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Lot Essay
Built over decades with thoughtfulness and unwavering focus, the Joel and Carole Bernstein Family Collection stands as a singular celebration of figurative art—an ode to the human form and its enduring expressive power. Embarking on their collective journey in the early 1960s and following Joel’s early collecting interests that were sparked at age seventeen, the young couple embraced art at a time when abstraction reigned supreme. Despite that prevailing fashion, they charted their own course and ultimately found themselves compellingly drawn to the force of the human figure. They held a shared prescient belief: that the figure—rooted in humanity—could speak volumes, engaging both the urgent political dialogues of the day and the timeless themes of love, family, and connection.
While various artistic movements are represented, portraiture emerges as a central thread woven through the collection, with artists such as Jim Dine, Kara Walker, and Lucian Freud capturing the human presence through strikingly personal lenses.
Over the course of many years, the Bernsteins’ generously lent significant works from their private collection to major museum exhibitions worldwide. Given their preference for anonymity, they established the collection title, GUC (the Great Unseen Collection), a playful moniker adopted by the family to quietly share their masterpieces with the public, further demonstrating their continued commitment to arts education and accessibility.
Taken together, the Joel and Carole Bernstein Family Collection forms a remarkable, and remarkably beautiful, human-centered mosaic—an archive of emotion, intellect, and vision that transcends medium, time and geography. It is a vivid testament to the Bernsteins’ belief in the enduring power of representation, and to the eternal triumph of the human figure as both subject and symbol.
While various artistic movements are represented, portraiture emerges as a central thread woven through the collection, with artists such as Jim Dine, Kara Walker, and Lucian Freud capturing the human presence through strikingly personal lenses.
Over the course of many years, the Bernsteins’ generously lent significant works from their private collection to major museum exhibitions worldwide. Given their preference for anonymity, they established the collection title, GUC (the Great Unseen Collection), a playful moniker adopted by the family to quietly share their masterpieces with the public, further demonstrating their continued commitment to arts education and accessibility.
Taken together, the Joel and Carole Bernstein Family Collection forms a remarkable, and remarkably beautiful, human-centered mosaic—an archive of emotion, intellect, and vision that transcends medium, time and geography. It is a vivid testament to the Bernsteins’ belief in the enduring power of representation, and to the eternal triumph of the human figure as both subject and symbol.