IMPORTANT PAINITNGS | DEC 2, 2020
(Front cover) Lot 47, Margaret Kilgallen, Untitled (Blinded Fate), Acrylic on wood in four parts. Estimate: $100,000 - $150,000 (Inside Front Cover) Lot 36 Vivian Springford, Untitled, Acrylic on canvas Estimate: $40,000 - $60,000
IMPORTANT PAINTINGS
Wednesday, December 2, 2020 at 11am
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Leon Bakst: Visual Poet of the Ballets Russes Written by Elaine Stainton A Home Away From Home: The Caribbean Dream of Ángel Botello Written by Milan Tessler Too Much Alone: The Art of Sam Gilliam Written by Samira Farmer Sublime Brutalist: The Sculpture of Lynn Chadwick Written by Angelo Madrigale Folklore: The Enduring Legacy of Margaret Kilgallen Written by Angelo Madrigale The Opulent Fantasy World of Tim Hildebrandt’s Tavern on the Green Written by Angelo Madrigale
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LEON
Visual Poet of the Ballets Russes
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BAKST By Elaine Banks Stainton
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eon Bakst was born in 1866 in a provincial city in western Russia. With family connections in St. Petersburg, he moved there in his mid-teens to work as a book illustrator, eventually gaining admission to the Imperial Academy of Art in 1883. After working and exhibiting his art in St. Petersburg for ten years, Bakst traveled to Paris, where he enrolled at the Académie Julian. This remarkable private art school attracted aspiring artists from all of Europe and America, offering serious training in the arts to people of all backgrounds in an atmosphere that welcomed new ideas. Bakst’s primary teacher there was the academic Orientalist Jean-Léon Gérôme, from whose instruction he developed an intense interest in the Middle East. The years in which Bakst lived in Paris also saw the rise of the Art Nouveau movement, which made an indelible impression on his visual imagination. When he returned to St. Petersburg four years later, Bakst was soon drawn into a group of artists and writers that included two immensely gifted younger men, Sergei Diaghilev and Alexander Benois. Together, these three
Lot 5 Leon Nikolaievitch Bakst Russian, 1866-1924 Costume Design for Les Ballet Russes de Diaghilev's 'Scheherazade': Woman in Blue and Chartreuse, circa 1910 Signed BAKST (ll) Gouache and charcoal on paper 13 x 11 1/8 inches (33 x 28.3 cm) Provenance: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York C Property from the Collection of Dr. Abraham & Carolyn Schlossman Estimate: $20,000 - $30,000
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founded the magazine World of Art, which advocated Aestheticism as a principle, with a particular emphasis on the Art Nouveau style. When Diaghilev was appointed assistant to the director of the Imperial theaters in 1899, he brought Bakst with him as a costume designer. This position offered Bakst a good showcase for his work, which led to employment in other theatrical companies as well. Starting in 1905 Diaghilev, a natural impresario, began to organize exhibitions of Russian art, music and opera in Paris, sparking a craze for all things Russian. When in 1909 he launched his “Saison Russe,� a series of Russian ballet performances, he again hired Bakst as a designer. Saison Russe was such a success that the following year Diaghilev formed a permanent ballet company, the now-legendary Ballets Russes, which would continue
Lot 6 Leon Nikolaievitch Bakst Russian, 1866-1924 Woman in Brown and Blue: Costume Design for Les Ballet Russes de Diaghilev's 'Scheherazade', circa 1910 Signed BAKST (cr) Gouache, pencil and charcoal with traces of silver paint on paper 13 x 10 1/2 inches (33 x 26.7 cm) Provenance: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York Acquired from the above in June 1966 C Property from the Collection of Dr. Abraham & Carolyn Schlossman Estimate: $20,000 - $30,000
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Lot 7 Leon Nikolaievitch Bakst Russian, 1866-1924 Costume Design for Les Ballet Russes de Diaghilev's 'Cleopatra', circa 1909 Signed BAKST (lc) Charcoal, gouache and silver paint on paper 13 x 10 1/4 inches (33 x 26 cm) Provenance: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, acquired on June 21, 1966 C Property from the Collection of Dr. Abraham & Carolyn Schlossman Estimate: $10,000 - $15,000
in operation until his death in 1929. During the company’s first five years, Bakst was its principal designer, and in this role he became internationally famous. One ballet presented during the 1909 Saison Russe was Cléopâtre (Une Nuit d’Egypte), for which Bakst designed a series of striking, exotic costumes. His drawings for these (Costume Design from Cléopâtre; Dancer in Harem Pants and Turban [lots 7 and 8]) are Middle-Eastern in inspiration rather than Ancient Egyptian. Remarkably, they show the dancers in motion, leaping and turning, swirling their capes about them in a series of whiplash curves that recall the artist’s love of Art Nouveau, and also suggest something of the production’s famously innovative choreography. The following year Bakst designed costumes for Schéhérazade, a ballet set in Medieval Persia. The drawings for these are more richly colored than the designs for Cléopâtre, and the dancers shown (Woman in Blue and Chartreuse; Woman in Brown and Blue [lots 5 and 6]) are more fancifully 11
