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Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
BLADE (NEEL BATE 1916-1989)
Careful its Hot (From the Story Big Thaw). Graphite on paper. 280x217 mm; 11x8½ inches. Signed in pencil, lower left; titled on verso. Circa 1955 Bate was known as "Blade," as he signed this drawing. He was an American underground artist of gay erotic art whose career began in the 1930s and is best known for his 1948 series of drawings "The Barn." Like many artists, his work was initially distributed underground as a result of American obscenity laws. His first one-man show was held at the Leslie-Lohman Gallery in SoHo in November of 1980. Its success launched him into greater popularity and his most artistically productive decade. Bate died on June 27, 1989, the twentieth anniversary of the Stonewall riot.
