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Old Masters
In Perspective
By: The Editors EXHIBITIONS Back to Nature: Babcock Galleries in New York has a comprehensive show of the work of Alan Gussow from Oct. 8–Nov. 25. Gussow, who died in 1997, combined abstraction with observation in landscape paintings that expressed his conservationist philosophy. Buried With the Pharaohs: Opening Oct. 18 at the Museum of Fine…
Market: On the Continent
By: John Dorfman Although relatively little known to art buyers in the English-speaking countries, German and Austrian auction houses are excellent hunting grounds for unusual finds at sometimes bargain prices. This month and next, a large number of sales in a wide variety of categories will be held. Starting off the fall season, the storied…
Market: Splendors of the East
By: Sallie Brady It’s time for enthusiasts of Asian art and antiques to journey to London for the fortnight of gallery exhibitions, auctions, lectures and museum exhibitions collectively known as Asian Art in London. In Kensington Church Street, St. James’ and Mayfair—the three areas where these specialists cluster—collectors and curators can look forward to themed…
Talking Pictures: The Great Debate
By: Jonathan Lopez Which art form is superior, painting or sculpture? On the face of it, this question might seem futile, since there is no right answer. But for artists in Renaissance Italy, the comparison, or paragone, of the arts was a matter of spirited and often invidious debate. The argument usually centered on a single issue—whether…
Film: Light and the City
A glass box of a room juts into the Los Angeles night; within it, two young women converse, unconcerned with the glittering grid of city lights beneath them. This striking image became famous not only because of its composition but because of its enduring resonance as an emblem of California modernism.
Collecting: C’est Daguerre
In preparation for this past spring’s photography sale, the specialists at Sotheby’s New York were researching a 4- by 5.25-inch daguerreotype, taken in 1848 or earlier, of a rural estate on what is now New York City’s Upper West Side. The image, remarkably detailed despite some tarnishing, shows a house at the top of a hill, with a white fence encircling the yard in front of it.
Dream Weavers
Until April 2010 you can see Guernica in London, at the newly expanded Whitechapel Gallery. But if you’ve visited the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid and seen Picasso’s anguished portrayal of the bombing of a Basque town during the Spanish Civil War, you might notice something a bit odd. At 10 by 22 feet, the Guernica in London is slightly smaller than the one in Spain and considerably heavier (the gallery needed six men to hang it).
Inner Strengths
This past June and July, a very interesting thing took place in the London salesrooms of Christie’s and Sotheby’s. The results for Old Master paintings surpassed those for contemporary art, and they came surprisingly close to those for Impressionist and modern art. To market watchers, this topsy-turvy state of affairs signaled a shift in art-world priorities in the wake of the global economic crisis.
Financial Report: The Pawnbroker
If the art of business has revolutionized the business of art in the past decade, Tony Barreiro and Ray Parker Gaylord are firmly in the vanguard. The San Francisco-based company ArtLoan, which they founded in 2004, lends money against the value of art collections owned by individuals and galleries.
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