, malfunctions, or disruptions; risk of losing access to the NFT due to lost or forgotten private key(s) or password(s) or corrupted wallet files; mis-typed addresses or incorrectly constructed transactions; viruses, phishing, bruteforcing, hacking, security breaches, mining attacks, or other means of cyber-security attack; custodial or buyer error; regulatory interference in one or more jurisdictions; token taxation; personal information disclosure; uninsured losses; and other unanticipated risks. (v) Neither you nor we nor the Seller will be liable for any special, consequential, indirect, incidental or punitive damages, including, as applicable, damages relating to any of the risks or disclaimed attributes set forth in Condition 13(b)(iii). In addition to the above, we will not be liable for any loss whatsoever related to damage or corruption to the Referenced Content, failure of the NFT to reference the Referenced Content, or loss of, or other security or persistence issues related to, the Referenced Content.

as described in, and in line with, our Privacy Policy published on our website https://www.sothebys.com/privacy-policy or available on request by email to enquiries@sothebys.com.

the time of the sale, or the inability of the manufacturer, maker or relevant archives to confirm the authenticity and attribution of the Lot; or

(b) We may film auctions or other activities on any Sotheby’s Group Company’s premises and such recordings may be transmitted over the internet via our website or other Online Platforms or social media. Online and telephone bids may be recorded and you agree to such recording.

(iv) the manner in which the description of the Lot is incorrect does not result in a material loss in value of the Lot.

15. AUTHENTICITY GUARANTEE (a) We, as principal, provide an Authenticity Guarantee to the Buyer, subject to the following terms and conditions, that the Lot is not a “counterfeit”. For these purposes, a “counterfeit” means a Lot that in Sotheby’s reasonable opinion is an imitation created to deceive as to authorship, origin, date, age, period, culture or source, where the correct description of such matters is not reflected by the description in the catalogue (taking into account any glossary of terms). No Lot shall be considered a counterfeit by reason only of any damage and/or restoration and/ or modification work of any kind (including repainting or over-painting). Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Condition 15, with respect to NFTs, unless otherwise set forth on the respective Lot page on our website, the Authenticity Guarantee is regarding the authorship of the Referenced Content, if any. (b) The Authenticity Guarantee is provided for a period of five years after the date of the auction (the “Guarantee Period”), except as otherwise provided in Condition 15(h) below. (c) The Authenticity Guarantee is provided solely for the benefit of the Buyer and cannot be transferred to any third party. (d) To claim under the Authenticity Guarantee, the Buyer must: (i) notify us in writing within three months of receiving any information that causes the Buyer to question the authenticity or attribution of the Lot and in any event by no later than the expiry of the Guarantee Period, specifying the Lot number and the date of the sale in which it was purchased, and providing all the information in the Buyer’s possession in support of the Buyer’s claim; and (ii) return the Lot to us or, at our direction, to the Seller or another third party, in the same condition as at the date of sale to the Buyer and be able to transfer good title in the Lot, free from any third-party interest or claim(s) arising after the date of the sale.

In addition, we may also require the Buyer to obtain at the Buyer’s cost the reports of two independent and recognized experts in the field, mutually acceptable to us and the Buyer.

We will not be bound by any such reports and we reserve the right to seek additional expert advice at our expense. (e) We reserve, in our absolute discretion as principal, the right to reject a claim under the Authenticity Guarantee if:

(vi) You have sufficient understanding of NFTs, digital wallets and other storage mechanisms, cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology, and the use, characteristics, functionality, programming, and/or other material characteristics of all of the foregoing, to fully understand and agree to these Conditions of Business for Buyers and the disclaimers and risks outlined herein, or have consulted with professional advisors in relation to the foregoing such that any participation by you in the auction of any NFT constitutes an informed acceptance of such disclaimers and risks.

(i) the catalogue description was in accordance with the opinions of scholars and experts, which are generally accepted and known or privately expressed to us, as at the date of the sale, or the Lot description indicated that there was a conflict of such opinions;

14. Data Protection

(iii) the manner in which the Lot is said to be a counterfeit is due only to damage, restoration, modification work of any kind (including repainting or over-painting) present at

(a) We will hold and process your personal information and may share it with another Sotheby’s Group Company for use

(ii) the only method of establishing that the Lot was a counterfeit at the date of the sale would have been by means or processes not then generally available or accepted, unreasonably expensive or impractical to use, or likely to have caused damage or loss of value to the Lot;

