Property from the Estate
of Howard Karshan
Over 150 Works of Art to be Auctioned
Throughout the Fall 2018/Spring 2019 Season Across Sales of 20th Century &
Contemporary Art and Editions in London and New York
Works by Richter, Twombly, and Baselitz to
Lead the Collection in the
London Evening Sale of 20th Century &
Contemporary Art in October
LONDON
– 4 SEPTEMBER 2018 – Phillips is pleased to announce the sale of works from the
Estate of Howard Karshan. Over the course of nearly fifty years, Howard Karshan
and his wife, Linda, assembled one of the most significant collections of
modern and post-war paintings and works on paper. A true ode to the intimacy
and unique sensibility of drawing, it encompasses an incredible array of works
by artists ranging from Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock,
Willem de Kooning, Sam Francis, and Cy Twombly, to Gerhard Richter, Georg
Baselitz and Bruce Nauman, among many others. The selection of works to be sold
at Phillips offers unique insights into the extraordinary legacy of one of the
most significant collectors of the past century.
Cheyenne Westphal, Phillips’ Chairman,
said, “The collection Howard and Linda amassed spans the breadth and depth of Western
art and keeps, at its core, a focus on those elements which make collections
truly great: connoisseurship, care, a dedicated vision and, above all, a
genuine love of art. In following his passion and his keen eye for acquiring
works on paper – and in absorbing himself in the literature and art scenes of
the day – Howard created a timeless collection and it is our honor to bring
these works to the public.”
About the Collector
The Karshan Collection encapsulates an exceptional odyssey of collecting, spanning over five decades and two continents. Living between London and New York, Howard and Linda Karshan acquired a breadth of works on paper and canvas that are wonderful examples of their respective movements. Born in New York in 1933, Howard Karshan studied philosophy and law at New York University before embarking upon a successful career as a film rights negotiator at CBS, Viacom, MGM, and Turner. It was in the early 1960s that he discovered his true passion, catching the “bug for collecting” as he described it, when he was assigned to work for CBS in Paris in 1962. He met his wife, Linda, for the first time travelling from England to New York on the transatlantic ocean liner SS France. Linda, an accomplished artist in her own right, was crucial in guiding Howard in his journey of studying and collecting art. Following first acquisitions of a work by Alberto Giacometti and a Cycladic idol sculpture, Howard built with great care, passion, and study, one of the most renowned collections of modern and post-war works on paper. The Karshan Collection was not just one to be lived with, but also one to be shared with a wider public by way of exhibition loans and generous gifts to institutions such as the British Museum, London, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, among others. Pursuing his commitment and passion for art also on an institutional level, Howard held the position of the Head of Patrons of New Art at the Tate, London, in which function he crucially initiated the Acquisitions Committee, and was also selected to be on the Jury for the Turner Prize in 1992.
About the Collection
20TH CENTURY & CONTEMPORARY WORKS OF ART
Leading
the Karshan Collection is Gerhard Richter’s Hände,
(illustrated page one), which will be offered in the October Evening Sale of
20th Century & Contemporary Art in London.
Painted in 1963, this oil on canvas is a striking early epitome of the
artist’s iconic and technically astute photo realist paintings of the 1960s. Between 1962 and 1968 Richter became concerned
with pursuing a practice centered around photographic source imagery. This
profound shift in practice and commencement of photo painting has had an
overpowering effect on the history of contemporary painting. An
intimate portrait, in Hände Richter
presents the viewer with two blurred, unidentified hands. Considered one of the
oldest motifs in the history of art, both as a central tool to creation and as
a focus of representation, Richter confronts the onlooker with the most
familiar of themes. Here, however, Richter projects the recognisable silhouette
into a seemingly unreachable distance or illusion. Hände is a tremendously significant work, as it set Richter
on a path of photo realist paintings, which became the core of his oeuvre.
Also included in the London Evening Sale in October are Georg Baselitz’s Untitled, 1967, Cy Twombly’s Untitled, 1969, and Gerhard Richter’s Busch, 1985 (illustrated left). Busch was included in the seminal exhibition Gerhard Richter: 40 Years of Painting at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, which also travelled to the Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC. These paintings, specifically Richter’s Hände and Busch, were carefully chosen by Howard and Linda, as they spoke to the couple’s deep appreciation for the hand of the artist and their mark making.
Over fifty lots from the collection will be included in the October Day Sale of 20th Century & Contemporary Art in London, followed by works in the New York Day Sale in November and New Now across London and New York. In many ways, the Karshan Collection is a tale of two cities. Living between New York City and London, Howard became intimately acquainted with the art scene on both sides of the Atlantic. Among the examples of post-war European art to be offered in the Day Sale are works by Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Georg Baselitz, Palermo, and Jean Dubuffet, while American artists include Agnes Martin, Dan Flavin, Carl Andre, Robert Smithson, Raymond Pettibon, and Wayne Thiebaud. There is equal attention paid in the Day Sale works to the Karshans’ fondness of the artists’ mark marking. Works such as Pollock’s Untitled, 1951, and Sigmar Polke’s Ohne Titel, circa 1965, (illustrated below left), convey the abstract potential of drawing, while works such as Picasso’s Nu couché et homme écrivant, 1969, de Kooning’s Untitled (Group of 8 Drawings), 1965-1970 and Baselitz’s Untitled, 1966, celebrate its ability of distilling the human figure to its most elemental form.
EDITIONS
Ten
lots from the Karshan Collection will be included in the New York Editions
auctions on 17 October, with five being featured in the Evening Sale and five
in the Day Sale. Leading the group is Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s Débauche
(Wittrock 167), illustrated right. Executed in 1896, this lithograph is one of
only three examples printed on silk – one impression is in the collection of
the Boston Public Library. It was purchased in 1973 making it one of the
earliest acquired works in the collection and is one of Lautrec’s most fluidly
drawn and erotic images. The Editions sales will also include a rare set of
template drawings by Walter de Maria from 1975-6, a Richard Artschwager, sets
of Brice Marden (illustrated below centre), Robert Ryman etchings (illustrated
below right), and a monoprint by Ellen Gallagher (illustrated below left).
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ABOUT PHILLIPS
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Contemporary Art, Design, Photographs, Editions, Watches, and Jewelry, Phillips
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Visit
www.phillips.com for further
information.
*Estimates
do not include buyer’s premium; prices achieved include the hammer price plus
buyer’s premium.
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