Let’s get up to date, first.
When the new Detroit Metro Airport opened in 2001, one of the Delta Airline SkyClubs had a large painting in the entryway as a part of its decor. I enjoyed viewing the painting when I went to that lounge. I eventually found out that the painting was called “#1Adam” and it was created by an artist named TL Lange about 2000-2002, sometime before Lange committed suicide in January 2002 (a couple of weeks after he had been diagnosed as HIV positive).
“#1Adam” TL Lange (1965-2002)
48 x 48 in., mixed media on canvas)
The original story is here.
I tried to buy the painting off the wall (I mean, why not) in 2016, but there are rules about this stuff. The Wayne County Airport Authority owned the piece (not Delta), and the disposition of any county property is subject to (a) it being decommissioned and (b) it going up for public auction. I had some fun correspondence with both Delta and the Airport Authority, and I could keep an eye on the wall.
In lieu of pulling a heist, I commissioned a watercolor interpretation and called it “#2Adam.”
“#2 Adam” (2017)
by Tessa Kindred (1989-)
9 x 12 in., watercolor and acrylic on paper
The original story is here and here.
In early 2019, the SkyClubs were set for renovation, so I remade my contacts and asked if #1Adam would be staying or going.
Going.
OK. Keep me posted for when he hits the surplus auction block. OK? OK!
And then: COVID hit. Airports closed up. Offices and support closed up. Auctioning surplus was not a priority. I kept checking in. Maybe in two weeks. Maybe next month. The office I was talking with was incredibly cheerful and patient.
On June 14, 2022, I checked in again. Still in storage.
But, as it turns out, an industrial auction of mechanical surplus was underway since June 1. They added #1Adam to the end of that auction: Lot 257.
If coincidences with numbers is your thing, 2/57 is my month and birth year. Just saying.
Within a day, there was a surprising level of interest, given the lack of notice as the tail end of an auction filled with supplies, file cabinets, and mechanical goods. And then… the notification came in: when they went to retrieve #1Adam to get it to the auction space, it looked like this:
#1Adam was the victim of a leaky roof. The auction was rebooted with the prospect of damage having been done. How much? Was it reversible?
Time for a little investigation. I contacted an oil painter whom I trust who said that “canvas is very forgiving” and as long as some of the mixed media was not water-based, she thought that looked like it might all be surface cleaning and not restoration. I contacted the University museum’s department of restoration and repair. We do not have an on-site painting expert as there is not enough constant work for that, but they did give me their #1 person whom they contract with when needed, who works with all the Detroit area museums and nationally. He looked at the pictures and said the same thing as the painter: likely to be something cleaned from the surface and it would likely be “as good as new.”
So that was enough for me (not that I was not going to try for it, anyhow). When you think about the tone of this painting, my first impression was that those marks could have been part of the original piece if I did not know otherwise. Or, if permanent damage, crop the canvas. But the optimism was a bonus.
I was in contact with the auction venue, and when the painting finally made it there on June 23, I was allowed to pay a visit to get an up-close on it. The back of the canvas was signed (2001) and the condition was pristine.
What do you think? Did Lange have another title in mind for this?
June 25 – 01:59 PM – there have been 6 different bidders who moved up the price to $375. Was there a fanatic in there? And was there anyone else sitting in the weeds, like me, not making themselves known, until now. I dropped my bid.
June 25 – 02:00-2:03.57 PM – there was one live bidder left, the same one who pushed it to $375, and no one else in the weeds. The auction was to end at 02:04 PM, but the live bidder dropped another $200 in at the last minute, hoping that the final bid price was close (it was not). Another minute was added to the auction and it ran down to zero.
June 25 – 02:05 PM
Winner Winner
Chicken Dinner
And at the end of the day, the auction price plus what it takes to restore it is quite likely going to end up being less than what a competitive auction for the undamaged piece would have been.
Funny how things work out.
Update: June 28
I rented a U-Haul van and got the painting from the auction site to the conservation and restoration place in Detroit. The place was fantastic: a large open studio with the boss surrounded by five artists, all ass-deep in painting projects, and that delicious smell of oil and art in the air. The owner is a former HS Chemistry teacher from NYC, and his son (doing an MD residency) took our organic chemistry courses in 2010-11.
The good news: the majority of what you see on the smears and drips is surface coverage. He took a dipped piece of cotton on a stick, and the white shit simply wiped off and did not lift any pigment. Those three strong drip stains did furrow the paint just a bit, but with the color undiminished you need to get within about 6 inches to see it. It’s fixable. We’ll figure that out once they’ve gone over the entire thing.
One interesting footnote: while organic solvents, particularly acetone, used to be the primary cleaners, the conservation field has switching to aqueous solutions, using various mixtures of ammonia and citric acid.
Update: July 22
First pass on cleaning.
Now for some restoration.
Update: August 10
Wow. Wow. Wow.
