Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Coming Soon: A Test of the Hopper Market

Two bits of news this week got me thinking about the Hopper market. First, Crystal Bridges Museum announced that it had purchased Blackwell’s Island, which will soon go on view in its early 20th Century gallery. Great addition, I thought. Painted in 1928, it is a view of what is now known as Roosevelt Island, just off midtown Manhattan in the East River. It’s a sizeable piece, measuring 34-1/2 inches by 59-1/2 inches.

Hopper_Blackwells_IslandSaid the museum’s President Don Bacigalupi in the press release: “This is a most ambitious composition for Hopper. He painted this work at the height of his powers and it exemplifies some of the best of Hopper’s style: a complex architectural composition with a full range of light and shadow, few people and the drama of the past colliding with the present in the form of historic architecture meeting modern.” Previously owned by a private collector, the work has been exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art; The Whitney Museum of American Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Institute; the Art Institute of Chicago, and in the big retrospective for Hopper at the Grand Palais in Paris, which drew major crowds when it ran from October last year through February of this.

Though Crystal Bridges didn’t announce the price, it was easy to discover that the painting sold at Christie’s last May for nearly $19.2 million, including the commission, against a presale estimate of $15- to $20 million.

Hopper-EastWindOverWeehaukenThen, within hours, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts announced that it was deaccessioning one of its two Hoppers,  East Wind over Weehawken, from 1934. Uh oh, I thought — would Crystal Bridges have wanted that one? It will also be offered at Christie’s (in December) and its presale estimate is $22– to $28 million.

Uh oh, too, because although PAFA is planning to use the proceeds to fund an acquisitions endowment, “which will be used both to acquire contemporary artworks and to fill gaps in the collection of historic art,” per its press release, Hopper is a very big star. It’s like selling a Picasso or van Gogh, almost, as if one ever has too many. Although the sale meets museum ethics policies, it’s worth noting that PAFA has only one other Hopper: Apartment Houses from 1923.

The PAFA Hopper is a bit smaller than Crystal Bridges’s: 34 1/8 x 50 3/16 inches. PAFE director Harry Philbrick said he chose it for sale because “Hopper prices are rising fast in the marketplace. Also, the academy acquired the painting with its own money; no donor restrictions govern its disposition,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

So Christie’s is being very aggressive here — probably hoping that the museum connection will draw higher bids than s. Both paintings are lovely, but which would you pay more for? We’ll see in December.

 

The Miho Museum: Art And Building In Harmony

I’ve been privileged in my lifetime to have visited a lot of art museums, but I’ve never really thought in terms of ranking them. Yes, I agree with conventional wisdom that the Met and the Louvre probably have the “best” collections, but London’s big three — the National Gallery, the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert — taken together would exceed their riches. It’s just that Britain divided things up differently. But is that fair? Then wouldn’t we combine the Met with MoMA and the Guggenheim? Or the Morgan or the Frick? So you see that doesn’t get one anywhere.

MoonGatedoorExactly which city has the most and the best art is an entirely separate question I wouldn’t attempt to answer here without a lot of research.

Now, which buildings are the best for displaying art is a much more reasonable question. People always cite the Beyeler in Basel, and I agree, and the de Menil in Houston, and I disagree. There’s the Guggenheim-Bilbao for contemporary art — I like that one.

Even if I couldn’t rank them, I think the number of contenders is pretty small — especially in recent years, architects’ egos seem to outweigh the consideration of displaying art.

That’s why I really like the Miho Museum in Japan, which was designed by I.M. Pei. I went there when vacationed in Japan in June, and I wrote about the building and the collection for The Wall Street Journal. My article is in tomorrow’s paper, headlined A Trek Well Worth Taking. It’s a beautiful building in a gorgeous setting, and the galleries Pei created speak to the art, not to his ego.

h1aOh, yes, I am sure he has a big ego but somehow he figured out that it might be better enhanced with a building that works, instead of one that just makes a statement. This one does both, for reasons you will see in my piece. (A few hints — a transporting entrance, topped by a moon gate door
that looks through the entry hall to a borrowed landscape [at left], and inspired galleries that suit the art in them.) He called it his Shangri-La.

The collection on view, antiquities purchased quickly in the 1990s, is a joy as well (a standing Buddha at right, an Egyptian deity at left). It has many important works of art. Yes, at the outset 16 years ago, there were problems with some fakes — since removed, most experts agree. And some pieces have provenance issues still. In 2001, the museum agreed to return a rare standing bodhisattva to China, which had said the piece had been stolen from Shandong Province in the mid-1990s. In return, China stated that it believed the Miho had bought the piece in good faith. On my visit, the curators I spoke with were honest when I asked questions, saying things like “we don’t know when it left China” or “we don’t know where that came from.”

a_bThe Miho — where about 70% of the antiquities collection is on view (it has another collection of Japanese art; details in the WSJ article) — has a few parallels with another museum: Crystal Bridges. Like it, the Miho was plunked down in the middle of nowhere. It, too, opened with a comparatively “instant” collection, and the goal of drawing visitors. The Miho is much harder to get to, though, and it’s attracting about 120,000 to 130,000 people a year. At least, that’s about where it was pre Japan’s 2011 nuclear disaster, which cut off some tourism, particularly from China.

It deserves more.

Pei once told an interviewer that his goal at the Miho was to “bring nature and the building into harmony.” Does it go without saying that he also brought the art and the building into harmony?

