Zoom in on Claude
May 3 2011
The new Claude Lorrain exhibition at the Louvre (closes July 18th) has a very good website, where you can zoom in on some of Claude's best works in great detail. Well worth a click.
Dictator art - Syria edition
May 3 2011
'It's about masturbation'
May 3 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
Excitement is building ahead of Sotheby's 10th May sale of Jeff Koons' Pink Panther ($20-30m). Jeff says it's all 'about masturbation'.
Well worth a few minutes of your time is Sotheby's new video of Koons discussing the sculpture with Tobias Meyer. It opens with the statement that Koons is considered 'one of the most important artists of the 20th Century, together with Warhol and Picasso'. So that's above the likes of Klimt, Miro, Pollock, Rothko, Bacon, Freud etc. Will people watch this in fifty years time, and laugh?
For an alternative - and much more entertaining - view, click here to see the great Robert Hughes interiew Koons.
Where's Weiwei?
May 2 2011
Picture: WNYC
With the artist absent having been detained by authorities in China, the unveiling of Ai Weiwei's first exhibition of public sculpture in New York, scheduled for Wednesday 3rd May, has been postponed. More here.
Got any spare bricks?
May 2 2011
Picture: Art Newspaper
The Art Newspaper has uncovered documents from Tate that cast new light on Carl Andre's controversial 1976 work Equivalent VIII (aka, the pile of bricks). Apparently there was a bit of a hunt for spare bricks - with a young Sandy Nairne despatched to get some. He didn't find any - but the Tate has since got their hands on a stash of five.
Sir Dennis Mahon & Prof. Richard Holmes
May 2 2011
Two sad obituaries to note for anyone interested in art and history; the collector and art historian Sir Dennis Mahon at the age of 100, and the soldier and historian Professor Richard Holmes at the age of 65.
Sir Dennis has bequeathed his magnificent collection of Italian baroque pictures to a number of museums, chiefly the National Gallery. He cannily leveraged his gifts on the promise of free entry to museums - and we have him to thank in part every time we go to the National Gallery gratis.
Richard Holmes was best known for his TV programmes on, amongst others, Churchill, Wellington and Cromwell. In an age of dumbed-down, celebrity driven history on television, his programmes were like an oasis in a desert - informative, comprehensive, and also entertaining. I once asked him to give talk at the Houses of Parliament for the All Party History Group. His performance was electrifying, as he told the assembled MPs, peers and ministers (the room was packed) that our presence in Afghanistan was, essentially, doomed to failure. He spoke with authority, for he had not only studied the history of foreign intervention in Afghanistan (what is the score now, Foreigners 0 - Afghans 6?), but had spent a great deal of time there, and was also Britain's most senior Territorial Army officer. The lecture was some years ago now, but I often think of it, for, sadly, it seems he is being proved right.
Tracy Emin does the Royal Wedding
April 30 2011
In about seven seconds, by the look of it. Still, hats off to her and The Independent for originality.
A marriage portrait?
April 29 2011
Picture: Royal Collection
Will the royal wedding be commemorated on canvas? Unlikely, if precedent is anything to go by. Weddings are difficult to paint, and until the 19th Century royal weddings were relatively low-key affairs, celebrated behind closed doors. You will struggle to find an oil painting of a royal wedding.
To any of my American readers who feel you're missing out on the Royal fun, above is a depiction of the wedding of George III - your last King - and Queen Charlotte, by Joshua Reynolds. More on the Royal Collection website here.
Royal Wedding Special!
April 29 2011
Here at Art History News we bring you all the art historical references to the big day. There's not many, to be honest with you, so bear with me...
The news has just been announced that Prince William will be given the title Duke of Cambridge. If William looks to his left when he comes out of Horse Guards and travels down Whitehall to Westminster Abbey he will see a bronze equestrian statue (above) of the last Duke of Cambridge, Prince George (1819-1904). The Duke was Commander in Chief of the British Army during Queen Victoria's reign - a role that William will one day assume.
The statue is by Adrian Jones, and was unveiled in 1907. Jones also made the four horsed Peace Quadriga atop the Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner. Read all about Jones here.
One interesting thing to note about William's new title is what form the 'patent' will take. The patent is the document drawn up by the College of Arms and issued by the Queen to make William a Duke. Now, most peerages state specifically in the patent that they are to descend through the holder's 'heirs male' - ie., sons only. But amid all the talk of the laws of royal male primogeniture being changed to allow William and Kate's first child to be monarch - regardless of sex - will the patent to the dukedom of Cambridge be issued to 'heirs general', which will allow a girl to inherit the title? The wording may provide an intriguing glimpse into how the Queen sees the male primogeniture debate playing out...
Wannabe a curator?
April 28 2011
The Art Fund is to sponsor two trainee curatorships at the National Gallery. Apply here (by May 27th).
