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Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Artists

Dale Chihuly, Too, Gets His Own Museum — UPDATED

While the art world was aflutter last week over word that Cy Twombly would join the ranks of artists with their museums, I heard nary a mention of another such artist: Dale Chihuly. He’s the artist critics love to criticize as too commercial — not in the category as Thomas Kincaid, say, but usually not someone to praise either.

Chihuly, now 70, opened Chihuly Garden and Glass at the foot of the Seattle Space Needle on May 21 — 45,000 sq. ft. designed by the artist himself. But when the Seattle Times covered it, it was Valerie Easton, who writes about gardens, who called it an “ exciting venue.” The art review, by Gayle Clemans, was written as a “highlights” and “low points” piece.

Coverage itself is a tad confusing, in fact: While Easton wrote that “The new exhibit is the largest display of Chihuly glass in the world, and every piece was created specifically for the setting,” other reports say that it contains elements from all of Chihuly’s life, including “conceptual drawings, glasswork themes, one-of-a-kind pieces and his personal collections.” 

The signature piece in the Exhibition Hall’s eight galleries is said to be a new 1,400-piece, 100-foot long glass sculpture. The exhibition includes one of his well-known Persian ceilings 9above), among many other Chilhuly works. Outside, the 16,000-square-foot garden features more large Chihuly creations. Clemans wrote:

…[Chuhily and architect Owen Richards] also added a modernist glass conservatory, a striking space with arching, white metal beams that visually connects the nearby Pacific Science Center and Space Needle. Although inspired by Chihuly’s love for conservatories, it reads a little like a contemporary cathedral from certain angles, which might underscore the feeling that Chihuly has built a shrine to himself….

But here’s the downside: the fact that this center was designed by the artist, during his lifetime, and includes not just Chihuly’s art but many of his personal collections, from Native American basketry to vintage glass Christmas ornaments. It generates inevitable narcissistic undertones.

Put me on the side of the ledger for those who don’t think Chihuly’s work warrants a museum of its own. Not that he would care — he makes millions a year and paid nothing for this center, whose $20 million cost was financed by the Space Needle Corp. It’s open seven days a week, with enlightened hours — from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday to Sunday and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Thursday — and is certain to draw crowds, at least for a while.

Unless, people are tripped up by the cost: general admission for adults is a steep $19. Compare that with the $10 charged by the Clyfford Still Museum, which caught some flack in the Denver area for being too expensive. It, btw, recently opened its second installation, Inaugural Exhibition, Part II, “including discoveries made since the opening of the Museum in November 2011 and an entirely new selection of works on paper.”  (Yes, I have query in on that… I’ll post an answer when I get one.)

UPDATE: According to a spokeswoman for the Still museum, “The works on paper (drawings and prints) that are now on view show greater connection to his paintings than previously revealed, which sheds light on his process and relationship between painted and drawn works. The museum also found that one work in the collection was actually a fragment – cut down from a replica of a major work that is at the Met.” You can see more about that here, in the blog post dated May 23.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of the Oregonian

Latin American Art Sales Add Evidence To My Theory

Christie’s sold $27.7 million worth of Latin American art this week. There were 299 lots in the evening and day sales combined, and 84% of them sold by value while 74% sold by lot. Matta achieved a world record price, $5 million for a work, La révolte des contraires (at right), which had been estimated at $1.8 million to $2.5 million.

And there’s more, some evidence for the theory I floated in early May about the contemporary sales — that people are literally buying because they can set a record. Not just conspicuous, but ostentatious consumption, in other words. In the evening sale, 13 new records were set. In the day sale, another 20.

That means that almost 17% of the lots were record-setters. Here’s a list of them. The price numbers are obviously much smaller than those in the contemporary art sales, and a couple of the artists had never sold at auction before, so they were bound to set records unless their works were bought in.

I think some of this money is looking for a safer investment home than the rocky stock markets, as well as buying to show you can. Interestingly, Christie’s also observed that in the evening sale, “Brazilian works performed exceptionally well and were 100% sold.” Brazil’s steamy economy has slowed a little of late.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Christie’s

 

 

The Price Of Being A Female Artist

Cheim and Reid, the Chelsea gallery that shows work by many women artists, is circulating a recent piece in The Economist headlined “The Price of Being Female.” It starts with a disheartening paragraph about the recent contemporary auctions, which reads in part:

…Christie’s post-war and contemporary evening sale in New York earlier this month…was unprecedented…it had ten lots by eight women artists, amounting to a male-to-female ratio of five-to-one. (Sotheby’s evening sale offered a more typical display of male-domination with an 11-to-one ratio.) Yet proceeds on all the works by women artists in the Christie’s sale tallied up to a mere $17m—less than 5% of the total and not even half the price achieved that night by a single picture of two naked women by Yves Klein. Indeed, depictions of women often command the highest prices, whereas works by them do not.

