RICHARD SERRA, Untitled, from the Collection of Ileana Sonnabend and the Estate of Nina Castelli 1973

Historic provenance! From the collection of legendary art dealer Ileana Sonnabend - wife of Leo Castelli. This striking hand signed and numbered vintage Richard Serra lithograph is from the legendary New York Collection for Stockholm portfolio, issued to commemorate the collection of paintings and sculpture by top New York artists of the 1960s, assembled by Hultén and Klüver for the Moderna Museet Museum in Stockholm. The roster of artists included is a who's who's of the New York art world during one of its most influential decades: Lee Bontecou, John Chamberlain, Walter De Maria, Jim Dine, Dan Flavin, Red Grooms, Hans Haacke, Donald Judd, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol Lewitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Louise Nevelson, Kenneth Noland, Claes Oldenburg, Nam June Paik, Robert Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers, James Rosenquist, George Segal, Richard Serra, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, and others.  Serra has beautifully translated the weight and stature of his sculptures into his lithographs. Serra's prints still manage to convey a sense of three-dimensionality. The artist uses prints as a way to understand his sculpture. Serra has said, "The prints are mostly studies made after a sculpture has been completed. They are the result of trying to assess and define what surprises me in a sculpture, what I could not understand before a work was built. They enable me to understand different aspects of perception as well as the structural potential of a given sculpture."  One of the reasons this print is so uncommon, even though it was published in an edition of 300, is that the other editions are in the permanent collections of major museums and public institutions worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Moderna Museet, the Walker Art Center, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Dayton Art Institute, the Frost Art Museum,the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, the San Diego Museum of Art, the Princeton University Art Museum, the Pierpoint Morgan Library, and the Albertina Museum - to name only a few.  This lithograph is in mint condition, and is sold in its original portfolio sleeve (shown) made of Cranes Bond Extra No. 1 quality with Richard Serra's name in block letters stamped in front. It also comes with a copy of the colophon page of the entire portfolio as provenance. This will be the first time it has been removed from the original mahogany portfolio box it was housed in as part of the Sonnabend/Castelli. It is referenced in the catalogue raisonne "The Prints of Richard Serra", by Silke von Berswordt-Wallrabe. Most editions of this work are already in the permanent collections of major museums and public institutions worldwise, so is is rare to find one in fine condition, in the original sleeve with such impressive provenance.

SIGNATURE

Signed; dated lower right recto hand numbered lower left recto stamped verso copyright 1973 by Richard Serra Printed at Styria Studio

PROVENANCE 

Collection of Ileana Sonabend (wife of legendary dealer Leo Castelli, and pioneering art dealer in her own right) and the Estate of their daughter Nina Castelli Sundell.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Leo Castelli exhibition of New York for Stockholm Portfolio to benefit Moderna Museet

Other editions:
Walker Art Center Leo Castelli Gallery Brooklyn Museum Pop Impressions Europe/USA, Museum of Modern Art and dozens and of other venues 

LITERATURE

Catalogue Raisonné: The Prints of Richard Serra, Silke von Berswordt-Wallrabe