Anthony Caro is remembered as one of the most prominent British sculptors of his generation, who built up an impressive art collection of his own of leading works by his friends and contemporaries. Christie’s New York will sell a handful of pieces from Caro’s personal collection in May during the auction house’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale.
The leading lot from the collection is by Kenneth Noland, Caro’s close friend and a leading American Colour Field painter. Purkinje Effect (1964) is a painting from Noland’s short-lived ‘chevron’ series, estimated to sell for between $1m and $1.5m. Another of Noland’s paintings, Exmoor (1970-71), carries an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000.
Also included in the sale from Caro’s collection is Helen Frankenthaler’s Hansel and Gretel (1975) for an estimated $700,000 to $1m, and Hazy Sun (1961) by Hans Hofmann for between $200,000 and $300,000.
Caro often constructed his sculptures using found pieces of metal and other industrial objects. He exhibited work at the British Pavilion during the 1966 Venice Biennale and had retrospectives at Tate Britain in 2005 and the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1975. He died in 2013 at age 89 in London.