3D printing art history (ctd.)
August 28 2017
Picture: British Museum
Back in 2013 I reported that you could buy, for $30k, a 3D printed replica of a Van Gogh. It looked quite good, and more recently we have had 3D printed replicas (of a Del Piombo) at the National Gallery. But setting the cause of 3D printed replicas back somewhat is a new product being touted by the British Museum, a copy of their c.130-140AD bust of Antinous. For £250 you get a 25cm high resin bust which lacks any of the definition or texture of the original. A souvenir Parianware bust from the 19th Century would look better. How can the BM charge £250 for this?
'Awesome Beauty' on BBC4
August 28 2017
Video: BBC
This will be good, a one hour programme on the art of industrial Britain. 'Awesome Beauty' will be on BBC4 on Tuesday 29th August, at 9pm, and is presented by the excellent Lachlan Goudie. More here.
In Russia, a new Titian discovery
August 28 2017
Picture: Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts
The Art Newspaper has news of a newly discovered Titian unveiled in Moscow. The painting, a version of Venus and Adonis, was thought previously to have been a copy when it was bought by a French dealer in 2005. But then a Russian collector, Vladimir Logvinenko bought the painting and had it restored, when it was apparently discovered to be a version by Titian himself.
Says TAN:
The collector would not reveal how much he paid for the painting but said that it was “much more” than the €50,000-€70,000 the previous buyer forked out. Logvinenko contacted the Pushkin's chief researcher and custodian of Italian paintings, Victoria Markova, to help restore the painting, but he was in for surprise. After a quick look, Markova judged the work to be by Titian.
“When a painting has three layers [of paint] it’s difficult to determine if it’s an original. Marina had a look at it, made certain technological and radiographic research, and concluded it was an original”, Logvinenko says. “However, Marina and I realised we couldn’t restore the artwork in Russia as there aren’t enough Venetian art restorers here”.
They sent the Venus and Adonis to Italy where the country’s Ministry of Culture, Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, and Madrid’s Prado Museum backed up Markova’s research. The painting was restored in a Venetian art gallery and eventually sold by Logvinenko to “a group of collectors who are not Russian”.
For a long time it was believed that Titian’s Venus and Adonis on show at the Prado Museum was the earliest edition still in existence, painted in 1554 for King Philip II, but this may no longer be the case. “The Prado decided to study [the Moscow painting] and found a preliminary drawing under the colourful layer of the canvas, thus it should be considered the first version of the famous composition, which served as both the model for the Madrid canvas and numerous repetitions,” Loshak says.
The version in the Prado is dated 1554, but Titian is first thought have made a Venus and Adonis in the 1520s, which was long presumed lost. Is the Moscow painting it? The Pushkin museum is now trying to raise the money to buy the painting, for a figure reported to be between $10m and $20m.
Job Opportunity!
August 24 2017
Picture: via TAN
Here's a good one - the National Trust is looking for a Curatorial and Collections Director. For £86k a year, the Trust is looking for:
[...] someone to lead the curatorial and heritage conservation work of the National Trust. You will work with the Director of Curation & Experiences to help shape and deliver the Trust’s ambitious new curatorial strategy, including high quality research, inspirational engagement, and excellent care for the historic environment. We provide access to extraordinary places and we want people to experience them in ways which deepen their understanding and engagement.
The challenge and the opportunity are huge. You and your team will work with our operations teams and our internal consultancy, providing land and property General Managers with ways of working that are easy to navigate and understand. That means working cross functionally at the highest level, developing trust wide standards and ensuring we have the capability and resources to achieve our vision. That includes taking ownership of the professional development for our curatorial and conservator populations.
It sounds like fun. If it wasn't for the distance between Swindon (where the job is based) and Edinburgh, even I might be tempted. Then maybe finally we could do away with those beanbags. Also, I have no idea what 'cross functionally' means.
