Hayward Oubre

"Hitch Hiked" Hayward Oubre, Painted Wire Sculpture, Southern Black Artist

circa 1960

David Hare Dancer, circa 1955 Bronze with integral stand 68 high x 17 wide x 13 1/2 deep inches “Freedom is what we want,” David Hare boldly stated in 1965, but then he added the caveat, “and what we are most afraid of.” No one could accuse David Hare of possessing such fear. Blithely unconcerned with the critics’ judgments, Hare flitted through most of the major art developments of the mid-twentieth century in the United States. He changed mediums several times; just when his fame as a sculptor had reached its apogee about 1960, he switched over to painting. Yet he remained attached to surrealism long after it had fallen out of official favor. “I can’t change what I do in order to fit what would make me popular,” he said. “Not because of moral reasons, but just because I can’t do it; I’m not interested in it.” Hare was born in New York City in 1917; his family was both wealthy and familiar with the world of modern art. Meredith (1870-1932), his father, was a prominent corporate attorney. His mother, Elizabeth Sage Goodwin (1878-1948) was an art collector, a financial backer of the 1913 Armory Show, and a friend of artists such as Constantin Brancusi, Walt Kuhn, and Marcel Duchamp. In the 1920s, the entire family moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico and later to Colorado Springs, in the hope that the change in altitude and climate would help to heal Meredith’s tuberculosis. In Colorado Springs, Elizabeth founded the Fountain Valley School where David attended high school after his father died in 1932. In the western United States, Hare developed a fascination for kachina dolls and other aspects of Native American culture that would become a recurring source of inspiration in his career. After high school, Hare briefly attended Bard College (1936-37) in Annandale-on-Hudson. At a loss as to what to do next, he parlayed his mother’s contacts into opening a commercial photography studio and began dabbling in color photography, still a rarity at the time [Kodachrome was introduced in 1935]. At age 22, Hare had his first solo exhibition at Walker Gallery in New York City; his 30 color photographs included one of President Franklin Roosevelt. As a photographer, Hare experimented with an automatist technique called “heatage” (or “melted negatives”) in which he heated the negative in order to distort the image. Hare described them as “antagonisms of matter.” The final products were usually abstractions tending towards surrealism and similar to processes used by Man Ray, Raoul Ubac, and Wolfgang Paalen. In 1940, Hare moved to Roxbury, CT, where he fraternized with neighboring artists such as Alexander Calder and Arshile Gorky, as well as Yves Tanguy who was married to Hare’s cousin Kay Sage, and the art dealer Julian Levy. The same year, Hare received a commission from the American Museum of Natural History to document the Pueblo Indians. He traveled to Santa Fe and, for several months, he took portrait photographs of members of the Hopi, Navajo, and Zuni tribes that were published in book form in 1941. World War II turned Hare’s life upside down. He became a conduit in the exchange of artistic and intellectual ideas between U.S. artists and the surrealist émigrés fleeing Europe. In 1942, Hare befriended Andre Breton, the principal theorist of surrealism. When Breton wanted to publish a magazine to promote the movement in the United States, he could not serve as an editor because he was a foreign national. Instead, Breton selected Hare to edit the journal, entitled VVV [shorth for “Victory, Victory, Victory”], which ran for four issues (the second and third issues were printed as a single volume) from June 1942 to February 1944. Each edition of VVV focused on “poetry, plastic arts, anthropology, sociology, (and) psychology,” and was extensively illustrated by surrealist artists including Giorgio de Chirico, Roberto Matta, and Yves Tanguy; Max Ernst and Marcel Duchamp served as editorial advisors. At the suggestion of Jacqueline Lamba...

Sidney Gordin Untitled, 1958 Incised with initials Welded Steel 15 x 10 1/2 x 6 inches Provenance: Eric Firestone Gallery, New York On October 24, 1918, Sidney Gordin was born in Chelyabinsk, Russia. He spent his early years in Shanghai, China. At the age of four, he moved with his family to New York. Gordin’s nephew, Eliot Nemzer recalls that when Gordin was a child he attended “a dinner party with his parents. Someone showed him a book of pictures that when thumbed through quickly made the image appear to move. This person then gave him a wad of blank papers and something to write with. Sid created a similar type of moving image with his materials. All the adults at the party became quite excited [and] praised his efforts. Sid told me he thought this was a pivotal experience in guiding him towards his vocation.” During his formative years at Brooklyn Technical High School, he briefly contemplated the idea of becoming an architect; yet, by the time he enrolled at Cooper Union, he was determined to become a professional artist. There, he studied under Morris Kantor (1896-1974) and Leo Katz...

David Hare Untitled, circa 1949 Bronze 25 x 8 x 7 inches Provenance Kootz Gallery, New York Collection of Samuel Kootz New York Estate of the above Collection of Dr. Joyce Kootz, Ne...

George Sugarman (1912 - 1999) Roland, 1970 Patinated steel 17 3/8 x 16 x 5 1/4 inches Incised with the artist's signature and numbered "15/17" on the underside Manufactured by Lippin...

Sculpture made of wire, pipe, with blue acrylic paint in portions. The signature is not clear, the best we can make of the signature is by E. Rizzuto. Title is also unclear "New D......

Biomorphic and earthy yet industrial style wall or tabletop sculpture. Abstract wire form with corrugated hydrocal plaster form. The piece is smooth and...

Bent Wire Wall Sculpture Unsigned, from the artist collection. Walter Bastianetto is an Italian born sculptor who moved to Mexico in the 1970s and resided there. Well-known artist ...

An amazing spider's web of a rollercoaster of design and line. This sculpture is just as delicate and light filled like a spider's web. A work that reaches, careens, and zigzags Constantly changing maze of line and perspective. Comprised of welded metal rods and airbrushed in different colors. Circa 1960. Good overall condition with all welds intact. Some minor rust and pitting, but that just adds to the piece's outsider art charm. Clipped corners on the piece's base. Reminiscent of a small skeletal sculpture by the artist, Lee Bontecou...