It’s a garage sale junkie’s dream: to find hidden art treasures at bargain basement prices.
And that’s what happened to one Vancouver bargain hunter and amateur art connoisseur who bought what he believed to be paintings by two iconic members of the Group of Seven — Tom Thomson and Frederick Varley.
The bargain hunter, who doesn’t want to be identified, bought the paintings at a garage sale for $100, convinced they were legitimate. He then took the two paintings — one a watercolour, the other an oil on panel — to Maynards fine art and antiques auction house earlier this year for authentication.
When Kate Bellringer, director of Canadian and contemporary art, took a look at them she was initially skeptical. “We get a lot of people at Maynards who come in with things they’ve found,” she explained in an interview with the Toronto Star. Nevertheless, each piece has to be looked at and examined and researched.
Bellringer began by taking the paintings to local experts for reaction. They came back with the same opinion: the paintings seemed to be authentic.
Then she consulted experts across Canada and flew to Toronto to have the paintings examined by an expert here. The conclusion was the same: the paintings appeared to be legitimate.
“It took two months to make sure they were real,” she said. “But it’s very exciting for us.”
Now, the paintings are to be auctioned off on May 16th.
The Thomson is valued at $150,000 to $250,000 while the Varley is valued at a more conservative $4,000 to $6,000.
The prices are on the conservative side because the auction house doesn’t know the provenance (the history of ownership) of the paintings.
That doesn’t take away from their artistic value. The Varley is a watercolour done in 1901 and depicts a cityscape of his hometown of Sheffield in England. It was likely painted when Varley was on vacation from studying art in Antwerp, Belgium, Bellringer said.
“It’s an early example of his work before he became the Varley we know. It’s him as a young painter.”
The Thomson oil painting of a sunrise over a lake in Algonquin Park was likely done in the spring or summer of 1915, said Bellringer.
“Thomson only painted for a brief period from about 1912 or 1913 to his untimely demise.”
The period of 1915 to 1917 is believed to be Thomson’s prime years for painting.
This painting is clearly from a “turning point in his style,” said Bellringer. It is vibrant with peachy colours, pale purples and blues in the sky, Bellringer said.
“The sky looks like it is coming awake. Because there is no foreground in the painting, I believe he painted this in his canoe.”
The Thomson was quite dirty when it was bought and has been cleaned by a conservator since then. Initially you didn’t see any of the colours, Bellringer said.
And the signature was difficult to make out. Part of it was missing — partially because of the dirt, and also because Bellringer believes a previous attempt at cleaning it had removed some of the signature.
“I’ve spent a lot of time with these paintings and looking at these paintings and I personally do think they’re beautiful,” she said.
The news that Maynard has two Group of Sevens on the auction block has prompted many inquiries, Bellringer said.
“We’ve had a lot of people call and come in to see the paintings.”
How that interest will translate when the painting is auctioned off is anyone’s guess.
But Bellringer points out the most expensive Tom Thomson went for over $2 million. “This one, if it had come in and had the proper provenance, I would have priced it at around $600,000.”
The find and the news of the auction has also triggered hundreds of phone calls from people who have found things at garage sales — all of them convinced they’re sitting on a fortune in undiscovered art and antiques.
So Bellringer will be busy over the next few months taking a look at these hopeful finds and evaluating them.
2012年4月16日星期一
2012年3月28日星期三
Investing in the art market
After losing more than 50 per cent of its value during the recent economic downturn, the global art market saw a robust recovery in 2010.
In the last couple of years, the art market has been enjoying a revival as investors begin to realise the importance of art as an alternative investment to diffuse risk. Auction houses around the world are reporting record sales and investors are showing more knowledge and interest in art pieces. As part of this revival, the Middle Eastern art market has also been steadily attracting interest from collectors and investors worldwide.
"Investing in tangible assets such as gold or jewellery has always been very popular in the region. In the recent past, we witnessed a new trend that started at the beginning of the 21st century and accelerated after the 2008 financial crisis: ‘art investing'. The new concept comes from the fact that on top of being an aesthetic pleasure, art can be a financial asset. Indeed in the past 10 years, art has outperformed equity and bonds giving an average return of close to 8 per cent per annum," said Douglas Azar, investment adviser of wealth management at Liechtensteinische Landesbank.
This renewed interest comes hand in hand with a higher demand for Middle Eastern art.
"There is definitely an increased global attention in Middle Eastern art right now. I think part of that is because of what is happening politically but it's also because globally the price of Middle Eastern art is still quite undervalued when compared to other countries. The other thing is the art that comes out of our region is so different from what collectors are used to so it is exciting for them," said Minna Joseph, gallery director at Ayyam Gallery.
Estimates in a Middle Eastern art sales catalogue can begin as low as $1,500 (Dh5,508) and can range up to $20,000 for a prominent piece of work from a promising artist.
"There are people who have invested earlier on in artist communities [and] have seen the price of their work go up dramatically. There was a boom time and increase in prices particularly for Iranian art. There is also a wave of interest in artists who are from the modern school who are being reappraised," said Antonia Carver, fair director of Art Dubai.
Middle Eastern influence is being seen in major galleries across the world. The London Gallery recently did an exhibition, Unveiled, which exhibited new art from the Middle East featuring 21 new artists from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Palestine. The Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art in London's Victoria and Albert museum was also recently opened under the patronage of the Saudi royal family.
According to Michael Jeha, managing director of Christie's Middle East, as the supply of works by the great modern Arab and Iranian masters dwindles, collectors, old and new, are taking an increased interest in the rapidly growing young generation of regional artists.
Another area that is in demand is contemporary artwork from emerging markets in Asia. "China is now becoming the largest auction place in the world before New York and London. This is a major shift which will have a long lasting impact on the art market," said Azar.
In the last couple of years, the art market has been enjoying a revival as investors begin to realise the importance of art as an alternative investment to diffuse risk. Auction houses around the world are reporting record sales and investors are showing more knowledge and interest in art pieces. As part of this revival, the Middle Eastern art market has also been steadily attracting interest from collectors and investors worldwide.
"Investing in tangible assets such as gold or jewellery has always been very popular in the region. In the recent past, we witnessed a new trend that started at the beginning of the 21st century and accelerated after the 2008 financial crisis: ‘art investing'. The new concept comes from the fact that on top of being an aesthetic pleasure, art can be a financial asset. Indeed in the past 10 years, art has outperformed equity and bonds giving an average return of close to 8 per cent per annum," said Douglas Azar, investment adviser of wealth management at Liechtensteinische Landesbank.
This renewed interest comes hand in hand with a higher demand for Middle Eastern art.
"There is definitely an increased global attention in Middle Eastern art right now. I think part of that is because of what is happening politically but it's also because globally the price of Middle Eastern art is still quite undervalued when compared to other countries. The other thing is the art that comes out of our region is so different from what collectors are used to so it is exciting for them," said Minna Joseph, gallery director at Ayyam Gallery.
Estimates in a Middle Eastern art sales catalogue can begin as low as $1,500 (Dh5,508) and can range up to $20,000 for a prominent piece of work from a promising artist.
"There are people who have invested earlier on in artist communities [and] have seen the price of their work go up dramatically. There was a boom time and increase in prices particularly for Iranian art. There is also a wave of interest in artists who are from the modern school who are being reappraised," said Antonia Carver, fair director of Art Dubai.
Middle Eastern influence is being seen in major galleries across the world. The London Gallery recently did an exhibition, Unveiled, which exhibited new art from the Middle East featuring 21 new artists from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Palestine. The Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art in London's Victoria and Albert museum was also recently opened under the patronage of the Saudi royal family.
According to Michael Jeha, managing director of Christie's Middle East, as the supply of works by the great modern Arab and Iranian masters dwindles, collectors, old and new, are taking an increased interest in the rapidly growing young generation of regional artists.
Another area that is in demand is contemporary artwork from emerging markets in Asia. "China is now becoming the largest auction place in the world before New York and London. This is a major shift which will have a long lasting impact on the art market," said Azar.
2012年3月19日星期一
Art for mart’s sake
Britain is bust but sharp ironies beset its bankruptcy. The government proposes cutting taxes for the rich, the summer Olympic Games are costing billions of pounds and last week, the National Galleries of England and Scotland, with added money from government and patrons, bought a single painting
from the Duke of Sutherland for 45 million (approximately R3,600 million). They said they were “saving the painting for the nation”.
The Duke of Sutherland, though richer through the sale, has been lauded for resisting the temptation to sell it on the open market. He patriotically, it is said, sacrificed twice or more of that sum through this sale.
The painting is Titian’s Diana and Callisto, acknowledged as one of the great works of the Renaissance and one of a pair, its twin being Titian’s Diana and Actaeon. Together they have fetched 95 million and have been valued at three times that price — hence the praise for the Duke’s patriotic sacrifice.