If you fancy applying you'll need to have:
- A dynamic approach to making cultural heritage relevant to the broadest possible audience
- A strong track record in communication and advocacy including leading on external contacts, media relations, networking and persuading
- A strong track record of publishing and programming (ideally in an area that reflects the Trust’s work)
- The ability to look beyond narrow specialisms and object categories, and think ambitiously about how to connect with audiences
- Strong people skills, including forming and leading teams
- A strong profile in heritage, conservation or the museum world
If the Trust gets the right person, or has the courage to appoint the right person, then much good can be done. For too long, the presentation of the many extraordinary artefacts the Trust owns has been done with a lack of confidence, and a tendency to rely on gimmickry. At its root, this problem derives from a lack of knowledge (or worse, curiosity) about the objects themselves. If you don't know the story behind, say, a historical portrait by a famous artist, then you will always struggle to make audiences relate to it. Hopefully, new posts like this one, together with the new Director of Curation, will help bring the Trust's collections to the fore once more.
Still, there are many challenges. First, the Trust is too big. Historic houses jostle for attention with beaches, renewable energy schemes and farms. Second, the Trust's management is obsessed with a one-size-fits all organisational structure. Directives flow from the Trust's head office in Swindon. Wizard ideas dreamt up on whiteboards in over-crowded meetings are imposed on properties large and small, ancient and new, whether they are appropriate for that property or not. Most egregiously, the people in the middle and lower tiers of the organisation, who actually know stuff and are daily at the coal face, feel ignored. These are common problems in any large organisation.
There is a danger, therefore, that these new curatorial posts, which are billed as the solution to the various backward steps we have seen in National Trust properties (the removal of original furniture to make way for beanbags; the removal of paintings to make way for loud, incessant TV screens; the cheap, indecorous labels demanding we focus on a particular object or narrative) will only lead to more centrally imposed 'visions'. If it was up to me, I would instead hire better and more experienced house managers (for which the first requirement is - pay them more, salaries are currently in the low 20 thousands), and let them get on with the job.
All of this comes at a crucial time for the Trust, with the search for a new Director General. There was a discussion on the Trust's future on BBC Radio 4's The World this Weekend last Sunday, which you can listen to here. Sir Roy Strong pointed out the many frustrations that stuck-in-the-mud members like me feel, and said that the new Director General will need to 're-invent heritage for a new generation'. In defence of her tenure as Director General, Dame Helen Ghosh said that the Trust has more members and visitors than ever before, and spends more on conservation than ever before.
Finally, I went to Beningbrough Hall in Yorkshire recently. It's a Trust house which has been filled with portraits on loan from the National Portrait Gallery in London. It's a great example of collaboration between a major London institution which has too many paintings to display, and a historic house with too few. The National Portrait Gallery has taken the lead in this approach (they have a similar arrangement with Montacute House in Somerset). I highly recomment a visit. But do ignore the bizarre projector installation in the magnificent entrance hall (below), which not only spoils the room and gets in the way, but doesn't actually work, for the projector isn't bright enough. This is the sort of gimmick that the Trust could do without.
The deadline for the post of Curatorial Collections Director is 10th Sept.
Art history toilets (ctd.)
August 23 2017
Video: Golden Throne
Because I lead a sheltered life, I wasn't aware of the Maurizio Cattelan work 'America', which is a fully functioning, solid gold toilet at the Guggenheim museum in New York. Visitors to the museum can wait up to an hour to use it, putting, I suppose, a whole new meaning on the phrase dying for your art. Anyway, The Art Newspaper reports that the toilet will soon come off display and sent back to the artist.
In the video above, the host of Golden Thrones (a You Tube channel dedicated to America's best toilets) tells you all you need to know about Cattelan's 'piece', including how often it has be plunged. I think all art historical analysis should be as straightforward as this.
The BP Portrait Award
August 23 2017
Video: NPG
Here's a charming video of the winner of the BP Portrait Award, Benjamin Sullivan and his subjects, his wife and daughter. Whoever had the idea for this at the National Portrait Gallery, take a bow.
I thought Sullivan's portrait was a worthy winner. The entries were, as ever patchy. A stand out portrait for me was 'Alejandro' by Anca-Luiz Sirbu, above. Beautifully and originally painted, it didn't get any notice from the judges.
Slavishly painted photographs Photo-realist works were as ubiquitous as ever. In one example the artist had even painted the reflection, in the sitter's eye, of themselves taking the photograph. The portrait drew many admiring remarks from visitors, who said 'it's just like a photograph'. Well, it is a photograph.
