Study for Rockwell’s ‘How Goes the War on Poverty’ may command $200,000
A three-auction event set for Dec. 10-11 at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers will bring before bidders American and European and Contemporary art, including a 1965 study for a Norman Rockwell painting, that was reproduced on the cover of Look magazine and accompanied an article on Lyndon B. Johnson’s legislation program to address high poverty in the United States.
CHICAGO — Leslie Hindman Auctioneers will host three upcoming Fine Art sales with a unique concentration of modern and contemporary work. The first of the three is an American and European Art sale set for Wed. Dec. 10, followed by a Modern and Contemporary Art sale, which will take place on Thursday, December 11 at 10 a.m. CST alongside a Fine Prints sale, to begin at 3 p.m. also on Dec. 11.
The American and European sale includes nearly 200 lots and will feature works ranging from the 15th to the 20th centuries. Highlighting the auction is a 1965 study for
Norman Rockwell's painting How Goes the War on Poverty, which was reproduced in Look magazine on July 27, 1965 ($100,000-$200,000). The image accompanied an article on Lyndon B. Johnson's legislation program to address high poverty in the United States.
American Impressionism is well represented with three light-filled compositions by Edward Henry Potthast: The Bathers ($80,000-$120,000), Children in Meadow ($50,000-$70,000) and Old Mill on Brandywine ($15,000-$25,000). Additional high spots in American paintings include Grandma Moses’ In the Camp ($50,000-$70,000) and a pair of portraits titled Mr. and Mrs. Hilmer Schumacher by Joshua Johnson ($25,000-$35,000), one of the first recorded African-American artists in the U.S.
A strong selection of Old Master paintings is also on offer, leading with Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saint Vincentes Ferre and Bernardinus ($60,000/80,0000) by Italian artist Pietro Alamanno. Other European highlights include Venetian Canal ($30,000/50,000), a sparkling view of the water-bound city by Federico del Campo, and Russian artist Ivan Fedorovich Choultsé’s Petite eglise dans la haute montange ($20,000/40,000) depicting a snow-bound church among undulating mountains.
Portraying three athletes as they stretch for the finish line, Alfred Boucher’s sculpture Au But! ($40,000/60,000) is one of his best-known models. The forcefulness of the sculpture is based on the dynamism of the athletes, precariously balanced on the base.
The Modern and Contemporary Art sale, set for Dec. 11, will feature more than 160 lots from artists working in the Post-War period to contemporary artists practicing today. The painting session is highlighted by a mid-sixties portrait of Elaine de Kooning by Alex Katz ($150,000-$250,000), which was exhibited in his 1971 and 1972 traveling
retrospective. Elaine also worked during the Postwar period as a painter utilizing an expressionist style. She married painter Willem de Kooning who is represented in the sale by an abstract painting on vellum ($30,000-$50,000).
Additional paintings include a large-scale Gene Davis line painting ($40,000-$50,000) and Juan Genovés’ En torno a la prohibicion ($50,000-$70,000), which was featured in Stuart Cooper’s 1969 film about the artist, A Test of Violence: The Paintings of Juan Genovés. The sculpture session is anchored by John Chamberlain’s Fixed Mysterious ($60,000-$80,000), a Deborah Butterfield twig and mud horse ($25,000-$35,000) and an elegant Alexander Archipenko black glazed terracotta sculpture Floating Torso with Head ($40,000-$60,000).
A strong group of works on paper includes drawings by Latin artists Fernado Botero, Rufino Tamayo and Francisco Toledo. Also notable are playful approaches to landscape drawing by Salvador Dali and Joseph Yoakum. Iconic examples of Diane Arbus’ black and white portraiture stand out in the photograph session that also includes dynamic works by Walker Evans, Nan Goldin, Annie Liebowitz, Thomas Ruff and Cindy Sherman.
The Fine Prints auction contains more than 250 lots and will include modern works from the collection of former museum director and author Gerald Nordland. Highlights from the Nordland Collection include a number of boldly colored abstract lithographs by Chicago native Emerson Woelffer. Woelffer worked at the Institute of Design under Moholy-Nagy in 1942 and later was instrumental in bringing Modernism to Los Angeles where he taught at the California Institute of the Arts from 1959 to 1973.
Also included is a fine selection of Old Master and 19th and early 20th century prints. Of special note in the Modern and Contemporary sale is Picasso’s 1962 color linocut Femme assise au chignon, 24/50 ($30,000-$50,000), Damien Hirst’s 2007 color aquatint Flumequine ($15,000-$25,000) and David Hockney’s 1980 lithograph Celia in an Armchair ($15,000-$25,000).
The lots in these auctions are available for preview Dec. 4 through Dec. 9. For more information visit www.lesliehindmanauctioneers.com or call 312-280-1212.
