LACMA launches App
February 22 2011
LACMA has launched its first App, which is free and impressive. It joins, amongst others, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Louvre.
$150m Jackson Pollock will not be sold
February 22 2011
The Iowa legislature has withdrawn a bill that would have forced the University of Iowa to sell its prized painting by Jackson Pollock.
Representative Scott Raecker (a Republican) wanted to sell 'Mural' to fund scholarships.
Have you seen this woman?
February 22 2011
The new edition of the British Art Journal is out (Vol. XI, No.2), and it contains an appeal for information on the above painting. Yasmin Arshad is writing an article for a forthcoming BAJ on the possible identity of the portrait, and she is heading in the direction of Lady Anne Clifford.
Also in the BAJ is;
- A splendidly thorough article by David Wilson on Michael Rysbrack's bust of the Earl of Orkney (which is now on loan at the V&A).
- An article by Stephanie Roberts and Robert Tittle on the elusive Stuart provincial portraitist 'T.Leigh'. This contains a checklist of up to 20 possible Leigh portraits, a commendable task in these days of unfashionable connoisseurship.
- A reconstruction of William and Catherine Blake's residence in South Molton Street, by Angus Whitehead.
- An overview of the British paintings in the Doha Orientalist Museum, by Howard J M Hanley.
Well worth a read; you can order one here.
The Return of the Double Hang
February 21 2011
As an art dealer I'm always extolling the virtues of a double hang - more space to fill.
But I'm delighted to see that the National Gallery is increasingly double hanging in some of their larger rooms. The pictures on the top row are not of the first rank, but the overall effect is so much more exciting than the sparsely hung rooms of old. More please, and congratulations to whoever decided on the new approach.
Lost Sickert to be Sold
February 21 2011
A previously unknown work by Walter Sickert will be auctioned in London on 9th March. Blind Beggar was found in Scotland. Bonham's estimate is £40-60,000.
More on Caravaggio
February 21 2011
Here's a short video of the new Caravaggio exhibition, in which you can see the freshly restored portrait of Pope Paul V.
Some of the new facts on Caravaggio are:
- He was born 29th September 1571 in Milan (not the nearby town of Caravaggio).
- He arrived in Rome at the age of 25 (not 20, as previously thought).
- The fight in which Caravaggio famously killed a man seems to have been planed in advance, and was probably over a gambling debt.
- He died in a hospital at Porto Ercole in July 1610 (not on a beach).
You can download the full documentation at the bottom of this page (in Italian).
The Mona Lisa 'was not a man with implants'
February 21 2011
Germaine Greer has written a pacey article on the identity of the Mona Lisa in The Guardian.
Mona Lisa has been securely identified by Vasari as Lisa Gherardini, wife of the Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo, and the portrait as the one in the possession of François I now in the Louvre. It was assumed that the picture was painted in Florence after Leonardo returned from his travels with Cesare Borgia in 1503 and before he went back to Milan in 1506. The assumption was verified in 2005 when a librarian at the University of Heidelberg, preparing a copy of the 1477 edition of Cicero's Epistoles ad Familiares for an exhibition, came upon a marginal note by Agostino Vespucci comparing Leonardo with Apelles, in which he notes that Leonardo was then working on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. The note is dated 1503.
There is therefore no call for further speculation about who the original of the Mona Lisa might be, and yet it goes on...
"Watercolour" at Tate
February 19 2011
Picture: Barber Institute (detail of A Coastal Landscape by Van Dyck)
I loved this exhibition. Any show that begins with a watercolour by Van Dyck is a Good Thing. It's well worth a visit. Congratulations to Alison Smith and her colleagues.
I can't think why Richard Dorment disliked it so much. He said it was 'close' to being a 'disaster', and gave it two stars. He didn't like the inclusion of many of the artists or the subjects (such as the series of war scenes), and especially disliked the end rooms, which feature modern art's take on watercolour.