(f) Subject to the above, if we reasonably determine that the Lot is a counterfeit, we will ensure that the sale is rescinded, and that the Buyer is refunded the Purchase Price in the currency of the sale. (g) The rescission of the sale and the refund of the Purchase Price is the Buyer’s sole remedy available under the Authenticity Guarantee and is in lieu of any other remedy that might otherwise be available to the Buyer as a matter of law or in equity. (h) Additional provisions specific to Lots in Jewelry, Wine & Spirits, Tea and Books & Manuscripts auctions: (i) With respect to Lots containing any gemstone, jade or pearls, the Authenticity Guarantee is that the gemstone or pearls are genuine or of natural origin, and the Guarantee Period for any claim that the gemstone, jade or pearls are not genuine or of natural origin is 21 days from the date of the auction. (ii) With respect to Lots sold in a Wine & Spirits or Tea auction, the Authenticity Guarantee is that the producer and vintage (and for Tea, type) is as stated in the description of the Lot, and the Guarantee Period is 21 days from the date of the auction. (iii) With respect to Lots sold in a Books & Manuscripts auction, the Authenticity Guarantee also includes a guarantee to the Buyer for a Guarantee Period of 21 days from the date of the auction that, subject to Conditions 15(c)-(g), the Lot’s text and/or illustrations are not materially defective. Subject to the following exceptions, if we reasonably determine that the text or illustrations in a Lot are materially defective, we will ensure that the sale is rescinded, and that the Buyer is refunded the Purchase Price in the currency of the sale. We reserve the right to reject a claim under this Condition 15(h) if: (1) the Lot comprises an atlas, an extra-illustrated book, a volume with fore-edged paintings, a periodical publication or a print or drawing;

with our Know Your Client requirements, applicable law with respect to you and the principal or to evidence your authority to bid on behalf of and to bind the principal. We reserve the right to seek identification of the source of funds received. If we have not completed our enquiries in respect of Know Your Client, Sanctions, anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist financing or other checks as we consider appropriate concerning you (or your principal, if applicable) to our satisfaction or if we are not satisfied in our sole discretion with the results of such enquiries, we may, in our sole discretion, prohibit you or the principal from bidding, or not complete, cancel or rescind the sale of any Lot, including refusing or returning any payment, as appropriate, and take any further action required or permitted under applicable law without any liability to you. (b) You are personally liable for your bid. If you are an agent acting on behalf of a principal, you and your principal are bound by the terms of these Conditions of Business for Buyers and jointly and severally assume your obligations and liabilities under them. (c) We own the exclusive copyright to all images and written material we produce relating to each Lot. You cannot use them without our prior written permission. We may use them as we deem appropriate, to the extent permitted by law, before, during or after the sale of a Lot. (d) The Conditions of Business for Buyers, including the Authenticity Guarantee, and the express representations and warranties and indemnity given by the Seller together are the entire agreement between us, the Seller and you with respect to the subject matter hereof and supersedes all prior or contemporaneous written, oral or implied understandings, representations or agreements relating to the subject matter of this agreement. If any part of this agreement is deemed invalid or unenforceable, such invalidity or unenforceability will not affect the remaining provisions, which will remain in full force and effect. No act, omission or delay by us shall be deemed a waiver or release of any of our rights. (e) These Conditions of Business for Buyers are binding upon you, your estate, heirs, executors, devisees, representatives, administrators, successors and permitted assigns.

(2) in the case of a manuscript, the Lot was not described in the Catalogue as complete;

(f) You may not assign or delegate your rights or obligations under these Conditions of Business without our prior written consent.

(3) the defect complained of was mentioned in the Lot description or the item complained of was sold un-named in a Lot;

(g) Notices to us should be in writing and addressed to the department in charge of the sale, quoting the reference number specified for the auction.

(4) the defect complained of is not a defect in text or illustration, such as without limitation, damage to bindings, stains, foxing, marginal wormholes, lack of blank leaves or half titles or other conditions not affecting the completeness of the text or illustration, lack of list of plates, inserted advertisements, cancels or any subsequently published volume, supplement, appendix or plates or error in the enumeration of the plates, or is based on the age of handcoloring in maps, atlases or books; or

17. Law and Jurisdiction

(5) the manner in which the text or illustrations are defective does not result in a material loss in value of the Lot.

This agreement will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York. In the event of a dispute arising from or relating to this agreement, you agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state courts of and the federal courts sitting in the State and County of New York, though we will retain the right to bring proceedings in a court other than the state and federal courts sitting in the State and County of New York.

