Thirty of the paintings and one sculpture are going on show at Hollis Taggart’s Southport gallery in Connecticut.Francis Hines, Untitled , hardpoint pastel on Arches paper mounted on wood with synthetic fabric wraps. Image Courtesy Hollis Taggart.
The works in question were being cleared from the studio barn in Watertown, Connecticut following Hines’s death in 2016, aged 96. The artist was well known in the 1970s and 80s for wrapping both his artworks and major city structures in strips of synthetic fabric. The most famous example was the Washington Square Arch, which Hines wrapped in 8,000 yards of white polyester in 1980, as part of an effort by New York University to raise funds for its restoration.
The trove’s discoverer, Jared Whipple, who is selling the works, first heard about them from a friend contracted to clear out the studio. At the time, he thought they might work well as a Halloween-themed “haunted art gallery”, until he spotted a signature on the back of one of the canvases.
SilkDharmaArt Never heard of that artist, but stories of art and literature barely escaping destruction always makes my heart skip a beat. Whew!