Feast your eyes: PBA Galleries offers Margaret Keane painting, July 28

Margaret Keane, ‘Girl with Lace Gloves,’ est. $15,000-$25,000

BERKELEY, Calif. – On Thursday, July 28, PBA Galleries will host Part II of the Jack and Beverly Waltman Collection of Photography and Art with Additions. The nearly 450 lots feature photographers of the legendary Group f/64, including Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, Ansel Adams, Peter Stackpole, Brett Weston and Sonya Noskowiak. Also represented are several notable photographers of the next generation, including John Sexton, Morley Baer and Jerry Uelsmann. Complementing the Waltman collection are several exquisite prints and artists’ books, including work by Robert Motherwell, the artists of the Berlin Secession and George Grosz. A poster collection featuring work by David Lance Goines and the Bay Area rock poster artists of the 1960s rounds out the sale. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.

Thunderstorm, Yosemite Valley, printed and signed by Ansel Adams, highlights the sale. The image is one of five parts of the deluxe edition of Yosemite and the Range of Light. It is pencil-signed and numbered by Adams on board and has a New York Graphic Society label on the reverse. It carries an estimate of $15,000-$25,000.

Ansel Adams, ‘Thunderstorm, Yosemite Valley,’ est. $15,000-$25,000

Another undisputed prize in the July 28 sale is a deluxe edition of the Arion Press Ulysses, which includes 40 etchings by Robert Motherwell on 20 folded leaves, some with color backgrounds. This offering is one of 40 with an additional suite of 22 Robert Motherwell etchings presented in an original cloth-covered clamshell box matching the volume’s slipcase. The volume is signed by Motherwell at the limitation, and each etching in the additional suite is signed in initials and numbered. This is a beautifully-printed edition of one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. It is estimated at $30,000-$50,000.

Arion Press deluxe edition of ‘Ulysses’ with illustrations by Robert Motherwell, est. $30,000-$50,000

Girl with Lace Gloves, an original oil on canvas by the late Margaret Keane, also graces the auction. Keane, who passed away on June 26, was known for her paintings of children with large eyes and was the subject of Tim Burton’s 2014 film Big Eyes. Keane’s ex-husband, Walter Keane, originally passed her work off as his, but she famously vanquished him in a court room paint-off in which she created a characteristic Keane work before an audience. Girl with Lace Gloves is estimated at $15,000-$25,000.

The cover lot of the sale’s print catalog is a signed photograph by Ted Orland. Scenes of Wonder & Curiosity in California pays homage to the late Jerry N. Uelsmann with the penciled caption, “Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham Awarding Jerry Uelsmann the Title of Honorary West Coast Philosopher at Weston Beach, Point Lobos 1969.” It is estimated at $500-$800.

PBA Galleries is open by appointment only. For more information about upcoming sales, to schedule a Zoom preview or phone bidding for a future auction, please call 415-989-2665 or email pba@pbagalleries.com.

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