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Edgar Louis Yaeger (1904 - 1997)
Lot 354: Edgar Louis Yaeger, Michigan / France (1904 - 1997), untitled abstract, 1937, oil on canvas, 20 1/2"H x 27 1/2"W (sight), 25"H x 32"W (frame)
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Ripley Auctions
November 5, 2022
Indianapolis, IN, US
More About this Item
Description
Edgar Louis Yaeger
Michigan / France, (1904 - 1997)
untitled abstract, 1937
oil on canvas
signed lower right.
Biography from the Archives of askART: Biography from Papillon Gallery
Edgar Louis Yaeger was born in 1904 in Detroit, Michigan, the son of a shoe store owner and the fourth generation of his family to live in the area. Yaeger's family was hesitantly supportive of his artistic pursuits. In the early years of his life, Yaeger learned a succession of skills from his beloved grandfather, who taught him to draw, to carve figures from blocks of soap and to paint using discarded paints found in an alley, thus laying the foundation for capabilities Yaeger would use throughout his life. By his own account, Yaeger showed little interest for any vocation apart from art; while his father was disappointed that his son wouldn't follow him into the family shoe business, he lent his grudging support to Yaeger's artistic pursuits, saying that so long as he was able to earn a living he was free to continue.
?Yaeger's talent began to emerge in earnest during his high school years as he started winning prizes for his drawings and paintings. Scholarships enabled him to pursue his formal artistic training at the University of Detroit, the John P. Wicker School of Fine Arts, and Robert Herzberg's Detroit School of Fine and Applied Arts. Both to economize and to support himself, Yaeger ground paints for his own use and for sale to fellow students. Concurrently, his work began to attract the attention of a broader audience of influential art patrons. Early recognition arrived in the form of acceptance into the Carnegie International Exhibition in 1930 – a show juried by Henri Matisse.
In 1932, Yaeger won two prizes which would provide a significant boost to his budding career: The Detroit Institute of Arts' Founders' Society Purchase Prize and the Detroit News'Anna Scripps Whitcomb Traveling Scholarship. Apart from the increased public profile and prestige afforded by the awards, the $500 Scripps cash award enabled Yaeger to pursue his art education overseas. Yaeger departed for Paris, then still the center of European artistic activity and the home to legions of American expatriates, where he studed at the Academe Andre L'hote and the Ecole Scandinav, where he received instruction from L'hote, Marcel Gromaire and Orthon Friesz.
Yaeger embraced the opportunities for education and inspiration afforded him by life in Paris, relishing the chance to meet other artists, peruse cutting-edge Paris galleries, and to paint in the French countryside as well as the advanced education provided by his European instructors. Forced by economics to return home midway through his European tenure, Yaeger was awarded an additional $500 by the Whitcombs in recognition of his talent and thrift, enabling him to return to France, Yaeger purchased a $10 bicycle upon which he traveled across the continent, drawing, sketching and painting directly from life in a panoply of European settings.
?A confluence of factors including escalating tensions in prewar Europe and the American economic depression led Yaeger to return to the United States in 1935. Yeager settled once again in Detroit, taking up residence in his family home where he would remain for the rest of his life. Shortly after his return, Yaeger began to work on a succession of murals commissioned by Franklin Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration and its landmark Federal Arts Project. While not enamored of the officially-sanctioned Social Realist style favored by program administrators, Yaeger nonetheless joined the ranks of American artistic luminaries commissioned by the FAP to create murals, paintings, and sculptures for WPA sites in Detroit and Ann Arbor.
Yaeger's FAP commissioned works included murals for Detroit Receiving Hospital's Children's Ward, the Ford Grammar School in Highland Park, and Western Market (all now destroyed). A commission for the Detroit Public Lighting Commission, a landmark mural celebrating the historical development of electric light, was partially saved from oblivion prior to the building's 1977 demolition and is now visible at Michigan State University's Kresge Art Museum. Surviving Yaeger WPA murals exist at the Brodhead Naval Armory (now closed), Grosse Pointe South High School in Grosse Pointe, and the University of Michigan's West Quad Dormitory.
?Yaeger was somewhat dismissive of his WPA-era projects; his reluctance to embrace social realism and his resistance to the influence of program administrators and site managers led him to leave many of these works unsigned. Ironically, they become a cornerstone of his artistic reputation, and likely to his regret, a prism through which the remainder of his life's work would be perceived by critics and the public. He became pigeonholed in the eyes of some as a "WPA" artist, and with Social Realism's fall from stylistic favor he received a corresponding lessening of attention and appreciation.
?Nonetheless, Yaeger continued to work at a frenetic pace, completing private commissions including mosaics for churches and murals for private clients as well as an endless succession of paintings and drawings. Prizes, gallery exhibitions, and purchases continued to accrue, albeit at a lessened frequency, through the 1960s—even during the Abstract Expressionist, Pop, and Op-Art eras. With the ascendence of conceptualism in the late 1960s-early 1970s and its attendendant dismissal of both painting and representationalism in favor of pure abstraction, Yaeger began to recede into obscurity.
