IN PERSPECTIVE
Magic & Mystery
GERTRUDE Abercrombie (1909-1977) is having her moment as the recognition for her surrealist paintings continues to rise in the art world. On February 17, 2022, Hindman set a new world auction record for the artist when The Dinosaur, a small-scale painting of a large egg with a miniscule dinosaur standing beside it, smashed expectations to sell for $387,500 against an estimate of $30,000 to $50,000. Now, this September 28, the auction house will present a single-owner sale dedicated solely to the artist’s works titled “Casting Spells: The Gertrude Abercrombie Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer”.
Building on the momentum from the record-breaking piece, which was among a series of hits for the artist over the past five years, this auction marks a shift in the artist’s presale estimates and her growing prominence among collectors and institutions. In a wider view, the interest in Abercrombie’s work also coincides with the surge of American surrealism interest over the past decade.
The sale will include 21 magical paintings spanning Abercrombie’s career from the preeminent collectors Laura and Gary Maurer. Many were included in major solo exhibitions at Karma Gallery in New York, Illinois State Museum in Springfield, and the Elmhurst Art Museum. There is a unique quality to Abercrombie’s pieces that reflect her interest in the Chicago jazz music scene as well as painting subjects of witchcraft and sorcery, nocturnes with owls and cats and more.
The standout of the sale is likely an Abercrombie self-portrait where she reimagines herself as a mystic with her witch’s familiar Possim. From 1953, the work is aptly titled Self and Cat (Possims) and expected to sell between $300,000 and $500,000. A 1942 painting titled Solitude (est. $120,000-$180,000) is another major piece. Pictured is a woman walking on a dirt pathway among barren or cut trees—her white cat following not too far behind.
Two other hauntingly simple landscapes will hit the block: , from around 1939 to 1940, with an estimate of $50,000 to $70,000, and the 1943 (est. $120,000-$180,000) of a woman crossing a wooden bridge with a baby in her arms.
