1984 & 1987 Larry Poons Mixed Media Works
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GUEST:
These are two paintings that my father was given as a gift from the artist. My dad is an attorney who represented him, and apparently he liked what my father did for him, and he gifted him with the small one, and then he let him pick out the big one. He came to the gallery and got to pick out the one that he wanted from there, so...
APPRAISER:
Now, who's the artist?
GUEST:
Larry Poons.
APPRAISER:
Larry Poons, indeed. And do you know anything about him?
GUEST:
I know he was born in the '30s in Tokyo, and he works in New York, and that's all I really know about him.
APPRAISER:
That's correct, yes. He was born in 1937 in Tokyo to American parents. I believe he's in New York now. Originally he was actually going to be a musician.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
Like many artists, you know-- you see these great bands that have come out of art schools and whatnot. So he was originally, he was going to be a musician, but ended up studying art in Boston. Back in the '60s, he was a bright young thing, he was a hot young thing. And originally was associated with the op art movement and did these paintings very different from these, with elliptical circles and dots.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And just wonderful-looking pieces. And in 1965, he was chosen by Henry Geldzahler, who is one of the best curators of our recent times, for a pretty major survey of New York art that was held at MOMA.
GUEST:
Oh, wow.
APPRAISER:
So to be chosen as the youngest artist to be featured in there says a lot about him.
GUEST:
Wow, yeah.
APPRAISER:
Now, his work changed a lot over the years, and these date from... Do you know when they're from?
GUEST:
Um... 1984 and 1987.
APPRAISER:
'84 is the small one and '87 the large one.
GUEST:
Yes, yes.
APPRAISER:
So this is moving on a bit. I was interested to see what was written on the back of the small one here, and perhaps you could share that with us.
GUEST:
Sure, it says, "To George, thanks and thanks again, George. And please visit us to pick out the larger painting. All the best, Larry Poons."
APPRAISER:
So this being the larger painting, presumably.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
But I have to say, in terms of Larry Poons' work, it's not that big.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
In fact, I was at the museum, the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk yesterday, and there's a Larry Poons painting that basically took up a whole wall there.
GUEST:
I didn't know that. So small for him, I guess.
APPRAISER:
Exactly, it's pretty small for him. Unusual materials, I would say. It's acrylic paint, and it's rather interesting. The label in the back in fact is from a major gallery, André Emmerich. And it says, "Acrylic and accretions." (laughing) So that... that covers a multitude. I think we can see sponge here, there's paper and cardboard down here, and acrylic holding it all together. If I were cataloguing, I'd probably say "mixed media," which covers everything.
GUEST:
Okay, yes.
APPRAISER:
I noticed in the back, in inverted commas, was "Josh Sure," which I think we can assume is a title. It's also on the André Emmerich label, so it suggests that's probably what the title is. But we would need to do more research to establish whether such a person existed, or whether it was just something he made up.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
When I came across Larry Poons' work first, what... I actually heard about him first through a friend I'd met in New York early on, who knew him very well and used to tell me about him. So his name was already in my mind. It's an unusual name. And then when I was working in the auction business, occasionally I would handle his work. Now this is late '90s, and you could barely give them away. The market has changed now, there's a lot of demand for his work. Have you any idea what this one might be worth?
GUEST:
No. Like I said, when he came home with this, I think it sort of took everybody by surprise. And we teased him a little, but he insists it was valuable. So I have no idea what that means, so...
APPRAISER:
Well, this one at auction, I would suggest an estimate of $12,000 to $18,000. And for the smaller one, which I like very much, a little bit more manageable-- I would say 3,000 to 5,000.
GUEST:
Wow. Well, Dad, you're right. Sorry we made fun of it all these years.
APPRAISER:
Now, correct me if I'm wrong. Did you have a name for this painting in the family?
GUEST:
We did, we have a name for it, and I feel really guilty telling people, but we called this "the vomit painting." And everybody in my family would know exactly what I mean when I said "the vomit painting."
APPRAISER:
Well, hopefully you might give it a new name now.
GUEST:
Yes, oh, it's much more appreciated now.
APPRAISER:
Good.
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