The Evelyn D. Farland Collection

DOYLE PRESENTS

The Evelyn D. Farland Collection

Doyle to Auction The Evelyn D. Farland Collection

This November, Doyle is honored to present The Evelyn D. Farland Collection, a remarkable single-owner auction celebrating a bold and joyful vision of Modern and Contemporary art. Spanning major movements and artistic voices of the 20th century, the collection reflects Farland’s singular sensibility – playful, fearless, and deeply attuned to the creative pulse of her time.

Collected over decades by a passionate advocate and pioneering publisher, the works on offer brim with color, wit, and experimentation. From the irreverent elegance of Pop Art to the dreamlike gestures of Surrealism, this is a collection that delights in the unexpected and embraces the edge of the avant-garde.

Collection Highlights

At the center of the sale is a rare set of three Brillo Boxes (1964) by Andy Warhol – two white and one yellow – created for the artist’s groundbreaking Stable Gallery exhibition. With provenance that includes legendary gallerist Leo Castelli and collector Peter Brant, the Brillo Boxes exemplify Farland’s eye for works that have shaped the cultural canon.

Farland’s close relationships with artists are evident throughout the collection, which includes works personally gifted by Man Ray, a friend of the Farlands, as well as a coveted stabile by Alexander Calder, and a group of early prints by David Hockney. The collection also features editions and drawings by Alex Katz, Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne, and Sonia Delaunay, alongside important works by Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Jim Dine, and Tom Wesselmann. Whether monumental or intimate, each work carries a sense of discovery and delight and a shared visual language that is bright, witty, and unmistakably modern.

About Evelyn D. Farland

A collector, publisher, and champion of contemporary visual culture, Evelyn D. Farland played a formative role in expanding the reach of art in postwar America.

In 1965, Evelyn and her husband Leo Farland founded Poster Originals, Ltd., a pioneering company that elevated the art poster into a dynamic medium for public engagement. What began with twenty posters produced out of their Upper East Side apartment quickly evolved into a robust operation with galleries in SoHo, Madison Avenue, and East Hampton. Over the years, Poster Originals published and distributed more than 1,500 American and European art posters, working in collaboration with major museums, galleries, and cultural institutions—including the Met, MoMA, the Smithsonian, the Whitney, Lincoln Center, and the Louvre.

Evelyn’s personal collection developed in tandem with this work. She acquired pieces not only from galleries but directly from artists—many of whom she knew well—assembling a private collection that mirrored the changing tides of contemporary art while remaining deeply personal. Her home on East 79th Street, decorated with classic French furnishings and cutting-edge art, became a salon of sorts, filled with conversation, collectors, and creativity.

Through Poster Originals and her own collecting, Evelyn Farland helped bring the visual language of a generation to wider audiences—making art accessible, and making collecting meaningful.