Larger than life mixed media sculpture of a knight wearing chain mail and a copper garment and holding lance. Roland Auctions image.
LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
While Charles Lamb (1925-2013) enjoyed a successful career as a furniture designer, he created a personal oeuvre of metal sculptures, paintings, jewelry and wood carvings in secret while working in a secluded barn in upstate New York. The impressive works of art were known only to his close circle of family and friends until attorney Brian Rourke made it his mission to make Lamb’s work known to the public.
He called New York City auctioneer Bill Roland to assess, organize and sell the collection for the benefit of Doctors Without Borders. The auction will be a day of discovery for knowledgeable dealers and collectors.
According to interviews with Lamb’s family, the artist was born in Iowa, served in World War II and was educated at Stanford University. While there he studied engineering and gained a degree in English and theater arts.
Lamb went on to become an actor and then manager of the Dobbs Ferry Players. When the theater group folded, Lamb turned to making custom-designed furniture. His clients included jazz great Stan Getz.
As a sculptor and fine artist, Lamb was self-taught. At some point in the mid-1960s to early ’70s he acquired a barn in Livingston Manor and turned it into a metal-working studio, where he systematically improved on the rudiments of welding, metal casting – including lost wax bronze – and other technical/creative skill sets he had acquired as a young adult. Working in solitude, he passionately produced the works of art that will be in the Roland Auction sale.
In the 1970s his first wife’s achievements as an advertising executive made it possible for Lamb to retire from the making of custom furniture. He turned full-time to the pursuit of his personal art form, referring to his need to create as “my curse.”
For several decades, Charles Lamb surrounded himself with the beauty he created. He worked in welded steel, bronze and carved wood. He produced monumental figurative works, the sources of his inspiration wildly divergent and based on what he read and understood from civilizations and mythology across time and space.
According to Cynthia Pappas, Roland Auctions specialist, the works are informed by nature, antiquities and history. “In some pieces,” she said, “you can see literal references morphing into stylized motifs that can only have sprung from the imagination.” For example, a chess set composed of figures inspired by medieval legend, some knights are clothed in miniature handmade chain mail. It is the sort of remarkable detailing that may not be unusual among trained artists but is a rarity among autodidacts.
When the property of Charles Lamb, outsider artist, comes to auction on June 14 at Roland Auctions, there will be more than 200 singular lots to entice buyers. In addition, more than 300 lots of Asian and other antiques from the artist’s private collection will add to the day’s excitement. One highlight is a pair of Italian 16th century doors removed from a church destroyed after bombing during World War II.
For details on the collection of Orientalia and Asian art as well as the unique works of outsider art from the private studio of Charles Lamb, call the gallery director Michael Podniesinski at 212-260-2000 or email michael@rolandauctions.com.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
Larger than life mixed media sculpture of a knight wearing chain mail and a copper garment and holding lance. Roland Auctions image. Monumental mixed metal dragon with articulated scales. Roland Auctions image. One of dozens of bronze models of a deciduous tree. Roland Auctions image.
