The Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Image by hibino. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
NEW YORK (AFP) – New York’s Museum of Modern Art plans to move to a seven-days-a-week schedule starting Wednesday, after a similar announcement by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The MoMA said it was ending its traditional Tuesday closings due to strong public demand.
The expanded hours take the museum—which houses collections of Picasso and other modern masters—back to the schedule kept between its 1929 founding and 1975, when cost-cutting measures were introduced.
Since renovations at MoMA in 2004, annual visitor numbers have grown from 1.5 to 3 million.
“Expanding the Museum’s hours to be open to the public seven days per week will help meet the demand from a growing audience,” director Glenn Lowry said.
The Met museum, with more than two million works of art from around the world, is kicking off its 7/7 schedule from July 1. Until now, the massive museum has been closed on Mondays.
“Art is a seven-day-a-week passion, and we want the Met to be accessible whenever visitors have the urge to experience this great museum,” director Thomas Campbell said, citing last year’s 6.28 million visitors.
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The Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Image by hibino. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Sievert (August, 1820-1840), ‘Florilegium,’ collection of over 1,100 fine original watercolor botanical drawings, c. 1840. Estimate: £20,000-25,000. Bloomsbury Auctions image.
LONDON – On Thursday, May 9, Bloomsbury Auctions will sell the private botanical library of a Continental gentleman. This fine collection of botanical texts is strong on dendrology, mainly fruit trees and conifers, and includes works on horticulture with a focus on orchids, rhododendrons and camellias. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
Of the many works on fruit and fruit trees, Joseph Antoine Risso’s Histoire Naturelle des Orangers (1818-20) is an especially notable work. With 109 stipple-engraved plates, printed in color and finished by hand, this magnificent monograph of citrus fruits contains drawings of every known variety of orange, lemon and grape-fruit in the style of Redouté and is given an estimate of £6,000-£8,000 [lot 219]. Another prominent work on fruit is Johann Prokop Mayer’s Pomona Franconica (1776-79), which is a study of the fruit gardens of the Palace of Würzburg. With 99 finely hand-colored plates of fruits and flowers, and 11 plain plates of tree pruning, this rare work is estimated at £8,000-£10,000 [lot 170].
Delineations of Exotick Plants Cultivated in the Royal Gardens at Kew (1796-97) by Franz Andreas Bauer is one of the horticultural highlights of the sale. Including parts 1 & 2 of the first edition, which was limited to 90 and 80 copies respectively, this beautifully illustrated flower book is estimated at £4,000-£5,000 [lot 12]. Peter Simon Pallas’ Flora Rossica (1784-88), is a glorious copy of the first great illustrated Russian flora in a fine contemporary French red straight-grain gilt morocco by Bozerian. With 101 hand-colored engraved plates, this work carries an estimate of £6,000-£8,000 [lot 191].
Lutheran minister August Sievert’s early 19th century German florilegium contains over 1,100 original watercolours illustrating both wild and cultivated flowers as well as fruits, mushrooms and herbs. Appearing loose in 26 numbered and labeled wrappers together in a contemporary box, this unique work is estimated at £20,000-£25,000 [lot 248]. In addition there is a number of lots by the Japanese School that showcase the beauty of horticultural illustration—one of which is a collection of 50 watercolors on flowers and plants inscribed in Japanese, estimated at £4,000-£5,000 [lot 130].
Another of the many highlights of the sale is Nikolaus Thomas Host’s Salix (1828-30). This is a magnificent and exceedingly rare monograph of the willow and includes 105 finely hand-colored engraved plates. This work carries an estimate of £12,000-£16,000 [lot 119]. A rare book on dendrology is André Michaux’s Geschichte der Amerikanischen Eichen, (1802-04). With only two copies appearing at auction in the last 30 years, Histoire des Chênes de L’Amerique is scarce found in German and is given an estimate of £4,000-£5,000 [lot 172]. There is also a collection of Woburn catalogs published for John Russell, Duke of Bedford, in the 1820s and ’30s including Salictum Woburnense (1829), which is one of 50 copies, a signed presentation copy from the Duke of Bedford to William Wilkinson, and which is expected to fetch £4,000-£5,000 [lot 230].
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
Sievert (August, 1820-1840), ‘Florilegium,’ collection of over 1,100 fine original watercolor botanical drawings, c. 1840. Estimate: £20,000-25,000. Bloomsbury Auctions image.
Pallas (Peter Simon), ‘Flora Rossica …, ’ two parts in one volume, first edition, the first great illustrated Russian flora, St. Petersburg, 1784-88. Estimate: £6,000-8,000. Bloomsbury Auctions image.
Risso (Joseph Antoine) ‘Histoire Naturelle des Orangers,’ first edition, color-printed stipple-engraved plates after P.A. Poiteau, Paris, 1818-[20]. Estimate: £6,000-8,000. Bloomsbury Auctions image.
Mayer (Johann Prokop), ‘Pomona Franconica,’ volume 1 & 2 only (of 3), first edition, rare work on the fruit gardens of the Palace of Würzburg, Nuremberg, 1776-79. Estimate: £8,000-10,000. Bloomsbury Auctions image.
Michaux (André), ‘Geschichte der Amerikanischen Eichen,’ Parts 1 & 2 [all published] bound in 1 vol., rare first German edition, Stuttgart & Hanover, 1802-04. Estimate: £4,000-5,000. Bloomsbury Auctions image.
[Forbes (James)] ‘Pinetum Woburnense: or, a Catalogue of Coniferous Plants, in the collection of the Duke of Bedford, at Woburn Abbey,’ first edition, one of 100 copies, signed presentation copy from the Duke of Bedford, 1829. Estimate: £3,000-4,000. Bloomsbury Auctions image.
Host (Nikolaus Thomas), ‘Salix,’ volume 1 [all published], first edition, rare monograph on the willow, Vienna, 1828-[30]. Estimate: £12,000-16,000. Bloomsbury Auctions image.
Bauer (Franz Andreas), ‘Delineations of Exotick Plants cultivated in the Royal Garden at Kew, Parts 1 & 2 only (of 3), first edition, limited to 90 and 80 copies respectively, 1796-[97]. Estimate. £4,000-5,000. Bloomsbury Auctions image.
Italian School, 18 botanical watercolors, early 17th century, Estimate. £5,000-7,000. Bloomsbury Auctions image.
Mercer Chair was designed by Lillian August for Hickory White. It has an Aiken Black fabric and a dry antique finish. Overall dimensions: W 30 inches, D 32 inches, H 35 inches. Estimate: $1,995-$2,535. Adamsleigh ShowHouse image. NEW YORK – Traditional Home magazine and LiveAuctioneers have announced an exclusive auction of select items featured in the 2013 Adamsleigh Estate ShowHouse in Greensboro, N.C. The auction will be hosted on Liveauctioneers.com on Friday, May 3, beginning at noon EDT Internet live bidding will be provided by LiveAucitoneers.com.
The historic Adamsleigh Estate was designed in 1928 for textile magnet John Hampton “Hamp” Adams, co-founder of Adams-Millis Corp., which was the first High Point-based company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The home boasts 33 rooms across 15,000 square feet, including 10 bedrooms. It sits on 13.5 acres that include pools, a lake, tennis courts, a gazebo and stone garage.
Traditional Home and the Junior League of Greensboro secured top national and local designers to design spaces throughout the residence to celebrate the history and grandeur of the property.
“We are thrilled to help restore the Adamsleigh Estate to its former glory and enable design lovers to enjoy a glimpse inside this magnificent home,” says Ann Maine, editor-in-chief of Traditional Home.
The home is open to the public for two weeks from April 20-May 5, and for the first time, design enthusiasts around the world will have the opportunity to bid on ShowHouse items through an association with LiveAuctioneers.
