| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Thursday, December 3, 2020 |
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| | Andrew Jones Auctions will present two year-end sales | |
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Late 18th century North Italian Neoclassical giltwood console table, Tuscany (est. $3,000-$5,000).
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Andrew Jones Auctions has two major events planned for December just in time for the holidays. A Design for the Home and Garden auction will be held on Sunday, December 6th, followed by a Home for the Holidays Sale just two days later, on Tuesday, December 8th. Both auctions will be online-only affairs, starting at 11 am Pacific time. We have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to handle a number of important collections this year and achieve remarkable prices, said company president and CEO Andrew Jones. I am proud to end the year as strongly as we began, with fantastic property from private collections in our Design for the Home and Garden auction. Mr. Jones added, We are all spending more time in a limited orbit these days, so acquiring a historic work can bring a worldly, cultural experience home. The Home ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Pace Gallery is presenting an exhibition of new work by Kevin Francis Gray at 6 Burlington Gardens. This exhibition showcases a shift in Gray's techniques and modes of representation as he moves from creating figures in highly polished finishes to those with rough-hewn surfaces.
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| Christie's London to Hong Kong Auction achieves USD$119.3 million | | As another fair goes virtual, Art Basel finds its footing | | James Cohan opens an exhibition of new paintings by Mernet Larsen | 
The relay auction followed Christies Hong Kong Evening Sales of Modern and Contemporary Art, including a single-lot sale of Sanyu: Goldfish, which totaled HKD$ 1.015B / USD$ 132M. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.
NEW YORK, NY.- On December 2, Christies 20th Century: Hong Kong to New York auction opened Christies 20th Century Marquee Week in New York, and continued upon what has been a very successful Autumn Auction Series in Hong Kong. Connecting two great art world hubs, the innovative two-city sale achieved USD$119,273,225/ HKD$920,350,057/ £89,276,366 / 98,828,937, selling 90% by lot and 97% by value. Alex Rotter, Chairman, 20th and 21st Century Art, Christies: This weeks sale series in both Hong Kong and New York are a fitting coda to an innovative and re-imagined fall sale season for 20th and 21st Century Art, which started in New York in early October with a $387.2 million sale series, and continued in London and Paris with $141.3 million more. Todays relay sale results show we read the market and its current ... More | | 
Joy Labinjo, Gentleman in top hat, 2020, Oil on canvas, 200 x 180 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Tiwani Contemporary.
by Ted Loos
MIAMI (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- At the beginning of 2020, the organizers of Art Basel, the art fair powerhouse, were preparing to celebrate this influential events 50th birthday with fanfare at its three far-flung iterations: in Hong Kong; Basel, Switzerland; and Miami Beach. Suffice it to say, things did not turn out as planned, said Marc Spiegler, the fairs global director. The coronavirus pandemic upended everything; all three fairs were canceled and replaced by digital versions, which Art Basel refers to as online viewing rooms, or OVRs. (It also added two new virtual fairs.) Its final event of the year, Art Basel OVR: Miami Beach, runs from Friday through Sunday (with VIP access Wednesday and Thursday). At the same time, another change is underway, in the fairs ownership. Lupa Systems, a private investment firm run by James ... More | | 
Mernet Larsen, Deliverance (after El Lissitzky), 2020. Acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 64 1/2 x 52 1/4 in. 163.8 x 132.7 cm.
NEW YORK, NY.- James Cohan is presenting an exhibition of new paintings by Mernet Larsen, on view from December 1 through January 23 at 48 Walker Street. This is Larsens third solo exhibition with the gallery. In conjunction with the exhibitions opening week, the gallery will host a virtual studio visit with the artist and Veronica Roberts, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Blanton Museum of Art, on Friday, December 4 at 2 PM EST. The exhibition will be accompanied by a major retrospective monograph, featuring essays by Veronica Roberts and Susan Thompson, as well as an in-depth interview between Mernet Larsen and Hans Ulrich Obrist. For over six decades, Mernet Larsen has created narrative paintings depicting hard edged, enigmatic characters that inhabit an uncanny parallel world filled with tension and wry humor. Larsen employs various spatial systems that often contradict: combining reverse, ... More |
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| Eddie Van Halen's iconic guitars sold for $422,050 at Julien's Auctions Icons & Idols | | Turks bristle at botched heritage renovations | | The collections of two female Chinese-American entrepreneurs offered at Bonhams | 
Eddie Van Halen designed and stage-played electric guitar.
