A 2007 self-portrait by Chuck Close, one of 26 objects that famous artists have donated to help the victims of Haiti's 2010 earthquake, at the prodding of Ben Stiller, the actor-with-a-conscience who also collects art.
The works go under the hammer at Christie's auction house in New York on Sept. 22, with previews at Christie's Sept. 17 through 20. Christie's and David Zwirner are waving their cuts, so 100 percent of the hammer price will go to established non-profits working in Haiti. The day after the sale, Bill Clinton, Stiller, and Zwirner will host a high-end gala to raise further funds.
Earlier this year, Stiller invited Zwirner to join him in Haiti, then asked for his help in finding blue-chip contemporary artists who would support the country’s rebuilding, in a project called "Artists for Haiti.” Some donors made new pieces that speak to the matter at hand: Raymond Pettibon, for instance, contributed two gorgeous, giant images of inescapable waves. Other artists such as Cindy Sherman and Marlene Dumas merely offered up impressive objects that ought to go for a fortune.
- Blake Gopnik
Courtesy the artist and Pace Prints
A classic photo of Cindy Sherman posing as someone other than herself.
In 2009, Jasper Johns put ink down on plastic, in an image of feet that seems distinctly elegiac.
Raymond Pettibon's No Title (But the sand...), painted in acrylic, ink, and pastel, on a sheet of paper about seven by ten feet.
My moeder voor sy my moeder was (My mother before she became my mother), a 2010 oil by Marlene Dumas.
Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner, New York, Photo by Maris Hutchinson/EPW Studio, 2011
Louise Bourgeois, who died last year at 98, made this bronze in 2005. Its echoes of bones and limbs and detritus seem to suit the cause it's being sold to support.
Gift of The Easton Foundation, courtesy Hauser & Wirth and Cheim & Read, Photo by Christopher Burke
Francis Alÿs, Le juif errant (The Wandering Jew), painted and collaged onto canvas in 2011.
Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner, New York, Photo by Ron Amstutz
Deal - No Deal, an unusually colorful work painted this year by the Belgian Luc Tuymans.
Tomorrow, by Urs Fischer, invokes a flood of tears.
Courtesy the artist, Photo by Mats Nordman
Chor, (Choir), by the German painter Neo Rauch, a central figure in the Leipzig School.