 

 

 

Ann Goldstein Quits Top Stedelijk Post

This just in: “The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam announced today that Ann Goldstein has resigned as Director effective December 1st 2013. Appointed as general and Artistic Director in June 2009, Ms. Goldstein began working with the museum in October of that year and assumed her post in January 2010. In announcing her resignation to the board, Ms. Goldstein indicated that her work at the Stedelijk Museum is now done and that the museum is poised for a new Artistic Director to lead it into the future.”

anngoldsteinMaybe she will return to Los Angeles and take over as director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, where she was a curator for 26 years.

But the announcement must mean troubles. It was only a year ago that Goldstein was settling in for the long haul. I profiled her for Art in America magazine, and wrote more about here here.

The rest of the announcement lends more credence to my instinct that things are very amiss in Amsterdam: It says Goldstein “anounced my resignation to the Supervisory Board on June 26, 2013, confident that my work is done and the museum is firmly poised for a new artistic director to lead it into the future.”

She is set to leave on December 1st 2013.

Here’s a link to the full press release.

 

Ann Freedman: “I am as shocked as everybody…

… more shocked, as I am the central victim.” That is the amazing statement made by ex-Knoedler director Ann Freedman in the lede of an article in New York by James Panero.

Panero, executive editor of The New Criterion, nailed down an exclusive interview “earlier this month,” he says. After that statement above from Freedman, came this one:  “Fifteen years. In my head, these paintings have been right up until five days ago. Horrible.” That was five days after the federal government handed up a revised indictment of Glafira Rosales, charging her with tax evasion and laying out the fraud.

AnnFreedmanWow. It’s hard to react to that. Most people I know say Freedman must have known, but here’s how the article continues:

Freedman, who spoke publicly about the scandal for the first time in a series of recent conversations with New York, says that the results of the federal investigation prove she was an unwitting agent in the scheme. Under her leadership, Knoedler sold 40 of the fakes for an alleged $63 million. Before shutting down abruptly in late 2011, the gallery made a $20 million payment to Rosales.

Saying Rosales’s story about the paintings origins was “credible,” Freedman explained: “Dealers often do not know the specifics of origin or background, or how the art left the artist’s studio. You cannot turn the pages of an auction catalogue or museum publication without seeing a majority of the works labeled ‘private collection.’ The chain of ownership is often out of order and incomplete.”

Then:

Freedman says that she did her best to get answers from Rosales. “I went to Glafira and pushed and pushed to get more information, relentlessly,” Freedman said. “My ongoing diligence met more than the gold standard; there is plenty of evidence of that.”

Speaking with Daily Intelligencer last month, Freedman listed some markers that led her to believe that the paintings were genuine. “They were very credible in so many respects,” says Freedman. “I had the best conservation studio examine them. One of the Rothkos had a Sgroi stretcher. He made the stretchers for Rothko. They clearly had the right materials. I got a consensus. Some of the paintings were featured on museum walls,” she continued. “The Rothko went to the Beyeler [Foundation], and the Newman went to Guggenheim Bilbao for the tenth anniversary exhibition. The most knowledgeable in the art establishment gave me no reason to doubt the paintings.”

How you feel about the rest of the article depends on whether or not you believe Freedman. Panero cites a dealer who doesn’t believe she did enough due diligence, and let’s her explain that she placed the paintings with the best collectors to give the works credence. She bought three herself.

I still have a nagging question; Knoedler sold 40 allegedly fraudulent works for $63 million. But she paid much, much less to Rosales. How does she explain that gap? Rosales knew what she had. How did Freedman get such giant markups without doing additional research, conservation, or any of the other things that allow dealers to double and triple the prices they charge?

Just asking.

Photo credit: Courtesy of New York

 

Mount Holyoke Buys In To Chihuly

ChihulyHolyokeWhen John Stomberg took the job as director of the Mount Holyoke College Museum of Art, expectations were that he’d take it in a more contemporary direction. That was his area of expertise at Williams College, where he was chief curator. He is doing that. As he said in a video posted online, the Mount Holyoke museum has always skewed toward Renaissance and ancient art, and needs to fill out the collection with contemporary works.

But I was surprised by the announcement — to be unveiled officially on Sept. 3 — of the “major–and gorgeous– “ sculpture it has just acquired. It’s by Dale Chihuly. It is very stunning [pictured at left], but it’s far from cutting edge. Clear and Gold Tower  “resembles tongues of pale fire, shimmering plant tendrils, or wisps of mist, all spiraling improbably upward as if embodying the aspirations of the Mount Holyoke community,” the description sent to me says. It’s 12 feet tall and will reside in the museum’s courtyard.  It was, in fact, commissioned by the college, a gift of the Centennial Class of 1937.

It consists of more than 450 handblown glass elements, with each section highlighted by fragments of 24-carat gold foil, “creating a shining sculpture that seems to move organically. Sophisticated theatrical lighting will vary with the ebb and flow of natural light, ensuring that the sculpture sparkles day and night.” Pretty poetic language.

(BTW, this is another big Chihuly presence in Massachusetts: the MFA, Boston, bought one just about two years ago.)

Stomberg — in the video — took up the theme that many college art museums share: that art is central to the learning experience, no matter what a student’s major is, because it helps spur creativity. “It’s a visual world out there,” he says, adding that the college must “teach our students to be smart visual thinkers.”

‘Tis a desire devoutly to be wished, there and everywhere.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Mount Holyoke College Museum of Art, © Chihuly Studio, 2013