Christo – Poussette empaquetée,1962 (120,000-180,000). Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 147,750
Martial Raysse, Arbre, Assemblage d’objets (1959-1960) (200,000-300,000). (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 216,750
A rich overview of contemporary art in France since the 1960’s will come under the hammer at Sotheby’s in Paris on September 24. Around 100 lots from the Marcel Brient Collection of Contemporary Art shows extraordinary diversity from the collection of an intuitive, free-thinking Frenchman. It offers an insight into the work of artists in France over 40 years, discreetly amassed over the past four decades. The collector maintained close relationships with Galerie Durand-Dessert, Galerie Maeght, Galerie de France and the dealers Claude Bernard and Yvon Lambert, among others.
A number of encounters have guided his eye down the years, the most decisive being that with Louis Clayeux, Director of Galerie Maeght in Paris from 1948-65, who took him to visit Alberto Giacometti in his studio. Other gallerists were equally influential – like Karl Flinker, who sold him a gouache by Jean Helion, and Jean Fournier, who sold him a pastel by Joan Mitchell.
Marcel Brient has the distinction of being one of the first major collectors to buy works by Jeff Koons, John Currin, Takashi Murakami and Felix Gonzales-Torres – not forgetting Georg Baselitz, Sigmar Polke and Kara Walker. The artist’s nationality was irrelevant; his taste and eye that led him to the artists he admired.
UPDATE: THE SALE REALISED 5,120,975 EURO.