SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2017 6:30 PM — Silent Auction begins 7:45 PM — Live Auction begins
WELCOME Dear Museum friends, It’s such a pleasure to welcome you to the Museum of Craft and Design’s Big Bid Bash benefit party at Bould Design. An added bonus this year is the glorious opportunity to celebrate the inimitable Dorothy Saxe and all that she has contributed to the creative community both locally and across the nation. We are pleased to gather a strong community of art, craft and design enthusiasts — collectors, artists, designers, members, and auction patrons, to continue a tradition of celebrating and supporting MCD’s MakeArt education programs. We are deeply grateful for your support of the Big Bid Bash and the subsequent programs you will help sustain by participating in tonight’s event. The generosity of spirit shown to us by contributing artists, designers, vendors, event sponsors, in-kind donors and auction volunteers, helps us create a captivating night. We know you recognize and appreciate the beauty of the work and crafted experiences and will take pleasure in the camaraderie of generous bidding! Thank you for joining us at our Big Bid Bash! Bid big and bid often! JoAnn Edwards Co-Founder and Executive Director
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2017 HONOREE: DOROTHY SAXE Dorothy Saxe has been deeply involved in the arts since the late 1970s when she and her late husband, George, began collecting. They dove passionately into amassing a celebrated glass collection and then later discovered a similar passion for other contemporary craft mediums in fiber, clay, metal, wood and blended materials— always with a keen eye on acquiring the finest examples of the handmade. Their collection has been generously shared with numerous major museums throughout the country, including the Saxe Gallery at the de Young Museum. With her discerning eye, immeasurable experience and sage advice, Dorothy energetically leads by example in philanthropy, supporting causes near and dear to her, including the Museum of Craft and Design. We are honored that Dorothy has chosen to be a devoted supporter of the museum and we are absolutely delighted to honor her at our Big Bid Bash.
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FROM THE CO-CHAIRS Welcome to the Big Bid Bash! On behalf of the Board of Directors, we are excited to have you here to celebrate the Museum of Craft and Design and our generous patron, Dorothy Saxe! We’ve designed this party to excite and inspire your support of MCD’s dynamic MakeArt education programs that have served the Bay Area for over eleven years. Our Board of Directors, Big Bid Bash committee members and incredible staff have sought out curated experiences, designed objects and astounding contemporary art and craft from which to choose! The items you purchase will not only bring you pleasure, but will also bring pleasure to others through MCD’s many experiential art-making activities and workshops. We are so proud of the museum’s leadership and the staff’s unwavering dedication to excellence. Thank you for joining us. Enjoy every aspect of tonight’s party! Bid HIGH and Bid OFTEN! Babette Pinsky & Steven Miller Co-Chairs, Big Bid Bash
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LIVE AUCTION
LIVE AUCTION
Ann Weber (collection of Pamela and David Hornik) Personages, Ode to CK, 2012 Found cardboard, staples, polyurethane 90" x 26" x 28" Ann Weber began her art career making functional ceramics for fifteen years in New York. Weber moved to California to study with Viola Frey at the California College of the Arts and Crafts and was inspired by the massive scale of Frey’s totemic clay figures. Since 1991, Weber has transformed the ordinary medium of cardboard into impressive humansize and monumental sculptures reminiscent of pods, gourds, and organic spires, synthesizing ancient and modern, craft and high art. Weber’s work has been exhibited worldwide and is in the collections of the Boise Art Museum, Montalvo Arts Center, Fresno Art Museum, Seattle Arts Commission, State of California Capitol Area East, International School of Beijing, China, American Embassy in Swaziland, Africa and many more. In 2014, MCD exhibited Weber’s work in Elevated Corrugated. She has an MFA in Art History from Purdue University and an MFA from California College of Arts and Crafts.
LOT 101 Retail Value: $7,500
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LIVE AUCTION
Randy Shull Painting/Table, 2016 Acrylic on wood panel 80" x 52" x 18" For more than 25 years, Randy Shull has worked at the intersection of architecture, landscape design, furniture design and painting. Shull’s design work focuses on the renovation of midcentury modern homes in the United States and Mexico. His strong sensitivity to space and deep knowledge of complex construction reflects an eye towards the cleanest, most honest use of materials. Shull’s highly textured paintings and companion furniture reveal countless layers of paint and keen interest in combining painting and furniture in one composition. A number of these signature pieces are in collections throughout the United States and are included in museum collections such as the Brooklyn Museum, High Museum, Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Museum of Arts and Design, Asheville Museum of Art and Ogden Museum of Southern Art. In 2009, MCD exhibited his twenty-year, traveling retrospective entitled Crossing Boundaries. Shull has a BFA in Furniture Design from Rochester Institute of Technology.