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deployed than ever, now seeming to float weightlessly in the air. In 1912 Diaghilev, always on the lookout for new talent, recruited the German composer Richard Strauss and his librettist Hugo von Hoffmannsthal to create a ballet dramatizing the biblical story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. The result was La Légende de Joseph, which debuted at the Paris Opéra in May 1914. Like his costumes for Cléopâtre, Bakst’s designs for this ballet do not exhibit the slightest Ancient Egyptian character. Instead, they are fantastic confections that suggest opulent 18th-century court dress. His design for the costume of Potiphar’s wife (lot 9), for example, is an extravaganza of puffed sleeves, flounces and embroidery in black, white, silver and teal, crowned with a tricorn hat trailing a cascade of scarves and lappets. The First World War nearly brought an end to the Ballets Russes. To make up for lost patronage in Europe, the ever-inventive Diaghilev embarked on a series of tours of North and South America, creating
Lot 8 Leon Nikolaievitch Bakst Russian, 1866-1924 Costume Design for Les Ballet Russes de Diaghilev's 'Cleopatra', Dancer in Harem Pants and Turban, circa 1909 Signed BAKST (cr) Watercolor, charcoal, gold paint with touches of silver paint on paper 13 3/8 x 10 3/8 inches (34 x 26.3 cm) Provenance: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, acquired on June 21, 1966 C Property from the Collection of Dr. Abraham & Carolyn Schlossman Estimate: $5,000 - $7,000
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Lot 9 Leon Nikolaievitch Bakst Russian, 1866-1924 Costume Design for Potiphar's Wife from the Ballet 'La Legende de Joseph', circa 1914 Signed BAKST (cr); with collector's stamp M. S. (lr) Gouache, charcoal and silver paint with traces of crayon on paper 13 1/4 x 10 3/4 inches (33.6 x 27.3 cm) Provenance: Marie Sterner, New York, acquired directly from the artist Laurence Rill Schumann Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, acquired Feb. 5, 1974 C Property from the Collection of Dr. Abraham & Carolyn Schlossman Estimate: $10,000 - $15,000
considerable interest in the ballet in the Western Hemisphere. He also embraced more Modernist styles in his sets and costumes, commissioning artists such as Picasso, Matisse, and Derain to design his new productions. Modernism had no attraction for Bakst; once Diaghilev moved in that direction Bakst was increasingly less involved in the Ballets Russes, finally leaving the company for good in 1922. Today, however, Leon Bakst remains the iconic Ballets Russes designer, his costumes and sets exemplifying the characteristic style of the company’s first sensational years in Paris.
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A HOME AWAY FROM HOME: THE CARIBBEAN DREAM OF ÁNGEL BOTELLO BY MILAN TESSLER In the July 24, 1940 issue of the New York Times, readers could find the headline “ART IS SHOWN HERE OF LATIN AMERICA”. The accompanying article announced an exhibition of Contemporary Latin American art at the Riverside Museum under the sponsorship of the United States New York World’s Fair Commission. The exhibition catalogue included a supportive note from President Roosevelt stating, “All cultural efforts to promote the mutual understanding of the Americas have my interest and hearty support.” On the same page was an ad for Duncan Aikman’s book The All-American Front. The tagline read, “America’s Question No. 1 about Latin America: If we get into trouble with the Nazis, will those people down there be with us or against us?” This juxtaposition of messages highlighted the rapidly developing geopolitical situation in North America during WWII. With tensions escalating across the Atlantic, US relations with its neighbors 16
to the South was an important matter of national security. If there was any skepticism surrounding rapprochement between the United States and Latin American nations, however, it seems the art world was prepared to embrace a Pan-American “front” and open cultural exchange. Among the artists whose work was included in the “Latin American Art Exposition” at the Riverside Museum was Angel Botello Barros, a Spanish-born artist who at the time was living in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Born in the Galicia region of Spain, he and his family eventually moved to France as a result of the economic recession in their native country. In Bordeaux, Botello studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he discovered a love for painting in the art courses that were required to complete his degree.
