William Eastman at Auction

William Eastman. Water Birds. Oil on canvas. Aspire Auctions

Collecting local art has an important role of promoting contemporary regional artists and preserving historical works that are of significant relevance to the area. When it comes to the latter, there are several means in which collectors can find and acquire pieces for their collections. Perhaps the most affordable or at least the most exciting is through auctions. There are several Cleveland area auction houses that regularly offer works by local artists. One such auction house is Aspire Auctions whose August 26th through September 3rd catalog features a painting titled Winter Birds by William Eastman (1888-1950).

Eastman was born in Cleveland and attended the Cleveland School of Art, graduating in 1912, and studied at the Art Students League in New York. He returned to Cleveland to take a position at the School of Art in 1913. At this time he became friends with Charles Burchfield who was one of his students. Eastman’s work took a more experimental path around 1915 when he began exploring the principles of pure design while painting on gold and silver-leaf grounds. These paintings, often floral, may have influenced him to co-found a decorative design firm called the Eastman-Bolton Gallery in 1926 and to write a book on flower arrangements titled Flora and the Artist: A Theory of Color and Design for Flower Arrangements.

Recognizing the importance of cultivating collectors to patronize local artists, Eastman, along with Philip Kaplan, organized Cleveland’s first Curb Market in 1932. The sale was held at University Circle and was an opportunity for hundreds of local artists that had found themselves unemployed during the Great Depression.