Deborah Oropallo "Angel" Sculpture, ca. 1985
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GUEST:
I used to live in San Francisco for about five years back in the '80s and saw it at a fundraiser for a nonprofit arts organization. It was in the silent auction, perhaps. And I was very interested in it and I may have started to bid on it, but I didn't really have the money. So I think I quit bidding on it at some point. I didn't think about it again and then one day, I was given a gift by my employer. She must have paid attention to what I liked at this fundraiser.
APPRAISER:
And this would have been in about the late 1980s...
GUEST:
Right, right.
APPRAISER:
...that you received this?
GUEST:
Yes, I started working for an art adviser-- fine arts, consulting-- because I had worked at the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C. I started working with her in, like, February of 1986 and then we moved to Austin, Texas, in December of 1990.
APPRAISER:
And do you happen to remember about at what price you would have dropped out of the bidding in the silent auction?
GUEST:
I don't think I was willing to pay $200 because we were really strapped for cash.
APPRAISER:
Here on the back of the sculpture, we have the title "Angel," and then it's signed "Oropallo." And this is for the artist Deborah Oropallo.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And she is an active artist in the San Francisco Bay area.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
In 1981, as a student, Deborah Oropallo received an honorable mention at the California State Fair Art Exhibition.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
Then in 1983, she earns her master's of fine arts from the University of California, Berkeley.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
Then, you acquire this in the late 1980s, you think.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
And you also mentioned earlier the National Endowment for the Arts.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
And in 1991, this artist received an award...
GUEST:
Oh, you're kidding.
APPRAISER:
...from the National Endowment of the Arts.
GUEST:
Wow! That's amazing.
APPRAISER:
She is still a very active, widely exhibited artist, still in the San Francisco Bay area.
GUEST:
Wow, that is amazing, that's exciting, very exciting.
APPRAISER:
So if we talk about her market as a current, active artist still exhibiting, oftentimes we're looking at her retail market. But I also want to talk about the fact that she is developing a secondary market. Her works are popular at auctions of contemporary art. We have to be really conservative on an early work in a medium that is not as common as the greater majority of the body of her work. So this is a cast concrete sculpture and it's deliberately distressed to look like this.
GUEST:
Okay, okay.
APPRAISER:
So she most often works in oil paint. So I think if we saw this at auction, we would see it at an estimate of $2,000 to $3,000.
GUEST:
Wow, that's very exciting, very exciting. I'm thrilled.
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