Groundbreaking and visionary, the collection of Mr. And Mrs. Joseph Blank charts a singular path in Postwar art. With an expert eye, the couple acquired deep holdings of artists outside of the contemporary mainstream, focusing primarily on three-dimensional works and important works by Black artists, long before the broader market had grown to appreciate them. On their waterfront estate in New York, the couple lived on grounds peppered with expressive, masterfully constructed sculpture by the likes of Melvin Edwards, while inside their home, socially engaged and formally innovative works by Jacob Lawrence flanked their walls. Unmoored from a single style or movement, the Blanks collected with total freedom including exceptional examples of post-war British sculpture by Kenneth Armitage, Lynn Chadwick and Reg Butler. More than anything, a daringness in approaching the new and an enthusiasm for the objects, cultures, and points of view of the artists in their home define the collection. Sotheby’s has been honored to present the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Blank, sold in Contemporary Curated in New York and Modern & Post-War British Art in London in Autumn 2020.

Joseph Blank had a regular correspondence with Kenneth Armitage, first visiting his studio around 1980. He wrote to Armitage in 1985 about his recent acquisition of People in the Wind and Moon Figure: 'Your work means a lot to us and together your pieces form an important part of our collection.' Armitage replied 'People in a Wind was very important in my work being the first piece to become well known - it was immediately illustrated in journals in many countries...I am pleased you got this piece but also a little disappointed - I had wanted to buy it back for myself to keep for ever!!'

The present work, The Seasons, held a near equally important position in Armitage’s development. The first version was created the year that Armitage had his first show in New York, with Bertha Schaefer Gallery in March 1956, and it was his first partly painted sculpture. The present sculpture is the second, un-painted edition, conceived the year after and this work probably cast in 1977, the year Joseph Blank bought it directly from Armitage. The painted iteration was included in an exhibition arranged by the Contemporary Art Society at the Tate also in March 1956, where painters and sculptors were invited to submit works on the theme of the seasons. A total of 57 artists accepted the invitation and the resulting exhibition also included works by Adams, Butler, Chadwick, Clark, Frink, Hepworth and Meadows.

Armitage in the 1950s had turned his attention to how groups of figures that are massed together register as a single form to the spectator, before the spectator perceives the individuals:

Whilst he had been associated with the so-called Geometry of Fear group, Armitage’s interest really lay in humanity, in unity, in the togetherness of the human condition and in finding humour and joy in human existence. Even Herbert Read acknowledged this at the Venice Biennale of 1958, where Kenneth Armitage won the David Bright prize for work by a sculptor aged below 45 years, commenting: