LONDON – As if the action-packed fall art season wasn't sexy enough already, Jerry Hall — world-famous supermodel, actress, and the alleged subject matter of Mick Jaggers hit love song, “Miss You”— will be selling her collection of contemporary art at Sotheby’s next month. The 14 artworks, which attest to Hall’s glamorous life amidst the avant-garde 1970s and 80s in New York, will be auctioned to coincide with London’s Frieze Art Fair.
As a supermodel, Hall has graced the cover of every magazine from “Cosmopolitan” to Andy Warhols “Interview,” and it's no surprise that three of the collection’s most prominent works are indeed depictions of the six-foot-tall and strikingly blond collector herself. The sale's star lot is Lucien Freuds “Eight Months Gone,” a painting depicting Hall nude and pregnant with her fourth child that is expected to gain well over 300,000 pounds ($462,264), making it the highest-estimated artwork in the collection. According to the Associated Press, the artwork was conceived (yes, that is intended) when Hall and Freud were seated next to each other at a dinner party. Freud asked her to begin posing the next day.
As further evidenced by Hall's depictions by Ed Ruscha and Francesco Clemente, the former model has no problem playing the role of artistic muse. Yet the collection also includes less overtly personal works, such as Frank Auerbachs “Head of Helen Gillespie,” Damien Hirsts “Cornish Pastry (From the Last Supper),” R.B. Kitajs “King David After M.B.,” and David Baileys photograph of late east-London gangster Ronnie Kray. Another sure attraction in the sale is a silk-screened Warhol “Dollar Sign,” which the artist — a close and longtime friend of Halls — gave her to thank her for helping to produce his “Warhol TV."
In the auction's catalogue, Hall explains her decision to sell off her highly personal collection as a way of “movin’ on," in her words. "At a certain age you just want to get rid of things," she says.
