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“Coleman,” by Edmund Yaghjian, former chair of the University’s Department of Art, will be one of the featured works at the 50th-annual USC Art Auction April 19.
Candy Waites, Yaghjian’s daughter, donated the piece for the auction, which will be dedicated to the memory of her father, who started the auction and coordinated it for many years. The reserve for “Coleman” (1967 acrylic on panel) will be $1,500.
“It’s truly exceptional,” said Mana Hewitt, director of McMaster Gallery who is helping organize the auction.
“Birds in Flight,” another work donated by Yaghjian’s family, also will be up for auction. The reserve is $1,000.
This year’s auction will be held off campus at the McGee Auction Gallery at 725 Meeting St. in West Columbia.
“Holli McGee Roberts, an alumna of the art department, has generously donated the McGee Auction Gallery and her services for the event, and in the new location, there will be ample parking,” Hewitt said.
Roberts and her father, Carroll McGee, will be the auctioneers.
A preview party will begin at 6 p.m., and the auction will start at 7 p.m. Admission is free, and light refreshments will be provided. The art will be on public display beginning at 1 p.m.
More than 100 pieces of sculpture, photography, paintings, prints, and ceramic works made by USC art faculty and students will go to the highest bidders. No minimum bids, except for the works by Yaghjian, are set at the auction, which usually attracts as many as 500 art lovers during the evening.
The event is sponsored by the Department of Art in USC's College of Arts and Sciences. Proceeds from the auctioned works are divided between the artists and the USC art scholarship and gallery fund. Credit cards and checks will be accepted. Last year's event raised more than $16,000.
A native of Armenia and a 1930 graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Yaghjian came to USC in 1945 as head of the Department of Fine Arts. He served in that position until 1966, when he was named USC’s first artist-in-residence. His work was exhibited in dozens of museums and hundreds of private collections throughout the nation and world, including the American Embassies in Paris and Ghana.
Yaghjian was an active promoter of the arts in South Carolina and the founder of USC’s art collection and of both the Columbia and the S.C. Artists Guilds.
For more information, call Hewitt at 7-7480 or 7-4236.
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