Willi Baumeister - Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session New York Wednesday, May 15, 2024 | Phillips

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  • Dorothy and Eugene Prakapas, Prakapas Gallery, 1970s.

    Phillips is honored to present a selection of artwork from the collection of pioneering gallerists Eugene and Dorothy Prakapas. Proceeds from their outstanding collection will benefit the Eugene and Dorothy Prakapas Scholarship Fund at Yale University in memory of Thomas C. Mendenhall. Gene’s attendance at Yale in 1949 was made possible by a scholarship, and it was his and Dorothy’s intent that the sale of artwork from their estate would support scholars of the future. 

     

    Gene (1932-2011) and Dorothy (1928-2022) founded Prakapas Gallery at 19 East 71st Street, New York City, in 1976. The gallery quickly became known for its adventurous curatorial approach and for showing a diverse range of artists and media. The couple set a demanding pace for themselves, mounting a new exhibition every four weeks, and keeping an ever-changing array of painting, photography, and works-on-paper on the gallery walls. Photography, especially work connected to the Bauhaus, was a particular interest of the Prakapases, and the broad theme of European Modernism threaded its way through many of their shows. Operating on a shoestring budget, the couple sought out little-known artists and underrepresented aspects of well-known artists’ oeuvres for their exhibitions. Gallery favorites included László Moholy-Nagy, Fernand Léger, Willi Baumeister, Albert Renger-Patzsch, and Werner Mantz, among many others.

     

    [Left] Dorothy Prakapas, Prakapas Gallery, 1970s.
    [Right] Eugene Prakapas with photographer Arthur Rothstein, Prakapas Gallery, 1978.

    Both Gene and Dorothy came to the art world after having pursued successful careers in other arenas. Gene worked in publishing after graduating Yale, served in the Navy, and later pursued graduate studies at Oxford, which he attended on a Fulbright scholarship. Dorothy was educated at City University of New York and the Fashion Institute of Technology and worked in the fashion industry. Together, they made Prakapas Gallery into a mecca for collectors on the hunt for material that could not be found elsewhere, the esoteric and the avant-garde across all media, selected and contextualized with intelligence and warmth. 

     “Galleries that are powered by a completely idiosyncratic taste and with no regard for current fashion do not always live long. So it is good to see from their 10th anniversary miscellany that Eugene and Dorothy Prakapas are just as quirky as ever they were.”
     —John Russell

    • Condition Report

    • Description

      View our Conditions of Sale.

    • Provenance

      Ernst Burkhardt, Zurich (acquired directly from the artist on May 17, 1929)
      Galerie Ziegler, Zurich
      Eugene and Dorothy Prakapas, New York (acquired from the above in 1986)
      Thence by descent to the present owner

    • Literature

      Dietmar J. Ponert, Willi Baumeister Werkverzeichnis der Zeichnungen, Gouachen und Collagen, Cologne, 1988, no. 162, p. 87 (illustrated)

Property from the Estate of Eugene and Dorothy Prakapas

125

Maschine und Mensch

tempera and pencil on paper
14 3/4 x 10 3/8 in. (37.5 x 26.4 cm)
Executed in 1926.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$25,000 - 35,000 

Place Advance Bid
Contact Specialist

Annie Dolan
NY Head of Auctions and Specialist, Head of Sale, Morning Session
212 940 1288
adolan@phillips.com

Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session

New York Auction 15 May 2024