Important Design Including Post War + Contemporary Art 
5 June 2019
Important Design Including Post War + Contemporary Art 
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Roy Superior 1934–2013

The Oracle

1983
cedar, walnut, tiger maple 34 h × 9½ w × 25½ d in (86 × 24 × 65 cm)
estimate: $3,000–5,000
result: $6,875
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Incised signature and date to base 'R. Superior 1983'.
provenance: Allan Stone Gallery, New York
exhibited: Roy Superior: Patent Models for a Good Life, 7 February - 19 April 2014, The Center for Art in Wood, Philadelphia Sorcery & Craft, 10 January - 18 February 2017, Allan Stone Projects, New York

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The Visionary Eye of Allan Stone

Allan Stone; Allan Stone Gallery, New York, c. 1975. Images courtesy of the Allan Stone Collection


Founded in 1960 by art dealer Allan Stone (1932–2006), the New York gallery known today as Allan Stone Projects has been admired for over half a century. Celebrated for its eclectic approach and early advocacy of pivotal artists of the 20th century, Allan Stone Gallery was a leading authority on Abstract Expressionism, the New York dealer for Wayne Thiebaud for over forty years, and showed the works of Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Arshile Gorky, Joseph Cornell, John Graham and John Chamberlain. Stone also promoted the work of a younger generation of artists that were in conversation with other artists in his collection, working in the mediums of assemblage, collage and new modes of abstraction. In addition to modern masterworks and contemporary art, Allan Stone also collected and exhibited international folk art, Americana and important decorative arts and industrial design.

My entire life has been devoted and committed to art. I make it and teach it—indeed, my very survival is dependant upon art. I enjoy every aspect of art from its' history to the tools, techniques and materials required to produce it.

Roy Superior

Roy Superior 1934–2013

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A renaissance artist, Roy Superior was a painter, sculptor, and wood worker. His creations vary from the utilitarian to the whimsical, which include furniture, cabinetry, sculptures, drawings, and paintings. Many of his small wooden sculptures are model-sized “fantasy machines” that are imbued with a sense of irony and humor, often with art historical references. Some of these sculptures have moving parts and are expertly created using wood, antique ivory, bone, gold leaf, and brass.

Superior was also a professor of art, having earned his degrees in fine art from Pratt Institute and Yale University. He taught wood sculpture and furniture design at the University of the Arts of the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design for sixteen years. He also taught printmaking, drawing and painting at the Hartford Art School and the University of Hartford and at Hampshire College. His work is in many public and private collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the New Britain Museum of American Art, Yale University, among others.

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