Oct 06, 2011 - Sale 2255

Sale 2255 - Lot 125

Price Realized: $ 19,200
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 12,000 - $ 18,000
ARTIS LANE (1927 - )
Hurdlers.

Set of 3 cast bronze figures, painted black, 1983. Together approximately 419x762x191 mm; 16 1/2x30x7 1/2 inches high. Each signed and numbered 5/10 on the base.

Provenance: the estate of J. Bruce Llewellyn, New York.

The three works together represent the motion of a hurdler in stride and were based on athletes training for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. In 1984, the artist had one of her first solo exhibitions at the Brockman Gallery in Los Angeles. These early bronze figures are only the second sculpture (group) by Artis Lane to come to auction and epitomize her interest in sculptural figurative form.

Born in Ontario, Canada, Artis Lane studied at the Art College in Toronto, the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI and the University of California in Los Angeles. Today, Artis Lane is celebrated for her portraits in both sculpture and painting of famous and historic figures. She has been commissioned to paint portraits of such luminaries as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Michael Jordan, President Kennedy (for Frank Sinatra), Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks and Oprah Winfrey. In 2007, the California African American Museum of Los Angeles mounted a major retrospective exhibition of her work. In 2009, First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled Lane's bronze bust of Sojourner Truth, which became the first sculpture of a black woman installed in the U.S. Capitol.