Previous Posts: entries 2018
New Louvre store to go ahead
July 17 2015
Picture: TAN
In The Art Newspaper, Vincent Noce reports that, despite the objections of 42 out of 45 curators, the Louvre's new out of Paris storage site is to go ahead. It is due to open in 2018.
Can you hear a painting?
July 17 2015
Video: National Gallery
The National Gallery's new 'Soundscapes' exhibition - in which musicians have been invited to create sounds for paintings - has not exactly been met with praise by critics. Which is not surprising, when even the trailer (above) is dull and pointless. Here's Laura Cummings in The Observer:
Soundscapes is the worst idea the National Gallery has come up with in almost 200 years. It is feeble, pusillanimous, apologetic and, even in its resolute wrong-headedness, lacks all ambition.
Ouch. It's no suprise to find - via an interview in The Sunday Times - that this is the exhibition outgoing director Nicholas Penny has 'had least to do with' during his time in charge.
New Romney Catalogue Raisonné
July 17 2015
Picture: Yale
I've been wondering lately whether to institute a new AHN category called 'Heroes of Art History'. And surely an early recipient of this life-changing award must be Alex Kidson, whose invaluable new catalogue raisonneé of George Romney's paintings has just been published by Yale.
It's a three volume work, and costs a hefty £180. But that's worth it for what you get - the most thorough analysis yet of one of Britain's greatest painters. Here's the Yale blurb:
This magnificent catalogue, in three volumes and with nearly 2,000 illustrations, will restore George Romney (1734–1802) to his long-overdue position – with his contemporaries Reynolds and Gainsborough – as a master of 18th-century British portrait painting. The product of impressive and thorough research undertaken over the course of 20 years, Alex Kidson asserts Romney’s status as one of the greatest British painters, whose last catalogue raisonné was published over 100 years ago. In more than 1,800 entries, many supported by new photography, Kidson aims to solve longstanding issues of attribution, distinguishing genuine pictures by Romney from works whose traditional attribution to him can no longer be supported. The author’s insights are guided by rich primary source material on Romney—including account books, ledgers, and sketchbooks—as well as secondary sources such as prints after lost works, newspaper reports and reviews, and writings by Romney’s contemporaries.
Alex Kidson is special projects fellow, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, and was curator of the 2002 bicentennial exhibition George Romney 1734–1802.
I've met Alex quite a few times over the last decade or so, and have seen first hand his tireless deidcation to the Romney cause. I've even sent him a few new Romney discoveries for potential inclusion over the years, and I think I'm right in saying that they're almost all in the book. Needless to say, the one picture I know has not been included is one that I actually own, which I suppose is a Romney version of Sod's Law. The last I heard, Alex had said 'maybe'. But it's an interesting picture, and I like it regardless.
The book is available to order here, and has been sponsored by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
BP Portrait Award
July 17 2015
Picture: NPG
Yesterday, I was able to finally see this year's BP Portrait Award exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. I've always been a fan of the Award and the NPG's advocacy of modern portraiture. But this year's selection was one of the worst yet.
Regular readers will know that I've long ranted against the way photo-realism has infected both the Award, and modern painting in general. This year the BP exhibition is stuffed full of paintings which are specifically designed to look like photographs. Above is Eliza by Michael Gaskell, which was awarded 2nd prize.
Why? What is the point? Painting a photograph is as artistically pointless as photographing a painting. A portrait, in its classic sense, is about more than capturing a person in one moment of time; it is about an artist's studied observation of an individual over a period of time (traditionally over multiple sittings). A photograph, by definition, forces us to focus on a split second. And trying to mimic that photograph forces painters and painting, as a genre, to become nothing more than a human inkjet printer.
Perhaps the problem is that we are now so conditioned to seeing the world through a lens, be it on our TV screens or, increasingly, on our phones. Consequently, we even seem to prefer paintings that format and light themselves in the same way as a photograph - short depths of field, the illusion of flash. But pardon me if I yearn to see at least some modern painters try and exercise a little confidence and independence with both brush and eye.
There were a couple of pictures I liked, but these were all eschewed by the judges. My favourite was a self-portrait by Alan McGowan (below). Good painter.
For one brief moment in 2013, the Award seemed to be turning away from photo-realism - a change I think we must ascribe to the presence of Lucian Freud's assistant David Dawson on the judging panel. This year, however, he is no longer a judge. There need to be more painters on the judging panel in future.
