About a year ago, I wrote a blog post about a sculpture that was displayed at the 1939 New York World’s Fair by artist James House Jr. A reader recently wrote me about two pieces…
Tag: sculpture
Readers ask about Nazi memorabilia
Posted in Art, collectibles, and Military
Two years ago, I wrote a blog post about my distaste for Nazi memorabilia. I had been to an auction where the stuff had been sold and wondered why anyone anywhere would ever want to…
The iguanas could’ve been chameleons, blending in so well among the other stuff crammed on the auction table, all crying out for my attention. I was taking my time, though, moving stuff around in the…
The art of Woodrow Nash
Posted in Art
I don’t remember the first time I saw the human-size busts that are the signature artwork of sculptor Woodrow Nash. From a distance they resembled stylish wood carvings – men and women with scarifications of African…
Coolin’ it with the Blues Brothers
Posted in Movies
It’s been 30 years since John Belushi was found dead from a drug overdose at a hotel on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. Belushi was one of those crazily natural comedians – whether playing…
The wooden sculpture was taller than me, and thicker. The wood was dark, heavy, rough to the touch. It stood in a corner just beyond a wide door that led to another room in the…
Sculptor Selma Burke revisited
Posted in African American women, and Art
Although African American sculptor Selma Burke had lived just north of me for years, I have never had the fortune of finding any of her works on the auction tables. No one has been careless enough…
The magic of artist Feliciano Bejar
Posted in Art
The five disc-headed sculptures sat atop the table like sentries, their metal bases constructed with parts that looked like gears. Their faces were glass prisms, more like optical lens, one squeezing out the other. These works…
Lying discarded on table after table in the back room of the auction house were piles and piles of books from someone’s library. The auctioneer kept saying that the books and more tables of stuff…
I was drifting among the modern design furniture at one of my favorite auction houses this week and wasn’t finding much that whispered “come hither.” Until I turned a corner and ran smack into –…