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December Issue 2004
Morris & Whiteside
Galleries' Auction Hits $1.25 Million on Hilton Head Island, SC
Morris & Whiteside Galleries' Sixteenth Annual Renaissance
Sale exceeded a million dollars for the second consecutive year.
The two-day auction and set price event, held on Oct. 29, 2004,
at the Elizabeth Wallace Theatre of the Arts Center of Coastal
Carolina on Hilton Head island, SC, netted over $1,360,000. and
set new records for artists Robert Griffing, Kenneth Riley, Loren
Speck and Ed Griffith.
Top lot in the auction was an Andrew Wyeth watercolor, Ocean
House, that sold for $190,400. Other leaders included Kenneth
Riley whose four lots brought a total of $115,920. and Pino whose
combined auction and set price sales totaled $113,840.
Newcomer, Mary Whyte, sold her watercolor, Far Away, for
$21,280, and Clark Hulings', Mule With Plaid Blanket, was
hammered down for a total of $100,800. Also receiving a lot of
attention from collectors was Robert Griffing's, 30 inch by 32
inch oil, The Warrior's Cache, that fetched $56,000., setting
a new record for a painting that size by the artist.
According to show organizers Jack A. Morris, Jr. and J. Ben Whiteside,
this year's event attracted their largest crowd ever with over
250 collectors coming from throughout the United States. "We
had eight people from Indianapolis," said Whiteside, "and
others from Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts,
New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee
and Virginia" he added.
There was also the usual bank of gallery staffers with five telephone
lines taking bids from collectors who were unable to attend the
sale in person. Three of the four Kenneth Riley lots went to a
buyer from California.
Of special note was the increased number of works related to the
southern, coastal regions. "When we first produced this sale
on Hilton
Head Island in 2000", Morris said, "seventy percent
of the lots were related to the American west and thirty percent
were more site specific to our region. Now, five years later,
the mix was thirty percent western American and seventy percent
art related to the east and coastal lowcountry."
For further information about the gallery check our SC Commercial
Gallery listings, call the gallery at 843/842-4433 and at (www.morris-whiteside.com).
Contact the gallery for a catalog from this year's auction or
info about next year's event.
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.