Milton Avery - The Estate of Mrs. Harry N. Abrams New York Wednesday, April 7, 2010 | Phillips

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  • Provenance


    Acquired directly from the artist

  • Catalogue Essay


    Abrams explains that to get a more complete picture of the scope of the [his] collection it will be necessary to visit his apartment, since that is where many of his earlier acquisitions are hung. Asked why he began to collect, he shrugs and suggests that it was probably because he was a frustrated painter. He points out that one did not need huge resources to collect contemporary art in the old days and recalls a visit to Milton Avery’s studio. It was just a little apartment, really— four small rooms. Joe Hirshhorn has just been there and he had picked out about forty of fifty paintings and paid for them on the spot. It is rumored that he paid something like two thousand dollars for the lot—maybe three—an incredibly small sum, anyway—but the Averys were delighted. I asked if there was anything left for me and we picked out half a dozen things that I liked. I asked how much that would cost and it came to something like four hundred dollars.
    “Harry N. Abrams Collects,” Auction, Vol. IV , No. 2, October 1970, p. 35.

261

Still Life (Pink Lamp)

not dated
Oil on board.
9 1/8 x 13 1/4 in. (23.2 x 33.7 cm).

Signed “Milton Avery” lower right.

Estimate
$40,000 - 60,000 

Sold for $45,000

The Estate of Mrs. Harry N. Abrams

7 April 2010
New York