Previous Posts: November 2024
London Art Week & London Dealers
November 29 2024
Picture: Abbott and Holder - MARY HEADLAM (1874-1959) - An Artist Rediscovered
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
It is also worth pointing out that many members of the London art trade are also putting on in-person and digital exhibitions over the upcoming sale season.
Here is a list of exhibitors connected with the London Art Week Winter 2024. Mentions should also be made of Dickinson's aforementioned Cromwell Rediscovered, and Rafael Valls' A Cabinet of Curiosities.
Do get in touch if there are any other London art trade exhibitions that are worth mentioning here!
London Auction Previews open Today - plus Goyen, Goyen, Gone
November 29 2024
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Both the Sotheby's and Christie's Old Master Paintings previews open today in New Bond Street and King Street respectively. The Bonhams preview opens on Sunday. As usual, many hundreds of pictures to admire and peruse including the highlights from the upcoming New York sale season. Keeping an eye on social media, and which pictures people are sharing on their accounts, is usually a good indication of what will do well I find.
In addition to this, Christie's are also previewing a Selling Exhibition amusingly entitled Goyen, Goyen, Gone, featuring nine works by the Dutch landscape painter Jan van Goyen.
Studentship to Study Artists’ Networks in late 19th-Britain and Belgium
November 28 2024
Picture: Coventry University
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Coventry University are inviting applications for a fully-funded studentship to pursue a PhD on the subject of Art, Memory and Circles of Connection – Artists’ Networks in late 19th-British and Belgian Spaces of Exchange. The studentship is is offered in partnership with KU Leuven and will also require the candidate to undertake research in Belgium.
According to the University's website:
Focusing on artist interactions between London, Brussels and other key loci of exchange, including in the art press and art criticism, this study’s key aim is to shed light on why and how interconnecting, transnational artistic visions and practices stimulated cultural arenas for new projections of modernity. A first area of consideration for this PhD is to explore expanded contexts of art reception between key British and Belgian cultural sites; this may include international responses to Pre-Raphaelite circles, and to John Ruskin’s writings. Second, will be to consider interactions between these networks and gender in creating opportunities for women as artists, designers and craftswomen, operating within and beyond perceived constructs of ‘separate spheres’ of male and female artistic activity. A third, related key area of enquiry will be to examine the significance and porous identities of cultural spaces in expanding circles of artistic exchange, and in their uses by artists across geo-cultural borders as sites of cultural memory, gender and identity-construction. As well as through exhibitions and other public spaces of display – notably museums and art galleries, this study will develop understanding of an expanded range of sites of art via private collections, intimate spaces of ateliers, workshops, artists’ homes or indeed, in letters, diaries and journals. Taken together, this PhD will open insights into pivotal artistic and geo-cultural ecologies between Britain and Belgium as arenas of artistic innovation and exchange to shape cross-cultural sites of modernity, gender and artistic agency.
Applications must be in by 15th January 2025.
Good luck if you're applying!
Gentileschi and Van Dyck in Turin
November 28 2024
Picture: Gallerie d'Italia
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Gallerie d'Italia in Turin have just yesterday opened a new temporary exhibition focusing on two paintings loaned from the Corsini Gallery in Rome. The works on display are Orazio Gentileschi's Madonna and Child of c. 1610, and Anthony Van Dyck's Madonna of the Straw dated 1625-27.
According to the museum's website:
Approximately ten years separate the two paintings, which are two different interpretations of the so-called "Madonna of the Milk", a highly successful iconography that was created to tangibly visualise Mary's role as the mother of Christ.
Gentileschi's painting bears witness to the novelty of Caravaggio's revolution and of painting "from nature", which transforms the sacred theme into an intimate, everyday moment. [...]
Van Dyck, on the other hand, following in the footsteps of the great masters of the Italian Renaissance, reinterprets the theme with a strong symbolic density, placing it in the context of the Nativity. [...]