Digby Warde-Aldam in Apollo wonders if the Award has had its day, so poor is this year's offering.
Update - Alan McGowan writes:
Thank you for your kind comments about my painting in this years BP Portrait Award. I thought I would write to thank you and also to add my tuppenceworth on the issue of the use of photography in painting which you raise and which is a subject which is on my mind a lot.
The use of photography as primary source material is endemic in the contemporary figurative world and yet I don't think it is being seriously thought about or questioned enough. What does it mean about the artworks and our perception of them and indeed the world we inhabit? If photography is able to capture a certain momentary image then is not the job of painting to do something else? Certainly I think it is possible to work from photographs but its current ubiquity is troubling. Personally I only work from life because I think this is how my work becomes most vivid, and my feeling is that there is a massively rich area of experience and potential to be explored there and that a case has to be made for it. I recently had two experiences which brought my thoughts on this subject into sharper focus (excuse the pun).
As you commented the BP Portrait exhibition has many paintings which are not only seemingly derived from photographs, but also embrace the visual language of photography - depth of field etc including details of the sitter such as pores or single hairs which, frankly do not constitute my experience of people or the world around me. To me it would also be true to say that certain of the paintings, those in a more obviously classical tradition, whilst possibly not executed from photographs yet still seem to embrace a kind of photographic aesthetic - in that one gets the feeling that the closer they came to resembling a photograph the "better" they would be thought to be.
At the same time as I was in London for the BP exhibition I coincidentally had the opportunity to attend a book launch and lecture at the National Portrait Gallery by Roger Malbert of the Hayward Gallery entitled "Drawing People", his overview of contemporary figure drawing which featured the work of many contemporary artists (from what we might call the "conceptual" camp) - the most well known of whom were people like Marlene Dumas and Francesco Clemente. What transpired in the lecture and was confirmed in the question and answer session afterwards was that all of the artists he had chosen are working from photographs or from their imagination - but none of them from life. I asked Roger what he thought the significance of this was but he didn't have a theory about it, although he did personally seem reasonably well disposed towards life work.
The drawings in Malbert's book generally eschew what I would call traditional draughtsmanly skills, and the BP works are generally technically accomplished, so they are diametrically opposed yet ironically they are largely united by a common source in the photograph: I found myself in the National Portrait Gallery between Malbert's presentation of conceptual figuration and the BP exhibition of representational figuration, and it seemed like nearly all of this stuff was underpinned by photography.
Why should this be so? Clearly there is a proliferation of photographic imagery and especially now digitally - magazines, advertising, mobile phones, the internet etc, the mediation of experience through reproduction, the rise of the virtual, the "hyperreal"... of course. This is interesting and valid stuff and has been explored by artists going back to Warhol et al, but it is not the only stuff. It is not the only source of our experience. We still live in a world where we negotiate with our minds and our senses - and I think in a much more interesting way than we interact with the images in magazines and on our mobile phones.
My feeling is that there are positive virtues to be gained from working from life. I believe that I do not experience the world in the same way that a camera does; that the technical precision of a photographic view of the world offers a seductive but basically false rendering, one which is based on an idea of the world as understandable, containable, defineable, precise, whereas my feeling is that the world is full of ambiguity, doubt, compromise and guesswork.
A good articulation of this is contained in Sarah Bakewell's description of Michael de Montaigne's world view "To try to understand the world is like grasping a cloud of gas, or a liquid, using hands that are themselves made of gas or water, so that they dissolve as you close them." To work in a life situation is to directly experience this mobility of experience, and not only that it gives us it as a subject.
Further I believe that the creation of an artwork - the materials, surfaces, processes and attitudes is somehow analagous to the processes of perception so that the the making of the thing becomes in some way an exploration or example of the partiality of our engagement with the subject/sitter. This whole terrain is to me the stuff of living perception; the interpretation and creation of our own version of the world - nearly all of which is absent from a photograph, so all that is lost before you even start.
Another quality that photographs emphasise (as well as stillness) is flatness and it seems by extension that, removed from the 3-dimensional qualities of the world, the paint too in photo-derived painting takes on a flatness (which is perhaps even perceived as a virtue) rather than exploring its' sculptural and textural potentials - runniness, impasto etc, which has been part of the vocabulary of paint going back to Titian, Rembrandt etc. Perhaps for some the technical process of squaring up would have an effect here, as it removes the construction of the painting from any flow or physical momentum.
