Chicago Art Auction, Paschke, Origin, 1995 (Courtesy of Rago/Wright/Toomey & Co.)
This Friday, a Chicago auction house will devote an entire sale to Chicago artwork from the past 100+ years.
The auction is titled “Elevated: Art Via Chicago.” It takes place 11 a.m. Friday, Feb. 23, at Wright/Toomey & Co., specialists in 20th century art and design.
The show is currently in preview. You can visit in person or view all 72 lots online, where you’ll see pre-auction estimates and starting bids.
Even if you can’t afford to bid, it’s an education to discover what’s out there and its estimated value. Because perhaps one day you’ll find a work by one of these Chicago artists at a yard sale. Or maybe you just reaped a windfall that allows you to bid thousands of dollars on an Ed Paschke or six figures for an original Gertrude Abercrombie.
Gertrude who?
Abercrombie was a decidedly odd Chicago artist with a surreal visual vocabulary and a penchant to paint herself as a mysterious woman or a witch. She knew an astounding group of artists — her pal Dizzy Gillespie performed at her wedding — and the value of her paintings has gone through the roof in recent years.
“Her market has changed a great deal,” auction director and senior specialist Joe Stanfield told WTTW News. “There’s actually an Abercrombie painting in the sale that I’m selling for the second time. In 2012, ‘Sunset’ sold for $13,000. Now we have it in for $70,000-90,000, and I anticipate it more than likely going into the six figures. It’s a market that has shot up just in the last five years.”
Chicago Art Auction, Gertrude Abercrombie, Sunrise, 1954 (Courtesy of Rago/Wright/Toomey & Co.)
Also included in the auction: prominent Chicago Imagists and selections from the many modernist movements embraced by city artists, from impressionism to surrealism. There are cityscapes, abstract works and photography. There is work by Richard Hunt, Gladys Nilsson, Karl Wirsum, Ruth Duckworth and Wesley Willis. The still-active artist Leo Segedin is represented by two paintings he made 70 years apart.
Stanfield spoke about the breadth of the auction: “It’s over 100 years of art history for Chicago, starting with Adam Emory Albright right up to Hebru Brantley.”
The father of artist Ivan Albright, Adam Emory Albright was an esteemed painter in his own right. In the auction he has two paintings, including “Boy and Girl Planting a Field,” a regionalist work from 1901. The starting bid is $2,000 with an auction estimate of $3,000-5,000.
Brantley’s work “BLK LVS MATR” is acrylic and diamond dust on canvas and features his famous character, Flyboy. The auction estimate is $20,000-30,000 with a starting bid of $16,000.
Chicago Art Auction, Hebru Brantley, BLK LVS MATR, 2015 (Courtesy of Rago/Wright/Toomey & Co.)
Starting bids for many works are in the hundreds of dollars, but don’t expect them to stay at that price point for long. And if you’ve got a few grand to spare, there are several ways to bid.
“You can certainly come and bid live and get a paddle the old school way,” Stanfield said, “but the majority of our clients bid online or over the phone.”
Is there practical advice for first-time bidders wanting to possess of a piece of Chicago-made art?
“My advice for bidding is the same in any auction: Buy what you are in love with,” Stanfield said. “Buy what gets you excited.”
Any dark horses in the group?
“I think the Margo Hoff (“Dream of Flying”) is a really exceptional painting and has a visual that people are excited about,” Stanfield said. “I think that painting is going to do much better than our pre-auction estimates ($7,000-9,000). It deserves to. It’s a fabulous painting by an important female Chicago artist whose market, I think, is primed to go up.”
One thing seems certain — art by Chicago artists is ascendant.
Note: This article has been updated to reflect the current name of the auction house, Wright/Toomey & Co.
Chicago Art Auction, Margo Hoff, Dream of Flying, 1950 (Courtesy of Rago/Wright/Toomey & Co.)
