Previous Posts: October 2011
Was Van Gogh murdered?
October 17 2011
No - but there's a hefty new biography which needs publicizing. The above programme on CBS' 60 Minutes, which examines the new evidence around Van Gogh's death, is worth a watch.
Christie's Contemporary sale lifts the gloom
October 15 2011
Picture: Christie's
Christie's comprehensively beat Sotheby's this week in the battle of the contemporary art sales. Where Sotheby's totalled only a below estimate £17.8m, Christie's came in with an above estimate £38m.
One of the star performers was a maquette by Anthony Gormley of The Angel of the North (above), which sold for £3.4m (inc. premium) against an estimate of £1.5m-£2m. As a guide to how fast the contemporary market can move, it was only in 2008 that Philip Mould's valuation of another Gormley maquette of The Angel made headlines as the first Antiques Roadshow item to beat £1m.
The Louvre cleans a Leonardo
October 15 2011
Exciting news - the Louvre has released some images of its restoration of Leonardo's Virgin and Child with St Anne. You can zoom in on what it used to look like here.
The Louvre is famously averse to cleaning pictures. Some (including me) would say that the Louvre's keep-em-dirty approach has paid off, for wandering around the collection today it is noticeable that the pictures are generally in exceptional condition. Ov average, the collection is in better condition than that of the National Gallery, which was one of the first public galleries to start cleaning pictures, often with disastrous consequences. These days, happily, cleaning techniques are advanced enough for us to be sure of doing as little permanent damage as possible.
The 'Monet of Manchester'
October 14 2011
Picture: Guardian, detail from 'Manchester Ship Canal'
A new exhibition of the works of French artist Adolphe Valette opens at The Lowry in Manchester tomorrow. Valette is best known as Lowry's teacher. Runs until 19th January. More here.
Which one is by the Orangutan?
October 14 2011
Picture: Sotheby's/Hogle Zoo
Which one of these sold last night at Sotheby's for £421,250 and which one was painted by an orangutan? I bet quite a few of you get the answer wrong.
Ok, I know it's a tired old cliché. But you've got to admit that this particular Orangutan, Acara (b.2005), is pretty talented...
Here's the catalogue note for Untitled by Christopher Wool:
Wool's attitude towards the role of images in our culture today, one which he shares with contemporaries such as Prince, Oehlen, Cady Noland and Kippenberger, has become increasingly important to a younger generation of image makers, including New York artists Wade Guyton, Josh Smith and Kelley Walker.
And here's the note for Untitled by Acara;
Born here at Utah's Hogle Zoo in 2005 to Elijah and Eve, Acara inherited some of her talent for art from her parents. She has been the most consistent and reliable orangutan in her desire to paint when asked to, and rarely turns down an opportunity to create a masterpiece. Still learning her craft, she has been an intent observer of the techniques our human guest artists have used, and has then used these techniques in her own work. She seems to be the most versatile in using different materials as well as different styles and can be counted on to deliver a finished piece in mere moments.
If you like Acara's work, then why not buy some here to help protect orangutans' native forests around the world.
'The mood has changed'
October 14 2011
So says London-based art dealer Edmondo di Robilant, discussing last night's weak contemporary art auction at Sotheby's. A number of high-profile lots failed to sell, and although the Sotheby's press release talks boldly about records being broken, a closer look at the numbers reveals a different story.
The Contemporary Art Evening Sale, Sotheby's major event of this important contemporary art week (alongside Freize) raised a total of £17.8m. This figure includes buyer's premium, whereas the the pre-sale estimate of £19-26m does not. So knock off a couple of million for premiums, and you get a total hammer price some way below even the lower pre-sale estimate. That's not good, however you spin it.
From Bloomberg:
Some paintings went unsold, such as Peter Doig’s “Bellevarde,” valued at as much as 2 million pounds.
“That would have sold a year ago,” the London-based dealer Edmondo di Robilant said. “The mood has changed. Auction houses entice things with high estimates and in the past they’ve been able to sell them. That wasn’t always the case tonight. A number of lots that sold were knocked down against lowered reserves.”
Dealers said economic worries were weighing on some buyers. Even headline-grabbing pieces such as Marc Quinn’s 18-carat gold sculpture of Kate Moss in a yoga pose attracted just one bid. The 2008 “Microcosmos (SIREN)” was knocked down to a bidder represented by Patti Wong of Sotheby’s Asia for 577,250 pounds.
There was also just one telephone bid for the 1952 close-up portrait “Boy’s Head” by Freud, who died in July, aged 88. It was valued at 3 million pounds and fetched 3.2 million pounds.
The word is that Frieze this year hasn't exactly been stellar. So - what's going on? Is it the economy? Has the price-it-high and sell-it-low game played by the auctioneers finally been rumbled? Or, is the excesseive hype around contemporary art beginning to fade. Probably a combination of all three.
Mixing pigments in 98,000 BC
October 14 2011
Archaeologists claim to have found the earliest evidence of humans mixing paint. The find, dated to 100,000 years old, is of a set of tools used to mix red and yellow ochres.
