One of two Murano art glass bookends with cooli figures. M.G. Neely Auction Gallery image.
LANTANA, Fla. – M.G. Neely Auction Gallery will conduct an auction of antiques, fine art and collectibles on Sunday, Sept. 23. The auction will commence at noon EDT. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
M.G. Neely is offering 400 years of furnishings, with the oldest piece being a Queen Mary writing desk ranging to a sideboard from the Colonial Williamsburg Restoration Collection by Kittinger.
The auction company also has a wide selection of modern furniture including mid-century modern lounge chairs and accompanying accessories.
Artwork includes a wide selection of 18th century engravings and a map from the Queen Anne Period, oil paintings, along with a large selection of modern sculptures and pop art.
As always this sale is loaded with unique items from South Florida estates.
Frank Lloyd Wright in a 1954 photo. Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.
NEW YORK (AP) – More than 23,000 of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural drawings, 44,000 photos, large-scale models, manuscripts and other documents are being moved permanently from Wisconsin and Arizona to New York City.
The collection has been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art and Columbia University’s Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, according to a joint announcement made Tuesday.
The institutions will share equally in the management of the collection. MoMA will house the models; the papers will be held at Avery.
The transfer will take place over the course of the upcoming year, and materials will become available for research incrementally, beginning at the end of 2013.
“The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation takes seriously its responsibility to serve the public good by ensuring the best possible conservation, accessibility, and impact of one of the most important and meaningful archives in the world,” said Sean Malone, its CEO.
“Given the individual strengths, resources and abilities of the foundation, MoMA and Columbia, it became clear that this collaborative stewardship is far and away the best way to guarantee the deepest impact, the highest level of conservation and the best public access,” Malone said in a statement.
The foundation said it will help guide development of the archives and provide interpretive insights on Wright’s work and life.
It will continue to preserve and share Wright’s National Historic Landmarks at Taliesin in Spring Green, Wis., and Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Ariz., including historic furnishings, memorabilia and artifacts.
Wright, who died in 1959, designed 1,141 architectural works, including houses, offices, churches, schools, libraries, bridges and museums. Of that total, 532 resulted in completed structures, and 409 of them still stand.
More than one-third of his buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places or are in a National Historic District.
He also wrote 20 books, and designed furniture, fabrics, art glass, lamps, dinnerware, silver, linens and graphic arts.
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-09-04-12 1623GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Frank Lloyd Wright in a 1954 photo. Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.
‘Amazone,’ Eckhard Kremers, 2011. Mixed media: paper, wood, leather, tape and acrylic; 56 x 23 inches. Photo courtesy of the artist.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Coinciding with the fourth annual ArtPrize competition, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park will host 26 U.S. and international artists in the group exhibition “Body Double: The Figure in Contemporary Sculpture.” This exhibition focuses on the human figure as both an object and a metaphor.
The exhibition officially begins with ArtPrize on Sept. 19 and will remain on display in Meijer Gardens’ sculpture galleries until Jan. 6.
“We wanted to build on the strength and variety of the figurative tradition of Meijer Gardens’ acclaimed permanent collection,” said Joseph Becherer, vice president and chief curator of sculpture. “This exhibition explores a renewal of interest in the subject, from objects to installations while surveying a broad spectrum of concepts, forms and materials.”
“Body Double: The Figure in Contemporary Sculpture” illustrates the diversity and depth of the figure in Contemporary Art, from more literal terms to those implied or symbolically stated.
“Looking at both established and emerging sculptors from across the globe, I believe we have assembled a strong visual statement about the strength and viability of the figure in contemporary sculpture,” said Becherer.
As an ArtPrize Exhibition Center, the exhibition will be free of charge during ArtPrize (Sept. 19-Oct. 7). Exhibition areas will be open to the public during Meijer Gardens’ regular business hours, as well as official ArtPrize hours (Sundays 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Mondays-Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Fridays-Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.). On Opening Day, exhibition areas will be on display beginning at 9 a.m. through 10 p.m. All other areas of Meijer Gardens observe regular hours and standard admission fees.
