David Zwirner to Exhibit ‘The Great Unseen Collection’ in New York

While New York’s top auction houses prepare to sell multimillion-dollar consignments from private patrons this May, one of the city’s mega-galleries is getting ready to exhibit a collection that has gone largely unseen—until now.

On May 7, at one of its Chelsea galleries, David Zwirner will open a show of works from the collection of Joel and Carole Bernstein, a married couple that owned works that have appeared in major museum shows in recent years, despite the fact that the collectors themselves have largely flown under the radar. The show is called “The Great Unseen Collection,” its title borrowed from the name the Bernsteins themselves gave to their art holdings. Every work in it will be available for sale.

The collection does not appear to contain many artworks worth seven-figure sums, which may be one reason it hasn’t received much attention. (The Bernsteins never appeared on ARTnews’s annual Top 200 Collectors list.) But even if it lacks expensive artworks, it does contain quite few pieces of historical importance.

Included in the show, for example, is a 1975 Joan Brown self-portrait that was used to advertise her recent San Francisco Museum of Modern Art retrospective. There’s also an Alex Katz painting of his wife, Ada; an Alice Neel painting of the artists couple Red Grooms and Mimi Gross; and a collage from Romare Bearden’s late period, during the 1970s.

Also featured in the show are works by Andy Warhol, Peter Saul, Bob Thompson, Fairfield Porter, Joseph Yoakum, Eric Fischl, and others of note.

Joel, who died last year, was the driving force behind the collection. He worked in pharmaceuticals, briefly led a gallery in Chicago, and lent his support to museums such as Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art and the Phoenix Art Museum in Arizona, serving as a trustee to both.

“Art has taken me places in my life that I never thought I would see, or become part of,” Carole said in a statement. “Our pictures have been in museums. It’s been quite a ride. Joel put me on that ride.”

On at least two occasions, the Bernsteins have sold their art at auction. Last year, Christie’s featured the Bernsteins’ works in a contemporary art day sale; the most expensive of them, a Bob Thompson painting, sold for $693,000, exceeding its high estimate by nearly $100,000. Also last year, Christie’s featured pieces from the Bernstein collection in an online sale that included an Avigdor Arikha painting of a cello. The painting sold for $119,700, nearly three times its low estimate.

The Bernsteins have also gifted works to museums such as the Art Institute of Chicago, whose contemporary art galleries feature a standout Jo Baer abstraction from 1964–65 that was acquired in the ’80s. The Yale University Art Gallery, meanwhile, received a memorable 2001 Jennifer Bartlett painting of the Twin Towers falling; it was gifted by the Bernsteins in 2019 and became the lead image in a New York Times essay about 9/11-related art published in 2021 to mark the 20th anniversary of the attacks.

In a statement, Kristine Bell, senior partner and head of secondary market sales at David Zwirner, said, “It is an honor to present a selection of artworks from Joel and Carole’s extraordinary collection. In a recent conversation, Carole noted that they had always considered themselves custodians of the art, and that they were grateful for the time they were able to spend with it. Now it is time for these works to find their next home and become part of someone else’s life. We look forward to placing them with the care they deserve.”