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Maine Antique Digest, March 2017 27-B
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AUCTION -
27-B
Slotin Folk Art Auction, Buford, Georgia
Slotin Folk Art:
A Mix of Art and Art Forms
by Marty Steiner
Photos courtesy Slotin Folk Art Auction
F
olk artists come and go, and collectors and buyers
come and go, but the Slotin Folk Art auctions keep
presenting a broad range of material ranging from
masters that sell for five digits to new discoveries that
sell for moderate prices. The November 12 and 13, 2016,
sale offered nearly 1100 lots of a beautiful mix of art and
art forms. All prices include buyer’s premium.
As always, the first day began with folk pottery—114
lots that ranged from a Jack and Jessie Meaders duck
that sold for only $30 to a Lanier Meaders face jug with
china teeth that sold for $3120 and a Dave five-gallon
storage jar with “LM” and “X” script that brought $6000.
Carnival and circus-related lots, including eight carousel
items, ranged from a 39" fortune teller’s zodiac sign
that sold for $60 to a “Calf with Two Heads” sideshow
banner that brought $2520. Religious banners ranged
from $1200 to $7800 for a 1940s banner depicting scenes
from the book of Revelation.
As bidders settled in, the stars of the sale were offered
and sold, one after the other. The Slotin sales usually
group the expected high-dollar lots near the beginning
of the first day.
Again a Bill Traylor work took top honors.
Purple
and Green Man with Umbrella
,
a small 11½" x 8" pencil
and crayon drawing on the back of a candy advertising
card, brought $73,200. Traylor, who died in 1949 at the
age of 96, began to draw only after moving in 1939 to
Montgomery, Alabama, after a life of sharecropping
in rural Alabama. His materials in the early years, as
with many self-taught artists, included found paper and
cardboard as the canvas and pencils and crayons as the
medium. Although it is estimated that he produced about
1500 drawings, only one or two appear in any single
auction. Another Traylor drawing, dated 1939 and titled
Preacher…Hat…Beard…Cheeks
, followed close behind,
realizing $27,600. Both of these were Traylor’s early
work with simple single figures. Traylor did not live to
see the popularity of his work or to share in its financial
worth.
The lone William Hawkins work in this sale,
Yellow
Stegosaurus
, an enamel oil on 4' x 4' plywood, reached
$30,000. With the usual “William Hawkins Born Ky
July 27 1895” painted on the bottom, it also featured
his bold colors and generous form of a creature. Traylor
and Hawkins were each befriended early in their
painting careers by another artist who provided better
than “found” materials and helped promote their work
through exhibits.
With provenance that included the Jonathan Demme
collection and museum exhibits in Connecticut and San
Diego, Ellis Ruley’s
Hippos
,
30" x 24", house paint on
masonite, was the auction catalog cover illustration.
Ruley lived and worked in Norwich, Connecticut, and
frequently painted scenes with animals, usually with
house paint. Ruley’s work is seldom seen at auction.
Hippos
sold for $12,600.
Three Sam Doyle works were offered, two on found
roofing tin and one on found board. Doyle used available
paint, which was usually house paint.
School Gal
brought $20,400;
Annunciation
, $11,400; and
Shepherds
,
$10,800. The last two sold slightly below expectations.
S.L. Jones, one of the few folk artists who worked
in both carved and painted three-dimensional forms
and paintings, had two carved and painted wood busts
in the sale. His
Man with Red Bow Tie
was the high-
dollar three-dimensional form at $7320, and his
Woman
reached only $1560. What happened to equal pay for
men and women?
Carnival collectors need to put the Slotin sales on their
radar. Even though many of the banners, signs, posters,
puppets, and knockdowns were commercially produced,
and a large number were created by trained artists, they
are still regarded as folk art. And even though many
carousel animals were carved by specialty shops, they
are also considered folk art. This sale offered three freak
show banners, paint on canvas, including a 1950s 4' x 6'
banner advertising a two-headed calf that sold for $2520,
a 1970s 7' x 5' banner of a “Human Volcano” fire eater
that brought $480, and a 6½' x 9½' somewhat erotic
“Prince Buddah” that made $720.
