Phillips Will Offer The Betty Lee And Aaron Stern Collection On Tuesday, Dec. 17

December 3, 2013

Phillips is honored to present the collection of Betty Lee and Aaron Stern for auction in New York on Tuesday, Dec. 17. The diverse group of art and design objects, estimated at $2,400,000-$3,400,000, represents 40 years of thoughtful acquisition by passionate and dedicated collectors.
Betty Lee and Aaron Stern developed a collection shaped by their personal relationships with artists. Betty Lee Stern began collecting in the 1970s while living in Los Angeles, Calif. There she immersed herself in the city's art scene, befriending artists such as Robert Irwin, David Hockney, Joe Goode, Ron Davis, Jack Brogan and Ken Price. Further apprenticing herself to figures such as Nick Wilder and Andrée Putman, she approached her creative pursuits as a student and advocate. As a result of Stern's work, she is credited with the reclassification of Hans Coper and Lucie Rie's works as fine art under the United States tax code. The Sterns support arts education, museum exhibitions, and scholarship at major institutions throughout the United States through the Aaron and Betty Lee Stern Foundation.
Works by important contemporary ceramicists such as Ken Price, Lucie Rie, Hans Coper, and Gertrud and Otto Natzler define the sale. The Stern collection is a study of the intersection between art and craft, resulting in a singular vision shaped by an affinity for nature, line, and light. Auction highlights include the unique "Tabernacle" cabinet, 1998, estimated at $60,000-$90,000 by André Dubreuil; the "Club Atomica" bowl, 1986, estimated at $50,000-$60,0000 by Ken Price; Hans Coper's "Spade" form, circa 1970, estimated at $16,000-$24,000, and an ovoid volume on a cylindrical foot, 1975, which was part of the “Masterworks by Two British Potters” show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, estimated at $12,000-$16,000; Rare bottle with raised forms, 1976, by Lucie Rie that was also part of the Masterworks exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum; Bowl, 1958, and bowl with flaring top, 1959, estimated at $10,000-$15,000 by Gertrud and Otto Natzler; and Louis I. Kahn's drawing “Convent of Saint Francis of Assisi, Italy,” 1929, estimated at $6,000-$9,000.
Phillips is located at 450 Park Avenue in New York City.
For more information, visit www.Phillips.com.

 

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