Property from the Collection of Eugene Stevens Collector, museum trustee and arts patron, Eugene Stevens has had a lifelong commitment to the arts. Although a lawyer by trade--at Spieth, Bell, McCurdy & Newell, the oldest law firm in Cleveland -- Stevens has been passionate about art and art history since his undergraduate days where he learned the rudiments of modern art at Case Western Reserve University. Stevens has supported many artistic endeavors, but it is the visual arts that have been his motivating force since the 1970's. At the Cleveland Museum, where Stevens has been most active, he has been President of the Contemporary Society, Chairman of its Exhibitions and Marketing Committee, as well as serving on its Acquisitions Committee and where he continues to be a Trustee. Stevens developed strong relationships with some of the most influential dealers and curators at the time, starting with Sam Kootz in the 1970s, Anthony d'Offay in London, as well as Tom Hinson, former curator of Contemporary Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art. This enabled him to acquire works that are often among the best of that artist's oeuvre. Perhaps Stevens's most valuable advisor is his wife Paula, with whom he has collaborated with on the selection and display of the collection for many years. The collection is particularly strong with European artists, including major examples by three of the most influential German artists of the Post-War era, Gerhard Richter, Georg Baselitz and Anselm Kiefer. In many ways, the three artists typify the collection as a whole, ranging from the personal and intellectual mythology of Anselm Kiefer, the expressionist angst of Baselitz to the drop-dead gorgeous abstract paintings of Gerhard Richter. In other words, although Stevens slightly leans towards work with a conceptual backbone, they also have a strong sense of the tradition of painting and are not afraid of being beautiful to look at, as well as thought-provoking. Lots 459, 460, 537, 544, 572, 577 and 578 are from the Eugene Stevens collection.

Juan Muñoz (1953-2001)

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Details

Juan Muñoz (1953-2001)
Piggy Back
bronze
85¼ x 24 x 20 in. (216.5 x 61 x 50.8 cm.)
Executed in 1997. This work is unique.

Provenance

Marian Goodman Gallery, New York

Sale room notice

Please note that this work is unique.

Lot Essay

Muñoz created three versions of this sculpture; one in which a Caucasian man is carrying a Caucasian man, another with a Chinese man carrying a Caucasian man as well as the present lot, a Caucasian man carrying a Chinese man.

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Lot Essay

More from Post-War and Contemporary Art (Afternoon Session)