Archives for January 2013

More Evidence Of Market Insanity

I just can’t help myself. The juxtaposition of two auction sales is simply too tempting.

In tomorrow’s New York Times, Steve Wynn announces that he’s the one who bought Tulips, by Jeff Koons, last November for $33.6 million, a record for aÂ piece by Koons at auction. He had to admit itÂ at some point, because he put it on view in the Wynn Theater rotunda in Las VegasÂ a few days ago, and eventually he’ll move it to a hotel-casino he’s building in Macao.

The paper also mentions another record — this one set this week — for a Botticelli. On Wednesday, Christie’s sold that painting, of a Madonna and child once owned by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.,Â forÂ $10.4 million, his highest auction price.Â

I’m pasting them both here. You decide.

The Al-Sabah Collection Is Going Places — Not Just Houston

It was news last fall when theÂ Â Museum of Fine Arts in Houston announced a five-year partnership with Sheikh Nasser Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah and his wife,Â Sheikha Hussah Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah, of Kuwait — through which the al-Sabahs would send parts of their collection for long-term viewing in Houston. They want their treasures seen around the world, as a means of expanding the view people have of Muslims to include its culture. Given so many political ties in Texas (the Sheikha visited George H.W. Bush last week), and with its oil companies, it was natural for the family to choose the MFAH (though having Mahrukh Tarapor, formerly with the Metropolitan Museum and now seniorÂ adviserÂ for international initiatives to the MFAH, must have helped).

So the other night, the MHAF unveiled its entry in the Islamic race: a gallery filled with about 70 objects on loan from the al-Sabahs. It can’t compare in volume with theÂ Met’s newish Islamic wing, which attracted more than 1 million visitors in not much more than a year, or with the Louvre’s new wing for Islamic art — topped by that golden “flying carpet” — but still. Apparently what the Kuwaitis sent isÂ choice. The museum’s description:

Among the highlights showcased in this display are spectacular Mughal jewelry, illuminated manuscripts, exquisite ceramics, and intricately decorated ceiling panels. More than 60 examples from the 8th to 18th centuries are on view, made in the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. The collection also includes carpets, glass and metalwork, paintings, architectural fragments, scientific instruments, and works on paper.

And there’s much more where that came from, and the Kuwaiti News Agency is out with an article that says that there will be more international sharing of the 30,000 works in the collection (which is on permanent loan to the state of Kuwait).

But not with U.S. museums — even though its clear that the public has an appetite for art of the Muslim world.

Houston’s renewable deal is exclusive in the U.S., the KNA said. Rather, it added, “plans are underway to potentially launch exhibitions in Italy, Finland, South Korea and Singapore, where there are few Islamic art collections available to the public.” KNA did not name the institutions involved, but it provided a lot more background on Kuwaiti thinking.

Among American museums, the other good places to see respected collections ofÂ Islamic art are theÂ Detroit Institute of Arts, the Freer-Sackler in Washington and the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art.

The current al-Sabah selection is expected to remain in Houston for about a year; then, there will be a switch-out.

Photo Credit: Two 17th century pieces from India, courtesy of the MHAF

Hopper, Wowing Them In France, Also Goes 24 Hours

American art seems more and more welcome and appreciated in Europe, and around the world, nowadays. It has been a long time coming for art made before Abstract Expressionism.

One more bit of evidence: the Edward Hopper exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris, which has brought together 164 of his 128 paintings, watercolors, engravings and illustrations.Â According to Next-Liberation, “Edward Hopper is a hit. So much so that, to cope with demand, the Paris retrospective was extended for six days, until February 3, with three days of continuous opening last weekend.” It’s drawing about 6,800 visitors a day – some 580,000 as of the date of the article.

The Grand Palais is projecting a final count of 700,000. Had that daily rate been achieved in the last rankings of The Art Newspaper, the Hopper show would have placed as the 9th most popular show of 2011. By gross attendance, its rank would have been higher.

These numbers far exceed those attained for the Hopper exhibit at the Tate in London in 2004. The number of tickets sold for that exhibit was about 420,000. (In a side note, Sheena Wagstaff, who curated that show, is now the contemporary art curator at the Met.)

Meanwhile, the review posted on CultureKiosque by Patricia BoccadoroÂ called it a “magnificent exhibition” andÂ said:

What is certainly true is that Hopper reshaped painting in the United States, his works not only inspiring film directors fromHitchcocktoÂ Wim Wenders, but also being reproduced in posters, post cards, and book covers, thus contributing greatly to a certain image of America still present in Europe today.

