$21,590
Estimate: $3,000 - $5,000
What Do You See? The Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Part II
Auction: February 28, 2024 at 12 PM ET
Signed ‘Graves ’53' bottom right, charcoal and ink on paper
Sheet size: 30 x 20 in. (76.2 x 50.8cm)
Willard Gallery, New York, New York.
Sotheby's Arcade, New York, sale of June 23, 1987, lot 409.
Acquired directly from the above sale.
The Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“Paintings, Drawings and Sculptures Collected by Yale Alumni,” Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, May 19-June 26, 1960, no. 215.
Paintings, Drawings and Sculptures Collected by Yale Alumni, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 1960, no. 215 (illustrated).
Rothberg turned to Graves for his mystical qualities, which echoed several other works in his large Collection. This is not entirely surprising as Graves was one of a group of four artists from the Pacific Northwest known as The Mystics, who were celebrated for their “remarkable art of shimmering lines and symbolic forms,” and that “embody a mystical feeling toward life and the universe."
Graves' mostly painted fauna, especially birds, which he rendered in a very spare, fluid way that recall his deep love for Asian Art. Here, the Young Gander stands proudly, with a hint of humor, uncanny in side-eye stare. Executed quickly with an economy of line and color, the bird almost stands as a totem, a symbol.