LONDON.- Phillips announced a remarkable group of 27 works from the collection of renowned Italian private collector Enea Righi. Out of the Blue: Works from The Collection of Enea Righi showcases superlative examples of 20th century and contemporary art across a rich variety of media. Important works by Alighiero Boetti sit alongside paintings by Glenn Ligon and Anselm Kiefer, an iconic LED installation by Jenny Holzer, a floor sculpture by Carl Andre, and photographic work by Louise Lawler. Out of the Blue is a leading highlight of Phillips’ Spring season in London and will be offered for sale on 24 March.
Carolina Lanfranchi, Senior International Specialist, 20th Century and Contemporary Art, Regional Director, Italy said, “I am very honoured to work with Enea Righi and his curator Lorenzo Paini, and to have had the pleasure to discover a collection formed with true passion and love. It was also a nice surprise, Out of the Blue, to find material of such great quality, variety and freshness with a deep and intellectual curatorial vision.”
The Collection
The Enea Righi Collection stands as one of the most renowned in Europe, spanning over 1,000 works that tell the story of art from the 1960’s to the present day. It is the result of passionate research and 30 years of authentic collecting, representing Enea Righi’s true vision that was never swayed by art market trends. His primary focus was not on a particular medium or theme but elaborating his unique vision through the different forms of artistic expression.
Illuminated by works of museum size and quality, it represents all forms of artistic expression including video, photography, painting, sculpture, architecture and performance art. Out of the Blue is led by Glenn Ligon’s Mirror #2, 2006 and Alighiero Boetti’s important embroidery work Senza titolo (1977 per 1978), 1977-78. Further highlights include works by Anselm Kiefer, Daniel Buren, Candida Höfer, Etel Adnan, among others.
Enea Righi constructed the collection around themes that are important to him: the body, self-consciousness, beauty, time, duplicity, feminine art, architecture, politics and identity. Many of the works have strong political connotations, represented by artists such as Martha Rosler, Thomas Hirschhorn, Walid Raad, Gordon Matta-Clark and Kader Attia.
Enea Righi's research has always been guided by a willingness to incentivize and directly support artistic production. He has cultivated great relationships with museum institutions, lending artworks to likes of the Museion in Bolzano, Madre in Naples and major exhibitions dedicated to the collection at Collection Lambert in Avignon, Museion in Bolzano, Castello di Rivoli in Turin, the Grand Palais in Paris, the Palazzo Fortuny in Venice, and the ICA in Milan, of which he is one of the founders.
