antiquesandartireland.com

Information about Art, Antiques and Auctions in Ireland and around the world
  • ABOUT
  • About Des
  • Contact
  • TITANS OF ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM AT SOTHEBY’S

    Jackson Pollock – Number 4, 1951 ($25-35 million).

    A group of eight paintings by titans of the American Abstract Expressionist Movement will be offered by Sotheby’s in New York on November 13.  The sale of masterworks  by Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Arshile Gorky, Joan Mitchell, Hans Hofmann and Adolph Gottlieb is expected to realize $80-100 million.  They are from the extensive collection of Sidney and Dorothy Kohl and were acquired predominantly in the early 1970’s.

    The group is led by Number 4, 1951, a drip painting on canvas by Jackson Pollock ($25-35 million). Over the course of the last 20 years, only eight drip paintings on canvas by Pollock have appeared at auction. Executed near the beginning of 1951 it epitomizes the drama and dynamism of the 1950 masterpieces that had just been exhibited at Betty Parson’s Gallery in New York from November to December, many of which are now included in the nation’s leading museum collections.

    To offer a group of true masterpieces that have remained together in the same private collection for four decades is an event nearly unheard of in the art market, Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s worldwide head of contemporary art commented.  The Kohls assembled their collection with great care and with the help of the late Jack Taylor, a gifted curator of the American Abstract Expressionist Movement. (Click on any image to enlarge).

    Clyfford Still – 1948-H ($15-20 million).

    Franz Kline – Shenandoah 1956 ($6.5-8.5 million).

    Comments are closed.