 |
 |
Press Release I | Press Release II
Contact:
Andrée Corroon 212.636.2680
Joel Gunderson
CHRISTIE'S TO OFFER IMPORTANT POST-WAR AND CONTEMPORARY WORKS FROM THE ISRAEL PHOENIX ASSURANCE COMPANY
Post-War and Contemporary Art
November 13 & 14, 2002
New York, NY - Christie's, the world's leading fine art auctioneer, will offer nine important works of art from the collection of the Israel Phoenix Assurance Company in the firm's evening sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art in New York on November 13. The offering is led by an iconic work by Jasper Johns and the first major Barnett Newman to appear at auction since 1995. Additional highlights include a "combine" painting by Robert Rauschenberg, a multi-form Mark Rothko painting, and Minimalist works by Agnes Martin, Eva Hesse and Robert Ryman.
The Phoenix collection, one of the few corporate art collections in Israel, was conceived and assembled in the early 1980s by the renowned collector Joseph Hackmey. The collection is the world's most comprehensive grouping of Israeli art, and the Israel Phoenix Assurance Company was well known for its support of young Israeli artists, Israeli institutions and art publications. Guided by Mr. Hackmey's connoisseurship and astute purchases, the collection grew to include numerous masterworks by international Modern, Post-War and Contemporary artists. In 2002, the Israel Phoenix Assurance Company came under new ownership and the firm's investment strategy and focus changed.
Leading the offering is Jasper Johns' 0 Through 9 (estimate: $6,000,000-8,000,000), one of the five paintings from the iconic series by this title, each executed in 1961 and each composed of the numerals 0 through 9 superimposed one on top of the other. The version offered at Christie's this fall is painted in gray, intensified with black and white, and touched with flashes of color. It was previously in the respected collections of S.I. Newhouse Jr. and Graham Gund. Three of the other examples from the series are in major museum collections: the Tate Modern, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. The other remains in a prestigious private collection.
Barnett Newman's White Fire I, 1954 (estimate: $4,000,000-6,000,000), is the first important painting by the artist to appear at auction since Christie's sold The Word II in November 1995 for a record price of $3,027,500. Painted after a long period of dark pictures, White Fire I attains a translucent sense of brightness characteristic of its mystical title. This work, originally in the renowned Powers Collection in London, is included in the major retrospective that originated at the Philadelphia Museum of Art earlier this year and is currently on view at the Tate Modern.
Further highlights from the Israel Phoenix Assurance Company Collection include Robert Rauschenberg's 1960 "combine" painting, Nettle (estimate: $1,200,000-1,800,000), and Mark Rothko's early multiform work, No. 18, 1948 (estimate: $1,000,000-1,500,000).
Auction:
Post-War and Contemporary Art evening sale November 13 at 7 p.m.
Viewing:
Christie's Galleries, 20 Rockefeller Plaza November 9-13
# # #
Images available on request
Back to top
|
|