LOT 102 Retail Value: $12,000
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Robyn Horn Industrial Series No. 29 “Out of Gear”, 2017 Carved and painted wood, found object 15" x 9" x 9" Robyn Horn studied painting at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. Her mother and sister are painters and Horn’s interest in the arts was always encouraged. After college, she worked in the typesetting field in Little Rock, then became chief photographer for Arkansas Parks and Tourism. In 1984, Horn began working on the lathe, making wood bowls and vases, which eventually evolved into carving wood sculpture. Over the past 30 years, she has developed an aesthetic through studying the work of sculptors such as Barbara Hepworth and David Nash, as well as painters such as Marcel Duchamp, Picasso and Braque. Horn has always worked in series, making sculptures that contain qualities of asymmetry, geometry, volume and lack of balance, in contrast with heavily textured surfaces. Horn gives rise to wood with rigorous focus, sculpting from a single, large hunk. Distinctive to her process, she often carves what appear to be a series of affixed components, sparking the illusion of joinery. As if turning wood inside out to expose the secret crannies and underbelly of the raw material, she transforms the surface texture of the woodgrain with repetitive mark-making. Horn reveals her irresistible kinship for the material and summons us to pay close attention to these richly-textured, powerful forms whether massivescale or not. We are left with superb artifacts of contemporary culture.
LOT 103 Retail Value: $3,000
Horn’s work is in the collections of the Arkansas Arts Center, Asheville Art Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Carnegie Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Museum of Arts and Design, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery. 7
LIVE AUCTION
Mel Ramos Dionus, 2002 Lithograph (edition of 199, 33 color lithograph) 35" x 24" x 1.25" Pop artist Mel Ramos abandoned Abstract Expressionism as an art student in 1960 in an effort to get closer to the world around him. He grew up in Sacramento, the son of a Portuguese race car driver. His figurative work has been lauded for its classical technique, vibrant energy and modern consumerist sensibilities that offer an inventive spin on the classic calendar pin-up. Ramos has specialized in portraying nudes and superhero paintings of Batman and Superman. Although his provocative paintings mix infamously nude women with the imagery of popular culture striking a loud and garish note, the man himself is unassuming. The quiet dedication to his craft has been a constant for over half a century. Ramos’s work is in the collections of the Guggenheim Museum, MOMA, Smithsonian Institution, Whitney Museum of American Art, SFMOMA, de Young Museum, LACMA, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Crocker Art Museum, Arkansas Art Center, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, National Gallery of Art, Reykjavik Art Museum, Seattle Art Museum, Oakland Museum, Palm Springs Desert Museum and countless more.
LOT 104 Retail Value: $3,000
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Dafna Kaffeman (collection of Bullseye Glass Co.) Wolves Hunting (01), 2008 Flameworked glass 45" x 29.5" x 2.5" Since 2001, Kaffeman’s work has focused on transparent statements about politics and social issues in the world and simultaneously explores human behavior — stressing message over medium. Kaffeman has a deep kinship with her homeland of Israel and has created work within a framework of living in a conflict-ridden land burdened with sacrifice, grief and remembrance. Kaffeman received a BFA from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and an MFA from Sandberg Institute, NL. She currently teaches at the Bezalel Academy for Art and Design. Her work is in collections throughout the world such as the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Corning Museum of Glass, Museum of American Glass, Racine Art Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, Museum of Modern Glass, Musee Centre d’Art du Verre and many more. In 2015, MCD exhibited Dafna Kaffeman’s work in Without Camouflage.
