Various Authors

Sotheby's & Abbeville Capsule Libraries present a curated selection of Abbeville Press books from the personal archive of publisher Bob Abrams, in conjunction with Art without Boundaries: The Abrams Family Collection.

The Ultimate Abrams Family Collection is a set of 5 books on art and design, including the following titles:

• Botero.
• Fernando Botero (Columbian).
• Carter Ratcliff (American).
• New York: Abbeville Press, 1980.
• First edition.
• 272 pages.

• Goodnough.
• Martin Bush (American).
• New York: Abbeville Press, 1982.
• First edition.
• 260 pages.

• Wesselmann.
• Slim Stealingworth [pseudonym of Tom Wesselmann, American].
• New York: Abbeville Press, 1980.
• First edition.
• 320 pages.

• Jean Dubuffet: Towards an Alternative Reality.
• Jean Dubuffet (French).
• Mildred Glimcher (American).
• New York: Abbeville Press, 1987.
• 310 pages.

• Cobra.
• Jean Clarence Lambert (French).
• New York: Abbeville Press, 1984.
• English and French edition.
• 261 pages.

Enter the personal world of Bob Abrams and wife Cynthia Vance-Abrams through the Ultimate Abrams Family Collection capsule library. The monographs selected here relate directly to artworks in the family’s collection as presented for sale this fall at Sotheby’s. Each book has a unique place within Abbeville Press’ history and are the most definitive and comprehensive texts on each artist. Slim Stealingworth’s Tom Wesselmann (1980) was pseudonymously written by the artist himself and includes dual dedications. First, to Harry Abrams, for his profound impact on the artist, and with whom Wesselmann began the journey of publishing this very monograph in the late 1960s; and second, to Bob Abrams, for seeing the project through to production. Two works offered in Sotheby’s sale are illustrated in the monograph (lot 11 and lot 12), and Stealingworth sheds light onto Wesselmann’s groundbreaking practice of creating these exact vacuum-formed nudes with crisp clarity. 

Author and art critic Carter Ratcliff has been a frequent Abbeville collaborator since the house’s founding in 1977. Ratcliff captures the spirit of the prolific Colombian painter, and firmly establishes him within the western art historical canon, of which Botero constantly references in his own work. 

Bob Abrams continued a tradition, established by his father Harry, of inviting artists to produce hand-painted limited-edition covers to celebrate the publication of their latest monograph. One such uniquely hand-painted cover is being offered for sale in September at Sotheby’s (lot 525) and thus the inclusion of Martin Bush’s monograph here is essential. The Abrams family maintained a long friendship with the artist and collected his work in depth.

Abbeville Press’ publication of Jean Dubuffet: Towards an Alternative Reality displays Bob’s penchant for collaboration, as the artist himself wrote several important statements on his work and contributed significant text to monograph. The publication accompanied a retrospective of at Pace Gallery (March–June 1987).

Finally, throughout their decades-long collecting journey, the Abrams family has paid a significant amount of attention to the CoBRA artistic movement, counting works by Karel Appel, Pierre Alechinsky, Asger Jorn and Lucebert (lot 543) within their collection. These artists directly prefigure the Pop art movement which subsequently defined the Abrams Family Collection, and stands as a testament to the family’s collecting interests as truly being global and without boundaries.