The auction will feature over 100 pieces by the heavyweight creative minds of the 20th century. Three-time Tony Award winner Albee is one of the most important writers of the 20th century, having penned such Tour de Torce plays including Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The American Dream.
Pieces by Jean Arp, Milton Avery, Marc Chagall, Lee Krasner and John McLaughlin from Albee's TriBeCa loft that he lived in for more than 30 years. As well as American and Modern art, the collection features African & Oceanic sculpture.
From 20th September, Sotheby's York Avenue galleries will present the collection to visitors. A large selection of works are estimated under £4 000. The full proceeds of the sale will benefit The Edward F. Albee Foundation, which provides residencies for writers and visual artists in Montauk, Long Island.
As both a multiples Tony Award winner and three-time recipient of the Pulitzer Award for Drama, Albee goes down in history as one of the cultural tastemakers of the 20th and 21st centuries. In his own words, Albee explained: ''there is something that makes something art…It doesn’t have anything to do with anything except the piece itself is art in context.''
One highlight of the sale is Jean Arp's Les Deux Soeurs. Executed in 1927, the work was completed at a time when Arp lived next door to Max Ernst and Joan Miró.
Albee purchased Milton Avery's Two Nudes during a visit to the artist's home in New York City. A rare early work by Marc Chagall, Portrait de la soeur de l'artiste depicts one of the artist's sisters and represents a significant time in his career when he was a new resident of Saint Petersburg.
Another American artist that Albee respected greatly was John McLaughlin, who has three works featured in the sale, two of which were recently exhibited in the artist’s retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. McLaughlin's piece was inspired by Kazimir Malevich and Japanese literati painters from the 14th and 15th centuries.
