Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Books about Dale Chihuly

Books about Dale Chihuly

Books about art sell well in art auctions.  I have found many publications that feature my favorite artist, Dale Chihuly.  There are books, catalogs and even magazines routinely up for auction.

Chihuly Gardens and Glass is currently for sale in several art auctions.  This book is beautifully illustrated and shows installations at the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago.  The book has an essay by Barbara Rose addressing Dale Chihuly's place in art history.  There is another essay by the Garfield Conservatory director that provides a history of garden conservatories

Chihuly at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew features more than one hundred photographs that captured this event.  An art auction for this book sold for fifty dollars.  The exhibit at the Royal Botanical Gardens was Dale Chihuly’s first botanical garden exhibition outside of the United States.

Chihuly Seaforms has an excellent value at an art auction.  It depicts forty four color photographs of his most ethereal series to date.  The pieces he created for this series have been called not only "reflections of skill, passion, teamwork and sheer genius" but also "tributes" to the sea.  He is truly a master.

Chihuly Form Fire was published in 1993 and it only occasionally shows up in art auctions.  The book is hardcover and 144 pages long with over 75 color reproductions of his splendid work.  There is a very informative commentary in the book about Chihuly’s career.

Chihuly has been exhibited all over the world and the accompanying catalogs sell for a lot at an art auction.  The catalogs have a value to people that cannot possibly afford to ever own an actual piece of his art.  I bought a catalog at an art auction that depicted his installations from the years 1964-1992.  I have spent a lot of time looking at the photographs and have determined that Chihuly is pure genius.

I really want to find a copy of Chihuly Jerusalem 2000 at an art auction.  The book sells new for fifty dollars.  I think that the story of this journey and exhibit is extraordinary and I want to own a copy of this book.  This book contains 117 full-color reproductions and from what I’ve seen they are all extraordinary.

I was surprised that even the book of Chihuly’s drawings has tremendous resale value at an art auction.  He is able to convey such beauty and energy with his work and these drawings actually do the same thing.  These drawings are what his ideas start out as before they are fully realized in glass.

There is one inexpensive Chihuly book that I rarely seen in art auctions.  It only contains 17 color reproductions.  It does cover the installations that had 20,000 pounds of ice.  These were called the neon-and-ice installations and they had a powerful effect on the people that viewed them.  This book is soft cover and it is better to buy it new from a website than from a previous owner at an art auction.

I’ve lost countless art auctions for the book that contains photos of his exhibit at the Marlborough Gallery in New York City.  I just never bid enough.  At some point, I will probably just have to bid more to win it from an art auction.  I know that the 51 images are dramatic, but the book is a soft cover and I just don’t think I should pay $25 for it.

My mother won a Chihuly book for me at an art auction last year.  It chronicled the installation in Japan at the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art in 1990.  I loved each and every one of the 54 images contained in this book.  I have been asked several times to loan it to friends, but I have refused.  This is one book that I refuse to lose.

In 1986, Chihuly was only the fourth American to get a solo exhibition at the Louvre in Paris.  There was a soft cover book published with 33 photos in it that chronicles the exhibit.  Also in the book is an introduction written by the chief curator and director of the Centre du Verre.  This is the next book I hope to own and I’ve been watching art auctions hoping to see it pop up.

Breweriana at Art Auctions

My father-in-law is very interest in beer art.  Breweriana is the special name for beer related artifacts.  I’ve been watching for special pieces to add to his collection at art auctions I’ve been attending.

The first breweriana piece that I acquired for my father-in-law was a 1940s Lone Star Beer sign.  He was so happy with this find at the art auction that he asked me to keep finding him interesting pieces of beer history.  I think that finding breweriana at art auctions is definitely a commentary on today’s society.

I found another really old piece of breweriana at the very next art auction I attended.  It was another sign and it was from the 1930s for Ziegler Beer.  I was at an art auction in Wisconsin and had to ship that sign to my father-in-law by freight.

My quest for breweriana has taken me to some art auctions that I would not have ordinarily attended and I’ve met people that I don’t ordinarily meet.  I got into a bidding war with a Cajun man over a Jax Beer sign from the 1930s.  The auctioneer said that it was a piece of New Orleans history.

The Cajun outbid me at every opportunity.  I had a limit that had been set by my father-in-law and we were closing in on it when he finally stopped bidding.  I won that piece of breweriana at the art auction for eight hundred dollars.

The porcelain breweriana signs are showing up at art auctions all over the country.  I found another one from the 1930s for Supreme Beer that was double sided and oval.  I was really pleased when I was able to present that one to my father-in-law.

The tin breweriana signs are actually not showing up as often at art auctions.  I felt fortunate when I found one from the 1930s for Washington Beer.  The ceramic breweriana signs are much more commonplace.

After my first few purchases of breweriana for my father-in-law he decided that his taste really did run to items from the 1930s and 1940s.  I’ve tried to keep this in mind when I find new acquisitions.  

I usually stay away from neon or illuminating breweriana.  I just don’t think it fits in with the feeling of my father-in-law’s collection.  The antique feel of everything is nice.  He has taken up beer making as a hobby since his wife passed away, so it is not a far leap to beer art collecting.

The Goetz Country Club Beer sign that I won at an art auction in Indiana was a little more chipped than the other pieces I’ve gotten.  I was intent on winning this sign because Goetz was my father-in-law’s mother’s maiden name.  He was so happy with this old piece of breweriana because of the name on it that it instantly became the centerpiece of his collection.

I found two pieces of cardboard breweriana at an art auction in Ohio.  I decided that they were going to sell so cheaply that I could buy them and frame them for the collection.  I’m glad I went to that art auction.  

I won a sign for Velvet Beer and another one for Stratford Beer.  They both were from the 1930s and they were more colorful than tin breweriana signs that I’d purchased at other art auctions.  The framer that I used framed both pieces for fifty dollars.

The art auction that I attended in Rochester, New York turned out to be very fruitful for my father-in-law’s breweriana collection.  There was a Standard Dry Ale reverse painted glass sign up for auction.  The sign had hung in a bar until the 1960s when the bar closed down.

The most recent piece of breweriana that I bought at an art auction was an original prohibition era Miller High Life Brew sign.  The red and black sign looked great on the wall with the other signs in the collection.  My father-in-law plans to build an old-fashioned bar in his home, at least the decorating is complete!

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