Howard Finster, tractor enamel on board, titled ‘Coca-Cola, #1113.’ Image courtesy of Slotin Folk Art.
Internet live bidding will be facilitated by LiveAuctioneers.com.
The auction will provide bidders with an exciting mix of offerings by more than 500 top-tier artists. Auction-goers can expect to see examples of outsider and self-taught art, Southern folk pottery, African American quilts, weather vanes, tobacconist figures, Americana carvings, trade signs, tramp art, European art brut, vernacular photography, Haitian works, African art, religious art, erotica, antique and anonymous works, as well as some incredible new discoveries. Slotin Auction specializes in bringing the strange, the unusual and the vanishing America to auction.
“We’re calling this our Fall Masterpiece Sale, with the theme being “The Who’s Who in Folk Art,” said Steve Slotin of Slotin Auction, which is based in Buford. “This sale will feature amazing pieces by all the major self-taught art players, and many of the pieces have been exhibited in major museum and gallery shows. If a collector is interested in self-taught art, this sale will take their breath away.”
George and Sue Viener began collecting in 1970 and are considered to be early pioneers in the folk art genre. They found the bold colors and powerful sculpture of everyday necessities such as weather vanes and trade signs depicting objects for sale very powerful and moving. In the years that followed, they became scholars in the field and began collecting. In 1986, while vacationing in Santa Fe, N.M., they met Chuck and Jan Rosenak, authors of many reference books including The American Folk Art Museum’s Encyclopedia of 20th Century American Folk Art and Artists. The Rosenak’s became their friends and mentors in the field of self-taught art.
After several decades of collecting and study in the field, the Vieners are moving to smaller quarters nearer to their children and grandchildren and have decided to downsize their famous collection of art. “We are blessed to both love and have a passion for self-taught art,” the Vieners note. “We have traveled and met some very special artists, collectors, and dealers; making life-long friendships. We believe collectors have an obligation to be responsible custodians of what they consider to be important examples of objects produced by past generations and hope they find good homes.”
Some expected top lots of the auction follow, with accompanying high and low estimates.
Folk art legend, Bill Traylor, a freed slave who created works on the street corner in Alabama authored feature lot 118. Black Dog with Signature, pencil on cardboard, circa 1939-42, 14 inches x 11 inches, ex. collection of Joseph H. Wilkinson, the Viener Collection, with gallery stickers from Janet Fleisher Gallery, Philadelphia, and Hirschl & Adler Modern (est. $35,000-$45,000).
The Vieners, famous not only for their self-taught art collection, but for their premier collection of cigar store Indians have consigned a beauty, Lot 116, Cuban girl tobacconist figure, circa 1895, signed, J. Engle, 21 inches x 21 inches x 77 inches high, (est. $25,000-$35,000).
European Art Brut is well-represented at auction including lot 125. Man In Room and Blue Horse, a double-sided painting by Italian artist, Carlo Zinelli, signed and dated, 1967, image is 20 inches x 28 inches, ex. Greenberg Collection and Phyllis Kind Gallery.
A folk art masterpiece, Mr. and Mrs. Aaron, by Elijah Pierce takes center stage with a painted wood-relief plaque, signed and dated, 1974, 15 inches wide x 20 inches high, (est. $10,000-$15,000). Lot includes the original Ebony Magazine with The Aarons on the front cover that inspired this piece as well as a photographic copy of the piece signed by both Hank Aaron and his wife. It exhibited at Cahoon Museum of American Art, 2003.
Two folk art giants – coal miner Jack Savitsky and the Rev. Howard Finster will be featured in the sale. Savitsky’s Reading Railroad, oil on masonite, signed and dated, 1981, measures 49 inches wide x 25 inches high, should bring $8,000-$10,000, while Howard Finster’s Coca-Cola, #1,113, tractor enamel on board with handmade cypress trim frame, 16 1/2 inches wide x 31 1/2 inches high, provenance original Paradise Garden piece and Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York, is estimated at $3,000-$5,000.
A masterwork by Kentucky artist, Hugo Sperger, 20 Stages of Adam and Eve, In and Out of the Garden, acrylic on masonite, signed and dated, 1977, size with frame is 74 inches wide x 52 inches high, featured in Coming Home, 2004, Carousel Crown, pgs. 18 and 167, a double-page spread in O’Appalachia, pgs. 118-119, exhibited at Ursinus College, the Reading Public Library and illustrated in the New York Academy of Science, The Sciences, 1996, (est. $4,000-$6,000).
An important and timely piece, Martin Luther King Jr., by Atlanta artist Archie Byron, made of sawdust, glue and paint on board, signed and dated, 1974, 39 inches x 39 inches, exhibited at the Smithsonian, 2002-2004 and illustrated in Tinwood Books, pg. 138, should fetch $3,000-$5,000. Also, paintings by a new discovery, Lewis Bonnit Spencer, a Vietnam vet who was returned from suffering from physical and mental disabilities, will be featured, including the visually shocking, Meeting in the Lady’s Room,” circa 1994, oil on canvas, with the story behind the painting on verso, 24 inches wide x 36 inches high, (est. $1,000-$2,000).
The Meaders family, always Slotin Auction favorites – will be featured, with works such as a grape cluster decorated bean pot, by Arie Meaders, initialed and dated, 1969 (est. $1,000-$2,000) and Lanier Meaders’ 1960s double face rock tooth Politician Jug (est. $3,000-$4,000).
Finally, fine examples of self-taught art by Edgar Tolson, William Dawson, Minnie Evans, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Sam Doyle, S.L. Jones, Clementine Hunter, James Castle, Nellie Mae Rowe, Thornton Dial, Raymond Coins, Daniel Pressley, Ulysses Davis, Jesse Howard, Purvis Young, and so many others will also make their way to the auction block on Nov. 12-13.
The Historic Buford Hall is located at 112 E. Shadburn Ave. in Buford, Ga., 45 minutes north of downtown Atlanta. The auction will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern on Saturday and noon on Sunday. Previews will be held Thursday, Nov. 10, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; and on Friday, Nov. 11, 10 a.m.-9 p.m., or by appointment. Phone and absentee bids will also be taken. Slotin Auction’s next big event after this one will be the Spring Masterpiece Sale at Historic Buford Hall.
Slotin Auction is always accepting quality consignments for future sales. To consign a single piece or an entire collection, phone 770-532-1115 or 404-403-4244. Or email them at auction@slotinfolkart.com. To learn more about Slotin Auction and the calendar of upcoming events, log on to www.slotinfolkart.com.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
Bill Traylor, paint and pencil on cardboard by freed slave, Bill Traylor, Lot 118. ‘Dog with Signature.’ Image courtesy of Slotin Folk Art. J. Engle, well-carved and polychromed wood, circa 1895, Cuban girl tobacconist figure. Image courtesy of Slotin Folk Art. Carlo Zinelli, double-sided paint on paper, 1967, titled ‘Man In Room and Blue Horse.’ Image courtesy of Slotin Folk Art. Elijah Pierce, carved and painted wood-relief plaque, 1974, titled ‘Mr. and Mrs. Aaron,’. Image courtesy of Slotin Folk Art. Jack Savitsky, oil on masonite, 1981, titled ‘Reading Railroad.’ Image courtesy of Slotin Folk Art.