I had an experience recently of working in a portrait painting situation with a number of artists who took photographs on their ipads and began squaring them up and copying them onto canvas - completely ignoring the models who were sitting! Of course the models were totally undermined and demotivated by this. They were in effect superfluous after their photos had been taken. The absurd situation served to emphasise another terrain which impacts on a portrait and that is the significant contribution of the sitter. The relationship of the artist to the sitter is the stuff of figure work - the space between them is vivified and is in reality the subject of the work. A replacement with a photograph is simply a different, perhaps more controllable, but certainly impoverished thing. I work with lots of life models, mostly very good, and am acutely aware of the contribution they make to a painting.
Why do people work with photographs rather than working from life? I think there are a number of reasons, some more laudable than others. It is more convenient. It is cheaper. It is more controllable. It is expected in the art schools. Technically, in terms of drawing, it is certainly easier. I think the aesthetic of the photograph can seem to represent a form of "reality" which has come to be commonly accepted - related to ideas of accuracy or objectivity, perhaps even a faith in the mechanical. Also the contemporary art world has created a void in which "skillfull" representation can seem a welcome relief from artworks with often no obvious technical merit. I think however, more importantly, it is a lack of recognition of the more fascinating, the profounder and more elusive qualities of working from life: this area is not being understood or promoted. And it is practical so it has to be done to be understood not talked about. The lack of life drawing at school or art school has had a hugely detrimental effect - to the point where even if it is taught now it is largely reduced to the basics of proportional accuracy with little engagement with purpose or context (apart from the contemporary flirtations with a revived classicism).
I think there is enough feeling from all sides - artists, students, the public for a healthier debate about this stuff. It is currently bubbling under but should come out I think, and will be exciting and fruitful when it does.
Apologies...
July 16 2015
I'm down in London for various meetings; so apologies for the lack of AHN the last two days.
'Old Flo' safe
July 13 2015
Picture: Art Fund
A Henry Moore sculpture known as 'Old Flo' will not, it seems, now be sold by the London Borough of Hackney. The Borough's recently deposed Mayor, Lutfur Rahman, had pledged to sell the statue, triggering a campaign. Rahman's successor, John Biggs, has now said the piece will not be sold. Good - well done him.
More here.
'Fake or Fortune?'
July 13 2015
Picture: BBC
Last night's episode of 'Fake or Fortune?' got a record audience for us of 5m average viewers, peaking at 5.8m. Everyone's very pleased at ForF HQ - so thanks for watching. We were competing against the new series of 'Dagon's Den'.
If you missed it, here's the episode on the BBC iPlayer. Overseas readers - keep an eye on You Tube. Tho' obviously I didn't tell you this.
An Old Master swindle?
July 13 2015
Picture: Sotheby's
A London-based art dealer, Timothy Sammons, has been cited in a raft of lawsuits in both Britain and the US over claims that he didn't pay consignors for pictures he sold. There are claims over a £1.6m Canaletto, a £380k Van Gogh sold via Sotheby's (above), and another group of paintings sold for £7.1m. Where did all the money go? More here in the Antiques Trade Gazette.
New Liotard exhibition
July 12 2015
Picture: Shonbrunn Palace, Vienna
The new Jean-Etienne Liotard exhibition here in Edinburgh, at the Scottish National Gallery, is extremely good - and well worth a trip if you can make it. That said, the show moves to the Royal Academy in the Autumn.
I blagged a trip to the press preview, where I pretty much had the place to myself. This was lucky, for the delicacy and stillness of Liotard's works, the majority of which are in pastel, is best appreciated in silence and space. When looking at Liotard's portrait of his daughter, above, I experienced one of those rare moments when my eye was momentarily fooled by the painting's exquisite realism; for a split second, I believed I was looking at an actual wooden doll. Then my brain caught up - nope, that's a painting. It's happened to me before with a Holbein.
Anyway, for mastering the then relatively new medium of pastel, Liotard ranks for me as one of the great geniuses of painting. To see so many works together in one place and in good condition was a treat. He could also paint in oil - though the portraits on show reveal a hesitancy and adherence to convention one doesn't see in his pastels - and he was good at portrait miniatures too, as a fine pair of Charles Edward Stuart and Henry Benedict Stuart (below) show.
