Phillips is pleased to offer the first exclusive glimpse at the masterworks from a Private American Collection to be offered through a series of sales in the Spring and early Fall. With a stunning compendium of pieces to be offered in the May Contemporary Art Sales by Brice Marden, Ed Ruscha, Robert Ryman, and John Chamberlain, the highlights of the collection are representative of the generation that followed the Abstract Expressionists—a group of artists who were diverse in their aims and movements yet unified in their spectacular adherence to the American spirit of individualism and innovation. One of the most remarkable features of this particular collection is its variety of mediums, as we see equal representations of painting, sculpture, and photography therein. This wondrous assortment of form is a perfect synecdoche for the collector and collection, where mixed mediums and diversity of materials serve to incite a rare and enlightening dialogue amongst the works within. And, when paired with the collection’s contingent of international artists, such interplay among objects is a true marvel – an exceptional group of works bound by their own magnificent differences.

The collection’s select photographs for auction in the current sale include some of the most breathtaking images in contemporary photography. With multiple examples of the work of James Welling, Robert Beck and Hiroshi Sugimoto, including the gorgeous Colors of Shadow C1031, 2006, the collection has contributed to the sale a wide range of contemporary works by leaders in the field as well as up-and-coming photographers. Perhaps the crown jewel of this following selection, and one of the most sublime pieces in the collection, is Wolfgang Tillmans’ mosque, 2005, a paragon of form and light, of architecture and spirituality. Several more works by Tillmans will be included in Phillips’s May Contemporary Art sales, showing the diversity of the collection across both medium and the stylistic differences within the oeuvre of a single artist. It is this continuing diversity that helps to establish this Private American Collection as one of the most far-reaching and complete in contemporary art; Phillips is honored to offer the many brilliant facets of such a multiplicitous achievement.

Titles include: The Music Lesson, 1999; Cro Magnon, 1994; Polar Bear, 1996; Neanderthal, 1994; Homo Ergaster, 1997; Devonian Period, 1992; Earliest Human Relatives, 1994; Gorilla, 1994; Permian Land, 1992