A $150 million trove of modern and post-impressionist art will be on display at the Bassam Freiha Art Foundation on October 1 and 2, ahead of their auction at Sotheby’s in New York.
The exhibition will feature works by some of the most celebrated names in art history, including Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Frida Kahlo, Edvard Munch, Rene Magritte and Camille Pissarro.
“What is also particularly exciting is that none of these works have appeared in the Middle East before, and several have not been publicly exhibited in decades,” says Julian Dawes, head of Impressionist and Modern Art at Sotheby’s.
“Presenting these masterpieces in the Middle East was an opportunity we just couldn't miss. Abu Dhabi stands not only as a true hub for art and culture, but a dynamic meeting place for the world's collectors and art enthusiasts alike.”
Dawes says it is fitting that, in the same year the Pritzker Prize was held at Louvre Abu Dhabi, the auction house is presenting masterpieces from the same illustrious Pritzker collection.
These include a $40 million Van Gogh painting, one of the few still life works by the artist to come to auction. The 1887 work, Romans Parisiens (Les Livres jaunes), is regarded as one of the artist’s finest, showing books scattered across a table.
“So many factors make it special: it was painted in 1887, at the very height of his Paris years; it was chosen by Van Gogh himself for his first official exhibition; and it features one of the artist’s true passions, literature,” Dawes says. “Still lives of books are exceptionally rare in Van Gogh’s oeuvre - only nine exist, with just two remaining in private hands. Looking at the painting, you get the feeling of being closely connected with the artist, as though he has literally just put down one of the well-thumbed books and walked out of the room.”
The painting was passed down three generations of the Van Gogh family before it joined the collection of Cindy and Jay Pritzker, founders of the esteemed Pritzker Architecture Prize. Dawes says it was a prized piece in their collection, “hanging at the heart of their library".
Other works from the Pritzker collection that will be exhibited at the Bassam Freiha Art Foundation before the auction include a landscape painting of Pont-Aven in Brittany by Gauguin and an early impressionist painting by Pissaro.
One artwork is expected to set new records when it goes under the hammer in November. A self-portrait by Kahlo, titled El Sueno (La cama), has an estimate of $40 to $60 million and may possibly set a new benchmark for female artists in auction. The painting has not been seen in public for 25 years and has never been exhibited outside the US before.
“It is a truly extraordinary work, one of the most exceptional by the artist I have seen in quite some time,” Dawes says. “Like so many of Kahlo's most revered pieces, it draws heavily from the artist's own life, representing both a self-portrait and a composition laden with symbolism and suggestion.”
The work, Dawes says, was painted during a turbulent period for Kahlo in 1940, soon after her divorce from painter Diego Rivera.
“The bed was central to Kahlo’s life and art: both a site of suffering and the place where she created many of her most powerful works following her near-fatal accident at age 18,” Dawes says. “Here, we see her in bed covered with fresh vines symbolising growth and regeneration, but with an image of the skeleton looming above her.”
Following their exhibition in Abu Dhabi, the paintings will travel to London and Paris before returning to New York, where they will go into auction in November, in Sotheby's new headquarters in the historic Breuer building on Madison Avenue.
"The decision to debut them here, at the Bassam Freiha Art Foundation, before they travel on to London, Paris and ultimately New York, speaks volumes about Abu Dhabi’s role as a global cultural hub," says Katia Nounou Boueiz, head of Sotheby’s UAE and Deputy Chairman of the auction house's Middle East wing.
"The emirate has already attracted world-renowned institutions such as the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the forthcoming Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and is increasingly seen as a bridge between global art capitals. By situating this landmark exhibition in Abu Dhabi, Sotheby’s is not only acknowledging the region’s growing community of collectors and enthusiasts, but also making museum-quality works accessible to the wider public – a moment of cultural significance that reflects the city’s rising stature on the international stage."