LOT 105 Retail Value: $12,500
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LIVE AUCTION Wanxin Zhang A Brick from the Great Wall, 2008 Ceramic with glaze 9" x 5.5" x 6.5" Wanxin Zhang was born and educated in China. He graduated from the prestigious LuXun Academy of Fine Art in Sculpture in 1985. In 1992, after Zhang established his art career as a sculptor in China, he relocated to San Francisco with his family. Zhang’s sculptures represent a marriage between historical references and a contemporary cultural context; they carry messages of social and political commentary exploring the world today with humor, confusion, anxiety and sarcasm raising questions endured through time. Although he grew up during the “New China,” he lived through one of the most devastating periods of cultural destruction in modern history. He prides himself on utilizing clay to represent the spirit of humanity. His work is also deeply influenced by the Bay Area figurative movement and artists such as Peter Voulkos and Stephen De Staebler. Zhang’s work is in the collections of the Fresno Art Museum, Holter Museum of Art, National Art Museum of China, UBE Tokiwa Museum, and others. He currently teaches at the San Francisco Art Institute. His solo show at MCD opens in 2019, in partnership with Catharine Clark Gallery. LOT 106 Retail Value: $1,500
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Michele Pred Nasty Woman 5/10, 2017 Electroluminescent wire on vintage purse 10" x 13" x 3.5" “Ms. Pred’s work is an important offering for its relevance to the times.” —Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor Michele Pred is a Swedish-American conceptual artist whose practice includes sculpture, assemblage and performance. Her work uncovers the cultural and political meaning behind everyday objects, with a particular focus on themes like equal pay, reproductive rights and personal security. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Berkeley Art Museum, the 21st Century Museum, Fashion Institute of Technology, Contemporary Museum, 9/11 Memorial Museum and many more. Her work has been reviewed and featured by The New York Times, The New York Observer, The International Herald Tribune, ARTnews, Art in America, WIRED, American Craft Magazine, Huffington Post, Rachel Maddow, ReadyMade Magazine, TimeOut New York, Travel and Leisure Magazine, Associated Press Television, CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, FOX, NBC, ABC, the San Francisco Chronicle, Corriere della Sera (Italy), TV4 and Dagens Nyheter (Sweden). Pred has a BFA with Distinction from California College of the Arts. LOT 107 Retail Value: $2,000
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LIVE AUCTION
Cocktails & Tour at the Home of Dorothy Saxe Visit the finest collection of contemporary craft in the nation Enjoy cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and a personal tour with Big Bid Bash honoree Dorothy Saxe in her Menlo Park home for up to eight guests! Her distinguished collection represents craft at its finest in wood, metal, fiber, clay, glass and alternative materials. This is a special opportunity to see her amazing collection and to visit with one of the major influencers in the craft world today. Dorothy is a member of MCD’s National Advisory Board.
LOT 108 Retail Value: Priceless
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Gary Hutton Design Facet 4 Table Stainless steel with real Swarovski crystals 22" x 6" x 6" “Gary Hutton is the most famous un-famous designer in America today. Every editor, writer and good interior designer in our industry knows him and his inspired work.” — Thomas Lavin, Thomas Lavin Showroom, Los Angeles, California Hutton grew up immersed in the classic California landscape of his grandmother’s 30-acre apple ranch near Santa Cruz. He studied fine arts and studio practice at UC Davis under the tutelage of Wayne Thiebaud, Robert Arneson and Manuel Neri and went on to study interior design at the California College of the Arts. His 40-year practice is small by design and intentionally collaborative. His design vision exudes taste, excellence and care which translates both to his interior design practice and the Gary Hutton Furniture Collection. Hutton is often referred to as the “dean of West Coast design”. He has been published in IDEAT, SFC&G, The Style Saloniste, Capture, Gentry Home, luxe., Spaces, Elliman, Interview, Madame Figaro, The Ark, Interior Design, Cultured, C Magazine, Vogue, Desegnare, Habitat, Architectural Digest, Interiors, California Homes, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, California Home+Design and Metropolitan Home, to name just a few.
LOT 109 Retail Value: $6,500
Hutton is a former board member of MCD and was the designer for the Museum when it moved to Dogpatch.
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LIVE AUCTION Fletcher Benton Steel Watercolor No. 203, 2016 Painted steel 36" x 7" x 7" Fletcher Benton is a world-renowned Bay Area sculptor and painter, famous for his kinetic art and massive-scale, geometric metal sculptures that defy gravity. Born in the coal and iron producing district of southern Ohio, Benton was a successful sign painter as a youth. After attending college at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and a subsequent stint in the Navy, he moved to San Francisco to teach at the California College of Arts and Crafts. His first solo exhibition at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor showed portraits of fellow artists. In 1966, he was featured in Time Magazine’s article on the Movement movement, which brought him international acclaim. Benton’s work evolved into sculpture in the Constructivist tradition and is referred to by writers like Paul Karlstrom and Carter Ratcliff “as palpable sculpture and illusionary painting, the slim and the blocky, the circle and the square, emotion and restraint.” Benton’s work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, SFMOMA, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Anderson Collection, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Crocker Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, among others. LOT 110 Retail Value: $16,000
