Margaret Marley Modlin Sold at Auction Prices

MARGARET MODLIN (North Carolina, 1927 - Madrid, 1998). "The death of the last enemy", 1968. Oil on canvas. Signed and dated in the lower right corner. Titled in the lower area.

MARGARET MODLIN (North Carolina, 1927 - Madrid, 1998). "The death of the last enemy", 1968. Oil on canvas. Signed and dated in the lower right corner. Titled in the lower area. Measurements: 183 x 111 cm; 192 x 120 cm (frame). Large format work in which the artist presents a young man sitting on a rock, wearing a fencing uniform and holding a sword in his right hand. The boy is immersed in a post-apocalyptic landscape, with a skull sun. The portrayed character can be identified as the artist's son, who served as both model and inspiration on many occasions. In this work the artist starts from an image of classical character, showing a great interest in drawing. The use of the portrait in profile, has certain reminiscences to the works of the Renaissance. However, despite these characteristics, the use of color and the introduction of discordant elements result in a disturbing image of surrealist aesthetics. Margaret Modlin began her artistic training while studying Fine Arts at the University of Chapell Hill in North Carolina. In 1947 during the performance of the play Li'l Abner she met her husband, actor and poet Elmer Modlin. Elmer Modlin and Margaret Marley married in North Carolina in 1949, but later moved to Hollywood to develop their artistic careers. In 1952 they had a son, Nelson, and twenty years later in 1972, they left the United States in search of new and better job prospects. Elmer, who had fought in World War II and lived through the horrors of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, was an outspoken critic of the U.S. government. So perhaps he couldn't find a job. After deciding to move, a family friend, the famous writer Henry Muller, recommended Spain as a destination. So in 1975 they arrived in Madrid. During her life in Madrid, Margaret Modlin stayed at home creating her artwork, while her husband and son found paid work. The house, located on Pez Street, revolved around Margaret the "eccentric painter". The artist used her son and husband as models to create surrealistic scenes of the Apocalypse with a messianic message. Modlin's paintings and drawings have been exhibited in California, New York, Italy and Spain. In 1972 she exhibited at the Galería de Luis in Madrid, Spain, and in 1978 at the Círculo de Bellas Artes, the first foreigner invited to exhibit. Modlin never sold a painting in her life, but hoped to find a place in art history. She died in 1998, stipulating in her will that her paintings remained in Spain. His final painting, a portrait of the poet José García Nieto, was only half finished. After the death of her son Nelson in 2002 and her husband Elmer Modlin in 2003, Margaret Modlin's 120 paintings and personal effects were left in her dilapidated building, which the newspaper El País described as "a house-museum full of cracks and illuminated only by the colorful paintings". In June 2003, photographs, family films and personal belongings of the Modlin family were discovered on the street and Spanish photographer Paco Gómez began to reconstruct the story. In November 2013 he published a book, Los Modlin, based on further research into the family. The uniqueness of the family, its eccentricity and the components' own history, such as Elmer's appearance as an extra in the film The Devil's Seed, or Margaret Modlin making her debut in Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing and the 1977 film, March or Die, have helped create a myth about the artist and her family.