This outdoor sculpture collection offers a garden of earthly delights

Outdoor sculptures serve as the merging point between the natural and the built worlds. Adapting with every change to the environments which surround them, these masterworks become living, breathing structures themselves. The ultimate balance between the creative and the organic, outdoor sculptures are a testament to the artists’ most ambitious achievements and make for a great focal point of any collection.

Christie’s New York is proud to present Property from an Important Long Island Collector, a remarkable collection of outdoor sculptures, to be offered in the March Contemporary sale season. It features cultural mainstays such as Fernando Botero, as well as contemporary makers like Richard Long, Peter Coffin, Pawel Althamer and Aaron Curry. Spanning Latin American Art on 12 March and Post-War to Present on 13 March, the collection tells the story of 20th century sculpture on a grand scale.

‘This collection allows us to access really ambitious pieces from these artists’ bodies of work,’ says Julian Ehrlich, Head of Post-War to Present at Christie’s. ‘Size doesn’t always correlate to the power of the artwork, but with great outdoor sculpture you get to see a totally different side of an artist, even one you might be very familiar with.’

Fernando Botero — scaled up and smoothed over

One of the clearest examples of the power of scale in sculpture is the work of Fernando Botero, whose monumental Dancers depicts two figures in an embrace. The signature forms of Colombia’s best-known artist come fully to life in his monumental sculptures, which have graced some of the most highly-trafficked places on the planet — from the Champs-Élysées to Park Avenue.

Nearly nine feet tall, the Dancers tower over the viewer, parading their voluptuous forms for which the artist is so well known.

Joan Miró — beyond natural texture

The Spanish Surrealist Joan Miró is a truly intermedial artist, and his 1974 Tête exemplifies his exploration of material variety to create one cohesive form. In the final phase of his career, large-scale forms such as the present work were often the artist’s preferred size.

As result of the scale he was working in, the variety of found objects that Miró used in the casting process is emphasized by enlarged natural textures on the sculpture’s surface. Like his paintings, where he would use uncommon materials such as sand alongside paint, he used found materials here to blend the organic and the artistic. Whether inspired by urbanity or the natural world, Miró’s lived experience and the materials he encountered defined how he saw his own compositions.

‘Throughout his lifetime, Miró touched on every scale and medium,’ says Margaux Morel, Christie’s Head of Day Sales, Impressionist and Modern Art. ‘But the playful interaction between figuration and abstraction stayed a constant.’

Thomas Houseago — more than meets the eyes

The English contemporary artist Thomas Houseago’s materials range from the traditional, like wood, plaster and bronze, to the unexpected, like rebar and hemp. His large-scale works are visually stunning, at once imposing and delicate. On a macro scale, the artist’s hand is stunningly legible.

The two examples by the artist to be offered in March – Bottle II and 60 Thompson Street – precisely balance the tension between power and sensitivity. At ten and eight feet tall respectively, these works tower over their passerby. Their formidable scales are complimented by passages of vulnerability, notably by the presence of an open eye through which the viewer can look into and beyond each work.

Mark di Suvero — deconstructing urban materials

Born in Shanghai to Italian parents, the abstract expressionist sculptor Mark di Suvero, who now spends his time between studios in New York and California, constructs works from large pieces of found industrial material in wood or metal. Di Suvero, who founded Socrates Sculpture Park in Astoria in 1984, has challenged longstanding norms related to materiality and composition since his first exhibition at Manhattan’s Green Gallery in 1960. The show was so impactful, it prompted Arts Magazine to comment that ‘from now on nothing will be the same … it must permanently alter our standards of artistic effort.’

XV is characteristic of di Suvero’s oeuvre, defined by the artist’s signature use of steel I-beams to build behemoth structures that, though comprised of heavy materials, suspend effortlessly in air. Di Suvero began working in colossal scales following a serious injury incurred while working on a construction site. Having to rely on something other than his strength as a result of suffering many broken bones and relearning how to walk after the accident, he learned to sculpt with construction vehicles, employing cranes, arc welding and other machinery to eradicate form from industrial ruins. Fresh to auction, and a rare opportunity to acquire one of the artist’s highly sought after large-scale works, XV is a marvel of composition and scale.

The large-scale works included throughout this collection of outdoor sculpture are united in their exploration of physicality and the implications of scale. From Botero’s smooth, fleshy figures to Miró’s texture-laden forms based on found objects, the collection demonstrates the breadth of the genre and the impact of monumentality on the human observer, a feeling that is enhanced when experiencing sculptures set within nature.