Rockmore & Truman Capote plus Neal Auction & eBay for 1-31-2012

Rockmore Auctions in NOLA including Truman Capote

Rockmores coming up at Neal Auction next weekend on February 4th & 5th, 2012.

Click on any image below to see the Auction House Image & description. All of these works are from private collections.

1975 Truman Capote with Flowers and Cognac

1974 Nude Study from Life - Jackson Square at Night

1972 Portrait of Hiran Pagan

Waiter at Cafe Des Artiste

74 "Chest of Drawers"- Made with Real Drawer

74 Back of Chest-"Do not turn knobs - Rockmore"
Lot 1191 - 12 Rockmore sketches Bundle - click

Lot 571 - 5 Rockmore works on Paper Bundle - click

All works below SOLD today at Crescent City Auction on Saturday January 28th, 2012.

Mermaid on the Beach

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Greetings!

Just when you think you have seen it all on the Noel Rockmore Project, we find out that he was friends in the mid 70s with Truman Capote and that they both shared time together at the Cafe des Artiste in New York City.

Capote in 1976

Capote in 1976

Truman Capote was a 52 year old New Orleans born recognized literary giant & public figure at the time struggling with alcoholism and following up his greatest work, "In Cold Blood." Rockmore was a 48 year old early prodigy NYC artist now a forgotten unrecognized outsider. Capote always looked at who you really were and what your talent level was and Rockmore easily fit his friend's criteria enough to do several portraits. This one coming up at Neal Auction is the finest one and comes from the estate of Ray Sterlini, proprietor of the Des Artist bar. The guess is that Sterlini was one of Rockmore's NYC patrons and bartender and that he built his collection through this association. This Truman Capote Painting will be a must have for future major exhibitions.

There are several other fine oils from the Sterlini estate that are coming up this auction including Hiran, a favorite waiter at the Des Artiste and a beautiful Jackson Square Nude at Night as well as the quite entertaining "Chest of Drawers" which shows off Rockmore's talent, obsession and humor all in the same work. This first auction since the Rockmore AP article will be an important test of the current Rockmore market and a good indicator of the direction it is heading. This is the first batch of quality Rockmore oils since Bryant Galleries liquidated their Rockmore's last year and flooded the NOLA art market. They have all been Estimated low ~$600 so they will sell to someone. The Truman Capote Painting would have garnered much more attention in NYC but that Auction House market has not been broken into by Rockmore .... yet!

In the Wings - Gladys Rockmore Davis - Link

Interesting that it has been broken into numerous times by Noel Rockmore's famous mother, Gladys Rockmore Davis, who has a work, "In the Wings" from her Life Magazine "Backstage Ballet" series (similar to Rockmore's Backstage Mardi Gras theme). This work will be coming up at Auction on this Friday Feb. 3rd at the Skinner Auction House in Boston. There is no doubt that as the Rockmore story keeps unfolding, Gladys & her famous husband & Rockmore's father, Floyd Davis, will recapture the Artworld attention that they dominated in the late 30s and early 40s. In this most competitive mother & son relationship it will be interesting to see who wins the battle of this coming Super Bowl weekend at the Rockmore vs Davis - Auction House shootout.

These Shirley Marvin Collection Rockmore works below will be available on eBay this Tuesday Jan 31st at 9PM Eastern Time. For those of you recently joining the eBay/Auction update - this is not a typical week with so many Rockmore's for sale at once. It is a GREAT opportunity to jump into being a Rockmore collector with several impressive works at a really great price before things start to change.

All the Rockmore boats have a chance to float up to new levels in the week ahead.

We BELIEVE!

Good luck to all ,

Rich & Tee & Shirley Marvin

The Noel Rockmore Project Team

www.Rockmore.org

eBay Auction from the Shirley Marvin Collection

this Tuesday January 31st at 9PM Eastern Time!

Click on large left images to read more about the Rockmore work!

#777 Paris Bird Market 72

4.09 72.777 Paris Bird Market-SGM2 Frame

Rockmore was sent to Paris in 1972 by his friend George Wein, founder of the New Orleans and Newport Jazz Festivals, who was trying to help Rockmore and promote his career. Rockmore was commissioned to do at least 25 works while he was there and to give George Wein his choice of purchasing any of the works up to 25. In exchange he got a stipend for materials and an apartment was provided in Paris for him and his girlfriend for the past three years, Riva.

