Nadeau’s celebrates New Year’s Day with Amelia Peláez, Giorgio de Chirico and Edward Gorey Jan. 1

Amelia Pelaez, 'Figura (Cubist Figure),' estimated at $40,000-$80,000 at Nadeau's Auction Gallery.

WINDSOR, Conn. — New Year’s Day sales are an annual tradition for many auction houses — the perfect antidote to parades, college football games and hangovers from the night before. Nadeau’s Auction Gallery marks the dawn of 2024 with its own annual sale, a monster 603 lots of fine art and collectibles for just about any interest. The catalog is now available for bidding at LiveAuctioneers.

Like many of her contemporaries, Avant Garde artist Amelia Peláez (1896-1968) would only find success in the marketplace after her passing, with her works now lovingly known as Amelias. Classically trained both in her native Cuba and in Paris at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, when she returned to Cuba in 1934, she found her country undergoing political turmoil that would eventually result in the Fidel Castro-led revolution in 1959. She turned much of her artistic focus to depictions of Afro-Cuban and peasant subjects through the lens of European Modernism.

Her Figura (Cubist Figure) from 1949 is a gouache on paper mounted to board measuring 42 by 27.75in. The sale’s top lot, it is estimated at $40,000-$80,000.

Born in Greece to Italian parents whose father was building a railroad there, Giorgio De Chirico (1888-1978) would return to Italy and develop into a fine artist, where he became an influence on the emerging school of Surrealism. Two Bucking Horses is a watercolor and gouache on paper that is very much in his neoclassical style. It is estimated at $10,000-$20,000.

Looking like it just stepped out of the pages of a 1970s Playboy article on tennis culture is Tennis by Edward Gorey (1929-2000). First exhibited in the Graham Gallery in New York in 1974, the piece is estimated at $6,000-$12,000.

First sold at Christie’s as part of its December 1995 dispersal of items from the estate of Frank Sinatra is this 84in-tall model of New York’s Empire State Building. The model can be seen next to Ol’ Blue Eyes in an interview sequence for an HBO special on his life. Returning to market from a private collection, the model is estimated at $6,000-$12,000.

Braque litho, Brazilian armchairs lead Auctions at Showplace sale

 Georges Braque, ‘La Rapace’, circa 1963

Georges Braque, ‘La Rapace,’ circa 1963

NEW YORK – On April 25, Auctions at Showplace will offer 280 lots from New York City metropolitan area estates, including a selection of fine designer jewelry from a 79th Street Upper East Side address, photography from New York Live Arts, 20th-century paintings and works on paper, furniture, decorative arts, and more. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.

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