“We are delighted to be a part of this amazing showhouse and to help support the Junior League’s educational initiatives,” says Julian Ellison, LiveAuctioneers’ founder. “By hosting this exclusive auction, we can connect our customers with a new source of great design products chosen by top interior designers.”
A percentage of the auction proceeds will benefit the Junior League of Greensboro and its mission of promoting volunteerism, developing the potential of women, and improving the community through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers.
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
Mercer Chair was designed by Lillian August for Hickory White. It has an Aiken Black fabric and a dry antique finish. Overall dimensions: W 30 inches, D 32 inches, H 35 inches. Estimate: $1,995-$2,535. Adamsleigh ShowHouse image.
Clayton Chair by Lillian August for Hickory White. It has an Umbria finish and Martin Blue fabric. Overall dimensions: W 32 inches, D 38 inches, H 47 inches. Estimate: $2,065-$2,585. Adamsleigh ShowHouse image.
Henri Matisse’s ‘The Dance,’ 1910, at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
MOSCOW (AFP) – Russia’s two greatest art museums were engaged Tuesday in an unsightly public feud over an idea to revive a Moscow museum of Western art that was shut down by Stalin in the late 1940s.
The State Museum of New Western Art gathered the impressionist and early modern art collected by renowned Russian art collectors Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov in the late Tsarist era.
But it was closed on Stalin’s orders in 1948 as the Soviet authorities rejected anything reeking of “cosmopolitanism” in a drive to play up the importance of Soviet art.
Its collection was divided between the Pushkin Art Museum in Moscow and the famed Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, where the pictures can be seen to this day.
The redoubtable director of the Pushkin Museum, Irina Antonova, 91, last week personally asked President Vladimir Putin during his annual phone-in with Russians to consider reopening the museum in Moscow with its original collection.
However the idea did not in the least impress the Hermitage museum, which under the plan could see some of its most prized Matisse, Degas and Picasso pictures transferred back to Moscow.
“This new attempt to break up the Hermitage is a crime against the stability of the whole museum landscape in Russia, whose unity and riches have been preserved with such difficulty,” fumed Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky, quoted by the government Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily.
Antonova, however, launched a stout defense of her position saying the recreation of the museum was a question of “historical fairness.”
“The state destroyed this museum. The state has the chance to revive it. This is my opinion,” she said.
In response to Antonova’s request, Putin on Tuesday asked the government to draw up by June 15 a report on the viability of recreating the Western art museum in Moscow.
Putin had bluntly asked Piotrovsky on air during the live phone-in if he was “ready to return part of the (Hermitage) collection to Moscow and revive a museum of modern art.” But the Hermitage chief at the time ducked the question.
Morozov and Shchukin amassed two of the greatest collections anywhere of European art.
But like other private collections, their holdings were nationalized after the Russian revolution and used to form the basis of the Museum of New Western Art (GMNZI), which was founded in 1928.
Among the paintings transferred to the Hermitage after the Moscow museum’s closure is possibly its most single famous picture—the massive Dance by Henri Matisse which occupies an entire wall—as well as a priceless collection of early Picasso.
Piotrovsky ridiculed the idea that recreating the museum could have anything to do with historical fairness, describing the moves as showing a “primitive attitude towards national culture.”
The dispute has highlighted the rivalry between the Pushkin Museum and the Hermitage, with the much older Saint Petersburg institution keen to affirm its supremacy over the Moscow museum which was opened only in 1912.
In a statement explaining the background to the dispute, the Hermitage said the Museum of New Western Art’s collection had been divided up under an agreement between the directors of the two museums in 1948.
The paintings came to the Hermitage in compensation for hundreds of old master artworks taken from the Hermitage to Moscow in the 1920s by Soviet officials when the Pushkin museum was being expanded.
The Pushkin Museum at the time “showed no special interest” in the collections of Picasso and Matisse, the Hermitage noted icily.
