The Modern British and Irish Art sale at west London saleroom Chiswick Auctions in London on July 4 includes a group of nine lots from the family of Peter Adam (1929-2019).
Adam, who grew up in 1930s Berlin, is best known as a filmmaker, a BBC producer and editor of the art magazines Review and Arena. However, he also served as a champion to a number of British and Irish artists and designers. A close friend to Vaughan, he was also his executor, biographer and the curator of multiple exhibitions of the artist’s work after his death by suicide in 1977.
The Adam collection includes a number of works by Vaughan – including a 27-page sketch book from 1962 estimated at £5000-7000 and a 1955 gouache of a seated male figure guided at £15,000-25,000.
Leading the group at £30,000-50,000 is an oil painting titled Two Figures with a Snake that has been exhibited on a number of occasions, including at the Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester, in 1976 and in 2007 at the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath. chiswickauctions.co.uk
