Landbridge.
N.p, 1979. Item #2018
Six drawings 22 x 10 in. on Strathmore paper folded in half and house in a handmade quarter leather clamshell box. The title, Landbridges, is blindstamped on the spine of the box. On the hand drawn and lettered interior label the title is rendered as Landbridge: 6 Folio Drawings. The label also has a small drawing and is dated 1979 and signed by the artist.
The drawings (primarily ink and watercolor) depict with precision and skill a range of visionary landscapes populated with grids, maps, emblems, equations, and Ely's form of asemic notation that he identifies as cribriform. His access to the imagination and mastery of materials is on full display.
We have handled Tim Ely's work since the mid-1980s and this is the earliest piece we've offered. It comes from the period after he finished graduate school in 1975 and before 1982 when he travelled to Japan, Italy, and England on an NEA grant to study bookbinding and papermaking. In the mid to late 1970s Ely was working with ideas about how to present his drawings. Landbridge seems to be a marker on his path toward formal bindings.
Drawings are fine. Box is very good plus to near fine with minor shelf wear and a 3/8 in, circular blemish to spine.
Price: $7,500.00