A Kenneth Noland Painting, owned by Sir Anthony Caro, heads to Christie’s

The selection includes works from the personal collection of Anthony Caro, celebrated British sculptor, with leading examples by his friends and fellow artists, Kenneth Noland, Helen Frankenthaler, Hans Hofmann, and more.  

Rachael White Young, Senior Specialist and Head of Core Market Sales, Christie’s New York, remarks, “We are thrilled to offer works from the collection of Anthony Caro, celebrated sculptor and a true champion of fellow artists. Both in artmaking and collecting, Caro was thoughtful, collaborative, and curious. In the latter half of the 20th century, his practice evolved alongside the wonderfully rich transatlantic relationships he developed with creative contemporaries. The art he collected reflects these deep friendships of the various artistic luminaries who inspired him; we are delighted to present a selection of their work to the market this spring in New York.” 

Anthony Caro is renowned for his bold, abstract sculptures and played a pivotal role in the development of twentieth-century sculpture. Caro, trained at the Royal Academy Schools in London, began his professional career assisting the great Henry Moore in 1951, which inspired his early exploration of modernist figuration. The subsequent decades his practice notably shifted, shaped through a transatlantic journey and encounters with Clement Greenberg and the American abstractionists.  In 1959, via a Ford Foundation scholarship, Caro traveled to the United States and visited museums, galleries and art schools across America, meeting notable artistic luminaries of the time including Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland, and David Smith. These initial encounters developed into strong friendships—and contributed to Caro’s decisive break from figuration, and radical reinvention of the language of sculpture. 

Kenneth Noland, a particularly close friend to Caro, is well-represented in the collection. Among the highlights is Purkinje Effect (estimate: $1,000,000 – 1,500,000), an impressive ‘chevron’ painting by Noland from 1964, a series he only produced for three years. The work exhibits a sense of symmetry and chromatic sophistication that is exemplary of Noland’s control and innovative compositions. The sale also includes works by the iconic Helen Frankenthaler, with whom Caro shared a creative rapport. Frankenthaler’s Hansel and Gretel (estimate: $700,000 – 1,000,000) is among the sale’s top highlights, exemplifying the range and beauty of her color-staining technique. Pigment is sunk directly into the fiber of unprimed canvas, creating exquisite, fluid, and spontaneous chromatic effects. Caro and Frankenthaler shared a fruitful relationship. In 1972, she made her first body of sculpture with Caro in London and Caro in turn would experiment with painting acrylics at her studio in New York ten years later. 

Main Image: KENNETH NOLAND (1924-2010) Purkinje Effect, acrylic on canvas, 69 x 70 in. (176.8 x 178 cm.) Painted in 1964. Estimate: $1,000,000-1,500,000