Any Interest in 110 Original Oskar Barnack Sketches?

galavanter

galavanter

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Forgive the intrusion, I'm just a poor out of work new R-D1 owner, but I stumbled across this ad here in L.A. today, and thought some of you collectors with the big bucks might be interested. Someone in Beverly Hills is selling what they claim to be more than 110 original sketches by Oskar Barnack. Just a heads up, as I have no idea of the value of such things. But if you find that this is indeed a "once in a lifetime offer", I am available to act as your representative for the purchase.

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/clt/231214808.html

Jim
 
If I had something like that, Craigslist sure wouldn't be the first place I listed it.

Still interesting.
 
I have seen art for sale by "famous artists" on craigslist before; all SCAMS. The last one I noticed was supposed to be a Picasso drawing that anyone remotely familiar with Picasso's work would readily identify as a fake, even from the little picture on craigslist. It was funny, the work itself was obviously fake, but the signature seemed to be a reasonably good copy of Picasso's signature. I suppose the "sucker" was supposed to feel he was getting an incredible deal, the price was only $250 from a seller who presumably was too ignorant to know the real value........scam-O-rama
 
How strange you should mention Picasso. The first thing that came to mind when I looked at the Barnack sketch on the left was female genitalia. Hmmm...

Pablito said:
I have seen art for sale by "famous artists" on craigslist before; all SCAMS. The last one I noticed was supposed to be a Picasso drawing that anyone remotely familiar with Picasso's work would readily identify as a fake, even from the little picture on craigslist. It was funny, the work itself was obviously fake, but the signature seemed to be a reasonably good copy of Picasso's signature. I suppose the "sucker" was supposed to feel he was getting an incredible deal, the price was only $250 from a seller who presumably was too ignorant to know the real value........scam-O-rama
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That was actually my way of razzing Pablito a little. Craigslist is nothing more than a free classified ad service that encourages dealing face to face in your community. I put an old laptop on there recently and in two hours some Polish guy was sitting on my couch buying it for his daughter. We had a nice encounter, ended up talking film vs digital photography, and off he went, me with cash in hand. Like most things in life, once the initial contact is made, you're on your own.

But to the point you seem to be interested in Ash, Picasso did a lot of erotic drawings and paintings, and many see a lot of hidden imagery in those works. The American writer Norman Mailer did a book called "Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man", which many thought was as much about Mailer's inner psychology as the painters. The title of course was a play on James Joyce's fictionalized memoir, "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man".

I happened to see that Mailer was speaking in Los Angeles one evening years ago to promote the book, so I hopped on my motorcycle and attended the lecture. The thought of seeing and possibly meeting an author I had read and admired was my main motivation.

Mailer saw female genatalia everywhere in Picasso's work, including candle flames. It was an interesting talk.

I actually stood in line to meet him afterwards and he also signed a first edition copy of his book for me. When I introduced myself and we shook hands (not something the others were doing and not something his security guard approved of), he recognized my name (I was hoping he would) as being the same as a former boxing champion (Mailer was also a boxer and a boxing writer). We had a brief but very pleasant encounter. My fond memory is that he then smiled, picked up his pen again, and added "Cheers" under his signature.

But as for Mailer's work, my favorite is "The Executioner's Song", a "nonfiction novel" along the lines of Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood".
I'd also recommend "When We Were Kings", an amazing boxing documentary about the championship fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman that took place in Zaire in 1974. "The Rumble in the Jungle". Lots of '70's fashion, live performances by James Brown and B.B. King, and some commentary by Mr. Mailer as well.

I would think a fellow your age just might enjoy all three.

Jim

Ash said:
Eh ?!
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In fact during my earlier youth we'd go to Lanzarote for our family holidays. the cheap rooms would contain prints by picasso and other more cubist artists hanging from the walls. I'm all too familiar with his work 🙂
 
Well I am glad to hear that. That's cool, cheap rooms with Picasso prints.🙂

As far as the listing Keith, I didn't save it but I recall that it was posted on the 6th. They automatically expire in 7 days, and the seller must renew. So that is a possibility. Was anyone genuinely interested in these?

Jim




Ash said:
In fact during my earlier youth we'd go to Lanzarote for our family holidays. the cheap rooms would contain prints by picasso and other more cubist artists hanging from the walls. I'm all too familiar with his work 🙂
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