Dr. Ron Tyler, Director of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Photo courtesy of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art.

Amon Carter Museum director retiring

Dr. Ron Tyler, Director of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Photo courtesy of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art.

Dr. Ron Tyler, Director of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Photo courtesy of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art.

FORT WORTH, Texas—The Amon Carter Museum of American Art Board of Trustees announced yesterday the retirement of Dr. Ron Tyler as director of the museum. Tyler will serve as director until April 1, 2011; the board and museum management are currently working on a succession plan.

“During Ron’s tenure, we have seen our collection grow through valuable acquisitions of American art,” said Ruth Carter Stevenson, president of the board. “Our educational programs and online offerings have also exponentially expanded, and we have undergone extensive renovation and updating of the physical facilities. As we move into our 50th anniversary, the museum is positioned as a leader among art museums. Dr. Tyler has left a tangible legacy, and we are grateful for his leadership and vision.”

In retirement, Tyler plans to resume scholarly work, devoting more time to his lifelong passion for research and writing. He will work to complete three books, which are projects he began before he accepted the directorship in 2006.

“The nearly 22 years that I have spent at the Amon Carter are among the happiest and most productive of my career,” Tyler said. “I thank the Board of Trustees for the opportunity to work here, for it changed my life and essentially launched my career. I feel that I received my education here as much as at the universities I attended.”

In his first tenure at the museum, Tyler served as curator and assistant director for collections and programs. In 1986 he left to join the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin, where he served as professor of history for 20 years.

Tyler received his Ph.D. from Texas Christian University. He was director of the Texas State Historical Association from 1986 to 2005 and has served on numerous boards, including the Conference of Southwest Foundations, Eastern National and the Summerlee Foundation. He sat on both the planning and accessions committees for the Blanton Art Museum in Austin and is an elected member of the American Antiquarian Society, the Philosophical Society of Texas and the Texas Institute of Letters. Tyler is editor and author of more than two dozen books, including Alfred Jacob Miller: Artist as Explorer; Nature’s Classics: John James Audubon’s Birds and Animals; Visions of America: Pioneer Artists in a New Land; Posada’s Mexico; and The Image of America in Caricature and Cartoon. He is the recipient of numerous grants; has delivered many articles for publication in scholarly journals across the country; organized a number of major exhibitions; and lectured widely on exploration art, American and Western art and history, and John James Audubon. Among the awards Tyler has received in his career are: Doctor of Humane Letters from Austin College; Captain Alonzo de León Award for Contribution to Mexican History; Coral H. Tullis Award from the Texas State Historical Association for the best book on Texas history for The Big Bend: A History of the Last Texas Frontier; and Best Contribution to Knowledge from the Texas Institute of Letters and Outstanding Publication of the Year from the American Historical Print Collectors Society for Prints of the West.

“The Amon Carter is an incredible community resource,” Tyler said. “It has been a privilege to work here, and I expect to continue to use its collections for research on several book projects that I am developing.”

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From the portfolio containing Jan Cremer’s original autographed manuscript for the Dutch counterculture literary sensation of 1965 titled Ik Jan Cremer. The group lot also includes original designs, collages and cover art, as well as the publicity campaign as strategized by Cremer. Adams Amsterdam image.

Orig. manuscript for classic ’60s novel at Adams Amsterdam, Oct. 2

From the portfolio containing Jan Cremer’s original autographed manuscript for the Dutch counterculture literary sensation of 1965 titled Ik Jan Cremer. The group lot also includes original designs, collages and cover art, as well as the publicity campaign as strategized by Cremer. Adams Amsterdam image.

From the portfolio containing Jan Cremer’s original autographed manuscript for the Dutch counterculture literary sensation of 1965 titled Ik Jan Cremer. The group lot also includes original designs, collages and cover art, as well as the publicity campaign as strategized by Cremer. Adams Amsterdam image.

AMSTERDAM – The original 1964 manuscript for the novel some consider to be the European equivalent of Kerouac’s On the Road is the centerpiece of Adams Amsterdam’s Oct. 2 Rare Books, Prints & Art auction.

The book titled Ik Jan Cremer (I, Jan Cremer) – the story of hedonistic journey that takes the main character from prisons to the foreign legion, with countless sexual escapades in between – has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide. Adams Amsterdam Auctions partner and book expert Piet van Winden describes Cremer’s tour de force as “more than a novel…It’s one of the real crown jewels of the cultural history of the Netherlands.”

The autographed manuscript comes in a portfolio that includes original designs, collages and cover art, as well as the publicity campaign as strategized by Cremer. At auction, it is expected to make $275,000-$340,000.

The Oct. 2 sale features more than 800 rare books, manuscripts, maps, prints, paintings, photographs and other works of art, with Internet live bidding provided by LiveAuctioneers.com.