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Henri Matisse’s ‘The Dance,’ 1910, at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
1873 Colt ‘Pinch Frame’ revolver. California Auctions image.
VENTURA, Calif. – Outlaw Bill Dalton’s rifle, confiscated in September 1891 by Tulare County Sheriff E.W. Kay, goes up on the auction block Sunday, May 5. A new documentary about the incident accompanies the firearm.
LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
The 1876 Winchester rifle was confiscated from Dalton when Kay arrested him after the Ceres Train robbery attempt in California in 1891.
A new documentary produced by the auction house California Auctioneers LLC and Red Sky Production is available on their website www.calauctioneers.com or http://youtu.be/32gchqkmxKI
The chain of custody passed from Kay to California historian and author of The Dalton Gang Days, Frank S. Latta, to the current owner.
This one of a historic firearm is a true Wild West relic and a part of California history. The auction is titled “East Meets West” and includes collections of fine Asian objects, antique firearms such as a scarce Colt 1873 SAA Pinch frame SN #154, Native American, Western, ethnographic, American antiques and collectables, jewelry and more.
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
For details contact California Auctioneers at 805-649-2686.
Ernest Hemingway wrote portions of his novel ‘A Farewell to Arms’ at this home in Piggott, Ark. Image by Dennis Adams, National Scenic Byways Online, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
PIGGOTT, Ark. (AP) – The Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center is preparing to open a new exhibit that highlights accomplishments of the less well-known family for which it is named.
Members of the Pfeiffer family moved from St. Louis to Piggott in 1913, seeking quieter surroundings. But the family maintained its business connections across the U.S. and the world.
The writer Ernest Hemingway lived at the home for a time when he was married to his second wife, Pauline Pfeiffer.
The exhibit focuses on the Pfeiffer family’s impact on northeast Arkansas and is set to open May 10.
Arkansas State University restored the Pfeifer mansion and converted it to a museum. Its regular hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-04-29-13 0708GMT
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Ernest Hemingway wrote portions of his novel ‘A Farewell to Arms’ at this home in Piggott, Ark. Image by Dennis Adams, National Scenic Byways Online, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
B-24 of the 464th Bomb Group on a bomb run. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
ALLEN, Texas (AP) – This is a tale of love and war, of heroism and survival—and of sheer luck.
For more than six decades, a scrapbook that 2nd Lt. John M. “Jack” Bridges composed when he was a POW in World War II gathered dust in Europe.
The Dallas Morning News reports the Purple Heart recipient’s family didn’t even know it existed.
They’d only heard Bridges, a Collin County resident who died more than six years ago, casually mention over the years that he’d chronicled his imprisonment at Stalag Luft III—the German prisoner-of-war camp made famous in the 1963 Steve McQueen film The Great Escape.
“He mentioned that he had kept a record of things that had happened, but he didn’t mention that it was in notebook form,” said Edna Bridges, 89, his wife of 61 years. “I thought he’d just jotted down notes here and there.”
And were it not for an inquisitive journalist, the story might have ended there. But in the summer of 2010, a British reporter came across Jack Bridges’ notebook at an auction house.
The reporter tracked down Bridges’ relatives in their native Alabama. They contacted Bridges’ son, John Bridges III, an independent computer contractor who lives in Allen.
The reporter “started sending me pictures” of the vivid sketches and illustrations of POW camp life depicted in the book, said Bridges, 51.
“And the more I got,” he said, “I knew at least some of them were my dad’s.”
Bridges said he tried to buy the book for the original asking price, which was about $2,500. But the book’s undisclosed new owner, who reportedly found the historical gem at an estate sale, politely declined.
So Bridges ended up paying about $5,500 for his dad’s book—and nearly $500 more to get it back home.
It is no mystery how it wound up in the hands of a profiteer.
His dad’s B-24 bomber, Stardust, was struck by German shells and burst into flames over Hungary on May 10, 1944.
Ten days later, Jack Bridges was taken to Stalag Luft III, where he stayed until Jan. 27, 1945, when he and other POWS were abruptly moved as Allied forces approached. He was finally liberated on April 29.