Carousel items included six carved English horses,
a carved chair side, and an American lion with saddle.
Carousel decorative elements included a mirrored panel
that brought $660, and a papier-mâché clown face panel
also brought $660.
Standout artists seem to vary from sale to sale as
aficionados of a particular artist’s work participate in the
sale. Prophet Royal Robertson works were particularly
strong in this sale. Four of his seven paintings significantly
exceeded their catalog high estimates. Each of these four
highfliers was double sided, with an erotic scene on the
front and a calendar on the back.
Typically the second day, Sunday,
becomes a duel between online and left
bidders against a much smaller in-house
group. The days of bargains and lesser-known artist
offerings on the second day are in the past. The Slotin
sales now include additional material from well-known
and highly regarded artists on the second day. Among
the 460 lots were many by well-recognized folk artists
such as Charley Kinney, Justin McCarthy, Lorenzo Scott,
Purvis Young, R.A. Miller, Jack Savitsky, Mose Tolliver
and family, S.L. Jones, and Howard Finster.
Charley Kinney (1906-1991) usually worked in pencil
and paint or watercolors and depicted animals (some
fantasy), farm scenes, and faith subjects. Many are
phonetically titled, with country Kentucky overtones.
Kinney is known primarily for his animals, and his 28" x
22"
White Owl
on poster board reached $480.
Justin McCarthy’s work is collected in many major
museums. He depicts glamorous women and famous
people such as in his
Harlem Globe Trotters
that was
formed with six individual watercolor on paper images
applied to a standard poster. It sold for $1440. The other
two McCarthy works in the sale ranged from $90 for two
crayon-on-paper
Women
to $480 for
Four Hollywood
Starlets
,
composed of four individual watercolor and ink
portraits glued to a manila folder
.
Georgia-born Lorenzo Scott (b. 1934) is particularly
known for his faith-focused subjects in handmade Bondo
frames. His paintings frequently resemble folk versions
of Classical masters paintings that have inspired him.
Scott’s ten oil paintings in this sale ranged from $120 for
Woman in Green
to $960 for
Mary and Baby Jesus
.
Work by Miami, Florida, native Purvis Young (1943-
2010) is readily identifiable and looks like finger
painting. Generally in paint on found paper stock, his
images of people have a vague spirit-like look to them.
Young is also known for pasting his artwork on the pages
of books or magazines to create an entire volume of art.
The sale offered ten lots of his work.
Six Figures
,
a 28"
x 23" framed paint and ink of outlined people, brought
$150, and three of his painting-filled books brought
$2880.
Travelers through the Gainesville, Georgia, area in the
1990s might have encountered a yard full of “yard art”
made from cutout metal figures including “Blow Oskar,”
a reference to R.A. Miller’s cousin, who would blow his
car horn whenever he drove by. Six tin cutouts and three
oils on found material by Miller (1912-2006) were sold,
including a cutout angel for $90 and a pair of painted
snakes, one on wood and one on tin, for $900.
David Butler (1898-1997) also worked in cutout tin and
paint. Seven examples of Butler’s work sold, including a
double-sided erotic man for $600 and a flying elephant
with a heart and arrow for $3000.
Again a Bill Traylor work took top honors.
This Bill Traylor (1854-1949)
Purple and Green Man
with Umbrella
, crayon and pencil on the back of a
found World War II era 11½" x 8" cardboard candy
poster, sold for $73,200.
With provenance that includes Charles Shannon, an
early friend and supporter of Bill Traylor, this dated
1939 and signed
Preacher…Hat…Beard…Cheeks
reached $27,600. It is crayon over pencil on 9½" x
5¼" found cardstock.
One of three Sam Doyle (1906-1985) paintings on
found material in this sale was
School Gal
,
this 35"
x 26" paint on roofing tin. The buxom lady was
originally purchased directly from Doyle out of his
environmental yard display in 1976. She brought
$20,400 at this Slotin sale.