In addition to the Jan Cremer lot, highlights also include an extra illustrated 3-volume “De Wit edition” of J. Blaeu’s important Toonneel der steden van de Vereenighde Nederlanden, met hare beschrijvingen (Amsterdam, 1649-1700). This famous town atlas with Dutch text includes the plans and maps of all the cities, fortresses and sieges of the mid to late-17th-century Dutch Republic. Estimate: $123,000-$163,000.

A fascinating lot among the rare books is a beautiful, hand-colored copy of the deluxe edition of Johannes Frederik van Overmeer Fisscher’s Bijdrage tot de kennis van het Japansche Rijk, published in Amsterdam in 1833. This work dealing with Japanese life and culture was written by a Dutch civil servant who left home at an early age to travel to the Dutch East Indies and Deshima – an artificial island in the Bay of Nagasaki that was the site of a Dutch trading post and factory. Estimate: $5,000-$7,000.

Equally interesting is a large collection of fencing books, including the only Dutch treatise on the subject, Grondige beschryvinge van de edele ende ridderlijcke scherm- ofte wapen-konste by Johannes Georgius Bruchius (Leyden, 1671). Also to be auctioned is Alessandro Senese’s beautifully illustrated and much sought-after Il vero maneggio di spada (Bologna, 1660).

Two striking emblem books include Daniel Heinsius’ Nederduytsche poemata with illustrations by Crispijn de Passe (Amsterdam, 1618) and Roemer Visscher’s Zinne-poppen (Amsterdam, 1669).

The earliest German description of the world, Sebastian Münster’s Cosmographei, will be available in two editions, both published in Basel, one in 1550 and one in 1578, the latter containing a map of the New World. Also, the auction includes two different editions (first edition 1604 and second edition 1618) of Karel van Mander’s classic artists manual Het schilder boeck.

A unique and almost complete series of works illustrated by artist Joost Veerkamp comes from the collection Gert Jan Hemmink. The auction features part one of the collection; part two will be offered in a future sale at Adams Amsterdam.

Map collectors will find an outstanding collection of cartographic material in the sale, including maps by Blaeu, Waghenaer, Ortelius and many other masters of the craft. Among the holographic material, the highlight is an original letter handwritten by Albert Schweitzer to Wilhelmina, Queen of the Netherlands from 1898 to 1948. The letter comes from the collection of Thijs Booy (1923-2003), who was the private secretary to the Queen after she abdicated in favor of her daughter, Juliana.

Sixty wooden drawers and 25 smaller wooden boxes contain beetles and butterflies, including Curculionidae, Papilionidae, Pienidae, Sphinidae and  Circumbycidae. “These would make for a marvelous entomological collection,” van Winden noted.

Another outstanding private collection contains photographs Ed van der Elsken took of his muse, the Australian artist Vali Myers, for his book Een liefde in St Germain des Prés. Also included are three original paintings by Myers.

Other artists represented in the sale include Appel, Van Heel, Van Leperen, Zadkine, Ponsioen, Toorop, Bart van der Leck and Mauve. An exciting collection of photographs by Eva Besnyö also will be offered.

For information on any lot in the sale, call 011 31 20 320 11 31 or e-mail mail@adamsamsterdam.com.

View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

#   #   #

View the fully illustrated catalog and register to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com.


ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE


From the portfolio containing Jan Cremer’s original autographed manuscript for the Dutch counterculture literary sensation of 1965 titled Ik Jan Cremer. The group lot also includes original designs, collages and cover art, as well as the publicity campaign as strategized by Cremer. Adams Amsterdam image.

From the portfolio containing Jan Cremer’s original autographed manuscript for the Dutch counterculture literary sensation of 1965 titled Ik Jan Cremer. The group lot also includes original designs, collages and cover art, as well as the publicity campaign as strategized by Cremer. Adams Amsterdam image.

From the portfolio containing Jan Cremer’s original autographed manuscript for the Dutch counterculture literary sensation of 1965 titled Ik Jan Cremer. The group lot also includes original designs, collages and cover art, as well as the publicity campaign as strategized by Cremer. Adams Amsterdam image.

From the portfolio containing Jan Cremer’s original autographed manuscript for the Dutch counterculture literary sensation of 1965 titled Ik Jan Cremer. The group lot also includes original designs, collages and cover art, as well as the publicity campaign as strategized by Cremer. Adams Amsterdam image.

Lidnor Serrurier, De wajang poerwa. Atlas volume with 6 tables and 21 splendid chromolithographed plates. Adams Amsterdam image.

Lidnor Serrurier, De wajang poerwa. Atlas volume with 6 tables and 21 splendid chromolithographed plates. Adams Amsterdam image.

J. Blaeu, Toonneel der steden (1649-1700). Contemporary vellum, three volumes, large folio, extra illustrated 'De Wit edition' of town atlas containing plans and maps of all the cities, fortresses, and sieges of the mid- to late-17th-century Dutch Republic. Estimate: $123,000-$163,000. Adams Amsterdam image.

