Contemporary artists ‘activate the collective consciousness’ in the collection of Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson

We are living at a time when artists are shaping the conversation, speaking to the moment and engaging with the public in exploring race, gender expression, identity and citizenship. Coming to Christie’s this fall is a collection of works spanning these themes across media through some of the most powerful artists exhibiting right now.

On 1 October, Christie’s will offer Selections from the Collection of Laura Lee Brown & Steve Wilson, a single-owner presentation in the biannual Post-War to Present auction in New York. Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson are the founders of 21c Museum Hotels, which has long displayed the husband and wife team’s singular collection of era-defining art, with a strong emphasis on female artists and artists of colour.

Showcasing the collectors’ eye for representation, movement, contemporaneity and skill, the 23 works coming to Christie’s highlight artists working at the peak of their talents, combining technical prowess and powerful messages voiced with nuance.

The collection features some of the most successful artists working today — including Simone Leigh, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Kara Walker, Yinka Shonibare, Toyin Ojih Odutola and Titus Kaphar — across a range of media. ‘The works span paintings, ceramic sculpture, multimedia works. There are works that involve video components, installation and tapestry. This collection really contains all forms of expression that exist as discrete objects,’ explains Julian Ehrlich, Head of Post-War to Present.

Movement and the body in society

‘There’s a major through line of figuration in this group. There are a lot of artists thinking about the body, the connection between the body and the environment,’ Ehrlich says.

One of the highlights of the sale, Yiadom-Boakye’s masterwork 11am Monday (2011), depicts a powerful lone Black figure facing away from the viewer, the loose brushstrokes and neutral background reinforcing the strong presence of this painting. Yiadom-Boakye’s Flex (2007), a portrait of an imagined male figure looking down and to the side, is almost a snapshot, an example of the artist’s interest in dance and movement, a theme that we see in many of the figurative works in the collection from the work of Bill Viola to Yinka Shonibare’s Dorian Gray (2001).

Meridian (2014) was sculpted by the great Simone Leigh in porcelain and terracotta in indigo. This head of a Black woman, her hair represented by floral forms, which elevates the subject through a combination of hard and soft presentations of beauty, is part of the rich global conversation about Black figuration happening at the moment.

Art of our time

The offered works exemplify art’s ability to tap into and activate the collective consciousness. Many of them speak to moments in recent history and have played a role in contemporary discourse. ‘Another key theme of this collection is engaging with the moment,’ Ehrlich elaborates. ‘It’s about artists who are casting their view on lots of different histories, looking at notions of race, gender expression, citizenship and identity.’

The collection of Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson encompasses art that engages important political and social issues, from the uncompromising lens of Alfredo Jaar to Shonibare’s The Age of Enlightenment-Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet (2008), which combines aesthetics to comment on the history of slavery and colonialism.

Titus Kaphar’s An Icon for Destiny (2015) connects the present with the past by subverting the language of history painting to highlight issues of slavery and modes of representation throughout history. He uncompromisingly takes on outmoded conventions through media, composition, form and subject, referencing the classical to highlight the failings of the past.

Collecting with purpose

The broad swathe of Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson’s collecting also extends to exceptional still-life photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe and Sarah Charlesworth, a multimedia installation by Tony Oursler (Ingots, 2004) and the flashing grin sculpture Cheshire (2007) by Sanford Biggers.

‘It’s a really rare opportunity to acquire works by many of our most celebrated artists. What’s notable about the collection is the provenance,’ says Ehrlich. ‘Many of these works were purchased by the collectors over a decade ago when the artists were well established but have since reached a new echelon in their regard. So, we have artworks that were bought early, well, exhibited with love and shared with the public.’

The unique timbre of the collection of Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson is thanks to their eye for emerging talent and their intentional approach to acquiring works that contribute to conversations about gender, identity, race and how we intersect. Exhibited in their hotels as well as prominent museums around the world, these works reflect the collectors’ commitment to platforming diverse voices. In this collection we see that ethos made manifest in the work of these artists and their powerful conversations with both history and the current moment.

Selections from the Collection of Laura Lee Brown & Steve Wilson will be on view in a public exhibition from 24–30 September at Christie’s Rockefeller Center galleries in New York.