Whitney Museum Consigns Willem De Kooning's Yellow River To Christie's

(MENAFN- USA Art News) The Whitney Museum of American Art is sending Willem de Kooning's Yellow River (1958) to auction at Christie's 20th Century Evening Sale on November 17, where it is anticipated to achieve between $12 million and $18 million. The work is being sold“to benefit the collection,” according to the auction house.

This sale follows the New York museum's 2023 deaccessioning of seven other works at Sotheby's, which was its first such action in five years and also aimed to support new acquisitions. The Whitney has not yet commented on its decision to part with Yellow River.

Yellow River was featured in de Kooning's third exhibition at New York's Sidney Janis Gallery in 1959, 11 years after the Dutch artist's critically acclaimed debut solo show. The piece, along with others from that period, showcased a more abstract style influenced by highways he observed on drives. De Kooning once described the inspiration, stating:“The big embankments and the shoulders of the roads and the curves are flawless.” Christie's notes that for this exhibition, fans queued as early as 8:15 a.m., and 19 of the 22 paintings on offer had sold by noon.

The Whitney received Yellow River as a gift from Betty Ann Besch Solinger in 2023, 12 years after she promised it. She was the second wife of David M. Solinger, a lawyer and art collector who became the Whitney's first non-family president in 1966. David Solinger, who died in 1996, admired de Kooning since his first solo exhibition. Betty Ann Solinger passed away in 2022, which led to a successful sale of 23 artworks from his collection at Sotheby's that fall. According to Christie's, Yellow River once hung at the foot of Solinger's bed.

De Kooning's auction record was established in 2018 when Woman as Landscape (1954–55) sold for $68.9 million at Christie's New York. More recently, an untitled 1977 canvas fetched $12.9 million at Sotheby's London last month, marking the highest price for the artist's work at a European auction.

The Whitney currently holds six large oil paintings by de Kooning, including two“Woman” series works. Among these, only Door to the River (1960), from a similar period as Yellow River, is currently on public display.

We previously reported:

Christie's is set to auction works from media mogul Ted Turner's Western art collection, estimated at $20 million, with proceeds benefiting his foundation.

Two rare Jan van Huysum pendant paintings,“A Vase of Flowers” and“Fruit with Flowers,” are expected to sell for up to $10.7 million at Christie's London.

Sotheby's will hold a dedicated evening auction in December in New York, offering 70 lots from Pauline Karpidas's jewelry collection, with estimates up to $3.5

Source: Artnet News

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