Lot 27 Angel Botello Puerto Rican, 1913-1986 Anne Frank, circa 1965 Signed Botello (lr); inscribed No. 634 on the reverse Tempera on panel 62 x 27 7/8 inches (157.5 x 70.8 cm) Provenance: Galeria Botello, San Juan, Puerto Rico, acquired there on December 30, 1965 by the present owner (as Ana Frank) C Property of a Distinguished Collector $30,000-40,000
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The artist had some of his first exhibitions in the Bordeaux area. He returned to Spain on scholarship to further pursue his art studies at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, which were disrupted when the country broke into civil war in 1936. The artist enlisted in the Republican army as a cartographer, but by 1939 the Nationalists and General Franco proclaimed victory and Botello rejoined his family in France to escape persecution. With the help of the ousted Spanish government, he and his family left Europe for Santo Domingo, where they were warmly welcomed by exiled Spanish artists and the local art community. After achieving some commercial success with his painting, Botello and his family lived for extended periods in Cuba and Haiti and for more than thirty years in Puerto Rico. It was in these countries that he and his family were finally able to find refuge and a home away from home. Botello’s arrival in the Caribbean was a major watershed in his life, and the sights and sounds of the countries where he lived exerted a powerful influence on the development of his distinctive style. Inspired by his tropical surroundings, the rhythms of island life and the spirited cultures he encountered, Botello began to work with the simplified forms, rich color and strong outlines that would come to characterize his art, predominantly in figuration, but also in landscape and still life. A celebration of island life, its people and his family’s place among them forms the basis of Botello’s pictorial language in all of his work in painting, sculpture and printmaking.
Botello frequently depicted women and children, inspired not just by those in the local communities that welcomed him throughout the Caribbean, but also by the strength he found in the women and children in his own life. The depiction of a known historical figure, however, is seldom seen in his work. Here Anne Frank is presented in Botello’s signature style as an elongated figure, boldly contoured, holding her diary against a solid red, semi-abstract background. Acquired from the eponymous gallery he opened in San Juan, Anne Frank is a work that evokes the artist’s own experience of being displaced. With persecutions of the Jewish population in Europe rapidly rising during the 20th century, Anne Frank’s family fled Frankfurt for Amsterdam when she was a young child. She would be forced into hiding by the German occupation of the Netherlands, eventually becoming both a tragic victim of the Holocaust and a voice of truth and courage to the generations that followed. Anne Frank’s story clearly resonated with Botello, who was also forced to flee persecution, but who had fortunately been given a chance to live in freedom, across an ocean, where he was reminded of the beauty of life and love for mankind. Botello, a Spanish-born citizen of the world, found his means of self-expression in a land to which he was forever grateful and which he could call his own.
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TOO THE ART MUCH OF SAM ALONE GILLIAM BY SAMIRA FARMER
In an oral history prepared for the Archives of American Art in 1989 – the year that Sam Gilliam created Red Rouge, an assemblage being offered at Doyle on December 2nd – critic Benjamin Forgey digs deeply into Gilliam’s practice and his time living and working in Washington, D.C.. Though a somewhat unlikely location, the city served Gilliam well as a young artist flush with talent but lacking in experience. More than just a place to paint, D.C. was where Gilliam built a reputation and professional connections. Sam Gilliam arrived in the nation’s capital in 1962 after completing his Master’s degree in Louisville. At the time, he was still painting figuratively. Inspired loosely by the California painters Diebenkorn and Park, Gilliam spent the early sixties in experimentation:
…to get away from the look of so many painters who were capable of opening my eyes. I had painted stripe paintings, for instance. And then I met [Kenneth] Noland and I started painting chevrons. So I had to get out of that, until finally I took the jump by going back to a more evident stain painting as a format, and then trying to reveal some of the things that was a part of painting this way.
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Gilliam began to test the limits of the chevrons, stripes and circles associated with other Washington Color School artists – constantly developing concepts and working on variations. In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, experiments with draped canvas and saturated color staining became central to Gilliam’s practice. This catalyzing began just in time for an exhibition in 1969 organized by Walter Hopps:
Rockne [Krebs] and [Ed] McGowin had far-out ideas and I was sitting on "empty." Literally it was because of the show that I looked for something to icon and to begin to build on the process, build through the process. And really, even though I had switched from Color Field paintings to the poured paintings, the complete idea of catalyzing my own work through just constant change had not happened… But when I got to the draped paintings, it was quite easy to use the exhibit at the Corcoran to explore several changes with the work. It was just like a squirrel, I was putting up nuts and saving them.
