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  Jan de Swart hand carved Zebra wood Mystery box c. 1970

  JAN DE SWART (1908-1987) Netherlands / USA

  Mystery box c. 1970

  Hand carved and assembled box form with a curiosity element of a large turquoise cabochon with raw hide wraps underneath the lid.

  For more information see: Jan de Swart: A Day That Becomes a Lifetime, exhibition catalogue (California: Fine Arts Gallery at the San Fernando Valley State College, February 1972); Jan de Swart, Mike McGee and William G. Otton (Laguna Beach, California: Laguna Art Museum, 1986).

  W: 16 1/2″ x H: 4 1/2″ x D: 5″

  Price: $4,700

  Constantly seeking and inventing new materials Jan de Swart was a true modernist.  He was influenced by artists such as Isamu Noguchi, Harry Bertoia, Charles Eames, and later Sam Maloof and Wendell Castle.  Although he had been creating small sculptures since his arrival in California from Holland in 1929, he had not been widely recognized until being introduced to John Entenza, publisher of Arts & Architecture magazine in 1947.  Soon thereafter, he was able to create larger works and began collaborating with architects such as Whitney Smith and Victor Gruen on special commissions.  His work is in the permanent collection of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Smithsonian, and the Ford Foundation.  He was honored with the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal for Sculpture in 1965.

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  Tim Liddy Game of Boom or Bust (1951) Presidential Sweepstakes 2006 Oil and enamel on copper, plywood back

  TIM LIDDY

  “Game of Boom or Bust” (1951) Presidential Sweepstakes 2006

  Oil and enamel on copper, plywood back

  Signed in script: Tim Liddy “circa 1951” 2006, red circular ring

  Provenance: William Shearburn Gallery (St. Louis, MO)

  H: 15 1/8” x W: 15 1/8” x D: 2”

  With his recent paintings, Liddy has both reasserted the construct of hyperrealist painting and developed a thoroughly unique advancement of that mode by extending the cultural reality of the indexed original. Based on the illustrated box lids of vintage board games, Liddy has recontextualized a subject, which evokes the underlying rules of life. Painted on copper or steel in the precise dimensions of the original, the metal is then manipulated to demonstrate the exact rips and tears from years of usage and includes trompe-l’oeil renditions of the scotch tape that might be holding the cardboard box together, the assorted stains, or the various graffiti of time. Liddy leaves no possibility of ambivalence, these works speak to a concurrent understanding of their original object identity and to themselves as works of art engaged in historical and psychological dialogue.