Thrifty!

January 26th, 2011

Whilst out thrifting with Summer, I spotted a wee bit of color poking out from behind some crappy motel style prints in the art racks. In all honesty, at first, I thought it would be some stupid motel art since the ugly crappy frame was lacking any sort of glass.

Once released from the stacks of pure suck, the piece was immediately recognizable as an Alexander Calder lithograph. Those long college years studying art is finally paying off, check me out – I can distinguish Calder from motel art.

I was shocked at the perfect condition of the litho, especially considering it had been passed along through all kinds of thrift store sorters and handlers and then wedged behind a bunch of schlock. It’s in amazing shape, only the mat is a little scratched and banged up.

The back still has the original tags and I used the DLM 141-1 NOV 63 to figure out that this was Derriere le Miroir #141 by Alexander Calder from you guessed it – 1963. Hey now!
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    44 Comments

    1. Laguna Dirt on 01/26/2011:

      lucky you! actually, not just luck. you have an eye. and know when to snap. congrats!

    2. Ryan on 01/26/2011:

      legit.

    3. stonehouselove on 01/26/2011:

      SCORE! That’s just great!

    4. moementum on 01/26/2011:

      Albers, then this?! I’m so jealous!

    5. Kat on 01/26/2011:

      Wow – so cool for you! You find such great stuff. I need to find some better thrift stores.

    6. Dion on 01/26/2011:

      hi new reader here that was a cool find. I also went to art school but have never found anything like that … but maybe I don’t have the eye that you do.

    7. heather on 01/26/2011:

      Wow, clever girl! you must have some patience…..

    8. Sarah on 01/26/2011:

      I’ve been reading your post over and over and over again checking to see if I’ve missed the part where you tell us how little you paid… because you always tell how little you paid. So, how cheap was it? :O)

      By the way, I was reminded of the documentary “Who the *$&% Is Jackson Pollock?” – if you haven’t seen it, it’s about a lady truck driver from California scoring a supposedly original drip painting for $5 in a thrift shop!

    9. Petra on 01/26/2011:

      lucky find! congratulations :)

    10. Tangogirl on 01/26/2011:

      HOLY SHIT!!

    11. Jeannette on 01/26/2011:

      Once again I am gobsmacked at the amazing finds in your area and at such cheap prices! You have once again proved that patience and a good eye really pays off.

    12. Shannon on 01/26/2011:

      love it! nice score!

      i wonder if anyone in Toronto ever had one of these puppies in the first place…in order to one day toss it aside…and for me to stumble up on it…

      heck..all i want is a fabulous old rattan umbrella stand! thrifty gods PLEASE DELIVER ME!

      we are taking my toddler to Orlando, florida and i’m thinking there could be some retro fabulousness just waiting for me!

    13. D R E W on 01/26/2011:

      that’s a great find! a few months ago i found a signed charley harper print behind similar motel bad art.

    14. libby @ pinkshirtsandcarwrecks on 01/26/2011:

      ditto on the “how cheap was it?” question! dying to know!

    15. erin@designcrisis on 01/26/2011:

      We are obviously not shopping at the same kind of thrift stores… all I have ever found art wise are mauve and pastel blue Santa Fe prints and castoffs from TJ Maxx.

      That sucker is awesome!

    16. Jennifer on 01/26/2011:

      Great find! In December, I saw two Calder lithos at the Estate Sale for $380 each. PASS.

    17. ModFruGal on 01/26/2011:

      niiiice…look at you indeed!

    18. Ashley on 01/26/2011:

      So first the Albers find, now the Calder find? Do you have radar for this stuff or something?

    19. carol on 01/26/2011:

      did you happen to see the recent Antiques Roadshow where a woman brought in a Calder mobile, given to her mother by the man himself as ‘a little gift’?
      I believe it was valued at $100,000. (or more).

      does your litho have any signature or documentation?
      with or without that is some sweet find, congrats!

    20. Tanya on 01/26/2011:

      Great find! Do you plan to re-frame?

    21. April on 01/26/2011:

      I kind of hate you, but not really :) I’m just jealous! Calder is my favorite artist, and to luck out on such a find… amazing!

    22. avimom on 01/26/2011:

      The Calder mobil was valued at $1M on the roadshow. Largest valuation ever on the show. This was an awesome find…hard to believe in the Google era things like this can slip through anymore.

    23. modernhaus on 01/26/2011:

      I am still bruised from when you pushed me to the floor and trampled me to get to the Calder first.
      But thanks for the blog traffic. It almost makes up for it.
      :)

    24. modernhaus on 01/26/2011:

      I am kidding, lovers-of-Morgan. She is a perfect gentleman while thrifing.

    25. THE BRICK HOUSE on 01/26/2011:

      I remember someone got all hung up on a gravy boat of some kind…that they didn’t even buy.

