‘Pauline is unique’: Emin and Hirst boss sells Hydra’s vast art collection | Art and design

Art and design

Pauline Karpidas, who welcomed Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst to her Greek island, to sell hundreds of works at Sotheby’s

Contemporary artists and gallery owners invited to collector Pauline Karpidas’ summer “workshops” on the Greek island of Hydra were offered a short but simple itinerary. “You don’t have to ask for much other than engagement with art and guests: sunbathing, chatting and swimming,” advises their host.

The footage showed the lucky recipients of those invitations – including Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas, Damien Hirst and Grayson Perry – doing just that.

Over the past 50 years, Manchester-born Karpidas has been more than a gracious host; as a generous patron of the arts, she is described as “unique” and the European equivalent of the late American collector Marguerite “Peggy” Guggenheim.

Today, more than 300 works from her collection – many from the artists she supported – which are housed in the Hydra home she shared with her late husband, the Greek engineer and businessman. Constantinos “Dino” Karpidas, are to be auctioned. They include sculptures by French artists Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne, works by Emin, Lucas and Hirst, and photographs by Nan Goldin.

“Pauline has been actively engaged in researching and supporting young galleries, recognizing their need for patronage,” said Sadie Coles, whose contemporary art gallery in London represents 50 international artists. “There is no comparison with other collectors: Pauline is unique, she is different, she is the great lady who takes off her shoes and joins the dance. »

Karpidas, 80, left Manchester for London in her early 20s after studying at secretarial school, then moved to Greece where she opened a clothing boutique in Athens called My Fair Lady. It was here that she met her future husband, whose interest in art was more classical and included works by Renoir and Picasso.

In an interview with French magazine Sotheby’s, Karpidas recounted how she first visited Hydra in the early 1960s and immediately fell in love with the rugged island. “I was in Athens for a wedding and was thinking of visiting nearby islands,” she said. “After that, I kept coming back to swim on the rocks.”

Oliver Barker, Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, which oversees the auction, said: “Pauline is an absolutely key figure in the world of contemporary art. She comes from a very modest background but has this amazing working class work ethic and is entirely self-taught. Her husband gave her the means to start collecting.

Karpidas persuaded Alexander Iolas, the world-renowned collector and gallerist who was René Magritte’s dealer and who discovered Andy Warhol, to come out of retirement to advise her.

“The story goes that the condition for him advising her was that she put some money on deposit to show that she was serious about collecting,” Barker said.

“With the help of Iolas, Pauline then went to assemble one of the greatest collections of post-war art…Pauline had an innate feeling that she could spot incredible works before anyone else. She educated herself on the art and relied on her intuition. It was a very instinctive way of collecting.

Hydra’s house was sold earlier this year.

Karpidas has been a benefactor of the Tate in London for many years and supported an education center at the New Museum in New York. Little is known of her outside the art world and she rarely, if ever, gives interviews. In 2009, she sold Warhol’s painting 200 One Dollar Bills in New York for over $43 million, the second highest price paid for a work by the artist. She and her husband had acquired the work in 1986 for $385,000.

In the brochure for the upcoming auction, she said: “I will never forget one of the first pieces of advice Iolas gave me: ‘For you to understand what has emerged in the 20th century, you must visit all the museums of every city you visit, read the biographies of the artists and meet all the curators, gallery owners and dealers – words that I will always remember and have worked hard to keep.

David Gill, owner of a gallery in London, said: “As Patron in the past or Edward James or Peggy Guggenheim, Pauline has always been very involved with the artists and the creations she commissioned. This gave his collection a very personal and unique identity. Always avant-garde.

“Pauline Karpidas’ collection speaks of a life lived with beauty,” added Mario Tavella, president of Sotheby’s France where the auction is taking place.

Karpidas now lives in the United States, where his son Panos is based. The auction will take place on October 30 and 31 at Sotheby’s in Paris.