CGN Art World Recap: 6/23/22
The Art Newspaper Spotlight's Fall Auction of works by Gertrude Abercrombie at HINDMAN
Via The Art Newspaper
It seems that the art world has finally caught up with Gertrude Abercrombie. While her work has always been well regarded, until recently the market had failed to fully appreciate Abercrombie’s charming and delicate Surrealist works. That changed in February this year, when Chicago’s Hindman Auctions sold her small painting The Dinosaur (1964) for $387,500 (with fees) against an estimate of $30,000-$50,000, marking a worldwide artist record. With the recent surge of interest in Surrealism it is no wonder that Abercrombie’s work is being looked at more closely (even if one needs a magnifying glass to do so).
In September, Hindman will bring to the market Casting Spells: The Gertrude Abercrombie Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer. The single owner, single artist sale will see 21 of Abercrombie's most significant works, including the mystical Self and Cat (Possims) (1953), one of the physically largest works by the artist, who is known for minute and richly detailed paintings that can sometimes be no larger than a postage stamp.
Danny Torres, Tony Fitzpatrick Protege, Interviewed by Chicago Tribune
Via Chicago Tribune
This latest art adventure began with the heart attack [artist Tony] Fitzpatrick suffered in 2015. “My cardiac rehab nurse was this wonderful woman named Rosa at St. Mary’s Hospital. She told me her nephew was an artist and asked if I would meet with him.”
Of course, he said yes.
That artist was Danny Torres, some three decades younger than Fitzpatrick, who has a long history of encouraging and mentoring younger artists.
“So I came and met Tony and we just sat there talking and it was like we had known each other forever,” Torres told me. “It was like in that movie, ‘Back to the Future,’ where Marty meets his older self.”
Gray Gallery Named one of ARTnews Best Booth's at Art Basel
Via ARTnews
This year’s Unlimited section features 70 large-scale works, including Theaster Gates’s Hardware Store Painting (2020–22), which measures 16 feet by 28 feet. Presented by Gray, this installation memorializes a family-owned True Value hardware store formerly located on Chicago’s South Side and then turned into an artistic material. Gates, whose practice is deeply invested in the preservation of neglected social and cultural histories of his hometown, acquired the store and all of its merchandise in 2014; he has continued to activate the Halsted True Value Hardware archive since 2016. Aware of the value of such places for local communities, the interdisciplinary artist invites viewers to look beyond the objects: “The hardware store is the atlas. Like so many encyclopedic forms, it reminds us of a singular vocabulary, a homeland, a material sanctuary that unfortunately has its end when the form of exchange is no longer convenient.”