When I learned today that the Players Club in New York City has been selling its portraits by John Singer Sargent — two down and one to go — I thought it was worth mentioning here. The money, from the disposition of pictures of actors and members, Edwin Booth, the club’s co-founder ($2.5 million), and Lawrence Barrett ($1 million), is intended to pay for the rehabilitation of the Club’s crumbling facade — an 1845 building that was Booth’s home. On the market now is Sargent’s portrait of Joseph Jefferson, also expected to bring $1 million. This all according to The New York Post.
It’s a private club, of theater people, and they have every right to sell — the only reason to mention it is the opportunity these portraits present to would-be buyers. Dealer Warren Adelson bought the Booth (at left).
But along with that news came a bookend about the Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art, which is about to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its Tadao Ando-designed building. Reinforcing some public opinion about modern art, here was the lede in the Dallas/Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
What does a 10-year-old want for reaching the two-digit milestone? Some fluorescent lights? Perhaps a box of colored pencils for drawing on the wall?
That’s what the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth has purchased…
Clever, but…the article was referring to works by Dan Flavin and Sol LeWitt, of course. Still, it was a positive article, noting that “The Modern’s new pieces are debuting over the fall in an anticipatory buildup for the anniversary party” on Dec. 6.
So what exactly has the museum acquired:
The blue and yellow fluorescent light sculpture by Dan Flavin and the wall drawing by Sol LeWitt are two of many presents, er acquisitions, the Modern has purchased recently. Many of the new pieces are by artists already represented in the Modern’s stable, such as Fort Worth-based Vernon Fisher, Howard Hodgkin, Bruce Nauman and Nicholas Nixon. New names that will go up on the walls are those of Robyn O’Neil and Mark Bradford. Bradford’s painting, Kingdom Day, 2010, is a homage to the Kingdom Day Parade held every year in Los Angeles on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Bradford’s depiction specifically references the 1992 parade in the aftermath of the Rodney King beating; in it an explosive landscape is rendered from the topology of satellite imagery.
Also new to the institution is a piece by Jenny Holzer, who will be given a semi-permanent gallery for one of her signature signs that scrolls LED aphorisms such as “Money creates taste;” “Your oldest fears are you worst ones;” “Slipping into madness is good for comparison;” and “Mothers shouldn’t make too many sacrifices.” The rolling platitudes will move from one end of the long clerestory gallery to the edge of the pond and seemingly slide into the water. This gallery is a neighbor to the one that houses the Ladder for Booker T. Washington by Martin Puryear, and as one of the most valuable tracts of museum real estate, it needed a destination piece.
On view by Oct. 21 will be LeWitt’s Wall Drawing #50A, 1970; Flavin’s Untitled (for you Leo, in long respect and affection) 4, 1978; Nixon’s latest installment for his photographic series, The Brown Sisters, Truro, Massachusetts, 2011; Bradford’s painting, O’Neil’s nearly 14-foot long charcoal drawing These Final Hours Embrace At Last; This Is Our Ending, This Is Our Past, 2007; and Hodgkin’s Ice, 2008-10.
Up by Nov. 16 will be Fisher’s The Coriolis Effect, 1987; and Nauman’s video and sound installation Studio Mix, 2010. Holzer’s work, which is yet to be titled, is the showpiece of the anniversary gala.
It”s clever to unveil things like this, doling them out and giving people new reasons to visit and new things to talk about. Good for whoever thought it up. And I can live with that lede.
Photo Credits: Courtesy of Players Club (top) and Ft. Worth MoMA (bottom)