September 26, 2011 - Auction Central News

Exceptional silver to highlight Skinner auction, Oct. 14-15

George V silver presentation trophy, ‘The Alexander Channel Cup,’ Birmingham, 1910, Elkington & Co., makers, inscribed, ‘The Alexander Channel Cup Presented To Henry F. Sullivan. Who Swam the English Channel, Aug. 5th & 6th 1923 ...’ Estimate: $30,000-$50,000. Image courtesy of Skinner Inc.

BOSTON – Skinner Inc. will conduct an auction of European Furniture and Decorative Arts on Oct. 14 and 15 at its Boston gallery. The sale kicks off on Friday at 4 p.m. Eastern with nearly 650 lots of fine silver. Saturday’s session II commences at 10 a.m. and includes Continental and British ceramics, glass, statuary, clocks, paintings and prints, lighting, rugs, textiles and antique furniture. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live biddings.

Fine silver highlights include a monumental and historic George V presentation trophy, “The Alexander Channel Cup,” presented to Henry F. Sullivan, a native of Lowell, Mass., and a celebrated endurance swimmer in the early 1900s. Sullivan was the first American to swim across the English Channel. This magnificent trophy is a masterpiece of silversmithing, and an historic relic of the golden era of adventure, exploration, and sporting first achievements. Lot 194 is estimated at $30,000 to $50,000.

Offered early in the sale and expected to induce heated bidding is lot 3, a yellow gold, cloisonné enamel, rock crystal bowl. The bowl Mughal, circa. 18th century, by Robert Phillips, is created in the archeological style and reflects the mid-19th century fascination with Greek and Roman antiquity. Phillips, known for his fine jeweled gold mountings on Mughal crystal bowls and archaeological-inspired jewelry exhibited at the 1867 Paris Exposition Universelle. It is likely that this bowl, with an auction value of $8,000 to $10,000, was exhibited there.

Fine silver offerings also include a diverse collection of more than 50 lots of Judaic Besamin box spice containers from European, Russian and Israeli manufacturers. Featured pieces include an Austrian filigree tower from 19th century Vienna, lot 31, estimated at $800 to $1,200; a Russian Art Nouveau tower from the first half 20th century, with an auction estimate of $600 to $800; and a modernist sterling container from the mid-20th century, lot 56A, and estimated at $1,200 to $1,500.

Finally, fine silver is highlighted by a Tiffany & Co. sterling center bowl with polar bear mask handles, lot 260, estimated at $6,000 to $8,000 and two lots by California silversmith Porter Blanchard: lot 406, a six piece Arts & Crafts tea and coffee service, estimated at $7,000 to $9,000 and lot 419A, a Modernist pitcher valued at $1,500 to $2,500.

Collections of note in Session II include an extensive grouping of English tea caddies, such as lot 1123, an ivory and green tortoiseshell harlequin tea caddy, circa 1800, estimated at $5,500 to 6,500, and lot 1129, a George III pagoda-top pressed tortoiseshell double tea caddy, circa 1810, estimated at $17,000 to $19,000. The sale also features a diverse collection of meerschaum pipes and cheroot holders, including lot 617, a large example with carved baseball players, with an auction estimate of $500 to $700.

Decorative Arts are featured by lot 1004, a grand tour micromosaic plaque, Italy, estimated at $5,000 to $7,000; lot 1017, an important mid-17th century English stumpwork Box, valued at $5,000 to $7,000; and lot 1061, a Meissen porcelain plaque, with an estimated value of $10,000 to $15,000.

Furniture highlights include a 19th century Dutch polychrome painted cupboard, lot 651, estimated at $6,000 to $8,000; lot 882, a pair of Napoleon III ebonized ormolu and Sevres-style porcelain-mounted twin beds, estimated at $12,000 to $18,000; and lot 1116, a late Jacobean carved walnut armchair, with an estimated auction value of $3,000 to $5,000.

Previews for the auction will be held on Thursday, Oct. 13, from noon to 8 p.m. and Friday, Oct. 14 from noon to 8 p.m. Illustrated catalog #2566B is available by mail for $35 ($42 for foreign requests) from the subscription department at 508-970-3240. It is also available at the gallery for $32. For details visit Skinners’ website www.skinnerinc.com or call 508-970-3000.