Art History Futures - Ivory Coast edition
April 28 2011
Picture: Stefan Meisel/BBC
In Ivory Coast, a number of artists have been painting scenes from the recent fighting around Abidjan. Pictured is Abdoulaye Diarrasouba, known as Aboudia. More on the BBC website here.
'Prices have climbed back dramatically'
April 27 2011
Picture: Christie's (detail)
Sotheby's and Christie's have been unveiling highlights of their forthcoming June modern art auctions. Picasso leads the way, and with estimates that seem to be climbing ever higher. From Bloomberg:
Owners of valuable 20th-century trophies have become more confident about selling after record prices last year. Picasso’s 1932 Marie-Therese painting “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” fetched $106.5 million -- the most for any artwork at auction -- at Christie’s, New York, in May 2010. A simpler portrait of her may fetch as much as $35 million at Sotheby’s New York in May.
“Prices have climbed back dramatically,” David Leiber, director of the New York-based gallery Sperone Westwater, said in an interview. “For the classic works, collectors like the spectacle of buying at auction.”
Can the frenzy possibly last? Perhaps, but as I said a while ago, if you want to be sure of banking a good price for your Picasso, I'd sell it now. On the other hand, if you have an Old Master, I'd keep it - is anything pre-1800 beginning to feel seriously under-valued?
The most engaging picture coming up in June (at Christie's) must be Picasso's Jeune Fille Endormie. It will surely beat its estimate of £9-12million - at least, I hope it does, for, thanks to an anonymous donor, the proceeds are going to medical research at the University of Sydney.
Puntastic
April 27 2011
Picture: Christie's
Sub-editors reached for the puns when Christie's announced that a Francis Bacon triptych self-portrait would be one of the highlights of their 11th May contemporary art sale in New York. Here's two of my favourites:
'Triptych set to bring home the Bacon' - ABC
'Demand for Bacon Sizzles' - The Irish Independent
In the catalogue, the picture is marked 'estimate on request', which is auction-speak for 'if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it'. The picture has been guaranteed to sell by Christie's, with a figure of $20m being mentioned.
Caravaggio in Kentucky
April 27 2011
Caravaggio's 1595 'The Fortune Teller' is to be loaned to the Speed Art Museum in Kentucky, from 18th May to 5th June. The painting is being lent by the Capitoline Museums in Rome. More here.
V&A's Constables cleaned
April 26 2011
Picture: V&A
From Martin Bailey in The Art Newspaper:
Constable's iconic oil sketches for The Hay Wain and The Leaping Horse have been cleaned for the first time since they came to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in 1862. They are currently on show at Stuttgart's Staatsgalerie (until 3 July), as part of a touring exhibition that travels to America next year.
Full story here.
China and art - the next bubble?
April 26 2011
Picture: The Atlantic
Derek Thompson in The Atlantic asks if China's phenomenal spending in the art market is taking the form of a bubble, and finds a potential answer from Vikram Mansharamani, author of Boombustology - Spotting Financial Bubbles Before they Burst:
Once again, China has surpassed the United States in a key economic number. No, it's not GDP. It's art. In four years, China has zoomed past us from the world's fourth-biggest fine art scene to the world's largest auction market for art.
...
In the last 20 years, Sotheby's mostly stable stock has experienced four sharp peaks. In the late 1980s, Japan had been "the center of gravity" in the international art market. But its economy imploded, sending Sotheby's stock reeling. Ten years later, the Internet bubble drove another auction boom among Silicon Valley newbies, and the bubble burst again. Ten years later, we watched the same film play out. This year could be deja vu, all over again ... all over again.
The graph they use is a little silly - you could draw the same conclusions from a vast array of stocks that went up when the economy was booming and went down when it wasn't.
There may well be a bubble in China at the moment, judging by the government's increasingly desperate attempts to bring prices under control. But it doesn't take many people to make a bull market in the art world (witness the pre-Raphaelite boom in the 1990s), and I reckon there are enough new Chinese millionaires to keep prices rising for a while yet.
'Interdit de photographier'
April 26 2011
The debate on photography in museums continues - in France. The Musée D'Orsay has banned it altogether. But the Fédération Française des Sociétés d'Amis de Musées has passed a motion saying it should be permitted everywhere. I agree with Les Amis. More here.
I recently mentioned the Royal Collection's most excellent decision to allow photography in the Queen's Gallery.
Happy Easter everybody
April 24 2011
Picture: Gainsborough's House. 'The Descent from the Cross' by Thomas Gainsborough, after Sir Peter Paul Rubens.
Have a nice holiday. Normal blogging again on Tuesday.
Austrian Klimt restituted
April 23 2011
Picture: Salzburg Museum der Moderne Kunst
The regional government of Salzburg has announced the restitution of Gustav Klimt's Litzlburg am Attersee. It was acquired in 1941. From Bloomberg:
The 1915 picture belonged to Amalie Redlich until she was deported to Poland in 1941 and murdered. The Gestapo cleared her apartment after her forced departure. The painting will now return to her grandson and heir, Georges Jorisch, Salzburg said.
More here.