Fellow Washington Color School artist and friend Howard Mehring shared common ground with Gilliam and was interested in painting as an environment of color, rhythm, and structure that could engage the viewer. Blue Key, (right) from 1965, is another standout painting in the December Important Paintings auction. The work’s T-shape and bands of radiating color articulate the rhythm that Mehring developed. Gilliam experimented with similar ideas before he “liberated color field painting,” and embarked on a highly productive period in the 1970s which included intense collaging as well as the highly-collected beveled-edge slice paintings. Listening to interviews, it is clear that Gilliam soaked up inspiration from a wide range of sources including artist and sculptor David Smith and Noland, who led Gilliam toward the shaped canvas in the first place. 22
Lot 33 Howard Mehring American, 1931-1978 Blue Key, 1965 Signed and dated Howard Mehring 1965 and inscribed as titled on the reverse; signed and dated Howard Mehring 1965 on the stretcher Oil on canvas 54 1/2 x 44 3/8 inches (138.5 x 112.7 cm) Provenance: Private collection, Washington, DC Private collection, Florida Private collection Sale: Sotheby's, New York, Contemporary Art, Sep. 27, 2010, lot 161 C Estimate: $20,000 - $30,000
Soon Gilliam was exploring large-scale, three-dimensional public works, beginning with his first metal piece for Davis Square and continuing with a commission for LaGuardia airport. As he embraced this new medium, Gilliam looked to artists like Anthony Caro and Alexander Liberman, even Frank Stella, all influential for pushing the boundaries of sculpture and metal. Gilliam’s work from this period expanded his practice, and he was able to leverage the corporate commissions he received to buoy his career toward longevity. Aware of the harsh reality of life as a working artist, Gilliam knew that expanding his reach would allow him to continue creating. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Gilliam began experimenting with assemblages. Red Rouge is one such piece, a complex structure that at first glance appears improvised, like a piece of jazz
music. A mixture of metal, paint and wood swirls around a central vortex, the form slightly evocative of a Noland target, it is a perfect example of Gilliam’s explorations in form and balance. Assemblage pieces from this period have a structural complexity which is often looked over, but the sheer difficulty of making this kind of work is something Gilliam himself noted in interviews. Assemblages were more labor intensive, and Gilliam produced far fewer works like Red Rouge – less than half of what he might have produced for a show of paintings. It is easy to default to a comparison between Gilliam and Frank Stella, a duo oft-cited by critics and one that indeed warrants discussion, but in Gilliam’s own words, I’m aware of Stella, but I’m also aware of other artists, including performance artists. I have my own history. My painting has always leaned toward sculpture. 23
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Lot 34 Sam Gilliam American, b. 1933 Red Rouge, 1989 Signed and dated Sam Gilliam '89 and inscribed as titled on the stretcher Acrylic on canvas, wood and metal assemblage 66 1/2 x 73 x 21 1/2 inches (168.9 x 185.4 x 54.6 cm) Provenance: Purchased directly from the artist by the current owner C Estimate: $60,000 - $80,000
Gilliam has recently begun new works, returning to sculpture and creating a new context through which to view earlier assemblages like Red Rouge, as well as his public works. Gilliam himself suggested in the 1989 interview
that one has to find a way to actually re-examine, after all these years of experience… to use this experience
a beautiful mottled monochrome ground in his new pieces, evocative of Mehring’s work. Gilliam’s ability to synthesize his ideas, gather touchstones from others and contemplate space is extraordinary. He may have considered himself a loner, or “too much alone” as he phrased it, but perhaps this is a side effect of forging his own path and always remaining ahead of it. A maverick, Gilliam never stops – he is always creating.
to really look at things… perhaps even a reevaluation. I think that to an extent it has produced at least the feeling that I'm doing a lot of my best work now. Particularly since I started to do sculptural relationships, I've started to make the work, the painting, interact with sculpture.
This interaction between paint and metal is what makes Red Rouge so successful. The raking technique applied to give the colored surfaces continuity is an idea that has been reworked into
Gilliam’s impressive career spans over sixty years and is going strong, with a show of new work at Pace Gallery which opened this November; a show of new paintings on paper at David Kordansky Gallery; and a much-anticipated retrospective planned for spring of 2022 at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. Please visit our website at Doyle. com for more information on works by Sam Gilliam and Howard Mehring in the auction.
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Lot 35 Sam Gilliam American, b. 1933 Untitled, circa 1990s Acrylic and polypropylene on collaged cotton canvas laid to wood 60 x 49 inches (152.4 x 124.46 cm) Unframed Provenance: Purchased directly from the artist by the current owner C Estimate: $40,000 - $60,000
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SUB LIME BRUT ALIST 28
THE SCULPTURE OF
LYNN CHADWICK By Angelo Madrigale
One of England’s greatest sculptors of the 20th Century, Lynn Chadwick was professionally trained in architectural drawing. In studying the uniquely commanding presence and volume of Chadwick’s oeuvre, his architectural background is key to understanding his work. Chadwick was employed in the 1930s as a draftsman for designers and architectural firms, dabbling all the while as a sculptor but not necessarily viewing these pieces as fine art. The sculptures, at least in these early days, were considered by Chadwick simply as design elements, created to complement an architectural structure. This practice ceased for several years when Chadwick set his career aside to become a pilot during WWII for the Royal Navy. The feelings of movement and flight which he experienced as a pilot, fighting for his country and the Allies, became essential to his work going forward. Following the war, Chadwick resumed his work and was encouraged by his employer to create mobile structures, which were among his early forays into sculpting. These were far more lyrical and delicate than his later work. These initial pieces employed thin, delicate materials like balsa wood
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and aluminum wire. Chadwick was seemingly unaware of any similarities to mobiles by Alexander Calder, which he later discovered. “So I did this suspension idea, and it took a long long time till I realized that I was doing exactly the same thing as Calder, but this was just about the time when I gave it up, because I realized that Calder was, really, better at doing what he was doing, than I was at what I was doing,” Chadwick would later reveal. While Chadwick soon moved beyond these playful, early creations, he did receive praise as well as exhibitions for this body of sculpture, marking what is essentially the beginning of his life as a professional sculptor.