LOS ANGELES, CA (AFP).- Julien's Auctions held the highly anticipated Icons & Idols Trilogy: Rock'n' Roll, the world-record breaking auction house to the stars' annual music extravaganza, on Tuesday, December 1 and Wednesday, December 2, 2020 live in Beverly Hills and online at www.JuliensAuctions.com. The two-day music auction event sold nearly 900 items of pop culture iconography, instruments and memorabilia owned and used by some of the world's greatest music artists and bands of all-time including Eddie Van Halen, Kurt Cobain, Bob Marley, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Lady Gaga, David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, The Who and more. The top selling item of the event was an iconic guitar played by one of the greatest guitarists of all time-Eddie Van Halen. His customized Kramer electric guitar serial number F 0024 built by Van Halen with his guitar tech Matt Bruck at the guitarist's 5150 ... More | | 
Architect Korhan Gumus poses during an interview on November 26, 2020 in Istanbul. Ozan KOSE / AFP.
by Burcin Gercek
ISTANBUL (AFP).- With sloppy restoration work and damaged or disfigured historical monuments, experts say a race for profits, ideological considerations and favouritism are leaving sensitive upkeep of cultural heritage by the wayside in Turkey. In August the Galata Tower -- an emblematic 14th-century Istanbul landmark -- became the latest monument at the heart of a dispute. Criticism from residents managed to narrowly block the demolition of one of its walls with a jackhammer as part of a restoration, only after a video of workers using the power tool leaked on social media. Culture Minister Nuri Ersoy tried to smooth things over, saying that the destroyed section was not an original part of the tower and announcing "sanctions" against the construction chiefs for using the heavy-duty equipment. But in recent years, the list of poorly renovated monuments has grown, ranging from Roman ... More | | 
A coveted hardwood mahjong table and chairs. Est. US$1,500-2,500. Photo: Bonhams.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- When the young Cecilia Chiang and Rosalind Ching Pastor arrived in the United States in the mid-20th century to start their new lives, they carried little more than other travellers brought: suitcases and hope. Although the two women did not cross paths throughout their lifetime, they would be surprised to hear how similar their stories are both growing out of their privileged upbringing in China to independently establish their entrepreneurial careers through hard work in America. Cecilia Chiang became a renowned restaurateur and Rosalind Ching Pastor an art businesswoman. Along the way, art collecting became a language with which they expressed their personality and attitude to life. In December, Bonhams Los Angeles presents property from the collections of Cecilia Chiang and Rosalind Ching Pastor. For many American gastronomes, the name Cecilia Chiang and her restaurants The Mandarin couldnt be more familiar. Lauded b ... More |
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| Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer's The World of the Seas sells for €325,000 at Rare Books Auction | | James T. Demetrion, visionary Hirshhorn Director (1985-2001), dies at 90 | | Sotheby's to present 'A Celebration of Art Deco: Masterworks from the Collection of Dr. Stephen E. Kelly' | 
Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer, Speculum nauticum super navigatione maris. Leiden 1586. Starting price: 135,000. Sold for: 325,000.
HAMBURG.- With total proceeds of around 2 million, the Rare Books Auction at Ketterer Kunst in Hamburg on November 30 did not only realize an excellent result but also got ahead of the great spring sales figures by around 200,000. In the Evening Sale alone 90% of the objects on offer changed owners with in many cases enormous increases. The star of the night was Lucas Janszoon Waghenaers Sea Atlas. Christoph Calaminus, auctioneer and head of the Rare Books Department in Hamburg, expresses his utter satisfaction: It was a great auction with some excellent prices. He continues: In times as demanding as these I am especially happy that we saw lively domestic and international participation despite the pandemic. Digital bidding options were well received. This was the first time that the number of online bids and the lot total were on par. Around 25% of all lots went ... More | | 
James T. Demetrion with Brice Mardens Cold Mountain 2, 198991. Photo: Cathy Carver.
WASHINGTON, DC.- James T. Demetrion, the second and longest-serving director of the Smithsonians Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (19842001) and director of the Des Moines Art Center (19691984) and Pasadena Art Museum (19641966), died Nov. 29. Demetrion had celebrated his 90th birthday in July. Demetrion was known widely for his excellent eye in selecting modern and contemporary art. During his time at the Hirshhorn, he focused his work on strengthening the museums permanent collection by transforming Joseph Hirshhorns private collection into a national museum representing the art of the present day. Maturing and diversifying the collection, Demetrion oversaw the acquisition of works by leading artists such as Glenn Ligon, Bruce Nauman, Clyfford Still, Nam June Paik, Lucien Freud, Ana Mendieta, Gerhard Richter, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Gober and ... More | | 
Jean Goulden, An Important Clock. Estimate: 200,000 - 300,000 USD. Courtesy Sotheby's.
