7/28/2019 First Time At Auction: The Largest Ben Nicholson Painting Ever To Be Offered At Auction

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEPress Release London

LondonLondonLondonLondon | +44 (0)20 7293 6000 | Mitzi Mina | Mitzi.Mina@Sothebys.comSarah Rustin | Sarah.Rustin@Sothebys.com

APPEARING AT AUCTION FOR THE FIRST TIME:THE LARGEST BEN NICHOLSON PAINTING EVER TO BE OFFERED AT AUCTION

A Seminal Work by the Artist, To Be Exhibited for the First Time in the UK

Since the Tates Ground Breaking 1964 Exhibition Which Distinguished the

most Important Artists of the Time

SOTHEBYS LONDON: This seasons Evening Sale of Modern & Post-War British Art on 11 th July 2013will be led by Ben Nicholsons critically-acclaimed Oct 61 (Mycenae-axe-blue). A highlight of the Tatescelebrated 1964 exhibition Painting & Sculpture of a Decade, 54-64, this magisterial abstract work is onthe scale of his Festival of Britain commission and akin to his celebrated work that forms part of TateBritains recent rehang.* Truly monumental in scale - measuring four and a half metres across it is aseminal piece from the years Nicholson spent in Switzerland, a period described as the Indian Summer

of the artists career. Estimated at 1 -1.5 million,it will be offered for sale for the first time since itwas purchased in New York in 1966 by the American industrialist and social activist Joseph IrwinMiller. A philanthropist and patron, Miller gifted the work later that year to the Christian TheologicalSeminary, Indianapolis. Today, it will be sold to benefit CTSs programmes relating to religion and thearts, which form part of the seminarys distinctive and enduring mission.

Alongside Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson was at the very forefront of the avant-garde in Britain. Invited to join the Paris-based association Abstraction-Cration in the 1930s, hedeveloped friendships with the leading lights of European Modernism, including Picasso, Braque,Calder and Moholy-Nagy, exhibiting his works alongside these artists in New York, Amsterdam andParis. By the outbreak of WWII, Nicholsons standing was such that it was at his invitation thatMondrian moved to Hampstead a centre for the vibrant community of European intellectuals inLondon. His reputation spread across the Atlantic, with many of the most important private andinstitutional collections in America jostling to acquire his work.

7/28/2019 First Time At Auction: The Largest Ben Nicholson Painting Ever To Be Offered At Auction

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Nicholson had already achieved huge acclaim around the world by the time he painted Oct 61 (Mycenae-axe-blue) in the seventh decade of his life. He had recently left St.Ives, the small Cornish coastal townthat had been his home for twenty years, to embark on a new life in the mountains of Switzerland - amove that had a profound effect on his art. Removed from the internal politics and rivalries within the

British art world and exposed to a landscape he had known in his youth, his works adopted a newexpansiveness and magisterial style. As demonstrated in Oct 61 (Mycenae-axe-blue), his forms becamemore monumental and his palette became simpler, he began to use a new range of rich, natural colours a remarkable new departure for an artist already into his seventh decade.

Joseph Irwin Miller (1909-2004) & Christian Theological Seminary

The American industrialist, social activist and philanthropist Joseph Irwin Miller and his wife Xenia S.Miller were collectors of renown, who assembled a collection of major works of the 20 th century,including paintings by Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet, amassing one of the finest private artcollections in America. Remembered for his profound social conscience informed by a deep-rootedChristian faith, Joseph Irwin Miller was a long-time trustee of Christian Theological Seminary, a flagship

theological school in Indianapolis, Indiana. Both Mr and Mrs Miller had a vision that the arts play acrucial and formative role in theological education, and proceeds from this sale will be used by theseminary to support and advance that vision. It was with his typical generosity and benevolence thatMiller presented Oct 61 (Mycenae-axe-blue) as a gift to Christian Theological Seminary in 1966.

Having developed his family business, the Cummins Engine Co., into a Fortune 500 company, JosephIrwin Miller became a leading American public figure, advising the likes of President John F. Kennedyand Nelson Mandela. He rallied against a range of social and political issues, and was instrumental inpetitioning the government for the introduction of Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s. In particular, hisname will forever be remembered for reviving the economic, cultural and architectural fortunes of hishometown of Columbus, Indiana, transforming the city into a veritable museum of modern architecture.

He was held in such high esteem that in 1967 he was featured on the cover of Esquire magazineunderneath the title: This man ought to be the next President of the United States.

Notes to Editors

* Ben Nicholson, Feb 1960 (ice-off-blue) (1960, Tate, London)**An auction record for Ben Nicholson was established in September 2012 for Violon et guitare (1933) which soldfor 3,313,000 / $4,264,933 (Christies Paris, 27 September 2012, Lot 87).

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