During the marquee spring auctions in New York this May, Christie’s will offer one of the most significant private collections of Minimalist art to ever come to market. The group, which includes key works by Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt and Dan Flavin, was assembled over several decades by the late Tylenol heir Henry S. McNeil Jr. and installed at his home in Philadelphia. The auction house estimates the collection will realise more than $30m.
Ahead of the consignment's announcement, Christie’s hosted collectors, museum groups and press at McNeil’s five-storey townhouse in Philadelphia's historic Rittenhouse neighbourhood, aiming to showcase a more domestic approach to Minimalism. In contrast to its often-austere presentation in galleries and museums, the works have a warm and liveable presence in the McNeil house and, despite the high-value installations, the space retains the feel of a family abode.
“You think of these artists as being cool-toned and sterile—like Judd and Flavin who used bright white fluorescent light—but [McNeil] has chosen examples that are antithetical to that,” says Emory Conetta, a Christie’s specialist in the post-war and contemporary art department. “There's a warmth and there's a welcoming quality to the light that they emanate.”
The Judd stack, estimated to sell for as much as $15m. Photo by Max Touhey
The leading lot is an untitled Judd stack sculpture from 1969 in copper and red Plexiglas, a sought-after combination. On a sunny day in Philadelphia, the light streaming into the second-floor family room shifted the surface colour towards pink. Estimated to sell for between $10m and $15m, it could surpass the artist’s current auction record of $14.1m, set back in 2013.
McNeil died last year, aged 81. While he and his family drew attention in the press for multigenerational inheritance disputes, McNeil stayed busy privately focusing on his collection, which developed over the decades. While earlier on he acquired blue-chip works by artists like Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Ellsworth Kelly, he subsequently sold works to refine his Minimalist collection, which Christie’s is marketing as “the greatest private collection of Minimalism in existence”.
Wall Drawing #1112, Square with Broken Bands of Color (2003) by Sol LeWitt in the family sitting room Photo by Max Touhey
McNeil and his two youngest children each had a LeWitt wall drawing in their bedroom—his daughter selected tones to match her favourite quilt, says Jake Quinn, who managed McNeil’s collection and the property. McNeil owned at least a dozen of LeWitt’s drawings over the years, he added, and a colourful 2003 example from the family living room will be included in the May sale. Ahead of the auction, the drawing will be installed at Christie’s Rockefeller Center headquarters in New York, a first. The collection also features Flavin’s first neon sculpture, executed in 1963 and dedicated to Constantin Brâncuși. Other Minimalist pioneers whose work McNeil collected include Richard Tuttle and Carl Andre.
Sales from the collection will roll out across Christie’s May evening and day auctions, with further offerings later in the year. The group is led by a dedicated single-owner evening sale, "Defined Space: The Collection of Henry S. McNeil Jr.", of 12 exceptional lots taking place before the multiple-owner 21st Century Evening Sale on 20 May. Furniture and other objects from the McNeil home will be sold during June design sales at Christie’s in New York.