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

Tiffany & Co. sterling center bowl, 1865-70, set with handles formed as realistically modeled polar bear heads, 9 1/4 in inches, approximately 48.8 troy ounces. Estimate: $6,000-$8,000. Image courtesy of Skinner Inc.

Dutch polychrome painted cupboard, 19th century and later, the molded pediment with panoramic scene of a stag hunt, 78 3/4 inches high, 53 inches wide, 20 1/2 deep.</p srcset= — Estimate: $6,000-$8,000. Image courtesy of Skinner Inc.” title=”Dutch polychrome painted cupboard, 19th century and later, the molded pediment with panoramic scene of a stag hunt, 78 3/4 inches high, 53 inches wide, 20 1/2 deep.

Estimate: $6,000-$8,000. Image courtesy of Skinner Inc.” class=”caption” width=”530″ height=”798″ />

Dutch polychrome painted cupboard, 19th century and later, the molded pediment with panoramic scene of a stag hunt, 78 3/4 inches high, 53 inches wide, 20 1/2 deep.

Estimate: $6,000-$8,000. Image courtesy of Skinner Inc.

Meissen porcelain plaque, Germany, 19th century, rectangular form polychrome enamel decorated with a depiction of ‘Semiramis Called to Arms,’ underglaze blue crossed swords mark, approximately 13 x 17 1/2 inches, mounted in a giltwood frame. Estimate: $10,000-$15,000. Image courtesy of Skinner Inc.1058

Ivory and green tortoiseshell harlequin tea caddy, England, circa 1800, decagon shape. Estimate: $5,500-$6,500. Image courtesy of Skinner Inc.

1836 Colt revolver sets world record price for a gun

Two views of the cased Colt Patterson revolver that sold for a record $977,500. Image courtesy of Greg Martin Auctions/Heritage Auctions.

DALLAS – An exceptional, rare and fine ivory-gripped Texas, or Holster Model No. 5, Paterson Revolver from the Al Cali Collection realized $977,500 as part of Greg Martin Auctions/Heritage Auctions Signature® Arms & Armor Auction in Dallas on Sept. 18, setting a world record price realized for a single firearm sold at auction. All prices include 15 percent buyer’s premium.

It was purchased by an anonymous West Coast collector, who auction house officials will identify only as a Silicon Valley mogul.

“There are certain collectibles that transcend genre, period and form and exist simply as great works of art,” said Greg Martin, president of Arms & Armor at Greg Martin Auctions/Heritage Auctions, “and clearly this supremely beautiful firearm is such a thing. The nearly seven-figure final price realized proves just how great a piece this is, and well worthy of being the world record holder.”

The auction, altogether, realized more than $8 million, with 583 bidders vying for 378 lots, translating into a 90 percent sell-through rate by lot value. Altogether, the top four lots of the Cali Collection brought more than $3.28 million.

The revolver, with a 9-inch barrel and attached loading lever, is the finest known surviving example of Samuel Colt’s first revolver, produced by the legendary gunsmith in Paterson, N.J., in 1836.

“This is as desirable as any piece that exists, and as desirable as any piece I’ve seen in my more than 40 years of buying and selling the very best firearms in existence,” said Martin. “Out of maybe 3,000 similar pieces made, with most likely less than 300 surviving, this is clearly among the very best, and the market realized that.”

A pair of Colt revolvers came in a tie for the auction’s second most valuable lot, both realizing $805,000 prices realized , and both also originating in the amazing Al Cali Collection.The first was an exceptional historic, cased, engraved and presentation inscribed Colt Model 1861 New Model Navy Revolver, From the Colt Co. to E.W. Parsons, of Adams Express Co., doubling its $400,000-plus estimate. It was followed by a historic cased Gustave Young-engraved and ivory-gripped Colt Third Model Dragoon Revolver, Inscribed “Colonel P.M. Milliken,” which also performed well above its $500,000-plus estimate.

Another famous Colt pistol brought the admiration of gun-aficionados and the serious consideration of many high-end collectors; the fine and exceptional historic Colt Walker Model Civilian Series Revolver, more commonly known as “The Thumbprint Walker,” One of only 100 made, out of the mere surviving examples, most are in poor condition. This must be the the finest known, and it soared to $690,000.

“Prices like these, which show that craftsmanship, rarity, beauty and historical importance bring a true premium,” said Martin, “also show that serious buyers know that pieces like these are real investments, certain to appreciate in value as the years progress, and certainly worth serious consideration when it comes time to bid.”

