Willem de Kooning, Untitled, circa 1937. Estimate $50,000–70,000.
Willem de Kooning would become a prominent member of the Abstract Expressionist school, yet this early Surrealist work reveals his dedication to the style of Arshile Gorky, who was a major influence on his work at the time. Gorky gave new form to European Surrealism, an art form focused on unlocking the unconscious, with a lyrical abstraction that prefigured Abstract Expressionism. When he made this work, de Kooning had just finished a period of employment at the Federal Art Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration; he had been banned because he lacked American citizenship, having come to the country as a stowaway on a ship a decade earlier. The present work is representative of the artist’s unrealized plans for his FAP murals.
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Property from the Collection of Allan Stone
Contemporary Art Online
13–28 September
John Vickery, Untitled, 1970. Estimate $1,000–2,000.
John Vickery became disenchanted with the commercialization of the art world after the explosion of Abstract Expressionism, and continued to develop his interest in Op Art. For Vickery these artworks were created for the appeal of the eye rather than the heart or mind. His works subtly vibrate and pulsate, heightening the viewer's sensory perceptions and the process of looking at art. Vickery's works are in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victory, the New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, and the Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, among others.
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Property from the Collection of Allan Stone
Contemporary Art Online
13–28 September
Kazuko Inoue, Untitled, 1981. Estimate $4,000–6,000.
Japanese-born artist Kazuko Inoue moved to the United States in the 1960s. Combining early abstraction’s focus on spirituality with a Minimalist grid structure, Inoue creates canvases that are lyrical, austere and subtle, yet compelling. Her work is included in public and corporate collections such as Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, the Newark Museum, the Mobil Oil Corporation and Bank of America.
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Property from the Collection of Allan Stone
Contemporary Art Online
13–28 September
Willem de Kooning, Woman with Glasses, circa 1953. Estimate $50,000–70,000.
Made at the beginning of de Kooning’s success, this drawing embodies qualities of the Woman series that came to epitomize his practice. While the Dutch-born artist did not have his first solo show until he was 44, he gained notoriety within the art world quickly thereafter. In 1953 he had a retrospective; the Museum of Modern Art acquired a work from the Woman series; and he summered with the influential Castelli family in East Hampton.
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Property from the Collection of Allan Stone
Contemporary Art Online
13–28 September
Wayne Thiebaud, Reclining Woman with Hair Rollers, 1964. Estimate $15,000–20,000.
Wayne Thiebaud began his artistic career as a cartoonist and designer. His draftsmanship is evident in this carefully rendered drawing of a woman in an intimate moment, reminiscent of the painting
Supine Woman
in the collection of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art or Woman In Tub, which was recently sold at Sotheby’s. All of these works present isolated women in various states of repose – a sharp contrast with the ecstatically treated confections and landscapes that he is most known for.
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Property from the Collection of Allan Stone
Contemporary Art Online
13–28 September
Jack Whitten, Untitled, 1964. Estimate $6,000–8,000.
Jack Whitten moved from Montgomery, Alabama, to New York City in 1960 to pursue a career as an artist. Like many young painters at this time, Whitten was initially influenced by Abstract-Expressionism. In the present lot, Whitten treats figurative content with a lyrically abstract lens. Beginning in the 1970s, Whitten began to create process-based abstractions, which relied heavily on systems the artist created to invigorate the painterly medium at a time when the art world was no longer convinced that such a traditional medium could speak to a complex contemporary society.
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Property from the Collection of Allan Stone
Contemporary Art Online
13–28 September
In 1960 visionary collector and dealer Allan Stone founded his esteemed gallery, today known as Allan Stone Projects. Originally located in the Upper East Side, the gallery quickly established itself as one of the preeminent dealers of Abstract Expressionist art while also becoming home to a younger generation of artists experimenting in wide-range of styles. Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Online (13–28 September) features a varied selection of Property from the Collection of Allan Stone, from an early Surrealist de Kooning to an expressive Jack Whitten pastel. Click ahead to see works from this exceptional collection.