The pair will be on view in Turin until 12th January 2025.
Ribera's St John the Baptist Conserved
November 28 2024
Video: Patrimonio Nacional
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Spain that the Real Monasterio de la Encarnación in Madrid have recently conserved Jusepe Ribera's St John the Baptist. As the video explains, the removal of much yellowed varnish has revealed many hidden details particularly in the background of the painting.
Flower Tunnel to Celebrate Rachel Ruysch Opening
November 28 2024
Video: Flower Council of Holland
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Alte Pinakothek in Munich have celebrated the recent opening of their new exhibition Rachel Ruysch: Nature into Art by created a 'Flower Effect Tunnel' in their entrance hall. Unlike Ruysch's paintings, the tunnel of flowers is rather more transient - so you'll only have until tomorrow to see it!
Dutch and Flemish Painting at The Nivaagaard Collection
November 28 2024
Picture: rkd.nl
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A new catalogue of the Dutch and Flemish Paintings of the Nivaagaard collection in Denmark has been published today.
According to the RKD's website:
This publication is the result of a collaborative project between The Nivaagaard Collection and the RKD, conducted from 2022 to 2024 by Jørgen Wadum and RKD curator Angela Jager. Using the latest expertise and techniques, they examined the collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings. Their research yielded new attributions, more accurate datings, extensive provenance information, and identifications of subjects. [...]
The 384-page book includes two essays and 57 catalogue entries. In the first essay, Angela Jager and Jesper Svenningsen examine the history of the collection, originally assembled as a private collection by Johannes Hage (1842-1923). Together with his best friend, Hage traveled across Europe acquiring artworks, guided by advice from experts such as Cornelis Hofstede de Groot. In the second essay, Jørgen Wadum discusses the restoration history of the paintings, highlighting Hage’s collaboration with renowned German restorer Alois Hauser, who played a crucial role in preserving the collection.
Prado sends Queen for Californian Holiday
November 27 2024
Picture: Prado
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Prado in Madrid are sending Diego Velázquez’s Queen Mariana of Austria to the Norton Simon Museum in California for a new exhibition which opens in December. The show is part of a loan exchange programme between both of these art institutions.
According to the museum's website:
The exhibition seeks to show how the dynamic interrelationship between art and life not only inspired Velázquez’s dazzling and enigmatic portrait of Mariana but also shaped the worldview of the queen as she fashioned her new political role. Exhibited on the West Coast for the very first time, Velázquez’s monumental image will be installed alongside an international group of artists whose works were collected by the Habsburg court. Paintings by Nicolas Poussin, Guido Reni and Peter Paul Rubens, all highlights of the Norton Simon Museum’s collections, evoke Mariana’s quotidian access to remarkable works of art, and they invite comparisons between Velázquez and artists he knew and admired. Mariana: Velázquez’s Portrait of a Queen will be displayed in proximity to the Museum’s paintings by Jusepe de Ribera, Bartolomé-Esteban Murillo and Francisco de Zurbarán, offering a rare opportunity to experience this essential quartet of 17th-century Spanish painters under one roof.
The show will run from 13th December 2024 until 24th March 2025.
Explore the Rijksmuseum Collection with AI
November 27 2024
Picture: Rijksmuseum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam have launched their new collections website today. As part of their revamp is a new 'Art Explorer' which promises to use AI to help find artworks that match your mood.
Prompts include:
What do you love?
Tell us about your favourite art
What do you like most about autumn?
Share your thoughts
Let your senses speak
What is your clothing style?
What would your portrait look like?
Do let me know if any readers make any intriguing discoveries using the new system (as long as they are family friendly!).
New Burlington Prize for Southern Netherlandish Art 1400-1800
November 27 2024
Picture: Burlington
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Burlington Magazine have instituted a new 'Prize for Research on Southern Netherlandish Art 1400-1800' in partnership with the University of Cambridge.
