Barks auctions on heritage

[Bronty]

Anybody else get the upcoming sales flyer for all the no reserve barks paintings? Wow.... eight or ten different no reserve oils coming up! And luck of hte north is in there too which I always thought was the best or one of the best.

 

Also thought it would be interesting to see where a bunch of no reserve barks end up. Guesses on luck of the north or golden fleece?

[comicartcom]

no reserve...

Great.. are they starting at 99 cents each..

or are they starting at a small discount from the "perceived" retail value??

[Bronty]

no reserve...

Great.. are they starting at 99 cents each..

or are they starting at a small discount from the "perceived" retail value??

 

dunno

[adamstrange]

No reserve has previously meant start at zero so that's what I assume is going to happen. It certainly will give an indication of the current market value given that there are 9 of them.

[Bronty]

thanks. care to venture a guess on luck of the north?

[tth2]

I don`t think prices will be particularly high because of the number of paintings being sold all at once, plus the biggest supporter of Barks paintings is not going to be bidding. In fact, my assumption is that he`s the one selling.

[linmoth]

I don`t think prices will be particularly high because of the number of paintings being sold all at once, plus the biggest supporter of Barks paintings is not going to be bidding. In fact, my assumption is that he`s the one selling.

 

The seller's name is Kerby Confer. I knew him as Kirby Scott a DJ in the Baltimore area in the 60's. He had a dance show similar to American Bandstand. The band I played in was on his TV show and won a Battle of the Bands he emceed. He also was the Emcee when the Beatles appeared in Baltimore along with many other bands of that era.

 

He went on to build a small empire of radio stations which he sold. You can read his story in the Scoop archives.

[Bonds25]

Anybody else get the upcoming sales flyer for all the no reserve barks paintings? Wow.... eight or ten different no reserve oils coming up! And luck of hte north is in there too which I always thought was the best or one of the best.

 

Also thought it would be interesting to see where a bunch of no reserve barks end up. Guesses on luck of the north or golden fleece?

 

Not sure what they'll sell for, but I'm assuming it'll be a lot. Since there is no reserve, I'll place my usual lowball bids. You gonna bid Dan?

[Bronty]

I will probably put in a bid, but I expect to be beat by your bid - ie lower than lowball I just don't have any spare jack to throw around with the mrs. being preggers and our income about to be reduced by 40%

[fc]

a barks painting just sold in May at heritage. it was one of barks first paintings of scrooge. a small

painting. one sold a few years back for 48K. this one sold for less then 20K.

 

this large bunch of paintings comes from a guy who is getting up there in age if i remember

correctly. the other large holders of barks material are also wanting to unload it seems. just look

at ebay for example over the last few months.

 

basically there is bark oil paintings for sale constantly right now and no one seems to be buying

at the asking prices. they are just that over priced right now.

 

for example, a very small donald duck painting showing him with a thumbs up failed to sell for

9K on ebay. the rumor was, just a few years ago, that any barks painting of a disney duck could

not be had for less then 40K! hah. right... says the owners of barks oil paintings.

 

i agree with others that this will tell us a lot about the price these paintings should be selling for

in the year 2010. i expect prices to be quite a bit less when compared to the boom years of

2000-2008 which i try to keep track of and was amazed at the list of prices i have.

 

I do not plan to bid. The cash is just not there for me with other things going on. I just plan to

watch and learn. Allow more of this material to get out of the hands of a few major players and

into the hands of multiple people. There are just so many paintings from barks that an opportunity

to buy one should come quite often. I would reckon as much as 3-5 a year for many years to

come.

 

I would like to think that the prices will be around 20-65K. The few more impressive ones will be

harder to determine. Size will be a big factor in price. Money bin paintings will be a factor while

the other odder "situations" being less desirable.

 

if i had to go for one i would want the one with scrooge in his klondike days. fast post to give my

thoughts. i really should spend more time on it.. ;-)

 

[Aman619]

Ive always had little interest in Barks as a painter. But I think theres an even chance his work will be highly regarded in 50 years as bona fide Disney collectibles of the highest calibre....

