Inspired Collecting
Avant-garde stage director and playwright Robert Wilson is what many would consider a contemporary renaissance man. In addition to his theatrical pursuits, Wilson is a visual artist whose works include drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, video, and a designer of lighting, furniture, and public space. Wilson obtained an architecture degree at Pratt Institute, apprenticed with architects Philip Johnson and Paolo Soleri, and has collaborated with some of the greatest luminaries of recent times including Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, Tom Waits, and Marina Abramovic. In 1990 he founded a performing arts laboratory, The Watermill Center, which hosts artist residencies and exhibitions. A voracious collector, Wilson has accumulated an incredible diversity of objects from a range of cultures and historical periods, from Indonesian artifacts to works by contemporary artists. In the artist's words, his collection aspires to encompass "a visual history of humankind". The works on offer in this auction provide a window through which we can better understand what informs Wilson's manifold creative interests and projects.
Property from the Collection<br>of Robert Wilson
Marcel Breuer’s parents encouraged their children to take interest in culture and the arts from an early age, and when the Hungarian born designer turned eighteen he secured a scholarship to the prestigious Fine Arts Academy in Vienna. Uninterested in the lengthy discussions about aesthetic tradition and eager for a more practical education, he took a job in an architectural firm. When a friend told him about a new art school in Weimar Germany called the Bauhaus, Breuer promptly enrolled. Under the guidance of director Walter Gropius, Breuer became one of six apprentices to join the furniture workshop, producing his earliest known design in 1921, the African Chair. Breuer graduated in 1924 and after a brief time in Paris, returned to the school as the head of the of the carpentry worship in 1925. Inspired by his first bicycle, Breuer began working on designs for a chair made of tubular steel. The revolutionary steel club armchair, known as the Wassily, remains one of his most well-known designs to date.
Upcoming Lots Marcel Breuer
Auction Results Marcel Breuer
