Wright Auction

JUDY ENGEL is a skilled ceramicist based in upstate New York whose work is deeply informed by the modernist movement of the mid-20th century. Her fascination with this aesthetic began with a visit to the Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York: “In the 1970s,” Engel explains, “school trips to the NYS Museum introduced us upstate kids to a wealth of exhibits, from Native American artifacts to fire engines. Yet, it was the striking architecture, sculptures, and paintings adorning the outdoor concourse and plaza that truly captured my imagination.” Reflecting on her journey, she adds, “Although we weren't taught about it then, I later discovered that this was the Empire State Plaza Art Collection, hailed by art historians as ‘the greatest collection of modern American art in any single public site that is not a museum’.”

If asked to select one word to describe Patrick, I would resist and pick two. The first would be curiosity — a fundamental essential, to stimulate inquiry and rigour in all things, both great and small, of any era or region, type or surface. Even the most fleeting survey of this selection for sale is a celebration of innovation and of inspiration — an unerring eye for the unusually exceptional, or perhaps the exceptionally unusual. The chances are, that these are indeed discoveries that you have not yet realised that you needed to make. 

Mentor, would be my second word. If artefacts and objects articulate visual, cultural and historic language, then the fluency of skillful mentorship — to guide, nurture, describe and explain — releases the eloquence of murmuring histories. In this capacity Patrick is that most earnest and sincere of excellent narrators. If ever I had friends, clients or colleagues visiting New York looking for unusual inspiration, there was always the certainty that Patrick’s venues would offer them a glimpse of the hitherto unseen or the unusually seductive, always with the reassurance of the most fascinating story waiting to be told.