NEW YORK, NY.- Sothebys will present A Celebration of Art Deco: Masterworks from the Collection of Dr. Stephen E. Kelly across a series of sales beginning this December in New York as the centerpieces of our Design Week auctions. A consummate collector and connoisseur, the late Dr. Stephen E. Kelly became enamored with Art Deco in 1982 while partnering with famed interior designers Jay Spectre and Geoffrey Bradfield to design the interior of his Upper East Side townhouse in New York. Built in 1915, the dazzling multi-floor townhouse simultaneously served as Dr. Kellys personal residence, ophthalmology office and art gallery. Acquired over the course of three decades, the Kelly Collection is remarkable for its superlative quality and comprehensive depth of exemplary Art Deco and modernist objects, with a special focus on design from this historic period. The nearly 200 works on offer in December reflect Dr. ... More |
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| 'Ricci Albenda: Where the Twain Shall Meet' opens at Parrasch Heijnen Gallery | | Almine Rech announces representation of Marcus Jansen | | Miller & Miller Auctions will hold an online-only advertising, toys & historic objects auction | 
Ricci Albenda, :(, 2020. Acrylic on canvas, 35 x 36-1/2 inches.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Parrasch Heijnen is presenting Ricci Albenda: Where the Twain Shall Meet, the gallerys first solo exhibition featuring recent work by Brooklyn, NY-based artist Ricci Albenda (b.1966, Brooklyn, NY). Throughout the past three decades, Ricci Albenda has actively investigated the cognitive mechanisms of language. Toying with emotion, perception, and memory, he transforms the scale, perspective, color, and context of the printed word to produce spatial apprehension. This newest body of work crosses an imagined boundary between divergent utopic and dystopic realms, continuing the artists exploration of the written word. The array of paintings in this show intentionally shifts reality and submerges the viewer into an unbalanced sphere. All the works on view employ Albendas Universal Color System, which offers an adopted synesthesia, where certain senses cross to enhance the meanings ... More | | 
Marcus Jansen, 2020. Photo: Sabrina Gruber.
NEW YORK, NY.- Almine Rech announced the representation of contemporary New York-based artist Marcus Jansen in Europe, the United Kingdom, and Asia and his inaugural solo exhibition at Almine Rech Paris in January 2021. Almine Rech will also be working with the artist in the United States in partnership with Richard Beavers Gallery (Brooklyn), who has represented Jansen since 2007. Born in New York in 1968, Marcus Jansen creates powerful paintings that respond to his experiences from growing up in the U.S. and Germany as well as cultural and social political themes. His socially charged urban landscape paintings are influenced by the two opposite worlds he grew up in. Through his colorful and expressive brushwork, Jansen documents the human condition critically, socially and politically and invites the viewer to engage in the reflection. In 2012, Jansen launched a new series that he named Faceless. The series is a departure from Jansens po ... More | | 
Black Cat Cigarettes porcelain sign (Canadian, 1940s), 50 ½ inches by 48 inches, one of the most attractive porcelain signs in Canadian advertising history (est. CA$9,000-$12,000).