J. Blaeu, Toonneel der steden (1649-1700). Contemporary vellum, three volumes, large folio, extra illustrated ‘De Wit edition’ of town atlas containing plans and maps of all the cities, fortresses, and sieges of the mid- to late-17th-century Dutch Republic. Estimate: $123,000-$163,000. Adams Amsterdam image.

Circa-1802 globe by Mortier & Covens. Estimate $9,500-$12,250. Adams Amsterdam image.

Circa-1802 globe by Mortier & Covens. Estimate $9,500-$12,250. Adams Amsterdam image.

Nees von Esenback, Plantae officinales oder Sammlung officineller Pflanzen. Düsseldorf, Arnz & Co., (1821-1833). Four volumes with 430+ colored lithographs. Adams Amsterdam image.

Nees von Esenback, Plantae officinales oder Sammlung officineller Pflanzen. Düsseldorf, Arnz & Co., (1821-1833). Four volumes with 430+ colored lithographs. Adams Amsterdam image.

A complete series of the important avant-garde Dutch art periodical Wendingen, with cover dates from 1918-1931, including designs by Lissitzky. Adams Amsterdam image.

A complete series of the important avant-garde Dutch art periodical Wendingen, with cover dates from 1918-1931, including designs by Lissitzky. Adams Amsterdam image.

Original photograph by Ed van der Elsken from the collection of his most famous model Vali Myers, depicted here for van der Elsken’s debut titled Love on the Left Bank (1956). Adams Amsterdam image.

Original photograph by Ed van der Elsken from the collection of his most famous model Vali Myers, depicted here for van der Elsken’s debut titled Love on the Left Bank (1956). Adams Amsterdam image.

Approximately 16 handmade quilts, including this nice checkerboard square example, will be sold. Image courtesy of Specialists of the South Inc.

Specialists of the South to hold onsite country auction Oct. 15-16

Approximately 16 handmade quilts, including this nice checkerboard square example, will be sold. Image courtesy of Specialists of the South Inc.

Approximately 16 handmade quilts, including this nice checkerboard square example, will be sold. Image courtesy of Specialists of the South Inc.

FOUNTAIN, Fla. – A good old-fashioned onsite country sale, featuring over 800 lots in just about every category imaginable, will be held Oct. 15-16 at the home of Maryland Cress in Fountain. The auction will be held by Specialists of the South Inc., of Panama City, Fla. LiveAuctioneers will facilitate online bidding.

Fountain is located in the Florida panhandle, south of Interstate 10 and about halfway between Tallahassee and Pensacola. It will be well worth the drive for fans of country items that have been lovingly collected for 45 years. Plus, nearly all the lots will be offered without reserve, selling to the highest bidder, regardless of final price.

The inventory of merchandise is dizzying – far too much to be contained in a one-day sale.

“I’ve been collecting ever since I was 19 and I’m nearly 65 now,” remarked Cress. “Just about everything I own was bought at a yard sale, either here in Florida, or in Ohio where my husband’s brother lives. The Ohio items I purchased at Amish auctions, which are great.”

In fact, Maryland was so impressed by the Amish she had a notion to pack everything up and ship it to Ohio to let them handle the auction. Then the reality of just how much she owned set in, and she got in touch with Logan Adams of Specialists of the South. The two hit it off right away.

“Good thing,” Cress said. “It would’ve taken a 40-foot container to ship all that stuff.”

The Cress collections include over 20 antique butter churns, vintage clocks (wall, desk and mantel), primitives and American furniture, Hoosier cabinets, barrister bookcases, about 16 handmade quilts, small farm tools and hand tools, old sewing machines, art pottery (Roseville, Hull and Weller), Fenton glass, pocket knives and Bowie knives, BB guns, bayonets and more.

The “more” would include old children’s games and puzzles, jelly cupboards, piano stools, old water pumps, a large collection of rooster figures, wagon wheels in a variety of sizes, cream separators, coffee grinders, older tins, cast-iron pieces (to include some banks), kitchen collectibles (canisters, salt and pepper shakers, spice racks), crocks and some silver pieces.

That’s not all. There will also be about 18 biscuit jars, nine Tom’s and Lance’s peanut butter and cracker jars, ironstone, Jadeite, Shawnee, Beswick, scales, inkwells, an oak icebox, desks, mirrors, cedar chests, rugs, dolls, music boxes, canes, brass, Blue Danube china (to include a service for 12, with extras and serving pieces), Fiesta, taxidermy examples, oil lamps, marbles, horse memorabilia, comics, fire screens and sewing baskets/boxes/cabinets (to include a nice Hepplewhite-style sewing cabinet).

“It’s just staggering to sift through all that Maryland has and have to inventory it all,” said Ms. Adams in mock exasperation. “If I wasn’t having so much fun poring through all this merchandise, it might feel a bit like work.”

The auction will kick off both days at 9 a.m. Eastern, with a preview both days from 7-9 a.m.

