Original Art At Auction, Part 1

Much anticipated, The Edward Gorey Cocktail Party; or, A Nocturne At The Strand fundraiser hosted by the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust on August 9th was a great success. The items sold at the silent auction to help raise funds for the Trust's mission are now in the collections of the winning bidders. 

In addition to the posters, prints, and personal jewelry items, seven original drawings were included in the auction, and special recognition should be given to Trust archivist Will Baker for curating a spectacular collection of pieces for the event's silent auction. The original art included works that represented the breadth of Edward Gorey's oeuvre from the beginning of his career through the mid 1990's.

With loose pen strokes, Cat on a mantle. shows Mr. Gorey's skill at capturing the essence of an image swiftly and with style. Rendered on the back of a sheet of his printed note paper, this portrait of a cat was obviously quickly executed yet is precise and no lines are extraneous. This drawing sold for $3600.00.
 

A preliminary artwork rather than a sketch, Mysteries offers insights into how Edward Gorey organized his ideas when designing a poster and/or book cover (this project does not appear to have been fully realized). Even though the style appears loose, this image was carefully and deliberately planned out. Mr. Gorey's color preliminary drawings are usually executed as expressive watercolor paintings even when the final piece would rely heavily on finely drawn pen and ink with color accenting. The penciled grid, while not unheard of, was employed infrequently by the artist. The grid would provide accurate measurements to aid Mr. Gorey in recreating the image in the final work. The purple infill around the vignettes lends an atmospheric sense of drama to the art. This piece sold for $4000.00.

Drat! was a poster design created in 1997 for a theatrical evening of stories by Edward Gorey at the Cape Rep Theatre. The image is executed with an economy of line, deft craftsmanship. and humor. The letters appear one inside the other, tunnel fashion with the letter D acting as the mouth of the tunnel. An expired bug rests atop of the D. The dramatic simplicity of the design compels the viewer to exclaim "Drat!" out loud. This piece sold for $1700.00.

Another piece that uses lettering as image in a totally different style is Q.R.V. 1-12. This piece was drawn in 1985 and is dated on the back, indicating that it was intended to be part of an A Collection work.  Q.R.V. became a major theme for Edward Gorey through the years as the enigmatic letters appeared with increasing frequency in his writings, illustrations and stage designs. The "1 - 12" notation on the scroll acts as a subtitle, indicating that this was most likely intended as the cover image for the (unfinished) work. The dimensions and crop marks suggest that this was to be a postcard project, a favorite format of Mr. Gorey's. This piece sold for $2650.00.

The three other pieces of original art from the auction will be discussed in a future post. 

The photo of the silent auction display case courtesy Russell Lehrer. Images of original art courtesy The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust.