Archives for November 2011

Technology is changing all around us, and the issues for museums, it seems to me, are quite challenging. Choices are not inconsequential, and they are not (usually) easy to pull off. In an era of limited resources, where should time and money be spent?

All of that is a preface to my praise for what the British Library is doing with its Royal Manuscripts exhibition, which opened on Nov. 11. Subtitled “The Genius of Illumination,” it looks from afar to be a real occasion — a must-see exhibit if you are in London. And, combined with the once-in-a-lifetime Leonardo exhibition at the National Gallery, it maybe even worth a trip there. Here’s the billing from the press release:

Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination is the British Library’s first major exhibition to bring together the Library’s Royal collection, a treasure trove of illuminated manuscripts collected by the kings and queens of England between the 9th and 16th centuries. Launching on 11 November this dazzling exhibition will debunk the myth that these were ‘the Dark Ages’ by showcasing beautiful artistic artifacts.

That’s Henry V as a young prince, Thomas Hoccleve, c. 1430-38, at left, drawn from the exhibition.

Henry V as a young prince, Thomas Hoccleve, Regement of Princes, England, c. 1430-38

What’s also interesting is that you don’t have to go to England… the show comes with an app, available worldwide for iPad, iPhone and Android device. It includes more than 500 images and six videos by royal experts. The cost is £2.49 for iPhone and Android, £3.99 iPad, and before the exhibition opened, there was an introductory offer of £1.49 for iPhone and £2.49 for iPad.

Here’s a description of what’s in it.

OK, it’s not really a substitute for the real things, but… it’s pretty good.  

It will be interesting to see how many people buy the app during — and after — the exhibition. Will the takeup rate be higher than for catalogues (usually less than 5% of visitors)? I’d guess yes, given the lower price for an app. Will it have an afterlife, when the exhibition closes?

It will also be interesting to see how, and when, buyers use the app — while they’re at the British Library, before, after, or all three? Will having the app discourage or encourage people from going to see the exhibit in person?

We’re still in the early stages of this revolution. Museums, and libraries, will – I hope — be sharing information about development and usage. And when I see an app worth noting, I’ll list it, too. If you have suggestions, please share them with RCA readers in the comment section below.  

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the British Library

The National Gallery’s great Leonardo exhibition, entitled Leonardo da Vinci:Painter at the Court of Milan, opened last week, and what an occasion it was. For the first time in 500 years, nine of his paintings are being shown together, along with many drawings. There are 90 works in all.

And here’s another first, I believe: People who could not get into the opening — which means almost everyone, because this ticket was hotter than tickets to the Super Bowl — were able to watch it at the cinema. That’s right, an art opening — not the Metropolitan Opera — merited live coverage, transmitted to movie theaters. How extraordinary.

I couldn’t get to London either, so I searched for coverage in the UK, and found several stories, with videos, on the BBC website, which I am happy to share here:

1) About the opening/live coverage, courtesy of SkyArts here.

2) An overview of the exhibition here.

3) “How long do you need to look at a Leonardo?” here, which is really about Leonardo’s technique and achievement. There are two videos on this link, though one is the same as the overview in #2.

4) Oxford University professor Martin Kemp describes why Da Vinci’s works are so engaging here, and chooses not the greatest but the painting he’d like to live with (which coincides with my favorite).

5) A slideshow of the paintings here.

6) A Q&A about the staging of the exhibition here.

Each video is less than four minutes, and well worth watching.

NG Curator Luke Syson deserves congratulations for pulling this off, with lots of help of you. But he dreamed big — and let’s have more of tha when he moves to the Metropolitan Museum in January, replacing Ian Wardropper, who is now director of the Frick Collection. Syson will be of European sculpture and decorative arts. He also deserves credit for, despite the demand to see these paintings, rationing tickets to only the number of people who can reasonably expect to see the works.

Unfortunately, the word is that the exhibit is now sold out through the end of the year. It closes on Feb. 5.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of AFP

The Cloisters branch of the Metropolitan Museum rarely receives the attention it deserves. But now a little special exhibition there could — should — bring flocks of people.

It’s a show of the Lewis Chessmen, 34 of which have been borrowed from the British Museum for The Game of Kings: Medieval Ivory Chessmen from the Isle of Lewis, which begins on Tuesday and runs through April 22. I took the occasion to write a short article about the chessman for the Wall Street Journal’s Saturday Icons page (of which I am a fan).

A grouping of some of them is at right.

The BM has never lent this many chessmen before. A different group of them, drawn from the collection of both the BM and the National Museum of Scotland, has been on tour in Scotland this past year, and visitors seemed to love them.

The Met will supplement the Lewis chessmen, which will be shown in an endgame of a famous chess match, with chess pieces from its permanent collection (more details here). It has many, according to its online catalogue — though not all are illustrated. One that was, at left, is a 13th century piece given by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1917. It’s similar to the Lewis chessmen, the Met asserts, though obviously much later.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of the British Museum (top) and the Metropolitan Museum (bottom).  

The Sotheby’s sale last night brought a total of $315.8 million, which the auction house notes is “the highest for a Contemporary Art Evening sale at Sotheby’s since May 2008 and the Company’s third highest ever, virtually matching the $315,907,000 set at Sotheby’s in November 2007.”

Aside from the Clyfford Still bonanza ($114.1 million, as reported here), Gerard Richter had a great night. His Abstraktes Bild, dated 1997, fetched $20,802,500, with four ardent bidders competing for a painting whose presale estimate was $9 million to $12 million. Further, the collection of eight of his “abstract figuration” works for sale brought a totalof nearly $74.3 million, versus the presale estimate of $27 million to $36.7 million (no estimates include the buyer’s premium). 

The Richter record supplants the one set just last month, which I wrote about here: Kerze (Candle), from 1982, fetched £10,457,250, or just over $16.4 million.

That’s a detail from one of them, from 1992, at left, which sold for $14.1 million.

Credit Richter’s current retrospective at the Tate for some of the fury for Richter. He’s been getting more attention elsewhere lately as well, and I expect it will grow.

For more details on the sale, here’s the Wall Street Journal’s report and here is the New York TImes’s article. And here’s the Richter record-setter:

Other artists with new record prices last night in clude Joan Mitchell, David Hammons, and Dan Flavin.

As I suggested, the City of Denver goofed a bit by taking a $25 million guarantee from Sotheby’s. As a result, the Clyfford Still Museum, which will receive the proceeds for its endowment, probably lost out on some of the upside — and it was big.

The four paintings on the block tonight fetched $114.1 million, far exceeding the presale combined estimates of $51 million to $71.5 million.

The top lot was “the exquisite and profoundly important 1949-A-No. 1,” as Sotheby’s put it. — adding that it is “one of the greatest examples of 20th century American painting, which was sought after by five bidders before fetching $61,682,500, more than double the previous record for the artist at auction.” You can see that work here, in my previous post.

Right behind that lot was 1947-Y-No. 2, which sold for $31,442,500, above the pre-sale estimate of $15/20 million (pictured at right), and (PH-1033), from 1976, which brought $19,682,500 versus a presale estimate of $10- to $15 million.

The final work, an early figurative affair, and not very attractive was the only one that stayed within its estimate, bringing $1,258,500 versus an estimate of $1- to $1.5 million.

All of the final prices include the buuyer’s premium, while the estimates do not.

I will post the sales total when I get it.

UPDATE: The total for all art sold tonight was $315.8 million — exceeding Christie’s total of $247.6 million last night. The press release is not yet out, but if my calculations are correct, 62 of the 75 lots on offer sold.

UPDATE #2: The Denver Post says that Sotheby’s will collect just a $15 million commission on the sale, which means that the museum’s haircut was not that large: “After commission and taxes, the city will bring home about $85 million that will be used to assure the financial viability of the privately funded Clyfford Still Museum. It will be used for everything from research to general operations.”