Paul Burlin Oil Painting, ca. 1950
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GUEST:
I brought an abstract painting from Paul Burlin, and I bought this about eight years ago from Concord's flea market.
APPRAISER:
And what caught your eye with this painting in particular?
GUEST:
It was folded when I saw it, and so I asked the person, and he said, "It's expensive." When I told him, "Well, what do you want?" And he told me $45. So I paid him $45. And I have had it for about seven, eight years, approximately.
APPRAISER:
The artist is Paul Burlin. He is actually a 20th-century Modernist and Abstract Expressionist painter in the United States. He was born in New York.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
And at an early age in his career, he actually worked in Santa Fe.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
And sent some works back to New York for which he became very celebrated. He was the youngest artist to be included in the seminal Armory Show of 1913 in New York.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
Born in 1886, and that show was in 1913.
GUEST:
Ah-hah.
APPRAISER:
He was always forward-thinking. Later in his career, after the Armory Show, he did return to the Southwest and was painting there. And after that, he also went to Europe, but he was always on the cutting edge. He was looking at what avant-garde artists and other artists were doing.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
And he was pushing himself to the limits in terms of the current artistic movements of the time.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
This represents this wonderful period right before his most Abstract Expressionist works, which were later in the '60s. He passed away in 1969.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
So his works were a little bit more symbolist...
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
And a little bit more figurative right before he became much more abstractional in, in his compositions.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
So I would date this painting to approximately the 1950s. He was also a teacher at some of the more important schools and associations.
GUEST:
Oh!
APPRAISER:
He taught at Woodstock. He taught at Provincetown. And he also taught at Washington University in St. Louis. But, generally, after the 1930s...
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
He was basically staying in New York. He began losing his eyesight in the 1950s.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
And a lot of his works have to deal with this, but in a way, abstraction lent itself to that. If he was trying to be more representational and trying to get every single detail in the painting...
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
It would have been harder for him. This painting is oil on canvas. Why isn't the painting stretched? Did you ever...
GUEST:
I did take it to get it stretched, but because his signature is so much at the bottom, we will not be able to show.
APPRAISER:
I think it's, it's very easy to actually get it stretched...
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
And not touch the signature. When you frame it, you can put it into a shadow box frame, so you can actually see the edges, and then you can see the signature.
GUEST:
uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
Abstract Expressionism is one of the most popular collecting categories. There are not that many artists who you can find who are as influential as, as this artist.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
If I was going to put this painting at auction today...
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
I'd put a conservative estimate auction on it of $20,000 to $30,000.
GUEST:
Whoa! That's good! That's good news!
APPRAISER:
A lot of the paintings by him that have come to, to auction...
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
Have gone considerably above their auction estimates.
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