According to the magazine's website:
A new annual prize of £1,000 will be awarded, with publication in The Burlington Magazine’s annual issue dedicated to Northern European Art, plus a subscription to The Burlington Magazine.
We seek previously unpublished essays of 1000–1500 words from early career scholars worldwide. Preference will be given to object-related scholarship such as is published in The Burlington Magazine.
Applications must be in by 1st September 2025.
Paul Mellon Centre Studentships
November 27 2024
Picture: PMC
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Paul Mellon Centre are receiving applications for their MA/MPhil Studentships for 2025. Having a brief look through the details, these must be amongst some of the most generously paid out there in the world of academia. Their Instagram account explains that they only received five (!) applications last year.
According to the PMC's website:
An annual PMC MA/MPhil Studentship will be awarded to a UK-based student who qualifies for home student status embarking on Masters-level studies in the field of British art or architectural history or British visual culture. The studentship is part of the New Narratives set of funding opportunities designed to increase the diversity of perspectives among scholars within this field.
The studentship is an award of £32,000, and is designed to cover university fees and living costs.
As well as funding, recipients of the studentship will benefit from mentorship and guidance from Centre staff, and from the Doctoral Scholars and Early Careers Fellows elected under the same scheme.
The New Narratives scheme particularly welcomes applications from those who are under-represented within the academic field of the humanities in the UK.
Applications must be in by 31st January 2025.
Good luck if you're applying!
Portrait of Rasputin's Murderer Soars
November 27 2024
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A pastel portrait of Prince Felix Yusupov, who is most famous for his hand in the murder of Grigori Rasputin, soared at Sotheby's London yesterday. The portrait was one of three by the Russian female artist Zinaida Evgenievna Serebriakova offered in the recent Fabergé, Imperial & Revolutionary Art sale in New Bond Street. Felix's realised £276,000 (inc. premiums) over its modest £40k - £60k estimate, and his wife Irina Romanova's (niece of Emperor Nicholas II) realised £204,000 over its £50k - £70k estimate.
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As it happens, Felix's life has become of great interest to me in recent years and I would heartily recommend his rather eccentric memoir entitled Lost Splendour to anyone who'd like a colourful account of what it was like to be a Prince in late Imperial Russia. Both his Romanov wife Irina and him managed to escape persecution from the Bolsheviks and eventually settled in between France and England for the remainder of their years. Plagued by debts and depressed jewellery prices (the easiest way Russian emigrees could raise funds in those days) Felix Yusupov eventually had to part with his family's prized Rembrandts (1) (2) to stay afloat, paintings which eventually made their way into the National Gallery of Art in Washington via. the dealer Joseph Wiedner (and eventually resulted in a very messy legal battle). I sometimes daydream of whether the changing attitudes to questions of restitution, evident in many western galleries and museums these days, will ever reconsider the ownership of these two pictures in the future.
The end of art?
November 26 2024
Video: Sotheby's
Posted by Bendor Grosvenor:
What is art? I prefer a broad definition; anything which, via our senses and imaginations, conveys meaning and emotion, but without relying on language. What is art made of? Traditionally we might say mainly painting and sculpture, to judge from the contents of our major art galleries. But probably for most of human existence it consisted of everyday objects which may have been incised or carved, like bones, rock and long-lost bits of wood. Nowadays, pretty much anything counts; Marcel Duchamp’s urinal, Carl Andre’s bricks, Tracey Emin’s bed. And art can be as much an idea – a concept – as an object.
All of which is fine by me. People used to cry, ‘but is it art?’ when confronted by the latest genre-defying work, but we have moved on from that. I’m glad we think about art beyond the gallery. I’m glad too that we have (for the most part) stopped saying, ‘I could have done that!’ when faced with anything unconventional. As Damien Hirst once neatly replied, ‘but you didn’t.’ All creativity requires novelty, and if that involves sawing a cow in half, so be it. It is a Good Thing that over the last century the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of art have become so inclusive, even if the ‘why’ remains challenging, as it should. There can only be good art and bad art.