I was glad to see the below portrait of the Countess of Northampton on display as a work fully catalogued as by Liotard. It had recently been sold at Christie's in New York as 'attributed to Liotard' for the relative bargain price of $242,500. The picture had been rejected by the authors of the 2008 catalogue raisonné, but was considered an autograph work by the great pastel connoisseur, Neil Jeffares. For what it's worth, I saw the picture at the sale and thought then that it was 'right'. It now belongs to the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth - a good buy, for a not dissimilar and fully catalogued Liotard made almost £1.2m in Paris in 2012.
The show is in Edinburgh till 13th September. There is an excellent catalogue, available here.
A new Bellotto discovery?
July 12 2015
Picture: Sotheby's
I had a long look at the above picture at Sotheby's last week - a newly discovered work by Bernardo Bellotto (above). Auction houses like Sotheby's are more modest about making discoveries than tarty art dealers like me, and there was no mention in the catalogue that the picture had been consigned to them as a work by an unknown Italian vedute painter. Sotheby's sharp-eyed specialists soon spotted, however, that the composition matched (with minor differences) a drawing by Bellotto, below, made when he was between 13 and 16. The painting therefore seemed to fit as an early work by this important artist.
I'm no expert in this area, but the technique seemed to fit perfectly for early Bellotto, and, a few condition issues notwithstanding, I thought the cataloguing was spot on. Thinking that the estimate of £80,000-£120,000 was a little cheap, I advised a collector to bid on what appeared to be something of a bargain.
But at the last minute a saleroom notice was put up, which read:
Please note that, following first hand inspection, Bozena Anna Kowalczyk is of the opinion that this work is by a follower of Bernardo Bellotto.
In other words, the picture was a copy. Kowalczyk has curated exibitions on Bellotto and his uncle Canaletto, and evidently carries considerable authority. But Sotheby's (rightly I think) stuck firm to their cataloguing. The picture made £473,000.
Italian Museums (ctd.)
July 12 2015
Regular readers will know that Italian mu frequently bangs on about the sometimes appalling state of Italian museums (for example; lax security, arbitrary closures, zero online presence, bad conservation practice, weird attributions).
Now, for the first time in many years, the Italian government is trying to do something about it. The country's top museums have been forced to open nominations for new directors, even (gasp) from overseas, while new funding arrangements are proposed to make museums less dependent on corrupt and parsimonious local governments. More here in The Art Newspaper.
Ashmolean campaigns for Turner (ctd.)
July 12 2015
Picture: Ashmolean
Congratulations to the Ashmolean museum, which has successfully raised enough money to acquire a £3.5m view of Oxford High Street by Turner (above). More here.
New Daniel Gardner record
July 12 2015
Picture: Sotheby's
'Daniel who?', you say? Daniel Gardner was a leading proponent of pastel in Britain in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries. He also taught John Constable to paint portraits. Until recently, his pictures have not made huge money at auction, but in 2013 a large group portrait (Mary Sturt with her three eldest children) made £133,875, against an estimate of £50,000-£80,000.
The same estimate was also carried by a portrait sold at Sotheby's last week, of Mary Whitbread, Lady Grey (above), which I thought reasonable enough. The picture made, however, £233,000, establishing a new record for the artist by some margin. The picture was in extremely good condition, which must account for the price I suppose. But nonetheless it seems to me to be something of a breakout price for a category which has hitherto been rather under-appreciated.
Blockbuster exhibitions - what's the point?
July 12 2015
Picture: RA
The Royal Academy's announcement of a new exhibition next year called Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse has prompted a new round of angst about blockbuster exhibitions. Another Monet exhibition, went the cry?
Here is The Guardian's Jonathan Jones:
This week the Royal Academy’s announcement of its January 2016 blockbuster Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse was greeted with groans. What, more Monet? The editor of the Burlington magazine confessed a “fatigue” with the same famous names being trotted out again and again because they “draw people in”.
Personally, I can take a lot on Monet – what’s not to like about his shimmering contemplative bottomless water garden? – but the really irksome thing about the way our big museums and galleries now operate is right there in the dates. This exhibition opens next January. Why is it even news six months in advance? Why the press breakfasts, pumped-up interviews and remorseless cavalcade of advance publicity?
And here in The Times, is more from Burlington Magazine editor Richard Shone :
Art historians suggest the academy is in thrall to the artist’s power to pull in audiences and there is a danger of “Monet fatigue”. Richard Shone, editor of The Burlington Magazine, says there is a hint of desperation about the show.
