| The First Art Newspaper on the Net | Established in 1996 | Saturday, November 19, 2011 |
| | Sotheby's to sell one of the most important works by Vilhelm Hammershøi at auction
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Sotheby's employee Jack Barton, left, adjusts one of his white gloves before posing for photographs with his colleague Laura Thatcher with the painting "Interior with Ida in a White Chair" by the Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershoi at the Sotheby's auction house in London, Friday, Nov. 18, 2011. The piece, which is estimated to fetch 500,000 to 700,000 pounds ($791,252 to $1,107,753 and 582,638 to 815,694 euro) is one of three headline paintings in the Scandinavian part of Sotheby's forthcoming sale of European paintings on November 22. AP Photo/Matt Dunham.
LONDON.- Sotheby's Scandinavian sale on Tuesday, 22 November 2011 will be headlined by Interior with Ida in a White Chair by Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916). Estimated at £500,000-700,000, the painting is one of the most important works by the artist ever to be offered at auction and comes to the market from a Private Danish Collection. Painted in 1900 in the artist’s home at Strandgade 30 in Copenhagen, it depicts his wife Ida. A sublime distillation of Hammershøi’s artistic concerns during his lifetime, the painting epitomises his remarkable ability to capture a sense of timelessness and ... More |
| Important American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture in Christie's New York sale | | Egyptomania! Blockbuster antiquities sale at Christie's New York includes 5 lots at over $1 million each | | Most complete skeletons of early human relatives ever found donated to Natural History Museum | 
Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939), Lady Trying on a Hat. Estimate: $1,000,000 – 1,500,000. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2011.
NEW YORK, N.Y.- The Important American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture auction at Christie’s New York on November 30, at 10 am, will lead off with two vibrant landscapes from Oscar Bluemner and Frederic Church, two superb Georgia O’Keeffe paintings and a heroic tableau of Columbus departing for the New World by Emanuel Leutze, the renowned painter of Washington Crossing the Delaware. A total of 136 lots will be offered, featuring outstanding works from diverse movements across the 19th and 20th centuries, including Hudson River School, American Impressionism, Modernism, and Western Art. The sale is expected to achieve in excess of $22 million. The auction and pre-sale exhibition will take place in Christie’s new 20th floor Special Exhibition Galleries, with 360-degree views of the Manhattan skyline. The O’Keeffe paintings, My Autumn and Black Iris (estimates: $2,000,000-3,000,000 and ... More | | 
Roman parcel gilt silver emblema of Cleopatra Selene, circa late 1st century B.C.-Early 1st century A.D. Estimate $2,000,000 – 3,000,000.
NEW YORK, N.Y.- Christie’s announces an incredibly important sale of Antiquities on December 7, at 10 am, which will offer over 225 lots, led by several exceptional works of Ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman art, plus Near Eastern and European antiquities, along with some fine examples of Nordic Neolithic stone tools. The sale is expected to exceed $18 million. It will be followed by a sale of Ancient Jewelry at 2 pm. Both the auctions and their pre-sale viewings will take place in Christie’s Special Exhibition Galleries on the 20th floor. Leading the sale is an Egyptian Head of a Pharaoh in red jasper, one of the rarest and most beautiful Egyptian works of art to appear at auction in decades (estimate: $3,000,000-$5,000,000). Nearly 4 inches high, the superbly sculpted head was originally part of a composite statue in which the face, hands and feet were all carved from a bright red jasper, a material that was ... More | | 
The ancient human-like species, Australopithecus sediba, is 1.98 million years old and could be the ancestor to the first humans. © Natural History Museum.
LONDON.- Exact fossil replicas of two of the most complete skeletons of early human relatives ever found have been donated to the Natural History Museum in London, of which the skull is on display from today. The ancient human-like species, Australopithecus sediba, is 1.98 million years old and could be the ancestor to the first humans. The skeleton casts have been donated by the University of the Witwatersrand and the Government of the Republic of South Africa. 'This will be the first public exhibition of this early human-like species in the UK,' says Museum Director Dr Michael Dixon. 'This gift gives us an opportunity to show these spectacular finds to the public and for researchers and students to study them.' The remarkable remains were uncovered from caves at Malapa, South Africa, and they were unveiled in April 2010 by Professor Lee Berger of the Institute for Human Evolution at Wits University and colleagues. Australop ... More |
| Brooklyn Museum presents Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture | | Indiana University Art Museum to return painting to Berlin's Jagdschloss Grunewald | | Auction house MacDougall's announces Russian paintings, icons and works of art sale | 
Romaine Brooks (American, 1874–1970), Self-Portrait, 1923. Oil on canvas, 46 1/4 x 26 7/8 in. (117.5 x 68.3 cm). Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Gift of the artist.