After a brief period of study, Chadwick began casting works in bronze around 1954, finding his prior works to be too fragile. The influence of architecture – specifically the 1950s Brutalist movement – is wholly apparent at this stage in Chadwick’s career, and would continue to be prevalent until his passing in 2003. Brutalism, defined by angular geometric shapes, raw materials, utilitarian concepts and a monochromatic color scheme, was anti-nostalgia, unrelenting in its Modernity. Architects leading the movement, among others, included Alison and Peter Smithson in the UK; Ralph Rapson and Paul Rudolph in the US. Though usually reserved for institutional buildings,
“THE GEOMETRY OF FEAR” Part of a stellar young group of British sculptors at mid-century, Chadwick was prompted by peers such as Kenneth Armitage and Reg Butler to move toward the bulkier figurative works for which he would become best known. Invited to participate along with several of these notable British sculptors (Armitage, Butler, Eduardo Paolozzi and others) in the 1952 Venice Biennale on the British Pavilion, Chadwick contributed eight works. He represented England at the Biennale again in 1956, with nineteen sculptures. When he won the coveted International Sculpture Prize that year, besting not only his colleagues but the great Alberto Giacometti, Chadwick was elevated to celebrity status in his home country.
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a prime example of this style of architecture is The Met Breuer, completed in 1966 by Bauhaus-trained Marcel Breuer, which was of course formerly the Whitney Museum. Often employing raw concrete with intentionally rough surfaces, Brutalism was embraced by the contemporary voices of the time and reviled by most others. The knock has always been that these structures were cold and imposing. There have been similar criticisms of Chadwick’s sculpture. Art critic Herbert Read described Lynn Chadwick’s work as “the Geometry of Fear;” noting that the ominous figures intimated the Cold War dread felt throughout England in the last half of the 20th Century. Read arrived at this comparison after viewing Chadwick and his peers’ works at the 1952 Venice Biennale exhibition. Chadwick did not agree with the assessment, instead noting his work’s dark humor. And whereas Henry Moore (for whom Chadwick was seen somewhat as heir apparent) created humanoid forms that were far softer, smoother – their psychological detachment shared a similar space. Sitting Couple, 1973, from an edition of eight, depicts Chadwick’s iconic male and female figures, sitting in quiet, stoic contemplation, reclining together, spindly spider legs akimbo. Reinterpreting the human form in his Brutalist-informed abstraction, Chadwick plays with the cloaks of his figures with stiff, chunky lines and exaggerations that could mimic bat wings. The female head is represented only by a triangle; the male head a rectangle. This stylized representation would be repeated often throughout his figurative works. The figures are reduced, simplified, allowing for small gestures, the bend of a knee, the fold of a cape, to appear all the more striking. There are also nods to origami – hard, stiff fold lines that are prominent in Chadwick’s work.
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Chadwick would produce multiple sculptures depicting couples – standing, sitting, walking together in stride. Their cloaks like inky rain slickers caught in the stiff winds of London’s infamously dreary weather. The couples share a mood, maybe the stereotypical English “stiff upper lip” resistant to the forces around them, the disconcerting political climate, the upheaval of social change in mid-century England. The dark heaviness of their forms intimates that they have the armor necessary to survive and persevere. The figures achieve a sublime balance, resting together, enveloped in their dark robes cascading from their shoulders. Lynn Chadwick claimed that making sculpture is finding a solution to a problem – which sounds very much like something an architect would say. While Chadwick began inauspiciously enough, simply making design solutions for professional projects, that mindset carried with him throughout the whole of his career. Unlike many of his peers, and even predecessors, who naturally came to sculpture through fine art schooling, Chadwick achieves an iconic, dark but powerfully brave style that cannot be separated from the influence of architecture.