“I think there is some fatigue with Monet,” he says. “It’s a name that exhibition organisers almost automatically put on to a title even if the artist is hardly represented. It’s the same with Caravaggio. It just draws people in.
“It does seem a little late in the day for the Royal Academy to be doing this. It’s coming at the end of many Monet shows. I think they’re a bit desperate for their historical shows. Getting these works costs a fortune, but it does put money in the coffers of the RA, which has no government grant. But it’s going a little far.”
Shone, albeit perhaps reluctantly, points out just why the RA (and other institutions) indulge in the crime of putting on exhibitions people are actually keen to see - because they pay the bills, and bring in the funding needed to put on less popular but more academic shows. I see nothing wrong with that; indeed, I applaud it.
Here is the RA's blurb for the show:
In January 2016, the Royal Academy of Arts will present Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse, a major exhibition examining the role of gardens in the paintings of Claude Monet and his contemporaries. With Monet as the starting point, the exhibition will span the early 1860s to the 1920s, a period of tremendous social change and innovation in the arts, and will include Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Avant-Garde artists of the early twentieth century. It will bring together over 120 works, from public institutions and private collections across Europe and the USA, including 35 paintings by Monet alongside rarely seen masterpieces by Paul Klee, Emil Nolde, Gustav Klimt and Wassily Kandinsky.
'Fake or Fortune?' plug!
July 10 2015
Video: BBC
In my humble opinion, this weekend's episode of 'Fake or Fortune?' is the best we've yet made. The artist in question is Renoir - and in particular a painting (below) said to have belonged to his friend Claude Monet. Above is a clip of the film, where the picture's owner goes to Monet's famous home at Giverny.
BBC1, Sunday, 8pm!
More here.
Sleeper alert!
July 10 2015
Picture: Kahn
The above sketch by Jordaens, an early work, made €260,000 in Paris today, against a €600-€800 estimate.
Sleeper alert!
July 10 2015
Picture: Bonhams
This picture, which was displayed unframed in two pieces on a table, soared above its £7,000-£10,000 estimate at Bonhams to make £230,500. The picture was catalogued as Follower of Francesco Furini, but the name of Jacques Blanchard has been whispered to AHN. I looked at it during the viewing, but couldn't make head nor tail of the likely artist. Way off piste for me...
Poor OMP sales
July 10 2015
I am sorry for the lack of posts these last few days. The story of the Old Master sales this week is one of patchiness and disappointment. I'll look at why over the weekend.
London Art Week
July 3 2015
Video: Sotheby's
If you like Old Master paintings, then London is the place to be next week. There are the main sales from Christie's, Bonhams and Sotheby's, as well as special exhibitions from the major dealers. More here.
Above, Sotheby's Alex Bell talks about two full-length portraits coming up in their Evening Sale, a Romney and a Batoni.
And there is an interesting introduction to London Art Week from Dr Nicholas Penny, which makes some subtle but important points:
It is a pleasure to write again in support of London Art Week in July because I can tell readers (who can tell their friends and clients) that the National Gallery will remain at the heart of this event, its curators among those moving eagerly from gallery to gallery, from viewing to viewing, opening to opening.
My successor as Director, Dr Gabriele Finaldi, well-known to so many of you, will be conspicuous in the future among them. And will receive you as I have done within the Gallery itself, because we want all collectors, not just of Old Master Paintings, but of Old Master Drawings and Sculpture to support the National Gallery – as all (or almost all) dealers of Old Masters already do of course.
We believe in the pleasure to be obtained from the close scrutiny of a work of art, of looking at it in different lights and seasons, again and again. And yes, we all believe in the pleasure of possession. Of course dealers generally get over this and sell what they love – although frequently retaining some secret emotional investment in it and planning one day to retrieve it for a while. And we curators and curator-directors (the category to which I belong) have to learn to welcome the rest of the world into our galleries. During this festive week in particular we will, I’m sure, all try to share as well as covet and compete.
Update - Monday: I'm in London viewing the sales, so I'm afraid there might not be much from me today.
Update II - neither full length sold. Curious.
Update III - It's Thursday, so many apologies for the absence of blogging. It's been a busy time up in London. Thanks to all readers who stopped to say hello.
'Fake or Fortune?' series 4
July 3 2015
Video: BBC
Here's a trailer for the forthcoming series of 'Fake or Fortune?'. The artists under consideration this time are: Renoir, Lowry, Sir Winston Churchill, Alfred Munnings, and an unknown Venetian Old Master.
