Wallace and Gromit by Nick Park

Nick Park is surely one of the very few reigning geniuses of stop-motion animation. He graciously donated a drawing of his superb Wallace and Gromit to the "Searle in America" benefit auction, and it sold quite well yesterday. Still it's a bargain compared with what these souvenir drawings fetch at high-powered auction houses like Christie's. But first things first. Here's the drawing from the benefit auction on eBay:

Nick Park, Wallace & Gromit

http://attempblogger.blogspot.com/2013/08/wallace-and-gromit-by-nick-park.html

http://attempblogger.blogspot.com/2013/08/wallace-and-gromit-by-nick-park.html

http://attempblogger.blogspot.com/2013/08/wallace-and-gromit-by-nick-park.html

Sure, that's a lot of money, but it is dwarfed by activity on the London auction block. Each of the following sales results is from Christie's South Kensington:

Nick Park, Wallace & Gromit

http://attempblogger.blogspot.com/2013/08/wallace-and-gromit-by-nick-park.html

Nick Park, Wallace & Gromit

Nick Park, Wallace & Gromit

http://attempblogger.blogspot.com/2013/08/wallace-and-gromit-by-nick-park.html

For those who dearly love Wallace and Gromit but are a little overwhelmed by these auction prices, there is one relatively inexpensive, quick sketch still available on eBay. It's a signed drawing of just Gromit from a page in an autograph album. As you can see, it must be quite a challenge to remove these pages without tearing them.

Nick Park, Gromit

http://attempblogger.blogspot.com/2013/08/wallace-and-gromit-by-nick-park.html

[End of eBay Listing]

****

Wallace & Gromit:

20 Questions with Nick Park

Note:  The eBay benefit auction in support of the "Searle in America" show continues. As you can see, there are some good deals to be had and they're all right here.

The Searle in America blog is dedicated to this fall's exhibition as well as to the eBay fundraiser and it can be seen here.

Then there's Perpetua, the Ronald Searle tribute blog, recommended to everyone with an interest in Searle's art--that's you--and it's over here.

I have one previous post on Nick Park's Wallace & Gromit character models which you can see here.

And, as always, my Searle posts are right here. Don't tell me you have something better to do.

0836

Ronald Searle: Cats at the Ballet

Ronald Searle published a volume of expressive ballet drawings in 1946. The one reproduced here shows his concern for form, contour, balance, and tension. He was skilled at figure drawing, but his early realistic books proved financially unsuccessful, and he spent much of the rest of his long career producing humorous illustrations.

Four of Searle's humorous cat drawings with a ballet theme were sold at Christie's South Kensington between 2005 and 2009. They are not dated and were not published prior to the auctions, but they may well have been created some five decades after this figurative drawing of a ballerina, give or take a few years.

Searle's much later cat drawings are as far removed from the ballerina drawing as one can imagine, too far for any useful comparison. They are uniquely whimsical; indeed they possess a stylistic individuality scarcely hinted at in the ballerina drawing. They transcend the typical limits of the cartooning genre and project energy, humor, and even poetry that are hard to find in any medium. If one didn't know, don't think one would surmise they came from the same hand as the realistic ballerina drawing.

Ronald Searle, "Ballerina" from Le Nouveau Ballet Anglais, Paris, Montbrun, 1946

Ronald Searle, Night Bird

Ronald Searle, Things That Go Bump in the Night

Ronald Searle, Dreams of Glory

Ronald Searle, Entre-Chats

The auction sale results below are all from Christie's:

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/searchresults.aspx?entry=Ronald%20Searle%20night%20bird&searchtype=p

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/ronald-william-fordham-searle-things-that-go-5225192-details.aspx?from=searchresults&intObjectID=5225192&sid=e72ce77f-e601-482b-8e49-1e4bd20d2373

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/ronald-william-fordham-searle-dreams-of-glory-5225202-details.aspx?from=searchresults&intObjectID=5225202&sid=f2ab5397-cedd-43c0-be1d-68bf433eec78

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot/ronald-william-fordham-searle-entre-chats-4627010-details.aspx?from=searchresults&intObjectID=4627010&sid=e26b5eef-d529-4d72-b94f-056d0dfff056

Note:  An exciting exhibition of Ronald Searle's reportage work for the U.S. magazine market is coming later this year to the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. The animation community has contributed most generously to an eBay fundraiser for the "Searle in America" show. Check it out here.

The Searle in America blog is dedicated to this exhibition as well as the eBay fundraiser and can be seen here.

Perpetua, the Ronald Searle tribute blog, is your source for everything about Ronald Searle. See it here.

