Curated by Clark and Del Vecchio, the Auction Features the Most Important Peter Voulkos to be Offered in over a Decade.

The partnership of Wes Cowan, Garth Clark, and Mark Del Vecchio (Cowans+Clark+DelVecchio) will present their inaugural Modern and Contemporary Ceramics Auction alongside the 2010 SOFA (Sculpture Objects & Functional Art) Fair in Chicago on Saturday, November 6, 2010, at Navy Pier.

The first of its kind, the Auction brings to the international art market over 80 works by the most important 20th-century ceramic artists in the field.  Cowan, President and Principal Auctioneer of Cowan’s Auctions in Cincinnati, and Clark and Del Vecchio, internationally-recognized scholars and dealers in modern and contemporary ceramics, believe that the success of this auction will determine the viability of a true secondary market for ceramic art, never before established.   This event blends Cowan’s stellar reputation as an auction house with Clark and Del Vecchio’s impeccable credentials. For thirty years they were world’s leading ceramic dealers with galleries in Los Angeles and New York as well as being writers, critics, historians, curators, and consultants to leading museums worldwide.  The partnership between Wes Cowan, Garth Clark, and Mark Del Vecchio was announced in February of 2010.

A Stoneware Stack Pot by Peter Voulkos (1924-2002, USA), titled Gash, is estimated to sell for $50,000/90,000.  Voulkos is world-renowned for his abstract expressionist ceramic sculptures; he was instrumental in moving ceramics from functional to purely artistic forms in the 1950s. Gash is the most significant Voulkos to come to auction in over a decade.  The piece was shown in two important exhibitions: A Century of Ceramics in the United States, 1978, and Voulkos’s finest survey exhibition, Peter Voulkos Retrospective, organized by the Sezon Museum, Tokyo; and the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, 1995.

Cowan’s will also be offering a collection of works by Dame Lucie Rie (1902-1995, Austria), the most celebrated and widely collected of all 20th-century ceramists. A vessel with sgraffito rim is estimated to bring $15,000/20,000. A Yellow Bowl with Bronze Rim is expected to fetch $6,000/8,000, and a White Bowl with Bronze Rim is estimated to sell for $8,000/11,000.  Several Rie pieces are being sold to benefit the Collections of the Ceramics Research Center, Arizona State University Art Museum.   An abstract ceramic titled Vesuvius by Christine Nofchissy McHorse (Born 1948, USA) is estimated to sell for $12,000/15,000. A resident of Sante Fe, Mchorse is one of the Southwest’s most adventurous and important abstract ceramists. The pot is made from a continuous coil with no cutting or joining.

Also offered in the sale is Ghost Box Sculpture, by Jim Melchert (Born 1930, Ohio), estimated to bring $7,000/9,000. The sculpture has been exhibited at both the Art Gallery of the University of California and the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco (1966) An impressive collection of ceramics by Betty Woodman will come to auction in this sale. A pair of His and Hers Vases are estimated to sell for $20,000/30,0000. A ceramic titled Iraklian Shelf Vase is expected to fetch $9,500/12,000. A ceramic basket by Woodman is estimated to bring $3,500/4,500.

Other highlights slated for the November auction include significant works by Ron Nagle, Adrian Saxe, Elie Nadelman, Shoji Hamada, and Rudy Autio.

The full auction catalogue is available at www.cowans.com.  Absentee, phone, and live internet bidding will be available during the auction.