The top lot overall was this signed drip painting by Jackson Pollock with a 1950s Cirkers Warehouse storage label and scrap wood frame. It sold to a Midwest collector for $36,800 ($5/10,000).
Review by Andrea Valluzzo
ROCKLAND, MAINE — Provenance is highly desirable when it comes to artworks and when items come from a collection of a noted artist who had family ties to another famous artist, one can’t really ask for more.
Auctioneer Bruce Gamage, Jr, has long known the Nevelson family well from their time in Rockland. Renowned abstract sculptor Louise Nevelson (née Berliawsky) was born in what is now Ukraine, but her family settled in Rockland, Maine, where she grew up. Her brother Nate was a hotelier and one of their sisters, Lillian, married Ben Mildwoff, an artist in his own right as well as furniture designer. Mildwoff and his wife amassed a strong collection of folk, decorative and contemporary art, much of which ended up in storage in recent years after his passing in 1991.
The last of Mildwoff’s collection crossed the block at Gamage Antiques in its Annual Maine Summer Auction on August 24. “I’ve known the Nevelsons all my life growing up in Rockland. When I was very young, I’d do errands at the Thorndike for Nate,” said Bruce Gamage, Jr, now 78, noting he has been in this business for 55 years. He had previously conducted an auction for another Berliawsky family member, so they called him for this sale too, wishing to sell the items in Rockland.
Right, this folky wooden fish weathervane in original surface with a wooden ball and leather fins, caught a winning bid of $1,840 ($1,2/1,800).
The Mildwoffs mainly lived in New York City but summered in Cushing, Maine, which is one town over, and much of the collection was bought in the 1950s to early 1970s. “They came here summers and hung out,” Gamage said. “In the city they would hang out on the Lower East Side with Louise and Pollock and all the abstract Pop artists from the late 40s and early 50s.”
Gamage has conducted many auctions over the years but especially enjoyed this one. “People loved it, and it was a real fun and interesting sale for me to do,” he shared. “It was all going no matter what. There were no minimums or anything, and it was a good sale just like the old days. We were very pleased with the turnout; we had a full house with active phones and absentee bidding.”
Indeed, the auction was in the style of old-fashioned events sans online bidding. Only in-person, absentee and phone bids were allowed, helping bump up the in-person attendance. Gamage said he gave out about 170 paddle numbers, adding, “The place was packed!”
Not surprisingly, abstract art topped the auction’s offerings in the form of a Jackson Pollock drip painting that recently was discovered, coming out of the Mildwoff collection. Gamage said the signed oil painting, signed “Jackson Pollock,” was not recorded in Pollock’s catalogue raisonné but had a 1950s Cirkers Warehouse storage label and scrap wood frame. It attracted much interest and in the end went to a Midwest collector for $36,800.
Leading the group of folky weathervanes was this Nineteenth Century copper ram that made $6,037 ($2/3,000).
Having penchant for folk art as well, the couple had quite a few weathervanes in their collection, which performed well at auction. The grouping was led by a Nineteenth Century copper ram example “having great surface,” according to Gamage, which brought $6,037.
Evincing the diversity of artworks on offer, items ranged from an early Pablo Picasso lithograph, dated “1954” and pencil signed, titled “Modele Et Homme” from the La Comedie Humaine series that realized $4,255, to a hand-painted galvanized pail with bold and colorful decoration by John Grillo painted specifically for Ben Mildwoff. The latter sold for $632.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. Gamage is planning his next live auction for September 28. For information, www.gamageantiques.com or 207-594-4963.