'The Encounter' at the NPG
August 23 2017
Video: NPG
I enjoyed the new Old Master drawings exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. It's on until 22nd October. There are a number of connoisseurial conundrums, including the below 'Venetian School' portrait drawing of the early 1500s, which is nagging me because I'm sure I've seen him before somewhere. Anybody got any ideas? It was once called Durer.
There were other conundrum drawings in the show, but I was stopped from taking photos, even though all the works are of course out of copyright. Meanwhile, in the next door gallery at the NPG you could take photos to your heart's content, even though all the works were in copyright. I suppose the argument is that some lenders insist on not allowing photography. In which case, major institutions like the NPG, which allow photography everywhere else in their galleries, should simply refuse to borrow from these lenders.
Curiously, the catalogue for the exhibition contains (as numbered catalogue entries) two oil sketches, one of which, attributed to Rubens, I have long wanted to see. But they were not included in the actual exhibition. I've never seen this before.
$1.6m Rockwell discovery
August 23 2017
Picture: via ATG/Heritage Auctions
The Antiques Trade Gazette reports that an oil on paper study by Norman Rockwell, 'Tough Call', has sold in the US for $1.6m. At first it was believed by the vendors to be a print. More here.
Stolen de Kooning returns to US museum
August 23 2017
Video: UA Research
An abstract painting by Willem de Kooning which was stolen from the University of Arizona's museum of art in 1985 has been returned. 'Woman Ochre' turned up in a New Mexico antiques store this year after being bought at an estate sale. When the store owners realised it was a stolen de Kooning they immediately notified the museum.
In 1985 a man and woman (never caught) had cut it out of its frame. Confirmation that the painting in the antiques shop was indeed the stolen painting came when the original stretcher and the remains of canvas still on it were perfectly aligned with the rest of the canvas, as seen in the video above.
More in the New York Times.
National Gallery acquires £11.6m Bellotto
August 23 2017
Picture: NG
The National Gallery in London has raised £11.6m to keep Bernardo Bellotto's 'The Fortress of Konigstein from the North' in the UK. It had been sold via Christie's to an overseas buyer. Says the NG's press release:
The National Gallery is very strong in 18th-century view paintings, however almost all of our works are of Italian sites. Bellotto’s 'The Fortress of Königstein from the North' is the first major 18th-century landscape at the National Gallery to depict a Northern European view, and so this acquisition creates a bridge between Northern and Southern European painting in the collection.
The painting, from the collection of the Earls of Derby, was first listed on the Arts Council's 'notification of intention to sell page' back in late 2014. The funds were raised from a number of sources:
The £11,670,000 acquisition has been made possible thanks to a generous legacy from Mrs Madeline Swallow, a £550,000 grant from Art Fund, contributions from the American Friends of the National Gallery and the National Gallery Trust, and the support of Howard and Roberta Ahmanson, the Deborah Loeb Brice Foundation, the Manny and Brigitta Davidson Charitable Foundation, the Sackler Trust, and other individual donors, trusts, and foundations.
The paintings were first listed on the Arts Council site, and this normally means that the paintings were 'conditionally exempt' from some capital taxes. But the National Gallery's press release makes no mention on any contribution by the Treasury. So I'm not sure what this means. Maybe the tax was already paid at the point of sale. This would have had the net effect of making the paintings more expensive for the National Gallery to buy. IN which case, it's an even more remarkable feat of fundraising and institutional determination.
The painting is one of a series of five. I'm not sure what has happened to 'The Fortress of Konigstein from the South', but I believe it now remains in the Derby collection. The two others show the fortress with views of the courtyard (here and here) and belong to the Manchester Art Gallery. The fifth was sold to the National Gallery in Washington in 1993.
Update - a sharp-eyed reader writes:
If you notice the collection number for the work, the four previous numbers are missing from the on-line catalogue. So they have a further four new acquisitions to announce.
Exciting!
UK police's art unit under threat
August 20 2017
Picture: via TAN
Alarming news that the London Metropolitan Police's art and antiques unit is under threat, after three detectives were transferred to the Grenfell Tower enquiry (the Tower burnt down in London earlier this year, leaving over 80 people dead). The unit was already small enough, but there are fears that the three staff might never be transferred back to art crime duties. More here from Martin Bailey in TAN.
