Mo Ostin’s unerring ear for music, his instinctive ability to identify artistic talent and his transformative role in the music industry have – despite his own famous modesty – been widely celebrated. Described as “one of the greatest record men of all time, and a prime architect of the modern music business,” Ostin presided over Warner Bros. Records for more than three decades and was a leader in the field for more than half a century, instrumental in transforming a traditional industry with a staid mindset into an innovative business at the forefront of culture.
Just as with music, the visual art to which Ostin gravitated was diverse, ranging in date from 1915 through to works created as recently as 2019, and spanning a full spectrum of artists, from René Magritte and Pablo Picasso, to Willem de Kooning, Joan Mitchell and Cy Twombly; from Richard Estes, Brice Marden, Albert Oehlen and Richard Prince to Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mark Grotjahn, Takashi Murakami, Joe Bradley and Cecily Brown.
The Mo Ostin Collection will have its own dedicated sale on 19 May, with further works to be offered in Sotheby’s Contemporary Day Sale on 19 May at Sotheby’s New York.