The paintings are not in any sense part of Britain’s heritage. Titian was born Tiziano Vecelli in the state of Venice and his paintings were commissioned mostly by the Italian church and nobility. In later years, he was patronised by Phillip II of Spain who married Queen Mary of England, but Titian’s works didn’t come to Britain through such an alliance, though the Diana paintings were commissioned for the Escorial in Madrid.
Classical and Renaissance artefacts were acquired by the aristocracy of Europe through the ages and changed hands through coercion or commerce.
The joke that circulated in Britain after the urban riots and open looting in British cities in the summer of last year was: Question: “Where did these young looters get the idea that you could break in and take stuff that didn’t belong to you?” Answer: “Er... have you ever been to the British Museum?” .
The price of art has always been bewildering, but then so has the fact that boys and girls who sing songs can become billionaires overnight as their offerings climb the charts. In the same bracket of annoyance are the wages of professional footballers who, with an enviable skill and luck, can earn in a week more than billions of people earn in a lifetime.
In a higher bracket of indignation — causing frustration — are the bonuses that bankers and controlling capitalists pay themselves for fooling around with other people’s money and living off the sweat of other people’s labour while maintaining the pretence that they are in some unfathomable sense the ‘creators’ of wealth.
Even so, I would agree that Titian’s Diana and Callisto is in the top rank of civilisation’s artefacts and though judgement of a painting is ultimately in the eye of the beholder, few would equate a Titian or a Tintoretto with the efforts of, say, a contemporary Indian artist who illustrates horses in a faux-modern style.
Even so, I was till recently pleasantly surprised by the prices that the work of hundreds of Indian painters was fetching. An old friend, a dealer who lives and works in Dubai, attempted, after a few rum cocktails, to give me an explanation for this sudden popularity of Indian art. It’s bought, he said, for a price in India and then finds its way to a tax-haven such as Dubai where it is publicly auctioned. The agents of the owner clandestinely bid for the artefact, raising their paws to indicate very large multiples of the original price thus acquiring the painting. A receipt for the sale changes hands and legitimises the large sum of money transferred, possibly turning what we call ‘black money’ into ‘white’. The art laundry?
That such a mechanism enriches artists or puts higher and higher premiums on their work is fine. In a sense it’s a more ‘honest’ and purposeful inflationary device than the snobbery, fakery and emperor’s-new-clothes-ism that infests the sale of fraudulent western ‘artists’ who subsist without the least mastery of craft on ‘installations’ of empty echoing rooms, stuffed dead animals or dirty ruffled beds strewn with the detritus of a vain life.
The sin of envy is based on comparison and on a perception, through some unfair vicissitude of fortune, on missing out. On hearing of the sum paid for the Diana I couldn’t help but recall a persistent family legend:
In my father’s childhood, his grandfather Jamshedji Saklatwalla had acquired from a French collector in Paris a painting which was arguably the ‘missing’ one of a trio of Titian Venuses. Jamshedji’s expensive acquisition was titled Venus Reclining to Music and portrayed the nude figure of the goddess doing just that. Jamshedji had framed and mounted it in the sitting room of the ancestral home in Byculla, Mumbai.
One story goes that a visiting Parsi priest, who wasn’t very up on Renaissance art, was mesmerised by the nude figure as he waited for my great-grandfather to emerge and when he did asked in as polite a way as Parsi Gujarati would allow, “What induced Jaiji to indulge this fancy?”
Jamshedji travelled with his Venus through the length and breadth of Europe trying to get her authenticated as a Titian but, despite being not openly discouraged by the art experts of the time, never got a definite endorsement. ‘Of the school of’ was as far as the experts would go.
from the Duke of Sutherland for 45 million (approximately R3,600 million). They said they were “saving the painting for the nation”.
The Duke of Sutherland, though richer through the sale, has been lauded for resisting the temptation to sell it on the open market. He patriotically, it is said, sacrificed twice or more of that sum through this sale.
The painting is Titian’s Diana and Callisto, acknowledged as one of the great works of the Renaissance and one of a pair, its twin being Titian’s Diana and Actaeon. Together they have fetched 95 million and have been valued at three times that price — hence the praise for the Duke’s patriotic sacrifice.
The paintings are not in any sense part of Britain’s heritage. Titian was born Tiziano Vecelli in the state of Venice and his paintings were commissioned mostly by the Italian church and nobility. In later years, he was patronised by Phillip II of Spain who married Queen Mary of England, but Titian’s works didn’t come to Britain through such an alliance, though the Diana paintings were commissioned for the Escorial in Madrid.
Classical and Renaissance artefacts were acquired by the aristocracy of Europe through the ages and changed hands through coercion or commerce.
The joke that circulated in Britain after the urban riots and open looting in British cities in the summer of last year was: Question: “Where did these young looters get the idea that you could break in and take stuff that didn’t belong to you?” Answer: “Er... have you ever been to the British Museum?” .
The price of art has always been bewildering, but then so has the fact that boys and girls who sing songs can become billionaires overnight as their offerings climb the charts. In the same bracket of annoyance are the wages of professional footballers who, with an enviable skill and luck, can earn in a week more than billions of people earn in a lifetime.
In a higher bracket of indignation — causing frustration — are the bonuses that bankers and controlling capitalists pay themselves for fooling around with other people’s money and living off the sweat of other people’s labour while maintaining the pretence that they are in some unfathomable sense the ‘creators’ of wealth.
Even so, I would agree that Titian’s Diana and Callisto is in the top rank of civilisation’s artefacts and though judgement of a painting is ultimately in the eye of the beholder, few would equate a Titian or a Tintoretto with the efforts of, say, a contemporary Indian artist who illustrates horses in a faux-modern style.
Even so, I was till recently pleasantly surprised by the prices that the work of hundreds of Indian painters was fetching. An old friend, a dealer who lives and works in Dubai, attempted, after a few rum cocktails, to give me an explanation for this sudden popularity of Indian art. It’s bought, he said, for a price in India and then finds its way to a tax-haven such as Dubai where it is publicly auctioned. The agents of the owner clandestinely bid for the artefact, raising their paws to indicate very large multiples of the original price thus acquiring the painting. A receipt for the sale changes hands and legitimises the large sum of money transferred, possibly turning what we call ‘black money’ into ‘white’. The art laundry?
That such a mechanism enriches artists or puts higher and higher premiums on their work is fine. In a sense it’s a more ‘honest’ and purposeful inflationary device than the snobbery, fakery and emperor’s-new-clothes-ism that infests the sale of fraudulent western ‘artists’ who subsist without the least mastery of craft on ‘installations’ of empty echoing rooms, stuffed dead animals or dirty ruffled beds strewn with the detritus of a vain life.
The sin of envy is based on comparison and on a perception, through some unfair vicissitude of fortune, on missing out. On hearing of the sum paid for the Diana I couldn’t help but recall a persistent family legend:
In my father’s childhood, his grandfather Jamshedji Saklatwalla had acquired from a French collector in Paris a painting which was arguably the ‘missing’ one of a trio of Titian Venuses. Jamshedji’s expensive acquisition was titled Venus Reclining to Music and portrayed the nude figure of the goddess doing just that. Jamshedji had framed and mounted it in the sitting room of the ancestral home in Byculla, Mumbai.
One story goes that a visiting Parsi priest, who wasn’t very up on Renaissance art, was mesmerised by the nude figure as he waited for my great-grandfather to emerge and when he did asked in as polite a way as Parsi Gujarati would allow, “What induced Jaiji to indulge this fancy?”
Jamshedji travelled with his Venus through the length and breadth of Europe trying to get her authenticated as a Titian but, despite being not openly discouraged by the art experts of the time, never got a definite endorsement. ‘Of the school of’ was as far as the experts would go.
2012年3月6日星期二
Shock and bore: is 'traditional' art making a comeback?
It wasn't your usual London street party. On this balmy 1990s afternoon, a group of young artists were part of a bizarre get-together called A Fete Worse than Death.
The most eye-catching contribution came from the ever-entrepreneurial Damien Hirst. Dressed in a clown's costume, for 50p he offered passers-by a sneak peek of his testicles, which he'd spot-painted that morning.
Two decades and an estimated 215m [$321m] later, over 300 of Hirst's rather more respectable spot paintings are being shown worldwide at all 11 of Larry Gagosian's galleries. In April, he will be given a retrospective at Tate Modern, London's flagship show during the Olympics. As the world turns its eyes on London, art's biggest showman is taking centre stage. The clown, it seems, is having the last laugh.
Or is he? Sticking two fingers up at the establishment has of course become Hirst's trademark. Nearly 25 years after the enterprising Goldsmiths student staged a headline-grabbing show in a disused warehouse, and went on to exhibit a variety of pickled animals in various states of putrefaction, to say he still divides opinion would be an understatement. "Detestable and f------ dreadful" is how the Evening Standard critic Brian Sewell described one recent show. "Simple-minded and sensationalist" is Australian critic Robert Hughes's verdict on an entire career.
