Elaine de Kooning, John Wesley lead Swann May 20 Modern & Postwar sale

Elaine de Kooning, ‘Bacchus,’ estimated at $10,000-$15,000

Elaine de Kooning, ‘Bacchus,’ estimated at $10,000-$15,000

NEW YORK — Swann Galleries will hold its sale of Modern & Post-War Art on May 20. The auction will present a selection of highlights ranging across Modernist illustration, American abstract artists—including members of the Irascibles and The Club—Color Field, Pop, Minimalism, American Surrealism, and more. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.

The auction will be headlined by 7 Maidens, a 1963 duco and oil on canvas painting by John Wesley, estimated at $80,000-$120,000; Horizontal Brushstroke, a 2003 gouache on paper by Sol Lewitt; and a grouping of three portfolios by Walasse Ting: Hot and Sour Soup, 1969, with hand lettered poems, acrylic and ink drawings, and 19 color lithographs; Hot and Sour Soup, 1969, with 50 poems and 22 color lithographs; and Green Banana, 1971, with 10 poems and 10 color lithographs. The three Ting portfolios carry a collective estimate of $12,000-$18,000. Also available are works by Albert Stadler, Emily Mason, James Hilleary, and Michael Michaeledes.

John Wesley, ‘7 Maidens,’ estimated at $80,000-$120,000

John Wesley, ‘7 Maidens,’ estimated at $80,000-$120,000

The New York art world is well-represented by Elaine de Kooning’s Bacchus, a vibrant 1983 acrylic-on-canvas abstraction in hues of purple, blue and orange, estimated at $10,000-$15,000; Robert Motherwell’s Gauloises on Grey #26, a 1972 acrylic and paper collage, estimated at $30,000-$50,000; Theodoros Stamos with What the Wind Does, (Still Life, Fire Island), an oil on masonite from 1947, estimated at $7,000-$9,000; Judith Rothschild with Nouset Heights III, a 1970 oil on canvas estimated at $1,200-$1,800 that represents a breaking point in her career; and a run of works by Charles Green Shaw that includes Sight, an oil on canvas from 1940, estimated at $8,000-$12,000; Separation, a 1939 gouache on board estimated at $7,000-$9,000; and Sacred Places, a 1942 oil on canvas estimated at $7,000-$9,000. Moving through the rest of America are abstract works by John Opper, Ibram Lassaw, Carl Holty, John Little, and more.

Examples of American Surrealism include James Guy’s Intellectual Merry-Go-Round, a 1940 oil on canvas estimated at $12,000-$18,000; Lorser Feitelson’s Sketch of Nudes, a 1944 oil on panel estimated at $9,000-$12,000; and Helen Lundeberg’s The Edge, a 1951 oil on board estimated at $7,000-$9,000. Modernist illustrators are represented by Clarence Holbrook Carter with a grouping of three 1955 watercolors: Pipeline, Plowing, and Coal, together estimated at $2,500-$3,500.

 

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