Aug 5th, 2020 - During the dog days of summer, the auction world tends to offer wackier, luridly eye-catching lots that might seem more out of place amidst the serious proceedings of other months. For evidence, look no further than Christie’s upcoming " Trespassing " online sale, which features a viewing room stacked with contemporary art directly influenced by graffiti in all its energetic and spontaneous glory. Predictably, the item that’s expected to fetch the highest price is an untitled Astro Boy sculpture ($150,000 to $200,000) by KAWS, the divisive artist who’s conquered the fashion and ...
Aug 5th, 2020 - Ed Ruscha Honk, 1964 Graphite on paper 13 1/4” x 21 1/2” Abstract compositions by Jasper Johns and Brice Marden, artist books by Ed Ruscha and Henri Matisse’s flowers -- all from the collection of late financier Don Marron -- will be available for purchase in the Hamptons this month. A total of 38 works on paper from the modern and contemporary art trove that Marron, who died in December, amassed over six decades can be viewed -- and bought -- at an exhibition opening Aug. 12. The show will be held at the Pace Gallery’s new space in East Hampton, co-presented with Gagosian and ...
Aug 3rd, 2020 - Picture: Curatorsocks.com Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz: AHN has a long history of bringing readers only the best art history related ephemera. Curator Socks are "socks inspired by masterpieces". In their own words: Curator Socks draws its inspiration from the beauty and emotion of some of the greatest masterpieces ever created. We reinterpret strokes, color, and styles to transform iconic works of art into a beautifully knitted canvas that you can wear and take with you everywhere. Artists on offer include Caravaggio (pictured), Klimt, Van Gogh, Manet, Leonardo, Bruegel, and the list goes ...
Jul 30th, 2020 - Arts and Entertainment Doubting Gauguin An amateur detective takes on the National Gallery, and the art world Fabrice Fourmanoir, an art dealer, poses for a portrait in Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico, on June 15. (César Rodríguez for The Washington Post) By July 30, 2020 It’s the nude that bothers Fabrice Fourmanoir. The way she’s painted is “unsightly” and “vulgar,” quite unlike the Polynesian women of his mind’s eye. Nor does he like the way she’s artificially inserted on the canvas, part of what he calls an “uninventive assemblage” with no coherent symbolism. Yet there she ...
Jul 30th, 2020 - Picture: Sotheby's Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz: The results from the recent Sotheby's Old Master Painting sales are in. The Evening 'Rembrandt to Richter' sale realised £149,730,290 (inc. fees). The Old Master pictures in the sale contributed £28,411,800 to this figure which is roughly 18.97%. Their online Old Master Sale , which included drawings and watercolours, brought in a very respectable £4,669,000 (inc. fees) with 73.26% of lots sold. The top lot old master of the evening, Rembrandt's self portrait, made £12,600,000 (hammer) which totalled £14,549,400 when fees are included. It ...
Jul 29th, 2020 - Six works were withdrawn by nervy vendors just before the start but Rembrandt to Richter sale still totalled nearly £150m, topped by a £22.3m Joan Miró More than 150,000 people tuned in to watch Sotheby's three-hour cross-category Rembrandt to Richter sale last night, a statistic that probably says more about the state of pandemic social lives than the auction itself. For those 30 clients who could attend in person at the New Bond Street saleroom, socially distanced auctions looked preferable to the usual school assembly ranks of seats—a few white clothed tables with champagne and ...
Jul 29th, 2020 - LONDON (AP) — A self-portrait by Rembrandt sold for 14.5 million pounds ($18.7 million) at a Sotheby’s virtual auction Tuesday — a record price for a self-portrait by the Dutch master, the auctioneer’s said. Sotheby’s said that the top end of the art market was "in rude health" and that its new live-streamed auction format, introduced because of the coronavirus pandemic, brought in a total of $192.7 million Tuesday. "Self portrait wearing a ruff and black hat," from 1632 when Rembrandt was aged 26, was sought by six bidders. It fell within the 12 to 16 million pounds estimate. The ...
Jul 29th, 2020 - Caiola Productions plan to put on the show—a mix of Hamilton and Willy Wonka—in New York in 2022 The saga of Salvator Mundi , the work purportedly by Leonardo da Vinci that sold for a record $450m at auction in 2017, is to be turned into a stage musical. The Caiola Productions company, whose other musicals include Dear Evan Hansen and Tina: the Tina Turner Musical , plans to stage the show in New York some time in 2022. Salvator Mundi! The Musical will mix the “historical reportage of Hamilton with the fantasy and delight of Willy Wonka's golden ticket”, the company says. “It will ...
Jul 2nd, 2020 - Sotheby’s will auction 1931 charcoal drawing that shines light on artist’s affair with Marie-Thérèse Walter A tender and largely unseen portrait by Picasso of his lover and muse Marie-Thérèse Walter, which the artist personally kept until his death, is to appear at auction for the first time. The 1931 charcoal drawing shines light on one of the great love affairs of the 20th century and was made by Picasso when his affair with Walter was still a closely guarded secret. It is “an absolute gem, it is so exquisitely beautiful,” said Helena Newman, worldwide head of Sotheby’s ...
Jun 18th, 2020 - An art detective in the Netherlands says he has received two "proof of life" photos in the hunt for a stolen Van Gogh painting. The 1884 artwork Spring Garden went missing after a break-in at a museum near Amsterdam in late March. Arthur Brand, a specialist in recovering lost art, told the AFP news agency he had received two dated photos he believes show the stolen painting. According to AFP, the work is valued at up to €6m (£5.3m; $6.6m). Mr Brand, who has been described as the "Indiana Jones of the art world", said he was given two photos of the missing painting a few days ago. While he ...
Jun 18th, 2020 - On Tuesday, the Drouot auction house in Paris sold a letter dually written by the artists Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin to the painter Émile Bernard for a head-turning sum of $237,000. The document, bought by the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, is the only known letter to have been written by both van Gogh and Gauguin. It contains a treasure trove of insight into the exploits of the two blossoming masters, including van Gogh’s account of the pair’s visits to brothels, both for recreational and work-related reasons. "We’ve made some excursions in the brothels, and it’s likely that ...
Jun 17th, 2020 - For the past 25 years, Christophe Van de Weghe never missed the event that transforms a quiet Swiss town into the art world’s epicenter each June. Art Basel has become a destination for collectors, with more than $3 billion of modern and contemporary blue-chip works offered. As an exhibitor, Van de Weghe spends as much as $200,000 to ship works by Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder and Jean-Michel Basquiat from New York, insure them, pay for the booth, host client dinners at Chez Donati and stay at the Three Kings hotel. On the eve of each VIP opening, he jumps into the frigid Rhine for a ...
Jun 10th, 2020 - Marc Restellini, an art historian, is fighting the Wildenstein Plattner Institute over the ownership of a research archive he spent decades compiling. For more than three decades, Marc Restellini’s life has been very much about his study of Amedeo Modigliani, the Italian painter known for his elongated, slender faces and figures. He has organized exhibitions of Modigliani’s work in spots around the world and in the 1990s began his own magnum opus: a catalogue raisonné, or a definitive compendium, of Modigliani’s work. He has been exhaustive in authenticating the artist’s work because ...
