CHICAGO – A new world auction record for a work by Gertrude Abercrombie was set at Freeman’s Hindman in its September 25 Post War and Contemporary Art sale. Titled The Magician and dating to 1956, the oil on Masonite featured the mysterious Surrealist imagery for which Abercrombie (1909-1977) is known. It achieved $469,900 with buyer’s premium against an estimate of $70,000-$90,000. Full results for the sale can be seen at LiveAuctioneers.
Magic-related themes began appearing in Abercrombie’s work in the 1950s. The Magician does not picture a slick, top-hatted performer in a tuxedo, but it does show a long-haired woman in a red-orange dress serenely floating above a chaise longue, as if she was the volunteer for a levitation trick.
At the lower left, a small black cat with its back to the viewer raises a paw, as if commanding the supine woman to rise. Cats are a favored motif in Abercrombie’s oeuvre, as is the wry wit represented by styling a cat as a magician. So too are paintings rendered at a small scale: The Magician, which had survived with its original frame, measures 7 ¾ by 10in. In its postsale release, Freeman’s Hindman observed that The Magician was of a piece with Abercrombie’s 1958 painting Floating Lady, as well as a 1964 work dubbed Untitled (Levitation).
Freeman’s Hindman Senior Vice President and Head of Department for Post War and Contemporary Art Zack Wirsum said: “The title of the work withstanding, it was no magic trick to realize a new world record price for the artist with the sale of Gertrude Abercrombie’s spellbinding painting The Magician. Masterpieces just have a way of rising above and beyond any occasion and even lofty expectations.”
The previous auction record for Gertrude Abercrombie was set at Freeman’s Hindman, then called Hindman, in December 2022. Untitled (Woman with Tethered Horse and Moon), a 1947 oil on canvas, realized $437,500 with buyer’s premium against an estimate of $80,000-$120,000. The auction house also set a record for the artist in February 2022, when The Dinosaur, a 1964 oil on panel, earned $387,500 with buyer’s premium against an estimate of $30,000-$50,000.
Untitled (Woman with Tethered Horse and Moon) was relatively large for an Abercrombie, measuring 23 by 28in, and it was given by Abercrombie as a wedding present to her husband’s brother and his wife, Irvin Livingston, Jr and Jean Livingston, after which it descended in their family.
Since Auction Central News published a Bid Smart article on Gertrude Abercrombie in February 2023, five of her works have hammered for six-figure sums, including The Magician.
