1941 Grant Wood "March" Lithograph
GUEST:
It's a piece that's very important to me. I think it was originally owned by my great-grandmother and grandfather who lived in Osceola, Iowa. They had a farm and a shoe store there, and I think it makes sense that they would like a piece like this. In high school I liked to do... I liked to do art and stuff, and so I made my grandmother a scratch board piece, it was kind of a black and white relief drawing that I did. And she thought it reminded her of this piece, so my sweet grandmother put it on the wall with this and there it stayed. And I was honored to be in the company of an artist like that. I eventually inherited it from her, and it stays in my home with my piece as well, and I'm really proud of it.
APPRAISER:
We're really excited to see this kind of fine work. Of course it is by Grant Wood, Iowa's most famous artist and one of America's great painters. It's a lithograph, which is done with a soft crayon, very much like a pencil on a stone. And so it really shows the hand and fine drawing of the artist. And Grant Wood did a number of lithographs late in his career. So you have a great example with his lithography. And you probably knew a little bit about it as there's a label on the back, and it's signed.
GUEST:
Yeah. As I understood, it was maybe commissioned by American Artists Associates.
APPRAISER:
It's Associated American Artists, and what's interesting about them is they really brought fine prints like this to the broad American market. You could actually order these by mail. And with Associated American Artists prints, the lithographs are usually all done in an edition of 250.
GUEST:
And they're not numbered generally?
APPRAISER:
They're not numbered. Yeah, so Associated prints-- we call them AAA-- Associated American Artists prints aren't generally numbered. We just know from their records that this was done in an edition of 250. And what's nice about this print is it's a great example of Grant Wood's work, very representative of his painting and his imagery of Iowa and of the Midwest. Grant Wood did not a lot of lithographs. This was printed in 1939. And it was published in 1941 by the Associated American Artists. He died in 1942.
GUEST:
Hm...
APPRAISER:
As it is a large edition, we've seen many examples of these at auction. There's a few little spots in the margin, so it may need a little cleaning. But overall it's a very good impression. At auction, this would bring between $4,000 and $6,000.
GUEST:
Wow, fantastic.
APPRAISER:
It's a fine example.
GUEST:
Cool. And it'll stay in my home and my family for years to come.
APPRAISER:
Gallery or retail price, which would be close to replacement value would be about $8,000.
GUEST:
Okay.
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