?The mid-1980s, however, witnessed something of an Edgar Yaeger renaissance. As conceptualism fell from style and interest in painting returned —thanks in large measure to American Neo-Expressionists such as Julian Schnabel and Jean-Michel Basquiat and Europeans such as Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke— stylistic devices favored by Yaeger came once again into vogue. Simultaneously, a Detroit-based group of Yaeger fans led by Yaeger's friend and agent John Joseph Jr. began evangelizing the artist's work on his behalf, a practice never undertaken in earnest by the modest Yaeger. A flurry of press attention and new public commissions followed, including an outdoor mosaic on the facade of Detroit's Scarab Club. For the majority of his remaining years, Yaeger's work continued to receive steady if low-key attention within Detroit and regional artistic and press circles.
Yaeger's artistic reputation was also bolstered by growing appreciation for his craftsmanship. His patience and dedication to craft are evidenced by the meticulously created handmade frames he made for many of his paintings. Yeager's method involved assembling dozens of individually cut, sized, and carved pieces of wood into a single frame, carefully combing, filing and finishing the frame until it perfecty suited the picture it housed. Yaeger refused to use power tools for any of these creations, insisting upon a deliberate, careful process of gradual refinement. His exacting standards often resulted in more time being taken in the creation of a frame than in painting the picture itself.
?Yaeger's friends and business associates usually could count on a special annual treat: The arrival of one of his original Christmas cards. Yaeger's colorful hand-tinted cards were produced through the laborious linocut process; after making his initial sketches, Yaeger would hand-carve his design in reverse onto a piece of linoleum, which he would then ink and press into the individual sheets of paper. Once the ink dried, Yaeger would patiently hand-color each one.
Edgar Yaeger died in 1997 at the age of 93, leaving behind thousands of completed paintings and drawings, a smaller number of reliefs and mosaics, and his legendary murals. Art historians and curators continue to wrestle with Yaeger's placement in the modernist pantheon, seemingly disinclined to rewrite an official 20th century art narrative which largely excluded him, but institutional support – notably from East Lansing's Kresge Museum – continues to reaffirm Yaeger's rightful status as an unheralded modernist master. Such a stature may have been something this introspective master craftsman never expected or pursued, but it is a position he richly deserves.
Dimensions
20 1/2"H x 27 1/2"W (sight), 25"H x 32"W (frame)
Artist or Maker
Edgar Louis Yaeger
Medium
oil on canvas
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Estate Art, Antiques & Native American Design
byRipley Auctions
November 5, 2022, 11:00 AM EST
Indianapolis, IN, US
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Most items in our auction are estate consigned. All items should be considered "as-is". We make every effort to accurately describe each lot using complete descriptions and detailed photographs. You may email or call us with any questions prior to bidding. All sizes, weights and ages of lots are approximate. We encourage you to visit and inspect all lots during preview and/or carefully examine all additional images provided with the online catalog and ask for more information, when needed. It is your responsibility to know what you are bidding on prior to placing any bids. Please note that any lot listed with "attributed" or "style" cannot be guaranteed to be the work of the noted artist or period. All sales are final.
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Indiana residents pay 7% sales tax on all purchases unless you have a retail sales certificate issued by the State of Indiana. We need the number on file at the time of payment to exempt you from sales tax. Items picked up from our gallery may be subject to IN sales tax. Any questions please contact us.
Credit Card Payments
You must provide a verified credit card for bidder registration. Ripely Auctions does not not have access to your credit card information when you register on line. Your card will NOT be automatically charged after the auction. You may authorize the credit card of your choice after you have received your invoice. Please call with questions prior to bidding. 317-251-5635
Payment Information
Payments are accepted by Cash, Check, Money Order, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, AMEX and Bank Wire Transfer. CC payments of more than $5k may require advance approval. Gold jewelry will require confirmed funds. The full purchase price plus all applicable taxes and fees is expected before removal or shipping of any of the items. Guaranteed payment may be required for removal of goods for new or out of town buyers.
Shipping Information
Professional in house shipping services are available for items. Shipping costs will include carrier fees, handling, and insurance. A low bid purchase price does not mean shipping costs will be any less. The size and weight of a package will impact the cost that the carrier charges. Multiple items will impact the cost of handling. Items that are of high value will require more insurance. Contact Ripley Auctions if you would like a shipping estimate before the auction. Some items may require a third-party shipper. Please let the office know if you would like to pick up your winning bid or arrange your own shipping.
Buyer's Premium
A buyer's premium of 25% will be added to all lots.
Condition Statement
Most items in our auction are estate consigned. All items should be considered "as-is". We make every effort to accurately describe each lot using complete descriptions and detailed photographs. You may email or call us with any questions prior to bidding. All sizes, weights and ages of lots are approximate. We encourage you to visit and inspect all lots during preview and/or carefully examine all additional images provided with onlne catalog and ask for more information, when needed. It is your responsibility to know what you are bidding on prior to placing any bids. Please note that any lot listed with "attributed" or "style" cannot be guaranteed to be the work of the noted artist or period. All sales are final.
Indiana Sales Tax
Indiana residents pay 7% sales tax on all purchases unless you have a retail sales certificate issued by the State of Indiana. We need the number on file at the time of payment to exempt your from sales tax. Items picked up from our gallery may be subject to IN sales tax. If you have any questions, contact us.
About the Artist
Edgar Louis Yaeger (1904 - 1997)
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