Sybil Shainwald was not a typical collector. A pioneering attorney who transformed the landscape of women’s health advocacy, she approached art with the same conviction and discerning eye that defined her life’s work.
The Collection of Sybil Shainwald reflects her deep love of art, savvy acquisitions of under-represented women artists and appreciation of feminine themes. It encompasses a wide-ranging group of works spanning European and American modernism as well as postwar abstraction. The psychologically-charged imagery of Dorothea Tanning and the surreal painted Femme-bouteille by René Magritte sit alongside compositions by Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Lee Bontecou. Drawings by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso further extend the dialogue and expand the vision of the Collection. Though varied in media and approach, the Collection is unified by an engagement with the female figure, explored across generations and artistic languages.
This May, works from the Collection of Sybil Shainwald will be offered across Sotheby’s marquee sales in New York, including the Modern Evening Sale and Modern & Contemporary Day Sales, presented by CELINE.