Bridges’ notebook—issued to POWs by the YMCA so they could chronicle their experiences—“got left behind,” said his son.
“They were told an hour before the Allies—the Russians—came in to grab all they could and march,” Bridges said. “You grab clothes, food but that (scrapbook) is not something you’re going to grab.”
A Polish navigator found the book in the abandoned barracks, and he held on to it for decades. “And somehow,” Bridges said, “it ended up in an attic in an estate sale in England.”
Bridges said he and his family feel fortunate to have discovered the book, which has dozens of pages of illustrations and cartoons that provide a glimpse of what life was like inside the camp.
He said his dad—who studied architecture at Auburn University and enjoyed a career in that field after the war—had a distinctive style that his family recognizes. But some of the drawings, he said, may have been the handiwork of other POWs.
“I’m still of the belief that not all of it is my dad’s,” said Bridges. “But there were pieces in there that I could see was him.”
On the first page, Jack Bridges paints himself as a disgruntled duck coming into the camp with his tail afire after being shot down: “I wanted wings,” reads the caption.
Another drawing, signed by Jack Bridges and dated “11-44,” or November 1944, shows footprints running from the barracks where POWS stayed to a nearby outhouse, and the caption reads: “Winter Sports at Sagan.”
“It shows he had a sense of humor,” said Edna Bridges, giggling at the drawing.
But there were more serious sketches, too. One of his wife’s favorites is an illustration of a memorial honoring 50 servicemen killed by the Gestapo.
Another depicts Bridges bailing out of his B-24. It reads, “Le Coup de Grace.”
“He had a fertile imagination, I tell you,” his wife said.
As she thumbs through the pages of her husband’s scrapbook, Edna Bridges gets a better sense of what he endured.
“I didn’t know Jack when he was a POW,” she said. “I met him when he got back to Bessemer (Ala.).”
That was at a friend’s Saturday night dinner party celebrating Bridges’ return.
“The next day he called and wanted a date, and I told him I had to go to church,” Edna Bridges said. “And he said, ‘That’s OK, I’ll go with you.’ I said he must be a nice guy if he’ll go to church.”
And so he was. They married five months later, she said.
During their marriage—from October 1945 until December 2006, when Bridges died at the Lucas home where they’d lived since 1973—the couple seldom talked about his POW days.
“After he gave a talk at our church” in Alabama, Edna Bridges said, “he didn’t talk about it anymore until we went to a reunion of POWs about five or six years after we married. And we went to every reunion from then on.”
She said his book, which she ultimately hopes to leave to the 464th Bombardment Group, is a precious keepsake. She still can’t believe it found its way to her.
“It was just unreal,” she said. “I was so happy to hold something he had done.”
John Bridges said “there’s a whole crew of people who have parents or relatives with books” or other remembrances from WWII. But there’s only one that belonged to his dad.
“That was the only thing that I could really give back to my mom that was my dad’s,” he said. “And when I put it in her hands—wow—it was worth every penny.”
___
Information from: The Dallas Morning News, http://www.dallasnews.com
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-04-29-13 1232GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
B-24 of the 464th Bomb Group on a bomb run. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Lovely Cartier-certified 6.01-carat fancy intense yellow diamond ring. Estimate: $100,000-$200,000. A.B. Levy’s image. PALM BEACH, Fla. – The partial contents of a prominent Palm Beach oceanfront estate, fine Asian works of art and Persian carpets from a private Delray Beach collection and many other quality consignments will be sold in a two-session auction slated for Sunday, May 5, by A.B. Levy’s. In all, over 450 lots will come up for bid. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
Session one will begin promptly at 11 a.m. EDT and feature lots 1-135. After a brief break, starting at around 2 p.m., session two will see lots 136-449 cross the auction block.
“The entire sale is loaded with fabulous jewelry, art and antiques, but we’re especially excited about the items from the Palm Beach oceanfront estate,” said Albert Levy of A.B. Levy’s. “We also have a wonderful selection of estate jewelry, including a twice-signed Patek Philippe men’s wristwatch that was offered by Tiffany (est. $10,000-$20,000) and outstanding period furniture.”
