NEW YORK, N.Y.- Among the highlights of Sotheby’s March 2012 Asia Week sales in New York is one of the most significant paintings by Sayed Haider Raza ever to appear on the market - Village With Church from 1958. The painting was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III from the landmark 1958-59 exhibition Trends in Contemporary Painting In India and remained in their historic collection until 1994. Village With Church represents the apex of Raza’s early period and is estimated to sell for $1.5/2.5 million. The painting will be included in Sotheby’s sale of Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art on 19 March 2012 and will be on view beginning 16 March.
Priyanka Mathew, Head of the Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art Sale at Sotheby’s said: “We are delighted to bring this important and historic painting to auction. John D. and Blanchette Rockefeller were two of the most important early champions of modern Indian painting in the United States. Their patronage and support was key in introducing the work of the Progressive Artists’ Group in America, of which Village With Church is such a significant example.”
John D. Rockefeller III, the eldest son of John D. Rockefeller Jr., devoted his life to the promotion of Asian-American relations. Along with his wife he made several visits to India, meeting numerous artists, businessmen and politicians, including Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi.
Perhaps his most notable achievement was the establishment of the Asia Society in New York - an organization that continues today with the goal of bringing ‘the peoples of the United States and Asia closer together in their knowledge of each other and each other’s way of life.’ Central to this mission was promoting cultural exchange and addressing the lack of exhibitions of Asian art in the US.
In addition to the Asia Society, John D. Rockefeller III founded both the Indian Cooperative Union and the American Association for Economic and Social Development, for which Thomas Keehn was the representative of the Rockefeller Foundation. Keehn lived in India and befriended many of the artists who became known as the Progressive Artists’ Group. He went on to organize 8 Painters, an exhibition of their work held in Delhi in 1956 that included Village With Church. This exhibition would later expand and transfer to the U.S. as Trends In Contemporary Painting In India, the first such exhibition ever mounted in America. It was shown in numerous museums and galleries throughout the U.S. and was received as both a critical and popular success. Among the stops was a show at Graham Gallery in New York where the painting caught the eye of the Rockefellers.
Raza spent a considerable portion of his career in France, first arriving in 1950 and still today maintaining a studio in the south of France. He was deeply moved by the works of the European modernist masters, particularly CEzanne and van Gogh, and his works from this period echo the structure and formalism of both of these artists. Receipt of the prestigious Prix de la Critique (Critic's award) in 1956 afforded Raza both international recognition and the freedom to leave Paris and travel throughout his beloved adopted homeland. Throughout the 1950s in France, Raza painted the landscapes of Europe in semi-abstracted forms, but with identifiable architectural elements that provide a constant link to human activity. Heavy with impasto and punctuated with staccato gestural strokes, Village with Church exudes a dynamic, tempestuous energy so characteristic of the artist; a hybrid of the lyrical abstraction redolent of the postwar Ecole de Paris, and the vibrancy and direct color treatment of a Rajput miniature. Village With Church is one of the seminal paintings from this period and stands as an enduring legacy of one of the pioneers of Indian Modern Art.
2012年1月10日星期二
2011年6月20日星期一
Is this really a fake Monet painting?
Imagine being convinced you own an old master, but repeatedly being told it's a fake.
That is what art collector David Joel says has happened to him and he has spent nearly two decades trying to get his Monet accepted as genuine.
It looks authentic and carries Claude Monet's signature on the bottom right hand corner.
But Mr Joel could never put it up for auction because officially it is a fake - but he is convinced otherwise.
Now aged 82, he can still recall the day he first saw the painting and fell in love with it - although initially it was well beyond his price range.
He said: "I first saw it in a sale room in Norwich. I couldn't possibly afford it because it was supposed to go for £500,000. I really loved it but there was nothing I could do about it.
"Two years later I heard there was a possibility I could buy it from the owner and I bought it for £40,000."
Missing Monet
Mr Joel believed the painting Bords de la Seine a Argenteuil was a missing Monet. It shows a scene identified as close to the painter's home on the Seine outside Paris. A note on the frame suggests it was painted in 1875.
However his exhaustive attempts to get accredited have so far failed.
The final word on whether it is genuine rests with a handful of individuals in a billionaire family of art collectors, dealers and art scholars - the Wildensteins.
The Wildensteins have, since the early 20th Century, been considered one of the world's leading authorities on painting, particularly the work of the Impressionists.
Without their approval, any scientific claim about the validity of the painting is worthless.
They adjudicate on all claims over Monet paintings. Their decision is final and there is no right of appeal.
Mr Joel has exchanged dozens of letters with the Wildensteins but without success.
"I have been trying for 18 years now to get Wildenstein to accept it for his catalogue. It is a long haul but I shall win in the end I think."
Art dealer and Antiques Roadshow expert Philip Mould said if the painting could be authenticated it would be worth a great deal more than £40,000.
"If it were included in the book it would be a very different picture. People would look at it differently, people would value it differently. It could be worth over £1m."
Long process
Mr Mould believes there are many other pictures out there with a greatness yet to be fully realised.