 

or considered just old age loose doodlings of a well liked comics artist. Sort of like the cover recreations that are out there. albeit in oil which to date accounted for much of the collector respect they have achieved.

[tth2]

Ive always had little interest in Barks as a painter. But I think theres an even chance his work will be highly regarded in 50 years as bona fide Disney collectibles of the highest calibre....

 

or considered just old age loose doodlings of a well liked comics artist. Sort of like the cover recreations that are out there. albeit in oil which to date accounted for much of the collector respect they have achieved.

I love Barks, but not his oil paintings. Too kitsch for me.

[Bronty]

well we all agree on that point I think and IIRC we've all spoken to it before. There is no doubt barks was at his best:

 

a) between 1948 and 1958, and

b) in pen & ink as opposed to oils.

 

But given the dearth of pen & ink work on the market, if you love barks this is pretty much all you can get, and for once, a public sale will include one of his best paintings (IMO anyways) and at no reserve.... so it will make for interesting viewing even if it isn't his best work.

[Aman619]

Ive always had little interest in Barks as a painter. But I think theres an even chance his work will be highly regarded in 50 years as bona fide Disney collectibles of the highest calibre....

 

or considered just old age loose doodlings of a well liked comics artist. Sort of like the cover recreations that are out there. albeit in oil which to date accounted for much of the collector respect they have achieved.

I love Barks, but not his oil paintings. Too kitsch for me.

 

kitsch is a great word for them!

 

[Bronty]

Ive always had little interest in Barks as a painter. But I think theres an even chance his work will be highly regarded in 50 years as bona fide Disney collectibles of the highest calibre....

 

or considered just old age loose doodlings of a well liked comics artist. Sort of like the cover recreations that are out there. albeit in oil which to date accounted for much of the collector respect they have achieved.

I love Barks, but not his oil paintings. Too kitsch for me.

 

kitsch is a great word for them!

 

true, but so is his 1960s pen and ink work... tell me microducks from outer space or a few of the others at the very end aren't lame uh, I mean kitsch.

 

Its hard for me to quantify how much of the kitsch factor is as a result of the medium and how much is as a result of the date the piece was created.

 

I'd wager equal measure

 

[tth2]

Ive always had little interest in Barks as a painter. But I think theres an even chance his work will be highly regarded in 50 years as bona fide Disney collectibles of the highest calibre....

 

or considered just old age loose doodlings of a well liked comics artist. Sort of like the cover recreations that are out there. albeit in oil which to date accounted for much of the collector respect they have achieved.

I love Barks, but not his oil paintings. Too kitsch for me.

 

kitsch is a great word for them!

 

true, but so is his 1960s pen and ink work... tell me microducks from outer space or a few of the others at the very end aren't lame uh, I mean kitsch.

They`re not kitsch!

 

Some of Barks` late work wasn`t his best, but on the other hand he still produced some classic stuff.

 

Its hard for me to quantify how much of the kitsch factor is as a result of the medium and how much is as a result of the date the piece was created.

 

I'd wager equal measure

A huge amount is the medium, in my mind. He wasn`t that skilled an oil painter and what he produced, intentionally or unintentionally, was kind of like velvet oil paintings of his most famous line drawn works.

[*paull*]

I don't know much about Barks' paintings vs. pencil/ink work. Out of this set of Barks paintings, which are considered to be great works and why? And what constitutes sub-standard work? I have no vested interest, but I'm curious about what other people see in an artist's work.

 

[Bronty]

great line with the velvet paintings.

 

I do agree in many ways Tim, but you have to admit even his work in mediums besides oils was kitschy by a certain date. Here's a 1970s example:

 

http://comics.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=825&Lot_No=41011#photo

 

(with all due respect to the owner as I'd sure love to own it)

 

Campy is another good word to describe it.