Last month David Hockney entered the fray. According to the BBC's Andrew Marr, when asked if a poster in his gallery reading, "All the works here were made by the artist himself, personally", was a sly dig at Hirst, Hockney nodded. Hockney has since denied attacking Hirst personally. Either way, art's enfant terrible is more than used to swipes at his use of 160 "assistants" to execute his artistic ideas. As he himself said: "I only made five spot paintings myself . . . And the spots I painted are shite." But Hockney went on to make a more telling point. "It's a little insulting to craftsmen, skilful craftsmen," he told Marr. "I used to point out . . . you can teach the craft, it's the poetry you can't teach. Now they try to teach the poetry and not the craft."
Hockney's views are echoed by the artist George Shaw. "I became incredibly frustrated at art school . . . that you needed a philosophical language to understand contemporary art, rather than a pictorial one," he says. Shaw, 45, a painter in an old-school realist tradition, won acclaim last year for his images of the Coventry housing estate he grew up on. For him, art is about works that "an art historian and his mother could both enjoy . . . But that wasn't what [the tutors] were looking for."
Many feel Shaw was scandalously overlooked for last year's Turner Prize, losing out to installation artist Martin Boyce. But was it down to the Hirst effect? Certainly, there was already a well-established shift away from orthodox art education when Hirst arrived at Goldsmiths in the late 1980s. In the 1960s - under the influence of minimalism and conceptualism - art schools nationwide had decided intellectual pursuits were as important as technical ones. Painting was dead, the US minimalist Donald Judd declared, and curating, theorising and art history soon became as important as draughtsmanship.
The painter Gabriella Boyd can't see what the fuss is about. "Drawing's still taught and it's still popular," she says.
In hard times, we might even expect to see a return to old-school disciplines on cost-grounds. Paints and pencils are a darn sight cheaper than tanks of formaldehyde. There's already talk of a new austerity aesthetic, one wholly at odds with Hirst's $100 million, diamond-encrusted skull, For the Love of God (2007).
Gregor Muir, director of the ICA, isn't sure. "Often in times of trouble, you see the rise of fantastists, surrealists and other artists looking to escape it all. In the film world, The Artist is a good example, a light-hearted movie perfectly timed to cheer us all up." Muir insists Hirst hasn't cloned a generation of artists. "Categorically not. Damien's a unique case. A brand unto himself, really."
Hirst's sales figures confirm this. At the now infamous 2008 Sotheby's sale, when Hirst auctioned off 223 works, his Golden Calf sold for 10.3m. Now the plentiful supply of spot paintings , one of which sold last year for 1.8m, ensures Hirst keeps himself within the price range of not-quite-so-rich buyers too.
In spite of global economic meltdown, Sotheby's sales in contemporary art shot up by 34 per cent in 2011 as investors increasingly turn to art to hedge against volatile markets. But how much of this rise is down to Hirst-style installations? "We tend not to take on too many big installation works nowadays," says James Sevier of Sotheby's. "The top lots in our recent sale were abstract paintings by Gerhard Richter, for instance. I wouldn't say Damien has brought about a seismic shift." The three canvases by the 80-year-old German painter sold for over 4m. Evidence that things are looking up for lovers of traditional painting?
The most eye-catching contribution came from the ever-entrepreneurial Damien Hirst. Dressed in a clown's costume, for 50p he offered passers-by a sneak peek of his testicles, which he'd spot-painted that morning.
Two decades and an estimated 215m [$321m] later, over 300 of Hirst's rather more respectable spot paintings are being shown worldwide at all 11 of Larry Gagosian's galleries. In April, he will be given a retrospective at Tate Modern, London's flagship show during the Olympics. As the world turns its eyes on London, art's biggest showman is taking centre stage. The clown, it seems, is having the last laugh.
Or is he? Sticking two fingers up at the establishment has of course become Hirst's trademark. Nearly 25 years after the enterprising Goldsmiths student staged a headline-grabbing show in a disused warehouse, and went on to exhibit a variety of pickled animals in various states of putrefaction, to say he still divides opinion would be an understatement. "Detestable and f------ dreadful" is how the Evening Standard critic Brian Sewell described one recent show. "Simple-minded and sensationalist" is Australian critic Robert Hughes's verdict on an entire career.
Last month David Hockney entered the fray. According to the BBC's Andrew Marr, when asked if a poster in his gallery reading, "All the works here were made by the artist himself, personally", was a sly dig at Hirst, Hockney nodded. Hockney has since denied attacking Hirst personally. Either way, art's enfant terrible is more than used to swipes at his use of 160 "assistants" to execute his artistic ideas. As he himself said: "I only made five spot paintings myself . . . And the spots I painted are shite." But Hockney went on to make a more telling point. "It's a little insulting to craftsmen, skilful craftsmen," he told Marr. "I used to point out . . . you can teach the craft, it's the poetry you can't teach. Now they try to teach the poetry and not the craft."
Hockney's views are echoed by the artist George Shaw. "I became incredibly frustrated at art school . . . that you needed a philosophical language to understand contemporary art, rather than a pictorial one," he says. Shaw, 45, a painter in an old-school realist tradition, won acclaim last year for his images of the Coventry housing estate he grew up on. For him, art is about works that "an art historian and his mother could both enjoy . . . But that wasn't what [the tutors] were looking for."
Many feel Shaw was scandalously overlooked for last year's Turner Prize, losing out to installation artist Martin Boyce. But was it down to the Hirst effect? Certainly, there was already a well-established shift away from orthodox art education when Hirst arrived at Goldsmiths in the late 1980s. In the 1960s - under the influence of minimalism and conceptualism - art schools nationwide had decided intellectual pursuits were as important as technical ones. Painting was dead, the US minimalist Donald Judd declared, and curating, theorising and art history soon became as important as draughtsmanship.
The painter Gabriella Boyd can't see what the fuss is about. "Drawing's still taught and it's still popular," she says.
In hard times, we might even expect to see a return to old-school disciplines on cost-grounds. Paints and pencils are a darn sight cheaper than tanks of formaldehyde. There's already talk of a new austerity aesthetic, one wholly at odds with Hirst's $100 million, diamond-encrusted skull, For the Love of God (2007).
Gregor Muir, director of the ICA, isn't sure. "Often in times of trouble, you see the rise of fantastists, surrealists and other artists looking to escape it all. In the film world, The Artist is a good example, a light-hearted movie perfectly timed to cheer us all up." Muir insists Hirst hasn't cloned a generation of artists. "Categorically not. Damien's a unique case. A brand unto himself, really."
Hirst's sales figures confirm this. At the now infamous 2008 Sotheby's sale, when Hirst auctioned off 223 works, his Golden Calf sold for 10.3m. Now the plentiful supply of spot paintings , one of which sold last year for 1.8m, ensures Hirst keeps himself within the price range of not-quite-so-rich buyers too.
In spite of global economic meltdown, Sotheby's sales in contemporary art shot up by 34 per cent in 2011 as investors increasingly turn to art to hedge against volatile markets. But how much of this rise is down to Hirst-style installations? "We tend not to take on too many big installation works nowadays," says James Sevier of Sotheby's. "The top lots in our recent sale were abstract paintings by Gerhard Richter, for instance. I wouldn't say Damien has brought about a seismic shift." The three canvases by the 80-year-old German painter sold for over 4m. Evidence that things are looking up for lovers of traditional painting?
2012年2月28日星期二
Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antiques Show
Gigantic, beautiful, exquisite, impressive and elite, while not elitist — in the simplest of terms, these are the sorts of words that best describe the Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antiques Show. Conducted by the Palm Beach Show Group, the show opened for a gala preview party on February 17 and continued over the next four days, concluding on February 21.
More than 200 spacious and well-designed booths lined the floor of the cavernous Palm Beach County Convention Center, and the wares displayed dated from a selection of Asian antiquities from 700 BC to cutting-edge contemporary — and as the show's name implies — there was a dazzling assortment of jewelry.
This year's event took place under a reconfigured group of promoters, with Scott Diament and Rob Samuels at the helm, as Kris Charamonde returned to the show this year strictly as an exhibitor. Another change this year was the incorporation of the Hope Design Showcase, an area that featured five room settings consisting of dealer merchandise that had been removed from booths around the floor by five decorators. The items were displayed in room settings to illustrate how antiques can work in rooms suited for modern living. Audrey Gruss, founder of Hope for Depression Research Foundation, hosted the first inaugural "Hope Art-of-Design Weekend." Interior designers who created the Hope Designer Showcase included Jim Aman and John Meeks, Bruce Bierman, Geoffrey Bradfield, Campion Platt and Scott Snyder.
