Kaminski Auctions’ special fall art auction on September 19 at the North Shore Art Association in Massachusetts featured a small oil painting by Gertrude Abercrombie (American, 1909–1977) that climbed to $ 181,250 (with fees) against an estimate of $ 10/15,000.

Dated 1946, the work measuring 10¼ by 12½ inches, titled “Pyramid and Moon”, was from an estate in Danville, California.

At Sotheby’s in May 2021, the little Abercrombie’s Giraffe painting (4 3/4 by 6 1/2 inches), eestimated at $ 10,000 to $ 15,000, hit an artist auction record of $ 365,400.

Self-taught, Abercrombie has developed his own style incorporating two-way symbols in mysterious settings.

Known as “the queen of bohemian artists”, Abercrombie was a friend of Chicago jazz musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Sarah Vaughan, from whom she was inspired. She has also hosted trade fairs with artists, dancers, musicians and writers at home, with her role in the mid-20th century art scene currently explored in the exhibition Chicago Avant-Garde: five women ahead of their time, now through December 30, at the Newberry Library in Chicago.

His work is also now featured in Supernatural America: The Paranormal in American Art, a traveling exhibition that debuted at the Toledo Art Museum in June and is currently at the Speed ​​Art Museum in Louisville, Ky. (October 7, 2021 – January 2, 2022), before traveling to the Minneapolis Institute of Art, where it will be from February 19 to May 15, 2022.