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It’s 2012: Do You Know Where Your Paintings Are?

May 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
OakenBucket

We have another night of big auctions tonight, but I'm going to change the subject. This is a sad story of a lost, or misplaced, artistic legacy. Over the years, the Coca Cola Co. commissioned many artists to make ads and trays for the company, and in the late 1920s and through 1935, Norman Rockwell was one of them. Rockwell made six paintings for Coke's billboard and calendar ads. But somehow Coke was able to hang onto none of them. All six went missing. Then in August 2001, it "found" Out Fishin'. Dated 1935, it portrays a … [Read more...]

05/10/12 3:11 PM | filed under: Artworks, Uncategorized |

Are New Motivations Driving The Contemporary Art Market? — UPDATED

May 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Rothko

Is the contemporary art auction world moving to a new plateau, perhaps even new foothills of a higher peak of excess? It is starting to look that way to many people. Last night's sale at Christie's, which totalled $388.488 million, may be looked back at as a marker of some sort -- with a slightly different dynamic than the past. It seems to me that some buyers have gone past the notion of paying a lot to buy a masterwork, or just a good painting or sculpture, because they want the piece. Now they want a work of art because they are … [Read more...]

05/9/12 12:45 PM | filed under: Art Market, Uncategorized |

Art Basel Journeys to Hong Kong — UPDATED

May 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Schonholzer and Spiegler

We knew this was coming, but now it's official: Art Basel will have a fair in Hong Kong, starting next May (the 23rd to 26th, 2013). "Just what we need," you may be thinking, "another art fair." The truly addicted collector can be on the road, traveling from one to the next fair, pretty much all year now. Why does Art Basel want to start something in Hong Kong? Proximity to Chinese money is the obvious answer -- and Art Basel is doing things the smart way. Instead of starting a brand-new fair, AB co-directors Annette Schönholzer and Marc … [Read more...]

05/8/12 5:24 PM | filed under: Art Market, People, Uncategorized |

A Strange Comment On The Richter Market

May 7, 2012 By 2 Comments
Richter798-3

As we move into week two of the bellwether spring auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's, a remark made by Brett Gorvy, Chairman and International Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie's, keeps rolling around in my head. First the set-up: Speaking of buyers in the market this season in an article headlined "Sure Bets" in The New York Times on Apr. 29, he said, "tastes are conservative but they want quality, technical virtuosity, beauty and color." Then, in a sidebar to that article examining a few choice lots, … [Read more...]

05/7/12 2:41 PM | filed under: Art Market, Uncategorized |

On Eve Of New Barnes’s Opening, Full Coverage In The Hometown Newspaper

May 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
BarnesFdn2011

The Philadelphia Inquirer threw a lot of resources at the Barnes Foundation this weekend, providing a preview as the new building in the city moves toward its opening on May 19 -- I counted seven articles and six slide shows online, though I have not seen the physical paper. UPDATE: Turns out there are more than seven articles -- at least 10 -- now online and in print (which I have not seen). The paper is pretty positive about the new Barnes, which makes sense; opponents of the move from Merion to the city feel the paper and the city's … [Read more...]

05/6/12 7:24 PM | filed under: Museums, Uncategorized |

Brooklyn Makes A Purchase With Deaccessioning Money: Fair Trade?

May 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Siege_of_Belgrade__front___detail__1

Yup, you may think the Brooklyn Museum is in such dire straights that it's not buying art -- but think again. Today it announced a purchase thanks to a deaccession. The purchase first: it is a wonder, a mother-of-pearl-inlaid Mexican folding screen, shown at left, commissioned about 1700 by the viceroy of New Spain, that combines Asian, European, and American artistic traditions. The six-panel screen, painted in oil and tempera, is in laid with mother-of-pearl. Known as a biombo enconchado, these folding screens are rare, and at the time … [Read more...]

05/3/12 2:21 PM | filed under: Artworks, Uncategorized |

Flash From Sotheby’s: “Record” For Munch – UPDATED

May 2, 2012 By 3 Comments
Brancusi

Major problems with my computer tonight: I tried to watch the Sotheby's sale online, but it went in and out, and I missed the key lot -- #20. Munch's Scream. But now I know that it fetched $119.9. million. Crazy, and I still prefer to think that it's not a record, because the $82.5 million fetched by Dr. Gachet in 1990 tranlates to $144.8 million today. Sotheby's says in a release: " A group of seven bidders jumped into the competition early, but it was a prolonged battle between two highly determined phone bidders that carried the final … [Read more...]

05/2/12 8:58 PM | filed under: Artists, Artworks |

Back Your Bags For Manet in Toledo — Next Fall

May 1, 2012 By 3 Comments
Manet-Proust

The Toledo Museum of Art will be the place to be -- ok, a place to be -- next fall: it just announced a major exhibition for Manet, which it's calling "Manet: Portraying Life." Co-organized by Lawrence W. Nichols, senior curator for European and American painting before 1900, the exhibit will move from Toledo to the Royal Academy in London next January. It will include some 40 paintings, plus photographs, from around the world. The anchor -- or catalyst, if you prefer -- is Toledo's own marvelous Manet, Antonin Proust, at left, … [Read more...]

05/1/12 5:12 PM | filed under: Artists, Exhibitions, Uncategorized |

Britain’s Most Generous Philanthropist: An Artist?

April 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
DavidHockney

Surprise: Britain's annual giving list places an artist -- David Hockney -- at the top of the roster for 2011. The list, published by the Sunday Times, calculates rank based on the amount of wealth given away as a proportion of overall income, not on absolute value. But Hockney does well on either score, if you allow for the fact that his gifts were of his own art. He gave away £78.1m worth of paintings to charitable causes, which is more than double his estimated £34m wealth. Hockney also gave away £730,000 in cash through … [Read more...]

04/30/12 2:25 PM | filed under: Artists, Uncategorized |

The Unfortunate Sides Of “The Scream” Auction

April 29, 2012 By 7 Comments
TheScream

With the spring auction season about to move into high gear, everyone's talking about The Scream, one of four versions Edvard Munch made of the now-iconic image. It comes up for sale on Wednesday night, and like others I did a double-take when I first learned of Sotheby's titanic estimate -- $80 million, the highest presale number Sotheby's has ever set. (It didn't even bother with "Estimate on Request," its normal  but unfortunate practice for such high estimates.) Like the unnamed art historians cited by The New York Times in today's … [Read more...]

04/29/12 5:04 PM | filed under: Art Market, Artworks |
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