Acquavella Galleries Presents
Works on Paper From a Distinguished Private Collection
On View August 12-20, 2020
Pace, 68 Park Place, East Hampton

A co-presentation by Acquavella Galleries, Gagosian, and Pace

This intimate presentation offers a glimpse into the coveted Marron estate of over 300 masterworks acquired over the course of six decades, featuring almost 40 works on paper spanning sketches and studies to fully realized paint and pastel pieces.

Works on view range from early modern masterpieces by Henri Matisse, Raoul Dufy, and Fernand Léger; to nature studies by Ellsworth Kelly and an exemplary acrylic from Paul Thek’s final series; to contemporary pieces by Mamma Andersson, Leonardo Drew, Damien Hirst, Jasper Johns, and Brice Marden, among others. A focused presentation on Ed Ruscha’s typographic and image-based drawings and a selection of his inventive artist’s books will round the exhibition. Many of these works are being exhibited publicly for the first time since their acquisition.

Works on Paper from a Distinguished Private Collection prefaces a joint exhibition in New York City in 2021 organized by the three galleries, which will showcase the breadth of the Donald B. Marron Collection and pay homage to Don Marron’s (1934–2019) legacy, including works from the family collection as well as loans from institutions. Marron enjoyed long personal relationships with Bill Acquavella, Larry Gagosian, and Arne Glimcher, who each contributed to shaping this significant collection over the course of several decades. The collaboration between the three galleries is the first of its kind, and signals a new way for families to handle the sales of their collections.

Works on paper highlights from the Donald B. Marron Collection include:

Two late works by Jasper Johns, including Two Paintings (2006), which combines now-famous motifs from early in his career—flags, maps, numerals, and cross-hatching—with new ones, including a Harlequin’s costume, a piece of string, and flagstones.

Damien Hirst’s drawing Leviathan (2006), wherein the artist reveals his initial plans for a monumental sculpture of the same title, encasing the second largest shark in the world in formaldehyde—its mouth wide as if about to attack.

A number of drawings by the iconic California-based artist Ed Ruscha, including Honk (1964), among Ruscha’s first language-based artworks, as well as several other compositions featuring single words that dominated the artist’s work throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s, such as Red Yellow Scream (1964), and Holloween (1977). The collection also features several of Ruscha’s groundbreaking artist’s books, which turned away from the craftsmanship and luxury status that typified the livre d’artiste to focus on the artistic concept, opening the genre to the possibilities of mass-production and distribution. Notable artist books by Ruscha include Twenty-six Gasoline Stations (1963) and Some Los Angeles Apartments (1965), among others.