[More below]
But I wonder if he misunderstood the point of the exhibition. The star of the show was the medium - not the artists or the subjects. Instead, the exhibits reflect the immense variety that watercolour allows, from studied details of flowers to on-the-spot views of the trenches.
As a result, the exhibition is never going to be like the more focused exhibitions we have become used to. Which is good. The delicacy of watercolours means that the great majority of the exhibits are rarely on display. So this is a rare chance to see so many varied treats at once.
A highlight for me was John Singer Sargent's gripping A Crashed Airplane (above, Imperial War Museum), painted in France in the summer of 1918. Only watercolour could allow an artist to blend an apparently idyllic French rural scene and a crashed fighter plane with such authoritative immediacy. A drawing or an oil would not have had the same effect. Consequently, the curators are to be applauded for having a room devoted to war.
However, I certainly sympathised with Dorment when I came across a plastic spoon (above; Hayley Tompkins, from Day Series, 2007, 'Gouache on wood and found object') stuck to the wall in the last room. And yet, some of the very poor works in the last room merely reveal that few can paint well with watercolour any more. And in many ways, that is the most revealing room of the show. Watercolour, RIP.
'Watercolour' runs until 21st August. Videos and more on the Tate site here.
The most valuable work of art ever?
February 18 2011
Ai Wei Wei's 10kg pile of Sunflower Seeds sold at auction this week for £349,250. Sotheby's say that works out at about £3.50 per seed.
Now, Wei Wei's epically delightful installation at Tate Modern was said to be made up of 100 million seeds. Is it therefore worth £350 million? No wonder they stopped people walking on it.
The Sotheby's seeds "can be installed either in a corner, as a carpet or as a mound".
Baffling Price of the Week
February 18 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
This self-portrait by Thomas Struth was offered at Sotheby's earlier this week. It shows Struth looking at Durer's self-portrait in the Alte Pinakothek. The photo being sold was one of a run of ten.
There was some great blurb in the catalogue:
There are many ways to interpret these museum pictures—as an exploration of the relationship between painting and photography, as critical commentary on the invasion of cultural institutions by mass tourism, or even as a twist on appropriation art. But above all, they are a meditation on the function of centuries-old art in a secular world and how contemporary audiences engage with these masterpieces as a means of interacing [sic (I think)] with history.
It made £421,250.
And because I can't resist being a berk, here is my own, which you can have for free.
Caravaggio didn't like cooked artichokes
February 18 2011
A new exhibition in Rome has uncovered some fascinating archival evidence about Caravaggio. We now know for sure where and when he was born (Milan, not Caravaggio) and died (in a hospital bed).
One document reports a fight over a plate of artichokes;
Statement to police by Pietro Antonio de Fosaccia, waiter, 26 April 1604:
About 17 o'clock [lunchtime] the accused, together with two other people, was eating in the Moor's restaurant at La Maddalena, where I work as a waiter. I brought them eight cooked artichokes, four cooked in butter and four fried in oil. The accused asked me which were cooked in butter and which fried in oil, and I told him to smell them, which would easily enable him to tell the difference.
He got angry and without saying anything more, grabbed an earthenware dish and hit me on the cheek at the level of my moustache, injuring me slightly... and then he got up and grabbed his friend's sword which was lying on the table, intending perhaps to strike me with it, but I got up and came here to the police station to make a formal complaint...
Full story in English here. Exhibition website, in Italian, here.
Hungary Resists Restitution Case
February 18 2011
Picture: El Greco's Holy Family with Sainte Anne.
The Hungarian government has resisted an attempt by the heirs of Baron Herzog, owner of one of Hungary's finest private art collections, to seek the return of their paintings. The paintings, which include works by El Greco, Zurburan and Cranach, were seized during the holocaust, when Hungary was an ally of Nazi Germany.