"All the supporters I spoke to were delighted to walk through the Hope Designer Showcase," said Gruss. "It was a wonderful way for them to see how art and antiques from the show work in today's real lifestyles; after all, the show is about creativity and beauty, and it's wonderful to see how it can enhance your life."
Further enhancing the show were daily educational lecture series that featured topics, such as "Glamorous Timepieces" by Edward Faber of Aaron Faber Gallery and "Collecting Faberge Today" by John Atzbach of John Atzbach Antiques.
The Palm Beach Group reported a turnout of more than 6,000 guests at preview on opening night, in addition to the largest gate recorded in the show's history on Presidents' Day. Good sales were recorded around the floor on opening night. "It was a really nice group of people who came out for the evening," said Tim Stevenson of Carlson & Stevenson Antiques, Manchester, Vt. The dealers reported numerous sales on opening night, including an important watercolor from 1821. Also displayed was a wonderful document box in yellow paint with bright floral decoration covering the top and around the circumference. A great pair of cast iron eagle finials was also offered. Standing more than a foot tall, they retained a nice old painted surface.
Paul Vandekar of Earle Vandekar of Knightsbridge was another to report good opening night sales, with a Chinese Export famille rose shaped tureen, cover and stand, circa 1750, among the first items to sell from his stand. The dealer also moved a Victorian bamboo table; a set of first period Worcester blue-scale broth bowls and covers, circa 1770; and a Beverly Morris painting from 1855. "The evening was packed and filled with interesting people," said Vandekar, who also noted the sale of a large set of Chinese water fish paintings and several pieces of English porcelain.
Paintings were plentiful around the floor, ranging from Old Masters to works on which the paint was barely dry.
"It's not just about what you sell, but who you meet and the connections you make," said Tom Veilleux of Tom Veilleux Gallery, Portland, Maine. Pleased on both fronts, Veilleux listed among his sales an important painting by William Glackens titled "Bouquet with Poppy." Other paintings on display included a stellar Jamie Wyeth watercolor "Silo and Angus," along with a Max Weber oil titled "Woman with Flower." Sculpture in the booth was dominated by works by Elie Nadelman, including a glazed ceramic piece titled "Two Women," circa 1930, and also a carved marble bust of a woman from 1920.
More than 200 spacious and well-designed booths lined the floor of the cavernous Palm Beach County Convention Center, and the wares displayed dated from a selection of Asian antiquities from 700 BC to cutting-edge contemporary — and as the show's name implies — there was a dazzling assortment of jewelry.
This year's event took place under a reconfigured group of promoters, with Scott Diament and Rob Samuels at the helm, as Kris Charamonde returned to the show this year strictly as an exhibitor. Another change this year was the incorporation of the Hope Design Showcase, an area that featured five room settings consisting of dealer merchandise that had been removed from booths around the floor by five decorators. The items were displayed in room settings to illustrate how antiques can work in rooms suited for modern living. Audrey Gruss, founder of Hope for Depression Research Foundation, hosted the first inaugural "Hope Art-of-Design Weekend." Interior designers who created the Hope Designer Showcase included Jim Aman and John Meeks, Bruce Bierman, Geoffrey Bradfield, Campion Platt and Scott Snyder.
"All the supporters I spoke to were delighted to walk through the Hope Designer Showcase," said Gruss. "It was a wonderful way for them to see how art and antiques from the show work in today's real lifestyles; after all, the show is about creativity and beauty, and it's wonderful to see how it can enhance your life."
Further enhancing the show were daily educational lecture series that featured topics, such as "Glamorous Timepieces" by Edward Faber of Aaron Faber Gallery and "Collecting Faberge Today" by John Atzbach of John Atzbach Antiques.
The Palm Beach Group reported a turnout of more than 6,000 guests at preview on opening night, in addition to the largest gate recorded in the show's history on Presidents' Day. Good sales were recorded around the floor on opening night. "It was a really nice group of people who came out for the evening," said Tim Stevenson of Carlson & Stevenson Antiques, Manchester, Vt. The dealers reported numerous sales on opening night, including an important watercolor from 1821. Also displayed was a wonderful document box in yellow paint with bright floral decoration covering the top and around the circumference. A great pair of cast iron eagle finials was also offered. Standing more than a foot tall, they retained a nice old painted surface.
Paul Vandekar of Earle Vandekar of Knightsbridge was another to report good opening night sales, with a Chinese Export famille rose shaped tureen, cover and stand, circa 1750, among the first items to sell from his stand. The dealer also moved a Victorian bamboo table; a set of first period Worcester blue-scale broth bowls and covers, circa 1770; and a Beverly Morris painting from 1855. "The evening was packed and filled with interesting people," said Vandekar, who also noted the sale of a large set of Chinese water fish paintings and several pieces of English porcelain.
Paintings were plentiful around the floor, ranging from Old Masters to works on which the paint was barely dry.
"It's not just about what you sell, but who you meet and the connections you make," said Tom Veilleux of Tom Veilleux Gallery, Portland, Maine. Pleased on both fronts, Veilleux listed among his sales an important painting by William Glackens titled "Bouquet with Poppy." Other paintings on display included a stellar Jamie Wyeth watercolor "Silo and Angus," along with a Max Weber oil titled "Woman with Flower." Sculpture in the booth was dominated by works by Elie Nadelman, including a glazed ceramic piece titled "Two Women," circa 1930, and also a carved marble bust of a woman from 1920.
2012年2月26日星期日
Depression-era work of art comes to Huntington
More than 70 years after it was carved from California redwood and nearly a year after it was acquired by the Huntington Library, Sargent Johnson's 22-foot-long work of art has become a cause célèbre.
The work is an arching, three-panel piece that depicts animals and birds near the radiating limbs of a tree. It originally was commissioned by the Works Progress Administration and was built to screen the organ pipes at a school for the deaf and blind in Berkeley. It was acquired by the Huntington for an undisclosed sum in April.
This week, the New York Times printed a narrative of the piece's odyssey from the defunct California School for the Deaf and Blind to a University of California surplus bin — where it sold for $150 — to the hands of art collectors who recognized its value at more than a million dollars.
When Jane Todd Smith, the Huntington's Virginia Steele Scott Curator of American Art, first saw the piece, it was in the Los Angeles warehouse of Manhattan gallery owner Michael Rosenfeld, about to be shipped to New York. Talking to gallery owners and viewing private collections is part of Smith's job. She said landing the exceptional work by a noted maker of abstract and early modern sculptures was a matter of luck.
“We were just incredibly fortunate in terms of when we walked into the gallery, and the availability of the piece,” she said. “We were fortunate to be among the first people through the door.”
Huntington curators presented the piece to the Arts Collectors' Council, a group of private donors who contribute to the Huntington and vote on which pieces it should acquire. The Huntington regularly presents pieces to the group, takes in the council's advice and then matches its donations to make purchases, Smith said.
The group approved the purchase of the Johnson sculpture in late April 2011.
Johnson was an artist of African American, Cherokee and Swedish heritage who spent much of his life in the Bay Area, and who studied with sculptors Benjamin Bufano and Ralph Stackpole in San Francisco. He was among the artists paid by the federal government's Works Progress Administration during the Depression to strengthen American culture, beautify public works projects and buoy the economy.
Several twists of fate were required for Johnson's piece to be on the market. The first was an oversight on the part of the University of California at Berkeley — which had acquired the deteriorating blind school site a few blocks from its campus — that resulted in the sale of the sculpture as surplus. The second was a loophole in the law that generally bars pieces commissioned for the WPA from going into private hands.
When the Huntington bought the piece last year, it noted in a press release that it had navigated the legal issue carefully. The General Services Administration, the release stated, “made a legal and policy decision that the federal government does not retain an ownership interest in site-specific works of art where the building in which the art was located is not federal property.”
Smith said the sculpture stills bears a WPA plaque that would serve as a warning to private collectors, but that the government allowed the private transactions.
In doing so, Smith said, “I think the government's perspective is that it was meant to be work for the public [to see], and happily, we've been able to fulfill that goal.”
Smith has been curator of the Huntington's American collection, which includes furniture by Frank Lloyd Wright, paintings by Edward Hopper, Mary Cassatt and more, for 10 years. She said she would rather see Johnson's piece recognized for its artistic merit and place in history than for its messy back story, but she is glad the public has tuned in. She noted gallery space for the American collection doubled in 2009 and will triple in 2014, when the Sargent Johnson piece will take a prominent place.
“One of my hopes is that by increasing the physical space devoted to the collection, we also increase public awareness of the collection,” she said.
The work is an arching, three-panel piece that depicts animals and birds near the radiating limbs of a tree. It originally was commissioned by the Works Progress Administration and was built to screen the organ pipes at a school for the deaf and blind in Berkeley. It was acquired by the Huntington for an undisclosed sum in April.
This week, the New York Times printed a narrative of the piece's odyssey from the defunct California School for the Deaf and Blind to a University of California surplus bin — where it sold for $150 — to the hands of art collectors who recognized its value at more than a million dollars.
