Mecum Announces Original Artwork by Biographer of Shelby at Monterey Auction
Mecum Auctions announces it will offer two original paintings and several signed giclee prints from the collection of a celebrated biographer of Carroll Shelby, Wallace Alfred Wyss, at their annual Monterey Auction, Aug. 13-14, 2010, at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel & Spa on the Del Monte Golf Course.
Wallace Wyss, a native of Detroit, began his automotive writing career in 1965 at Motor Trend magazine, during which time he first visited Shelby-American when they were at the LAX facility. During his 40-plus years as a writer, Wyss has published ten automotive books, three of which were on the Cobras and Shelby Mustangs. What makes them interesting to some is that the author is also the artist--a self taught "primitive," who only began painting after 40 years as a writer.
His first book Shelby’s Wildlife: The Mustangs and the Cobras sold 50,000 copies and stayed in print 17 years.
In 2007 he painted his first painting, an oil portrait of Carroll Shelby, to promote his book SHELBY The Man The Cars The Legend. That led to requests for prints and, since then, Wyss has painted over one hundred paintings, many of them depicting Cobras, GT40s and Shelby Mustangs. He also authored another Shelby book, Cobra and Shelby Mustang Photo Arcvhive.
“I went to my first sports car races in 1963,” says Wyss, “so I can say that my roots in being a Cobra fan go all the way back to watching the originals race."
His work has been featured in a Carmel gallery and was recently the subject of a three page article in Hemming’s Classic Car magazine. The prints are sold as far as Tokyo, Japan.
At Mecum’s Monterey auction he will debut his original oil portraits of Shelby at Sebring in ’65, and of Dan Gurney at LeMans in ’67 plus offer some giclee prints on canvas of earlier works. The Wyss art will be offered Friday and Sunday.
Each successful bidder on the Wyss Shelby-related artwork will receive an autographed copy of SHELBY The Man The Cars, The Legend. The collection is offered at no reserve and will be among the starting items in the auction starting 9 a.m. August 13th.
The Mecum Auction Company has been specializing in the sale of collector cars for 23 years, now offering an industry-leading 5,000 collector cars per year. Consignment, bidder and event information is available online at www.Mecum.com or by calling 815.568.8888.