Visitors can register to vote, purchase official ArtPrize merchandise and utilize the ArtPrize shuttle to explore the downtown venues. Shuttle information will be available at ArtPrize.org closer to the event.
Exhibition and ArtPrize Programming:
Curator’s Choice, Sept. 21, noon, free. Join Director of Sculpture, Exhibitions and Installations, Laurene Grunwald, and Curator of Arts Education, Heidi Holst, as they discuss their thoughts on the works in the exhibition. Share your thoughts and questions about the sculptures.
Gallery Walks with ArtPrize Artists, Sept.22, 11 a.m., free. Tour the gallery with nine ArtPrize artists who will discuss the concepts and process of their work.
The exhibition “Body Double: The Figure in Contemporary Sculpture” is made possible by the Meijer Foundation, William Padnos, Louis and Helen Padnos Foundation, Daniel and Pamella DeVos Foundation, International Sculpture Center, Botanic and Sculpture Societies of Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park and Grand Rapids Sister Cities International—Perugia Committee.
About the artists and their sculptures:
Diana Al-Hadid (American) – Untitled (Blind Bust), 2012. Bronze, 74 x 24 x 20 inches.
John Buck (American) – Once in a Blue Moon, 2011. Wood, acrylic paint, and motor, 119 x 94 x 40 inches.
Khalil Chishtee (Pakistani) – Toe to Toe, 2012. White trash bags, 84 x 32 x 20 inches.
Zhang Dali (Chinese) – N. 211, 2010/2011. Resin, 67 x 19.5 x 11.8 inches.
Isabel De Obaldia (American) – Torso Iguana, 2011. Glass, 70x16x16 inches (31 x 20 x 6 1/2 inches with metal base).
Lawrence Epps (British) – Human Resources, 2011. Ceramic, 82.7 x 59 x 23.6 inches.
Carole Feuerman (American) – Quan, 2012. Painted bronze and stainless steel, 66.5 x 60 x 43 inches.
Anne Harrington Hughes (American) – The Dying We Lived Through, 2012. Mixed media/ready-made object installation, 96 x 96 x 96 inches.
Rolf Jacobsen (Danish) – Phaethon, 2011. Wood and gesso, 7.9 x5.1 x 6.3 inches
Kurt Kaiser (American) – Dance of Castoffs, 2012. Found objects with poppy stalks, 8 x 8 x 8 feet
Eckhard Kremers (German) – Amazone, 2011. Mixed media: paper, wood, leather, tape and acrylic, 56 inches x 23 inches, ground plate 20 x 20 x 2 inches.
June Lee (Korean) – Bystander, 2011. Fiber, 2011 approximately 6 x 72 x 72 inches.
Shawn Lefevre (American) – The Others Will Follow, 2012. Plaster, steel and wood, 90 x 37 x 21 inches.
Jennifer McCandless (American) – Baby Boomer Pile Up, 2012. Ceramic stoneware, 30 x 20 x 20 inches.
Deanna Morse (American) – Skin, 2012. Film/video.
Dora Natella (American) – Overseer, 2012. Bronze and Aluminum, 157 x 13 x 18 inches.
Nan Nickson (American) – This Mortal Coil: Joy, 2012. Cotton, twine and beeswax, 72 x 36 x 36 inches.
Roger Reutimann (Swiss) – Some Assembly Required, 2012. Stainless steel, polished/sandblasted, 88 x 40 x 24 inches.
Alison Saar (American) – Foison and Fallow, 2011/2012. Wood, copper, bronze and acrylic paint, 72 x 22 x 16 inches and 75 x 20 x 19 inches.
Cort Savage (American) – Canons, 2010-2011. Archival rubber bands, bronze human skulls, tanakh, Bible, Quran, x-rays, light boxes and hardware, 70 x 90 x 36 inches.
