The collection of works of art by the photographer of contemporary art stars François Meyer will be auctioned by Sotheby’s Paris on September 26. It will be presented to the public before for four days in its galleries, announced the auction house on Thursday.
Titled François Meyer Collection: A Colorful Passion, it includes works by major 20th-century artists, including Pablo Picasso, Sonia Delaunay, Victor Brauner, Sam Francis, Helena Vieira da Silva, Henry Taylor, Alexandre Calder, Raymond Pettibon, Giovanni Giacometti or even Christo, specifies Sotheby’s in a press release. Other key pieces from the collection will be presented as part of the Swiss art sale at Sotheby’s Geneva in December.
François Meyer (1953-2022) has been passionate about art since childhood. He has built up an eclectic collection, inseparable from the portraits of some of the greatest artists of the 20th century that he has produced, from Roy Lichtenstein to Andy Warhol via Sonia Delaunay, Helen Frankenthaler, Wilfredo Lam, Sam Francis, Shirin Neshat , Fernando Botero and David Hockney. His passion for color and nature is omnipresent in the 160 lots that will be put up for sale in Paris for an overall estimate of “three to four million euros”, according to Sotheby’s. Among them, great signatures of modern art but also representatives of the contemporary avant-garde of the 20th century.
Born in Geneva, François Meyer was introduced to art by his father, himself a great collector. He began as a photographer with the Swiss pioneers of photography, the Boissonnas, and started his collection at the same time, before moving to New York where he joined the artistic scene and in particular Andy Warhol’s Factory. Throughout his life, he photographed painters and sculptors in their studios. Some of his photos will be exhibited in Paris alongside his art collection. However, they are not part of the auction.