Archives for May 2011

A story emerged from last night’s $300 million sale of contemporary art at Christie’s that every museum fundraiser and gala attendee is going to love.

Lot 21 was a 1964 drawing by Roy Lichtenstein called Drawing for Kiss V , with a presale estimate of $800,000 to $1.2 million.

It was acquired by the seller at a benefit in 1965 — for $10!

As Christie’s tells the tale,

The present owner acquired the work as part of an event organized by the Artists’ Key Club – a group formed by the artist Arman to fight against the art world’s increasing commercialization….The event invite asked participants to go to the Hotel Chelsea in New York and hand over $10 in return for a key to one of the lockers at Penn Station. Inside each of these lockers was a work that a fellow artist had donated, including Roy Lichtenstein, Arman, Christo, Niki de Saint-Phalle and Andy Warhol. No one knew which locker they would be allocated, or what it contained….

This drawing’s current owner worked as a typist at the art publisher Harry N. Abrams Inc. and was invited to attend the event with a girlfriend. She paid her $10 and duly went up to Penn Station with her key and upon opening the locker was rewarded with this exquisite drawing, which has remained in her private collection ever since.

You can read more details, including a brief play-by-play of the event by art historian Barbara Moore, here.

And now the seller is much richer: The drawing sold for $2,098,500, including fees. And everyone can cite this example at silent auctions.

I wonder, though, where that Andy Warhol is — and what it is. Two self-portraits in last night’s sale fetched a total of $66 million.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Christie’s

 

Shocker news from Seattle: Derrick Cartwright (pictured below), director there for just two years, has resigned. He leaves his post on June 30.

The press release says he feels the timing is right for a change in leadership. After just two years? Doesn’t make sense.

Here’s what he posted on the web, announcing the move.

I am eager for a break and for the chance to undertake my own projects. First, I aim to spend more time with my family and refresh my professional perspective.  My passion for art history has been on hold while I focused on the most urgent administrative and financial challenges here.  Now, I want to re-establish my personal connection with the artists, objects, and ideas that got me into museum work in the first place.  My family and I have fallen in love with Seattle and we expect to remain here, so I hope to see you often. 

Here’s what the board chair Charles Wright said in the release:

We are very appreciative of Derrick’s achievements and service to SAM. He is a great ambassador for the arts and we wish him the best in his future pursuits.Derrick will continue to make significant contributions to the art world.

In another odd move, the release said that Wright and board President, Maggie Walker will “provide executive oversight” while it searches for a new director. Why no interim director? These searches take time, often more than expected.

According to the Seattle Times, many board members, including Walker, were surprised by Cartwright’s resignation: “It was not something that everybody was wildly anticipating,” she said. “He sent us a letter of resignation over the weekend and here we are.”

UPDATE: As a friend points out, Jen Graves on the Stranger noted in reporting this story that Cartwright was asked to remain a consultant to the museum until September 2012. In reality, that likely means that he had a three-year contract, and the board had to buy him out. In other words, he didn’t really quit. He was pushed out.

So the mystery continues.

This leaves several top museums leaderless: Museum of Fine Arts-Houston, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Dallas Museum of Art, among them.

    

The Webby Awards — the “best of the web” trophies given by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences — were announced the other day, and this year, only a few cultural institutions were named winners.

In the “Art” category, the winner is the Adobe Museum of Digital Media, a self-described “ever-changing repository of eclectic exhibits from diverse fields ranging from photography to product development to broadcast communications.” YouTubePlay was the People’s Choice in this category.

In “Best Use of Animation or Motion Graphics” categoy, the winner is Monet2010, the site created for the exhibition held last year at the Grand Palais. It’s worth exploring, definitely, but don’t go there a quick look. Give yourself some time to see the paintings, the tour, etc.

Monet2010 also won the “Best Visual Design – Aesthetic” category.

People’s Choice awards in those categories went to the Adobe Museum and Life.com, the magazine website, respectively.

The “Best Cultural Institution” website winner this year was the Anne Frank House, with the People’s Choice award in this category going to the Smithsonian Institution. Why these two were singled out is a bit of a mystery to me: they seem fairly ordinary, no better nor no worse than many other cultural institution websites.  

The entire list of nominees, winners and People’s Choice winners is here.

The news is just in. Here’s the link.Quoting from the release:

The Board of Trustees of the J. Paul Getty Trust announced today that James Cuno, recognized both nationally and internationally as a noted museum leader and scholar and an accomplished leader in the field of the visual arts, has been named president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust. Dr. Cuno, who comes to the Getty after serving as president and Eloise W. Martin Director of the Art Institute of Chicago since 2004, will assume his position August 1.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Trust
 

Last Thursday, the National Archives announced the launch of a new website, the International Research Portal for records related to Nazi-era cultural property. By joining the state archives of several countries in one place, and thus making millions of records related to Nazi-era cultural property available online for the first time, it’s a step forward in the continuing saga of looted art.

Aside from the National Archives, participating institutions include the state archives in Belgium, Ukraine, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and others. As archivist of the U.S. David Ferriero (pictured, left) said in a press release, “researchers from all over the world will now be able to use a single point of entry to gain digital access to these widely dispersed archival materials.“

That’s the good news; the drawback is that users can’t cross-search. I sampled the site, and it seems that users must go to each of the institutions and search. Another drawback is that the records are not complete; Belgium, for example, specifially states what is missing now, but may be available at a later date. And, Austria and the Netherlands do not seem to be participating — a big loss.

Still, this is some progress.

Over this past weekend, the National Archives also hosted a research seminar on World War II provenance; other sponsors included the Association of Art Museum Directors, the American Association of Museums and the Smithsonian. It was sold out, and last Friday was not accepting additional applicants.

But you can see some of what was discussed from the program, which is posted here. I was pleased to see that Lynn Nicholas, the independent historian who started this work in earnest with the publication of The Rape of Europa in 1994, was an introductory speaker — and she was given the honor of making concluding remarks.

I did not see any coverage in the America media, but The Guardian provides some British perspective on the portal here.

Photo Credit: Courtesy National Archives