Sothebys to Offer Rare Guston Ab-Ex Painting – Barron’s

Philip Guston, Nile, 1958. Courtesy of Sotheby's

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Sothebys will offer a top Philip Guston abstract-expressionist work that had been in the collection of Peter and Edith ODonnell in Dallas for more than four decades at a marquee sale of modern art in May in New York.

Nile, 1958, a rare example of an Guston abstract-expressionist work that is still in private hands, is expected to realize between US$20 million and US$30 million.

Its an archetypal masterpiece for an incredible private collection, which very rarely arrives in an auction setting, says Michael Macaulay, Sothebys senior vice president of contemporary art. We are all holding our breath to see what will happen.

The painting, rare for being among only 10 painted from 1956 to 1960, also exemplifies Guston's intensity as a painter who worked close to the picture itself, a technique that distinguished him from peers such as Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock, or Franz Kline.

His revolution was that he divorced himself from the brushstroke, Macaulay says. He worked too close to have too much narrative control over his gesture.

That said, the title Nile evokes several potential narratives or references that could have been literary or even cinematic, considering Cecil B. DeMilles dramatic technicolor Ten Commandments came out only two years before Nile was painted.

Sothebys considers the appearance of the painting at auction a major market event. Thats because of the paintings rarity within Gustons body of work, the fact it hasnt been widely seen for 40 years, and because its being offered at a time when Guston is in the spotlight as an artist.

The Museum of Fine Arts Boston will be the first of four institutions to present a postponed retrospective of the artists works beginning this May and running through February 2024, when the touring exhibition will be at Tate Modern in London.

Such a major retrospective of Gustons work is overdue, in Macaulays view, considering the artist was a leading abstract expressionist alongside Rothko and Pollock, who was a friend, and that so many museums and institutional collections hold his work.

By contrast, the commercial art world hasnt had many chances to broadcast his importance to mid-20th century art history, Macaulay says. This is one of those moments.

Nile also comes to market at the same time as Sothebys is offering several Guston works from his later figurative period. Those will appear at the auction houses evening contemporary sale.

The pre-sale estimate for Nile reflects the sale nine years ago of To Fellini, 1958, a Guston abstract-expressionist work comparable in size and composition to Nile. To Fellini realized US$25.9 million, with fees, at a May 2013 sale at Christies in New York, which was also the last time a work from this period appeared at auction. The high estimate for the work was US$12 million at the time.

Proceeds from the sale of Nile will go to the ODonnell Foundation, which supports a expansive list of causes in higher education, science, engineering, and mathematics, and in medical research, in addition to arts and culture.

Among many contributions the foundation endowed hundreds of chairs, professorships, and fellowships across the UT [University of Texas] system, and supported research and teaching facilities, according to an article in the Dallas Morning News following Peter ODonnells death in October 2021 (His wife, Edith, died in 2020). In all, the foundation has granted more than US$900 million since it was founded in 1957.Other works owned by the ODonnells to be sold at Sothebys to benefit the foundation include Stuart Daviss Closed Circuit, 1962, (estimated between US$100,000 and US$150,000), and Louise Nevelsons Moon Zag X, 1979, (estimated between US$70,000 and US$100,000).

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Sothebys to Offer Rare Guston Ab-Ex Painting - Barron's