Think free is a very good price? Artist’s longtime friend is testing that theory Saturday in Yachats

By CHERYL ROMANO/Lincoln Chronicle

YACHATS — If you appreciate art, especially colorful abstract art from a contemporary of Andy Warhol, you’ll really appreciate the prices at an exhibit Saturday — $0.00.

All the works available are by the late artist Charles Swank, and all are free, thanks to his longtime friend Dan Stein of Yachats.

In a giveaway titled “A Charles Swank Art Jubilee,” Stein and arts nonprofit Polly Plumb Productions are teaming up for a special event at the Yachats Commons. From 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, hundreds of Swank’s paintings and plus 2,000 archival reproductions will be literally given away on a first-come, first-served basis.

For much of Saturday, art appreciators may have one large painting (they’re about four feet by five feet) per household, a second for a friend, and 10 or more of the smaller pieces. But beginning at 3 p.m. “You can take as much as you want,” said Stein.

Refreshments will be provided by The Drift Inn.

Swank, a prolific, reclusive painter with a master’s art degree from Yale University, died last year in Olympia, Wash. Before he passed, however, he asked Stein to find a way to get his work out to the public.

“As the end approached for Charles, I didn’t want to sell his work, but to get it into as many hands as possible,” said Stein. “I think he’ll be smiling down on me from heaven” during the giveaway.

The event features Swank’s final 100 paintings unframed and on canvases, plus 2,000 pieces that have been photographed and placed in binders. To see the pieces that will be available, visit the Charles Swank Flickr site.

Stein will be on hand all day to answer questions about his late friend, a reclusive artist who focused on works of “abstracted geometric visions, beautiful, accessible and fun.”

The Yachats resident had been collecting Swank’s work since the two met in Santa Cruz, Calif. in the late 1970s. In the years before the artist died, Stein “took it upon myself to be his agent” and produced two sales and exhibits of Swank’s pieces in Yachats last year.

“I sold more than I thought I would; people were inspired by them,” Stein said. “Even if you don’t think of yourself as an art collector, Charles’ work will surprise and please you.”

• Cheryl Romano is a Yachats freelance reporter who contributes regularly to Lincoln Chronicle. She can be reached at [email protected]