When Jane Todd Smith, the Huntington's Virginia Steele Scott Curator of American Art, first saw the piece, it was in the Los Angeles warehouse of Manhattan gallery owner Michael Rosenfeld, about to be shipped to New York. Talking to gallery owners and viewing private collections is part of Smith's job. She said landing the exceptional work by a noted maker of abstract and early modern sculptures was a matter of luck.
“We were just incredibly fortunate in terms of when we walked into the gallery, and the availability of the piece,” she said. “We were fortunate to be among the first people through the door.”
Huntington curators presented the piece to the Arts Collectors' Council, a group of private donors who contribute to the Huntington and vote on which pieces it should acquire. The Huntington regularly presents pieces to the group, takes in the council's advice and then matches its donations to make purchases, Smith said.
The group approved the purchase of the Johnson sculpture in late April 2011.
Johnson was an artist of African American, Cherokee and Swedish heritage who spent much of his life in the Bay Area, and who studied with sculptors Benjamin Bufano and Ralph Stackpole in San Francisco. He was among the artists paid by the federal government's Works Progress Administration during the Depression to strengthen American culture, beautify public works projects and buoy the economy.
Several twists of fate were required for Johnson's piece to be on the market. The first was an oversight on the part of the University of California at Berkeley — which had acquired the deteriorating blind school site a few blocks from its campus — that resulted in the sale of the sculpture as surplus. The second was a loophole in the law that generally bars pieces commissioned for the WPA from going into private hands.
When the Huntington bought the piece last year, it noted in a press release that it had navigated the legal issue carefully. The General Services Administration, the release stated, “made a legal and policy decision that the federal government does not retain an ownership interest in site-specific works of art where the building in which the art was located is not federal property.”
Smith said the sculpture stills bears a WPA plaque that would serve as a warning to private collectors, but that the government allowed the private transactions.
In doing so, Smith said, “I think the government's perspective is that it was meant to be work for the public [to see], and happily, we've been able to fulfill that goal.”
Smith has been curator of the Huntington's American collection, which includes furniture by Frank Lloyd Wright, paintings by Edward Hopper, Mary Cassatt and more, for 10 years. She said she would rather see Johnson's piece recognized for its artistic merit and place in history than for its messy back story, but she is glad the public has tuned in. She noted gallery space for the American collection doubled in 2009 and will triple in 2014, when the Sargent Johnson piece will take a prominent place.
“One of my hopes is that by increasing the physical space devoted to the collection, we also increase public awareness of the collection,” she said.
2012年2月15日星期三
Sears gallery opens with paintings for sale
Dixie State College puts on one of the biggest art shows and sale in the state of Utah every year.
The annual Sears Dixie Invitational Art Show and Sale will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary. It will feature 170 unique, renowned artists around the United States with nearly 300 pieces of art to enjoy. Artists in the show will be there on Feb. 17 at 3 p.m. in the Eccles Fine Arts Center on the campus of DSC and everybody is welcome to come.
It will be conducted by 2011 Purchase Prize and Best Show winner "Bust of Light" an oil painting by Jerry Read Hancock. He was the first in the Invitational history to take home both awards.
"This show is perfect for anyone, it's free to attend, you can bring a date, you can gain so much knowledge from the art, and maybe even become a collector one day," said Kathy Cieslewicz, curator of the Sears Art Museum Gallery. "Art is something everybody should have in their life because it can open so many more opportunities."
The Sears Invitational is a great addition to St. George because of all the attraction it brings from people around America.
Cieslewicz said: "This is not some ordinary art show with ordinary artist; In fact this maybe one of the greatest art events around, and it takes place here at DSC."
The art gallery not only is a great event, but also helps the economy.
"The Sears art show truly helps the economy by filling restaurants, hotels and businesses. In simple terms, the more attraction at the gallery the more attraction for St. George." Cieslewicz said. "I want to lay down a foundation to help St. George become a buyer's art destination, which is why this is such an important art event."
Few people know that the Sears art show contains some of the most talented artists in the world. For example, Del Parson who has taught at DSC for the past 20 years. He has taught at other schools but has said he loves the great atmosphere and sprit here at Dixie.
"The sales and art in the Sears Invitational show cannot compare to other art shows in the state," Parson said. "I make a living with my paintings, and this show is a great place to sell them."
Parson has a few of his paintings in the show this year with one of them being a painting of Christ. This beautiful painting was actually done in his art class. He said he was making the students do their final projects, and he would do a final as well.
"These art shows are very important to people because art is a visual communication that expresses the things closet to you," Parson said.
The artists will be available, and the art sale will begin Feb. 17 at 3 p.m. A dinner after the viewing will be available for $75. The gallery will open to the public Saturday, Feb. 18, and will display through Sunday, March 25. The gallery will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and on Sundays from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Cieslewicz said: "People coming to the show for their first time will be surprised by the quality and range of all the artwork styles. There is a piece of art for everyone to enjoy."
The annual Sears Dixie Invitational Art Show and Sale will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary. It will feature 170 unique, renowned artists around the United States with nearly 300 pieces of art to enjoy. Artists in the show will be there on Feb. 17 at 3 p.m. in the Eccles Fine Arts Center on the campus of DSC and everybody is welcome to come.
It will be conducted by 2011 Purchase Prize and Best Show winner "Bust of Light" an oil painting by Jerry Read Hancock. He was the first in the Invitational history to take home both awards.
"This show is perfect for anyone, it's free to attend, you can bring a date, you can gain so much knowledge from the art, and maybe even become a collector one day," said Kathy Cieslewicz, curator of the Sears Art Museum Gallery. "Art is something everybody should have in their life because it can open so many more opportunities."
The Sears Invitational is a great addition to St. George because of all the attraction it brings from people around America.
Cieslewicz said: "This is not some ordinary art show with ordinary artist; In fact this maybe one of the greatest art events around, and it takes place here at DSC."
The art gallery not only is a great event, but also helps the economy.
"The Sears art show truly helps the economy by filling restaurants, hotels and businesses. In simple terms, the more attraction at the gallery the more attraction for St. George." Cieslewicz said. "I want to lay down a foundation to help St. George become a buyer's art destination, which is why this is such an important art event."
Few people know that the Sears art show contains some of the most talented artists in the world. For example, Del Parson who has taught at DSC for the past 20 years. He has taught at other schools but has said he loves the great atmosphere and sprit here at Dixie.
"The sales and art in the Sears Invitational show cannot compare to other art shows in the state," Parson said. "I make a living with my paintings, and this show is a great place to sell them."
Parson has a few of his paintings in the show this year with one of them being a painting of Christ. This beautiful painting was actually done in his art class. He said he was making the students do their final projects, and he would do a final as well.
"These art shows are very important to people because art is a visual communication that expresses the things closet to you," Parson said.
The artists will be available, and the art sale will begin Feb. 17 at 3 p.m. A dinner after the viewing will be available for $75. The gallery will open to the public Saturday, Feb. 18, and will display through Sunday, March 25. The gallery will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and on Sundays from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Cieslewicz said: "People coming to the show for their first time will be surprised by the quality and range of all the artwork styles. There is a piece of art for everyone to enjoy."
2012年1月31日星期二
Art sales: $4.1m Martini stirs market
Old Masters were in the spotlight last week as the first major auctions of the year were held in New York, accompanied by some spectacular dealer exhibitions. International dealer Fabrizio Moretti presented a sumptuous display of Italian gold-ground paintings that seemed to touch a nerve.
Normally, gold-ground paintings are scarce at auction, but this year there was a bumper crop, most of which sold, led by a rare and only recently fully attributed painting of the Annunciation by the 14th-century Sienese artist Simone Martini, which sold for a record $4.1 million. The price, said Moretti, was to be expected for an example of Martini’s work in good condition, and not expensive compared with some contemporary art.
The sales included some choice Renaissance works. A drawing of a young man attributed to the Florentine Pietro Pollaiulo, which was being sold by the heirs of the British scholar and art magazine editor Denys Sutton, was snapped up by the J Paul Getty Museum for $1.4 million, double the estimate.
Private collectors seized the other two Italian Renaissance prizes – Fra Bartolommeo’s painting St Jerome in the Wilderness for $4.9 million, and a Madonna and Child tondo, which, since cleaning, is now thought to be partly by the hand of Botticelli. Cautiously estimated at $1 million, it sold for $4.6 million.
Early Northern-school masterpieces met with a more mixed reception. Lucas Cranach is riding a wave of popularity, and one of his more seductive portraits of Lucretia sold comfortably for $5.1 million. But one of the last paintings by Hans Memling in private hands was just too highly estimated at $6 million to find a buyer. A similar fate met a rare painting by the 16th-century mannerist Arcimboldo. Depending on which way up you hang it, it is either a still life of fruit, or a portrait. It sold 10 years ago for $1.4 million, and no one was prepared to meet the new $3 million estimate.