Finally, there are my own Searle posts located here. Jackpot!

0835

Ronald Searle: Le Nouveau Ballet Anglais

Le Nouveau Ballet Anglais (1946) is a scarce book title by Ronald Searle published for the French market. It contains sixteen drawings, of which only one is reproduced in this recent eBay listing. In the immediate post-war years, Searle had hoped to establish himself as a serious artist chronicling the times. It was in humorous illustration that he was to achieve his greatest success.

Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. puts this period of Searle's life in context for us:

http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/searle.htm

Cover to Ronald Searle's Le Nouveau Ballet Anglais, Paris, Montbrun, 1946

Title page to Ronald Searle's Le Nouveau Ballet Anglais, Paris, Montbrun, 1946

Limitation page to Ronald Searle's Le Nouveau Ballet Anglais, Paris, Montbrun, 1946.
Exemplaire No. 490 of 650 numbered copies plus four lettered copies.

Ronald Searle, "Ballerina" from Le Nouveau Ballet Anglais, Paris, Montbrun, 1946

Hand-written copy of the book review from the Edinburgh Evening News, 

Note:  Stop me if you've heard this before. A world-class exhibition of Ronald Searle's reportage work for the American magazine market is planned for San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum this November. The animation community has contributed brilliantly to an eBay fundraiser for the "Searle in America" show. There are still some fine items to be had here.

The Searle in America blog is dedicated to this forthcoming exhibition as well as the eBay fundraiser and can be seen here.

Of course, Perpetua, the Ronald Searle tribute blog, should be your first stop in exploring the work of this amazing cartoonist, and it's right here.

And once you're done with all that, my own Searle posts are right here. Yes indeed!

0834

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #390

Here's my entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #390 for August 5, 2013. The cartoon is by Drew Dernavich, but the musical caption is all mine.

"My apologies. Was it tuna you ordered then?"

I came up with two additional captions that didn't quite make the cut, but I've grown fond of them, so I'll share them with you just the same.

"Any requests that go oom-pah-pah?"
"It's my very own transcription of 'The Ring.'"

Note:  My previous somewhat fishy entry in the Cartoon Caption Contest can be found here.

My previous blog posts with Drew Dernavich's work are here.

0833

Ronald Searle: "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines"

What is one to do when a fantastic illustration comes along but it is offered at a stratospheric price? As might be expected, the artwork receives no bids, and when the item is relisted the price slowly begins to drop--but not nearly enough to elicit any bidding activity. At some point, one expects, the price may be lowered to a reasonable level and find a buyer, but the owner, who turns 100 during this time period, decides he would rather keep it hanging on his wall than drop the price any further.

That's what happened to a terrific illustration by Ronald Searle from the title sequence of "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" (Twentieth Century Fox, 1965). Initially offered in the $18,000 to $20,000 price range, it subsequently failed to sell for $13,000 to $17,000 and has not been relisted. Sale prices for Searle illustrations occasionally may reach this range, but it is far from the norm.

Ronald Searle, Title Sequence Illustration, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes, Twentieth Century Fox, 1965 

April 2, 2013 Original eBay Listing Price

 http://www.ebay.com/itm/RONALD-SEARLE-ORIGINAL-WATERCOLOR-LARGE-Those-Mag-Men-In-Flying-Machines-MOVIE-/140943839491?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&nma=true&si=VJo29%252F7WbHpl1SY9gWmnl4%252FkT80%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

May 9, 2013 Final eBay Listing Price

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RONALD-SEARLE-ORIGINAL-WATERCOLOR-LARGE-Those-Mag-Men-In-Flying-Machines-MOVIE-/140971264207?ViewItem=&ssPageName=ADME%3AB%3ASS%3AUS%3A1123&item=140971264207&nma=true&si=VJo29%252F7WbHpl1SY9gWmnl4%252FkT80%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Ronald Searle, Title Sequence Illustration, "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes," Twentieth Century Fox, 1965

[End of eBay Listing]

Ronald Searle, Bill Richardson, and Allen Andrews. Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes (London:  Dennis Dobson, 1965), Pages 22-23

Elmo Williams:  A Hollywood Memoir (2006)
Mr. Williams is the owner of this artwork.

Note:  As I've been writing, a major exhibition of Ronald Searle's reportage work for the American market is coming to San Francisco this fall. The eBay fundraiser for the "Searle in America" exhibition can be viewed here.

The Searle in America blog can be seen here.

Perpetua, the Ronald Searle tribute blog, is right here.

In addition to all this, my own Ronald Searle posts are right here. Happy reading.

0832