拍品 52

Property of Kenneth L. Freed The Kenneth L. Freed Collection A passionate and obsessive collector for over 25 years, Kenneth L. Freed's catholic tastes and acquisitive drive have resulted in a collection breathtaking in its breadth and number, only a fraction of which Christie's will be offering for sale. Collector, patron, curator and writer, Freed has an unerring eye and a deep understanding of twentieth century art. He plays a vital role in Boston's cultural institutions, including its Institute of Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Opera House and Latin School Foundation, as well as concurrently excelling in a career in city planning and real estate development. The sale will mark a new beginning for the Freed collection, rather than an end. In Freed's words, "it is my intention to focus on emerging work, retaining a small and manageable collection of historic works that are of particular interest to me." Ken Freed is at the forefront of a generation of collectors in search of the new. In particular, he has proven to be amazingly astute in recognizing new talent, as well as important historical figures whose work has been undervalued and underappreciated. Freed has discovered artists at their early, breakthrough stages and he has made a sustained commitment to them, buying their work in depth and over time. Freed moves easily between abstraction and figuration, Post-War and Contemporary and his collection spans various countries and all media. Democratic in nature, it mixes established and emerging artists and all of the works are treated with equal importance-the most intimate drawing is given the same pride-of-place with major paintings and sculpture. Although highly eclectic, there are various aesthetic patterns that run through the collection which are loosely grouped-obsessive drawings, imaginary architecture, eroticism, geometric abstraction and contemporary Japanese art. Freed states that he has been "especially interested in the revival of interest in modernism, the use of architectural and design themes in painting and sculpture, and the conflation of Pop and Color Field abstraction." Aside from an extraordinarily high level of quality, one of the unifying themes of Freed's collection is its individuality and predilection for direct expression. It eschews, for the most part, the postmodern one-upmanship of many of today's referential conceptual artists. Myron Stout, Russell Crotty, Takashi Murakami and Julie Mehretu, create parallel visual worlds--often fantastic, sometimes unsettling--that are uniquely their own and are less reliant on their relationship to art historical precedents. Their personal and often idiosyncratic quality make their work and the collection, so fascinating. Freed's prescient taste and adventurous choices make this an extraordinary opportunity for the young collector who wants tomorrow's connoisseurship today. These offerings mark the first in a series of sales of works from the Kenneth L. Freed Collection. In addition to the present sale, selections will be included in our October 20, 2003 and February 17, 2004 Photography sales, as well as the November 12, 2003 Post-War and Contemporary sales (Morning and Afternoon sessions) and the November 18, 2003 Latin American Art (Evening session). Recent comments from Freed, marked with quotations, are included with numerous catalogue entries.

Peter Saul (b. 1934)

Untitled

细节

Peter Saul (b. 1934)
Untitled
signed and dated 'SAUL '64' (lower right)
crayon and ink on paper
27 x 27 in. (68.5 x 68.5 cm.)
Drawn in 1964.

来源

Frumkin/Adams Gallery, New York
Craig Cornelius Gallery, New York

拍品专文

"Usually I am interested in cool, spare, and meditative work, but this early Peter Saul is over the top. I admire its insistent extravagance and see him as an important and underappreciated precursor to so many artistic developments, including Philip Guston's later work."