The great music legend Andy Williams — who popularized timeless hits such as “Moon River” and “Can't Take My Eyes Off You — represents the epitome of the American dream. In his 74 year career, the singer soared from modest circumstances to incredible success, selling more than 100 million records worldwide, achieving gold and platinum status for many of his albums, and winning three Emmy awards for his television program The Andy Williams Show, among many other accomplishments.
“Throughout my life, I have always been collecting… I could not imagine a life without paintings”
— Andy Williams
His passion for music was matched perhaps only by his love for art. A collector in the truest sense, over six decades he built an impressive collection of modern and contemporary art that included, among works by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Willem de Kooning, Hans Hofmann and Franz Kline, Helen Frankenthaler’s masterpiece Head of the Meadow, 1967, and the gem 1973 (Thanksgiving Day), both of which have remained with the family until the present day.
While fascinated by Abstract Expressionists such as Hans Hofmann, Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline, Williams felt a particular affinity for such Color Field artists as Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland. It was during an art trip to New York that he acquired Frankenthaler’s masterpiece Head of the Meadow, 1967, from André Emmerich Gallery — marking the beginning of his decade-long support of Frankenthaler’s work.