A selection of 20th-century paintings from the collection of a deceased Chicago couple who collected art throughout their more than five-decade marriage is set to fetch more than $50 million at Christie’s New York during the May auction house sales.
Chicago commodity trader Alan and his wife Dorothy Press began collecting German Expressionist art shortly after their marriage in 1970, likely influenced by Alan’s time on a military base in Germany in the 1950s. according to Christie’s. The Presses’ collection became one of America’s premier treasure troves of German Expressionist art, but they decided to sell the entire collection in the mid-1980s to focus on acquiring modern and contemporary art. more recent. Pieces from their collection heading to Christie’s in May include works by Ed Ruscha, Philip Guston, Ken Price, Henri Matisse and Man Ray, Christie’s said, which will be offered in several evening and daytime sales.
The outstanding work of the Press collection is that of Ruscha Burning standard (1968), which, according to Christie’s, is only the second painting of Ruscha’s famous painting Stations upcoming series at auction. Burning standard is estimated at $20-30 million at an evening sale in May where two more paintings by the artist will go on sale: Do you think she has it (1974) and Company #1 (1966), which are estimated to sell for up to $2 million and $350,000, respectively. Eight additional paintings by Ruscha will go on sale during Christie’s Day sales. This year, Ruscha will be the subject of a traveling retrospective making stops at the New York Museum of Modern Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Christie’s set Ruscha’s current bid record in November 2019, during the sale of his 1964 painting Hurt the Word Radio #2 for $46 million ($52.4 million with fees).
Phillip Guston, Chair1976 Courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd.
The evening sale will also include three paintings by Guston that have not been on public display in decades. Chair (1976) was last seen in public in 1991 for a MoMA exhibition and is expected to sell for up to $18 million. by Guston Pull (1979) and Bricks (1970) are equally fresh on the market, according to Christie’s, and both are estimated at between $6 million and $8 million. A major Guston retrospective opened last year in Boston after being repeatedly postponed, first due to the Covid-19 pandemic, then due to the artist’s use of Ku Klux Klan imagery; It is currently showing at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC (until August 27).
Dorothy died in January and Alan died in 2021. The couple’s holdings join upcoming sales of several other high profile private collections at Christie’s in May, including works acquired by Gerald Fineberg, former trustee of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston; late edition billionaire estate art SI Newhouse; and additional paintings that belonged to the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allenmost of which sold for $1.6 billion last year to become the most valuable art collection ever sold at auction.