On the other hand, his work depresses her. She ends the review:

…Â He seems to take no pleasure in life, painting being merely an intellectual exercise, full of silent, stoic people, with no trace of joy or laughter. Thereâ€™s sunlight, but no scent of sunshine, people, but none of the warmth of humanity.The admiration one feels upon leaving this exhibition is perhaps less for the genius of this artist whose works are scarcely uplifting, and more for the excellence and scope of the presentation, the first of its kind in France. Indeed, almost 130 of Hopperâ€™s works have been brought together by the Grand Palais and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid in partnership with the Centre Pompidou in Paris, a remarkable achievement.

No matter. As long as people look…

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Grand Palais

Manet’s Star Rises In London

TheÂ Manet portraiture exhibition, which ended recently at the Toledo Museum of Art, has opened in London at the Royal Academy. It’s getting the attention it deserves.

For a start, on Jan. 20, The Telegraph reported that “Advance bookings for the show are among the highest in the Academyâ€™s recent history, exceeding sales for its blockbuster Van Gogh exhibition in 2010. Several of the timed slots to see the show have already sold out.”

As a result, the RA is opening on five Sunday evenings from 6:30 to 10 p.m. for an “enhanced” visitor experience with the show. It normally closes at 6 on Sundays, but forÂ Â Â£30 — double theÂ normalÂ Â£15Â adult ticket for Manet — visitors can see the exhibit with a “limited number” of others. Plus, they get a drink, a gallery guide and an audio guide. More details here.

That’s an interesting tact — and I favor it, despite comments from critics who say it’s not democratic. Piffle — variable pricing, I’ve argued (see one 2009 articleÂ here) — should come to museums. As I mentioned there, the Metropolitan Museum has charged $50 for access to specialÂ exhibits on some Mondays, when it’s normally closed, and in 2006 the Neue Galerie tried to charge $50 on Wednesdays, when the museum is normally open (free) only to members, to see the then newly-acquired KlimtÂ Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I.Â Â Criticism changed the Galerie’s plan, needlessly.Â I don’t see this as elitist — no one blinks about skyboxes — I see it as experimental and practical.

Second, the Manet is getting some raves. The Independent named it “exhibition of the week.” Â Richard Dorment in The Telegraph gave it five stars, though he failed to mention Toledo’s role in the organization and scholarship. The Telegraph has devoted much other space to the exhibition, including this one headlined Did Manet Have a Secret Son?

But there were some pans, or at least mixed reviews. The Guardian said it excelled as a biographical showÂ but pointed out that it included some weak pastels. Brian Sewell in the Evening Standard wrote this (and much more — I encourage you to read the whole thing):

…the Royal Academy honours this singular painter with an exhibition, Manet: Portraying Life, in which 54 examples demonstrate his mischief, his obstinacy, his perception, his borrowings and subversions, his achievements and his failures. Divided into five themes and restricted to portraits and portrayal, it is a little too thin to serve him as well as it should and could, and for newcomers to this Outsider (neither Salonard nor Impressionist) it may not be easy to grasp his progress either to Le DÃ©jeuner sur lâ€™Herbe or from it to The Bar at the Folies-BergÃ¨re, the alpha and omega of his major paintings â€” though in this exhibition the DÃ©jeuner is the much smaller and later version from the Courtauld Gallery and The Bar is omitted from it. It must be said too that at least a dozen paintings and pastels…are bad enough to convince the newcomer that Manet does not merit his reputation as a master….

Well,Â maybeÂ Sewell is right or maybe he was having a bad day.

On another front, close readers of the comments on RCA already had a preview of this: The Manet exhibition has been selected as the subject of an “event film” that will be shown on cinema screens worldwide, just as Leonardo Live was a year ago. Manet: Portraying Live will premiere at the movies on Apr. 11 in the UK and in about 30 other countries, including the U.S. This time, the producers were not forced to produce a live broadcast, which created silly moments in Leonardo. I expect that this time the result will be much better.

Stay tuned for more details here in the coming weeks.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Neue Pinakothek, Munich

A New Model Of Museum Financing

I will have more to say on the subject in a subsequent post, but for now I would just like to link to an article I have written that will be published in tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal. It’s a Cultural Conversation with Dan L. Monroe, the executive director of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass.

In it, Monroe outlines his thinking behind the museum’s current $650 million fundraising campaign, the bulk of which will go to PEM’s endowment. He has challenged the conventional wisdom that it’s too hard to raise big money for endowments.

Ok, his thinking may not work for all museums, but my article is definitely worth a read for anyone who cares about the financial stability of museums.

More coming, but not tonight…