Auction News - Graham Gallery Cat

 

Doyle auction house in New York City offered an exceptional pen, ink & watercolor piece of original artwork by Edward Gorey. The colorful 3.5" x 4" image (paper size 8" x 10") features one of Mr. Gorey's signature cats acting like a small child...or an interior decorator. The drawing had a pre-sale estimate of $2000 - $4000 and sold for $9450.00 (including buyer's premium).

This beautifully rendered piece makes superb use of the white space, giving the image a sense of time passing as the industrious cat patiently draws the wallpaper design freestyle. In a sense, this piece could be considered a self portrait of Edward Gorey at his drawing table, endlessly adding detail to his intricate works of art.

This piece was originally created for Edward Gorey's 1974 fine art exhibition at The Graham Gallery and was still in its original gallery framing with the label on the reverse. Mr. Gorey created 46 unique pieces of art for the show and this was piece #33. The art created for the show had several different thematic threads: cats, children, fantastic animals, people doing sports, and china designs. The 15 cat themed pieces from the show are all siblings to the 50 drawings created for the deluxe limited edition of Amphigorey (later presented in book form as Categor y).

To see the other pieces from the 1974 Graham show, see my post: https://goreyana.blogspot.com/2014/02/edward-goreys-1974-graham-gallery.html

 

Gorey Collectors Share

 

Collecting the works of Edward Gorey can be approached from multiple viewpoints. Pick a collecting category: books by Gorey, original artwork, prints, posters, periodicals, books illustrated by Gorey, Anchor covers from the 50's, theater, dance, foreign editions, and the list goes on. Mr. Gorey was so prolific that anyone can easily specialize in one or two areas and always find something fresh to excite them.

Traditionally, collecting has been a solitary endeavor with collectors privately enjoying their treasures while keeping their collections private. There has been a change in the ozone in Goreyland recently. Perhaps it was the pandemic shutdowns that led collectors to begin more openly engaging with other collectors, sharing the pieces they love on Facebook and Instagram. The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust began regularly sharing pieces from the Gorey archives on social media in August 2019. The result of all this activity is that there is more specialized information available to those interested in the works of Edward Gorey than ever before, which is never a bad thing.

To view or contribute to the fun that is Gorey collecting, join Facebook Groups: Edward Gorey and/or Edward Gorey Fans, and follow The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust. A increasing number of collectors have been showing pieces from their collections, which leads to interesting conversational threads.

On Instagram:

edwardgoreytrust - Images from the Edward Gorey Archives are posted regularly, many of which have not been seen before outside of the archive.

toddcamp - Todd Camp posts images and in-depth explanations of pieces from his collection which he has dubbed the Goreyphemera Archive.

edgoreyfashion -An interesting collection of Gorey images paired with real life fashion, past and present.

edward.gorey - Drummond Miles shows off a variety of objects and artworks.

edward.gorey.house - Keep up with the latest happenings in the Gorey world and see images from current exhibitions at The House.

There are, of course other places to find posts and information on the web, but these places are great places to see interesting things.