Arison Art Collection, Including a Manet, Highlight Christie’s Spring Marquee Week Auctions
Marilyn Arison’s granddaughter reflects on the family’s beloved artworks, which include works by Matisse and Picasso
Marilyn Arison lived a remarkable, art-filled life. Beginning with a childhood visit to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, she avidly followed a passion to surround herself with beauty and share it with others. She even wrote a book about her pursuit of art: Travels With Van Gogh and the Impressionists: Discovering the Connections, inspired by journeys across Europe with her granddaughter, Sarah. Arison, who died last year, built a remarkable art collection spanning the early modern period. Artworks from her treasure trove will be up for sale at Christie’s in “Lasting Impression: The Collection of Marilyn Arison.” Some of the exciting lots in the Arison auction include paintings by Édouard Manet, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Pierre Bonnard.
The Matisse is Sarah Arison’s personal favorite. In an interview with Galerie, she described the Arison family’s connection to Nature morte, fougères et grenades, which Matisse painted in Venice in 1947: “It was right in the living room and kitchen—where we would have our family holiday parties and gatherings, and I think it’s a stunning piece. I also love that it’s a little bit Miami.” But the Manet, Pivoines dans une bouteille, is also a particular highlight of the Arison auction. That painting, estimated at $7–10 million, shows a vase with peonies, and is the last Manet of that particular flower still in a private collection.
If the peonies in the Manet painting look familiar, it could be because they share visual vocabulary with the bouquet in the Musee D’Orsay’s Olympia. That shatteringly famous Parisian nude thunderclap and Le déjeuner sur l’herbe were both painted the year before Pivoines dans une bouteille. Manet adored certain flowers above others and repeated them frequently in his work. The quietly simple floral may be the nearest cousin to Olympia to cross an American auction platform for ages to come. The Manet and the Matisse spoke to each other within the Arison home. In the words of Christie’s Global Chairman of 20th and 21st Century Art, Max Carter, “Mrs. Arison was fascinated by the juxtaposition of two artists addressing the same subject in utterly different ways and her collection reflects this.”
Arison, known to family and friends as “Lin,” sought to make art accessible to young people through her work with the YoungArts foundation, which she founded with her husband Ted in 1981. She was honored with a National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama for her work in spreading the arts through YoungArts and the many other nonprofit organizations she aided.
Sarah Arison continues her grandmother’s work in her current capacity as Chairman of the Board at YoungArts and President of the Arison Arts Foundation. Sarah recalled how Lin’s enthusiasm fueled their travels that led to the delightful Travels With Van Gogh and the Impressionists: “We were in Paris together, and we were at the Musée d’Orsay. And our tour guide there said, ‘If you’re interested, just outside of town, there is a town called Giverny. That’s where Monet’s home studio and gardens were, and you can go there.’ And she said, ‘Oh! OK! Let’s go there!’ And so—it was not planned—we went there. And our tour guide at Giverny said, ‘Well, if you’re interested, down the road is a town where, when it was raining, Daubigny would paint on the walls of his studio. And she goes, ‘Oh, that’s interesting! And we went there, and then somebody there said, ‘And if go down the road, there’s Cezanne’s atelier where you look out the window and you see Mont Sainte-Victoire.’ and from there, somebody said, ‘Well if you go down the road there’s Auvers-sur-Oise where Van Gogh spent the last 59 days of his life and did 61 paintings.’ And so it was this curiosity that just led her.”
The Arison sale is an early peek at highlights of the always-anticipated New York Marquee Week auctions. Carter addressed the importance of female collectors in the Christie’s pantheon this season as reflected in the early positioning of the Manet, telling Galerie, “Mrs. Arison is part of the broader pantheon of admired figures we will be celebrating this season, with an emphasis on strong female philanthropists including the beloved former MoMA president, Agnes Gund.” The Gund sale, set for the 20th–21st century sales, will include work by Mark Rothko, Cy Twombley and Joseph Cornell.
Arison took an active role in building her collection, relying on her expertise and instincts. Her passion for sharing her love of the arts was clear, and the Christie’s auction extends that love from the Arison family home to others. Sarah Arison observed, “A home doesn’t feel like a home until the art is up. It’s for me, what makes it a home. And so hopefully other families will have those experiences of family gatherings with these pieces in the background.”
