The “picker” arrived late in July at a Michigan estate sale in search of albums and mid-century furniture. But in a hallway leading to the garage, he stumbled onto something else: a small painting that depicted nine shells.
Intrigued, he took a chance on it, paying $30.
It turned out to be a big find, an unlikely discovery of a prime work by Gertrude Abercrombie (1909-1977). The Chicago painter created distinctive, introspective works that merge the real and dream-like – enigmatic self-portraits, barren landscapes, empty interiors and quirky still lifes…