Lot 38 Lynn Chadwick British, 1914-2003 Sitting Couple (681), 1973 Signed, dated and inscribed Lynn Chadwick, 1973, 681 and numbered 2/8 Bronze with black patina, from an edition of 8 8 1/2 x 10 x 10 1/4 inches (21.6 x 25.4 x 26.1 cm) Literature: Dennis Farr & Eva Chadwick, Lynn Chadwick, Sculptor: With a Complete Illustrated Catalogue 1947-1996, 1997, p. 293, another example shown C Estimate: $50,000 - $70,000
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uch like the itinerant folk musicians of the 18th and 19th centuries that fascinated Margaret Kilgallen, the artist herself had a penchant for wanderlust. Following trains from town to town in between her exhibitions, Kilgallen had a passion for studying the local color, the tall tales and the everyday lives and pursuits of regular Americans. Rustic main streets of little towns with their mom-and-pop stores were ripe for exploration, all inspiration and fuel for her art. Growing up in Maryland, Kilgallen visited Amish farms in her youth and observed craftspeople making quilts, furniture, and painted signs by hand. These trips, as well as local fairs, flea markets and auctions provided glimpses into the folk traditions of the US. “I have always had an admiration for things that are well made, or not even well made. What you have to make in order to live,” Kilgallen explained. A key figure in San Francisco’s Mission School scene, which also included Kilgallen’s husband Barry McGee, friends Chris Johanson, Rubi Neri and others, Kilgallen shared with the group a passion for surf and skate culture, punk and independent music, craft and folk art. While this assembly of artist friends all had varying degrees of studio instruction, they possessed a common fascination with the naïve arts and crafts – often made anonymously, this type of artwork retained its humanity, rough around the edges and honest.
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he world was only given a scant few years to know Margaret Kilgallen. She passed away on June 26th 2001, having delivered her first and only child, Asha, just 19 days prior. At only 33, Margaret had succumbed to complications from breast cancer. To hear directly from her friends and family, Margaret’s was the flame that burned brightest. The tragedy of her death can sometimes eclipse how very vibrant and alive she was in life, the kind and noble friend she was, though this is clearly visible in her art. Margaret Kilgallen’s presence lives on through the power of her work, the inspiration it has and continues to provide.
Kilgallen’s work contains so many things we feel like we’ve encountered before; drawn from our own commonplace travels and experiences, everything adds up to a shared memory. At times, her work looks like a scrapbook featuring the objects and moments Kilgallen collected. Reconsidered, recontextualized, balanced, overlapping, stacked upon each other. These pieces of the past could have just as easily been sourced from the pages of a Faulkner novel as they could have been from a thrift store in Western Pennsylvania or a surf shack in the
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East Bay. Poetry can be found in the rhythm and arrangement of the seemingly random text that is scattered about her work – antiquated terms and forgotten nomenclature from earlier eras and clandestine pursuits – coupled with a color palette of bright reds and mellow greens influenced by Indian miniature paintings. Kilgallen’s pursuits in letterpress and printmaking were crucial to her process; her work achieves a flatness altogether different than many of the Contemporary artists of her time who were intent on removing the artist’s hand, mimicking a product. Kilgallen’s take on “flat” was born out of a desire to emulate the look of a 19th century broadside, or a poster announcing a circus coming to town. Text, materials and ideas are sampled and re-employed with new purposes beyond their original reference. These anachronistic things no longer used, holdovers from prior generations. There are untold stories here, culled from the grit and emptiness of postwar towns after the boom had passed, places like Latrobe, PA or Bakersfield, CA where the streets lay silent, marquees for department stores and movie theaters announcing businesses long dormant.
Margaret Kilgallen; artist statement from “Three Sheets to the Wind,� her 1997 Drawing Center exhibition. 41
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einventing her exhibition spaces, Kilgallen would paint murals directly on the walls, adding on groupings referred to as “clusters” that combined sizes and mediums; works on paper were tacked to the wall next to painted wood panels and overlapping bits of found ephemera. Kilgallen developed a fascination with 15th and 16th century typography while repairing books for the San Francisco Public Library. In rebuilding these torn pages, she found beauty in the broken lines , one that carried over to her work: the pieces she sewed together, joined together, all busy and cluttered like the dusty corners of a used bookstore, begging to be explored. Layering and crowding in these clusters, drastically different than a normal salon style hanging, these spaces were intended to overwhelm. This is a reaction to, and a mimicking of, overstimulation in our modern society. Barry McGee, Kilgallen’s husband, collaborator and travel companion, also embraced the cluster – not just in their shared exhibits but to this day as he shows new works in massive groupings, sometimes creating blister-like bubbles of layered works protruding several feet from the wall. The young artists shared a life together, albeit far too brief, living and creating, scronging for materials, tagging freight trains. I am certain they made each other better artists and explored new ideas together as soulmates and collaborators, driving each other to create better work. To this day, Kilgallen’s artwork is included in each of McGee’s shows. Her spirit can also be felt when one views an exhibition of McGee’s. Consigned by the original owner, Untitled (Blinded Fate) from 1998 was originally purchased from the beloved Luggage Store Gallery, a non-profit arts space in San Francisco. The work was later featured in
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the 2005 CalArts Theater/REDCCAT retrospective In the Sweet Bye & Bye as well as the recent retrospective That’s Where the Beauty Is, both at the Aspen Art Museum, as well as the exhibition’s second stop at the Cleveland MoCA. The work is made up of four differently sized panels, clustered together but not attached to each other. Each wood panel has soft, rounded corners, with finishing nails running along the perimeter, as often seen in Kilgallen’s work. A little red bird is perched atop the upper left corner, like the tip of an antique weathervane. A portrait of a young woman sits at upper right, her head within a shape that recalls both an illuminated manuscript as well as the numerical flags that would pop up on the sort of brass cash register one 44
might find at a soda fountain or general store. Enveloping the bird at upper left, the word “Blinded” sits within rolling black hills topped by silhouettes of two bending trees, the typography akin to what Kilgallen had employed periodically for her graphic design projects. Anchoring the bottom is the largest panel of the four, Fate with FAT in all caps and the little letter “e” shoved to the side. Her iconic red is propped up by a black drop-shadow, giving the letters dimension. These elements are not fragments that add up to a whole, but more a grouping of somewhat disparate objects, like a collection in a curio cabinet. When presented together, there is some cryptic narrative, some unknowable reason Kilgallen felt they belonged together, possibly recalling a moment or a memory.
