By Jennifer Yum A Florida collector's impressive and focused collection of abstraction in Post-War and Contemporary Art. While some collections simply reflect their collector's eclectic tastes, others reveal groupings of objects acquired with deep passion and focus. Such is the case with the collection of Preston H. Haskell, chairman of The Haskell Company, an international building design and construction firm based in Jacksonville, Florida. His personal and corporate collections consist of 300 works of art - paintings, sculpture, drawings and prints representing abstraction in Post-War and Contemporary Art. The Evening Sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art in New York offers a choice group of works from the Haskell Collection, including exceptional paintings by Gerhard Richter, Mark Rothko, Frank Stella, Joan Mitchell and Peter Halley. Preston Haskell graduated with honors from Princeton University in 1960 with a degree in civil engineering, received a MBA with distinction from Harvard University in 1962, and attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology for graduate study in building engineering and construction. With this impressive educational background, he founded The Haskell Company, which has been responsible for projects as diverse as office complexes, courthouses and manufacturing plants. In 1994 the firm performed the Herculean task of tearing down the antiquated Gator Bowl and constructing a state-of-the-art, 75,000-seat football stadium in only 19 months, now the perfect home for Jacksonville's new NFL football team, the Jaguars, of which Mr Haskell is an owner. Mr Haskell's civic presence includes the boards of universities, hospitals, orchestras and museums. Recently in a billboard on a major expressway, a new theater company used Mr Haskell's likeness to link his persona to the artistic community. Mr Haskell's commitment to the arts is clearly evident in his own art collection. When he began collecting 30 years ago (one of his first acquisitions was by Jacksonville artist John McIver), his motivation was pure and simple - 'my personal love for the energy, mystery and excitement of abstract art, a passion that is often as difficult to rationalize as that art itself.' The Haskell Collection benefits both from his zeal and his keen and sensitive eye. Bold and dynamic or contemplative and sublime, the collection's abstract works hold a certain mystery for him - he says that abstract pictures 'don't give up all of their secrets in a single look'. It takes a certain patient sensibility to enjoy their pleasures. What he finds especially intriguing is that 'the energy coursing though these works is boundless'. This notion is reflected in the Richter, Untitled, 1986, a large monumental abstract painting that barely contains its energy of exuberant dynamism. The combination of pure, bright colour and unfettered gestural brushstrokes is a heady one. This combination can also be seen in Joan Mitchell's Sunflowers, 1990, where forceful brushstrokes act as a substitute for the vital growth of the flowers under the Provençal sun. The collection also boasts abstract pictures that exist in the other direction of static color and form. Rothko's Untitled painting from 1968 is pure drama in red. The suffused light of the dense pigment reveals the magic of Rothko's quiet brushstrokes. Stella is also occupied with geometry in his Double Scramble, 1978, a major example from his Concentric Squares series. The personal and corporate collections of Preston Haskell celebrate the human spirit, with all of its imaginative and creative beauty. Everything is made possible when one is inspired by works of art. The collections superbly exemplify the passion and unique force of abstraction in Post-War and Contemporary Art. JENNIFER YUM IS A SPECIALIST IN THE POST-WAR AND CONTEMPORARY ART DEPARTMENT, CHRISTIE'S NEW YORK Back to top