Carol Schwartz (American) – Harriet and Louis, 2009. Wood and paint, 52 x 14 x 13 inches.
Lim Seung-Chun (Korean) – A Cast Away, 2009. Reinforced polymer fiberglass, 36 x 10 x 8 inches
Christy Singleton (American) – Sally, 2011/2012. Reinforced cardboard, silicone, house paint and metal pipes, 144 x 144 x 26 inches
Meri Tancredi (Italian) – Templum, 2011. LED-illuminated carved plexiglass and white marble on black cloth, 63 x 118 inches
Angel Vapor (Cuban) – Labor, 2010/2011. Bronze, wood and iron, 48 x 120 x 24 inches
Paloma Varga-Weisz (German) – Untitled, 2009. Glazed ceramic, 20 1/8 x 17 3/4 x 11 7/8 inches, pedestal 45 1/2 x 19 x 14 3/4 inches
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
‘Amazone,’ Eckhard Kremers, 2011. Mixed media: paper, wood, leather, tape and acrylic; 56 x 23 inches. Photo courtesy of the artist.‘Once in a Blue Moon,’ John Buck, 2011. Wood, acrylic paint and motor; 119 x 94 x 40 inches. Photo courtesy of the artist.
A statue of Ethan Allen, sculpted by Larkin Goldsmith Mead. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) – Colonial music and demonstrations of historic crafts will be part of the Ethan Allen Heritage Celebration this weekend in Burlington.
The event takes place Saturday, Sept. 8, at the Ethan Allen Homestead Museum in Burlington from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Two fife and drum corps, the 40th Army Band’s woodwind quintet and a choir will perform.
There will also be demonstrations in historical arts and crafts such as rope making and making fire from flint and steel.
The museum includes the historical home of Ethan Allen, the leader of the Green Mountain Boys, who made a name for himself by helping to take Fort Ticonderoga from the British in the early days of the Revolutionary War.
Admission to the Heritage Celebration is free.
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CAIRO (AP) – Egyptian authorities charged ousted leader Hosni Mubarak’s longtime culture minister with corruption on Tuesday and referred him to trial, the state news agency reported.
During a Justice Ministry investigation, Farouq Hosni, who served as culture minister for most of Mubarak’s 29 year-rule, allegedly failed to account for 18 million Egyptian pounds ($3 million) of his wealth. He is being asked to return the money to the state.
Hosni, a renowned painter, joins some three dozen stalwarts of the Mubarak regime who face corruption charges. Some of them have been convicted, while others are still on trial.
Hosni was widely thought to be close to Mubarak’s wife Suzanne, something believed to have kept him in his prestigious job for close to three decades. Throughout his years as culture minister, Hosni faced a wave after wave of criticism over various issues.
The latest controversy was in 2010 when a $50 million Vincent van Gogh painting was stolen from an Egyptian museum.
Justice Ministry officials also said that Mubarak, his wife and two children were being investigated for new corruption allegations pertaining to the purchase of land in the Nile Delta north of Cairo at a small fraction of its market value. No new charges have brought against any of the four yet.
Mubarak is already serving a life sentence on a conviction of complicity in the killing of hundreds of protesters during last year’s uprising against his rule. His two sons, onetime heir apparent Gamal and wealthy businessman Alaa, are on trial for insider trading. The two were questioned last month over their 1993 purchase of a plot of land from a housing association led at the time by Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak’s last prime minister and longtime friend who unsuccessfully ran for president earlier this year.
Mubarak’s wife, Suzanne, was briefly arrested last year on corruption charges but was let go after she paid back to the state money she was accused to stealing.