Or so I thought. Now, having seen the video (above) of Sotheby’s selling Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian for $6.2m, I wonder if we are stretching the boundaries too far. Have we debased art beyond repair, like a dictatorship printing money until it becomes worthless?
Comedian is a banana taped to a wall with gaffer tape. It was first seen at the Art Basel art fair in Miami Beach in 2019, where it immediately attracted worldwide media attention, before selling for $120,000. The buyer obviously didn’t get to keep the actual banana because it rots after a few days (though they did get the gaffer tape). What they really bought was the idea (insofar as it can be bought, Cattelan retains the copyright) and a ‘certificate of authenticity’.
When I first became aware of Comedian in 2019 I thought it was interesting, even if it was easy art for easy money, perfect for the online age and thus validated by the inevitable headlines and clicks. Probably, if a student had tried the same thing at an end of year show they would have scraped a pass. But we know that in the contemporary art world, context of display can be all-important, hence the trend for installations in grand, contrasting settings like historic houses. On the stands of Art Basel Miami, Cattelan’s challenge had a certain cheeky merit. As he explained in The Art Newspaper:
"To me, Comedian was not a joke; it was a sincere commentary and a reflection on what we value. At art fairs, speed and business reign, so I saw it like this: if I had to be at a fair, I could sell a banana like others sell their paintings. I could play within the system, but with my rules."
But Comedian’s afterlife, and especially its sale at Sotheby’s last week for $6.2m, seems to me to negate what Cattelan says. He isn’t playing within the system, or setting any rules. Comedian is instead a product of the system, and - we see now - was created to serve it. It doesn’t break any rules, it obediently follows them.
Let’s leave aside the fact that Comedian is not a particularly original concept (Sotheby’s say it ‘represents the apex of a hundred year-long, intellectual yet irreverent interrogation of contemporary art’s conceptual limits’ which began with Duchamp, but their use of ‘apex’ suggests that even they think it’s time to try something else). What I want to focus on is how Comedian fits into the way the art market - at its extreme end - creates, packages and monetises art. For there is a revealing line in Sotheby’s catalogue entry; ‘this work is number 2 from an edition of 3 plus 2 artist’s proofs’. Comedian was therefore conceived from the outset as a series (whether of three or three hundred is irrelevant) and thus a commodity.
Commodification is one of the cleverer tricks of the mega-money end of the modern art market. We see most clearly how it works in the market for Warhol prints; if a high, benchmark price is set for one Marilyn Monroe print, all other Marilyns become worth a similar amount. Auction has become the best place to establish this benchmark price, because it is set (or gives the appearance of being set) transparently, in real-time and by public acclamation. Consequently, the major auction houses have over the last two decades or so become essential players in creating and sustaining the modern and contemporary art markets. This is the system.
Then we come on to the broader question of how we judge the quality of a work of art, and thus eventually its value. What makes art ‘worth’ something in the first place? Art, being so often intrinsically worth nothing, can be bewilderingly subjective to value. Historians of art will know that our means of judging its value (both financial and cultural) have changed over time. In the 18th century there was a system of gatekeeping by fellow artists, as at the Royal Academy in London, where a select group decided which works were admitted, and which could be hung in the most prized spaces. Later, the voice of the art critic held great sway. Today, the role of the media, both legacy and social, has become more important, in part because attention and profile matter in a busy, globally connected world, but also because we live in an age of brands, the ultimate method of adding value to just about anything. Finally, there is the market, because the question of quality and value are now projected as being one and the same. Expensive art is good art. These are the new rules.