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In her famed PBS Art21 episode, Kilgallen studies a bodega sign she stumbled upon while exploring. She uses the piece to explain the marriage of art and utility. The person who created the hand-painted sign was not an artist and did not set out to make art – they simply needed a sign for their store and used what materials they could find, combined with what limited skills they may have had. The lines are perfectly imperfect, and from this comes the quote for which Kilgallen is most often cited; “…that’s where the beauty is.” Like some other larger-than-life artists – Jack Kerouac, Frida Kahlo, John Coltrane to name a random few it’s hard to know where the art ends and the person begins, or if any such delineation exists. While her work is very personal, and at times precious and sentimental, Kilgallen was also a force. She lived with purpose and knew full well what behavior she would not accept from others. It has been rumored that her massive Deitch Projects mural of two women fighting, one wielding a broken bottle, was a tongue-in-cheek portrait of Kilgallen and her mother (who, of course, loved each other deeply). The artist lived and created i n rejection of any elitism, always inquisitive, adventurous, supportive, overly generous and fully participatory in her community. Her patience was not meekness, but an uncompromising stoicism. 46
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unattributed quote from ANP Quarterly Magazine explains it succinctly: “Sometimes I’m amazed that in her short time on this planet she was able to leave behind so many gifts... Margaret’s not gone. She’s right here with us every day.” The unsung folk heroines Kilgallen loved and often reimagined within her work – banjo player Matokie Slaughter, Olympian swimmer Fanny Durack and several others – were inspirational for their unique skills, but also for the more ephemeral attributes they embodied: adventurous, independent women, bent on survival, tireless trailblazers yet still nurturing, kindred spirits from times past, heads full of dreams. I am grateful to know Margaret Kilgallen has become that same unyielding spirit for generations of young people everywhere.
Lot 47 Margaret Kilgallen American, 1967-2001 Untitled (Blinded Fate), 1998 Acrylic on wood in four parts 41 1/2 x 39 inches (105.4 x 99 cm) Provenance: Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco Purchased from the above by the current owner Exhibited: New York, Clementine Gallery, Son of a Guston, Sep. 10 - Oct. 10, 1998 Los Angeles, REDCAT, In the Sweet Bye & Bye, Jun. 16 - Aug. 21, 2005 Aspen, CO, Aspen Art Museum, Margaret Kilgallen: That's Where the Beauty Is, Jan. 12 - Jun. 9, 2019; traveled to: Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Jan. 31 - May 17, 2020 Literature: Aspen Art Museum, Margaret Kilgallen: That's Where the Beauty Is, 2019, p. 62, p. 160 color illus. C Estimate: $100,000 - $150,000
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THE OPULENT FANTASY WORLD OF TIM HILDEBRANDT’S TAVERN ON THE GREEN BY ANGELO MADRIGALE
Gracing the lobby of Central Park’s iconic Tavern on the Green, this eponymous painting by legendary fantasy artist and illustrator Tim Hildebrandt greeted the Tavern’s millions of guests from the early 1980s through 2009. This unique, magical depiction carries all the hallmarks of Hildebrandt’s genre-defining fantasy painting and is as synonymous with the beloved restaurant as its lush topiaries and Tiffany-stained glass. One half of the acclaimed Brothers Hildebrandt, Tim, along with brother Greg, began drawing as early as age 3, inspired by a viewing of Disney’s “Pinocchio.” The young brothers would go on to build a haunted house in the family garage for Halloween each year, with local visitors happily paying admission to enter. Beginning their professional career as artists and animators in 1959, the Brothers reached worldwide acclaim for creating the original movie poster for the first Star Wars film in 1977. Given just nine days to complete the task, the Brothers Hildebrandt turned in their masterpiece after only 36 hours. The poster remains one of the most iconic images of the landmark science-fiction franchise to this day, depicting hero Luke Skywalker with lightsaber triumphantly held aloft, the ominous specter of helmeted villain Darth Vader looming behind him. The Brothers would further cement their place in illustration history with Lord of the Rings calendars created throughout the late 1970s, which sold millions of copies. The lavishly illustrated calendars helped to create a cottage industry of sorts for future collectible calendars by peer fantasy artists Frank Frazetta and Boris Vallejo and further cemented the Brothers’ legacy among the most premier illustrators of the 20th Century. 50