Throughout his career, Rockmore liked to go to the circus, amusements parks and bird markets to gather material for his work. In this one he has captured a mother and child looking at birds on the other side of the cage. Rockmore always loved birds and he particularly liked the challenge of capturing the bird markets. You can see in this work that he has lots of birds, a tree, a background and the mother and child looking through the cage at the birds. It is three of his favorite themes, mother & child, bird markets and Paris.

4.10 59.10.150 - farmers market in French Quarter - SGM2

#150 Farmer's Market 1959

4.11 59.9.22.1077 No. 2 The French Market - black & white - SGM

This work is from Noel Rockmore's time when he drew and sketched all the sights and sounds of New Orleans as he discovered them. Noel Rockmore loved going into the all of the sections of a community and sketching its people as he found them.

He would go on to create many masterpiece works from his visits to this area of New Orleans and this one is used in the French Quarter Market which was featured on the 2011 AP nationwide article. This work is SPECIAL because it is real, it is a part of history and it comes from the master American artist who dared to document the human condition of all people in a segregated New Orleans. He had only one first visit to New Orleans and this was in 1959 and there are a limited number of signed New Orleans works with 59 and his brand new Rockmore signature after changing his name from Noel Davis.

4.13 67.7.27.346 - Artist & Flowering Tree - SGM2

#346 - Artist & Flowering Tree 67

4.14 Family Photos & Scans - ERH - 85

Noel Rockmore's mother, Gladys Rockmore Davis, was famous for her portraits of flowers and was recognized and associated with these flower portraits. Noel Rockmore decided that he would use the flowers as a symbol of the artist gift to the world and often painted men and women with flowers. Many times it was a self portrait and it became a theme that made its way into other Rockmore works and themes. In the late 60's it seems that Rockmore was often using the flowers as a character within the work that he would try and communicate with.

This specific work is interesting because Rockmore depicts himself with his red shirt and striped shorts that was a symbol of a young Rockmore. He and his sister Deborah posed in this type of outfit for a magazine story that was being written about their famous mother when they were young.

4.17 66.7.202 - Jerry Garcia looking - French Quarter Guitar Player - SGM3

#202 French Quarter Guitar Player 1966

Jerry Garcia

The chances that the guitar player is Jerry Garcia are not great but it is possible for a few reasons. Although, Jerry did visit NOLA in 1968 to collaborate with Alan Toussaint, there is not much documentation that he visited in 1966 when the Dead came to be in San Fran. Rockmore did live in Haight Asbury in the mid 60s in San Francisco which is where Jerry Garcia lived and often played at The New Orleans House.

The rest of the figures are engaged with each other in a typical barroom scene. The scene actually seems to be looking more and more like the Night Music scenes that Rockmore would create for the Bukowski book, "Crucifix in a Deathhand."

4.16 70.586 Drug Culture Study Portrait Reclining Patient-SGM2

#586 Drug Culture Study Free Clinic 70

4.15 70.586 Drug Culture Study Portrait Reclining Patient-SGM Frame (2)

In 1970, Rockmore spent more and more time at the Free Head Clinic run by his friend, Mike Stark, the leader of the young people and the guru of the Hippies in the French Quarter.

These type of works have been most interesting to the curators we have met so far on the Rockmore trail. This work was selected by Curator Richard Davenport of the Cahoon Museum on Cape Cod in 2011 as one of only 10 Rockmore works that were featured in the show. It has a nice label on the back as well as the words used on the plaque to describe the work at the show.

Final Three works in January 31st eBay Auction below - Each clickable with description.

4.21 71.7.733-Victorian Child with Curly Hair-SGM2

#733 Victorian Child 71

4.22 69.540 Carl Bock Eating in French Quarter-SGM2

#540 Carl Bock Eating in French Quarter 69

4.19 58.9.25.77- Poss. Beach composition of a series - Dover Mass-SGM2

#77 58 Beach composition

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