The two Hoosier cabinets are bound to get a lot of attention. One, made around 1900, features a pullout enamel shelf, flower mill, bread drawer, tambour lift and wire racks. The other boasts three stained glass doors and was crafted in Australia. Also sold will be an Empire china cabinet with large scrolling feet, bowed glass door and sides and shaped glass shelves.

Additional furniture pieces will include a Globe stacking wooden bookcase in three sections with double glass doors in each section (51 1/4 inches tall by 33 inches wide) and a Bennington Colchester pine rolltop desk with brass and wooden pulls (43 1/4 inches tall by 54 inches wide). Also sold will be an Eastlake wall-hung beveled mantel mirror in six sections.

Butter churns will include a staved wood rocking barrel churn on a stand shaped like a keg; an Acme Ball churn (No. 0) made by H.H. Palmer Co., Rockford, Ill., circa 1900; and an all-metal Dazey tabletop 430B churn, dated Dec. 18, 1917, 26 1/2 inches tall. The sale will also feature not only Tom’s and Lance’s jars, but also a Tom’s Toasted Peanuts advertising display case.

The clocks will feature a fashion wall clock with two faces, reading day and date, made by the Southern Calendar Clock Co. (1875, St. Louis). Vintage banks will include a Buster Brown and Tige cast-iron bank (5 1/2 inches tall); an A.C. Williams still bank showing a lion on a tub with rope; and a Minute Man bank with liberty bell and cannon by Banthrico Inc., Chicago.

Biscuit jars will include a covered jar from Japan with wide blue border and repousse flowers in white, white flower finial and wrapped handle (8 inches tall); and a porcelain jar painted in shades of navy blue on a cream colored background with gold accents and bead border (8 1/2 inches tall). Also sold will be a taxidermy turkey perched on a branch (34 1/2 inches tall).

Titles from a collection of Little Leather Library Miniature Books of Classics include The Ancient Mariner, Man Without a Country, Rip Van Winkle, Alice in Wonderland, Confessions of an Opium Dealer, Othello, Sonnets of the Portuguese and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (3 inches by 4 inches). Also sold will be a painted cement lawn jockey, 26 inches tall, and a large cannonball.

A few nice silver pieces will cross the block, to include a sterling tea strainer on a stand marked “Industria Peruana, Plata Esterlina” (made by Camusso, 6 1/4 inches wide). Bowls will feature a blue opalescent hobnail glass bowl with a ruffled edge, 10 inches in diameter, and a hand-hewn rectangular dough bowl with a tin patch repair on the side, 33 1/2 inches in length.

Rounding out the sale’s expected top lots are a good number of advertising signs, many of them tin and paper (to include Mother’s brand foods, Sunbeam bread, Galvanic soap and a Kleenex sign from the 1940s); a cane/umbrella stand made from hames and horseshoes, with walking sticks (one with a brass falcon head and one a deer hoof); a Roseville Snowberry variegated green and tan vase, 12 1/2 inches tall; some nice tablecloths; and a Beswick Ware mug marked “Sairey Gamp” with an umbrella handle and polka-dotted bonnet.

For details visit Specialists of the South Inc.’s Web site SpecialistsoftheSouth.com or phone 850- 785-2577.

 


ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE


Collectors of biscuit jars will be happy to learn that about 18 will be offered in the auction. Image courtesy of Specialists of the South Inc.

Collectors of biscuit jars will be happy to learn that about 18 will be offered in the auction. Image courtesy of Specialists of the South Inc.

Two Hoosier cabinets will cross the block during the sale, including this fine example. Image courtesy of Specialists of the South Inc.

Two Hoosier cabinets will cross the block during the sale, including this fine example. Image courtesy of Specialists of the South Inc.

Fashion wall clock with two faces, made by Southern Calendar Clock Co., St. Louis. Image courtesy of Specialists of the South Inc.

Fashion wall clock with two faces, made by Southern Calendar Clock Co., St. Louis. Image courtesy of Specialists of the South Inc.

Blue Danube china service for 12, with extras and serving pieces, on a nice tablecloth. Image courtesy of Specialists of the South Inc.

Blue Danube china service for 12, with extras and serving pieces, on a nice tablecloth. Image courtesy of Specialists of the South Inc.

Over 20 antique butter churns, including the two pictured here, will change hands Oct. 15-16. Image courtesy of Specialists of the South Inc.

Over 20 antique butter churns, including the two pictured here, will change hands Oct. 15-16. Image courtesy of Specialists of the South Inc.

Large letters from signs are desirable decorative pieces. These three, which are 60 inches high, are acrylic and aluminum. They sold in January for $10,000. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Rago Arts and Auction Center.

Typography hits the right key in home decor

Large letters from signs are desirable decorative pieces. These three, which are 60 inches high, are acrylic and aluminum. They sold in January for $10,000. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Rago Arts and Auction Center.

Large letters from signs are desirable decorative pieces. These three, which are 60 inches high, are acrylic and aluminum. They sold in January for $10,000. Image courtesy of Rago Arts and Auction Center and LiveAuctioneers archive.

