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LOWELL NESBITT Gay Art Gallery presents an opportunity to acquire a work that has it all - provenance, rarity, artist, model, vintage-ness, quality, value. Lowell Nesbitt was one of the stars of the New York art scene in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. The subject was one of New York's most sought-after and pricey call-boys, and this work passed from him through purchase directly to the family of the consignor. Nesbitt's fame rests mostly on his depictions of flowers, but his nudes were an important part of his life as a gay man. Original works almost never appear on the market and are extremely rare to find in private hands. BERNARD, by
Lowell Nesbitt, pencil drawing on paper, 1975, 44 by 30 inches, framed click on images to purchase
Lowell Nesbitt was born in Baltimore in 1933, studied at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia (BFA 1955), and attended the Royal College of Art in London, 1955-56. After serving in the US Army he worked for closed circuit television at the Walter Reed Medical Center. It was probably around this time that Nesbitt worked as night watchman at the Phillips Collection in Washington DC, a major inspiration in his decision to paint. He had his first exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1958. By 1963, he was in New York and switched to photo-realism, and started painting close-up large scale portrayals of flowers, for which he received his most enduring fame. He had a solo show at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in DC in 1964. Many shows followed in galleries and museums in New York, around the US, and in Europe. By 1970, he was one of America's best known artists. NASA named him the official artist of Apollo 9 and Apollo 13, and in 1980 the US Postal Service issued four stamps based on his floral paintings. In 1989 a retrospective exhibition of the work of Robert Mapplethorpe was abruptly cancelled at the Corcoran. Nesbitt and Mapplethorpe had been very close friends, and Nesbitt's substantial planned bequest to the museum was withdrawn in protest. His works can now be found in most major museum and corporate collections. Lowell Nesbitt died in 1993 in New York.
This is a portrait of Bernard, who was one of New York's "hottest, most expensive and sought-after callboys" in the 1970s. According to the subject, Nesbitt frequently hired high-priced callboys and "entertained" them at his studio. One of the conditions of their services was that he sketch them in the nude. Bernard insisted that he take this drawing with him, and he claimed it was the only such portrait in private hands. All of the others Nesbitt did remained in his studio, some purchased discreetly through selected galleries. This drawing was purchased directly from Bernard at a later time when drugs and time had taken its toll. It is offered for sale on Gay Art Gallery by the purchaser's family.
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