So you’ve just purchased a new couch at the Pottery Barn Outlet and now need something to hang above it. Well, have we got a nice new accent piece for you, and at 19″ x 23″, it’s the perfect size!
It’s even by a local artist, a Mr. Jackson Pollock! Entitled Red Composition, Christie’s will auction the work on October 6. Estimate is $12-18 million.
The painting is a very important early work of Pollock’s, painted in 1946 directly after Free Form, arguably his first drip painting, which is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Pollock’s drip paintings are mostly in museums now, so this is a rare opportunity to acquire one.
The painting was originally owned by Peggy Guggenheim, Pollock’s patron. In 1947, she gave the work to her stepson, Jimmy Ernst. In the 1950s, Red Composition was purchased by businessman Marshall Reisman and wife Dorothy, who donated the painting in 1991 to Syracuse’s Everson Museum of Art.
The Everson is de-accessioning the painting to make resources available to purchase more works by women and artists of color, controversially. We think they’re nuts to let it go, but no one asked us. And Robert Falter, Trustee of The Dorothy and Marshall M. Reisman Foundation, says, “As a longtime Board Member and benefactor of the Everson, Marshall would have been extremely happy to see his gift used for the greater good of the Museum, its future sustainability, and its impact on the community.”
We’ll be interested to see what Red Composition sells for. After all, the drip paintings are rarely on the market, and this one is particularly beautiful, though not very large.
