“Two men of color got my art collection really going,” says Karl-Anthony Towns, of the enviable trove of works he and his wife, Jordyn Woods, have acquired. “And both pieces are proudly owned in our house.” The first holding purchased by the New York Knicks’ starting center-forward and seven-time NBA All-Star was a print by Woods’s brother, Josh. The second was by Rashid Johnson.
“I grew up with Josh Woods,” laughs his wife, “seeing him make pieces, trying to steal his pieces from day one.” The entrepreneur and model first gained an appreciation for the visual arts by watching her brother at work. However, it’s a LeRoy Neiman portrait of Muhammad Ali, signed by both artist and athlete, that she credits with kicking off her own collecting habit, which has quickly infiltrated every corner of the couple’s Los Angeles home.
Now, Sotheby’s has given Towns and Woods the opportunity to curate outside their own four walls. They are the latest minds behind the auction house’s biannual Contemporary Curated series, and have selected 10 works to be included in a sale opening Oct. 7. The array of postwar and contemporary pieces come largely from artists who have become close friends of the pair, or whose works they live with at home. George Condo, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Helen Frankenthaler, and, of course, Rashid Johnson, are amongst the lineup.
For the auction house, Towns and Woods (a Knicks fan-favorite WAG following the team’s recent championship win), are emblematic of the rapidly cementing bridge between the realms of sports and visual art. A growing lineup of basketball players in particular have been building impressive collections, including Carmelo Anthony, Moe Harkness, and Kevin Love, who previously served as a Sotheby’s curator. For Towns, the connection is clear. “We understand how long it took us to get an opportunity to play NBA basketball or to be given a chance,” he explains. “There’s a lot more than just the physical aspect that comes with being a professional athlete or being in the art world. It takes dedication, it takes sacrifice, not only of your physical but your mental. And also a tremendous belief in yourself.” To that, Woods adds, “I think it’s also about being the best at your craft, being able to be vulnerable. The vulnerability and putting yourself out there takes a lot for an artist or an athlete.”
One key work in the sale is George Condo’s I Want My Brain Back, 2020, which is estimated at $1-1.5 million. A distorted rendering of an individual’s “competing and often contradictory identities,” as the catalogue reads, it’s clear why such a work might appeal to a duo who spent their day-to-day under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden this summer. Towns characterizes Condo as “a mythical creature that one day walked into our lives;” his work has pride of place in their home. At Sotheby’s, though, the public is offered further insight into not just the intensity of Condo’s psyche, but that of his peer in a disparate field, as well as the single-mindedness that brought them together.
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