Further highlights include:

• Cased, inscribed and custom-made set of Colt Model 1851 Navy and Model 1855 pocket sidehammer revolvers, poroperty of Loren Ballou, an employee of Col. Samuel Colt. Realized: $575,000.

• Fine and exceptional cased and engraved Colt Model 1851 Squareback Navy or Belt Model Revolver. Realized: $373,750.

• Fine and historic cased, engraved and inscribed Colt Model 1855 Pocket Sidehammer Revolver with charter oak grip, presented by the inventor to arms dealer J.I. Spies. Realized: $345,000.

• Fine and exceptional cased, engraved and relief carved and checkered ebony-gripped Colt Model 1851 Navy Revolver, known as “The Black Beauty.” Realized: $322,000.

• Exceptional and fine cased, engraved and carved ivory-gripped Colt Model 1862 Police Model Revolver Serial number 37951/E. .36-caliber, 5-shot semi-fluted and rebated cylinder, 4 1/2-inch round barrel with brass pin front sight, top of barrel stamped with single line “Address Col. Saml. Colt New-York U.S. America.” Realized: $253,000.

• Fine and exceptional U.S. martially marked Colt Model 1851 Navy Revolver, the First Model Attachable Shoulder Stock, with Canteen Insert: Realized: $207,000.

For more information about Heritage Auctions, and to join and gain access to a complete record of prices realized, along with full-color, enlargeable photos of each lot, please visit HA.com.

Sparkling ring, painting among highlights at Michaan’s Oct. 2

Japanese cast bronze censer. Estimate: $1,200-$1,600. Image courtesy of Michaan’s Auctions.

ALAMEDA, Calif. – Michaan’s Jewelry Department is excited to present a diamond, 14k white gold wedding set featuring a lovely Asscher cut diamond in the Sunday, Oct. 2 sale (lot 201, $6,000-$9,000). LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding. The sale will begin at 10 .M. Pacific.

Color and clarity of the 1.95-carat stone is of high quality, accented by 51 full-cut diamonds weighing a total of approximately 0.50 carats. It is anticipated to draw strong buyer interest as the vintage appeal of the Asscher cut has become increasingly in vogue and in demand. Accompanied by a matching band ring featuring 53 full-cut diamonds weighing a total of approximately 0.66 carats finished in 14kwhite gold, the set is an ideal choice for upcoming nuptials.

Prolific artist Childe Hassam headlines the Fine Art Department’s October sale with Coastline, a monoprint on paper from a local estate collection (lot 741, $2,000-$3,000).

Recognized as one of America’s pioneer Impressionist painters, Hassam studied at the Lowell Institute and the Boston Art Club under Ignaz Gaugengigl. Producing over 3,000 paintings, watercolors, etchings and lithographs by the time of his death in 1935, many critics and artists consider him to be one of the most significant and influential American painters ever seen. Noted for his urban and costal scenes, Hassam’s work can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Brooklyn Museum, the National Museum of American Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art (both in Washington, D.C.) as well as the Musée d’Orsay in France.

Paying homage to the Buddhist Trinity is a Japanese cast bronze censer, exceptionally crafted in reverence and tribute to the divine deities (lot 390, $1,200-$1,600). Pristinely fashioned, the bronze lid depicts the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, a symbol of Buddhist practice and meditation, seated on an elephant along with “The Awakened One of the Shakya Clan,” Shakyamuni Buddha and fellow bodhisattva Manjusri, known to be a figure of transcendent wisdom. An object of spiritual relevance, the incense burning vessel was used as a ritual ceremonial object in the practice of Mahayana Buddhism in Japan. The bronze body has applications of gilding along with other precious metals as

well, beautifully finishing the piece and giving it a richly regal appearance. The censer along with an exciting collection of glassware, bronzes, porcelains and ivory and jade carvings will also be offered.

From the landmark Shreve & Co. is lot 425, an Art Nouveau sterling silver punch bowl will be offered in the Furniture and Decorative Arts Section of the October Sale ($2,500-$3,000). A San Francisco institution since 1852, Shreve & Co. has been a name synonymous with quality, elegance and style. As the inscription on its historic Post Street building testifies, “From the time of the Gold Rush, Shreve & Co. has been the premier jeweler in the city … It was here that Shreve & Co. exhibited the 720-carat Yonkers diamond, the jewelry of Catherine the Great of Russia and created the state of California’s coronation gift to Queen Elizabeth II of England.” The total silver weight of the bowl is 45.80 troy ounces, measuring 7 inches in height and 10 1/4 inches in diameter.

