COLLECTOR’S CORNER: ESTEBAN VICENTE, MASTER OF COLLAGE

Esteban Vicente was among the few artists who carried the DNA of European modernism directly into the heart of American Abstract Expressionism. Born in Segovia in 1903 and trained in Madrid, Vicente arrived in New York in the 1930s, bringing with him a nuanced understanding of color, structure, and surface. As one of the first-generation New York School painters, he occupied a quieter but no less essential position in the movement.

We were honored to offer two exceptional collage works by Vicente in our May Post War & Contemporary Art sale: Composition (1957), a cool-toned, contemplative jewel of subtle force that sold for $108,450; and Untitled (1957), its warmer counterpart, buzzing with soft tans, grays, and a touch of delicate blue, which sold for $64,000. Though more modest in scale, each stood as a testament to Vicente’s sophisticated material sensitivity.

In the midst of Abstract Expressionism’s rise, Vicente stood shoulder-to-shoulder with some of its most notable figures. He was a core member of the New York School, a group of pioneering artists, and counted Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Barnett Newman as colleagues and friends. A voting member of the Club, formed as a meeting place by a group of artists after their favored hangout banned smoking, and, for a time, a studio-mate of Willem de Kooning, Vicente moved within the center of postwar American art while maintaining a distinct voice.

This individuality is realized in Composition. In contrast to the gestural movement so often associated with Abstract Expressionism, Vicente arranges ripped paper fragments—layered with oil, charcoal, and gouache—into a work that feels somewhat calculated and architectural. In a palette of ash, ivory, and burnt umber, with a single pulse of deep ultramarine anchoring the lower half, the surface evokes a weathered wall or remembered landscape. Composition came from the highly esteemed collection of Lydia Winston Malbin, a visionary collector best known for her engagement with the Italian Futurists. Her holdings, however, extended far beyond a single movement, encompassing artists whose practices reshaped modernism across the Atlantic, and her acquisition of Vicente’s collage places him firmly within that narrative.

Like Composition, Untitled shares Vicente’s language of torn planes and quiet balance but with a softened palette, providing a thoughtful counterpoint. A depth of tan dominates the surface, layered with ashen grays and soft blues. Where Composition leans cool, Untitled elicits warmth. Together, the two works operate as tonal variations. As Vicente said himself, “Any one of my paintings is part of a sequence, part of a total … Each painting is solved in its own way, yet the continuation, the process, envelops all of them.”

Untitled comes from an equally distinguished American lineage. First handled by the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York, it later entered the collection of Chicago dealer and collector Bud C. Holland, before finding its way to the owner who put the piece up for auction. Its trajectory speaks to the enduring resonance of Vicente’s practice within both private and institutional circles.

Freeman’s | Hindman’s next Post War & Contemporary Art auction will be held September 25 at its Chicago saleroom, hindmanauctions.com.