Two lots are expected to sell for $100,000-$200,000 each. One is a Cartier certified 6.01-carat fancy intense yellow diamond ring. The other is an original gouache painting—not a lithograph—by Alexander Calder (American 1898-1976), signed in the artist’s hand and executed in 1969. Calder was renowned as a sculptor and probably became best known for his kinetic abstract mobiles. But he also did floor pieces and was proficient as a painter in watercolor, oil and gouache (opaque watercolor paints).
Another estate jewelry lot is expected to draw serious bidder attention. It is an important GIA-certified 1.14-carat pink diamond. It should command $50,000-$70,000.
From the Palm Beach mansion, a pair of 18th century carved, painted and gilt female figures standing just over 5 feet tall, should fetch $20,000; and a pair of Italian carved marble blackamoors, a man and woman, each on a raised circular pedestal, should hit $10,000-$20,000.
A Francois Linke Louis XVI-style bureau a cylinder (roll-top desk) carries a presale estimate of $30,000-$50,000. Also, a pair of 19th century French Louis XV/XVI-style carved, painted and gilt-wood consoles, is expected to sell for $2,000-$4,000.
Other period furniture pieces will feature an English chinoiserie secretary bookcase (est. $4,000-$6,000); a Louis XVI-style painted dressing mirror and console (est. $800-$1,200); and a French provincial carved and painted side cabinet (est. $800-$1,200).
Asian lots will include Chinese ink on silk paintings, ivory, jade, snuff bottles and porcelain. Several KPM porcelain plaques will be offered, one showing a young girl holding flowers. It’s expected to bring $9,000-$12,000. Also, a sculpture by French artist Henry E. Dumaige (1830-1888) should realize $1,000-$2,000.
Other creations by artists such as Dale Chihuly and Pablo Picasso will also change hands. Additional recognizable names to be chanted that day will include Lalique, Baccarat, Bergman, Louis Vuitton, DuPont, Montague Dawson, Yabu Meizan and Kinkozan (the last two Satsuma). From estate jewelry the roster will include Rolex, Piaget, Chopard, Cartier and Patek Philippe.
A Tiffany Studios glass and bronze lamp in the Pomegranate pattern is expected to light up the room for $8,000-$12,000. A pair of Karl Springer lamps is estimated at $7,000-$10,000 for the pair. A fine Victrola mahogany music cabinet should play a sweet tune for $1,000-$3,000. Two large patinated white metal figural candelabra should make $4,000-$6,000. A pair of Continental gilt-bronze and ivory mounted candelabra are estimated to realize $3,000-$5,000.
The auction will also feature Persian carpets, certified $500 and $1,000 bills, a Hermes Kelly bag, English and European silver and boxed flatware and tableware.
A buyer’s premium will apply to all purchases.
A.B. Levy’s is always accepting quality consignments for future auctions. To consign a single piece, an estate or an entire collection, call A.B. Leavy’s at 561-835-9139, or email info@ablevys.com.
William Horace Littlefield, ‘Autumn Wind.’ Image courtesy of Provincetown Art Association and Museum.
PROVINCETOWN, Mass. – Provincetown Art Association and Museum will present an exhibition of work from the private collection of James R. Bakker in “Art and Craft: Made in Provincetown.” This exhibition will be on view at PAAM May 10-June 23, with a free opening reception on Friday, May 10 at 7 p.m. and a Fredi Schiff Levin lecture with Bakker on Tuesday, May 28 at 7 p.m.
On the occasion of “Art and Craft: Made in Provincetown,” James R. Bakker has selected an eclectic body of work representative of his passion for all facets of the arts. His collection has amassed over decades, guided by his keen eye and lifelong commitment to arts, antiques, and the creative process.
