Joseph Beuys

signed and dated 1964 on the reverse

Galleria Lucio Amelio, Naples
Libero Grande, Naples
Private Collection, Naples (by descent from the above)
Sale: Sotheby's, London, Property from the Collection of Libero Grande, Naples, 19 October 2004, Lot 65
Acquired directly from the above by the late owner

Germano Celant, Beuys tracce in Italia, Naples 1978, p. 140, no. 141, illustrated

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although it fails to fully convey the textured quality of the paper cut-outs. Condition: This work is in very good condition. The sheet is attached verso to the backing board in several places. Upon close inspection, there is evidence of very faint discolouration from the adhesive towards the upper corners. Close inspection reveals a small number of minute media accretions scattered in a few isolated places. All folding creases, handling creases and minute tears are in keeping with the artist's working process.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE LATE STANLEY J. SEEGER

Stanley Seeger was one of the greatest collectors of the Twentieth Century. We are delighted to be offering an exciting selection of works from his collection in this sale (Lots 178 to 187, and Lot 340), preceded by a group of works which will be offered as part of the 20th Century Italian Sale on the 17 October.

The heyday of Seeger’s collecting began in the late 1970s when he inherited his fortune and met his life-long partner Christopher Cone. Under Cone’s influence the scope of Seeger’s collecting expanded further as he acquired important works by British artists like J.M.W. Turner, Christopher Wood, Graham Sutherland and Ben Nicholson. It was at this time that he acquired Sutton Place, the first of many homes, and set about an extensive plan of restoration with the same expertise and thoroughness that characterised his acquisition of art.

For Seeger – a quiet and immensely private man – collecting was always a self-enclosed activity; he rarely visited museums or galleries and tended not to talk about the works he acquired. As John Richardson said, “For Seeger collecting was a very private pleasure, and, I suspect, an obsessive one: an exercise in scholarship as well as connoisseurship”. Collections were assembled assiduously, with real care and devotion, yet once he felt a collection had ‘fulfilled itself’, he had to move on. The result of this restlessness was a series of very successful auctions beginning in 1993 with the now legendary sale of an outstanding group of Picassos.  

Seeger derived huge pleasure from acquiring beautiful works of art and the collections he built – often hugely diverse in scope – reflect a quiet, unspoken confidence in his own judgement. The calibre of the works offered in this sale, works which reflect the diversity of his collecting interests, are a confirmation of his extraordinary eye for quality.

The sequence is driven by a strong group of German artists covering an extraordinary range of artistic movements. Led by two Joseph Beuys, works of impeccable quality and provenance, the collection spans twenty years of artistic production including a pivotal Zero movement work by Otto Piene, a series of works by Rainer Fetting and Helmut Middendorf produced at the height of the Neue Wilde movement in the early 1980s and two striking examples of the uniquely politicised surrealism of Jörg Immendorff.  In addition to these German works there are two fine examples of late works by Jean Dubuffet, both painted in the last few years of his life and acquired shortly afterwards and, in striking contrast to these, Takashi Murakami’s vividly colourful 1998 work, Pink Summer.