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Old Masters
From the Editor: Ancestral Voices
By art-world tradition, the last week in January is Americana week in New York, when the auction houses hold dedicated sales of antique furniture, silver and various forms of vernacular art. The American Antiques Show, benefiting the American Folk Art Museum, takes place at the same time, as does the Winter Antiques Show, not limited to American material but rich in it nonetheless.
Exhibitions: Down to a Science
Virtually everyone is familiar with the phrase, “I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like.” Now The Walters Art Museum and the Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute at Johns Hopkins University, both in Baltimore, are collaborating to determine what people like, and ultimately, why they like it.
The Lure of Egypt
Ancient Egypt has always inspired awe. Part of its power lies in the grandeur of its ruins, the “vast and trunkless legs of stone” that Shelley described in his sonnetOzymandias. Part of it is sheer age. Founded over 5,000 years ago, Egyptian dynastic civilization seemed ancient even to the ancients: In Plato’s Timaeus, an Egyptian priest tells Solon that compared to his own people, “you Hellenes are never anything but children.”
In a Nutshell: Tales of the Tusk
In the ancient world, ivory was an elite material for everyday items. Peoples across the world created small and large works of art by carving bone from the tusks of a walrus or an elephant. “Ivory has always been a very highly valued substance; there’s a universality of its usage from antiquity on,” says Steven Alpert, an expert, dealer and collector of traditional Indonesian art and the arts of the Pacific.
Books: Furnishing an Explanation
It’s unusual for a book about antiques to be published by a major literary house. But Maryalice Huggins’ Aesop’s Mirror is quite an unusual book, by an antiques insider who can tell a good story. It’s a “love story,” as the subtitle says, and the beloved here is an 8-foot-tall gilt mirror decorated with whimsical figures illustrating the ancient fable of the fox and the grapes.
Collecting: All in the Family
“La Maladie de Porcelaine” was what Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and king of Poland, called the obsession that led him to amass one of the world’s greatest collections of this decorative substance. Among his holdings were superb examples from China’s Qing Dynasty, including the beautiful and popular varieties known as famille rose and famille verte.
Elevating the Everyday
Storytelling helps us think about who we are, where we come from, what we value and why. The art is as ancient as the impulse to gather around a fire at night. While today it is more likely to be an HDTV screen than a glowing hearth, the experience remains crucial to 21st-century humans, who lavish multimillion-dollar paychecks on Hollywood’s leading lights.
Market: Drawing Them In
By: John Dorfman The small, clubby world of drawings enthusiasts gets more expansive this month as galleries all over the Upper East Side of Manhattan open their doors for Master Drawings Week, New York. Introduced in 2007 as an extension of Master Drawings Week, London (launched in 2001), the event involves New York galleries mounting…
In Perspective
EXHIBITIONS An Angle on Arbus: Diane Arbus: Christ in a Lobby and Other Unknown or Almost Known Works opens at the Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco on Jan. 7 and continues through March 6. Sculptor Robert Gober selected the 48 photographs for the show. UPCOMING AUCTIONS Raise a Paddle, Raise a Glass: A wine-themed oil-on-panel…
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