Last Modified August 7, 2023

16. Miscellaneous (a) You shall provide to us, upon our request, verification of identity and any additional information required to comply with our Know Your Client requirements, applicable law or to evidence your authority to enter into these Conditions of Business for Buyers. If you are an agent acting on behalf of a principal, you shall also disclose to us the identity of the principal and provide to us, upon our request, verification of identity and any additional information required to comply

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BUYING AT AUCTION The following will help in understanding the auction buying process as well as some of the terms and symbols commonly used in an auction catalogue. All bidders should read the Conditions of Business for Buyers, as well as the Glossary or any other notices. By bidding at auction, bidders are bound by the Conditions of Business for Buyers, as amended by any oral announcement or posted notices.

1. SYMBOL KEY □ Reserves Unless indicated by a box (□), all lots in this catalogue are offered subject to a reserve. A reserve is the confidential minimum hammer price at which a lot will be sold. The reserve is generally set at a percentage of the low estimate and will not exceed the low estimate of the lot. If any lots in the catalogue are offered without reserve, such lots will be designated by a box (□). If every lot in a catalogue is offered without a reserve, the Conditions of Business for Buyers will so state and this symbol will not be used for each lot. ○ Guaranteed Property The seller of lots with this symbol has been guaranteed a minimum price from one auction or a series of auctions.

This guarantee may be provided by Sotheby’s or jointly

by Sotheby’s and a third party. Sotheby’s and any third parties providing a guarantee jointly with Sotheby’s benefit financially if a guaranteed lot is sold successfully and may incur a loss if the sale is not successful. A third party providing a guarantee jointly with Sotheby’s may provide an irrevocable bid, or otherwise bid, on the guaranteed property.

If this auction has a printed catalogue, a PDF catalogue or both and the guaranteed property symbol for a lot is not included in such catalogue or if there is no printed catalogue or PDF catalogue and the guaranteed property symbol for a lot is not included at the time the digital catalogue is initially available for viewing, then Sotheby’s will notify bidders that there is a guarantee on the lot by one or more of the following means: the lot’s specific webpage will be updated to include the guaranteed property symbol, a notice will be added to the Sotheby’s webpage for the auction, or a presale or pre-lot announcement will be made indicating that there is a guarantee on the lot. ⋑ Irrevocable Bids Lots with this symbol indicate that a party has provided Sotheby’s with an irrevocable bid on the lot that will be executed during the sale at a value that ensures that the lot will sell. The irrevocable bidder, who may bid in excess of the irrevocable bid, may be compensated for providing the irrevocable bid by receiving a contingent fee, a fixed fee or both. From time to time, a Sotheby’s shareholder may be an irrevocable bidder. If the irrevocable bidder is the successful bidder, any contingent fee, fixed fee or both (as applicable) for providing the irrevocable bid may be netted against the irrevocable bidder’s obligation to pay the full purchase price for the lot and the purchase price reported for the lot will be net of any such fees. From time to time, Sotheby’s may enter into irrevocable bid agreements that cover multiple lots. In such instances, the compensation Sotheby’s will pay the irrevocable bidder is allocated to the lots for which the irrevocable bidder is not the successful purchaser.

Under such circumstances, the total compensation to the irrevocable bidder will not exceed the total buyer’s premium and other amounts paid to Sotheby’s in respect of any lots for which the irrevocable bidder is not the successful bidder.

If this auction has a printed catalogue, a PDF catalogue or both and the irrevocable bid is not secured until after such catalogue is finalized or if there is no printed catalogue or PDF catalogue and the irrevocable bid is not secured until after the digital catalogue is initially available for viewing, then Sotheby’s will notify bidders that there is an irrevocable

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bid on the lot by one or more of the following means: the lot’s specific webpage will be updated to include the irrevocable bid symbol, a notice will be added to the Sotheby’s webpage for the auction, or a pre-sale or pre-lot announcement will be made indicating that there is an irrevocable bid on the lot.