For a full listing of upcoming auctions or to view a complete catalog, please visit www.michaans.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

Diamond, 14K white gold wedding set. Estimate: $6,000-$9,000. Image courtesy of Michaan’s Auctions.

Shreve & Co. sterling punch bowl. Estimate: $2,500-$3,000. Image courtesy of Michaan’s Auctions.

Childe Hassam (American, 1859-1935), ‘Coastline’ monoprint on paper, 1903. Estimate: $2,000-$3,000. Image courtesy of Michaan’s Auctions.

Archaeologists digging against time at Saratoga battlefield

Saratoga Monument in Saratoga National Historical Park, Victory, N.Y. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

STILLWATER, N.Y. (AP) – Archaeologists are digging for artifacts in a battle-scarred and history-rich stretch of the upper Hudson River where thousands of Europeans, Americans and Native Americans fought and died during more than a century of sporadic warfare, culminating in the Americans’ defeat of the British at Saratoga.

“This area served as a continual frontier battleground for 150 years before the Revolutionary War,” said Joe Finan, superintendent at the Saratoga National Historical Park in Stillwater, site of the Battles of Saratoga.

The archaeologists are hoping to complete their task ahead of a different kind of dig along the river for something more recent occupants left behind: polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

The work by the National Park Service is part of a two-year program to identify “high-fertility areas” on park-owned lands within the river’s floodplain where 18th-century artifacts could be found, Finan said. The study coincides with the federal government-ordered dredging of PCBs from the river bottom at Ford Edward, 20 miles north of the battlefield.

The EPA has ordered General Electric to remove PCBs the company dumped into the river at Fort Edward and neighboring Hudson Falls for 30 years, ending in 1977 when the practice was banned. Dredgers are expected to reach the national park’s stretch of riverfront in 2014.

That gives the parks service time to dig around its 2,800-acre battlefield property for any artifacts missed by previous sanctioned excavations or overlooked by “pot hunters” who loot historical sites, Finan said.

Area historians support the archaeological project and note the potential damage dredging poses to historical objects that may lie along the shore or on the river bottom. Two years ago, a dredging crew working close to shore accidentally ripped away some of the riverbank timbers from the original Fort Edward, built by the British during the French and Indian War.

“Concerns? Oh yeah, big time. Especially from Schuylerville down,” said Linda Palmieri, historian in Stillwater.

The park service and EPA are aware of those concerns.

“We learned a lesson from that,” Gary Klawinski, EPA’s dredging project manager, said of the Fort Edward incident, which occurred around 2 a.m. in August 2009.

He said the incident led to two changes in dredging procedures: EPA staffers are now aboard dredging barges whenever sediment removals are being conducted in historically sensitive areas, and no nighttime dredging is allowed in such areas.

Plus, Klawinski said, the agency is well aware that every dip of a dredger’s scoop into this stretch of the river has the potential of bringing up something that belongs in a museum.

“You can pretty much go anywhere on the Hudson and find something,” he said. “We’re just being very careful.”

The search for historical remnants from the Saratoga battles, fought in September and October of 1777, is being conducted in an area that traditionally has yielded a wealth of artifacts, from Indian arrowheads to military items left over from the thousands of soldiers who passed through or fought here in the 17th and 18th centuries.

While sizable British and Colonial American armies used the Hudson corridor during the French and Indian War (1755-63), the highest concentration of military forces occurred during the Revolutionary War, when the Americans defeated the British at Saratoga in what many consider one of history’s most important battles.

The ground on and around the Saratoga battlefield has yielded so many artifacts, it’s not uncommon today to see people with metal detectors trailing behind farm tractors plowing local fields, Finan said.

The history-changing fight here in 1777 was actually two battles, the first one fought in September, followed by a second in October. When the October battle was over, the victorious American forces still blocked the British advance toward Albany, while Gen. John Burgoyne’s defeated and demoralized redcoats and their German allies retreated a few miles north and eventually surrendered in what is now the riverside village of Schuylerville.

The American victory at Saratoga persuaded the French to join in the fight against Britain, and France’s contribution of soldiers, ships and money to the young United States was a major factor in England’s former colonies gaining their independence.