BROOKLYN, N.Y.- HIDE/SEEK: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, the first major museum exhibition to explore how gender and sexual identity have shaped the creation of American portraiture, organized by and presented at the National Portrait Gallery last fall, will be on view at the Brooklyn Museum from November 18, 2011, through February 12, 2012. With the cooperation of the National Portrait Gallery, the Brooklyn Museum has reconstituted the exhibition in concert with the Tacoma Art Museum, where it will be on view from March 17 through June 10, 2012. HIDE/SEEK includes approximately a hundred works in a wide range of media created over the course of one hundred years that reflect a variety of sexual identities and the stories of several generations. Highlighting the influence of gay ... More | | 
The painting "Flagellation of Christ" that will be returned to the Jagdschloss Grunewald. AP Photo/Indiana University.
BLOOMINGTON, IN.- More than 60 years after it disappeared from a Berlin museum in the chaotic aftermath of World War II, a painting depicting the flagellation of Christ will return home. The Indiana University Art Museum will return the painting to the Jagdschloss Grunewald in a ceremony Nov. 21 at Charlottenburg Palace in Germany. Created by a Cologne master, the Flagellation of Christ dates to the late 15th century and originally formed part of a wing of an altarpiece. It was one of more than a dozen paintings that disappeared from the Berlin museum during the summer of 1945, looted by Russian and British soldiers. The IU Art Museum acquired the painting in 1985 as a gift from former IU President Herman B Wells. IU officials said Wells purchased the work in good faith from a London art gallery in 1967. Wells had a long history with Germany, serving as ... More | | 
Boris Kustodiev, Merchant's Wife. Estimate: 1,200,000-1,800,000 GBP.
LONDON.- On 1 December 2011, MacDougall’s will present Russian paintings, icons and works of art with a total pre‐sale estimate of over £16m. The sale is led by Boris Kustodiev’s Merchant's Wife dating from 1923. Kupchikhas, as merchants’ wives are known in Russian, are among the artist’s most recognisable images. The present example, which is estimated at £1,200,000–1,800,000, was shown at the historic Russian Art Exhibition in New York’s Grand Central Palace in 1924. Another highlight of the sale is Listening to the Bedana, a rare work by Alexander Volkov. In his works, Volkov combined the local colour and images of his native Uzbekistan with international styles such as Cubism and Futurism. Painted in the 1920s, the work belongs to a new stage in this artist’s career in which he experimented with figurative representation. In Listening to the ... More |
| First ladies' gowns return to view at Smithsonian's National Museum of American History | | Newly Discovered Indian Combat by Edmonia Lewis acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art | | Renowned fine art restoration firm Sterling Associates to launch auction business with Estates sale | 
First lady Caroline Harrison’s evening gown. AP Photo/Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Hugh Talman.
By: Brett Zongker, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP).- Dresses, china and mementos dating back to days when Americans referred to the first lady as "lady presidentress" or "republican queen" will return to view Saturday at the National Museum of American History, along with Michelle Obama's dashing inaugural gown as a centerpiece. The new exhibition "The First Ladies" features 26 dresses and about 160 other objects ranging from Martha Washington's White House collection to a first look at Laura Bush's china. It's the 10th version of the first ladies exhibit in nearly 100 years. The last one closed in October as the museum moves historic objects out of its west wing for a major renovation beginning early next year. "We knew that it would be unacceptable during the renovation timeframe for the public to go two years without this popular and almost ... More | | 
Edmonia Lewis (American 1842-1907). Indian Combat, c.1868. Marble (Carrara); 30 x 19 x 14 3/8 in. 2011.110
CLEVELAND, OH.- An outstanding American neoclassical work by the renowned 19th century sculptor Edmonia Lewis has been acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art. The multi-figured Indian Combat ranks among the most ambitious of all free-standing American neoclassical sculptures. Born circa 1842 of African American and Native American (Objibwa) descent, Edmonia Lewis holds the distinction of being the first non-white American sculptor to achieve acclaim internationally. Indian Combat had been in the private collection of a Massachusetts family since the 1950s, and remained unknown to the art world until it surfaced late last year. The acquisition enhances the museum’s distinguished American art holdings and demonstrates the museum’s dedication to add works that strengthen its historic commitment to artistic excellence. “Edmonia Lewis’s Indian Combat is a remarkable discovery. Its acquisition builds on ... More | | 
Pietro Fragiacomo (Italian, 1856-1922) signed oil-on-canvas painting of women at shoreline, 20½ x 20 inches, est. $6,000-$8,000. Sterling Associates image.