NEW HAMBURG, ON.- A made-in-Canada Black Cat Cigarettes porcelain sign from the 1940s, a Depression-era Paces Races 5-cent horse race slot machine, and an early 20th century C. Cretors & Co. floor model popcorn and nut machine are a few expected top lots in Miller & Miller Auctions, Ltd.s online-only Advertising, Toys & Historic Objects auction slated for Saturday, December 12th, starting at 9 am Eastern. Phone and absentee bids will be accepted. The auction is packed with 677 lots of advertising signs, toys, breweriana, coin-ops, historic objects, general store, agricultural collectibles (including patent models and salesmens samples), telephones and more. Lovers of the rare, lovers of the unusual, lovers of those inspiring historic objects that pop up once-in-a-decade will delight and what were offering here, said Ethan ... More |
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The Nazi-Looted Art of Jakob Goldschmidt & Emanuël Vita Israel
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 Aubusson tapestries one of many highlights in Heritage Auctions' Fine Furniture & Decorative Arts SaleDALLAS, TX.- Across the spectrum of highlights on offer in Heritage Auctions' Fine Furniture & Decorative Arts Auction this Friday is a selection of rare Aubusson tapestries an ideal compliment to the five special sessions in the sale. Rarities from three important private collections, as well as themed sessions entitled "The Holiday Table" and "The Holiday Gift" comprise the sale, which will be held in real time on HA.com, LiveAuctioneers.com and Invaluable.com. Leading the auction's selection of fine furniture is a stunning, 19th century Napoleon III Gilt Bronze Mounted Sèvres-Style Porcelain Side Table (est. $15,000-25,000) from the Dallas collection of R. Douglas Houser. The 60-piece collection presents a François Linke Gilt Bronze Mounted Mahogany Bureau Plat (est. $12,000-18,000) and a gorgeous 62-piece St. Louis Thistle Pattern Glass ... More Mary Blair stars in December Animation Art auctionDALLAS, TX.- The photograph that graces the cover of Nathalia Holt's acclaimed The Queens of Animation, just now out in paperback, is that of Mary Blair at a desk in South America, brush in fingers, radiant designs at hand. Because, yes, there were other queens of animation; other women "who transformed the world of Disney and made cinematic history," as the subtitle tells, among them Grace Huntington, Bianca Majolie, Sylvia Holland and Retta Scott. But there were queens, and then there was the woman who sat alone on the throne: Mary Blair. The painter from Oklahoma to whom Walt Disney once said, "You know about colors I have never heard of." The artist whose conceptual paintings for such films as Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and Cinderella are "as delicious as feasting on rainbows," her biographer John Canemaker once wrote. ... More Asian Art in London 2020 concludes with sales figures in excess of £50MLONDON.- The 23rd edition of Asian Art in London revamped for a non-travelling collectors world, traditional annual event with the addition of Indian & Islamic week from 22 31 October, followed by East Asian week 29 October 7 November, a dramatically revised and enlarged digital presence and an ability to react swiftly to ongoing developments in restrictions to travel and one to one engagement. Publicly announced sales figures in excess of £50m, almost double those of 2019. In addition to physical exhibitions across Mayfair, St. Jamess and Kensington Church Street, direct digital links to the participants own websites and a ground-breaking Virtual Exhibition Gallery with 3-D capability gave visitors unable to attend AAL in person the opportunity to view remotely a wide variety of pieces on offer from participants. Following the announcement ... More U.K. National Theater enters the streaming warsLONDON (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Cultural institutions around the world have been pivoting to online this year, and Britains National Theater has arguably been one of the most successful. From April to July, with its stages shuttered by the coronavirus pandemic and many of its staff furloughed, the theater put recordings of recent hits on YouTube, starting with the wildly popular comedy One Man, Two Guvnors. Those videos got over 15 million views in total. Last week, it also made a recording of its latest production, Death of England: Delroy which closed the night it opened, because of a second national lockdown in England available to view free for 24 hours. Now, the theater has decided to change tack. Just days before it reopens for a second time this year with Dick Whittington, a family Christmas show, it has started its own ... More Pantyhose and trash bags: How music programs are surviving in the pandemic (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- In 13 years of playing flute, Gabriella Alvarez never imagined playing with a clear plastic trash bag around her instrument. Kevin Vigil never foresaw his fellow tuba players wrapping pantyhose around their instrument bells. And neither expected to watch their marching band at New Mexico State University play through cloth face masks, separated by 6-foot loops of water pipe, with bags filled with hand sanitizer and disinfectant strapped around their waists. But this is band practice in a pandemic. The two students, both seniors, are grateful to have practice at all. In March, the coronavirus shut down their band along with much of the country, painfully demonstrating that the pandemic would leave no part of their education untouched. It would take five months for them to regain the precious ability to play together again. In the middle ... More Cuban leaders, artists, revive row over free speechHAVANA (AFP).