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
BEVERLY, Mass. – Kaminski Auctions will present an important collection of items, including World Series memorabilia, once owned by former major league baseball player John “Stuffy” McInnis. This exciting group of memorabilia will be featured in the Summer’s End Estate Auction on Saturday, Sept. 15, at 11 a.m. EDT. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
Stuffy McInnis was born in 1890 in Gloucester, Mass., and died in 1960 in Ipswich, Mass. He played for several teams during a major league career that spanned 19 seasons. Making his major league debut on April 12, 1909, McInnis went on to have an impressive career that included four World Series titles with several teams. Overall, he held a .307 batting average, hit 20 home runs, and had 1,062 RBI in 2,128 games.
McInnis began his career as a shortstop for the Philadelphia Athletics. In the 1911 season he was moved to first base, and thus became a member of Connie Mack’s famous “$100,000 Infield.” Playing alongside Eddie Collins at second base, Frank Baker at third base and Jack Barry at shortstop, together the team won the World Series in 1911 and 1913.
McInnis was traded to the Boston Red Sox and played with them from 1918 to 1921. In 644 plate appearances with the Red Sox, he struck out only nine times. In addition to being a member of the Red Sox when they won the 1918 World Series, he also set an impressive record in 1921, his final season with the team. McInnis played 119 consecutive games at first base without an error. It wasn’t until June 25, 2007 that Red Sox player Kevin Youkilis broke that 86 year-old-record.
After just three years in Boston, McInnis was traded to the Cleveland Indians for the 1922 season. He was then traded to the Boston Braves from 1923 until 1924, and later, he was sent to the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1925 until 1926, where he won his fourth World Series title in 1925. McInnis finished his career with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1927.
McInnis continued to add to his impressive baseball resume by serving as the coach for the Harvard baseball team from 1949 to 1954.
Kaminski Auctions will present the collection of this local baseball champion. Included in the single lot are many significant memorabilia items: a 14-karat gold E. Howard pocket watch with a 10-karat watch fob and a gold-filled pen knife, all inscribed with World Series logo 1910-1911-1913 (McInnis was on the Philadelphia Athletics roster when they won their 1910 title); a sterling silver presentation trophy by Gloucester friends, October 1910, made by Newbury Crafters; a 10-karat gold ring inscribed with his name, Baseball Centennial 1839-1939, diamond chip; four photographs from New York Giants vs. Chicago White Sox game in Liverpool, England; photos of King George V and Edward Prince of Wales, circa 1914; and a collection of vintage programs, photographs and newspaper clippings as well as a passport for McInnis issued in 1914. The entire collection is valued $3,000-$4,000.
For details email Kaminski Auctions: sfarnsworth@kaminskiauctions.com or phone 978-927-2223.
Large 1950s campaign button for Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Bob & Sallie Connelly Auctions.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Eugene Ola was on a street corner hawking some political buttons with phrases like “Believe in America” and featuring photos of a smiling GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan. But most passersby simply smiled and kept on walking, barely looking at the piece of cardboard he carted around with 50 buttons fastened to it.
In this era of high-tech and nonstop social networking, the campaign button has lost its luster as a central way to promote candidates and their causes. Politicians and their parties instead push their messages with a relentless barrage of television ads, emails and mobile phone alerts, while many voters express their opinions via tweets, Facebook posts and blogs.
“Maybe they are just going out of fashion,” said Ola, 60, who lives in Washington, D.C., and travels the country selling paraphernalia at political gatherings, football games and medical conferences.
Buttons extolling the Republican ticket and tearing into Democrats haven’t disappeared entirely, but they are far from ubiquitous. The days when many delegates were seen littered with partisan messages from seemingly head to toe appear to be long past. Today, attendees roaming the convention halls are more likely to have an iPhone strapped to their belt or a Bluetooth hanging from one ear than a button with Romney’s picture fastened to their lapel.
“We have had pictures of our buttons taken a thousand times,” said Jane Morton, 46, who traveled with her 19-year-old son from Kansas City to sell buttons that say “Show 44 the door,” and depict a foot kicking a cartoon image of Obama, the 44th president of the U.S. “I guess people are just into digital media these days.”