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Tim Hildebrandt’s lush fantasy depiction of Tavern on the Green was commissioned by Warner LeRoy, who purchased the restaurant in 1974, investing $10 million into renovations and reopening the rejuvenated space in 1976. LeRoy was the grandson of Harry Warner, one of the Warner Bros founders and a legendary figure in the film industry. Known in Hollywood as “Little Lord Faunt-LeRoy,” then 4-year-old Warner would visit his father, producer/director Meryvn LeRoy on the set of The Wizard of Oz, even taking the opportunity to skip along the famed Yellow Brick Road. LeRoy had also owned and operated Six Flags Great Adventure, the Russian Tea Room and several other high-profile restaurants and destination spots throughout the US. LeRoy was a flamboyant character, who devised what he declared “spectacle entertainment,” creating unique, over-the-top performative elements within his venues to amaze and delight his patrons. He had even once considered having live orangutans roam about the garden of the Tavern – though this undoubtedly would have astounded his guests, he wisely opted against attempting it. For his first restaurant, Maxwell’s Plum, LeRoy rented an apartment directly across the street and hired actors to stage fights in the windows to further entertain his diners. When appearing at his venues for special events, LeRoy would typically arrive in full customized costumes – examples including a Henry VIII inspired suit constructed of seashells and a Moroccan outfit adorned with flashlights and bells. An avid art collector and aficionado, LeRoy’s choice of Hildebrandt to create a work for the Tavern’s entryway was indeed a prescient one, truly in-line with the vision he had for his fantastical reinterpretation of Tavern on the Green.
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Lot 56 Tim Hildebrandt American, 1939-2006 Tavern on the Green, circa 1980 Signed Š Tim Hildebrandt (lr) Oil on board 34 x 48 inches (86.4 x 121.9 cm) Provenance: Tavern on the Green, New York Sale: Guernsey’s, New York, Tavern on the Green, Jan. 14, 2010, lot 422 Purchased from the above by the current owner This work was commissioned by Warner LeRoy, former owner of Tavern on the Green, and a famous NYC restauranteur. The painting hung in the lobby of the Tavern from the 1980s until its closing in 2010. C $10,000-15,000 53
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Tim Hildebrandt would reward Warner LeRoy for his choice of artist with a masterpiece, creating the perfect entryway from the sloping grounds of Central Park into the opulent fantasy world of Tavern on the Green. Drawing from his work on Tolkien-related fantasy projects, Hildebrandt builds a dark, mysterious foreground with massive, stocky tree trunks. A group of elves, quietly creeping alongside a white unicorn, venture towards a mushroom-capped stone bridge, leading along a fanciful path not at all dissimilar from the Yellow Brick Road a young LeRoy played on as a small child. A bright blue peacock rests atop the bridge, while mermaids splash and play in the creek below. The elves’ glorious destination lies just off in the distance – the Tavern on the Green – lit with an ethereal glow peeking out from a wooded thicket. Warner LeRoy sought otherworldly magic for his Tavern, and Hildebrandt did not disappoint, achieving the mythical resplendence rarely seen outside the fantasy locales of Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and many of the other great fantasy classics of our youth. Given its remarkable history as one of New York’s great landmarks, it is astounding to think the Tavern on the Green began in the 1880s as little more than housing for the sheep who grazed Central Park’s Sheep Meadow. Though the infamous city planner Robert Moses would first oversee rebuilding the structure as a restaurant in 1934, it would take the herculean efforts and madcap vision of Warner LeRoy to institute a sense of magic and wonderment to the Tavern. And much like he had done for JRR Tolkien, George Lucas, and others, Tim Hildebrandt deftly painted the fantasy world for which the Tavern on the Green inhabited.
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(Below) Lot 31, Richard Stankiewicz, Beach Sitter, 1958, Steel and found mixed metals. Estimate: $30,000 - $50,000. Property of a Distinguished Collector (Back Cover) Lot 43, Martin Wong, Untitled (Shoes), Acrylic on canvas. Estimate: $8,000 - $12,000