- A promise of dialogue between the Cuban government and artists calling for greater freedom of expression seems to have stalled, after communist authorities blamed a protest on US interference. Unprecedented discussions were expected to get underway this week between Culture Minister Alpidio Alonso and artist representatives, but no concrete meeting has been announced. Commitment to talks was one of the key agreements reached on Friday night after an extremely rare protest by about 300 artists outside the Culture Ministry building in Havana. Permission for such protests is rarely given in Cuba. Rarer still, the ministry agreed to receive a delegation of 30 of the artists. Their demands included freedom of creation and expression, the right to openly disagree with state authorities and an end to repression and harassment ... More The bookseller of Kinshasa: A lone fight to help DR Congo's bookwormsKINSHASA (AFP).- In the aircraft hold, Alpha Ramazani has stowed a precious cargo. In Europe, its contents may seem banal. But in the chaotic, rundown capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, they are revered as nectar for the brain. The 33-year-old bookseller is bringing with him the latest big-name novels from Europe, along with political treatises, Michelle Obama's memoirs, a new biography of Joe Biden and a selection of other hot-off-the-presses books sought by a tiny but devoted following in Kinshasa. When Ramazani goes on a trip to Brussels -- usually using up his holiday time -- he brings back dozens of kilos (pounds) of extra luggage, all of it crammed with books. Six thousand kilometres (3,700 miles) later, his suitcases are shepherded through customs, carefully unpacked and the titles put on sale at Book Express, Ramazani's tiny 30-square-metre (322-square-foot) shop, located on a street with bustling ... More Egypt's Berber speakers cling to language in isolated oasisSIWA OASIS (AFP).- Youssef Diab drives his truck through the Egyptian oasis of Siwa, singing catchy songs in a local Berber dialect that clings to life despite the dominance of Arabic. The UN has classified Siwi, the easternmost dialect of the Tamazight language spoken across North Africa as far as Morocco, as "endangered". But few adults in the oasis speak Arabic as their main language, and the children playing at the foot of the ancient local fortress talk and shout in Siwi. Diab, a 25-year-old tourist guide with a colourful Berber flag in his back window, is convinced that the tongue will survive. "Everyone uses it here," he said. The Berbers of Siwa are one of the main linguistic minorities in Egypt, the most populous Arabic-speaking country with some 100 million inhabitants and long the flag-bearer of Arab nationalism. Located some 560 ... More Climate change biggest threat to natural World Heritage sitesGENEVA (AFP).- Climate change has become the biggest threat to UN-listed natural world heritage sites like glaciers and wetlands, and has pushed Australia's Great Barrier Reef into "critical" condition, conservationists said Wednesday. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) revealed in a new report that shifts due to the changing climate now imperil a full third of the 252 UNESCO-listed natural sites around the globe. Overall, 94 of the sites are facing significant or critical risk from a wide range of factors -- including tourism, hunting, fire and water pollution -- marking an increase from the 62 listed in the previous study published in 2017. The study also hinted that the Covid-19 pandemic was taking a toll on some of the world's most beautiful and precious natural places. However, climate change is by far the biggest single ... More Misk Art Institute launches flagship annual initiativeRIYADH.- Misk Art Institute is an artist-centric not for profit organization that encourages grassroots artistic production in Saudi Arabia, nurtures the appreciation of Saudi and Arab art and enables international cultural diplomacy and exchange. This year they will host the 4th edition of Misk Art Week (MAW), the organisation's flagship annual initiative at their new cultural centre in Riyadh (3 - 7 December). An engaging platform that fosters creativity, Misk Art Week aims to encourage critical thinking and problem solving, with a positive impact on the creative community. For the first time, both Saudi and international audiences will have the opportunity to engage with the programme as it takes on a new hybrid format both physically at the home of Misk Art Institute, Prince Faisal bin Fahd Fine Arts Hall, Riyadh and online. With the theme of Culture Recultivated this years ... More Larissa Harris appointed first Executive Director of Teiger FoundationNEW YORK, NY.- Teiger Foundation announced today the appointment of Larissa Harris as its first Executive Director. Established in 2008, Teiger Foundation amplifies the vision and work of the late art collector David Teiger, who was a steadfast supporter of contemporary art, curators, and artists during his lifetime. As Executive Director, Harris will advance the Foundations mission and continue its work to empower curators through support of new scholarship, interpretation, and exhibition development in the field of contemporary art. Harris comes to the Foundation from the Queens Museum, where she has served as curator since 2009, with responsibilities including the development of exhibitions, programs, and scholarly texts, project specific fundraising initiatives, and ongoing mentorship of fellow curators. Harris appointment follows ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, American painter Gilbert Stuart was born December 03, 1755. Gilbert Charles Stuart (born Stewart) (December 3, 1755 - July 9, 1828) was an American painter from Rhode Island. In this image: Former President George W. Bush (L) and Mrs. Laura Bush (C) receive a tour of the Gilbert Stuart exhibition from Rusty Powell, director of the National Gallery of Art, during a visit Monday, July 25, 2005 in Washington.
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