The Nancy Fouts Studio Sale at Dawsons - 10th June 2021

Header Image of Nancy Fouts (1945-2019) Creator Yui Mok - PA Images, Credit PA Images via Getty Images

Nancy Fouts was a contemporary artist like no other. Yet she was so much more than an artist, with diverse skills as a sculptor, painter, graphic designer, collector and prop maker. Well known as a “modern-day surrealist” this sale provides a unique opportunity to bid on several of works direct from the studio, all of which capture her unique sense of black humour, wit and artistic flair. There is truly something for everyone, whatever your taste or budget.

^{Lot 73: 'Artefact Board with Crucifix’, Estimate £5,000-£7,000}

Despite being sent to a Knightsbridge finishing school, her American vitality was not to be surrendered, and she went onto to study at both the Chelsea School of Art and Royal College of Art. Before dedicating her life to purely being an artist, Nancy worked in advertising at the Shirtsleeve Studio where she was commissioned to work with many household brands such British Airways, Silk Cut cigarettes, Virgin and Mentos Mints. Her own personal copies of posters for these brands, along with the famous Post Office ‘Handle With Care’ and Tate Gallery by Tube posters are being sold in Lot 52 with an estimate of £200-£300.

^{Lot 118, ‘Electric Rocking Chair’ Estimate: £3,000-£5,000}

In more recent years Nancy Fouts has exhibited at the Venice Biennale and UK based; Flowers, HangUp and Pertwee, Anderson and Gold galleries. Further international retrospective exhibitions are also currently under discussion.

Many of the works included in this sale are illustrated in the ‘Nancy Fouts’ monograph (2018), which are referenced in the fully illustrated Dawsons online catalogue.

^{Lot 32: 'Peacock War Bonnet' £4,000-£6,000}

Like the famous Surrealists before her, Nancy had a flare for manipulating an every day objects into works of art that make the viewer stop and think about society, her clever use of language and wordplay continues to make us laugh at the world we live in, now more than ever.

Aside from the works of art in this sale by Nancy, this auction includes many of the wonderful and unqiue antiques, collectables and taxidermy from her Victorian Gothic Revival vicarage (serving as a home, gallery and studio) in London.

^{Lot 42, 'Marcel Duchamp's Lost Case' Estimate: £300-£500}

Nancy also generously donated works to several charities including the life size Rhino for the Tusk Trust Trail (as admired by Prince William) and a large letter ‘N’ as part of the Centre Point Letters Auction for the homeless.

^{Nancy’s Victorian Gothic vicagrage (Image: Knight Frank, Islington)}

“She would take you excitedly down to her magical workshop in the basement to pull open drawers of feathers, watches, shells, eyeballs and jewellery tools. Her infectious laughter and flashing eyes would sparkle as she described with her maker’s hands her latest conception or discussed the affairs of the day in visual metaphor.”

Gavin Turk (Contemporary artist and friend of Nancy Fouts)

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