Wright Auction

Expertise by Dr. Susan Weininger

Dizzy Gillespie, a charming and witty painting by Abercrombie done in 1949, was sold, along with a painting called Still Life and Owl (also 1949), to a man named Victor Lands in 1950. There is no information that I am aware of relating to the buyer, but both of the paintings were purchased together some years ago at an estate sale by the current owner. Lands owned at least three additional Abercrombie paintings dating to 1949 and 1950, all purchased in 1950. (Two of them, Tree of Life, Part 1 [Nude Tree Lady] and Tree of Life, Part 2 [Nude Tree Man] were sold in 2022 at Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago). This, along with their appearance in my records suggests that they are authentic works by Abercrombie. Dizzy Gillespie also has an Associated American Artists label on the back, indicating that the artist may have consigned it to the gallery, but it is not certain that it was sold there. Notoriously frugal and often a careful record keeper, when the artist sold her work in a gallery she often noted the price paid to the seller along with the actual amount she received and her records indicate that she received $50 for this painting without any additional notation.

Aside from the portrait of Gillespie, a rare appearance by a figure other than the artist herself, all of the elements are familiar ones in the artists repertoire.

The painting, a dark and austere moonlit landscape inhabited at first glance only by a single tree and an owl, yields Gillespie’s face peeking out from behind the tree along with the bell of his horn. There is a small round white stone on the ground between the tree and the owl and a large, round golden moon obscured slightly by a cloud in the sky. Aside from the portrait of Gillespie, a rare appearance by a figure other than the artist herself, all of the elements are familiar ones in the artist's repertoire. Gillespie himself probably owned several works by Abercrombie at some time, including a tiny Shell (For D. G.) dated 1964 (sold at Hindman, 2022).

While the objects in the scene are familiar to Abercrombie viewers, they are arranged in a unique way, creating a typically balanced and meaningful composition. The large tree placed right of center dominates the composition, focusing attention on the small figure that is the painting’s centerpiece. The vertical curves of the tree are echoed in the horizontal curves of the cloud, while the owl, placed below the cloud, balances the tree on the center left. The seeming simplicity of the painting yields much more on close inspection. The small patch of grass under the owl repeats the green leaves sprouting from the trees. The golden moon resonates with the gold bell of Gillespie’s instrument, while the rounded shapes are also picked up in the circular shape of the eyes of both the owl and the figure, as well as the small white stone that sits on the ground behind and between the owl and the tree. The careful placement and reverberations of the objects in space create the connections between the elements of the painting, not only compositionally, but in terms of meaning.

It is clear that Gillespie possesses the wisdom as well as the mystery associated with the bird so important to Abercrombie’s own self-image.

Abercrombie had a long relationship with Dizzy Gillespie, who even presided over her wedding in 1948 to Frank Sandiford. This homage to the musician not only places him in Abercrombie’s typical moonscape, but links him to one of the artist’s frequent alter egos, the owl, made clear in their matching circular eyes, stylized to resemble the radiant sun above. It is clear that Gillespie possesses the wisdom as well as the mystery associated with the bird so important to Abercrombie’s own self-image.

There may be yet another dimension to the work, although this is more speculative. Abercrombie’s circle included many Black musicians and artists, who, like Dizzy Gillespie, became close friends and were regular participants in the jam sessions and parties she hosted in her home at 5726 S. Dorchester in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. This was not the norm in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1946, she painted Strange Fruit (Charlie Parker’s Favorite Painting) (Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) based on Billie Holiday’s song of the same name. It is one of her masterpieces, a quiet but potent image of a tree with a noose hanging from it, addressing lynching without any overt representation of violence, which arguably made it more powerful. She was very sensitive to the way in which Black people were treated in America and sympathetic to them. In Dizzy Gillespie, the musician’s dark face is juxtaposed with the bright white of the tree behind which he seems to hide. This seems to be a rare comment on contemporary life, similar to that of Strange Fruit, by an artist whose work is usually completely divorced from the quotidian. It is a recognition of the way in which Black people, even those as prominent as this great jazz musician, have to cower before the white establishment.

Even if we accept the racial commentary in this work, it also works on another level (as great art often does), investing the painting with her characteristic mystery and wit. This is a superb example of Abercrombie at her best.