“With over 200 Provincetown artists represented in my collection, the most difficult task was narrowing down the selection of works to be included in this exhibition to only 60. … My intention is to continue to gift works [to PAAM] during my lifetime that will enhance the permanent collection and inspire other collectors to do the same as we move forward toward our PAAM Centennial celebration in 2014,” Bakker writes in the forthcoming exhibition catalog.
This exhibition features selected works from Bakker’s private collection, along with works he has gifted to PAAM’s permanent collection. Spanning the century of eclectic creative output by both history and contemporary artists of outer Cape Cod, these paintings and prints are of celebrated Provincetown artists-including artist-couples Charles Hawthorne and Marion Hawthorne; Oliver Chaffee and Ada Gilmore; and the luminous work of E. Ambrose Webster, Edwin Dickinson and Agnes Weinrich—juxtaposed with modern, contemporary and decorative arts: including a Nancy Whorf embellished corner cabinet; a Jim Manning tall clock; a bar by Jackson Lambert; decorative art by Peter Hunt; a Blanche Lazzell decorated box; a hand-printed textile by Bertha Ried; blocks and prints by Ferol Sibley Warthen, Angele Myrer, Kathryn Smith, and Barbara Stoughton; a book of woodblock prints by Philippe and Kim Villard; an artist book by Lynn Stanley; and a sculpture by Hugo Porcaro.
The exhibition, which opens on Bakker’s 60th birthday, will be a celebration of his work, life, and contributions to PAAM and Provincetown’s arts community. PAAM Executive Director Christine McCarthy writes: “To say that Jim Bakker is devoted is an understatement as he demonstrates an incomparable capacity to collaborate and contribute, especially to PAAM.”
Bakker opened the doors to his first antiques shop at the age of 15. He was an exhibitor at major antiques and art fairs throughout the country. Bakker has had galleries in Littleton, Boston, Provincetown and Cambridge. Bakker is an auctioneer, private art dealer, appraiser, consultant and independent curator specializing in American paintings and prints. He is a member of the Antiques Dealers’ Association of America. Bakker graduated from Phillips Academy at Andover and attended Harvard University where he developed an interest in the fine arts. Bakker is a trustee and past president of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, former executive director of the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum, vice-chair of the Town of Provincetown Art Commission and the president of the Cape and Islands Historical Association.
For many years, Bakker specialized in the discovery and sale of furniture and pottery of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Together with Arts and Crafts historian and scholar Robert Edwards, Bakker mounted an important exhibition, “Arcady to Byrdcliffe: The Whiteheads’ Circle of Artists,” featuring important furniture and related objects at his Newbury Street gallery in 1999.
For more information, call 508-487-1750 or visit www.paam.org.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
William Horace Littlefield, ‘Autumn Wind.’ Image courtesy of Provincetown Art Association and Museum.
Print of Andy Warhol’s Mao Tse-tung. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Art Partner Galerie SPRL.
SHANGHAI (AFP) – Shanghai’s contemporary art museum on Sunday opened a show featuring the works of American pop artist Andy Warhol, but without his iconic portraits of former Chinese leader Chairman Mao.
The Pittsburgh-based Andy Warhol Museum, which supplied more than 300 pieces for the show, said months in advance that paintings of Mao Tse-tung would not be shown in keeping with the wishes of the Chinese hosts.
“We worked with curators at both institutions in Shanghai and Beijing and there was a little bit of concern about bringing them right now,” Warhol museum director Eric Shiner told AFP on Sunday.
“We wanted to introduce Andy Warhol’s work to China. If those paintings could be a problem in any way, we didn’t want them,” he said, adding it was a “mutual decision” not to include them.
The show has already traveled to Singapore and Hong Kong, and will head to Beijing and Tokyo after Shanghai.
Among the highlights of the Warhol museum’s collection is a 1972 painting showing a blue-suited Mao.
Shanghai is seeking to become an art capital on a par with New York and Paris, opening government-funded modern and contemporary art museums in October last year.
But critics have questioned how Shanghai can become a true cultural center since the government censors art that it considers politically sensitive or pornographic.
