Frank O'Connor's "The Mandarin" on eBay

[jenright]

One of Frank O'Connor's paintings is being auctioned on eBay. They have a nice color photo of the piece. I hadn't seen it in color before.

[kiaer.ts]

See Ebay here.

[jenright]

Another O'Connor painting. Some think it his best.

[Brant Gaede]

One of Frank O'Connor's paintings is being auctioned on eBay. They have a nice color photo of the piece. I hadn't seen it in color before.

I bid 5011.00. Reserve not met. I will not increase my bid. Look at the hands. The weakest part of this composition. If they had displayed just a little more artistic competence this painting would be worth much more.

--Brant

[Brant Gaede]

Another O'Connor painting. Some think it his best.

I would value this painting at +$100,000. I couldn't afford it. Whoever owns it probably wouldn't sell it, period, but start bidding at a million. Wait until he dies and chop off a zero.

I would also value it more than any Capuletti I ever saw. Capu's nudes were to me, with one exception, cold pieces of meat. I'm sure there were other exceptions merely because I saw one exception.

In two more generations the value of this painting will be in excess of $10,000,000 in today's dollars. This is assuming the world--the United States--is still worth much. Another way of saying good guys win; bad guys lose.

In a few hundred years few will be able to afford it. In a few hundred years good guys (and gals!) win!

--Brant

Edited May 8, 2009 by Brant Gaede

[Backlighting]

I don't care for any of the paintings by him that I've seen. I think his work is mediocre, at best.

[Brant Gaede]

I don't care for any of the paintings by him that I've seen. I think his work is mediocre, at best.

He needs the Ayn Rand provenance if for no other reason than he does not have a large body of work. He started too late in life. Two or three of his paintings click for me, the rest don't. Not being an aesthetician, that is the only way I judge what I like in a painting. I can admire skill, of course. Dragonfly's skill level, for instance, is stupendous. I might say I like his stuff because it reflects so much ability, but there is much more to it than that. I once read a newspaper article about a young boy--I think in Europe--who instead of speaking communicated with drawings. These drawings, some of them reproduced in newspaper black and white, were not typical child's work but those of a budding master. For instance, one was of a man on horseback that seemed to project right off the page three-dimensionally. The social workers had effective custody of the kid and socialized him and that was the end of his genius. Now take much of contemporary art many rich people put on their walls to impress guests or even themselves. Some of these paintings cost millions of dollars. They don't do anything for me except make me wonder at all the phoniness that supports art prices these days. If these impresarios had merely gone looking for stuff they liked, they could have found it in the 4 - 6 figure range. I once found a painter I liked. Some of her paintings were under $100. The most I paid was $480. I went to her home and she displayed maybe thirty for me. I own over 20. She may be "mediocre." I wouldn't know. "Mediocre" is for art class 101 where one compares artists who don't do anything for you. That's a way, I suppose, of finding superior and inferior art: find something inbetween as a standard. The whole thing will still only float around like three dead in the water ships lashed together. Or, calling some art mediocre is a mediocre way of judging it. It's just another attempt to apply the objective while ignoring the subjective. I care about what I like, and don't anyone come to my house and say anything about what you see there if you don't like it too. I'll (metaphorically) throw you out. I would interpret it as an assault on my valuing. I don't analyze my pantings. I look at them. I experience them. In fact, even if you were to like them I'd rather not hear about it. Just look. Now if I were the artist and you had something intelligent to say, say it. That's another kettle of fish.

--Brant

[Selene]

One of Frank O'Connor's paintings is being auctioned on eBay. They have a nice color photo of the piece. I hadn't seen it in color before.

I bid 5011.00. Reserve not met. I will not increase my bid. Look at the hands. The weakest part of this composition. If they had displayed just a little more artistic competence this painting would be worth much more.

--Brant

Brant, any possibility that the hands might represent the "closed tight society" that the object of the painting is part of? I know that many females in the orient have their feet/toes bound which seem to be the way the hands "appear" to me.

However, I am no art critic lol.

Adam

[Reidy]

I also have a problem with the title. The costume and hair look Japanese; mandarins were Chinese.

[Brant Gaede]

I went to eBay and searched "Ayn Rand" and got 447 items on nine pages.

A few years ago you'd consistently get about three pages.

I interpret this to mean Ayn Rand items have peaked in value and people are rushing to cash in by selling. Then there's the economy and people are selling things to raise cash. I don't think most of these items find buyers or even bidders. Some of the expensive items are really over the top in what the sellers want. No autograph usually means the book is not worth all that much, with first edition fiction exceptions, maybe. Special printings may be rare, but that doesn't make them all that valuable. The tenth anniversary printing is just a different binding and probably not as valuable as the owners think There were 2000 consecutively numbered and autographed. I own 1246. I purchased it in 1967. The condition is not all that good, but someday when I'm famous I'll write in it and sell it for big bucks to pay my way in my declining years. In the meantime I might put it up on eBay for 10,000 smackers to see if there are any fools out there who still have some money.

--Brant

Edited May 9, 2009 by Brant Gaede

[jenright]

A friend sent me this, which I hadn't seen before, saying it was O'Connor's as well.

[Brant Gaede]

A friend sent me this, which I hadn't seen before, saying it was O'Connor's as well.

It is.

--Brant

[jenright]

A friend sent me this, which I hadn't seen before, saying it was O'Connor's as well.

It is.

--Brant

Brant, thanks for the confirmation!

John

[Brant Gaede]

A friend sent me this, which I hadn't seen before, saying it was O'Connor's as well.

It is.

--Brant

Brant, thanks for the confirmation!

John

I believe Barbara Branden used to own this. In any case I'll go to the storage shed tomorrow and check the NBI brochure and if it's not O'Connor's I'll post to that. Otherwise not to not.

--Brant

[thomtg]

One of Frank O'Connor's paintings is being auctioned on eBay. They have a nice color photo of the piece. I hadn't seen it in color before.

I bid 5011.00. Reserve not met. I will not increase my bid. Look at the hands. The weakest part of this composition. If they had displayed just a little more artistic competence this painting would be worth much more.

--Brant

Well, Brant, you bade the highest bid on eBay (on the 7th of May), and you were the higher bidder against one other collector interested in purchasing The Mandarin. This bidder's highest was $3,601.00. It is too bad no bid met the reserve when the auction expired yesterday.

[Brant Gaede]

Oh, I suspect it will be relisted. I was only willing to buy it to resell it.

--Brant

[Brant Gaede]

A friend sent me this, which I hadn't seen before, saying it was O'Connor's as well.

It is.

--Brant

Sorry, but this painting is not "Serenity" which was owned by Barbara Branden. I cannot verify from the brochure that Frank O'Connor painted this.

--Brant

Edited May 19, 2009 by Brant Gaede