For Comedian, Sotheby’s gave an estimate of $1-$1.5m, implying an institutional belief that it (or rather, one of the three versions of it, like a kind of artistic holy trinity) was now worth about ten times what it made at Art Basel Miami in 2019. I don’t have a particular problem with this, for artworks can indeed climb steeply in value. But what is revealing is the extent to which Sotheby’s justified the significance of Comedian, and their estimate, by focusing on the press coverage it has generated since 2019. In the ‘Literature’ section of the catalogue entry (normally reserved for status-enhancing books and exhibition catalogues) we see almost entirely a list of news and website headlines, from the Wall Street Journal to the Daily Mail. As Sotheby’s says:
Literature
The below is a representative selection of the extensive ongoing media coverage of Comedian. Live coverage is ongoing, and further literature references are available on request.
Later in the catalogue entry, Sotheby’s explicitly links the online and media coverage to value:
“In a matter of days, Comedian had earned its status as a universally recognizable image and become folded into a legacy of propulsive masterworks that incited radical recalibrations for their time [...]. What visitors were so invested in – and what collectors had actually purchased – was not the literal banana and piece of tape, but rather a certificate of authenticity and instructions for installation.”
Comedian is far from the first work of art to court and gain notoriety. But it used not to be the case that notoriety was a literal barometer of artistic merit, and thus value. Our former ways of judging artistic merit were never perfect, but they were certainly more critical and more deeply held than clicks and headlines. For can we know what the clicks really reflect? Do people think Comedian really is the work “of pure genius” Sotheby’s tells us it is? I’m not persuaded they do, and this matters because ultimately we still need people to believe in the broader value of art, just as we ask them to believe that Comedian exists as an artistic concept (and even believe in the cryptocurrency which paid for it).
In other words, the subjective intangibility of art - especially in the modern era - requires us (by which I mean those of us in the art world) to maintain a degree of public confidence in it, and we damage that at our peril. Auction houses like Sotheby's, with their healthy commissions, must find it hard not to see works like Comedian as a chance to make more headlines and more money, and doubtless enjoy being part of the game themselves. But they need to be careful, and think of their wider responsibility to art. For many, the sale of Comedian for $6m, at a time of multiple, terrible wars, not to mention the gurning, toe-curling applause as the hammer came down, felt like a giant art market self-own, demonstrating a Marie Antoinette-like detachment from reality; ‘let them eat bananas’. Either way, it feels like art needs a revolution, and perhaps it has already begun, far away from the art fairs, auctions, collectors, curators and commentators.
Does any of this matter? I think it does, if only for this reason: art can be made of anything or nothing – a mere concept – but it must have a meaning. Usually that meaning is rooted in truth. A banana on a wall can reveal a profound truth about the art world and its market, but not if it is in fact designed to be part of, and benefit from, the market. That’s just hypocrisy. Comedian has purpose - to make money - but no meaning. Without the market, it is nothing. That’s why it must exist simultaneously as both concept and object (one of three), so that it can be given a value, and live on as a speculative financial construct. And if we agree that is art, then it is the end of art, isn’t it?
As ever on AHN, let us know what you think.
Update - an artist writes:
Having just read your article on the sale of the above a little while ago, I thought I'd take up your invitation to let you know what I think.
I think the sale of the work confirms, to many people, that the contemporary art world is a joke. The amount that it sold for confirms that it is a joke at their expense, perpetrated by a contemptuous elite.
I agree that art and invention have always gone hand-in-hand, but invention has always been just one element, not the main event. Artist's used to try to PLEASE the public, but since Duchamp, they simply TROLL the public for a response. This is why the level of response, measured in clicks and column inches, is now converted into charts as the principle indicator of financial value.
'What is the point of art?' is like asking what is the point of life? As a painter, I'm very conscious of the fact that historically, painters and artists have been living examples of a great life lesson; we take dust and we strive to turn it into treasure. When we succeed, we may also please the public but it is the act of striving which is the important part of the lesson, the result, the artwork is merely a reward for that striving, both for the artist and the public.
Making such art used to be difficult and time consuming. The public have always admired that about artists. But if your goal is just to troll the public for a response, then it has to be neither difficult nor time consuming and the result is what counts, not the life lesson.