In some cases, sellers who were simply trying to get their money back were disappointed, perhaps because they had paid too much. In 2006, one had paid a record 825,000 – 10 times the estimate – for a still life by the 17th-century Dutch painter Simon Luttichuys. The next year, it appeared at the Maastricht art fair with a $4 million price tag; last week it went unsold with a $1.8 million estimate.
In what is now a very choosy market, one third of the works offered in New York were unsold, dragging the total for the week below expectations to $122 million. However, more sensibly priced masterpieces found buyers. A young lady playing a clavichord, by Dutch Golden Age painter Gerrit Dou, was covered with years of grime, but sold above estimate to dealer Johnny van Haeften for $3.3 million.
Staying with Holland, a charming family interior by Pieter de Hooch from Lady Forte’s estate doubled estimates to fetch $3.7 million; a portrait by Frans Hals from Elizabeth Taylor’s estate doubled estimates to sell for $2.1 million; and a jewel of a small portrait by the lesser known Thomas de Keyser was chased by dealers Jonathan Green and Otto Naumann before selling to the National Gallery of Art in Washington for a treble-estimate $1.5 million.
Both Sotheby’s and Christie’s heralded the success of French Rococo, a style epitomised by Fragonard and Watteau and popularised by Wildenstein in the last century. The stand-out example was an elaborately camp theatrical design for a tapestry commissioned by Louis XV from Charles-Antoine Coypel, which quadrupled estimates to sell for $3.5 million. “Most people haven’t heard of Coypel, but it’s a fantastic example of French Rococo,” said Christopher Apostle of Sotheby’s.
Similar in appeal, though less over the top, was a large decorative oil sketch, pulsating with grandeur, made by the late-Baroque artist Giambattista Tiepolo for a fresco commemorating the arrival in Venice of the French King Henry III in 1574. It says something about shifts in taste that, when this was last offered for sale in 1984, it was unsold at $1.5 million. Last week, it sold for $5.9 million.
Finally, 18th-century Italian view paintings proved their staying power. A Venetian view by Vanvitelli at Christie’s, which had been bought from London’s Richard Green gallery in 1979 for 45,000 was bought back by Green for $1.5 million (989,000), while at Sotheby’s, Lady Forte’s slightly later Venetian view by Canaletto, which she had bought at auction in 1986 for $360,000, sold for $5.7 million.
Normally, gold-ground paintings are scarce at auction, but this year there was a bumper crop, most of which sold, led by a rare and only recently fully attributed painting of the Annunciation by the 14th-century Sienese artist Simone Martini, which sold for a record $4.1 million. The price, said Moretti, was to be expected for an example of Martini’s work in good condition, and not expensive compared with some contemporary art.
The sales included some choice Renaissance works. A drawing of a young man attributed to the Florentine Pietro Pollaiulo, which was being sold by the heirs of the British scholar and art magazine editor Denys Sutton, was snapped up by the J Paul Getty Museum for $1.4 million, double the estimate.
Private collectors seized the other two Italian Renaissance prizes – Fra Bartolommeo’s painting St Jerome in the Wilderness for $4.9 million, and a Madonna and Child tondo, which, since cleaning, is now thought to be partly by the hand of Botticelli. Cautiously estimated at $1 million, it sold for $4.6 million.
Early Northern-school masterpieces met with a more mixed reception. Lucas Cranach is riding a wave of popularity, and one of his more seductive portraits of Lucretia sold comfortably for $5.1 million. But one of the last paintings by Hans Memling in private hands was just too highly estimated at $6 million to find a buyer. A similar fate met a rare painting by the 16th-century mannerist Arcimboldo. Depending on which way up you hang it, it is either a still life of fruit, or a portrait. It sold 10 years ago for $1.4 million, and no one was prepared to meet the new $3 million estimate.
In some cases, sellers who were simply trying to get their money back were disappointed, perhaps because they had paid too much. In 2006, one had paid a record 825,000 – 10 times the estimate – for a still life by the 17th-century Dutch painter Simon Luttichuys. The next year, it appeared at the Maastricht art fair with a $4 million price tag; last week it went unsold with a $1.8 million estimate.
In what is now a very choosy market, one third of the works offered in New York were unsold, dragging the total for the week below expectations to $122 million. However, more sensibly priced masterpieces found buyers. A young lady playing a clavichord, by Dutch Golden Age painter Gerrit Dou, was covered with years of grime, but sold above estimate to dealer Johnny van Haeften for $3.3 million.
Staying with Holland, a charming family interior by Pieter de Hooch from Lady Forte’s estate doubled estimates to fetch $3.7 million; a portrait by Frans Hals from Elizabeth Taylor’s estate doubled estimates to sell for $2.1 million; and a jewel of a small portrait by the lesser known Thomas de Keyser was chased by dealers Jonathan Green and Otto Naumann before selling to the National Gallery of Art in Washington for a treble-estimate $1.5 million.
Both Sotheby’s and Christie’s heralded the success of French Rococo, a style epitomised by Fragonard and Watteau and popularised by Wildenstein in the last century. The stand-out example was an elaborately camp theatrical design for a tapestry commissioned by Louis XV from Charles-Antoine Coypel, which quadrupled estimates to sell for $3.5 million. “Most people haven’t heard of Coypel, but it’s a fantastic example of French Rococo,” said Christopher Apostle of Sotheby’s.
Similar in appeal, though less over the top, was a large decorative oil sketch, pulsating with grandeur, made by the late-Baroque artist Giambattista Tiepolo for a fresco commemorating the arrival in Venice of the French King Henry III in 1574. It says something about shifts in taste that, when this was last offered for sale in 1984, it was unsold at $1.5 million. Last week, it sold for $5.9 million.
Finally, 18th-century Italian view paintings proved their staying power. A Venetian view by Vanvitelli at Christie’s, which had been bought from London’s Richard Green gallery in 1979 for 45,000 was bought back by Green for $1.5 million (989,000), while at Sotheby’s, Lady Forte’s slightly later Venetian view by Canaletto, which she had bought at auction in 1986 for $360,000, sold for $5.7 million.
2011年12月26日星期一
After 80 Years, Women's Market Still A Bethesda Staple
The Montgomery Farm Women’s Farm Cooperative Market will celebrate its 80th anniversary next June. But as far as its remarkable staying power, President Barbara Johnson is as baffled as the next.
“I don’t know why it’s so popular,” she said. “It just is.”
It could be that the market has 77 vendors — 27 inside displaying everything from cheese, spices and meats to seafood, baked goods and tea, and 50 more outside, flaunting flea-market fare. Or it could be the ideal location in the heart of downtown Bethesda on bustling Wisconsin Avenue.
But Johnson said in the end, it probably comes down to customer satisfaction — year after year, decade after decade.
“We have everything they want,” she said. “It’s the only market around here like this.”
It’s certainly not the usual stands-on-the-street setup. The market fills an entire parking lot, plus a low, white building standing in the backdrop. And while some of the usual foods and trinkets line the tables, much of it ranges from the exotic to the stuff of your grandparents’ attic.
There’s vintage furniture, hand-knit hats, antique silverware, oriental rugs, scarves, boxes of silver rings and even a table full of men’s button-downs wrapped in plastic.
Reshma Ali, who has sold her wares at the market for about 15 years, lands on the exotic side. She and her colorful display of beads and all the fixings of jewelry-making hail from India.
Her supplies may be for the hobby-minded, but not for Ali.
“This is my living,” she said.
Eric Perine of Frederick has also been at the market for about 15 years. He does his own framing of various prints -- photos, paintings, deco and art nouveau -- from handheld to full-poster-sized and sold for anywhere from $18 to $300.
The local stuff sells the best, Perine said -- like bird’s-eye views and maps of Washington, D.C.
Also popular is what he calls “guy art” -- skiing images in the winter and golf in the summer.
His customers range from the amateur to the collectors, who are always coming back for more.
“The only reason I lose them is if their house is full,” he said.
Joe and Linda Cicero of Potomac are two of those customers. On a Saturday morning, Joe Cicero paused in front of a particular print, trying to remember.
“I think we already have that one,” he said. His wife paused, then agreed.
And then there are the first-timers, like Brian Hopkins of Alexandria, who stopped by with children Jake, 6, and Kaylee, 3, after lunch at Mongolian Barbecue across the street.
Jake and Kaylee were pleased, running around in knit hats with renderings of fuzzy zoo animals and pompoms dangling from the ear flaps.
“I figured, what the heck,” Hopkins said of making the trip.
Mainstays like Mary Ann Sheffler have helped keep the market alive for so long.
Sheffler has come every Sunday for 32 years now, selling antiques she picks up from various auctioneers back in Waynesboro, Pa. There’s a series of plates painted with “Gone With The Wind” images, a redheaded doll next to an old typewriter, glass and silver tureens.