Two sets of implements for preparing red and yellow ochres to decorate animal skins, body parts or perhaps cave walls were excavated at the Blombos cave on the Southern Cape near the Indian Ocean. The stone and bone tools for crushing, mixing and applying the pigments were uncovered alongside the shells of giant sea snails that had been used as primitive mixing pots. The snails are indigenous to South African waters.
Other bones, including the shoulder blade of a seal, were among the ingredients for making the pigments. The bones were probably heated in a fire and the marrow fat used as a binder for the paint. Along with ancient flakes of charcoal, researchers found a "high water mark" on the shells' inner wall, evidence that an unknown liquid, probably urine or water, was added to make the paint more fluid.
Full details here. How long until somebody says Leonardo was involved?
So the Queen prefers men..?
October 13 2011
Update: HM clearly reads AHN! For just two days after this was posted news came that the Queen is to support changes to the line of succession.
Here's a question I have been pondering. It's nothing to do with art, but it's certainly history: is the Queen in favour of changing the laws on royal succession to allow Prince William's first child to become sovereign, even if a girl? It would appear not, if her decision on the succession of William's other title, the Dukedom of Cambridge, is anything to go by.
Early readers of this site may remember that when William was made Duke of Cambridge on his wedding day, I wondered whether the title would pass to his first child regardless of sex.
Well, I've finally found the answer - it's boys only. From the official London Gazette: [More below]
Lucas Cranach goes to Hollywood
October 13 2011
Here's some innovative use of Old Masters in the opening sequence to The Borgias. Can you name all the artists and the paintings?
Update - Twitter art sleuth @metadadaist names the works, in order:
Van der Weyden Philippe de Croy; Bronzino Exposure of Luxury; a Cranach Lucretia ('curiously flipped'); a Cranach Judith; Ghirlandaio Zachariah in the Temple; Sabatelli Battle of Serchio; Caravaggio Death of the Virgin; a Hans Baldung; another Sabatelli; Boullogne's Triumph of Neptune (in reverse); Regnault's Execution; Anguissola, Portrait of the Artisti's Sister.
The dangers of 'science', art history and optimism
October 13 2011
All images: Art History Today/Graeme Cameron
A new self-published book has made a number of startling art historical claims. The most eye-catching is a new theory on the Mona Lisa: the sitter is, claims Graeme Cameron, an idealised portrait of Leonardo's mother. Cameron also lays claim to a new Leonardo Self-Portrait, and a Portrait of Elizabeth I by Hans Holbein.
Although I have only seen the findings published over at Art History Today, rarely have I seen so many wild theories in a single book. It's worth ordering a copy of the book out of sheer fascination. The theories highlight how too much 'scientific' analysis of paintings can lead one off on wild tangents if you're not grounded in proper art historical training and connoisseurship. [More below]
Perugino exhibition in Munich
October 13 2011
This looks like a good show: a major exhibition at the Alte Pinakothek on Pietro Perugino, Raphael's master. Opens today till 15th January 2012.
Another restitution - but this time from WW1
October 13 2011
Picture: Musée de la Chartreuse
A Fisherman's Daughter by Jules Breton (above) has been returned to the Musée de la Chartreuse in France after intervention by the United States. The picture had been stolen from the museum by a German soldier in 1918.
Valued at EUR 140,000, the picture was lost for decades, but turned up again in 2000 after it had been consigned to Sotheby's. It then appeared for sale at Maastricht in 2010, before finally being restituted after much legal wrangling.
I'm all in favour of restitution, especially of works so brutally stolen by the Nazis. But 1918 is a long time ago, and you have to wonder where we draw the line on restitution cases. What about a picture taken (and there's plenty of them) by Prussian forces from Paris in 1870? Or Napoleon's army? Or Genghis Kahn?
Strikes at the National Gallery?
October 12 2011
I learn from Art History Today that security staff at the National Gallery are threatening to go on strike, perhaps even during the Leonardo exhibition. Budget cuts have forced the National to put one warder in charge of two rooms, instead of a warder to a room as before.
Obviously, the recent attack on the Poussin, above, means this is an unusually sensitive issue. But it would be a shame if strike action disrupted the gallery. The National suffers more than other galleries from strikes because it is overly unionised. Now is probably not a good time to say that I occasionaly see warders not doing their job very well (for example, playing Sudoku).
The Madoff Curse
October 12 2011
Picture: Christie's
That Wootton once owned by Bernie Madoff failed to sell again today at $70-100k. An after-sale offer of $30k would probably do it. A better investment than any fund of Madoff's...
Guffwatch - Oxford edition
October 12 2011
Picture: Modern Art Oxford - 'Abraham Cruzvillegas, La Familia, 2009. Coconuts, artificial hair, steel wire and glue. Image courtesy of kurimanzutto'.
