Rago Auctions

Avant-garde stage director and playwright Robert Wilson is what many would consider a contemporary renaissance man. In addition to his theatrical pursuits, Wilson is a visual artist whose works include drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, video, and a designer of lighting, furniture, and public space. Wilson obtained an architecture degree at Pratt Institute, apprenticed with architects Philip Johnson and Paolo Soleri, and has collaborated with some of the greatest luminaries of recent times including Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, Tom Waits, and Marina Abramovic. In 1990 he founded a performing arts laboratory, The Watermill Center, which hosts artist residencies and exhibitions. A voracious collector, Wilson has accumulated an incredible diversity of objects from a range of cultures and historical periods, from Indonesian artifacts to works by contemporary artists. In the artist's words, his collection aspires to encompass "a visual history of humankind". The works on offer in this auction provide a window through which we can better understand what informs Wilson's manifold creative interests and projects.