Lot #927 "Mardi Gras Street Scene, New Orleans" - New Orleans Auction - March 21, 2010
"Mardi Gras Street Scene, New Orleans", 1980, oil on canvas, dated, inscribed and signed lower right "Rockmore '80, New Orleans", 24" x 48". Unframed. Provenance: Purchased by the consignor from Bryant Galleries, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Estimate = $9000-$12000
Facts: This early 1980 work was the cover of Rockmore's brochure for his first show with the Sandra Zahn Oreck Gallery in 1981. It was also made into a poster with 500 signed and 500 unsigned 18x24 copies. It contains many of Rockmore's favorite elements including the Nun, the dogs, the kids running, flags, the French Quarter and strange exotic entertainers.
Thoughts: The estimate is fair and was included in the New Orleans Auction preliminary mailing brochure. The work has an impressive history and no objectionable material for hanging in a home or place of business. I spoke with Sandra Zahn Oreck today who of course remembered the piece. In 1980, Rockmore knew his last big chance to make it in New York was with this well respected transplant from the New York Art World. Rockmore gave Sandra carte blanche to make all marketing decisions which was new for him. He was happy with the choice of this work for the cover which was reproduced in color. Rockmore had often fought color reproductions of his work due to quality degradation.
 All of the following lots are from the March 27th-28th Neal Auction!
Lot #658. "George "Kid Sheik" Cola, Trumpeter (1908-1996)", oil on canvas, signed and dated "March 5, '63" upper left, titled on gallery card en verso, 36 in. x 24 in., framed. Provenance: Collection of Alice Barry, New Orleans and Pass Christian, MS., Louisiana.
Estimate = $3000-$5000
Facts: This work is from Rockmore's most famous and valuable Preservation Hall Portraits series and appeared in the Preservation Hall Portraits book. Kid Sheik played in several of the New Orleans Jazz bands and toured the country with them too. Unfortunately, his Kid Sheik's Wikipedia page is from a German entry. Six similar musician pieces are in the Ogden Collection and even more on the walls of Preservation Hall.
Thoughts: It is very rare when these type of jazz pieces come up for auction. To have three of such significance in the same auction has never happened - until now. Two of them are from the Alice Barry Collection. Alice was a well known French Quarter art patron, dealer and character before moving to Pass Christian. She also had quite an eye and taste for art. I guess the good news is that she obviously had these works tucked away someplace safe besides Pass Christian, MS during Katrina.
 Lot #661. "Alcide 'Slow Drag' Pagaveau, Bassist (1888-1969)", oil on canvas, signed, titled and dated "March 19th, '63" upper right, with a "Vincent Price Collection" label bearing the title en verso, 52 1/4 in. x 32 1/4 in., in a period frame. $5000/7500
Estimate = $5000-$7500
Facts: This work is also from Rockmore's most famous and valuable Preservation Hall Portraits series and appeared in the Preservation Hall Portraits book. It has the added distinction of being from The Vincent Price Collection. It combines two of Rockmore's most famous themes, the jazz musicians and flowers (the gift of the artist to the world).
Thoughts: This is one of the most significant jazz pieces to ever come up for auction. Alcide 'Slow Drag' Pagaveau was one of the best and he played with the best. He got his nickname from a dance craze that he started. There should be a lot of attention on this work and you might be going up against a museum. Then again, in this economy, it might be a case of too much good work at auction at one time. Rockmore did several works of Slow Drag, this one is really special.
Lot #663. "Bill Russell, Composer and Jazz Music Historian (1905-1992)", oil on canvas, signed, titled, and dated "July '65" upper right, 40 in. x 30 in., framed.
Estimate = $2500-$3500
Facts: This work is also from Rockmore's most famous and valuable Preservation Hall Portraits series and appeared in the Preservation Hall Portraits book. It has the added distinction of being a portrait of the author of the book. Bill Russell was to be a favorite subject and companion of Rockmore's until Russell's death in 1992. Tom Bethell featured Bill Russell and his contribution to jazz in his book on George Lewis.
Thoughts: When all is said and done on the Noel Rockmore Project, we are quite sure that Bill Russell, Larry Borenstein, Allan & Sandra Jaffe will join George & Joyce Wein as part of the group that brought jazz back to life in New Orleans and the world. The first person to embark on this crusade was without doubt Bill Russell. The portrait is in the style that Rockmore did his friends, as opposed to the musicians.
