The Alan and Dorothy Press collection goes up for auction at Christie's. The group consists of exemplary works by Ed Ruscha, three masterpieces by Philip Guston and outstanding examples of twentieth-century artistic luminaries: Man Ray, Henri Matisse and Ken Price.
Burning Standard: One of five paintings of the 60s Standard Station
This singular and revolutionary painting it is now considered an icon of twentieth-century postwar art, on a par with the cans of Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup and of the heroines of the Liechtenstein comics. This May will be only the second time in history that a Standard Station painting has gone up for auction: the first was at a Christie's New York evening sale in November 2007, when the lot exceeded its maximum sale estimate by $6.985.000 and set a new record for the then-artist. This copy will be sold in the Evening Sale along with two additional works by the contemporary icon, Do You Think She She Has It (estimate: $1.500.000 – 2.000.000) and Business #1 (estimate: $250.000 – 350.000) .
Eight more Ruscha works in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale
This occasion offers collectors a unique opportunity to acquire Ruscha's finest examples ahead of his highly anticipated retrospective tour at MoMA and LACMA beginning this fall.
Three iconic Guston paintings from the collection will be another highlight of the Evening Sale, led by Chair (estimate: $12.000.000 – 18.000.000) which was last seen by the public during the exhibition “High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture” at the MoMA in 1991. Among his most important figurative paintings, works comparable to Chair, are held in institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Tate Gallery, London, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and National Gallery of Art, Washington DC The other two Gustons in the collection – Pull (estimate: $6.000.000-8.000.000) and Bricks (estimate: $6.000.000-8.000.000) – are also new to the market and have not been seen by the public for more than two decades. The sale of this group will coincide with the Guston Retrospective at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, which will be on view through August 2023.
Who was Alan Press and how he became a collector
Alan Press was a very successful commodity trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and his deep love of the trade carried over into his art collecting. His interest in art probably began during his time in the military while stationed in Germany in the 50s. Alan and Dorothy met in 1968, married in 1970 and soon after began collecting German Expressionist works, mainly prints and woodcuts by Munch and Kirchner. During the 70s they traveled frequently to Switzerland and Germany and eventually amassed one of the major US collections of these artists. Around the same time, they began collecting HC Westermann, eventually growing what would become one of the artist's most in-depth collections in existence.
In the mid to late 80s the couple sold their entire collection of German Expressionist art and moved on to buying in-depth modern and contemporary objects, with a strong focus on Ed Ruscha, Philip Guston, Ken Price and Henri Matisse. Alan and Dorothy Press supported several local art institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago and the Smart Museum on the University of Chicago campus, developing close relationships with curators that would last throughout life.