During the 1960s and 1970s, China built a personality cult around Mao, worshipping his portrait, but images and statues of the leader, who died in 1976, have now largely disappeared.
Chinese artists have also depicted Mao in their works, including painter Li Shan, who shows the leader with a leaf in his mouth in a well-known piece.
Warhol himself visited China not long before his death in 1987.
“He was very interested, when he went to Beijing, in how Mao Zedong was represented, over and over again,” said Abigail Franzen-Sheehan, director of
publications for the Warhol museum.
The exhibition “Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal” is showing at Shanghai’s Power Station of Art for three months.
The works on display include his famous depiction of Campbell’s Soup cans as well as his portraits of movie star Marilyn Monroe.
“His work contains significance in terms of looking at your contemporary surroundings with a critical eye. We hope that (people) will think about Warhol’s work, the questions he was provoking,” Franzen-Sheehan said.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Print of Andy Warhol’s Mao Tse-tung. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Art Partner Galerie SPRL.
![Risso (Joseph Antoine) ‘Histoire Naturelle des Orangers,’ first edition, color-printed stipple-engraved plates after P.A. Poiteau, Paris, 1818-[20]. Estimate: £6,000-8,000. Bloomsbury Auctions image.](https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2013_0430_450491-59.jpg "Risso (Joseph Antoine) ‘Histoire Naturelle des Orangers,’ first edition, color-printed stipple-engraved plates after P.A. Poiteau, Paris, 1818-[20]. Estimate: £6,000-8,000. Bloomsbury Auctions image.")
![Michaux (André), ‘Geschichte der Amerikanischen Eichen,’ Parts 1 & 2 [all published] bound in 1 vol., rare first German edition, Stuttgart & Hanover, 1802-04. Estimate: £4,000-5,000. Bloomsbury Auctions image.](https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2013_0430_450491-102.jpg "Michaux (André), ‘Geschichte der Amerikanischen Eichen,’ Parts 1 & 2 [all published] bound in 1 vol., rare first German edition, Stuttgart & Hanover, 1802-04. Estimate: £4,000-5,000. Bloomsbury Auctions image.")
![[Forbes (James)] ‘Pinetum Woburnense: or, a Catalogue of Coniferous Plants, in the collection of the Duke of Bedford, at Woburn Abbey,’ first edition, one of 100 copies, signed presentation copy from the Duke of Bedford, 1829. Estimate: £3,000-4,000. Bloomsbury Auctions image.](https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2013_0430_450491-157.jpg "[Forbes (James)] ‘Pinetum Woburnense: or, a Catalogue of Coniferous Plants, in the collection of the Duke of Bedford, at Woburn Abbey,’ first edition, one of 100 copies, signed presentation copy from the Duke of Bedford, 1829. Estimate: £3,000-4,000. Bloomsbury Auctions image.")
![Host (Nikolaus Thomas), ‘Salix,’ volume 1 [all published], first edition, rare monograph on the willow, Vienna, 1828-[30]. Estimate: £12,000-16,000. Bloomsbury Auctions image.](https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2013_0430_450491-189.jpg "Host (Nikolaus Thomas), ‘Salix,’ volume 1 [all published], first edition, rare monograph on the willow, Vienna, 1828-[30]. Estimate: £12,000-16,000. Bloomsbury Auctions image.")
![Bauer (Franz Andreas), ‘Delineations of Exotick Plants cultivated in the Royal Garden at Kew, Parts 1 & 2 only (of 3), first edition, limited to 90 and 80 copies respectively, 1796-[97]. Estimate. £4,000-5,000. Bloomsbury Auctions image.](https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2013_0430_450491-224.jpg "Bauer (Franz Andreas), ‘Delineations of Exotick Plants cultivated in the Royal Garden at Kew, Parts 1 & 2 only (of 3), first edition, limited to 90 and 80 copies respectively, 1796-[97]. Estimate. £4,000-5,000. Bloomsbury Auctions image.")