CLOSTER, N.J.- When Sterling Associates conducts its inaugural Fall Estates Sale on Dec. 3, bidders from around the world will have the chance to experience what may very well be the future of the auction business – a format that company owner Stephen D’Atri calls the “hybrid auction.” “All of the bidding will be done absentee, over the phone or via the Internet, but we’re very much a permanent brick-and-mortar company where anyone can come in to inspect the goods,” said D’Atri. “It will be run exactly like a live auction, but without a live audience.” D’Atri said the idea behind Sterling Associates developed organically, after many years of working with his family’s antique lighting business, followed by the establishment of a very successful business of his own. Over a 22-year period, D’Atri’s Sterling Restoration and Antique D’zynes grew fro ... More |
| Latin American sales in United States have best year since 2008 financial crisis | | Gagosian Gallery exhibition celebrates the work of Piero Manzoni and fellow artists | | Keith Smith creates books as works of art in first exhibition at Bruce Silverstein Gallery | 
Detail of Venezuelan artist Cruz-Diez's 1962 "Physichromie 88" which set an auction record for the artist at $518,500, at Sotheby's. REUTERS/Sotheby's.
By: Walker Simon
NEW YORK, NY (REUTERS).- Latin American art sales, which totaled nearly $90 million in New York in 2011, scored their best year since the 2008 financial crisis, aided by a boom in Brazilian art and demand from Asia. The sales at Christie's and Sotheby's were second only to the 2008 Latin American market total of $96 million, according to the auction houses. While they primarily attribute the success to the selective quality of the works, collectors and gallery owners said a bigger factor is the global emergence from recession and demand from countries with strong economic expansion. Brazil's robust economic growth has helped drive the soaring prices at the auctions, according to Mary-Anne Martin, who owns an art gallery in New York specializing in Latin American works. "Brazilian art is pulling way ahead ... More | | 
Piero Manzoni, Achrome, c. 1962. Bread rolls and kaolin, 10 1/2 x 10 1/2in. Private Collection, Milan. Photo: Matteo Piazza © Fondazione Piero Manzoni, Milan, 2011 DACS, London/SIAE, Rome.
LONDON.- Following the acclaimed exhibition "Manzoni: A Retrospective" in New York in 2009, Gagosian Gallery presents "Manzoni: Azimut" at the Davies Street gallery in London. Organized in cooperation with the Fondazione Piero Manzoni, the exhibition celebrates the work of Manzoni and fellow artists during the brief life of the Azimut gallery in Milan from 1959 to 1960. On December 4, 1959, Azimut opened in the sub-basement of a furniture store on a narrow street around the corner from La Scala in Milan with an exhibition of Manzoni´s most radical work to date: Linee (Lines), drawings of a single line on a length of paper, signed, rolled up and sealed in a cardboard tube, which he then labeled. A youthful, experimental exhibition space that lasted just eight months, Azimut presented thirteen exhibitions and became a nerve center for an international set ... More | | 
Keith Smith, Book 21, 1971. Unique artist book with photographs and stitching, 11 x 11 in. Signed. Photo: © Keith Smith, courtesy of Bruce Silverstein Gallery, NY.
