Years before the Hamptons were known for pricey real estate, the East End of New York’s Long Island was a haven for some of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Among them was Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. Starting in 1970, he and his wife, Dorothy, an art patron, owned a house in Southampton. The couple lived there for decades, using it first as a summer retreat, then as a year-round residence. After Roy died, in 1997, Dorothy cofounded and presided over the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, operating it out of the artist’s West Village studio while continuing to live in the Hamptons home. Following her death last year, however, the house was put up for sale. A recent Bonhams auction of artistic couple’s furniture and art provides a window into the visual world that they inhabited out east.
The sale unsurprisingly contained many Pop artworks, among them a lithograph of Ellsworth Kelly’s Blue Curve, which was knocked down for $8,320. Several Jasper Johns creations were offered as well, including Flag (Moratorium), which brought $51,200, one of the auction’s highest prices. Other lots ranged from a work on paper by Henri Matisse to a Robert Rauschenberg print to Yoko Ono sculptures. Taken together, the works suggest the artistic milieu that energized and inspired the Lichtensteins throughout their lives. Skewing older than the artwork, the furniture encompassed baroque-style candlesticks from the 19th century, Art Deco pieces, and a set of 19th-century Regency-style chinoiserie tables.
“The personal collection of an extraordinary couple like the Lichtensteins invites us to ask: What does an artist surround themselves with, day-to-day?” Anna Hicks, Bonhams head of private and iconic collections, said in a statement reported by Artnet News. “From antique furniture to Ellsworth Kelly’s Blue Curve, this auction is a testament to the interior life of one of the most influential artistic couples of all time.”
