Earning top lot status was Salvador Dalí’s (Spanish, 1904-1989) “Toreador halucinogène aux cuillères,” 1970-76, bronze and brass with copper wire, 82 inches high, numbered “A.P. 3/3,” which doubled its $30/50,000 estimate to make $100,000.

Review by Kiersten Busch

DOWNINGTOWN, PENN. — More than 500 lots of modern and post-war posters, paintings, prints, sculpture and more sold for the benefit of an East Coast educational institution made up the contents of Pook & Pook’s July 16 sale. The sale was the firm’s first specialty auction dedicated to modern and post-war art, and expectations were blown away, with the white-glove affair totaling $1.24 million. Bids were recorded from all around the world, with 70 percent of those belonging to new customers to Pook & Pook.

“We are particularly thrilled with the results of this auction,” cataloger Cynthia Beech Lawrence explained, in a press release published post-sale, “in several cases, our auction prices realized crossed over into [retail] gallery price levels.”

One such gallery-level result was for the work that led that day: “Toreador halucinogène aux cuillères,” a bronze, brass and copper wire artist’s proof sculpture by Salvador Dalí. The sculpture was inscribed “Dalí” and dated on its drum “©Alex Rosenburg 1989,” after the artist’s close friend and authority on his work. According to catalog notes, “This sculpture commemorates the portfolio Memories of Surrealism with Alex Rosenburg.” Doubling the high end of its $30/50,000 estimate, the 82-inch-high sculpture skyrocketed to $100,000.

With provenance to the Rosenberg collection, this complete set of 13 original drypoint etchings with watercolors on Arches paper, 1973, 26 by 20 inches each, made up Salvador Dalí’s (Spanish, 1904-1989) “The Twelve Tribes of Israel” series, selling for $78,750 ($4/8,000).

Eighteen additional lots of Dalí’s work crossed the block, ranging in price from $550 for a drypoint color etching titled “Timon of Athens,” from the artist’s “Much Ado About Shakespeare II” series, to $88,750 for a set of original copper etching plates for his “The Twelve Tribes of Israel” series. Only one plate, “Issachar,” was missing from the set, the other 12 had their titles etched verso. The whole set had provenance to the Alex and Carole Rosenberg collection. Alex Rosenberg, according to catalog notes, “published more than 700 editions featuring works by over 60 artists” under the name Transworld Art. “Salvador Dalí’s 1971 Memories of Surrealism was the first print portfolio that Roseberg published.”

Also from the Rosenberg collection was the complete set of 13 original drypoint etchings with watercolors of “The Twelve Tribes of Israel.” Done in 1973 and complete with an ink Salvador Dalí copyright stamp, the series found a new home for $78,750. All of the prints were signed and inscribed with an authentication from Dalí in pencil verso.

Soviet Russian and American artist and activist Leonid Sokov was represented by 100 lots of original work, from oil paintings to collages to sculptural pieces. Sokov, according to catalog notes, “is recognized as a founding member of Sots Art, a group of nonconforming artists in the 1970s who did not adhere to Soviet Social Realism… Sokov’s approach was to parody Soviet iconography with traditional and folkloric Russian icons.”

“Three Train Stations in Moscow” by Leonid Sokov (Soviet Russian/American, 1941-2018), 1996, oil on canvas with applied metal Soviet emblem, 67 by 90 inches, cleared its $500-$1,000 estimate to achieve $37,500.

An oil on canvas titled “Three Train Stations in Moscow” was Sokov’s highest selling work at $37,500, far surpassing its $500-$1,000 estimate. Signed lower left and dated “1996,” the painting depicted Komsomolskaya Square in Moscow, which “is noted for its blend of revivalist Tsarist and Stalinist architecture.”

Sokov’s other top-selling paintings included Stalin as their muse, including “Stalin and Marilyn At The Table,” a 1990 acrylic, gold leaf and mixed media on paper work depicting Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe, who represented the US, flirting across the table with an overindulging Stalin. The work was bid to $28,750, almost 12 times the high end of its $1,6/2,400 estimate. Also depicting Stalin in this mixed media format were “M. Larionov’s Paint And Stalin’s Head” ($28,750) and “Moustache And Lips” ($27,500).