Then it switched gears:

An analysis of data provided by artnet, however, suggests that the prospects for women are slowly improving. Compare, for example, the top ten most expensive male and female artists. Admittedly $86.9m, the highest price for a work by a post-war male artist (set by “Orange, Red, Yellow” by Mark Rothko) dwarfs the highest price paid for a work made by a woman—$10.7m for Louise Bourgeois’s large-scale bronze “Spider”. However, of the top-ten men, only two are living, whereas among the top-ten women, five are still working….

The Economist published a chart illustrating that point, using data supplied by artnet — here’s a link to it: ArtistsPrices.

I find it hard to put much stock in that tally, but the article makes other points, which are worth noting. The woman whose work seems most in demand is Joan Mitchell, whom The Economist dubbed “the turnover queen.” Since the mid-1980s, the date artnet’s records begin, her work has brought $199 million, all told, at auction. “Mitchell’s stature in the market,” the article says, “results from an international collector base, which includes Russian, Korean, French and American buyers. Abstraction always aspired to being a universal language; perhaps the new global elite will make it so.”

The living female artist record-holder is not, as I would have guessed, Marlene Dumas, but rather Cady Noland — “a reclusive figurative sculptor whose work explores the sordid underbelly of the American dream.” The top price for her is nearly $6.6 million, for Oozewald. Dumas comes next, at $6.33 million for The Visitor. Another surprise: Bridget Riley, whose Chant 2 (at right) fetched $5.1 million, ranks higher than Cindy Sherman, who comes in at No. 9 with a $3.9 million sale. The other living woman in the top ten is Yayoi Kusama, a Japanese artist whose work is less familiar (at least to me) even though the article says “Her work has the highest turnover of any living woman.” (No. 2 is above left.)

The Economist offers another positive note (for women artists) with this:

Intriguingly, the auction records for all three women—Mlles Noland, Kusama and Sherman—were the result of winning bids by Philippe Segalot, an art consultant who was then working for Sheikha Mayassa Al Thani, the Western-educated 29-year-old daughter of the emir of Qatar. It is probable that women feel a sense of affinity for art made by women. But perhaps more importantly, younger buyers and advisors find it weird to not include women’s perspectives in their collections. It appears the future will be more female. And as Iwan Wirth, a dealer with galleries in New York, London and Zurich, puts it, “Women artists are the bargains of our time.”

I realize that some readers don’t think that art should be scrutinized this way, as male versus female achievement. Maybe it shouldn’t. Sometimes analysis (including a few points in this) doesn’t (and can’t) go very far. But art is viewed through many prisms; this is just one. And there’s no harm in that.

 

Roy Lichtenstein Exhibition Opening Delayed — Due To Popular Demand

Is this a first? We are quite used to having museums add evening hours for a popular exhibition, staying open all night in the final days, and even extending the run by a few days.

But the Art Institute of Chicago has done the opposite — delayed the opening of its Roy Lichtenstein exhibition, which was supposed to be tomorrow, thanks to popular demand of its members. Now the opening of Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective is slated for May 22. (The museum is closed May 19-21 because of the NATO summit in Chicago.)

As is usual practice, the Art Institute opened the exhibit of about 160 drawings, paintings and sculptures first to members. But more than 3,000 signed up for the preview opportunities, and lectures, which can accommodate up to 1,000 people, also filled up fast. The three planned days for members had to be stretched.

Could it be that Lichtenstein is that popular? Or did the recent record price at auction, $44.9 million for Sleeping Girl (left), which isn’t in the show, add to the attraction?

One-year memberships cost $80, and offer other opportunities to view the show, like pre-opening hours on weekends.

If you can’t get there, you might try the “explore the exhibition” website the Art Institute has created. Some aspects, like the slider feature showing the relationship between his drawings and paintings, are pretty cool.

 

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

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 selling price to its historic level, after more than 12 minutes.”

The winning bidder was on the phone, and we have no indication so far what nationality.

More interesting results: The 1942 Picasso portrait of Dora Maar, once owned by Teddy Forstman, fetched $29.2 million despite a report that it had a tear, just beneath the neck — repaired, but still. Here’s the story in Vanity Fair.

Brancusi’s Promethee, a beautiful gilded  bronze piece, at right, soared above its $6 to $8 million estimate and brought $12.68 million, including the buyer’s premium.  

The sale ran out of steam near the end of the sale, after 9 p.m., when several lots were passed.

UPDATE: Still, here’s what Sotheby’s said, to sum up the sale: “The Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale totaled a remarkable $330,568,550 / £203,765,332 /€250,936,357, Sotheby’s highest-ever total for a sale of Impressionist & Modern Art worldwide**, and the second-highest total for a Sotheby’s auction in any category***.”

 

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About Judith H. Dobrzynski

Now an independent journalist, I've worked as a reporter in the culture and business sections of The New York Times, and been the editor of the Sunday business section and deputy business editor there as well as a senior editor of Business Week and the managing editor of CNBC, the cable TV

About Real Clear Arts

This blog is about culture in America as seen through my lens, which is informed and colored by years of reporting not only on the arts and humanities, but also on business, philanthropy, science, government and other subjects. I may break news, but more likely I will comment, provide

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