To the untrained eye, it looks like garage-sale junk. But the occasional expert knows what treasures are to be found there.
“Every once in a while, you’ll get someone who knows what things are,” she said.
The Montgomery Farm Women’s Cooperative Market is located at 7155 Wisconsin Ave. between Willow and Leland Streets. The indoor market is open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The outside market is open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., weather permitting, on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
“I don’t know why it’s so popular,” she said. “It just is.”
It could be that the market has 77 vendors — 27 inside displaying everything from cheese, spices and meats to seafood, baked goods and tea, and 50 more outside, flaunting flea-market fare. Or it could be the ideal location in the heart of downtown Bethesda on bustling Wisconsin Avenue.
But Johnson said in the end, it probably comes down to customer satisfaction — year after year, decade after decade.
“We have everything they want,” she said. “It’s the only market around here like this.”
It’s certainly not the usual stands-on-the-street setup. The market fills an entire parking lot, plus a low, white building standing in the backdrop. And while some of the usual foods and trinkets line the tables, much of it ranges from the exotic to the stuff of your grandparents’ attic.
There’s vintage furniture, hand-knit hats, antique silverware, oriental rugs, scarves, boxes of silver rings and even a table full of men’s button-downs wrapped in plastic.
Reshma Ali, who has sold her wares at the market for about 15 years, lands on the exotic side. She and her colorful display of beads and all the fixings of jewelry-making hail from India.
Her supplies may be for the hobby-minded, but not for Ali.
“This is my living,” she said.
Eric Perine of Frederick has also been at the market for about 15 years. He does his own framing of various prints -- photos, paintings, deco and art nouveau -- from handheld to full-poster-sized and sold for anywhere from $18 to $300.
The local stuff sells the best, Perine said -- like bird’s-eye views and maps of Washington, D.C.
Also popular is what he calls “guy art” -- skiing images in the winter and golf in the summer.
His customers range from the amateur to the collectors, who are always coming back for more.
“The only reason I lose them is if their house is full,” he said.
Joe and Linda Cicero of Potomac are two of those customers. On a Saturday morning, Joe Cicero paused in front of a particular print, trying to remember.
“I think we already have that one,” he said. His wife paused, then agreed.
And then there are the first-timers, like Brian Hopkins of Alexandria, who stopped by with children Jake, 6, and Kaylee, 3, after lunch at Mongolian Barbecue across the street.
Jake and Kaylee were pleased, running around in knit hats with renderings of fuzzy zoo animals and pompoms dangling from the ear flaps.
“I figured, what the heck,” Hopkins said of making the trip.
Mainstays like Mary Ann Sheffler have helped keep the market alive for so long.
Sheffler has come every Sunday for 32 years now, selling antiques she picks up from various auctioneers back in Waynesboro, Pa. There’s a series of plates painted with “Gone With The Wind” images, a redheaded doll next to an old typewriter, glass and silver tureens.
To the untrained eye, it looks like garage-sale junk. But the occasional expert knows what treasures are to be found there.
“Every once in a while, you’ll get someone who knows what things are,” she said.
The Montgomery Farm Women’s Cooperative Market is located at 7155 Wisconsin Ave. between Willow and Leland Streets. The indoor market is open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The outside market is open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., weather permitting, on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
2011年12月25日星期日
Wild collection of art, rare photos displayed in Lancaster’s Ladybird’s
First you see the rack of brightly painted wooden clogs, direct from the Netherlands. Just one pair is still its original brown color.
A few steps away are old cans full of artist paint brushes, and half-squeezed tubes of paint piling out of a battered suitcase.
They sit below a pieced-together circa-1924 poster of former Boston mayor James Michael Curley. Beside that is a cardboard box full of dusty papers, with a 1729 deed from New Haven, Conn., on top. The surrounding walls are covered with paintings of disembodied people — mostly half-naked women — and much of the floor space is taken up with large wooden sculptures, also mainly of folks missing torsos and stomachs.
“I am not fond of fat people,” said Tom Stanford with a slight smile.
He is the creator of this wild collection of art, rare photography, and ephemera (printed material.)
Mr. Stanford, 61, recently opened his new Ladybird’s Gallery — named after his aging dog — at 78 Rigby Road, a wooded area on the Clinton line. His house is beside the gallery.
He got the idea after a trip to Taos, N.M., where he checked out numerous art galleries.
Shuffling around his gallery in a pair of orange clogs, Mr. Stanford, who previously operated a gallery of collectible documents and prints in Clinton, explains his unique style of painting, which he has dubbed “subtractionalism.”
“Basically, a portion of the anatomy, usually muscle and bones, is missing,” he said of his Picasso-meets-Warhol-like abstract oil paintings. “It did not start out that way, it just came upon me.”
His sculptures, which were carved from single trees cut down during nearby construction, (“I dragged them across the street”) are a world onto themselves.
One shows a Greek god entwined with a swan-woman. Another huge sculpture (the trunk is upside down) depicts a sailor, a mermaid and a serpent. Mr. Sanford said he worked 12 hours a day for seven months on that one.
When asked how he came up with the theme, he responded: “I just looked at this big piece of tree and said, ‘What the hell is that?’ ”
Its $25,000 price tag reflects the effort.
His oil painting prices range from $200 to $7,000, depending on size; and his prints average around $150 each.
The best selling print, he said, is “Lady Dancing with Death to the Tune of the Harmonica Player,” done in carved aqua Linoleum. As the title suggests, there is a harmonica player, a grim reaper-like figure, and a nude woman.
A former house painter who grew up in Wilmington, Del., Mr. Stanford, the father of two grown children, had an artist mother and a father who gave up a job with DuPont to start his own vineyard — in Delaware.
Mr. Stanford, who has had a penchant for art since he was young, moved to Massachusetts in 1980, and soon after obtained his first cache of historical documents in Bolton while working as a house painter. He came upon a box of old railroad show memorabilia and asked the owner for it in lieu of payment for the paint job.
“I took that to a railroad show, and we blew people away. I got $10,000 for it, and I realized there was a better way to make a living than painting houses,” he said.
A collector by nature, he started his rounds of attending auctions and estate and yard sales, picking up old photographs, maps, posters, stamps, envelopes and letters — pretty much anything involving paper — although he managed to grab a few death masks, a bunch of pocket watches and a vial of kidney stones along the way.
He found a photograph of Mae West autographed to Anne Bancroft in a New York City trash container. It’s for sale for $500 in his gallery. He has all sorts of rock music-related items, including original Woodstock programs, autographed photographs of the original Rolling Stones, and photographs of the Grateful Dead on tour. There are wanted posters of Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger.
His most valuable photograph, he says, is a full-plate 1852 picture of someone at Niagara Falls.
“It was very popular to get your photo taken by the falls,” Mr. Stanford said.
Also in stock are hundreds of original cartoon illustrations by noted artists such as Mischa Richter, who was with the New Yorker for years; and with New Masses Magazine in the 1930s and 1940s. Mr. Stanford, who was the winner of the 2004 Jacob Knight Award, said he became friends with Richter when they both lived on Cape Cod.
“He sold everything he had, about 1,500 pieces,” Mr. Stanford said.
A section of Mr. Stanford’s inventory is devoted to old “girlie” magazines and prints — not suited for a family newspaper. But to balance that off, he proudly shows off his large signed portrait of Mother Teresa.
A few steps away are old cans full of artist paint brushes, and half-squeezed tubes of paint piling out of a battered suitcase.
They sit below a pieced-together circa-1924 poster of former Boston mayor James Michael Curley. Beside that is a cardboard box full of dusty papers, with a 1729 deed from New Haven, Conn., on top. The surrounding walls are covered with paintings of disembodied people — mostly half-naked women — and much of the floor space is taken up with large wooden sculptures, also mainly of folks missing torsos and stomachs.
“I am not fond of fat people,” said Tom Stanford with a slight smile.
He is the creator of this wild collection of art, rare photography, and ephemera (printed material.)
Mr. Stanford, 61, recently opened his new Ladybird’s Gallery — named after his aging dog — at 78 Rigby Road, a wooded area on the Clinton line. His house is beside the gallery.
He got the idea after a trip to Taos, N.M., where he checked out numerous art galleries.
Shuffling around his gallery in a pair of orange clogs, Mr. Stanford, who previously operated a gallery of collectible documents and prints in Clinton, explains his unique style of painting, which he has dubbed “subtractionalism.”
“Basically, a portion of the anatomy, usually muscle and bones, is missing,” he said of his Picasso-meets-Warhol-like abstract oil paintings. “It did not start out that way, it just came upon me.”
His sculptures, which were carved from single trees cut down during nearby construction, (“I dragged them across the street”) are a world onto themselves.