Numbers and letters are hot off the press this season in decorative items, dishware and soft furnishings.

Typographic decor spans a variety of styles, from vintage – in the form of letterpress or old correspondence imagery – to clean-lined modern graphics, often using bold text or individual symbols.

Before designing dinnerware, Christopher Jagmin was a graphic designer. “I love and appreciate the art of typography,” he says. “We’re all surrounded by it every day. We type on computers, we’re aware of it on advertising, billboards, magazines and on television.”

His numbered plates are creating a lot of buzz – there’s something really artsy about these symbols on a crisp white ceramic plate. Jagmin agrees: “I think that breaking down words to the simplicity of a letter or a number, we see the true beauty and art of a font, and its basic elements.”

San Francisco designer Rae Dunn stamps clay cups and plaques with the sparest of phrases; the result is both charming and evocative. “Tres Bien” and “Oui,” say sweet little cups. “C’est la vie,” shrugs a plate. And the homespun phrase “Home Sweet Home” becomes something special when pressed into creamy clay and embellished with a little bee.

Textual decor can add a touch of drama. John Derian was given an envelope of correspondence between two former lovers; throughout the letters, written in 1919, a young lady is trying to recover some personal items. She becomes more impatient with each missive: “Sorry to appear insistent. But I must have my trinkets back.”

Derian has decoupaged several of the letters onto beautiful glass trays for a collection he calls “Relationships.”

Samuel Ho, Nathan Tremblay and Ian Campana comprise the Calgary, Alberta, design firm Palette Industries. Their limited edition Dharma lounge chair has a seat formed of the laser-cut words “Stand, Forget, Breathe, Acknowledge and Observe,” atop sleek chrome legs. Their Camus floor lamp has a veneer shade laser-cut with Albert Camus’ quote, “You cannot create experience, you must undergo it.”

Walls can support a variety of strong graphics, and are a perfect place to play with numbers and letters. Cafe Press has the simple yet striking Helvetica wall clock. Ikea’s Olunda Typeface wall art depicts the alphabet in bold black, white and red.

Flamboyant, innovative fashion designers Chris Brooke and Bruno Basso have ventured successfully into wall coverings with “Alphabet,” a lacy, intricate pattern of Greek letters in a palette of sophisticated tone-on-tone and softly contrasting hues.

Inspired by layers of advertising on New York City billboards, Megan Meagher created collages of fonts on two canvases; find them at Crate & Barrel.

The retailer also has a kicky collection of cocktail-oriented serveware with chatty, multi-font words forming drink pitcher and martini glass shapes on slivers of white porcelain.

For the floor, consider Peacock Park Design’s wildly popular Tattoo mat, an antiquarian-style set of inky fonts printed on bamboo. CB2’s Club Red rug is a plush and punchy rendition of a London club poster.

Ikea’s Vitaminer Siffra duvet set is a peppy pop of colors and numbers.

And finally, Donna Wilson plays with the whole concept by scripting “Blah Blah” across a soft, cozy blanket. Well said, Ms. Wilson.

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Sourcebook:

www.ikea.com – Vitaminer Siffra bedding set, $14.99; Olunda wall art, $39.99

www.cb2.com – Club Red rug, $229

www.crateandbarrel.com – Chill plate, $3.95; Megan Meagher’s “Neutral Type” prints I & II, $199 each

www.etsy.com – Rae Dunn’s “Home Sweet Home” plaque, $42; “Oui,” “Tres Bien” cups, $36; “C’est la Vie” plate, $42

www.christopherjagmin.com – Numbered dinner plates, some sold in sets of four, various configurations of single and multiple numbers on porcelain – check website for stocklists

www.cafepress.com – Helvetica clock, $15

www.donnawilson.com – “Blah Blah” lambswool blanket and pillow – check website for U.S. stocklists or order from her British site

www.paletteindustries.com – Dharma lounge chair, Camus floor lamp – contact for order information

www.johnderian.com – antique correspondence placemats, $55; Things I Like tray, $88; Trinkets tray, $165

www.grahambrown.com – “Alphabet” wall covering by Basso & Brown – 32.8-foot roll, $60

 

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

AP-ES-09-28-10 1233EDT

 

Ukraine unveils Nazi looting records

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukraine has unveiled records from a Nazi agency chronicling the looting objects such as art and books from Holocaust victims and others during World War II.

Ukraine’s State Archives on Wednesday posted online some 140,000 pages of documents from Kiev headquarters of Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi minister in charge of occupied Soviet territories.

The records cover Nazi looting from 1940 to 1944 in Belgium, northern France, the Netherlands, Italy, Yugoslavia, and the occupied Soviet territories.

They relate to plunder from Jewish communal and private collections, Soviet museums, libraries and other sources.

___

On the Web: http://tsdavo.org.ua

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-09-29-10 1157EDT

 

Image courtesy of Marburger Farm Antique Show.