      Whatever, payback for that giant sheepskin.

    26. modernhaus on 01/26/2011:

      I guess people from art school can’t appreciate a good gravy boat when they see one.

      I did bogart the sheepskin. Which one of your four couches were you going to put it on?

    27. THE BRICK HOUSE on 01/26/2011:

      We aren’t fancy like you and your chili spaghetti, we don’t put gravy on anything around here.

      Sheepskin for the knoll, to make it classy!

    28. Lauren on 01/26/2011:

      That mobile that was featured on Antiques Roadshow was appraised for between $800,000-$1,000,000

      Long time reader, first time to post. I can’t believe your scores. Super jealous. I thought I was a good thrifter but you put us all to shame.

    29. pam on 01/26/2011:

      Congrats!

    30. modernhaus on 01/26/2011:

      Uh, it’s called pasta i fagioli, even when the fagioli comes out of a Dennison’s chili can.

    31. the vintage cabin on 01/26/2011:

      Amazing find! It reminds me of the time I found an original Picasso painting at the thrift store for $7! It was painted by the great…Donna Brown…in 1984…

    32. .amanda. on 01/26/2011:

      NOW that is a find!! Congrats…. a CALDER!? ::shakes head:: a once in a life time…

    33. bianca on 01/27/2011:

      L U C K Y – P A N T S.

    34. Michelle on 01/27/2011:

      Seeing this cheered me up after a few hours working late at home. Great scoop!

    35. Suzy8track on 01/27/2011:

      SWEET find!

    36. Tonia on 01/27/2011:

      Lucky you. You always seem to find the coolest.

    37. THE BRICK HOUSE on 01/27/2011:

      I don’t know how it happens. I go a lot, and really only look at a few things….

      Usually its just dumb luck. Right place, right time.

    38. Catherine on 01/27/2011:

      http://cgi.ebay.com/Alexander-Calder-DLM-141-Lithograph-1963-/230572678886?pt=Art_Prints&hash=item35af33dee6#ht_903wt_1139

      looks like the same one?
      Amazing find!!!

    39. Annio on 01/27/2011:

      Information about your print from this website http://www.michelfillion.com/oeuvres_eng.php?artiste=DLM:

      The “Derrière le miroir” series was started in 1946 by Aimé Maeght who had a passion for such publications, having already launched the “Pierre à feu” review in 1944. Each issue of Derrière le miroir was originally a slender but lavish exhibition catalogue, illustrated with lithographs. François Chapon later wrote : “Aimé Maeght and his team have for over a quarter of a century maintained D.L.M. at the heart of their undertaking, thus permanently proving that visual art is never as well set off as by the writing which defines it.”
      In their publishing of prints, Aimé Maeght and his wife Marguerite were led by their taste for poetry to put artists and poets in touch with one another ; their joint efforts gave birth to five famous series : Pierre à Feu, Derrière le Miroir, L’Ephémère, Argile, and les Cahiers de l’Art Vivant. Initially employing the best printing-works in Paris, such as Mourlot, the lithograph specialist, The Maeghts then opened their own press, and in 1970 started a lithograph and copper – engraving workshop at the Maeght Foundation in St-Paul-de-Vence. All the major artists of the second hall of the twentieth century have taken part in the DLM, for which they specially made lithographs : Léger, Miro, Calder, Tapies, Chillida, Braque, Matisse, Giacometti, and above all Chagall, in the mythical triple issue of 1954, which contained 11 original colour lithographs. To quote François Chapon once more : “When the shores of our time will have receded too far for anyone to remember having lived them, there may well be young people to investigate the genesis of the art of the period with the same searching and sensitive look as our generation would have given Durand-Ruel, Vollard, Kahnweiller’s log-book, if they had written one. In DLM they will find the chart of several decades, but along the border where art and poetry meet.”

    40. Curator on 01/27/2011:

      Was it luck…or do you just have an excellent eye. Either way that’s one fantastic find you got yourself there. You ever get bored with it, throw it over this way!

    41. Rackk and Ruin on 02/01/2011:

      holy cow! a Calder lithograph at a thrift store?? I don’t even wanna know how cheap it must have been. great find. makes the hunt sooooo worth it.

    42. Rachel on 02/01/2011:

      You have got some serious thrifting skill! Nice find!

    43. Calder Clark on 02/02/2011:

      What a great little find! Wish I had a tack of those lying around my family attic, waiting to bs discovered!

    44. Allan Jacobson on 02/08/2011:

      If your lithograph were signed and numbered, it would be very valuable. I believe that the DLM lithographs were neither. Recent finds for me: signed and numbered Peter Max litho $10. Signed and numbered Sister Mary Corita $10. Signed and numbered huge litho Valerio Adami, $29. Last week a beautiful signed watercolor, $30. All framed. These are from the Palm Springs area where people are constantly redecorating.

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