Auction Preview: Heritage American Paintings, Drawings, & Sculpture December 5th New York

As I am not currently in the market for purchasing works at auction, I rarely read the condition reports on the works being offered at sales such as this one, unless I see a work with glaring damage.  I have found myself reading Heritage's reports regularly, however, whether I see damage or not, after accidentally discovering an error a couple of years ago:  a painting which I knew was executed in oils paints - I had been in the studio of the artist when he was creating it - was listed as an acrylic painting (I contacted Heritage, but no changes were made to the listing).  Since then, I have discovered more errors, usually in the mis-identification of the medium in which a work was completed.  

For this auction, I wonder if the people examining the condition of the works are very well-versed in the various techniques of paint application, or if they are just being overly-cautious in disclosing information to potential buyers.  A case in point:  some works by Sherrie McGraw were flagged as possibly having been conserved and over-cleaned, when it is more likely that what was being seen was an original layer of paint which had been applied very thinly, and perhaps had become more transparent during the 20 years since it was painted.  I cannot say definitely that they are wrong in their assessment, but personally, I have my doubts.  In any case, I must admit it is interesting to see how some modern paintings have not held up as well as works which are half-a-century older.

Previews for the American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture sale will take place December 3rd through the 5th at the Ukrainian Institute of America at The Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion, 2 East 79th Street,  New York, NY 10075.  The sale will take place at 2:00 PM EST on December 5th.  For more information, or to see the full catalog (Heritage offers some of the best catalog images online), please visit the auction house's website.