Marcel Broodthaers and Dr. Jost Herbig. Archival Image from The Herbig Collection. © Maria Gilissen.
Works by Marcel Broodthaers will be on view at Phillips Antwerp from 18 September through 18 October. The preview of the London Modern & Contemporary Art Evening & Day Sale is open 3–11 October at 30 Berkeley Square.
Sometimes collecting art can be even more intimate than simply buying what you love. Through a close relationship with an artist, some lucky collectors gain an unparalleled glimpse into an artist’s personality and working methods, ultimately transforming the collector’s role into one of a historical primary source. It is this approach to collecting that characterizes the Herbig Collection’s assemblage of works by Marcel Broodthaers, a leading figure of the European Post-War avant-garde and a close friend of Dr. Jost and Barbara Herbig and their family.
Marcel Broodthaers, Barbara Herbig, and Dr. Jost Herbig. Archival Image from The Herbig Collection. © Maria Gilissen.
Phillips is pleased to offer three works from the Herbig Collection in the London Modern & Contemporary Art auctions this October, with several more works on offer in future auctions over the next 12 months. With these three works of such exceptional condition and provenance making their auction debut this October, the preview exhibitions in London and Antwerp are a rare pleasure for collectors and art lovers of all stripes. Here, we unpack this remarkable story of friendship, collaboration, and intellectual inspiration that reaches its apex in a collection like no other.
Marcel Broodthaers, Éloge du sujet, 1974. Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London. Estimate: £80,000–120,000.
Marcel Broodthaers, Die Welt, 1973. Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale, London. Estimate: £150,000–200,000.
Marcel Broodthaers: Avant-Garde Pioneer
Marcel Broodthaers in Hyde Park, London. Archival Image from The Herbig Collection. © Maria Gilissen.
Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers (1924–1976) began his career as a writer and poet before expanding to visual arts at the age of 40. Over the next 12 years, he developed a distinctive visual language characterized by a broad reach both in medium — working across poetry, sculpture, painting, printmaking, and film — and content, delving into a wide range of literary, social, and historical themes. His output was rich with whimsical humor, semiotic puzzles, and strategies of repetition and self-deprecation, all offering a glimpse into his brilliant and singular mind. For him, no idea could be taken too far, and no means of expression was out of reach.
Marcel Broodthaers, Two works: (i) Académie I and (ii) Académie II, 1968. Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale, London. Estimate: £30,000–50,000.
Continuing an artistic investigation into a type of conceptual practice pioneered by Marcel Duchamp, Broodthaers rejected rigid distinctions between disciplines and artistic techniques. His works playfully subvert the established relationships between everyday objects, language, and meaning in a challenge to both artistic and social structures. The humor and poetic sensibilities in his works evoke powerful meditations on the capabilities of aesthetics, linguistics, and philosophy and represent a significant chapter in the development of conceptual art.
Marcel Broodthaers, Carte poltique du monde, circa 1970. Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale, London. Estimate: £15,000–20,000.
The Herbig Collection brings together some of Broodthaers’ most significant works from the 1960s and ‘70s — including the typographic impression on canvas Die Welt, the installation piece Éloge du sujet, and the film La Pluie. All three works were included in a major traveling retrospective hosted by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia, and Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfallen in 2016–2017.
A Letter to the Herbigs from Marcel Broodthaers. Archival Image from The Herbig Collection.
A Remarkable Friendship
Dr. Jost Herbig and Marcel Broodthaers. Archival Image from The Herbig Collection. © Maria Gilissen.
The Herbig Collection was curated by the renowned scientist Dr. Jost Herbig and his wife, noted jewelry designer Barbara Herbig. The couple began collecting art in the mid-1960s, with a focus on contemporary American and European artists. With their keen eyes, they became known for their collection of museum-quality works by highly desirable artists ranging from Gerhard Richter to Bruce Nauman. Later, in 1970, the couple met Marcel Broodthaers in Düsseldorf, where he was living at the time. From the day they met until the artist’s untimely death in 1976, the Herbigs acquired several of his works and formed a close relationship with him. Broodthaers himself selected which of his works would be offered to them, ensuring that some of the finest examples of the works that most excited him would remain in the hands of collectors who were sure to be stewards of his legacy.
Christmas cards that were sent to the Herbigs from Marcel Broodthaers (verso). Archival Image from The Herbig Collection.
Christmas cards that were sent to the Herbigs from Marcel Broodthaers (front). Archival Image from The Herbig Collection.
After their initial meeting in Düsseldorf, the two families quickly became close friends, enjoying the good humor and intellectual fervor that percolated whenever they spent time together. The Herbigs came to greatly admire Broodthaers’ work, as well as his personality, as Barbara Herbig recently shared with Phillips, “Broodthaers, with his keen understanding of translation and his perceptive, subtly ironic warmth, was a fascinating presence.” She recalled countless hours the families spent together when Broodthaers and his wife Maria — herself an exceptional photographer — and their daughter, Marie-Puck, would visit the Herbig household. Dr. Herbig would give science lectures to the group, and Broodthaers would then give his own lectures as well. “Their exchange of ideas was invigorating,” Barbara recalls. “Broodthaers also shared his latest films, and we all found ourselves transformed by the experience. The children played together, and we took leisurely walks, with Maria capturing moments like the ‘railway robber’ through her lens. We cooked, ate, and enjoyed each other’s company, relishing in the joy of these shared times.”
The Story Continues
Dr. Jost Herbig and Marcel Broodthaers. Archival Image from The Herbig Collection. © Maria Gilissen
In 1998, four years after Dr. Jost Herbig’s passing, the majority of the Herbig Collection was sold in a landmark auction, but the ties between Marcel Broodthaers and the Herbigs were so strong that the family chose to retain the works of their close friend. Since they were first acquired in the 1970s, the works have been kept in the Herbig family’s private home, with several on long-term loan to Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona and exhibited internationally.
As so many of these works have been seen in public only rarely and have never come to auction before, the next 12 months promise to excite and entice those who love Broodthaers, as the works will be on view ahead of the auctions in multiple cities around the globe. Because of these works’ connection to the Herbig family, they offer a chance to be close to the artist himself through works that he personally selected for his intimate friends. And they also offer an opportunity to be part of this story’s next chapter, a story Barbara Herbig remembers fondly, recalling, “It was a wonderfully memorable experience, full of warmth and creativity — until next time.”
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