S otheby’s is pleased to present our April Prints & Multiples auction, which will feature an extensive selection of prints spanning the 19th century to the present day. The sale includes works from several notable collections, ranging from Jasper Johns prints from the Estate of Mark Lancaster and contemporary prints from the Collection of Sherry and Joel Mallin, to early modern and impressionist prints from the Collection of Martin and Liane Atlas as well as an impression of Picasso’s Faune devoilant une dormeuse from the Collection of Catherine Woodard and Nelson Blitz, Jr.
Additional highlights of the sale include important contemporary prints such as Robert Rauschenbergh’s Booster, Roy Lichtenstein’s Nude with Blue Hair, Frank Stella’s Double Gray Scramble, and Alex Katz’s Black Dress portfolio.
The exhibition for this sale will open on Friday, April 14th at 10AM and will close on Tuesday, April 14th at 5 PM. Bidding opens on April 12th at 12PM and lots will begin closing on Wednesday, April 19th, at 1PM.
Mark Lancaster was born in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire in 1938 and died in April 2021 at the age of 82.
Lancaster was well known in both England and in the United States as an artist and a designer; he studied under Richard Hamilton and worked for Andy Warhol, through whom he met famed Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Henry Geldzahler. From 1974-1985 he worked as Jasper Johns’ assistant and during this time he also began a celebrated tenure as the set, costume and lighting designer for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. His paintings could be seen at the Betty Parson’s Gallery, the Paris Biennale and the National Gallery of Art. As a printmaker he worked with Editions Alecto, and Simca Studios.
The prints in this group predominantly showcase Lancaster’s working relationship with Johns while also paying homage to his affiliations with numerous 20th Century luminaries and Sotheby’s is pleased to offer works with such esteemed provenance.
Beloved by the artists and institutions they support, Sherry and Joel Mallin have, over the last three decades of their joint collecting careers, assembled a collection that is unique in breadth, vast in scope, and distinctly personal - a mirror to their curiosity, warmth and deep friendships within the art community. Although centered on a remarkable group of sculptures from their legendary Buckhorn Sculpture Park in Pound Ridge, their collection spans all media, and Sotheby’s is privileged to present a selection of prints by artists including Louise Bourgeois, Alex Katz, Eric Fischl, Bruce Nauman, Robert Gober and Andy Warhol.
There is no room for compromise when collecting, as should you compromise you forgo your heart’s desire…. It’s been the journey of a lifetime, learning not just about art, but about ourselves.
Martin and Liane Atlas were pioneers of print collecting and connoisseurship. Liane served as founding board member and president of the Washington Print Club. Their collection of Post-Impressionist prints was the basis of the 1998 exhibition, “Artists and the Avant-Garde Theater in Paris” at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Advised by the National Gallery, they amassed an extensive collection of Pissarro prints, many of which they donated to the museum and are now in its permanent collection. Other works were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Academy of Art, the National Gallery and other museums.
