In partnership with top auction houses Christie’s and Charitybuzz, The Al Hirschfeld Foundation is offering 20 limited-edition prints by the eponymous caricaturist for an online auction, with proceeds of the sales to benefit the charitable Foundation and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Bidding is open now through Thursday, July 15.
The numbered prints were all hand-signed this spring by the stars of the stage and screen immortalized in the images: Kevin Bacon, Betty Buckley, Cher, Richard Gere, Joel Grey, Mark Hamill, Nathan Lane, Jessica Lange, John Malkovich, Steve Martin, Reba McEntire, Donna McKechnie, Sir Ian McKellen, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Stephen Sondheim, Sir Patrick Stewart, Leslie Uggams, and Sam Waterston.
“We are delighted to partner with Broadway Cares, Christie’s, and Charitybuzz to bring these iconic prints to the public,” said David Leopold, the Creative Director of The Al Hirschfeld Foundation. “We have received requests for years to have some of these images be published as prints. Having the performers, who felt honored to be drawn by The Line King, return the favor by signing these very limited editions is a tribute to how much Hirschfeld and Broadway Cares mean to this community.”
“All of us at Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS count ourselves among the legion of Al Hirschfeld fans,” noted Executive Director Tom Viola. “This unique collaboration with The Al Hirschfeld Foundation in partnership with Christie’s and Charitybuzz will help ensure much-needed health care and medication, nutritious meals, counseling, and emergency assistance for those across the country affected by HIV/AIDS, COVID-19 and other life-threatening illnesses.”
Among the auction lots, each numbered 1/15, and each with an estimated value of $2500, are:
Betty Buckley as Grizabella, The Glamour Cat, in the Broadway premiere of Cats, after a sketch first published in The New York Times’ Friday theater column on December 31, 1982;
Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters as George and Dot from the debut production of Sunday in the Park with George, the original of which first appeared in The New York Times on Sunday, April 29, 1984;
Mark Hamill, who had just gained international fame as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Broadway production of Amadeus, after Hirschfeld’s drawing published in The New York Times on July 1, 1983;
Joel Grey as the Master of Ceremonies in the Broadway revival of Cabaret, from a drawing first published in The New York Times’ Friday theater column on February 12, 1988;
Nathan Lane from the Off-Broadway production of Terrence McNally’s The Lisbon Traviata, in an image that was also was first published in The New York Times on November 10, 1989; and
Stephen Sondheim, one of the most successful, highly esteemed, and studied composers and lyricists in musical theater history, with his keyboard and manuscripts, in a print after a privately commissioned work of 1999.
The giclée prints, on hot press paper, measure 15 x 18 inches. All come with the official Hirschfeld Foundation embossed seal and a Certificate of Authenticity directly from The Al Hirschfeld Foundation
To view the works and to enter a bid, go online, before the virtual gavel drops on July 15. The auction is in keeping with The Al Hirschfeld Foundation’s mission to promote interest in the theater and dramatic arts by supporting not-for-profit museums, libraries, theaters, and similar cultural institutions.
