Ed Ruscha should be smiling this morning. The word from the White House is that President Obama has given British Prime Minister David Cameron a gift of one of Ruscha’s signed color lithographs. Column With Speed Lines was reportedly chosen because it’s red, white and blue — the colors on both countries’ flags.

Not exactly a reason to choose art, perhaps, but we’ll take it.

Obama has not been very good at gift-giving, especially with the British. His gifts to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown (including a DVD of 25 American movie classics, which turned out to be incompatible with European players) and the Queen (an iPod) were ridiculed by the press and the public there. Critics weren’t happy with the glass art tree he selected for Summiteers in Pittsburgh last year either.

Cameron’s gift to the President also came in the form of visual art. He chose a painting by British graffiti artist Ben Eine, who donated the work: Twenty First Century City (above).

Press comment, so far, has been approving.

Now, what’ll this do for markets for work by these artists? Probably not much, but awareness counts. (Note: I could not find an image for the Ruscha print.)

According to the Daily Beast, here’s how the gift of the Ruscha — which seems to have been commandeered from the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies program came about:

It may have something to do with Michael Smith, the decorator whom the Obamas chose to appoint their White House. Smith is a Southern Californian himself, recruited back East after designing Santa Monica hotspots such as One Pico, the restaurant, and Shutters on the Beach, the resort. Smith, whose tastes sometimes appear more staid than would synch with the assertive work of Ruscha, placed one of the artist’s works in the Obamas’ White House living quarters last year, on loan from the National Gallery. And maybe Ruscha’s established support of Obama helped send “Column With Speed Lines” overseas. “I am 1,000% behind this administration,” Ruscha told the Los Angeles Times last October.

Here’s a link to the Beast story.

Photo Credit: Courtesy British Embassy

 

Yesterday, a small victory. Today, a big vindication.

The estate of Leah Bondi Jaray has reached a settlement with the Leopold Museum over Schiele’s Portrait of Wally. I won’t go through the whole saga — I foreshadowed the settlement and my role in the origins of this case, which began in 1997, here. Suffice it to say that a settlement that grants both value to Bondi’s heir and vindication to those of us who believed her story is a good outcome.

The price for the painting, $19 million, is fair. All claims, on both sides, were dropped.

Also good is the fact Wally will, after an exhibition in New York at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, go back to Vienna to be displayed at the Leopold Museum, which owns its companion, a self-portrait by Schiele. They belong together.

One hitch remains: According to the settlement:

the Leopold Museum will permanently display signage next to the Painting at the Leopold Museum, and at all future displays of the Painting of any kind that the Leopold Museum authorizes or allows anywhere in the world, that sets forth the true provenance of the Painting, including Lea Bondi Jaray’s prior ownership of the Painting and its theft from her by a Nazi agent before she fled to London in 1939.

That’s great — but exactly what that label will say is up in the air, and it will be closely watched by those close to the case. 

The Leopold Museum plans to sell some works to come up with the necessary funds, and others will be looking to see which art is chosen and how it is sold. 

Here’s a link to the settlement press release, with further details.

Sadly, Henry Bondi, Leah’s nephew, who originally pressed the case, died some time ago. (So has Rudolph Leopold, just a few weeks ago.) But Henry’s wife, Inge, and son, Andre, are alive, as are other heirs.

Aside from my original story prompting the seizure, I reported more details of the situation in this Jan. 1, 1998 article, among many others.

That’s it: I’m declaring victory. And I’m giving my laurels to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

As regular readers of Real Clear Arts know, I’ve been advocating for a big change in museum hours. In this day and age, they must stay open at night, at least two nights a week, imho — in most cities, at least. (Maybe not every city/town — it does depend on the city, the museum’s location, nearby traffic, etc.) 

Without much fanfare, the VMFA has announced that starting this month, it will be open 365 days a year and it will expand its evening hours, remaining open on Fridays — as well as Thursdays — until 9 p.m.

That’s right — Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years included — VMFA will be accessible to visitors.

Bravo!

This is a big change, too, because in recent years the VMFA has also been closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Now, says director Alex Nyerges in the press release:

We have been wildly successful since our grand opening in May, and the museum has been enthusiastically received by the community and national visitors. …Being open on Mondays and offering evening hours have been very popular. As we strive to increase our accessibility to all our visitors, I am pleased to complete my vision to be open seven days a week, 365 days a year.