NEW YORK, N.Y.- Bruce Silverstein presents Book by Book, the gallery’s first solo exhibition by the artist Keith Smith. Smith has been creating books as works of art since the 1960s, yet he has rarely shown his work to the public over the past twenty-five years. The 30 books selected for this exhibition, made between 1967-2011, reveal Smith's unfailing interest in experimenting with new materials and processes.He designs books that allow the viewer to experience and question the structure and nature of the book itself—his works are often radical departures from traditional books—made of string or covered in fabric, they unfold, light-up, do not open, are unbound, or punched full of holes. Each piece is an opportunity for the viewer to expand his or her own expectations for a book and physically engage with the imagery or text. For Smith, his work is a form of creative articulation whereby the act of makin ... More |
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 Property from American museums highlight Asian decorative arts auction at Bonhams SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Bonhams announces it held a highly successful auction of Asian Decorative Arts, November 15 in San Francisco, with more than 500 lots of Chinese art on offer, and with sales totaling more than $1.1 million. Leading the auction were two lots sold to benefit the Connor Prairie Museum of Fishers, Indiana: a pair of Chinese hexagonal porcelain garden seats from the Republic period (1911-1949) that sold for $18,750, far exceeding a pre-sale estimate of $2,000-3,000, and an 18th/19th century huanghuali brush pot with hardstone inlay which brought $17,500. Another highlight of the sale, sold to benefit the Harvard Art Museums, was a collection of five calligraphies by various artists from the Qing dynasty that brought $13,750 (pre-sale est. $1,200-1,500). Of the auction, Dessa Goddard, the Vice President and Director of Asian Art at Bonhams in San Francisco, commented, ... More Noguchi Museum launches digital catalogue raisonné of artist's work in all mediums and genres LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y.- The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum (The Noguchi Museum) today—the 107th anniversary of the artist's birth—launched The Isamu Noguchi Catalogue Raisonné, posting the first installment on the Museum's website: http://catalogue.noguchi.org. An ongoing digital publication, the catalogue raisonné presents comprehensive information on all categories of Noguchi's practice, encompassing sculptures, drawings, models, architectural spaces, stage sets, and manufactured designs, as well as a chronology, bibliography, and list of exhibitions. Access to the publication—one of the first catalogues raisonnés to be published digitally—is free of charge. Noguchi Museum Director Jenny Dixon states, "The Isamu Noguchi Catalogue Raisonné, a longtime project, is an enormous achievement, bringing together traditional scholarship with contemporary technology to create a rich, ... More Magali Reus' unique perspective on view at first solo show at The Approach LONDON.- The Approach announces the first solo show in the gallery by Magali Reus. Magali Reus’s work assumes a minimalist form, in which she approaches today’s visual culture from a unique perspective. The premise for the exhibition ‘ON’ is loosely based on the aesthetics and architecture of transitional spaces. Cargo conveyor belts, airport check in security, road transport, and various vessels become the starting point for sculptures that are paired back to essential forms full of resonance, association and allusion. Reus treats both her film subjects and her sculptures in the same way, without an interest in specific narrative but instead in the dynamic potential of these liminal movements and forms. The video ‘Offshore’ features three young men who are collecting blue barrels floating out at sea, swimming back with them and dragging them onto the beach. It focuses on the men’s bod ... More Early Photographic albums, classic black and white images, and works of contemporary art draw bidders NEW YORK, N.Y.- Swann Galleries’ October 18 auction of Fine Photographs opened with a frenzy of bids for early photographic albums, and interest remained high as the sale continued with classic 20th-century images, iconic examples of photojournalism and contemporary art. Along the way several auction records were set. Daile Kaplan, Vice President and Director of Photographs at Swann, said, “We are delighted with the results of this auction, in which we realized multiple world records for a host of 19th and 20th century photographs. This stellar performance underscores the growing interest in classical photography.” The sale’s top lot was Berenice Abbott’s dazzling Retrospective Portfolio, with 50 large-format silver prints, including the artist’s celebrated New York City views, 1930-60, printed 1982, which brought a record $90,000*. Also setting records were two early albums conta ... More Claire Orologas appointed Executive Director of Polk Museum of Art LAKELAND, FL.- Opportunity Resources Inc. announced that Claire Orologas has been chosen by the Board of Trustees of the Polk Museum of Art as its next Executive Director. Claire will begin at the Polk Museum on February 1, 2012. Art and education have been the cornerstones of Claire’s distinguished career. For the past 11 years she has held increasingly responsible positions with the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian Institution’s Asian art museum in Washington, D.C., where she is presently Head of Education and Public Programs. “I have been extremely impressed with the dedication of the staff and Board at Polk Museum of Art,” Claire said. “I look forward to working with them and the citizens of Polk County to advance the goals of this wonderful institution, and to maximize its role as a Smithsonian Affiliate museum.” “We are thrilled to welcome Claire to the Polk ... More Grab your own "Work of Art" from Bravo's hit Show with exclusive new line of artwork WICHITA, KS.- overstockArt.com announced that it has joined forces with Bravo and Magical Elves to launch a new line of artwork from the cable network’s series "Work of Art: The Next Great Artist." The exclusive line of reproduced artwork is created by the artists participating in the creative competition series produced by Magical Elves and Pretty Matches Productions. The artwork featured in “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist” will be made available for purchase exclusively on overstockArt.com following airing of new episodes each Wednesday. Reproduced artwork created by artists who competed in the first season of the show will also be made available for purchase. The new line will debut on Thursday, Nov. 10 at www.overstockart.com/workofart.html. Bravo's "Work of Art: The Next Great Artist" is a creative competition series that seeks to discover new talent and shed light on the artistic process that typ ... More |
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