Case Auctions
Case Auctions held the first day of its Winter Fine Arts & Antique auction on Jan. 25. Many lots came from estates and museum collections in Tennessee, with the results highlighting one of the state’s greatest artists, William Edmondson (1874-1951). The top lot, selling for $268,400, was Edmondson’s “Lady with a Bustle” limestone sculpture—another sculpture of his, a large garden figure shaped like a teacup, sold for $43,920.
Case Auctions
Edmondson’s sculptures have the organic shapes, simple lines, and skilled craftsmanship of modern design, and his status as a self-taught artist plants his work in the category of outsider art, whose appeal keeps growing. His life story adds interest, too. Born to former slaves, Edmondson worked in Nashville for a railroad, then as a hospital orderly. In 1931, during the Great Depression, he began carving limestone after what he described as a divine vision. His early works were utilitarian, like tombstones and birdbaths. He soon expanded into decorative carvings of subjects like local people, Biblical figures, and animals.
Case Auctions
It wasn’t just works by Edmondson that sold at the auction; several images of him sold as well. Two photographs of him by Louise Dahl-Wolfe sold, each for over $4,000. Although Dahl-Wolfe may be better known for her fashion photography, her photographs of Edmondson in his workyard proved to be influential in spreading Edmondson’s fame beyond Nashville, especially when she advocated for him and his work to Alfred H. Barr Jr., founding director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1937, Edmondson had a solo exhibition at MoMA, making him both the first Black and first self-taught artist to do so.
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