Martin's piece tells us that the Metropolitan Police has something called the 'London Stolen Art Database', with details of 54,000 stolen items. But the website for this seems to no longer be functioning.
The lack of a worldwide, impartial, police-maintained database of stolen and looted art is one of the most serious challenges in the art world. Museums and the trade are forced instead to rely on private, for-profit enterprises like the Art Loss Register.
'Confessions of the Bolton Forger'
August 20 2017
Picture: Cheltenham Festivals
This looks interesting; the 'Bolton Forger', Shaun Greenhalgh, will be talking about his fakes with the great Waldemar at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Friday 13th October. More here.
Me on Van Dyck!
August 20 2017
Picture: IG
Just a reminder that I'll be taking part in the Chatsworth Festival this September, with a talk on the life and art of Sir Anthony Van Dyck. I'm speaking at 10am on Sunday September 24th, and the festival itself starts on Friday 22nd. There are many excellent speakers, including Grayson Perry and Cornelia Parker. Alarmingly, my talk is going head to head with another by Marc Quinn, so I need all the help I can get, if you're minded to come. That said, my mother is convinced that nobody will come to my talk anyway, as 'they'll all be at church'.
There's better news with my Royal Academy course on connoisseurship; sold out!
Sunflowers live!
August 20 2017
Video: National Gallery
I've written before about the success of the National Gallery's Facebook Live films. The latest saw the NG team up with four other galleries around the world to focus on Van Gogh's famous 'Sunflower' paintings. Above is the NG's film with the always excellent Chris Riopelle, while you can find links to the other four here.
An amazing 1.5m people watched the films (or at least part of them). For the investment (the films are very simple to make, after all and can't cost more than a few hundred pounds, technically) this is an extraordinary RoI.
Perspectives (ctd.)
August 20 2017
Video: NBC
I'll be writing more about the issue of Confederate monuments in the USA for The Art Newspaper, but in the meantime here is a good overview of the issues and the monuments in question. Above is a video of the removal of a memorial to Confederate soldiers in Raleigh Durham. What do AHNers think of whether these statues should be removed?
Restoring the Armada Portrait
August 20 2017
Video: NMM
The National Maritime Museum's recently acquired Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I has now been sent off for conservation. It will be away for six to nine months.
More about the picture here.
'Fake or Fortune?' is back!
August 20 2017
Video: BBC
The BBC's most watched art series, 'Fake or Fortune?' returns this Sunday with a programme about a potential oil sketch by John Constable. The series is now in its 6th 'season', though very sadly it will be the fist without yours truly. But fear not, it will still be the same excellent programme. And best of all, I now get to watch it without knowing what happens!
Just in case anyone really does miss me staring at pictures on the telly, my new series of 'Britain's Lost Masterpieces' will be on later this year.
Apologies...
August 10 2017
...sorry for the lack of news lately. We're on holiday in Cambridge. And today we are going to fly a Spitfire! The main art history news of the moment seems to be a new book on Vermeer, and the old question of whether he used lenses. More on that soon.
Update:
Update II - sorry again for the abysmal posting the last week or so. I've been away on work, mainly in Venice, which was of course lovely. If rather crowded.
Bless you for your patience, but to be honest there hasn't been much news about either.
$50m US deaccession
August 7 2017
Picture: Sotheby's
There's a hoo-ha in the USA over the deaccessioning of $50m worth of paintings, from Old Master to contemporary art (including the above Frederic Edwin Church), by the Berkshire Museum. The sales are needed, says the museum, to complete a $20m renovation programme and to increase its endowment. US museum bodies have sanctioned the museum, and said that deacessions must only take place in order to raise money to buy more art. But as long as the money is put to good use for the long-term future of the museum, and not just to keep the wolf from the door, is there much difference?
The sale will be handled by Sotheby's in New York.
Richard Waitt exhibition
August 7 2017
Picture: Grantown Museum
Bravo to Bonhams, who are sponsoring an exhibition of the Scottish portrait artist Richard Waitt. The Grantown museum in Scotland has assembled Waitt's portraits of Grant clan. More here.
