Clive Davis’ $35-million art trove, including Warhol and Hockney, heads to auction
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Paintings from the private collection of late music titan Clive Davis will be up for auction at Christie’s.
Eight works from the collection will headline the 20th Century Evening Sale, the highlight of Christie’s Fall Marquee Week in New York in November. The set includes Andy Warhol’s portraits of David Hockney and Aretha Franklin, and Hockney’s “Hawthorne Blossom, Woldgate No. 4,” among other works collectively estimated to fetch more than $35 million.
Davis’ eye for collecting art reflected the same instinct he used to identify emerging musical talent, said Sara Friedlander, chairman of Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie’s.
“Clive Davis had the unique ability to recognize and cultivate great talent in its most nascent phase,” Friedlander said. “Through the generational musical voices that he nurtured, he created the soundtrack to all our lives, his legacy has been with us at all our greatest moments.”
Davis began his career at Columbia Records as assistant counsel in the 1960s before rising through the ranks to become president of the record label at age 35. After leaving Columbia the following decade, he founded Arista Records. In 2000, he launched J Records, which later merged with RCA and Sony. He went on to serve as chief creative officer of Sony Music Entertainment until his death earlier this year at age 94.
The veteran record executive didn’t sing or play an instrument. But his instincts made him one of the surest spotters and nurturers of talent in pop history.
The record executive was a pioneer of the music industry who was instrumental in signing and developing artists including Franklin, Pink Floyd, Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith, Billy Joel, Whitney Houston and Alicia Keys. He won four Grammys and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer in 2000.
His collection, largely unseen by the public until now, according to Christie’s, reflects Davis’ interest in some of the most influential artistic movements of his lifetime, spanning abstraction, Pop art and Neo-Expressionism. In addition to Hockney and Warhol, it consists of works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Fernando Botero, Jean Dubuffet, Hans Hofmann, Alex Katz, Joan Mitchell and Frank Stella.
“We are deeply honored to be offering this harmonious collection this fall at Christie’s and play a small role in stewarding his inimitable legacy,” Friedlander said.
Other works from the collection will also be offered in Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale in November and its Prints and Multiples sale in October.
The auction was announced Tuesday, when Broadway theater marquees will be dimmed simultaneously in honor of Davis and other members of the theater industry who died this year, including Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, Glen Hansard, Josh Grisetti and Louise Lasser.