From time to time, Sotheby’s or any affiliated company may provide the irrevocable bidder with financing related to the irrevocable bid. In addition, from time to time, an irrevocable bidder may have knowledge of the amount of a guarantee. If the irrevocable bidder is advising anyone with respect to the lot, Sotheby’s requires the irrevocable bidder to disclose his or her financial interest in the lot. If an agent is advising you or bidding on your behalf with respect to a lot identified as being subject to an irrevocable bid, you should request that the agent disclose whether or not he or she has a financial interest in the lot. ⊻ Interested Parties Lots with this symbol indicate that parties with a direct or indirect interest in the lot may be bidding on the lot, including (i) the beneficiary of an estate selling the lot, or (ii) the joint owner of a lot. If the interested party is the successful bidder, they will be required to pay the full buyer’s premium and overhead premium. In certain instances, interested parties may have knowledge of the reserve. If this auction has a printed catalogue, a PDF catalogue or both and the interested party’s possible participation in the sale Is not known until after such catalogue is finalized or if there is no printed catalogue or PDF catalogue and the interested party’s possible participation in the sale Is not known until after the digital catalogue is initially available for viewing, then Sotheby’s will notify bidders that an interested party may bid on the lot by one or more of the following means: the lot’s specific webpage will be updated to include the interested parties symbol, a notice will be added to the Sotheby’s webpage for the auction, or a pre-sale or pre-lot announcement will be made indicating that an interested party may bid on the lot. ◉ Restricted Materials Lots with this symbol have been identified at the time of cataloguing as containing organic material which may be subject to restrictions regarding import or export. The information is made available for the convenience of bidders and the absence of the symbol is not a warranty that there are no restrictions regarding import or export of the Lot. Please also refer to the section on Endangered Species in the information on Buying at Auction. ∏ Monumental Lots with this symbol may, in our opinion, require special handling or shipping services due to size or other physical considerations. Bidders are advised to inspect the lot and to contact Sotheby’s prior to the sale to discuss any specific shipping requirements. ✧ Premium Lot In order to bid on “Premium Lots” (in print catalogue or ✧ in the lot’s specific webpage) you may be required to complete a Premium Lot pre-registration application. You must arrange for Sotheby’s to receive your pre-registration application at least three working days before the sale. Please bear in mind that we are unable to obtain financial references over weekends or public holidays. Sotheby’s decision whether to accept any pre-registration application shall be final. If all lots in the catalogue are “Premium Lots”, a Special Notice will be included to this effect and this symbol will not be used. ⊖ US Import Tariff Please note that this lot is subject to an import tariff. The amount of the import tariff due is a percentage of the value declared upon entry into the United States. The amount

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of the import tariff is not based on the final hammer price.

The buyer should contact Sotheby’s prior to the sale to determine the amount of the import tariff. If the buyer instructs Sotheby’s to arrange shipping of the lot to a foreign address, the buyer will not be required to pay the import tariff. If the buyer instructs Sotheby’s to arrange shipping of the lot to a domestic address, or if the buyer collects the property in person, or if the buyer arranges their own shipping (whether domestically or internationally), the buyer will be required to pay the import tariff. The import tariff is included in the purchase price and, where applicable, sales tax will be added to the purchase price as per our Sales and Use Tax section.

Cryptocurrency Payments We will accept cryptocurrency as payment for lots with this symbol, within the parameters specified in the Conditions of Business for Buyers (or where applicable, in the Conditions of Sale and Additional Conditions of Sale for Payment by Cryptocurrency) applicable to the sale and only on the terms and conditions set out therein as of the date of the sale. Please review those terms and conditions if you are interested in paying in cryptocurrency, and contact Post Sale Services for more information. ¤ Financing Eligible Lots with this symbol indicate that financing of up to 50% of the lot’s low auction estimate is available for eligible borrowers through Sotheby’s Finan-cial Services. More information is available at sothebys.com/bidnowpaylater or by speaking to your Sotheby’s Relationship Manager. ❖ National Heritage Lot Lots with this symbol are part of the National Heritage of Mexico and cannot be permanently exported from Mexico.

Accordingly, the lot will be offered for sale in New York but will not be available in New York for inspection or delivery.

The lot will be released to the buyer in Mexico in compliance with all local requirements. Prospective buyers may contact Sotheby’s representatives in Mexico City and Monterrey at sothebys.mexico@sothebys.com for an appointment to view the work.

2. BEFORE THE AUCTION Bidding in advance of the live auction For certain sales, you may bid in advance of the live auction (“Advance Bids”) on sothebys.com or the Sotheby’s App. In order to do so, you must register an account with Sotheby’s and provide requested information. Once you have done so, navigate to your desired lot, and click the “Place Bid” button. You may bid at or above the starting bid displayed on the Online Platforms. Please note that we reserve the right to amend the starting bid prior to the start of the live auction. You may also input your maximum bid which, upon confirmation, will be executed automatically up to this predefined maximum value, in response to other bids, including bids placed by Sotheby’s on behalf of the seller up to the amount of the reserve (if applicable). The current leading bid will be visible to all bidders; the value and status of your maximum bid will be visible only to you. If the status of your bid changes, you will receive notifications via email and push (if you have enabled push notifications) leading up to the live auction.

You may raise your maximum bid at any time in advance of the live auction. Please note in certain circumstances, clients who have been outbid may be reinstated as the leading bidder and will receive notification via email or push notifications (if enabled on your device).