That is what art collector David Joel says has happened to him and he has spent nearly two decades trying to get his Monet accepted as genuine.
It looks authentic and carries Claude Monet's signature on the bottom right hand corner.
But Mr Joel could never put it up for auction because officially it is a fake - but he is convinced otherwise.
Now aged 82, he can still recall the day he first saw the painting and fell in love with it - although initially it was well beyond his price range.
He said: "I first saw it in a sale room in Norwich. I couldn't possibly afford it because it was supposed to go for £500,000. I really loved it but there was nothing I could do about it.
"Two years later I heard there was a possibility I could buy it from the owner and I bought it for £40,000."
Missing Monet
Mr Joel believed the painting Bords de la Seine a Argenteuil was a missing Monet. It shows a scene identified as close to the painter's home on the Seine outside Paris. A note on the frame suggests it was painted in 1875.
However his exhaustive attempts to get accredited have so far failed.
The final word on whether it is genuine rests with a handful of individuals in a billionaire family of art collectors, dealers and art scholars - the Wildensteins.
The Wildensteins have, since the early 20th Century, been considered one of the world's leading authorities on painting, particularly the work of the Impressionists.
Without their approval, any scientific claim about the validity of the painting is worthless.
They adjudicate on all claims over Monet paintings. Their decision is final and there is no right of appeal.
Mr Joel has exchanged dozens of letters with the Wildensteins but without success.
"I have been trying for 18 years now to get Wildenstein to accept it for his catalogue. It is a long haul but I shall win in the end I think."
Art dealer and Antiques Roadshow expert Philip Mould said if the painting could be authenticated it would be worth a great deal more than £40,000.
"If it were included in the book it would be a very different picture. People would look at it differently, people would value it differently. It could be worth over £1m."
Long process
Mr Mould believes there are many other pictures out there with a greatness yet to be fully realised.
2011年6月8日星期三
Business Profile: Springsteel Gallery
Springsteel Art Gallery in Greenport exhibits original paintings and sculptures by owner Bernard Springsteel, with a guest artist or photographer featured every month.
“My watercolor and oil paintings reflect somewhat different themes, but nevertheless reflect the world as it is and particularly the way it was before us,” Mr. Springsteel said. “I particularly like to find old homes and watercraft that have seen the test of time and now make a statement of their antiquity. The light and shadow of these old structures really whet my appetite for their beauty of form. I have found that painting places I have traveled to has added a rich addition to my work and makes me part of a tradition of artists who traveled and painted.”
With a bachelor’s of fine arts degree from Pratt Institute and 30 years’ experience as an art director in magazine and book publishing, Mr. Springsteel began a fine arts career after many years of working with other artists and photographers. “This had given me a rich background in the arts, and I now devote my time to watercolors, oils and sculpture,” he said. “Having all this time to concentrate on these crafts is a gift of life, after so many years of working for publishing houses.”
The techniques of figurative sculpture and bas relief are thousands of years old, and are little changed except for the introduction of synthetics. “This and the fact that artists continue to pursue this form speaks for its reason to always be a legitimate art form,” said Mr. Springsteel. “Mankind does not become modern. He perpetuates as did early man. So too, figurative art is not an abstraction but a real mirror of the generations.
“The best description of my sculptural work is contemporary figurative and classical in scope, dealing with mythological and thematic figures, sometimes with humor,” he added. “The classical human form and the relationships between humans intrigue me. Having been to many museums in the world, I have always been struck with the figure and how it has come down chronicled by art through the ages.”
“My watercolor and oil paintings reflect somewhat different themes, but nevertheless reflect the world as it is and particularly the way it was before us,” Mr. Springsteel said. “I particularly like to find old homes and watercraft that have seen the test of time and now make a statement of their antiquity. The light and shadow of these old structures really whet my appetite for their beauty of form. I have found that painting places I have traveled to has added a rich addition to my work and makes me part of a tradition of artists who traveled and painted.”
With a bachelor’s of fine arts degree from Pratt Institute and 30 years’ experience as an art director in magazine and book publishing, Mr. Springsteel began a fine arts career after many years of working with other artists and photographers. “This had given me a rich background in the arts, and I now devote my time to watercolors, oils and sculpture,” he said. “Having all this time to concentrate on these crafts is a gift of life, after so many years of working for publishing houses.”
The techniques of figurative sculpture and bas relief are thousands of years old, and are little changed except for the introduction of synthetics. “This and the fact that artists continue to pursue this form speaks for its reason to always be a legitimate art form,” said Mr. Springsteel. “Mankind does not become modern. He perpetuates as did early man. So too, figurative art is not an abstraction but a real mirror of the generations.
“The best description of my sculptural work is contemporary figurative and classical in scope, dealing with mythological and thematic figures, sometimes with humor,” he added. “The classical human form and the relationships between humans intrigue me. Having been to many museums in the world, I have always been struck with the figure and how it has come down chronicled by art through the ages.”
订阅：
博文 (Atom)