 

And I think that's just reflective of the way he viewed the characters. As you know scrooge started out a mean SOB and by the end he is just a stock "rich adventurer guy" all full of light heart and good spirits. His take on the characters themselves got campier and campier over time, and that certainly didn't help the stories or art any.

 

But back to your original point there's no question in my mind that the quality of his line art was much deteriorated by the time he retired, as is and was the case with most any artist. To me its entirely possible that he might have been able to create much more expressive and skillful paintings if he'd started practicing 30 years earlier. Impossible to prove... but the 1978 line art is no 1948 line art so... perhaps the 1948 paintings would have been better. And in all fairness, some of them are pretty nice.

 

The biggest problem with his paintings as I see it is that they are effectively silent, single panels... and as such could never show off his greatest strengths. He truly was a master of sequential art so no single panel type piece would ever have that wow factor short of a few home runs like the US1 cover.

 

Take this original line art cover (w/colored overlay). Is it really SO much better than the paintings? Not in my mind. In fact some of the paintings I'd prefer over this. Single, static panels like covers and paintings can't really do the man's work the full justice it deserves

 

http://comics.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=821&Lot_No=44032

 

 

Now I'll have to go slap myself silly for talking this way about the #1 comic creator of all time!

[Bronty]

I don't know much about Barks' paintings vs. pencil/ink work. Out of this set of Barks paintings, which are considered to be great works and why? And what constitutes sub-standard work? I have no vested interest, but I'm curious about what other people see in an artist's work.

 

Oooohhh... when it comes to his line art, to me I guess if I had to narrow it down to a couple things, it would be that his peak period work is graceful and fluid, characters natural in terms of body movements and expressive in terms of faces. Greed and fear and joy all peerlessly conveyed.

 

Take US1 http://www.comicspriceguide.com/blog/image.axd?picture=2009%2F8%2FCONNECT1.jpg

 

You can feel the strain on donald's body... you can see the way the oars are bending back a bit with resistance. Scrooge is all business... physically relaxed but extremely engaged mentally. The kids are just being kids having fun.

 

The idea that the boat is being rowed in a lake of coins (physically impossible) is effortlessly conveyed. By drawing the coins in some spots and leaving blank in others he's suggesting current effects behind the boat from donald's rowing.

 

Using that particular perspective on the boat makes donald's strain all the more real as well.

 

In short its a frickin masterpiece.

 

 

His later work has more wooden characters in more wooden poses expressing far less emotion.

 

Here's US70, his last

 

http://photobank.ngccoin.com/cgcgallery/UncleScrooge_70_9-6.jpg

 

This boat is less convincing despite being in an actual body of water (possible) rather than being rowed in a money lake (pretty well impossible).

 

The looks of fear on scrooge and the kids are half azzed, the octopus is supposed to be angry, I guess, because you sure can't tell. The poses are now wooden instead of having all that rich lifelike detail (not sure if scrooge is scared for his life or just constipated )

 

In short, it sucks. If they were all like this nobody would have heard of the man.

[Bronty]

I don't know much about Barks' paintings vs. pencil/ink work. Out of this set of Barks paintings, which are considered to be great works and why? And what constitutes sub-standard work? I have no vested interest, but I'm curious about what other people see in an artist's work.

 

when it comes to the painted work...

 

well a couple things I guess. Some of them have a nice translucency effect that he seems to have picked up from Gare. These are examples

 

http://comics.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=7023&LotIdNo=29021

http://comics.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=828&Lot_No=42021

 

And... sometimes that effect is overdone or clumsy, leading to the velvet oil look Tim was talking about

 

http://comics.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=826&Lot_No=43034

 

I like ones that are simple, expressive, and true to the character:

 

http://comics.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=7023&LotIdNo=29043

 

But unfortunately these are often the smallest in size.

 

The ones that have good subject matter, size, and above average execution tend to do well monetarily. Money bins, money lakes, reinterpretations of famous covers or scenes from favorite stories.

 

 

-- warning: conclusions such as they are have been formed from my view in the cheap seats only