Campaign buttons have been part of American politics since the days of President George Washington. Some of the first buttons were sewn on clothes, or worn similar to a necklace. Those eventually gave way to metal buttons with fastening pins.
These days, the most modern form is the digital variety – “buttons” decorating candidate websites, emails to potential voters and on social networking sites.
To communicate their messages, campaigns have fully moved to online media, said Evan Cornog, a presidential historian and dean of the school of communication at Hofstra University. Increasing urbanization and longer commutes have also likely had a role in diminishing the usefulness of buttons, he said.
“Who is going to see your button on the Long Island Expressway?” he said.
The hotter the campaign, the more intense the interest in buttons. The historic nature of the 2008 campaign, for example, by virtue of Barack Obama – the nation’s first black president – being on the ballot made them more collectible. And there were plenty of opportunities for some catchy phrases that worked well, like: “Sarah Palin, the hottest governor from the coldest state,” juxtaposing the photogenic looks of the Republican vice presidential nominee and her state of Alaska.
Even if fewer people wear them and their effectiveness is muted, vendors say they don’t have to sell many to turn a profit because production costs are low.
Morton, who was laid off in May from a product development firm, says her buttons cost 30 cents to make and she sells them for $3. And most vendors supplement by selling a wide range of other items, like hats, handkerchiefs and T-shirts.
Many conventiongoers buying buttons appear to be collecting them as souvenirs.
“I have buttons from every Republican ticket since World War II,” said Andrew Malcolm, 69, a Los Angeles-based columnist who on Wednesday night bought a button, and then promptly put it in his pocket, before entering the convention hall.
Are they on display at home?
“I just have them in a bag,” he said, adding wryly that if he ever wanted to put them on a wall it would require “some serious negotiations with my wife.”
___
Follow Peter Prengaman at http://twitter.com/peterprengaman
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-08-30-12 1944GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Large 1950s campaign button for Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Bob & Sallie Connelly Auctions.
AUBURN, Ind. (AP) – A classic car collector has bought an unused auto museum in northeastern Indiana that was put up for sale under an agreement to keep open a neighboring military museum that faced foreclosure.
The building owned by the Dean Kruse Foundation in Auburn was sold during an auction Sunday for $995,000.
Buyer DeWayne Keiper, a Sioux Falls, S.D., businessman, said he has numerous collector cars and much memorabilia he plans to display at the museum. He also plans to use the building as a sales showroom.
Money from the sale will go toward the $2.9 million the Kruse Foundation owes for what had been planned as a museum for the memorabilia of auto racing icon Andy Granatelli. He changed his mind about using the Auburn location.
“The location, it’s really got a car feel that carries the whole theme with what I’m doing,” Keiper told WPTA-TV of Fort Wayne. “There’s a lot of synergies I think can be created with the museum. There’s nine museums in the area so I think that will work out really well.”
The building sale coincided with classic car auctions being held as part of the annual Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival during Labor Day weekend.
Keiper told The Star of Auburn that he had traveled there to bid on a 1933 Buick at Auburn Auction Park but didn’t win that auction.
Keiper said he expected it would take about six months to establish his collector-car dealership in the city about 20 miles north of Fort Wayne.
Dean Kruse said he had hoped the building would sell for $1.5 million or more. A second auction is planned for November, when Kruse expects the foundation will sell some vehicles from the military museum to help pay off the debt.
Kruse hosted classic car auctions each Labor Day for nearly four decades in Auburn that drew tens of thousands of visitors. But Kruse lost his state auctioneer’s license two years ago after being sued repeatedly in recent years for business practices that include not releasing money to vehicle consigners or vehicle titles to purchasers.
The military museum opened in 2003 after Kruse bought the inventory of a closing World War II museum in Belgium and shipped it to Auburn.
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