[More below]
Most of the Herzog collection is now in the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts. The Herzogs have already won back one important painting, the majestic portrait by George Pencz of Sigismund Baldinger. This picture was taken for Hitler's planned personal gallery in Linz. It was returned by the German government in 2010, and sold at Christie's.
The Hungarian government claims that the Herzog heirs' case is invalid because a 1973 agreement between communist Hungary and the USA settled all outstanding restitution cases. Under that deal, Hungary paid $18million, from which any US citizen affected by looted art could then seek payment.
It's worth nothing that the works covered by the Herzog claim dwarf that figure in value - and might have done even in 1973.
More on the Herzog collection and case here.
Pictures that make you smile
February 17 2011
Picture: Galerie Koller
This is a detail from 'Friede im Land (Aufe der Bastei)', or, 'Peace - On the Fortress', by Carl Spitzweg, painted in 1856. It is being offered at Koller on 1st April. The estimate is CHF500-800,000.
More on that Pollock
February 17 2011
The University of Iowa's mega Jackson Pollock painting, which I mentioned earlier, has come a step closer to being sold. Now, the price is thought to be $120m.
The Iowa House legislature has voted to force the University to sell the painting, in order to raise funds for scholarships.
Is such a thing possible in the UK? I hope not. But I do know of some nice pictures in the Oxford and Cambridge area...
£5000 History of Art Book Prize
February 17 2011
Nominations are open for the William Berger Prize for British Art History, until 15th March. The prize is awarded to the best history of art book or catalogue of the last year, and is awarded jointly by the British Art Journal and the Berger Collection Educational Trust, in Denver, Colorado.
The judges include Robin Simon, editor of the BAJ, and Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures.
If you see any of these...
February 16 2011
...they're nicked - and you should return them to the Egyptian police. Unless the person offering them to you is called Lord Elgin, in which case that's alright then.
The BBC has a good film showing how the pieces were stolen.
Mary Beard, on her blog, says of the thefts; [more below]
Tactless it may be, but I have been itching to say this for several days. The sad looting of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo gives yet another reason why the dispersal of major treasures around the world may be a good thing, not an imperialist crime.
I don't mean that everything should end up in the British Museum (or the Met, or the Louvre). In the medium to long term, we can't be certain which parts of the world are going to be safest -- whether that is a question or crime, riot, flood or fire. Over the next millennium London may be no less vulnerable than Kabul. But we do know that 'all eggs in one basket' is bound to be a bad idea.
Only a year or so ago, Zahi Hawass was on the Today programme complaining that all the masterpieces of ancient Egyptian art were not in Egypt.
I hope he is eating his words.
This is a bit harsh, isn't it?
Picture comes down - value goes up
February 16 2011
A portrait of ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has been removed from the government's cabinet room. As the portrait that will become a symbol of his removal, it's worth far more now than when he was in power.
For anyone wondering what's in store for all those Mubarak images, a book called 'Toppled' has charted the fate of Saddam's statues.
Watch de Laszlo Painting
February 16 2011
Picture: Philip de Laszlo Archive Trust
The Philip de Laszlo Archive Trust website has some fascinating footage of de Laszlo painting. Here, a model holds a rather uncomfortable pose while de Laszlo begins.
Well worth a click. You can even buy a DVD too.
"Orgy of the rich!"
February 16 2011
Hats off to demonstrators from 'Arts Against the Cuts', who last night staged a daring demo in the middle of Sotheby's evening contemporary art sale. The bidders gave a generous round of applause at the end.
One of the protester's slogans was an ironic; 'I like my money on the wall'. Better than in the bank...
More here.
Tate's new 'Watercolour' exhibition
February 15 2011
Picture: 'Scarlet Sunset' by Turner, Tate Britain.
Richard Dorment doesn't like it:
"Watercolour isn't a complete disaster, but it's a close call."
Matilda Battersby in The Independent is more enthusiastic.
I haven't seen it yet, but so far I hear good reports, and can't wait to go.
