Los Angeles — An exclusive assortment of items from the estate of the late National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Administrator Thomas O. Paine, who oversaw the U.S. space program during the first manned missions to the moon, will be auctioned on Oct. 6 by Abell Auction Company in Los Angeles. Live bids will be accepted online and at the gallery (2613 Yates Ave.) starting at 10 a.m. PST.
 
Named the third administrator of NASA by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1969, Paine served during the first seven Apollo missions in which 20 astronauts orbited the earth, 14 flew to the moon and four walked on its surface. An array of rare NASA memorabilia signed by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins will be offered, including:

    •    Framed American flag with Apollo IX patch carried into space aboard Apollo IX spacecraft ($1,500-2,000)
    •    Framed photograph “Apollo 11 Spacewalk” with matting signed by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins ( $1,000-1,500)
    •    Framed photograph “Man on the Moon” signed by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins ($2,000-3,000)
    •    Framed photograph “The Moon” annotated and signed by Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong ($600-800)
    •    Framed photograph “Man’s First Foot Print on the Moon” signed by Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong
    •    “First Man on the Moon” stamp sheet signed by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins ($2,000-3,000)
    •    Peanuts “Snoopy on the Moon” comic strip annotated and signed by Charles M. Schulz ($2,000-3,000)
    •    NASA Apollo 11 sterling trophy “Man on the Moon” dated July 1969, A.D. and inscribed with the names of President Richard M. Nixon and Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins ($1,000-1,500)

The Oct. 6 sale also will feature the estate of Mario Zamparelli, a marketing genius and designer who gained fame creating the corporate identity of Trans World Airlines for aviation billionaire Howard Hughes. Zamparelli developed iconic design identities for companies such as Capital Records, Universal Pictures, Nissan, Hunts Foods, Mattel and Suzuki. For those interested in his unique personal effects, featured items include a small Auguste Rodin bronze and period mid-century modern furniture by Finn Juhl, Hans Wegner, Florence Knoll, Eero Saarinen and many more.  
 
Abell is also pleased to offer a stunning collection of fine art, antique and contemporary furniture, 20th century design, jewelry and exotic sports cars from prominent Southern California estates. Vehicles include a 2017 Ferrari 488 Spider, 2017 Ferrari California T Handling Special and 2015 Bentley Flying Spur 12.
 
An auction preview will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Oct. 2 to 5 at the Abell gallery, 2613 Yates Ave., Los Angeles. Call 323.724.8102 for more information or visit www.abell.com to view a complete catalog.

New York – Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino (1591–1666), was arguably the most interesting and diverse draftsman of the Italian Baroque era, a natural virtuoso who created brilliant drawings in a broad range of media. The Morgan Library & Museum owns more than thirty-five works by the artist, and these are the subject of a focused exhibition, supplemented by a pair of loans from New York private collections. Guercino: Virtuoso Draftsman opens at the Morgan October 4, 2019 and continues through February 2, 2020.

Guercino: Virtuoso Draftsman will include sheets from all moments of the artist’s career. His early awareness of the work of the Carracci in Bologna is documented by figures drawn from everyday life, as well as brilliant caricatures; two drawings for Guercino’s own drawing manual are further testament to his interest in questions of academic practice. Following his career, a range of preparatory drawings includes studies made in connection with his earliest altarpieces in addition to his mature masterpieces, including multiple studies for several projects, allowing the visitor to see Guercino’s mind at work as he reconsidered his ideas. The Morgan’s holdings also include studies for engravings as well as highly finished landscape and figure drawings that were independent works. While some of the Morgan’s Guercino drawings are well known, they have never been exhibited or published as a group before, and the selection on view in the exhibition will include a number of new acquisitions.

The majority of Guercino’s drawings were preparatory studies for paintings, and his practice was typical for seventeenth-century Italy. From the beginning of his career, Guercino produced not only altarpieces, but also cabinet pictures—of sacred and secular subject matter— in equal numbers. A work such as his Madonna del Carmine and saints, connected with an altarpiece commission, is a characteristic early drawing. Guercino’s distinctively energetic pen lines are already evident, and the multiple layers of wash indicate that the dramatic chiaroscuro characterizing his early paintings was also an element of his thinking as he worked out the composition in drawing.

Guercino possessed extraordinary talents when it came to the manipulation of materials. The furious vitality of his pen work is Guercino’s most recognizable stylistic trait, perhaps best seen in looping, calligraphic pen lines that do not depict drapery folds so much as they convey a sense of fluttering cloth. After this energetic sketching with the pen, he would typically take up a brush, clarifying a design or even seeming to sculpt forms with multiple layers of wash—sometimes using thin, fluid, transparent washes, and other times thick, more opaque washes. Later in his career, he more often made use of red chalk, creating luminous, delicate studies; occasionally, he would combine pen, wash, and chalk in highly finished drawings that were complete works in their own right.

Guercino’s fame grew throughout the later decades of his career. Among the drawings at the Morgan are studies for altarpieces sent farther afield, to Turin and Verona. He never wanted for work: he continued to receive commissions from the popes and cardinals in Rome and also made paintings for a host of royal patrons. Drawing, however, remained the basic operative element of Guercino’s artistic output. It is of little surprise that an artist so perpetually engaged in the exploration of the world through drawing has left behind a body of work that continues to delight and fascinate viewers today.

“Guercino was one of the most brilliant draftsman in Baroque Italy, a natural virtuoso whose genius is equally clear in the quickest pen sketch and in the most refined chalk drawing,” said Colin B. Bailey, Director of the Morgan Library & Museum. “I am delighted that audiences will be able to see his talents first hand and explore the Morgan Library & Museum’s unparalleled holdings of Guercino’s work in this exhibition.”

Accompanying the exhibition is a catalogue produced in association with Paul Holberton Publishing. An introductory essay and catalogue entries by John Marciari, Charles W. Engelhard Curator and Department Head of Prints and Drawings, explore Guercino’s unique stylistic qualities and provide a closer look at the over thirty-five works by the Italian draftsman in the Morgan’s collection. The volume also includes a foreword by Colin B. Bailey, Director of the Morgan Library & Museum.