Art fundamentally changed with Duchamp. His admirers like to refer to that moment as a great and wonderful revolution. For those of us who don't appreciate being the victims of trolls, it was the moment that art died. 'Comedian' is just the latest in a long list of successful trolls, with zero benefit to broader humanity.
Elizabeth I soars at Christie's Paris
November 26 2024
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The following Portrait of Elizabeth I soared past its 20,000 - 30,000 EUR estimate at the Christie's Paris online sale the other day to realise an impressive 176,400 EUR (inc. premium). The painting had formerly been in the collection of the Dukes of Westminster until it was sold in 1992.
Joseph Parrocell acquired by Musée du Grand Siècle
November 26 2024
Picture: La Tribune de l'art
UK PM Removing Historic Portraits
November 26 2024
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
There have been quite a few articles published over the past month and a half concerning the recently elected UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's changes to the paintings hanging in No. 10 Downing Street. In October, it was reported that the PM had been removing historic portraits of Elizabeth I, Walter Raleigh and William Shakespeare (amongst other historic political figures) in favour of landscapes. More recently, a group of 14 MPs has been former as part of a Commons Modernisation Committee, which amongst other things will look at making the paintings in the Houses of Parliament more diverse.
To quote one of the articles from The Telegraph:
The Prime Minister prefers landscapes to 'people staring down at him', apparently. 'When I was a lawyer, I used to have sort of pictures of judges. I don't like it. I like landscapes.'
Ribera at the Petit Palais
November 26 2024
Video: Petit Palais
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I failed to mention that the aforementioned monographic exhibition dedicated to Ribera opened at the Petit Palais in Paris earlier this month. From all the posts I've seen on social media, it appears to be rather spectacular! The show will run until 23rd February 2025.
Rosso Fiorentino at Sotheby's
November 26 2024
Video: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Sotheby's have published the following video on Rosso Fiorentino's The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist which is being offered in their upcoming London Old Master Paintings Evening sale. In addition to this, the auction house have produced the following video describing Artemisia Gentileschi's Mary Magdalene in Meditation which is being offered in the same sale.
Blanche Hoschedé-Monet in the Light
November 25 2024
Picture: gilesltd.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A new exhibition on Claude Monet's step-daughter and later daughter-in-law Blanche Hoschedé-Monet (1865-1947) is set to open at the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University Bloomington, in February next year. The show will be accompanied by a very detailed and scholarly book, the first monographic publication on the artist in English.
According to the museum's website:
Recognized for her sophisticated approach to color, composition, and technique, Blanche Hoschedé-Monet (1865–1947) was part of a successful network of artists in Giverny, Rouen, and Paris during the first half of the twentieth century, although she is most often recognized for her relation to Claude Monet, her stepfather and one of France’s most famous painters. Having come of age at the center of the Impressionist movement, Hoschedé-Monet grew up surrounded by the modern masterpieces in the collection of her father, Ernest Hoschedé, who was a patron of such renowned artists as Édouard Manet, Monet, and Auguste Renoir. Her family’s move to Giverny in 1883 prompted her to take up painting in earnest. With Monet as her mentor, she developed a distinct style that favored carefully framed points of view and landscapes painted en plein air. As the first monographic exhibition of her work in the United States, Blanche Hoschedé-Monet in the Light brings together over forty paintings which attest to Hoschedé-Monet’s unique vision and ambitions as an artist in her own right. The exhibition and accompanying catalogue, with contributions by Nicolas Bondenet, Nancy Mowll Mathews, Galina Olmsted, Haley Pierce, and Philippe Piguet, constitute a definitive account of Hoschedé-Monet’s life and art.
The show will run from 14th February until 15th June 2024, and the book is due out in March.
Van Dyck's Andalusian Horse at Christie's
November 25 2024
Video: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Christie's have published the following film providing an interesting overview of Sir Anthony Van Dyck's Andalusian Horse which is coming up in their December sales in London.