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FUND-A-NEED Since 2006, MCD’s MakeArt education programs have provided experiential learning opportunities for all ages, both in our John and Robyn Horn MakeArt Lab and throughout the Bay Area. These programs address the need to bring the arts and art-making activities to libraries, public schools and surrounding communities. In 2017, we project to reach over 6,000 children and their family members. With your support we can serve many more! $1000 | MakeArt Craft Carts, Teaching Kits and Multimedia Family Guides Support MakeArt activities in the galleries and onthe-go! Your generous donation supports the design and development of high quality materials for in-gallery learning and outreach experiences for underserved, local, public elementary schools. $500 | MakeArt Activities at Maker Faire, Sunday Streets and School Fairs MCD has vastly expanded the number of community events where we provide FREE activities for families and children. Your $500 gift supports staffing and materials needed to bring craft and design projects to approximately 500 participants per event. $250 | MakeArt Artist Instructors and Materials MCD engages established and emerging designers and artists to introduce MakeArt participants to new artistic processes and techniques. Your support provides local artists the opportunity to lead classes in their community as well as providing crucial, reusable tools that are utilized throughout our MakeArt programming. $100 | MakeArt Supply Support Did you know a donation of $100 provides enough art materials for 40 children or approximately 10 families to participate in MCD MakeArt events? Help us bring the gift of craft and design to our community. Thank you for your support! 15
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
With deep thanks we acknowledge the Museum of Craft and Design’s Board of Directors for their support of the museum and this year’s Big Bid Bash: Dorrian Porter, Chair Chris Motley, Secretary Tom Kaweski, Treasurer Fred Bould George Calys David Gauger Marcia Lavine Steven Miller Babette Pinsky Kendall Riding Christopher Rolletta Phil Schlein Suzanne Scott Gretchen Wustrack Steven B. Kaplan, Director Emeritus Big Bid Bash Auction Committee Were it not for the hard work of our Big Bid Bash Auction Committee, co-chairs Babette Pinsky and Steven Miller, Marcia Lavine, Chris Motley, Chris Rolletta, Barbara Waldman and our incredible staff, we would not be immersed tonight in this transformed design studio. We are humbled and thankful for their hard work and steadfast participation. Auctions don’t happen without the generosity of artists, designers and makers. We are grateful for the support of so many creatives, who are asked often to contribute their work to nonprofits. We thank you deeply.
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DESIGN
Aaron Bastian: Auctioneer Director, Paintings, San Francisco Bonhams Finally, tremendous thanks to the Museum of Craft and Design staff who put the extra time and hard work to make this event happen: Tracy Bays-Boothe, Francisco Garcia, Natasha Glushkoff, Caroline Holley, Charlotte Jones, Clarissa Kalman, Debra Lande, Roberto Martinez, Marlena Cannon de Mendez, Jessica Riano, Sarah Beth Rosales, Gail Rubin, Ariel Zaccheo and Alex Ziv. Exhibition Preparators: Ken Edwards and Alison McLennan About the Museum of Craft and Design The Museum of Craft and Design is San Francisco’s only museum devoted exclusively to modern and contemporary craft and design. Founded in 2004, MCD showcases designers, makers and artists through an exciting and distinctive series of craft and design-focused exhibitions and public programs. MCD explores and builds appreciation for the connections between art, craft and design.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR BUYERS Please read the following conditions of sale carefully.
General Rules Regarding both the live and silent auctions, the Museum of Craft and Design assumes no risk, liability or responsibility for the authenticity, quality, or value of the items. Estimates of values and descriptions have been made based on information provided by artists/designers. Everything is sold “as is” and is subject to the conditions and restrictions stipulated in the catalog. Bidder Numbers Each registered guest has been pre-assigned a bidder number. All sales are recorded and tracked by the bidder number, which appears on the back of your catalog. Use this number when placing a bid at both the silent and live auctions. Silent Auction Bid sheets will be prominently displayed near each item. Minimum bids will be recorded on the bid sheet. You may not bid below the minimum bid. To bid in the silent auction, write your bidder number next to the amount that you wish to bid. Please use the incremental amounts specified on the bidding sheets. Bids that do not use these amounts will not be honored. If you choose the “Buy Now” amount at the bottom of the bid sheet, no other bids will be accepted. Designation of your bid as the winning bid is a legal contract to purchase the item.
Bidding Increments, Live Auction Bid increments are set by the auctioneer, who may vary the increments at his discretion. The highest bidder for any item shall be the purchaser. In the event of a dispute, the auctioneer shall have the sole and final discretion to determine the successful bidder or to reoffer or resell the article in question. Designation of your bid as the winning bid is a legal contract to purchase the item. The auctioneer will explain bidding rules at the beginning of the live auction. Payment + Procedures Purchases may be paid for with cash, personal checks, Visa, MasterCard, Discover or American Express. All sales are final and accounts must be settled by the close of the auction. Successful bidders are purchasers of items of value. As such, the bids are not tax-deductible except in the amount by which the purchase price exceeds the item’s fair market value. This amount, if any, appears on your invoice. Please keep invoice for your records and consult with your tax advisor for details. Pick-Up You will need to present your paid receipt to receive items purchased. Works of art will be packed for transport, if possible. Please note: The volunteers working at the pick-up area are packing and moving all of the items sold. You may experience a brief delay in receiving your purchase. Please be patient with our hard-working volunteer crew.
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