Elevated: Art Via Chicago 
18 June 2024
Elevated: Art Via Chicago 
127

H.C. Westermann 1922–1981

The Big Leaguer (Untitled (for Richard Fraenkel))

1977
carved wood, electrical tape 10¾ h × 7½ w × 1½ d in (27 × 19 × 4 cm)
estimate: $15,000–20,000
result: $21,420
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A distorted baseball bat fashioned from a bent branch, this work was made by Westermann as a gift for Richard Fraenkel, an artist from Rhode Island.
Impressed signature and date to base of handle ‘H.C.W. 1977’. Burned signature, title and inscription to upper edge ‘Richard The Big-Leaguer From Cliff’.
provenance: Gift from the artist to Richard Fraenkel, Kingston, RI | Thence by descent
literature: H.C. Westermann: Exhibition Catalogue and Catalogue Raisonné of Objects, Rooks and Warren, pg. 353, MCA 285

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H.C. Westermann’s The Big Leaguer

The present lot is a 1977 work by H.C. Westermann, entitled The Big Leaguer (also referred to as Little Leaguer), which is a small version of a classic Louisville Slugger baseball bat. Westermann created this playful sculpture from a bent branch and wrapped the handle in black friction tape to produce a realistic effect, despite the warped barrel of the bat. A gift for Rhode Island artist Richard Fraenkel, Westermann branded within an oval on the barrel the following dedication: RICHARD / THE BIG-LEAGUER / FROM CLIFF ⚓.

In addition to being an artist, Fraenkel was a professor of painting at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, south of Providence. He met Westermann at an exhibition of Westermann’s work held at the university earlier in 1977. While getting acquainted, Fraenkel relayed to Westermann that, as a student at the Pratt Institute in the early 1940s, he played on a New York Yankees’ farm team prior to serving in the military during World War II. Thus, The Big Leaguer was partly a tongue-in-cheek present from Westermann, but it was also a thoughtful acknowledgement of Fraenkel’s unfulfilled dream of playing in the major leagues.

In 1978, Westermann made another version of this form, Big Leaguer, for which he also produced an angled case out of Western pine. On the barrel of the later work, Westermann instead inscribed within an oval simply: BIG LEAGUER. Both of these bat-themed sculptures are included in the H.C. Westermann catalogue raisonné published by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in 2001.

I feel that life is very fragile. We're all just hanging by a thread; it's very spooky. I can best come to grips with it by doing my work. I guess that's why I'm an artist.

H.C. Westermann

H.C. Westermann 1922–1981

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Born in 1922, Horace Clifford "H.C." Westermann was raised in Los Angeles, California. He served as a Marine in both World War II and the Korean War. Westermann studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and supplemented his income through employment as a woodworker and carpenter. His love for the craft of woodworking led him to become a full-time artist ultimately. Westermann produced a variety of works, including woodcuts, paintings, drawings, and collages, but he is best known for his highly detailed and impeccably finished wood sculptures and constructions.

During his lifetime, Westermann never explained the meaning behind his art, but it is quite evident that he was heavily influenced by his intense wartime experiences and his complicated feelings concerning the human condition. Much of his oeuvre can be interpreted as a critique of the American military and consumer culture. In particular, certain Westermann paintings, drawings, and illustrated correspondence point clearly to his views.

Ahead of his time, Westermann's output was a great influence on artists from the 1960s and 1970s, including the Chicago Imagists and California Funk artists William T. Wiley and Ken Price. Westermann died in Danbury, Connecticut in 1981 at the age of fifty-eight. In the decades since, major retrospectives have been held at a range of institutions, several of which have Westermann's works in their collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC.

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