One shows a Greek god entwined with a swan-woman. Another huge sculpture (the trunk is upside down) depicts a sailor, a mermaid and a serpent. Mr. Sanford said he worked 12 hours a day for seven months on that one.
When asked how he came up with the theme, he responded: “I just looked at this big piece of tree and said, ‘What the hell is that?’ ”
Its $25,000 price tag reflects the effort.
His oil painting prices range from $200 to $7,000, depending on size; and his prints average around $150 each.
The best selling print, he said, is “Lady Dancing with Death to the Tune of the Harmonica Player,” done in carved aqua Linoleum. As the title suggests, there is a harmonica player, a grim reaper-like figure, and a nude woman.
A former house painter who grew up in Wilmington, Del., Mr. Stanford, the father of two grown children, had an artist mother and a father who gave up a job with DuPont to start his own vineyard — in Delaware.
Mr. Stanford, who has had a penchant for art since he was young, moved to Massachusetts in 1980, and soon after obtained his first cache of historical documents in Bolton while working as a house painter. He came upon a box of old railroad show memorabilia and asked the owner for it in lieu of payment for the paint job.
“I took that to a railroad show, and we blew people away. I got $10,000 for it, and I realized there was a better way to make a living than painting houses,” he said.
A collector by nature, he started his rounds of attending auctions and estate and yard sales, picking up old photographs, maps, posters, stamps, envelopes and letters — pretty much anything involving paper — although he managed to grab a few death masks, a bunch of pocket watches and a vial of kidney stones along the way.
He found a photograph of Mae West autographed to Anne Bancroft in a New York City trash container. It’s for sale for $500 in his gallery. He has all sorts of rock music-related items, including original Woodstock programs, autographed photographs of the original Rolling Stones, and photographs of the Grateful Dead on tour. There are wanted posters of Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger.
His most valuable photograph, he says, is a full-plate 1852 picture of someone at Niagara Falls.
“It was very popular to get your photo taken by the falls,” Mr. Stanford said.
Also in stock are hundreds of original cartoon illustrations by noted artists such as Mischa Richter, who was with the New Yorker for years; and with New Masses Magazine in the 1930s and 1940s. Mr. Stanford, who was the winner of the 2004 Jacob Knight Award, said he became friends with Richter when they both lived on Cape Cod.
“He sold everything he had, about 1,500 pieces,” Mr. Stanford said.
A section of Mr. Stanford’s inventory is devoted to old “girlie” magazines and prints — not suited for a family newspaper. But to balance that off, he proudly shows off his large signed portrait of Mother Teresa.
2011年11月29日星期二
Exceptional work of art by Paul Cézanne at Christie's impressionist
Christie’s announces the auction of an exceptional work of art by Paul Cézanne at its Impressionist and Modern Art sale on December 1st, 2011. This oil on canvas study was realized between 1902 and 1906 when the artist was at the peak of his career. This study, one of the few known to this date, is estimated between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000 Euros.
Thomas Seydoux, International director of the Impressionist and Modern Art department: ”The Bathers of Paul Cézanne figure among the most famous compositions in Art History. Discovering and unveiling this oil on canvas study was a very exhilarating moment, because it is the first time in decades that we discover such a piece of art.”
The famous series of paintings The Bathers, executed between 1894 and 1906, are today recognized to be emblematic works of art by Paul Cézanne. They are, according to Philip Conisbee, former curator of the Washington National Gallery of Art, “the heritage of Cézanne.”
In addition to the series are three final large format versions executed between 1894 and the artist’s death in 1906. We know that a great deal of Cézanne’s work was influenced by this theme. He created numerous studies and sketches, most of them were pencil drawings “which always stayed in his chest’s drawer, in his room, or in his desk’s drawer in his studio” showing an obstinacy working on the subject (J. Gasquet, Cézanne, Paris, 1926, p. 55). Until this day, only a few of these registered studies are the same composition as in the final versions. Among these studies, seven are oil paintings, including the work presented here, while others are in watercolor. These studies are now all held in public institutions.
The owner’s grand-father acquired this study in 1961 from the Parisian merchant Otto Wertheimer and it has not been seen or exhibited since then. Coming from Ambroise Vollard’s succession, this work of art would have been acquired by Otto Wertheimer in the early Fifties. The limited number of successive ownerships contributed to the rarity of this piece which remained unknown to the public until this day. The rediscovery of this work of art celebrates one of the most important events of the season.
Thomas Seydoux, International director of the Impressionist and Modern Art department: ”The Bathers of Paul Cézanne figure among the most famous compositions in Art History. Discovering and unveiling this oil on canvas study was a very exhilarating moment, because it is the first time in decades that we discover such a piece of art.”
The famous series of paintings The Bathers, executed between 1894 and 1906, are today recognized to be emblematic works of art by Paul Cézanne. They are, according to Philip Conisbee, former curator of the Washington National Gallery of Art, “the heritage of Cézanne.”
In addition to the series are three final large format versions executed between 1894 and the artist’s death in 1906. We know that a great deal of Cézanne’s work was influenced by this theme. He created numerous studies and sketches, most of them were pencil drawings “which always stayed in his chest’s drawer, in his room, or in his desk’s drawer in his studio” showing an obstinacy working on the subject (J. Gasquet, Cézanne, Paris, 1926, p. 55). Until this day, only a few of these registered studies are the same composition as in the final versions. Among these studies, seven are oil paintings, including the work presented here, while others are in watercolor. These studies are now all held in public institutions.
The owner’s grand-father acquired this study in 1961 from the Parisian merchant Otto Wertheimer and it has not been seen or exhibited since then. Coming from Ambroise Vollard’s succession, this work of art would have been acquired by Otto Wertheimer in the early Fifties. The limited number of successive ownerships contributed to the rarity of this piece which remained unknown to the public until this day. The rediscovery of this work of art celebrates one of the most important events of the season.
2011年3月30日星期三
There are a couple hundred items
The history-related bounty includes artwork by Ruth Means, Rose Sparrowk and Paul Harney, the latter being a monk oil painting; plates; tags and local brewery boxes.
"There also will be general antiques, a lot of rare books about Alton and surrounding counties, and genealogy books," Janice St. Peters said. "There are a couple hundred items."
The family also is selling a sign from the old Alton GM&O train station that Robert St. Peters unsuccessfully tried to prevent being torn down. He did salvage the sign as a memento.
"A lot of people would love to have that," his daughter said about the sign.
A sampling of the other items to be sold include: "Personal Memoirs of U.S Grant," two volumes, 1885-1886; Alton 1913 one-horse vehicle license; Alton Hoppe's China Store 25th Anniversary plate, 1910; Alton Bluff City Brewery wooden beer case; large leather drum cover that reads "Standard Brass and Reed Band of Alton, Illinois"; first edition book from 1944, "The Gentleman Giant," about Robert P. Wadlow, with dust jacket and photos; "Narrative of Riots at Alton in Connection with the Death of Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy" by Rev. Edward Beecher, 1838 first edition; Alton political pins, miscellaneous memorabilia, bottles, tokens and old city directories.
The family plans to sell household goods and other belongings at a later date.
St. Peters, 87, died Feb. 8. He was a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, serving on the aircraft carrier USS Franklin during combat in the Pacific Ocean. The Alton native subsequently returned to his home city and worked at McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis County, Mo., for about 25 years. He was a charter member of AALA, with a priority to preserve Riverfront Park and the site of the historical, Alton location of one of the Lincoln-Douglas U.S. Senate debates of 1858.
"There also will be general antiques, a lot of rare books about Alton and surrounding counties, and genealogy books," Janice St. Peters said. "There are a couple hundred items."
The family also is selling a sign from the old Alton GM&O train station that Robert St. Peters unsuccessfully tried to prevent being torn down. He did salvage the sign as a memento.
"A lot of people would love to have that," his daughter said about the sign.
A sampling of the other items to be sold include: "Personal Memoirs of U.S Grant," two volumes, 1885-1886; Alton 1913 one-horse vehicle license; Alton Hoppe's China Store 25th Anniversary plate, 1910; Alton Bluff City Brewery wooden beer case; large leather drum cover that reads "Standard Brass and Reed Band of Alton, Illinois"; first edition book from 1944, "The Gentleman Giant," about Robert P. Wadlow, with dust jacket and photos; "Narrative of Riots at Alton in Connection with the Death of Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy" by Rev. Edward Beecher, 1838 first edition; Alton political pins, miscellaneous memorabilia, bottles, tokens and old city directories.
The family plans to sell household goods and other belongings at a later date.
St. Peters, 87, died Feb. 8. He was a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, serving on the aircraft carrier USS Franklin during combat in the Pacific Ocean. The Alton native subsequently returned to his home city and worked at McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis County, Mo., for about 25 years. He was a charter member of AALA, with a priority to preserve Riverfront Park and the site of the historical, Alton location of one of the Lincoln-Douglas U.S. Senate debates of 1858.
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