Americas Society, Christie's to Auction Works by Cruz-Diez and Soto
Americas Society, Christie's to Auction Works by Cruz-Diez and Soto
Works by renowned Latin American artists will be featured at Americas Society’s Visual Arts Endowment Benefit Auction on May 29 and May 30, 2013.
Proceeds to benefit Americas Society’s Visual Arts Department.
Works donated by Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, The Diane and Bruce Halle Collection of Latin American Art, and Thomas Messer, among others.
New York, May 15, 2013 – A selection of works by major Latin American artists including Carlos Cruz-Diez and Jesús Rafael Soto will be featured at Americas Society’s Visual Arts Endowment Benefit Auction to be held in conjunction with Christie’s Latin American Sale on May 29 and May 30, 2013.
The two-day auction will include a selection of 32 works donated to Americas Society, with all proceeds benefitting the Society’s Visual Arts Department through the creation of an endowment for its programs. Americas Society, formerly the Center for Inter-American Relations (CIAR), is the oldest organization in the United States dedicated to exhibiting and promoting art from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada.
- View the auction catalogue.
- View a slideshow showing samples of works donated to Americas Society for this auction.
Among the highlights of the Evening Sale on May 29 will be Jesús Rafael Soto’s Petit carré rouge donated by Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, co-chair of Americas Society’s Visual Arts Endowment Benefit Auction. Petit carré rouge (1988), a work by one of the leading exponents of geometric abstraction, and kinetic and op art has an estimate of $200,000-$300,000.
Another highlight of the Evening Sale on May 29 will be Physichromie No 1601 (2009) by Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz-Diez, a dazzling display of the vitality of color present in the artist’s works. Donated by the Atelier Cruz-Diez in Paris, Physichromie No 1601 has an estimate of $60,000-80,000.
The Day Sale on May 30 will feature works by important contemporary artists donated by prestigious galleries from São Paulo, Mexico City, Houston, and New York, as well as private collectors.
Eight years ago, Americas Society embarked on a project to inject new life into the Visual Arts program and ensure its long-term sustainability. The Visual Arts Endowment Benefit Auction at Christie’s represents a culmination of this effort. The chairs of Americas Society’s Visual Arts Endowment Benefit Auction are Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Carlos Cruz-Diez, and Sharon Schultz Simpson.
“We are very excited to be part of the upcoming Christie’s Latin American Sale and deeply grateful to the many collectors, artists, and donors who have generously contributed works of art to this very ambitious project,” said Americas Society and Council of the Americas President and CEO Susan Segal. “The Visual Arts Program has been a very important part of Americas Society since its founding and the creation of an endowment will ensure that it will continue to play a very prominent role in our future.”
For Gabriela Rangel, Americas Society director of Visual Arts, “this auction reflects the new configuration of Latin American art in the twenty first century, which goes beyond national borders and is in tune with the realities of globalization.”
Americas Society's art gallery has played a central role in the field through its historic and contemporary exhibitions. Iconic Latin American figures like Colombian Fernando Botero, Mexican David Siqueiros, and German-born Venezuelan sculptor Gego are some of the artists that have exhibited at Americas Society Art Gallery over the past four decades. Among the highlights of Americas Society’s 2013 programming are major exhibitions of the work of Argentine modernist painter Xul Solar and Mexican artist Yishai Jusidman.
Americas Society’s Visual Arts Endowment Benefit Auction
PUBLIC EXHIBITION
May 25 to May 29, 2013
AUCTION
Wednesday 29 May, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. (Lots 1-3)
Thursday 30 May, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. (Lots 139-169)
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020
Tel: +1 212 636 2000
Fax: +1 212 636 2399
Map
Further details: Please contact Allie Fleder at afleder@as-coa.org or 1-212-277-8375.
Press Inquiries: Please contact Adriana La Rotta at alarotta@as-coa.org or 1-212-277-8384.
Image: Carlos Cruz-Diez (Venezuelan b. 1923). Donated by the Atelier Cruz-Diez.
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