Reyne Gauge: Discovering Round Top, Texas

Image courtesy of Marburger Farm Antique Show.

Image courtesy of Marburger Farm Antique Show.

Everyone who’s a collector or dealer knows about Brimfield. If you’re on the West Coast, you go to the Alameda Pointe, Hillsborough or Rose Bowl shows. In Texas, we have Round Top.

Round Top is a small town (population 77) located about an hour east of Austin and 30 minutes west of Brenham, Texas (home of Blue Bell Ice Cream).

Round Top Antiques Week was founded over 30 years ago by Emma Lee Turney and her company, Antiques Productions. The show started out as a social event for Houstonians that took place in the spring and fall. It offered some of the best dealers with nothing less than the finest antiques this part of the country had seen.

It still takes place twice a year, however, it is no longer caters exclusively to the Houston social scene. Each event is mobbed with antique dealers from around the country and shoppers from all over the globe.

Much like Brimfield, there are different fields that open on different days, and many dealers that set up tents in more than one field. It is said there are over 2,500 dealers set up each season. The event is 10 days long, however, numerous dealers talk about being there for a full three weeks.

What type of merchandise will you find at Round Top? Just about everything, from American Indian jewelry to vintage gas pumps. There are miles of tents, air-conditioned buildings filled with dealers and vendors set up along roadsides.

There are plenty of porcelain plates and Victorian keys offered, but if a bigger acquisition is what you are eyeing, you’ll find a fine array of great art, furniture and important silver there, too.

To help you determine which shows open on what date/time and where, visit the Web site of the Round Top Chamber of Commerce: www.roundtop.org. There are also few magazines published with scheduling information, maps, and highlights of dealers and auctions happening in the area. They are given away at most of the show sites. You will certainly need a map. There are over 50 fields in four different towns for your shopping pleasure.

If all of that isn’t enough, Round Top is also home to the Junk-O-Rama Prom. Yes, I said prom, and not one meant for high school kids. The Junk Gypsy Co. has turned Thursday evening during Antiques Week into prom night. It’s an event for dealers and shoppers to cut loose and have a little fun between the frenzied buying and selling. Everyone dresses up – or down, depending how you look at it – in vintage garb, and Zapp Hall is turned into an outrageous “gym” with champagne, Christmas lights and chandeliers. No prom would be complete without great live music and a disco ball.

So change your weekend plans, book a flight to Texas, or get in your car and start driving now!

What are you waiting for? The deals are just waiting for you to come and find them.

Happy Hunting!

Reyne

 

 


ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE


Image courtesy of Marburger Farm Antique Show.

Image courtesy of Marburger Farm Antique Show.

Image courtesy of Marburger Farm Antique Show.

Image courtesy of Marburger Farm Antique Show.

Willem de Kooning (American, born The Netherlands, 1904-1997).
 Woman, I. 1950–52. 
Oil on canvas. 6' 3 7/8" x 58" (192.7 x 147.3 cm). 
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase. © 2010 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Museum of Modern Art exhibit showcases abstract expressionists

Willem de Kooning (American, born The Netherlands, 1904-1997).
 Woman, I. 1950–52. 
Oil on canvas. 6' 3 7/8" x 58" (192.7 x 147.3 cm). 
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase. © 2010 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Willem de Kooning (American, born The Netherlands, 1904-1997).
 Woman, I. 1950–52. 
Oil on canvas. 6′ 3 7/8" x 58" (192.7 x 147.3 cm). 
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase. © 2010 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

NEW YORK (AP) – In 1949, the avant-garde American sculptor Philip Pavia declared, “The first half of the century belonged to Paris. The next half century will be ours.”

He was referring to a loose association of fellow artists in New York City in the 1940s whose radical new artwork became known as abstract expressionism.

Now The Museum of Modern Art, one of the institutions most closely associated with the movement, has mounted its largest and most comprehensive presentation of abstract expressionist art, drawn entirely from its own collection.

The wide-ranging survey brings together 250 works in various mediums, including painting, sculpture, drawings, prints, photographs and film, by such luminaries as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Joan Mitchell and David Smith.

Visitors who plan to attend should wear comfortable shoes and be prepared to come back for repeated viewings.

The entire fourth floor has been given over to 100 paintings and other artworks that tell the story of a group of artists who created a new language for art in the immediate aftermath of World War II. Additional works are displayed on the second and third floors.

Responding to the atrocities of the Holocaust and the atomic bombings of Japan, they plumbed the depths of the unconscious, conjuring up imagery that evoked primitive man, ancient myths and preverbal symbols.

Visitors are greeted by Pollock’s The She-Wolf, a vivid, semiabstract, semi-representational painting that predates his famous “drip” style. MoMA acquired it in 1944, making it the first work to enter a museum collection by the man who would become one of America’s most famous living artists in the 1950s.