The Catalogue The catalogue will help familiarize you with property being offered at the designated auction. Prospective bidders should consult sothebys.com for the most up to date cataloguing of the property in this catalogue.

Estimates Each lot in the catalogue is given a low and high estimate, indicating to a prospective buyer a range in which the lot might sell at auction. When possible, the estimate is based on previous auction records of comparable pieces.

The estimates are determined several months before a sale and are therefore subject to change upon further research of the property, or to reflect market conditions or currency fluctuations. Estimates should not be relied upon as a representation or prediction of actual selling prices.

Provenance In certain circumstances, Sotheby’s may include in the catalogue the history of ownership of a work of art if such information contributes to scholarship or is otherwise well known and assists in distinguishing the work of art. However, the identity of the seller or previous owners may not be disclosed for a variety of reasons. For example, such information may be excluded to accommodate a seller’s request for confidentiality or because the identity of prior owners is unknown given the age of the work of art.

Specialist Advice Prospective bidders may be interested in specific information not included in the catalogue description of a lot. For additional information, please contact either a Sotheby’s specialist in charge of the sale, or Sotheby’s Client Services Department. You may also request a condition report from the specialist in charge.

Viewing Property will be available for viewing at an exhibition of the auction property or by appointment only at our New York premises or such other location as we may indicate from time to time as indicated on the webpage for the sale.

Salesroom Notices Salesroom notices amend the catalogue description after our catalogue is available. They are announced by the auctioneer and/or posted on the sale page. Please take note of them.

Registration Sotheby’s may require such necessary financial references, guarantees, deposits and/or such other security, in its absolute discretion, as security for your bid.

If you are not successful on any lot, Sotheby’s will arrange for a refund (subject to any right of set off) of the deposit amount paid by you without interest within 14 working days of the date of the sale. Any exchange losses or fees associated with the refund shall be borne by you.

Registration to bid on Premium Lots must be done at least 3 business days prior to the sale.

3. DURING THE AUCTION The Auction Auctions are open to the public (subject to any governmental health or safety restrictions) without any admission fee or obligation to bid. The auctioneer introduces the objects for sale — known as “lots” — in numerical order as listed in the catalogue. Unless otherwise noted in the catalogue, on the sale page or by an announcement at the auction, Sotheby’s acts as agent on behalf of the seller and does not permit the seller to bid on his or her own property.

It is important for all bidders to know that the auctioneer may open the bidding on any lot by placing a bid on behalf of the seller. The auctioneer may further bid on behalf of the seller, up to the amount of the reserve, by placing responsive or consecutive bids for a lot. The auctioneer will not place consecutive bids on behalf of the seller above the reserve.

Absentee Bidding for Live Auctions If you do not wish to bid online during a live auction, you may place your bid ahead of time, either via sothebys.com or the App, or by submitting your bid in writing to the Bids Department. Once the live auction opens, when the lot that you are interested in comes up for sale, the auctioneer will execute the bid on your behalf, at the lowest bid increment possible, as may be determined at the auctioneer’s discretion, and never exceeding your limit.

This service is free and confidential.

Advance Bidding for Live Auctions For certain live sales, where Advance Bids are accepted, if you submit an “Advance Bid” (as described above in “BEFORE THE AUCTION”), and

your bid is not executed up to its maximum value before the live auction begins, your bid will continue to be executed automatically on your behalf during the live auction up to your predetermined maximum bid. You may also continue to bid via the Online Platforms at the next increment above your maximum bid. Online bidding may not be available for Premium Lots.

In Person Bidding for Live Auctions For the most up-todate information regarding in person bidding, please call Sotheby’s or visit Sothebys.com. Bidders are encouraged to submit bids online on Sothebys.com or through the Sotheby’s App. Telephone Bidding for Live Auctions In some circumstances, we offer the ability to place bids by telephone live to a Sotheby’s representative on the auction floor.

Please contact the Bid Department prior to the sale to make arrangements or to answer any questions you may have.

Telephone bids are accepted only at Sotheby’s discretion and at the caller’s risk. Calls may also be recorded at Sotheby’s discretion. By bidding on the telephone, prospective buyers consent thereto.

Online Bidding Bidders are encouraged to submit bids online on Sothebys.com or through the Sotheby’s App. For information about registering to bid on sothebys.com or through the Sotheby’s App, please see sothebys.com. Online bidding may not be available for Premium Lots.

Employee Bidding Sotheby’s employees may bid in a Sotheby’s auction only if the employee does not know the reserve and if the employee fully complies with Sotheby’s internal rules governing employee bidding.

