KNOXVILLE, TN — The Summer Fine Art and Antiques sale on July 6 at Case Antiques provided collectors with quality works by many prominent 20th-century artists, many of which sold far above their high estimates. Complete results are available at LiveAuctioneers.
The sale’s top seller was High Pass, a magna acrylic on canvas from Friedel Dzubas (1915-1994). The Abstract Expressionist work was signed, titled, and dated 1976 on the reverse, alongside an M. Knoedler Gallery label. Born in Germany and having fled to the United States in 1939, Dzubas is credited with being in the vanguard on the stain painting technique. He is most often associated with Abstract Expressionists such as Jackson Pollock, Clement Greenberg, and Helen Frankenthaler. Estimated at $78,000-$82,000, High Pass hammered for $130,000, or $169,000 with buyer’s premium.
Catherine Wiley (1879-1958) is regarded as one of Tennessee’s most important nationally recognized artists. She studied at the Art Students League in New York and won numerous prizes, including two Gold Medals at the Appalachian Exposition in 1910. Her paintings were exhibited at prominent American venues including the National Academy of Design in New York and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Sadly, her career ended with mental collapse in 1926, leaving her institutionalized until her death. Though untitled, Woman with Green Parasol is a quintessential Wiley work featuring a lovely young woman sitting atop a split-rail fence. Estimated at $60,000-$70,000, it hammered for $120,000, or $156,000 with buyer’s premium.
Though somewhat forgotten today, Alberto Burri (1915-1995) was a medical doctor and a prominent postwar artist who successfully blurred the lines between sculpture and painting. Using the materialist style, his works feature texture and light to convey his themes. Combustione.T.2. is a 1960 paper, acrylic, fabric, and combustion on canvas mixed media abstract Art Informel collage. Bidders at Case hadn’t forgotten Burri. They pushed the work well beyond its estimate of $38,000-$42,000, all the way to $110,000 ($143,000 with buyer’s premium).