The exhibition is organized in roughly chronological order, interspersed with a few galleries devoted to a single artist including Pollock, Rothko and Newman. This solo treatment for a few is a nice gift from curator Ann Temkin, giving visitors the chance to spend concentrated time with a handful of geniuses whose best work can inspire feelings of religious awe.

Among the works is Newman’s monumental painting from 1950-1951, Vir Heroicus Sublimis, which is Latin for “Man, heroic and sublime.” The vast canvas, which takes up an entire wall, is nearly 18 feet-by-8 feet (5 1/2 meters by 2 1/2 meters) of vibrant red paint sliced with five narrow stripes of white, yellow, orange and brown.

Newman said he wanted visitors to view it up close, but MoMA has helpfully provided a bench about 20 feet (6 meters) away for contemplation of a work that may simultaneously make you feel exhilarated and calm. Pollock also gets a dedicated space, which features his signature compositions of spatters, dribbles and puddles of paint dropped or poured directly onto canvas.

To remind viewers what a radical enterprise on which Pollock had embarked, the curators cite a question he once asked his wife, Lee Krasner, an acclaimed abstract expressionist in her own right whose work is also featured in the show: “Is this a painting?”

The other artist who merits his own gallery, of course, is Rothko. “Pictures must be miraculous,” he wrote in 1947, and his are. The paintings from the 1950s, consisting of vertically stacked blocks and bars of thinly layered paint, seem to float weightlessly before our eyes.

No. 10, with its three horizontal planes of white, yellow and blue that merge into one another, was the first Rothko to enter MoMA’s collection, in 1952. It was so radical for the time that a museum trustee resigned in protest.

Some 60 years later, a handful of these masterworks by the New York School are so familiar to generations of Americans that it is sometimes hard to imagine the reaction they provoked at the time.

That’s one of the reasons why Temkin and her colleagues decided to stage the exhibition: to remind the public of a time when artists sought to reinvent a shattered world, and art-making assumed a heroic, mythic stature.

The exhibition opens Oct. 3 and runs through April 25, 2011.

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Online: http://www.moma.org/

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-09-29-10 0816EDT

 


ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE


Adolph Gottlieb (American, 1903-1974) 
Blast, I
 1957
 Oil on canvas
 7' 6" x 45 1/8" (228.7 x 114.4 cm)
 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Philip Johnson Fund 
© Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Adolph Gottlieb (American, 1903-1974) 
Blast, I
 1957
 Oil on canvas
 7′ 6" x 45 1/8" (228.7 x 114.4 cm)
 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Philip Johnson Fund 
© Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Jackson Pollock (American, 1912-1956)
 The She-Wolf. 1943 
Oil, gouache, and plaster on canvas
 41 7/8 x 67" (106.4 x 170.2 cm)
 Purchase
 © 2010 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Jackson Pollock (American, 1912-1956)
 The She-Wolf. 1943 
Oil, gouache, and plaster on canvas
 41 7/8 x 67" (106.4 x 170.2 cm)
 Purchase
 © 2010 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Mark Rothko (American, born Latvia. 1903-1970) 
No. 5/No. 22. 1950 
Oil on canvas 
9' 9" x 8' 11 1/8" (297 x 272 cm)
 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist.
© 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Mark Rothko (American, born Latvia. 1903-1970) 
No. 5/No. 22. 1950 
Oil on canvas 
9′ 9" x 8′ 11 1/8" (297 x 272 cm)
 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist.
© 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Arshile Gorky (American, born Armenia, 1904–1948) 
Agony. 1947
Oil on canvas, 40 x 50 1/2" (101.6 x 128.3 cm)
 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. A. Conger Goodyear Fund 
© 2010 The Arshile Gorky Foundation / The Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Arshile Gorky (American, born Armenia, 1904–1948) 
Agony. 1947
Oil on canvas, 40 x 50 1/2" (101.6 x 128.3 cm)
 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. A. Conger Goodyear Fund 
© 2010 The Arshile Gorky Foundation / The Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Ibram Lassaw (American, born Egypt. 1913-2003)
 Kwannon. 1952
 Welded bronze, 6’ 1/2

Ibram Lassaw (American, born Egypt. 1913-2003)
 Kwannon. 1952
 Welded bronze, 6’ 1/2" x 43” x 29" (184.2 x 109.2 x 73.7 cm)
 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Katharine Cornell Fund 
© 2010 Denise Lassaw/Ibram Lassaw studio