Economic Sanctions The United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union maintain economic and trade sanctions against targeted foreign countries, groups and organizations. There may be restrictions on the import into the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union of certain items originating in sanctioned countries. The purchaser’s inability to import any item into these countries or any other country as a result of these or other restrictions shall not justify cancellation or rescission of the sale or any delay in payment. Please check with the specialist department if you are uncertain as to whether a lot is subject to these import restrictions, or any other restrictions on importation or exportation.

Hammer Price and the Buyer’s Premium and the Overhead Premium For lots which are sold, the last price for a lot as announced by the auctioneer is the hammer price. A buyer’s premium and an overhead premium will be added to the hammer price and are payable by the purchaser as part of the total purchase price. The applicable buyer’s premium and overhead premium rates are as set forth in the Conditions of Business for Buyers.

Currency Board As a courtesy to bidders, a currency board is operated in many salesrooms. It displays the lot number and current bid in both U.S. dollars and foreign currencies.

Exchange rates are approximations based on recent exchange rate information and should not be relied upon as a precise invoice amount. Sotheby’s assumes no responsibility for any error or omission in foreign or United States currency amounts shown.

Results Sale results are available on sothebys.com and on the Sotheby’s App. International Auctions If you need assistance placing bids, obtaining condition reports or receiving auction results for a Sotheby’s sale outside the United States, please contact our International Client Services Department.

4. AFTER THE AUCTION Payment If your bid is successful, your invoice will be mailed to you. The final price is determined by adding

the buyer’s premium, overhead premium and any other applicable charges to the hammer price on a per-lot basis.

Sales tax, where applicable, will be charged on the entire amount. Payment is due in full immediately after the sale.

However, under certain circumstances, Sotheby’s may, in its sole discretion, offer bidders an extended payment plan.

Such a payment plan may provide an economic benefit to the bidder. Credit terms should be requested at least one business day before the sale. However, there is no assurance that an extended payment plan will be offered. Please contact Post Sale Services or the specialist in charge of the sale for information on credit arrangements for a particular lot. Please note that Sotheby’s will not accept payments for purchased lots from any party other than the purchaser, unless otherwise agreed between the purchaser and Sotheby’s prior to the sale.

Payment by Cash It is against Sotheby’s general policy to accept payments in the form of cash or cash equivalents.

Payment by Credit Cards Sotheby’s accepts payment by credit card for Visa, MasterCard, and American Express only.

A 2.5% surcharge fee will be applied to the total payment plus applicable sales tax for clients who wish to pay for their purchase using a credit card at New York auctions and for New York private sale transactions. Other payment methods besides credit card do not incur a surcharge fee. Credit card payments may not exceed $200,000 per sale. Payment by credit card may be made (a) online at https://www.sothebys. com/en/invoice-payment.html or (b) through the Sotheby’s App. Payment by Check Please contact Post Sale Services for information regarding payment by check.

Payment by Wire Transfer To pay for a purchase by wire transfer, please refer to the payment instructions on the invoice provided by Sotheby’s or contact Post Sale Services to request instructions.

Sales and Use Tax New York sales tax is charged on the hammer price, buyer’s premium, overhead premium and any other applicable charges on any property picked up or delivered in New York State, regardless of the state or country in which the purchaser resides or does business.

Purchasers who wish to use their own shipper who is not a considered a “common carrier” by the New York Department of Taxation and Finance will be charged New York sales tax on the entire charge regardless of the destination of the property. Please refer to “Information on Sales and Use Tax Related to Purchases at Auction”.

Collection and Delivery Post Sale Services + 1 212 606 7444 FAX: + 1 212 606 7043 uspostsaleservices@sothebys.com All collections and deliveries for purchased property will be handled by Post Sale Services in coordination with purchasers after the auction. Unless otherwise agreed

by Sotheby’s, all property must be removed from our or our vendor’s premises (as indicated on the invoice) by the purchaser at his expense not later than 30 calendar days following the close of the auction. As a reminder your property cannot be released until payment has been received and cleared.

Shipping Services Sotheby’s offers a comprehensive shipping service to meet all of your requirements. If you received a shipping quotation or have any questions about the services we offer please contact us.

Collecting your Property All collections and deliveries for purchased property will be handled by Post Sale Services in coordination with purchasers after the auction. Unless

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otherwise agreed by Sotheby’s, all property must be removed from our or our vendor’s premises (as indicated on the invoice) by the purchaser at his expense not later than 30 calendar days following the close of the auction. As a courtesy to purchasers who come to Sotheby’s to collect property, Sotheby’s will assist in the packing of lots, although Sotheby’s may, in the case of fragile articles, choose not to pack or otherwise handle a purchase.