Various sculptures by Sokov also made an impression with bidders, but none so much as “Lenin and Calder,” an aluminum and painted metal work, marked “6/6,” which was part of a series of miniature sculptures inspired by Alexander Calder, which Sokov created to represent Russia in the 2001 Venice Biennale. With provenance to Dr Roman Tabakman, a physician from Brooklyn, N.Y., the work sold for $11,876. Its edition “1/6” partner was also offered in the sale and swung to $11,250.

This lithograph portfolio by Alexander Calder (American, 1898-1976), 1976, titled Our Unfinished Revolution included eight of the original ten artist’s proof works, 30 by 21 inches each, and was raised to $20,000 ($10/15,000).

Speaking of Calder, the American artist was represented by four lots in the sale, led by a lithograph portfolio of artist’s proofs titled Our Unfinished Revolution, done in 1976 and pencil signed and numbered. Printed by Mourlot, Paris, and published by Alba Edition, New York, the portfolio was canvas-covered and missing two of the original 10 prints. Surpassing its $10/15,000 estimate, the body of work achieved $20,000. Another set of eight of the 10 Our Unfinished Revolution lithographs, these examples fitted in a boxed portfolio, rose to $11,250.

Calder’s other two lithographs offered in the sale, “Boomerang” (1973) and “Blue Sun” (1971), made $8,750 and $3,750, respectively.

“Open Rectangle Horizontal Floating” by George Warren Rickey was the second-highest earning sculpture of the sale after the top lot. Bid to $16,250, the stainless steel and cable hanging kinetic sculpture was signed, dated “1995” and was one of an edition of three. The auction catalog noted that the 95-inch-long sculpture was “engineered to be animated by air currents, emphasizing motion and light.”

Made from resin and oil paint, this runner sculpture by Carole Feuerman (American, b 1945), 60 inches high with base, numbered “2/9,” ran to $6,250 ($1/2,000).

Additional sculptures that caught bidder attention included Jesus Rafael Soto’s painted wood and metal multiple sculpture “Homenaje al Humano” ($10,625), Frederick Eversley’s untitled Dibond/reflective silver polyester film, pigment and ink disc work ($6,875) and Carole Feuerman’s resin and oil paint sculpture of a runner ($6,250).

Works by American artist Romare Bearden were led by a set of 17 progressive and color test proofs used to develop the color aquatint and photo engraving “The Family,” which was raised past its $5/10,000 estimate to $13,750 after 25 bids back and forth. “The Family” was a work illustrating a family gathering around a dinner table to share a meal; the 1975 proof series “provides insight into Bearden’s color composition, and his experimental and improvisational technique, as he builds a print resembling his collage work.”

Bearden’s color lithograph “Pilate (Misty Island)” earned a colorful $3,500 and was the highest earning of approximately seven individual lithographs sold. Three copies of “Firebird” crossed the block for prices ranging from $3,250 to $2,750, and three copies of “Conjunction” ranged from $3,250 to $3,000. These lithographs, published by Transworld Art, were full of references to the bible and portrayed the subjects in clothing with resemblance to African textiles.

This color serigraph of Bridget Riley’s (British, b 1931) “Print for Chicago 8,” 1971, 24 by 18 inches, numbered “119/150,” was the highest earning of three identical prints in the sale at $12,500 ($4/6,000).

Three copies of British Op artist Bridget Riley’s 1971 color serigraph “Print for Chicago 8” were offered, and all three sold, for $12,500, $11,875 and $10,625. From Riley’s Conspiracy: The Artist as Witness portfolio, they were printed by Kelpra Studio, London, and published by David Godine Publishers and the Center for Constitutional Rights, New York.

Prices quoted include buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 610-269-4040 or www.pookandpook.com.