Robert Motherwell, (American, 1915-1991)
 Elegy to the Spanish Republic, 54. 1957-61
 Oil on canvas. 70" x 7' 6 1/4" (178 x 229 cm)
 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Given anonymously
 © Dedalus Foundation, Inc./Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Robert Motherwell, (American, 1915-1991)
 Elegy to the Spanish Republic, 54. 1957-61
 Oil on canvas. 70" x 7′ 6 1/4" (178 x 229 cm)
 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Given anonymously
 © Dedalus Foundation, Inc./Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Hans Hofmann (American, born Germany, 1880–1966)
 Memoria in Aeternum. 1962 
Oil on canvas, 7' x 6' 1/8" (213.3 x 183.2 cm) 
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist
 © 2010 Renate, Hans & Maria Hofmann Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Hans Hofmann (American, born Germany, 1880–1966)
 Memoria in Aeternum. 1962 
Oil on canvas, 7′ x 6′ 1/8" (213.3 x 183.2 cm) 
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist
 © 2010 Renate, Hans & Maria Hofmann Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Night view of The Milwaukee Art Museum, photo taken by Cburnett on Oct. 6, 2006, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Kohl’s donates $2.7 million to Milwaukee Art Museum

Night view of The Milwaukee Art Museum, photo taken by Cburnett on Oct. 6, 2006, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Night view of The Milwaukee Art Museum, photo taken by Cburnett on Oct. 6, 2006, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Kohl’s Department Stores is donating another $2.7 million to the Milwaukee Art Museum.

It’s to continue the Kohl’s Art Generation program and create new programs for kids and families. It’s the largest gift to an education initiative in the museum’s history.

The Menomonee Falls-based company had contributed $1 million for the program in 2008.

The Art Generation program is geared toward kids and families and allows kids to create work that is featured at the museum.

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-09-29-10 0503EDT

 

An example of a custom-painted Volkswagen bus is this 1967 'Be your own Goddess' Kombi. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Clash in DC is over peace, love and an artsy Microbus

An example of a custom-painted Volkswagen bus is this 1967  'Be your own Goddess' Kombi. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

An example of a custom-painted Volkswagen bus is this 1967 ‘Be your own Goddess’ Kombi. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

WASHINGTON (AP) – A group of Washington residents plans to rally for peace, love and a Volkswagen Microbus.

The residents say the Volkswagen, which is decorated with rainbows and peace symbols, is a “public art installation,” but city officials say the van is an abandoned vehicle and must be removed.

The car’s owners, a family in Washington’s Palisades neighborhood, are asking neighbors to come to a 1960s-themed rally Sunday to save what they call the “Peace-Mobile.”

The vehicle, which no longer has an engine, has been sitting in the family’s yard since the spring. After a neighbor complained, city officials said they would remove it by the end of October. Under D.C. law, an inoperable vehicle is considered abandoned if it is left on private property for more than 30 days.

___

Information from: TBD, http://www.tbd.com

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-09-28-10 0845EDT

The Four Corners region is in the red area on this map. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Read more: http://acn.liveauctioneers.com/index.php/component/content/article/63-antiquities-and-cultures/2998-native-american-artifact-dealers-collectors-reflect-on-raids#ixzz111Bx4EaT

Lawyer: Colorado artifacts dealer taking plea deal

The Four Corners region is in the red area on this map. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.  Read more: http://acn.liveauctioneers.com/index.php/component/content/article/63-antiquities-and-cultures/2998-native-american-artifact-dealers-collectors-reflect-on-raids#ixzz111Bx4EaT

The Four Corners region is in the red area on this map. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – A Southwest antiquities dealer who was forced to surrender five truckloads of American Indian relics to federal agents is expected to settle charges of digging up a grave and plundering artifacts from federal lands, his defense lawyer has revealed in court papers.

Durango, Colo., artifacts dealer Carl “Vern” Crites was one of the biggest players in a Four Corners bust of artifact trafficking that led to charges against 26 defendants last year.

Crites, 75, was a dealer described in government affidavits as a “price setter” for antiquities because of his influence over the market. Federal agents have said he had an astonishing collection confiscated from his Durango home in January.

Crites had been set to go on trial at federal court in Salt Lake City on Monday. He was charged in a government sting operation that spanned Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.

The plea deal also covers his wife, Marie Virginia Crites, and Richard Bourret, another Durango defendant charged in the same indictment, Salt Lake City lawyer Wally Bugden said in the court notice filed Thursday. The notice didn’t specify terms of the plea deal, and Bugden and prosecutors didn’t immediately return calls Monday.

Bugden filed the notice along with a request for U.S. District Court Judge Dee Benson to approve the plea deal in three weeks. No hearing has been set.

Crites, his wife and Bourret were indicted on theft and trafficking charges for a series of transactions made with a Utah antiquities dealer-turned government informant, according to an arrest warrant.

On Sept. 14, 2008, the informant watched Crites dig up an ancient burial site, kicking out a skull on the third shovelful. Spooked, Crites and Bourret covered up the remains without recovering any artifacts.

Wish that fella had still been intact, the skeleton I mean,” Crites was recorded saying at a site in San Juan County, Utah.

Crites also revealed to the government informant that in a 1986 raid, federal agents took 32 of his pots but overlooked a hidden safe and the most damning evidence – a ledger of a lifetime of trading that named people he dealt with. He also was recorded saying the safe contained a mummified eagle.

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WS-09-27-10 1556EDT