If you are using your own shipper to collect property from Sotheby’s, please provide a letter of authorization and kindly instruct your shipper that they must provide a Bill of Lading prior to collection. Both documents must be sent to Post Sale Services prior to collection.

The Bill of Lading must include: the purchaser’s full name, the full delivery address including the street name and number, city and state or city and country, the sale and lot number.

Sotheby’s will contact your shipper within 24 hours of receipt of the Bill of Lading to confirm the date and time that your property can be collected. Property will not be released without this confirmation and your shipper must bring the same Bill of Lading that was faxed to Sotheby’s when collecting. All property releases are subject to the receipt of cleared funds.

Endangered Species Certain property sold at auction, for example, items made of or incorporating plant or animal materials such as coral, crocodile, ivory, whalebone, tortoiseshell, rhinoceros horn, rosewood, etc., irrespective of age or value, may require a license or certificate prior to exportation and additional licenses or certificates upon importation to another country. Sotheby’s suggests that buyers check on their government wildlife import requirements prior to placing a bid. Please note that the ability to obtain an export license or certificate does not ensure the ability to obtain an import license or certificate in another country, and vice versa. It is the purchaser’s responsibility to obtain any export or import licenses and/ or certificates as well as any other required documentation.

In the case of denial of any export or import license or of delay in the obtaining of such licenses, the purchaser is still responsible for making on-time payment of the total purchase price for the lot.

Although licenses can be obtained to export some types of endangered species, other types may not be exported at all, and other types may not be resold in the United States.

Upon request, Sotheby’s is willing to assist the purchaser in attempting to obtain the appropriate licenses and/or certificates. However, there is no assurance that an export license or certificate can be obtained. Please check with the specialist department or the Shipping Department if you are uncertain as to whether a lot is subject to these export/ import license and certificate requirements, or any other restrictions on exportation.

The Art Loss Register As part of Sotheby’s efforts to support only the legitimate art market and to combat the illegitimate market in stolen property, Sotheby’s has retained the Art Loss Register to check all uniquely identifiable items offered for sale in this catalogue that are estimated at more than the equivalent of US$1,500 against the Art Loss Register’s computerized database of objects reported as stolen or lost. The Art Loss Register is pleased to provide purchasers with a certificate confirming that a search has been made. All inquiries regarding search certificates should be directed to The Art Loss Register, First Floor, 63-66 Hatten Garden, London EC1N 8LE or by email at artloss@ artloss.com. The Art Loss Register does not guarantee the provenance or title of any catalogued item against which they search and will not be liable for any direct or consequential losses of any nature howsoever arising. This

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statement and the ALR’s service do not affect your rights and obligations under the Conditions of Business for Buyers applicable to the sale.

IMPORTANT NOTICES Property Collection All collections and deliveries for purchased property will be handled by Post Sale Services in coordination with purchasers after the auction. Invoices will be issued to the successful party, which will include total purchase price, payment options, and next steps on delivery.

During this time, payment for property is still due as per the Conditions of Business for Buyers. Post Sale Services will be in touch for future collection scheduling or shipping arrangements.

Property Payment All property must be paid in full before collection or release from any of our or our vendor’s premises. Payment must be made through Sotheby’s New York Post Sale Services by way of our acceptable forms of payment methods mentioned on your invoice. To arrange for payment, please contact Post Sale Services at +1 212 606 7444 or USPostSaleServices@sothebys.com. Payment will not be accepted at any offsite facility. Dealers and resale clients should fill out the appropriate forms where applicable or contact Post Sale Services with any questions.

Loss and Liability Unless otherwise agreed by Sotheby’s, all sold property must be removed from any of our premises or our vendor’s premises by the buyer at their expense no later than 30 calendar days following the auction. Buyers are reminded that Sotheby’s liability for loss or damage to sold property shall cease no later than 30 calendar days after the date of the auction.

Collection & Shipping All collections and deliveries for purchased property will be handled by Post Sale Services in coordination with purchasers after the auction.

For any in-person collections at any of our vendor’s premises, please alert Post Sale Services of your proposed collection date, ensure that all outstanding invoices have been paid for, and that you or your agent have the appropriate photo identification upon arrival.

If you are using your own shipper to collect property, please provide a letter of authorization and instruct your shipper to email their bill of lading to billsoflading@sothebys.com and ensure the correct collection location is specified.

Sotheby’s can arrange for delivery of your property through one of our contracted vendors or can coordinate pick up at our offsite location with you or your shipper directly.

Please contact Post Sale Services at +1 212 606 7444 or USPostSaleServices @sothebys.com to start your collection process.

