PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF ELAINE LUSTIG COHEN
The May sale will feature selected works from the estate of Elaine Lustig Cohen, a pioneering painter, graphic designer and collector. Described as ‘the quintessential Modernist’, Mrs. Cohen’s architectural signage, typefaces, book covers and graphic design work helped to define the visual canon of the 1950s and 1960s. She was responsible for creating the iconic typography and signage for Philip Johnson’s Seagram Building, as well as collaborating with John de Menil, the Jewish Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among many others. The eclectic group of sculptures on offer is a collage of world art including an important Figure for Malagan, New Ireland (estimate $40/60,000) and a powerful large-scale Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl) Raven Mask, British Columbia (estimate $120/180,000) attributed to the most famous Kwakwaka’wakw carver, Chief Willie Seaweed, also known as ‘Smoky Top’, or ‘The One Who is Able to Set Things Right’. The mask was made for use in the dance accompanying the potlach ceremony, and represents the spirit Baxbakwalanuksiwey, ‘the Cannibal at the North End of the World’, capable of crushing human skulls with its beak.