Because Saratoga holds such a special place in American history, it’s important to find and document as much of the evidence of the battles as possible, Finan said.

With that in mind, archaeologists are concentrating this year’s two-week dig on several spots where Route 4 parallels the river and cuts through portions of the park’s eastern riverside edge. Using contemporary maps drawn by a British officer and maps produced from recent aerial photography and other high-tech tools, the team is digging in an area where several British encampments and a hospital were located.

Although no noteworthy artifacts have been found so far, the first week of digging uncovered evidence of one of the fortified positions held by the British 47th Infantry Regiment, Finan said.

Digs are also planned on park property that abuts the river’s west bank. Finan said artifacts could turn up near the British line of retreat north along the river, given the natural tendency of soldiers to lighten their load whenever possible.

“We know from other archaeology work done at other locations that during these kinds of retreats a lot of material was scuttled in the water,” Finan said.

“That floodplain area has always been an archaeological hot spot,” said Sean Kelliher, historian for the neighboring town of Saratoga, just north of the battlefield. “I think they’ll end up finding some very interesting things.”

Plans call for any battle-related artifacts found during the park service’s digs to be put on public display, if possible.

AP-WF-09-25-11 1611GMT

Owners closing Conn. historic Marlborough Tavern

Marlborough Tavern is on the National Register of Historic Places. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license versions 3.0, 2.5, 2.0, and 1.0.

MARLBOROUGH, Conn. (AP) – The owners of a Connecticut tavern that dates back to 1740 and hosted presidents James Madison and Andrew Jackson say they’re closing the business.

John Spellman and Jim Bradley co-own the Marlborough Tavern, about 17 miles southeast of Hartford in Marlborough. They say the struggling economy made it too hard to keep up with expenses, and a recent five-day power outage caused by Tropical Storm Irene forced them to throw out all the food.

An auction of historic items from the tavern is set for Tuesday.

Spellman and Bradley began operating the tavern 26 years ago, after the building had been vacant for a decade. They say it’s probably the oldest operating tavern in the state, and it wasn’t an easy decision to close it.

AP-WF-09-23-11 1315GMT

U.S. returns marble bust of Heracles to Turkey

ISTANBUL, (AFP) — A U.S. museum has returned Weary Heracles, an 1,800-year-old marble bust of the Greek demigod, to Turkey where it will be reunited with its bottom half, the culture minister said Sunday.

The statue’s top half was being flown back on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s plane following his visit to the United States for the United Nation general assembly, Culture Minister Ertugrul Gunay told the Anatolia news agency.

“This artefact is currently being flown back on Mr. Erdogan’s plane,” he said.

“It’s a life-size 200-kilo statue of Herakles of huge archaeological significance. It is to be transported to the Antalya archaeological museum where it will be presented to Turkish and foreign guests at a ceremony.”

The bust shows the Greek mythological hero leaning on his club. The bottom half is housed by a museum in the Turkish city of Antalya, close to where it was first discovered.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston’s decision to return the bust was a significant victory for Turkey, which has recently embarked on an endeavor to repatriate artifacts it believes were stolen.

Neither Erdogan’s office nor Turkey’s archaeological department were immediately available to confirm the bust’s return, which was reported by the newspapers Hurriyet and Sabah.

The Museum of Fine Arts says on its website that the bust was acquired in 1981 in Germany.

In 1990, an academic noticed the similarity with the bottom half of the statue, which was excavated in 1980 in Perga, near Antalya.

Gray’s to sell John Koch painting, ‘The Party,’ September 27

CLEVELAND – Gray’s Auctioneers Fine Art, Furniture and Decorations auction on Tuesday, Sept. 27, at 11 a.m. Eastern will feature the sale of property from the personal collection of Cleveland luminaries Maxeen and John Flower. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.

The proceeds from the sale of the collection will benefit the Cleveland Institute of Art, Maxeen Stone Flower’s alma mater.

Highlights from the collection include lot 126, the largest John Koch painting to come up at auction. The Party, also known as Summer Party, is a magnificent oil on canvas with a simple gold leaf wood frame measuring 48 inches high by 60 inches wide. It was exhibited at the New-York Historical Society in the show entitled “John Koch: Painting a New York Life,” in 2002. It is also featured in the book sold to accompany the show, published in 2001 by Scala Publishers Ltd. Painted in 1971, The Party depicts the artist with several of his friends including his gallerist Antoinette Kraushaar, his wife Dora, artists, musicians and actors together with Mrs. Kenneth Spencer, whose portrait Koch painted the same year. At once formal and elegant, the painting captures the essence of mid 20th century New York’s bohemian creative life, always jaded but nonetheless passionately engaged.

Maxeen and John Flower traveled extensively and built a massive collection over a period of 50 years. Another featured lot is lot 39, an exquisite 10th century buff sandstone figure of the Hindu deity Vishnu. At over 31 inches tall and mounted on a museum grade mount the ornately detailed figure is beautifully preserved. Lot 38, a 17th century gilt bronze figure of the deity Vajradhara, from Tibet is inset with turquoise, coral, lapis and garnet stones. The figure is seated on a beaded lotus throne and stands at 12 inches tall. The collection includes an extensive array of Chinese, Japanese and Indian decorations as well as antique furniture, paintings from well known artists and other lesser known artists, together with rugs, carpets and tapestries all of which were displayed throughout their home. Many a dinner party guest viewing the lots up for auction shared memories brought back by the items on display, including lot 318 a Turkish Oushak wool rug measuring 15 feet 11 inches by 13 feet, which was featured prominently in the couple’s home.

The auction features a small collection of carved ivory Chinese figures including lot 30, an early 20th century Chinese carved ivory figure of a seated Guanyin, which is generating a lot of interest. Lot 173A a late entry into the auction is also of great interest, a pair of 18th Century Ming style Huanghuali Chairs, which are conservatively estimated at $2,000-$4,000.

While the auction features an extensive collection of Asian items, European and American paintings, furniture and decorative items round out a very interesting and attractive auction.

Telephone and absentee bidding is also available when registering directly with the auction house.

For details visit Gray’s website at www.graysauctioneers.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

Andy Warhol’s art takes stage on U.S. National Mall

Andy Warhol, ‘New York Post, ca. 1984,’ silkscreen on metal, 26 x 24 inches, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Andy Warhol is known for soup cans and celebrity images, not so much for painting headlines and abstract works.

The late pop artist has left much to be discovered in two shows that open Sunday on the National Mall.

The National Gallery of Art is opening its first Warhol exhibit with “Warhol: Headlines,” an examination of his use of news headlines throughout his career. At the same time, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum will feature Andy Warhol: Shadows, a 450-foot-long installation in the round museum that marks the first time all of Warhol’s 102 abstract “shadow” paintings will be shown together as the artist intended.

“This might surprise people,” said Hirshhorn curator Evelyn Hankins. “They get two very different sides of Warhol.”

Besides his obsession with celebrities and iconic images, it turns out Warhol was a news junkie. At a time when nearly everyone on the New York City subway had a newspaper in hand, Warhol was watching, fascinated by the consumption of news.

“Probably for him, it was like a kid in a candy store,” said Matt Wrbican, archivist at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Warhol’s hometown. “He was a news hound.”

Soon Warhol was sketching his own versions of the New York Daily News, the National Enquirer and The Wall Street Journal in the 1950s, mimicking their layouts and tweaking their headlines.

His first painting of a front page, A Boy for Meg, in 1962 is a near exact replica of a New York Post page announcing the first-child born of Princess Margaret in Britain.

Warhol used a projector to trace the newspaper with his brush, though he left out the Post’s copyright line. Such work was a precursor to later artists who have been sued for similarly tracing news images.

The piece inspired curator Molly Donovan of the National Gallery of Art to look closer at Warhol’s use of the news.

“By enlarging the front page of the tabloid source on which it’s based, this painting signifies the immediacy Warhol conveyed in his art and tells us that something as mundane as the daily newspaper can indeed be grand,” she said.

Donovan eventually brought together about 80 paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculptures and videos from Warhol’s career that carry the theme. Forty percent of them have not been shown publicly before.

The works include a commissioned piece from 1981 to commemorate an Italian earthquake. Warhol blew up a newspaper headline reading “Fate Presto,” which translates to “Hurry Up,” to emphasize the human toll. It is being shown in the U.S. for the first time.

“Headlines” will be on view until January when the exhibit travels to the Museum fur Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany, followed by the Galleria nazionale d’arte moderna in Rome and The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Another of Warhol’s most overlooked pieces, Flash, is on view in full for the first time, Wrbican said. Warhol created the installation in 1968 to mark the fifth anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. It includes teletype newswire accounts from The Associated Press and others, along with 14 images to show how news of Kennedy’s death unfolded.

“Flash: Dallas – Two priests summoned to Kennedy in emergency room,” one line reads, followed by “Flash: President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. (CST).”

The show closes with a nod to Madonna. In 1985, Warhol teamed up with Keith Haring to make a wedding gift for their friend before her marriage to Sean Penn. They replaced a New York Post image on the front page with a picture of the couple under the headline: “Madonna on nude pix: So What!”

At the Hirshhorn, curators timed the “Shadows” exhibit to coincide with the “Headlines” show, as well as a film festival and other events.

Warhol created his colorful Shadows in 1979 as a play on abstract expressionism, Hankins said. He did it his own way, though, painting his silkscreen images with a mop. That began nearly 10 years of other abstract works.

“I’ve come to realize we’re just beginning to understand this prolific artist’s work,” Donovan said. “I’ll never be able to glance casually at the tabloids in the grocery store again.”

___

National Gallery of Art: http://www.nga.gov

Hirshhorn Museum: http://hirshhorn.si.edu

Follow Brett Zongker at http://twitter.com/DCArtBeat

AP-WF-09-22-11 2134GMT

‘Crazy’ Neto sculpture opens Buenos Aires art center

One of Ernesto Neto’s most acclaimed installations is at the Panthéon in Paris called ‘Léviathan Thot.’ This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) – A monumental new sculpture by Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto has debuted in Buenos Aires’ Puerto Madero district, where decaying mills and warehouses have given way to a futuristic landscape of soaring skyscrapers and luxury hotels.

Knitting furiously with 30 helpers for two months, Neto filled a vast space in a former grain mill with colorful crochet netting, one knot at a time. Then he filled the nets with thousands of plastic balls to create swaying pathways for people to walk through, and suspended it all from the walls and ceiling. The result is a huge organic form that seems to float high above the floor, like vines spreading through the canopy of the Amazon jungle.

But the work isn’t complete without an audience, which was finally allowed in last week. This is art people are supposed to touch, push through and even hang from the form, letting their animal selves emerge as they unsteadily climb through the soft, pliant forms.

Some visitors complained that the experience was unsettling, but Neto said “stability is not normal.”

“People fear instability, thinking it’s a crisis, but instability is the natural state of things,” Neto said Thursday as he welcomed people to join his children, who were frolicking above him in the sculpture he calls Crazy Hyperculture in the Vertigo of the World.

Neto was invited by Argentine hotel magnate and developer Alan Faena to create the work for his newly opened Faena Art Center, which will serve as a commissioning hub for a lively calendar of music, art and culture. Along with the nearby Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat art museum and musical performances sponsored by his Faena Hotel, it gives visitors a compelling reason to leave the historic center of Argentina’s capital and explore a part of town where a construction boom has outpaced public life.

Wealthy Latin Americans have been snapping up the district’s luxury apartments as hedges against inflation, but many remain empty for now, bought as investments.

“It’s like all human construction—very arid, dry, too square for me,” Neto said. “My work is different, inviting. If only we could build houses like trees, growing organically, working with nature to grow. It’s a fantasy I have. Because we are nature, there is no separation. It’s a symbiosis. We are here to live, to know that life is good, to be happy.”

In the early 1900s, Puerto Madero helped feed the world with grain, and the former mill where Neto’s work now hangs was at the center of it all, processing up to 1,000 tons of wheat a day. But the property had been decaying for years when Faena began restoring it in February 2002, at the depths of Argentina’s last economic crash.

His timing was fabulous. Money rushed in as Argentina swung from bust to boom. His properties now include a luxury hotel, apartments and office space that straddle seven city blocks.

“The art center is part of the whole vision,” said Faena, who wore his trademark white outfit, from wide-brimmed hat to designer shoes, as he inaugurated the center. “We took a space that was destroyed, abandoned by the city, and we built it into a new center for art. This vision won’t stop, ever. The essence of this transformative vision was planted long ago, a space that enables artists to grow and the people to come and enjoy themselves.”

Art has brought new life to decaying urban landscapes the world over. Artists move in, then galleries open, followed by high-end apartments and more gentrification. But in this part of Buenos Aires, at least, the opposite has happened.