Important Notice Regarding Packing

GLOSSARY OF TERMS The following are examples of the terminology used in this catalogue. Please note that all statements made in this catalogue are made subject to the provisions of the Conditions of Sale and Terms of Guarantee printed in this catalogue:

EVENING INDEX

DAY INDEX

GLOSSARY FOR PAINTINGS

Albers, Josef

Giovanni Bellini The work is, in our best judgement, by the named artist.

When the artist’s forename is not known, a series of asterisks followed by the surname of the artist, whether preceded by an initial or not, indicates that the work is, in our best judgement, by the named artist.

Arp, Jean (Hans)

19

Calder, Alexander

9

De Kooning, Willem

23

Becher, Bernd & Hilla

Attributed to Giovanni Bellini In our opinion, probably a work by the artist but less certainty as to authorship is expressed than in the preceding category.

Dubuffet, Jean

29

Studio of Giovanni Bellini In our opinion, a work by an unknown hand in the studio of the artist which may or may not have been executed under the artist’s direction.

Albers, Josef

Indiana, Robert

12

Johns, Jasper

6, 11

106, 107

Baechler, Donald

169, 177

Baldessari, John

142

Baziotes, William

110, 133

139

Mapplethorpe, Robert

179, 180

Matisse, Henri

123, 130

Bierstadt, Albert

178

McLaughlin, John

116

Bleckner, Ross

138

Mendieta, Ana

159

134

Brennan, Fanny

181, 182

24

Calder, Alexander

125

27

Clemente, Francisco

140

Crewdson, Gregory

165

Style of…Follower of Giovanni Bellini In our opinion, a work by a painter working in the artist’s style, contemporary or nearly contem­porary, but not necessarily his pupil.

Léger, Fernand

30

Ligon, Glenn

5

Dubuffet, Jean

Martin, Agnes

3, 8

Mondrian, Piet

18

Neshat, Shirin

161

Nevelson, Louise

150

Nozkowski, Thomas

103

Price, Kenneth

105, 115

132

Prince, Richard

166

Goldin, Nan

160

Raetz, Markus

176

Greenfield-Sanders, Timothy

156

Rauschenberg, Robert

151

Gris, Juan

131

Rosenquist, James

154

Rothenberg, Susan

2, 28

Picasso, Pablo

10

Hume, Gary

173

Prince, Richard

25

Hunt, Bryan

136

15, 26

The term bears a signature and/or a date and/or an inscription means that, in our opinion, a signature and/or date and/or inscription have been added by another hand.

Rothko, Mark

Dimensions are given height before width.

Pictures are framed unless otherwise stated.

Tansey, Mark

4, 22

Twombly, Cy

17

Warhol, Andy

7, 14, 31

Ruscha, Ed

Innerst, Mark

148, 149

Jenney, Neil

167

Samaras, Lucas

Johns, Jasper

122. 152, 153 102

Kiefer, Anselm

172

117, 170 171

Simpson, Lorna

147

Tansey, Mark Thompson, Bob

Kelly, Ellsworth

168 108, 128, 137

Schuyff, Peter Sugimoto, Hiroshi

20 13, 16, 21

174, 175

Picasso, Pablo

Ruscha, Ed

Rauschenberg, Robert

157, 158

Beerman, John

Kline, Franz

The term signed and/or dated and/or inscribed means that, in our opinion, a signature and/or date and/or inscription are from the hand of the artist.

Longo Robert

112, 113, 114

Bourgeois, Louise

O’Keeffe, Georgia

144

Martin, Agnes

Kelly, Ellsworth

After Giovanni Bellini In our opinion, a copy of a known work of the artist.

124

Levine, Sherrie

155

Circle of Giovanni Bellini In our opinion, a work by an as yet unidentified but distinct hand closely associated with the named artist but not necessarily his pupil.

Manner of Giovanni Bellini In our opinion, a work in the style of the artist and of a later date.

Léger, Fernand

162, 163, 164 104, 120 101

Twombly, Cy

109, 118, 129 121, 126, 127, 183

Klee, Paul

111

Warhol, Andy

Knight, Karla

141

Winters, Terry

135

Kruger, Barbara

143

Wolfe, Steve

145

Wool, Christopher

146

As a courtesy to purchasers who come to Sotheby’s to pick up property, Sotheby’s will assist in packing framed paintings. Sotheby’s is unable to remove canvases off stretchers or to roll works on paper. Purchasers are advised to contact an independent painting restorer to pack works in this manner.

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This page: Lot 17, Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1968 (detail).

Art © Cy Twombly Foundation Back cover: Lot 6, Jasper Johns, Flags, 1986.

Art © 2023 Jasper Johns / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY