Loving Lichtenstein

March 21st, 2015

Rachel Davis Fine Arts, Cleveland, Ohio

Photos courtesy Rachel Davis Fine Arts

The saying “Well, one thing is for certain.” could never apply to any auction, let alone the March 21 Rachel Davis Fine Arts auction in Cleveland, Ohio. While the sale’s featured lots by Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) did not disappoint, several other artists’ works greatly surprised. As with all of this auction house’s events, Rachel Davis’s ability to bring to life the back story of each lot not only helps generate strong bids but entices new collectors to make that first buy and keeps her loyal clientele coming back for more.

The story this day was the Lichtensteins—all six of them. Rachel Davis explained how these artworks came to be sold through her gallery.

“The six Lichtensteins in the sale all came from the same consignor,” she said. “He had read a press release from when we sold the Lichtenstein out of the Joseph O’Sickey estate last March. He called and said he had about fourteen of this artist’s works.”

Davis went on to say, “The consignor’s father, Roy Pearce, a professor of literature, befriended Lichtenstein in Columbus, where the artist earned his bachelor’s degree in 1946 and completed a master of fine arts degree in 1949. Lichtenstein stayed on to teach at Ohio State until 1951, when he and his first wife, the former Isabel Wilson, moved to Cleveland.”

According to Davis, “Once in Cleveland, Lichtenstein taught at the now-defunct Cooper School [of Art], worked as a draftsman at Republic Steel, decorated windows at Halle’s department store, and held other jobs. He also befriended Cleveland artist Joseph O’Sickey, who died in 2013. During his years in Cleveland, Lichtenstein was inspired by a book he borrowed from Pearce about the 19th-century American painter George Catlin, who specialized in portraits of American Indians. Intrigued, Lichtenstein also studied the 19th-century paintings of Indians by Alfred Jacob Miller, Karl Bodmer, and Albert Bierstadt. He decided to revise their imagery in a humorous, Modernist vein based on the Cubist-style geometric paintings of Pablo Picasso.”

Davis cited a 2005 review in the New York Times by Grace Glueck, explaining that Lichtenstein told an interviewer that he was “taking the kind of stodgy pictures you see in history textbooks and redoing them in a modern-art way.” Lichtenstein pursued his Indian-themed paintings throughout his six years in Cleveland, before leaving to take a job teaching at the State University of New York at Oswego in 1957.

Five of the Lichtensteins had a Native American theme. Two Sioux (est. $40,000/60,000), a 30" x 22" oil on canvas done in 1952, signed lower right, made $70,800 (including buyer’s premium) and will be going to Germany. Two Sioux is slated to be included in the catalogue raisonné being prepared by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, as are two of the other Lichtensteins that sold: Indian with Pipe (est. $20,000/30,000), a 1953 oil on canvas that brought $70,800, and General Custer (est. $25,000/35,000), a 1951 watercolor and colored pencil or crayon on paper that went for $44,250.

In excellent condition, Lichtenstein’s Indians Pursued by American Dragoons (Cortlett 19), a 1952 etching and aquatint, did well at $11,210 (est. $5000/8000), going into a private collection in Ohio and underbid by a New York gallery. His To Battle (Cortlett 9), a 1950 woodcut on kraft paper, was not in the best condition, but it still made a strong price of $6490 (est. $2000/4000).

“I was concerned about the condition of the [latter] work, but Lichtenstein’s early prints were done in such small numbers, and it is not really known how many survived,” Davis pointed out. The final price indicates that collectors are eager to own these scarce works despite condition flaws.

The top lot of the six Lichtensteins—and of the entire sale, actually—was surprisingly not related to Native Americans. Instead, The Valve, a 1954 oil on canvas estimated at $20,000/40,000, made a statement by bringing $188,800. “The importance of this image,” Davis stated, “is one can start to see Lichtenstein moving toward his Pop period. He is starting to look at everyday items, reducing shapes, and heading toward a more simplified primary color palette.”

Though Lichtenstein was a headliner, many other artworks garnered their share of attention. For example, a 17th-century European school oil on canvas Portrait of a Roman Lady was a surprise, selling for $47,200 against an estimate of a mere $1000/2000.

“This was consigned by a local collector.” Davis explained. “Back in 1920, Mrs. Liberty Holden gifted a large portion of her collection to the Cleveland Museum of Art. This was one work they chose not to accept. I have no idea what made it valuable, but by sale day we had four European bidders on the phone. The Internet underbid it, and it sold to a London buyer.”

Destroying its presale estimate of $600/900 was a 26" x 19" gouache on paper portrait by André Suréda (French, 1872-1930). Signed “A. Suréda / 1913,” Seated Woman sold for $3540.

Ceramic vessels by Claude Conover (1907-1994) continue to draw strong prices at auction. All the pots offered at this March auction came from an Arizona collection. Conover’s daughter explained that besides Potter & Mellen Inc. (which carried the artist’s ceramics in Cleveland), Conover was also represented by a gallery in New York and a gallery in Arizona. Davis remarked, “The daughter said every so often he [Conover] would load up his station wagon and take more inventory to these galleries.”

Ehelac, 21½" high, made $7080 (est. $4000/6000); Kalac, 21" high, brought $5605 (est. $4000/6000); and Uviltuk, 20½" high, sold for $4720 (est. $3000/5000). All three pots are headed to California.

Davis was quite pleased with the auction. With sales totaling $720,000 and a sell-through rate of 90%, it is easy to see why. “We had three Internet bidding sites for this auction: LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable, and Bidsquare,” Davis pointed out, adding, “and a good crowd in the room by today’s standards, maybe seventy people, which made for a great auction.”

For more information, contact Rachel Davis Fine Arts at (216) 939-1190; website (www.racheldavisfinearts.com).

Originally published in the June 2015 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2015 Maine Antique Digest