A reader has sent me this, from Modern Art Oxford:
Abraham Cruzvillegas - Autoconstrucción: The Optimistic Failure of a Simultaneous Promise
Cruzvillegas has created a series of new works for Modern Art Oxford that respond to the diverse contexts of the city of Oxford and the artist’s own personal background: The Optimistic Failure, a large-scale suspended sculpture in the form of a ‘mobile’, adorned with representations of Amazonian tsantsas (shrunken heads) made from animal dung, grass and soil collected from Port Meadow, Oxford; and The Simultaneous Promise, a mobile sculpture constructed from a tricycle and sound system that plays recordings of the artist’s interpretations of songs from his childhood and new songs by Oxford bands. These commissions are presented alongside two other new works: Blind Self Portrait as a Post-Thatcherite Deaf Lemon Head. For 'K.M.', in which found paper items are layered in thick monochrome paint and pinned to the gallery walls in a geometric pattern; and Untitled Scratching Relief with Builders Groove 3, a drawing incised directly onto the walls of the Upper Gallery and inspired by the route explored by Cruzvillegas’ during his visits to Oxford.
Update - a reader writes:
Guffwatch amused me today. Poor MoMA. Still the Deaf Lemon Heads would make a good name for a band. It reminded me of a guy called Victor Wynd, vendor of oddities, who owns a unique shrunken head of a European, priced (cheaply I would think) at £35,000.
Sounds like a bargain. Wonder who he (the head) is.
How do you find a Leonardo?
October 12 2011
Picture: Artinfo/Science Television Workshop. Martin Kemp examines 'La Bella Principessa'.
With good old fashioned connoisseurship (partly). Martin Kemp, Leonardo scholar and proponent of the putative Leonardo discovery La Bella Principessa, explains, in an interview for ArtInfo:
Connoisseurship still plays a role. It's much denigrated and criticized, but ultimately, without connoisseurship, we really wouldn't know Leonardo's work at all. It's still a fundamental tool in establishing what was done by him and when it was done, since none of it is signed, none of it is dated, and, apart from "The Last Supper," nothing has a continuous provenance. So you still have a lot of that rather old-fashioned judgment by eye to do.
So, in the flesh, you look at it. It's on vellum, and you can see the extent to which the surface is deteriorated, which you can't see, really, in a digital file, which smooths out the surface. You can begin to see where it's been restored — as you look at it in different light and from different angles, the physicality of it becomes apparent. But that's only your starting point. Then, all the heavy-duty research comes in, and we now have, of course, an enormous body of extra things we can look at. So the initial connoisseur's reaction merely tells you that something is worth looking at, but at any point one wrong thing can throw that all away — a later pigment, a bit of something that might come up about its history to indicate it was forged at some point, and so on. I was trained as a scientist, and if you have a scientific theory, you only need have one bit of the experiment that says, "this is not right," and the whole thing collapses. You always have to be looking for that one thing that is going to demolish the whole expectation that's being set up.
Kemp also backs away from the ludicrous 'Leonardo finger print' evidence that was much touted in his recent book on the Principessa. Even an amateur sleuth could see that the 'finger print' discovered by the controversial art investigator Peter Paul Biro was entirely unconvincing. Kemp now says:
I would not now probably say much about it at all, because on reflection I think we don't have an adequate reference bank of Leonardo fingerprints. I've talked to fingerprint specialists, and they typically require a full set of reference prints. We don't have that for Leonardo. My sense is — and this is Pascal's sense, too — that it's probably premature, given what we know about Leonardo's fingerprints, to come up with matches at all.
For a more thorough analysis of the whole Principessa case, toodle over to Three Pipe Problem.
The British in India - the artist's view
October 12 2011
Picture: YCBA, Thomas Daniell, 'The Indian Rhinoceros', c.1790
An exhibition on the artistic legacy of the British in India has opened at the Yale Center for British Art. Adapting the Eye: An Archive of the British in India 1770-1830:
...explores the complex and multifaceted networks of British and Indian professional and amateur artists, patrons, and scholars in British India in the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and their drive to create and organize knowledge for both aesthetic and political purposes. Selected from the Center’s rich holdings, the exhibition includes a diverse range of objects from both high art and popular culture, including albums, scrapbooks, prints, paintings, miniatures, and sculpture, demonstrating how collecting practices and artistic patronage in India during that period constituted a complex intersection of culture and power.
Rajtastic. Runs until December 31st.
Being an auctioneer
October 11 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
Here's an enlightening video from Sotheby's about being an auctioneer. It's a touch laudatory, but includes interesting snippets from Henry Wyndham (above), who's the best in the business.
The price of bad provenance
October 11 2011
Picture: Christie's
A picture from Bernie Madoff's collection will be sold at Christie's in New York tomorrow. Brocklesby Betty, 1718, by John Wootton has an estimate of $70,000-100,000. In the first Madoff sale in June this year it had an estimate of $140,000-169,000. Strangely, this time it is being offered in a 19th Century European Paintings sale, which is hardly the right auction.
Leonardo's Self-Portrait to go on display in Turin
October 11 2011
Picture: La Venaria Reale
A new Leonardo exhibition will open at La Venaria Reale near Turin on November 18th, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Italian unification. The highlight will be Leonardo's Self-Portrait drawing. According to the exhibition website, the drawing will be on display 'for the first time ever' (which I find hard to believe). The show runs until 29th January 2012.
