James Cohan Gallery is bringing works ranging from $12,000 drawings by Japanese artist Tabaimo to Fred Tomaselli’s paintings priced at $200,000 to $500,000.
While Allen’s own collection includes Old Masters, Impressionists and postwar artists, his current focus is contemporary art. He said he bought a metal tapestry by El Anatsui after seeing the Ghanaian artist’s work at the Venice Biennale in 2007.
“He’s got a great team of curators who manage his collection and they are the ones we see at all the fairs,” Cohan said. “They bring things to him.”
On Oct. 10, 40 landscapes from Allen’s collection will go on a traveling exhibition, starting at the Portland Art Museum in Oregon and ending at the Seattle Art Museum in early 2017. “Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection” includes pieces by Vincent Van Gogh, Edward Hopper and Gustav Klimt.
“To live with these pieces of art is truly amazing,” Allen said. “I feel that you should share some of the works to give the public a chance to see them.”
Good Investment
Buying art turned out to be “a very, very good investment for me,” Allen said. “I didn’t go into it thinking this way. I thought some of the prices were very substantial when I bought them. But the market has been on such a tear” that their value increased even more than anticipated.
In 2014, Allen sold one of his Mark Rothko paintings at auction for $56.2 million. The work was acquired for $34.2 million in 2007, also at auction. Allen said he sells in order to purchase another artwork. He declined to say what he bought with the Rothko proceeds.
“In today’s market, things are very fully priced,” he said. “You have to be judicious to make sure what you are buying are very high quality works.”