?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000
JOHN WILDE Self-Portrait.
Pencil with chalk heightening on tan laid paper, 1961. 481x576 mm; 19x22 3/4 inches.
Provenance: Schmidt-Bingham Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New York.
Wilde (1919-2006) was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and studied at the University of Wisconsin where he was influenced by American Surrealist artists such as Marshall Glasier (1902-1988) and Karl Priebe (1914-1976) as well as the Magic Realists including Jared French (1905-1988). He served in World War II, where he designed camouflage patterns, but during this time fell into a depression and used art as a creative outlet. After the war, he finished his Masters of Art degree at the University of Wisconsin, focusing on Max Ernst (1891-1976) and writing in defense of nonsense, wit and the irrational in art. His own artistic output furthered his interest in the surreal—many of his works play fancifully with scale, creating fantastical, humorous compositions.
