PARIS.- Christie’s is honoured to announce the sale of the collection of Jean-François (who died in 2011) and Marie-Aline Prat on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 October 2017, during the week long Paris international contemporary art fair, FIAC. Comprising more than 200 works, this exceptional collection is a testimony to almost half a century of a passion shared by an inseparable couple, united by the same passion for modern, post-war and contemporary art. Including some of the most important international figures of the 20th century, such as JeanMichel Basquiat, Sigmar Polke, Lucio Fontana and Robert Ryman, the collection also highlights the Prats’ taste for French artists like Jean Dubuffet, Yves Klein, Simon Hantaï and Martin Barré. Estimated in the region of €30,000,000 to 40,000,000, this auction will be divided into two sessions (evening and day sales) with a preview exhibition from 14 to 21 October at the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild (11, rue Berryer 75008, Paris).
Paul Nyzam, Head of Sale: “French collections of this quality can be counted on one hand. Intelligence, sensitivity and independence were the main principles in the creation of this superb collection. Presented in the splendid setting of the reception rooms of the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild, the exhibition will offer international collectors the chance to observe the links the couple created between French artists and their European and American peers. On show, for example, is Basquiat conversing with Dubuffet, Klein with Stella, Ryman with Lavier, Fontana with Hantaï and even Barré with Halley. These original and fertile associations make this auction one of the highlights of the 2017 art market year”.
From Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé in 2009 to Zeineb and JeanPierre Marcie-Rivière in 2016, the sale of collections gathered by two pairs of eyes working together provides an intimate insight into the choices that, year upon year, resulted in the formation of a both unique and coherent whole. The collection of Jean-François and Marie-Aline Prat follows this pattern in that it reveals the uniqueness of a taste, the ambition of a trajectory and the confirmation of real artistic preferences. In fact each work acquired by the couple shows a particular attraction to artists who have explored the possibilities of painting to the limits, from Robert Ryman to Bertrand Lavier, Lucio Fontana to Simon Hantaï, James Bishop to Martin Barré. Even when the collection ventures into photography or sculpture, it shows the same preference for what is suggested rather than what is stated, for the underlying more than the visible.
This sensitivity did not stop the couple from being interested in works with a political dimension, particularly those works that contain their expressiveness with a restraint that accentuates its mystery and depth.
Edouard Boccon-Gibod, Managing Director of Christie’s France: “Christie’s is endeavouring to think of this sale less as a tribute than as the photograph of one adventure that leads to another, like an invitation to continue to write the history of these works that Jean-François and Marie-Aline Prat loved, as a way of passing on and sharing this lifelong passion again and again.”
Among the major works to be offered at auction is a monumental masterpiece by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jim Crow (1986, estimate on request), which has not been presented to the French public since the exhibition of the American artist’s work at La Seita Gallery and Museum in 1993 (although the work was subsequently shown at exhibitions in Asia and the United States). Laden with references to the history of the Black American people, charged with both the political and autobiographical, Jim Crow is an outstanding example of the maturity that the painter reached at the end of his brief and meteoric rise to artistic stardom.
Marie-Aline Prat: “I remember my encounter with this amazing picture as if it were yesterday, at the La Seita Gallery and Museum in 1993. It was hanging at the back, in sight of the central aisle. I went straight to it, fascinated, then overwhelmed by emotion. Even today, what strikes me in Jim Crow, is the absolute mastery – almost classical – of the work. In 1993, what was praised above all was Basquiat’s expressionist power. The underground culture, by creating his legend, appropriated it. Basquiat freed himself from this rather suffocating paternity to earn the incontrovertible label of 20th century ‘genius’. It is with great sadness that I am now parting with such a powerful work”.
Another highlight of the collection, Was machen die Russen in Mexico (1982, estimate: €3,500,000-4,500,000) by Sigmar Polke exemplifies the creative genius and irreverence of the German artist whose work until very recently was known and appreciated by few French collectors.
Marie-Aline Prat: “When we acquired this work in 1999, my husband and I were convinced that Polke was an artist as important as Richter, although Richter was much better known. That year, as we left for the Cologne International Art Fair, we had firmly decided to buy a work by this artist (very rarely on the market, as you know!). Luck and our determination were in our favour: this is a major picture that we literally snatched up as soon as the fair opened its doors…”
Les Versatiles (1964, estimate: €3,500,000-4,500,000) however, immerses the viewer completely in Jean Dubuffet’s Hourloupe world, where the forms intertwine and intermingle in a jumble of red, white and blue on the borderline between the figurative and the abstract. What will be noted, furthermore, is the Prats’ emphasis on the connections between the works, whether visual or historical. Thus, for example, a monochrome by Yves Klein painted in 1961 whose first owner was Frank Stella (as shown by a dedication on the back of the picture) is a response to a masterly canvas made by the American painter in 1968. Lastly, the sale will offer in-depth access to the French art scene, from the post-war period to the 2000s, with estimates starting at less than €1,000, allowing all collectors to participate in the auction.
