Previous Posts: June 2018
Art history sexism (ctd.)
June 5 2018
Regular readers will know that AHN has long taken a dim view of auction houses making their younger female employees pose in front of objects for press shoots. For examples of the practice, see here and my favourite here. And for a first hand account of what it's like to be asked to do it, see here.
But now, a victory - in yesterday's Times, David Sanderson reported that both Sotheby's and Christie's have decided to stop using 'art girls':
“We are moving with the times,” Sotheby’s said when questioned about the unusual publicity tactic.
Excellent news. I just have to get UK museums to abolish image fees, and then my work is done.
But wait - what's this?! The Tate gallery didn't get the memo. Here's a page from today's Times, promoting a new exhibition at Tate on paintings from World War One:
Come on Tate - take your lead from Sotheby's, and move with the times!
Update - a reader upbraids me:
It’s not sexist – and ageist – to assume that the young person included in the shot is not the relevant specialist, or in the case of a museum publicity shot, the relevant curator? It sure is.
Although, in this case I'm fairly sure it isn't. And it's usually fairly evident, both in the posing and the captioning, when a specialist or curator is being photographed.
A Derick Baegert for Dallas
June 3 2018
Picture: Dallas Museum of Art
In 2013 the Dallas Museum of Art was given a $17m endowment to buy works made prior to the 18th Century. Five years later, the museum has made its first major purchase with the money, a large Descent from the Cross by the late German Gothic painter Derick Baegert (around 1440-1509). More here in The Art Newspaper.
Walk through a Jan Brueghel
June 3 2018
Video: Sotheby's
Sotheby's have done one of their whizzy videos, walking through a picture by Jan Brueghel the Elder (Est. £2.5m-£3.5m). I love these videos. I think the fact that works by the likes of the Brueghel family and Hieronymous Bosch have consistently performed well in the Old Master market over the last decade or so, is because - in their exquisite and engaging details - they lend themselves perfectly to close looking in the digital age. They're full of wonder, which translates well onto a screen.
Van Dedem collection at Sotheby's
June 3 2018
Video: Sotheby's
Sotheby's has the collection of the late Baron Willem van Dedem for sale in their July London Old Master sales. George Gordon tells us about the pictures in the video above. Van Dedem was for many years the chairman of Tefaf, the great Old Master fair in Maastricht.
Boilly in London
June 3 2018
Picture: via The Guardian
I've always liked the French artist Louis-Léopold Boilly, so I'm glad to see that the National Gallery will put on the first UK exhibition of his work next year (in February). The paintings to be shown - including the above - come from the collection of the late Harry Hyams. More here.
Might Caravaggio's 'Nativity' be found?
June 3 2018
Picture: Guardian
It's unlikely, but there's been some excitement in the news at reports that an aged mobster has told Italian police the painting was offered to a Swiss art dealer after it was stolen in 1969. Reports The Guardian:
The new lead on the whereabouts of the 17th-century painting – a depiction of the newborn Christ on a bed of straw, painted in the chiaroscuro technique – came from a former mobster-turned-informant, who revealed to Italian investigators that it had once been held by Gaetano Badalamenti, a Sicilian “boss of bosses” who was known as one of the ringleaders of an infamous heroin trafficking network in the US called the Pizza Operation.
Investigators announced this week that Gaetano Grado, the mafia informant, said Badalamenti had been put in touch with an art dealer in Switzerland after obtaining the work – also known as The Adoration – from another mafia boss.
Never trust a Swiss art dealer.
