Oct 07, 2021 - Sale 2581

Sale 2581 - Lot 65

Price Realized: $ 12,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
CARL RICHARD "DINGBAT" SMITH (1927 - 1980S)
Three Brothers.

Assemblage of nails on a wood panel, 1966. 1219x1219 mm; 48x48 inches. Signed, dated "66" and titled in ink, verso.

Provenance: private collection, New York.

Three Brothers is a large wall relief made from thousands of nails, and an excellent example of the unusual nail art of Charles Richard "Dingbat" Smith. A Pittsburgh native, Smith worked in sculpture using only nails from the 1960s through the late 1980s. While little is known about him today, this self-taught artist's artworks are highly prized by collectors, and deserve much wider recognition. Two other examples of his work are in the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art.