Collier Kirkland

The Art of Collier Kirkland

These are all from an estate sale. Usually, estate sales are held for dead guys. Turns out this guy is still alive. Here's an email received from his wife on June 20, 2005 (bold are my comments)..... Surprise! Surprise! When we came across your web site "Art of Collier W. Kirkland" [the website is outsiderart.info] . Let me tell you a wee story - My sister-n-lawe [should be law] died three years ago in McKeesport, PA. At that time we inherited her home as well as the parents home which we sold, having cleaned them out [I'm sure you did!] and leaving certain things to be sold at an estate sale [estate sales are for dead people's estates, gross misrepresentation of a garage sale]. Left in that house were drawings and some paintings my husband did. My husand is 59 years old, he graduated from Carnegie Mellon in 1969. He doesn't know who Samuel Rosenburg is. My Husands's [you gotta have a spell check somewhere!] name is Collier W. Kirkland from McKeesport. You obviously have leftovers of his works. Unfortunately you did not do your reserch [unfortunately you did not study your spelling very well] very well. Did you talk to the woman from whom you bought them? She would have told you he was alive and well [really! then why did you and her call it an estate sale?]. Did you contact Carnegie Mellon [should i also contact your hubbies grade school art teacher] ? He is listed there [oh, great, another listed artist] and has work there. The sketches are from a summer course in 1966 with a model named Penny. He is concerned with you coyrighting [the mistakes are very tiresome] his work. And he is concerned with being misrepresented. Can you please explain your intentions? Sincerely, Beverlee M Kirkland You can email Ms. Kirkland here I emailed the Kirkland's and asked them to re-read the copyright notice at the bottom of every page. Hope they do. As for my intentions, I will probably now burn every piece I have left. I sold quite a few of the drawings at 40 or 50 bucks each on eBay, making back much more than the 20 bucks I paid for the entire collection, which is triple what is shown here. This email and the comments of Ms. Kirkland are the reason I am and will remain outside the artworld. As for the mistakes in my original thoughts on the collection....I make stuff up sometimes. Its an art!
Paintings and Illustrations...a dozen or so paintings and illustrations highlight the collection.
The largest painting, oil on canvas 38"x48", of an exposed tree trunk.	Oil on canvas of swamp with homemade frame, 24"x36".	Hard to tell but this is New York City Tenements, varnished acrylic on board	Unfinished 18x24 on canvas of sorrow	Unfinished oil on canvas
Another swamp painting, on board and smaller.	Great drawing on board,12"x18"	OpArt pencil on board
Gestures... from one 18"x24" sketch pad of white paper. On the cover in small ink was " Collier Kirkland 101 Gestures". Some of the Gesture drawings appear to be drawn with one continuous line and others are more conventional sketches. There are forty or more, all 18"x24".
14	15	15a	16	17
18	19a	19b	19c	21
22	20a	20b	20c
sold	sold	3	4	sold
sold	7	8	9	A
B	C	D	E	sold
sold	sold	sold	sold	sold
Brown Paper...Some of the 80 or so brown paper drawings size 18"x24" contained in two sketchpads. All are newsprint and some are continuous line while others are broad strokes and dark shading.
sold	M	N	O	P
Q	R
Blocks...There are a series of block and cube drawings that were in a homemade mat board presentation binder, like a project.
S	T	U	V