On New Year’s Day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, the hours will be noon to 5 p.m. On state and national holidays that fall on Mondays, hours will be the same as usual, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. More details are here. (While you’re on the site, have a look at the special exhibitions on the docket – here: the big show right now is of Tiffany works, but come August there will be a South African photography exhibition.)  

I understand that this may be an experiment, and it’s a worthy one. If after appropriate marketing of the new hours and a good, long trial period, visitorship doesn’t demand such extended hours, VMFA should feel free to tinker.

Meantime, I challenge other museums to follow suit in their own way.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of VMFA

 

Rita Jenrette — remember that name? Some 30 years ago, her ex-husband, Rep. John Jenrette, was convicted in the Abscam scandal, and she became an instant celebrity by giving an interview to and posing for Playboy.

Now she’s done something that will no doubt get less press, but which is much more worthy of attention, at least in the art world. 

Last year, Jenrette married Prince Nicolò Boncompagni Ludovisi and became a princess (going by the name Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi). And she has persuaded her publicity-shy husband to open the famed Villa Aurora in Rome to visitors.

The villa, built in 1570 and expanded in 1858, contains the “Aurora” ceiling fresco by Guercino (above), as well as Caravaggio’s only known ceiling (below), of Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto, among many other works of art. Jenrette has studied up and often gives the tour commentary herself, according to the International Herald Tribune, which has written a real estate article on the home.

The villa and the artworks inside it, however, seem to be in dire need of help. According to the article:

The years have taken a toll on the villa, with water damage to the frescoes, and to the ancient statues in the garden, some of which date to 500 BC. After years of negotiation with the Italian government, which has designated the house a national treasure, a €10 million restoration finally began last year.

It took 14 months to lay a new roof and to repair and repaint the exterior, returning the pumpkin-colored villa to its original color of cream with a hint of pink.

The extent of the interior damage is still to be determined, but at least two more years’ work is expected. A second Guercino ceiling, “La Fama,” is riven with cracks caused by water damage. And chipped plaster throughout the house offers colorful peeks at old frescoes long since covered over. Samples are going to be taken to determine if any of the hidden works are worth restoring.

So, this house has much more to offer art-lovers, it seems — not to mention art historians.

Here’s a link to the article, which has a slide show and more details on the Villa Aurora.  

 

For someone so out of step with the times, Charles Burchfield is getting a good run at the Whitney Museum. Heatwaves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield, opened at the Whitney museum late last month and has been getting good reviews. (They may not be enough to solve the Whitney’s attendance problems, however.)

Organized by the Hammer Museum in LA and the Burchfield-Penney Art Center in Buffalo, where Burchfield spent much of his life, the exhibition has been praised by the Village Voice (“experience these visionary paintings before they return to the darkness”), The New Yorker (where Peter Schjeldahl prefers his less florid pieces, as do I), and The New York Times, where Holland Cotter hedged his bets saying “Burchfield’s intensities are not for all tastes.”

Why? Critics don’t feel moved to say that for more contemporary artists who certainly are not for all tastes… (Are some so timid that they don’t want to risk going against current fashion? Yes, indeed. As A.R. Gurney has Katharine Cornell say in his current show, The Grand Manner, it’s the minor critics who take risks. But I digress.)

To name one artist who’s not for everyone — Robert Gober, who co-curated the Burchfield exhibition.

Gober did a wonderful job here — and, as a matter of fact, seems to be eager to see more Burchfield. Kelly Crow writes about it on The Wall Street Journal blog Speakeasy:

…there’s a mystery embedded in the title of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s current show…Sculptor and co-curator Robert Gober said “Heat Waves in a Swamp” is actually the title for a Burchfield painting that’s gone missing. Gober said he saw a black-and-white image of the work during his research, but he didn’t include it in the exhibit’s catalog. He’s hoping that the owner of the work might notice the title and reveal the piece’s whereabouts. “I’d love to see it,” he said, during a visit at the museum recently.

Crow says Speakeasy is all ears, if anyone has a tip, and so is Real Clear Arts. To borrow from a completely different context, if you see something, say something.  

Photo Credit: Dandelion Seed Heads and the Moon, 1961-65, Courtesy Whitney Museum