Lining Up to Buy Anonymous Art

For Buyers, a Long Wait at WPA\Corcoran Sale

Art collector Fred Ognibene played a guessing game at Flashpoint last Thursday. Of the 100 anonymous artworks hanging in the gallery, he could identify only about 15 of the artists. A disappointing performance, he said: "I'm not as good as I thought I was."

The orange painting of a person high-kicking? Definitely Iona Rozeal Brown. The cast-iron sculpture of a head on its side? Obviously Ledelle Moe. But what about that funky black-and-white one up there in the corner? The tag identified it as "Tile: Collection 3 (Platform for Catching Fallen Drawings)," made of tar on wood.

"I have no idea who it is," he said. "I have my eye on that one because I think it's just a phenomenal painting."

Most of the people in Flashpoint were playing the same game in preparation for an unusual sale. The 100 artworks are for "Anonymous III," an annual exhibition by the Washington Project for the Arts\Corcoran. They cost $500 each and went on sale Friday at 6 p.m. WPA\C allowed each customer to buy only one artwork until tomorrow at noon, when the organization opens the remaining 79 works for sale to anyone.

Ognibene, 53, owns about 200 artworks, distributed among his Adams Morgan home, office, a storage facility and his Miami Beach apartment. He owns the Florida home so he has somewhere to stay during the five-day Art Basel Miami Beach each December. Ognibene used to serve on the WPA\C board.

The buying is done on a first-come, first-served basis, so some people hire proxies to stand in line the day of the sale. Ognibene hired recent Corcoran graduate Anna Wonson to be his "sitter." He first asked her to arrive at Flashpoint at 10 a.m., then bumped it up to 8:30.

"It's not that I'm over-competitive," he said. "It's just when I saw that black-and-white painting . . ."

Ognibene felt uncomfortable hiring a proxy, especially since the temperature was expected to hit 97 degrees last Friday. At last Thursday's opening, a woman (with more than a hint of disgust) asked Ognibene if he had heard about people hiring sitters. He copped only to "thinking about" hiring one. He reminded Wonson twice to bring sunscreen and an umbrella. "I don't want you to get hurt," he said.

The next morning, a group of four drowsy students hunkered down for the long haul in the entrance to Flashpoint. Wonson brought a paperback novel; her friend Rachel Fick listened to her iPod and wrote on her laptop. Wonson received $100 for sitting from 8:30 a.m. until about 3 p.m.

Ognibene called Wonson at 10 a.m. to make sure she was wearing sunscreen. He was relieved to hear that Flashpoint had let those in line sit indoors.

Imhotep Jackson, a proxy for his father, Franklin Jackson, got to Flashpoint at 7 a.m. and nabbed the No. 1 position (followed by Wonson and Fick). Hakeem Thiam overslept and didn't get to the gallery until after 10 a.m. His godfather was still going to pay him the full $350 they had agreed upon, Thiam said.

At 6 p.m., when WPA\C opened the show for purchase, Franklin Jackson bought the orange Iona Rozeal Brown painting. "This is my first and might be my last" Brown painting, he said.