Lot #659. "Oscar Joseph 'Chicken' Henry, Trombone and Piano Player (b. 1888), No. 4", oil on canvas, signed, titled and dated "Aug. 63" lower left, signed, titled and dated with the remnants of two paper labels en verso, 52 1/8 in. x 40 in., unframed.
Estimate $5000/7500 
Facts: This work is also from Rockmore's most famous and valuable Preservation Hall Portraits series but did not appear in the book. Rockmore experimented with many abstract forms of the musicians especially for his New York show at Greer Gallery. Chicken Henry was easily one of Rockmore's favorite subjects as a jazz musician along with Slow Drag and Jim Robinson.
Thoughts: Time will tell if the abstract Rockmore jazz pieces will be as well received as the traditional ones. It sure is interesting and done only as Rockmore could do it.
Lot #675 "Pharaoh Ikhnaton", acrylic and oil on canvas board, signed and dated "'90" upper right, signed, titled and dated en verso, sight 10 in. x 8 in., in a giltwood frame.
Provenance: Collection of Alice Barry, New Orleans and Pass Christian, MS.
Estimate $500-$700
Facts: This is not the same work that was auctioned awhile back. It is similar because Rockmore really enjoyed this subject and did the Pharaoh Ikhnaton several times. This work comes from the Alice Barry collection and as you can see, her patronage spanned from 1963-1990 at least.
Thoughts: This might be the steal of the auction. Its detail and quality make it an important representative of his Egyptian series. It might easily get lost in the hub bub over the major works.
Lot #681 "Tour de France", oil on canvas, signed and dated "Nov. '87" lower right, signed, titled and dated en verso, 36 in. x 48 in., framed.
Estimate $1800/2400
Facts: This is an interesting work that is part of the 1987 pastel series where Rockmore was inspired by finances to do commercially sellable work for Bryant Galleries. How and why he settled on the Tour de France for a series is something that we have not yet discovered. It certainly has Rockmore's style of interesting characters and he would use the balloons coming out their mouths in the later Immigrant series with words filled in.
Thoughts: Well, if you like Rockmore, interesting characters and bike racing, this just might be the work for you.
Lot #660 "Preparation for the Dance", acrylic on canvas, signed, titled and dated "July '68" lower right, titled en verso, 40 in. x 50 in., unframed. Provenance: Collection of Alice Barry, New Orleans and Pass Christian, MS. Estimate $2500-$3500
Facts: This work is from Rockmore's Table series at the height of the psychedelic 60s. It combines many of his famous elements including the table, the skull, the fish, the cactus flowers, a man with a hat, the strange figure on the left and a woman in a short skirt. At 40x50, it is actually the biggest piece of the weekend.
Thoughts: One of the things that we have learned about the art World on the Rockmore Trail is that Museums are interested in pieces that are not typical, give you insight to the vision and mind of the artist and make you think. This work wins in all of those categories for the choices at auction this weekend. Good Luck, let us know if you win!
Two works at Neal Auction by Noel's mother, Gladys Rockmore Davis below.
Lot #662 "Child with Dog", oil on canvas, initialed "G.R.D." lower right, titled en verso, 40 in. x 32 1/2 in., framed. Provenance: Collection of Alice Barry, New Orleans and Pass Christian, MS.
Estimate $1200-$1800
Facts: Gladys Rockmore Davis was quite well known for her portraits and especially her childrens portraits. The art market has seen a lot of activity of Gladys works at auction in the last two years. Noel Rockmore had a very interesting relationship with his mother and even took her maiden name. They both loved pets and often included them in their works.
Thoughts: When Gladys died many of her works were shipped down to New Orleans. The GRD signature was one of many that she used but usually indicated that she signed it for sale. This looks like a work that was perhaps not bought by the patron it was painted for,
Lot #666 "Still Life of Fruit Bowl with Peaches", pastel on paper, signed lower right, titled en verso, 22 in. x 19 in., matted and framed. Estimate $600/900
Facts: Gladys Rockmore Davis was quite well known for her pastels and her still lifes and even wrote the first book on "Pastel Painting". When she was ill in 1966 before she died in 1967, her husband, well known Illustrator Floyd Davis, tried to make her sign all of her works that were in the studio. This accounts for the unusual signature on this one. If Floyd felt the signature was not up to snuff, he would complete it exactly as you see in this work. 
This concludes the summary for this auction. One last note is that not only are there other works from the Alice Barry collection by Charles Richards and others, there is also a tremendous amount of outstanding artwork from the Maison Bourbon. Last but not least a remarkable jazz piece from Gene Daymude. Check it out!
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