Ellsworth Kelly - Editions & Works on Paper New York Tuesday, April 18, 2023 | Phillips

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  •  “I think a good dealer is also a collector.”
    —Rosa Esman

    Rosa and Aaron Esman assembled an outstanding collection of Modern, Post-War, and Contemporary art over the course of their seventy-year marriage. The collection’s highlights mirror that of Rosa’s career as a gallerist and print publisher (which Aaron, a psychoanalyst, strongly supported), with interests in Modernism, Dada, Russian Constructivism, and American Pop Art taking center stage. Rosa got her start publishing artists’ print portfolios in the 1960s, including the New York Ten Portfolio, 1965, and Ten for Leo Castelli, 1967, which featured works by rising contemporary artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Rauschenberg, and helped pioneer the field of artist’s editions and multiples. Her eponymous gallery exhibited in Manhattan for over twenty years, and she was a founding partner of Ubu Gallery, which is still in operation today.

     

    When asked about her wide artistic tastes in 2009, Rosa emphasized her love of drawing, “the quintessential bit of the art,” which can be seen across the collection, regardless of genre.

     

    The pair bonded over gallery visits when dating in the early 1950s. While Aaron already had begun collecting by then, the first work they purchased together was a drawing by Miró, early in their marriage. Rosa recalled: ‘sometimes we look at something, and I say, “Oh, isn’t that marvelous?”’ and Aaron would respond, ‘It’s for us.’

     

    Founded on lifelong love, the Collection of Rosa and Aaron Esman gives a unique vision of the art movements of the 20th century that shaped New York’s art scene.

     

    Rosa and Aaron Esman, Madrid, 1963

     

    • Provenance

      Castelli Graphics, New York
      Rosa and Aaron Esman, New York (acquired from the above, 1978)
      Thence by descent to the present owners

    • Literature

      Tyler Graphics 309
      Richard Axsom 153

    • Artist Biography

      Ellsworth Kelly

      American • 1923 - 2015

      Acting as a vital contributor to the Abstract movement, Ellsworth Kelly focused on color and composition. Becoming inspired by ornithology and the bold coloring of birds, Kelly used a two or three pigment color palette — painted flatly and geometrically — on his canvases. While living in Paris, the artist used Monet's late works as a base for experimenting with expressionism and serial work

      View More Works

Property from the Collection of Rosa and Aaron Esman

11

Colored Paper Image XIII (Yellow Green Black Blue Orange), from Colored Paper Images (T. 309, A. 153)

1976
Colored and pressed paper pulp, with full margins.
I. 29 1/2 x 29 1/2 in. (74.9 x 74.9 cm)
S. 32 1/2 x 31 1/4 in. (82.6 x 79.4 cm)

Signed and numbered 5/23 in pencil (there were also 9 artist's proofs), published by Tyler Graphics, Ltd., Mount Kisco, New York (with their and the artist's blindstamps), framed.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$25,000 - 35,000 

Sold for $50,800

Contact Specialist

Editions@phillips.com
212 940 1220

 

Editions & Works on Paper

New York Auction 18 - 20 April 2023