Clarke's Seventh Fine Art Auction - Four Centuries, Four Hours - Monday, November 16th.

    LARCHMONT, NY, November 10, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- On Monday, November 16th at 6:00 pm, Clarke Auction, will open its Seventh Fine Art Auction to live, telephone and left bids; as well as online Internet bidding. Clarke, known for discovering the exceptional, is again offering works by artists rarely if ever seen at auction.

African-American Fine Art, a Clarke strength, features a mixed metal bas relief by the late Greg Ridley as well as a 1959 oil by Clifford Mitchell. The Mitchell piece, winner of the 1960 Larry Aldrich Award, is believed to be the first work by the artist to ever appear at auction. Clarke Auction has set and holds world-record prices for African-American works by Beauford Delaney, Alvin Loving Jr.and Russ Thompson, but the auction house believes that African-American art continues to be undervalued by the market.

New York Art includes a collection of Daniel Celentano works in oil and graphite, a classic Reginald Marsh encaustic, an iconic 1932 etching "The Builders" by James Edward Allen, works by Ben Shahn and Joseph Hirsch and two pieces by Isabel Bishop. Other New York pieces include twenty large oils by the late Stanley Sobossek, depicting Sharecroppers' Shacks, New Orleans streets, and Gloucester as well as scenes of lower Manhattan.

Of special interest is a collection of over 100 works by the late Ray Wendell, a New York transplant from Nebraska who attended Yale on the GI Bill after World War II. Wendell achieved fame in 1948 for a large surreal oil illustrated in an art article in LIFE magazine that year. This same painting will be sold by Clarke on November Sixteenth.

A New York estate provided eleven lots of paintings by Robert H. Nisbet, a 1900 Willard Metcalf, works by Elliot Clark and the Allen print mentioned previously. Three oil portraits by the rarely seen Emma Eilers from a descendent of the artist will also be sold.

Judaic and Israeli highlights include an early and rare 1940 work by Anatol Gurewitsch, two painting by Zvi Mairovich, a Modest Stein sculpture, an lovely Judaic portrait, as well as watercolors and signed prints.

New Jersey, Rye, and Purchase NY estates supplied Old Master and signed works from the 17th through 19th centuries including a Elizabethan dual portrait, a portrait attributed to Romney, a Hendrik Van Balen oil on panel in the style of Rubens, an Eastern European portrait of a queen, and religious subjects on panels, canvases, and copper. A life-sized English portrait of a noblewoman in a blue gown by Enoch Seeman is another highlight from these estate.

European buyers will appreciate a collection of Italian paintings from Nicola Simbari, Carlo Canevari, R Aovatti, Lucio Ranucci, and Frank Catano; Hungarian paintings by Lili Orszag; oils by the French Francois Gall, Abel Bertram, and Paul Thomas, and a c.1840 oil by the Irish J.A. O'Connor.

A six-foot WWII scene featuring Russian soldiers celebrating with a lone American GI is another highlight. Unsigned, the work is assumed to be painted by an unknown Russian artist.

"We've assembled another broad and deep sale, notes Ronan Clarke, founder and owner. "but I take the most pride in Clarke's ability to locate the unusual and the exceptional - the Clifford Mitchell and the Gurewitsch, the great Ray Wendells and the Seeman portrait."

Onsite Previews Friday-Saturday-Sunday-Monday, November 13-16,12:00 noon to 6:00 pm. Opening reception - Saturday, November 14th at 6:00 pm

About Clarke Auction Gallery

Clarke Auction Gallery, Westchester's Premier Auction Gallery, conducts catalogued sales monthly featuring distinctive fine and decorative arts, antiques, exceptional furniture, oriental rugs, sterling silver and mid-century modern. For further information, please contact us at (914)833-8336 or [email protected]

Website: http://www.ccauctiongallery.com

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