NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s announced Selections from the Collection of Laura Lee Brown & Steve Wilson, a group of outstanding contemporary artworks coming from the expansive collection of the highly celebrated husband and wife team who founded the groundbreaking 21c Museum Hotels, which pioneered a new model of hospitality with contemporary art exhibitions and installations. The 21 artworks being offered at Christie’s include a diverse array of creatives, hailing from the late 20th and early 21st centuries, across media, from painting, sculpture, photography to video, with a strong emphasis on female artists and artists of color.
Artworks by leading figures, including Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Titus Kaphar, Simone Leigh, Bisa Butler, and Mickalene Thomas, highlight the selection. In many cases, the works on offer were acquired early in the artist’s trajectory and reflect their creator’s ascendency to the top echelons of the artworld, and are emblematic of their interest in a wide range of artistic practices, which not only inform the contemporary zeitgeist, but offer a dialogue and reframing of our shared social dynamics and the art-historical canon.
The Collection will launch on October 1, 2024 with a single-owner presentation in the bi-annual Post-War to Present auction taking place at Rockefeller Center in New York. Christie’s will present a final offering from the collection, a major historic work by François-Xavier Lalanne, in the 20th Century Evening Sale during November’s Fall Marquee Week. Comprising two large sofas in the form of camels, Les Chameaux, together, are an iconic early work by the legendary post-war sculptor and are a characteristic example of his shape-shifting work which transcends traditional notions delineating sculpture from functional design. The two camels were exhibited in Les Lalanne, the artist’s retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, in 2010, and have been unseen on the market in twenty years.
A leading highlight within the October Post-War to Present sale is Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s 11 AM Monday, which was executed in 2011 and acquired in the same year which alludes to rich narrative and conceptual implications without being rooted in a specific depiction or portraiture.
“We love sharing our collection with such a wide array of guests and the public who, often unexpectedly, experience the work of artists they have never seen or heard about,” stated Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson. “We acquired these works early in the artists’ trajectories and, while it’s difficult to part with them, are looking forward to our ongoing work in supporting other artists who are just starting to emerge or have been overlooked. This is what our collecting—and sharing—is all about and will continue to be.”
Max Carter, Vice Chairman of Christie’s 20th and 21st Century Art, remarked, “Laura Lee and Steve have for many years anticipated and embraced new voices in their pioneering collecting and integration of the highest standards of thoughtful public exhibition with hospitality. This selection reflects their deep and generous curiosity, their independent cast of mind, their celebration of different perspectives and their eye for quality.”