“They’re just fast-forwarding to the luxury apartment status and the art is coming after the fact,” said the Tate Modern’s international art curator, Jessica Morgan.

Of course, artistic spaces are dependent on the people who come to them, which is why Morgan said the Faena Art Center—and the money it can provide as part of its commissions—is so important. “It’s about creating something new and giving an opportunity to artists to experiment in a very unique space,” Morgan said.

“Buenos Aires has such a strong history of modern and contemporary art. It has been the formative place for movements of artists since the early 20th century, with very good galleries, excellent younger artists,” she added. “It’s a place you can’t be in without having a sense of the living contemporary culture. And it continues to evolve.”

Faena is clearly thrilled that his properties are at the center of this trend.

“This is the Argentine moment,” he said. “Buenos Aires is a city that has no reason to be envious of any other in the world. We have an amazing culture.”

Follow Michael Warren on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mwarrenap

AP-WF-09-23-11 1801GMT

Wyeth’s ‘Treasure Island’ art reunited at Brandywine

‘One more step, Mr. Hands, and I'll blow your brains out!’ Illustration by N.C. Wyeth for the 1911 edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Treasure Island.' Image from the New Britain Museum of American Art, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

CHADDS FORD, Pa. (AP) – A century after N.C. Wyeth’s illustrations of the pirates and scalawags of Treasure Island first appeared, the iconic images considered the definitive version of the classic tale are reunited for the first time since their completion.

The Brandywine Museum has reassembled them in a new exhibit marking the 100th anniversary of Wyeth’s Treasure Island and the 40th anniversary of the museum, not far from an old carriage house where Wyeth created the 17 large oils on canvas for publishing house Charles Scribner’s Sons. The only painting not in the exhibit was destroyed in a fire in 1952.

Scribner’s displayed the paintings in their New York bookstore and sold several, but the bulk of the paintings are owned either by the museum or the Wyeth family. The New York Public Library owns two, one is in private hands and one is owned by the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut.

“From his correspondence, we found that these paintings were done in about 3 1/2 months, which is an incredibly rapid pace,” curator Christine Podmaniczky said. “He didn’t make drawings of everything first, worked spontaneously right on the canvas.”

Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1883 book was already a favorite of readers and critics when the story was published with Wyeth’s illustrations in 1911. Where earlier editions typically featured basic line drawings to illustrate the coming-of-age adventure, Wyeth’s spirited and colorful depictions of Long John Silver, Jim Hawkins, Billy Bones and company became an instant hit.

The first print run of about 10,000 copies quickly sold out. The book’s success marked the start of a long relationship between Wyeth and Scribner’s that led to a popular series of Wyeth-illustrated children’s classics.

Scribner’s paid $2,500 for Treasure Island, which Wyeth used to buy 18 picturesque acres along the Brandywine River Valley. There he built a home and studio where generations of Wyeths began their art training including his son, famed realist Andrew Wyeth, and grandson, contemporary painter Jamie Wyeth.

N.C. Wyeth was at the height of his artistic powers with Treasure Island, which used neighbors and acquaintances as models for the striking 3- by 4-foot works—unusually large considering they were being reduced to around 6 inches tall. Wyeth made the works based not on characters but passages he thought would visually translate, Podmaniczky said.

“It’s not so much the facial features he was concerned with, but creating a sense of energy and motion,” she said. “He was also a master colorist and he could do wonderful things with light and shadow.”

The exhibition also presents some Treasure Island productions created by the illustrators, theater and film directors and even digital application designers who used Wyeth’s work as references.

A 1916 silent movie of Treasure Island modeled its costumes and character types after Wyeth’s work and actor Lionel Barrymore said in a newspaper interview that his portrayal of Billy Bones was inspired by Wyeth’s archetype. Visitors to the exhibit can also see how Disney animators interpreted Wyeth’s style for 1950’s Treasure Island as well as the futuristic Treasure Planet from 2002.

“No director had a finer production illustrator than N.C. Wyeth,” director Fraser Heston says in a letter included in the exhibit. The son of Charlton Heston, he based his Treasure Island storyboards on Wyeth’s work for a 1989 movie starring his father as peg-legged pirate Long John Silver.

The exhibit is on view until Nov. 20.

___

Online:

Brandywine River Museum: http://www.brandywine.org

AP-WF-09-24-11 2346GMT

Sign up for daily highlights by email