The ‘Early American Guitars’ exhibit will be in the André Mertens Galleries for Musical Instruments, Gallery 684. Metropolitan Museum of Art image. NEW YORK – Thirty-five rare guitars that illustrate the early history of the instrument in America will go on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, beginning Jan. 14. Drawn from the Museum’s own holdings as well as from the Martin Guitar Museum in Nazareth, Pa.,, and several private collections, “Early American Guitars: The Instruments of C.F. Martin” will trace the birth of the American guitar by shedding light on the contributions of Christian Frederick Martin, a German immigrant who invented a uniquely American form of the guitar in the first half of the 19th century.
The exhibition will highlight the largest collection of instruments by this renowned maker ever to be displayed publicly, including the earliest known guitar signed by Martin, the earliest established guitar with his famed X-braced construction, and several extraordinary decorated examples of his work. Also on view will be a 1939 guitar made by Martin Guitar that was played by Eric Clapton on MTV’s Unplugged series in 1992, representing the long trajectory of guitar building by the company founded by Christian Frederick Martin.
Made possible by the Martin Guitar Co., the exhibition draws from recent research that establishes the influence that Spanish guitars from the region of Andalusia had on Martin, who was trained in the Viennese school of instrument building. Martin used elements from both traditions to develop his own model that constituted a distinctly American style of building guitars. Included in the exhibition will be guitars from the Austro-German and Spanish guitar makers who influenced Martin’s designs, as well as comparative examples by American makers who were contemporaries of Martin. “Early American Guitars: The Instruments of C.F. Martin” coincides with the publication of this new information in the book Inventing the American Guitar.
Born in 1796 to a cabinetmaker in Markneukirchen, Saxony, Christian Frederick Martin learned to build guitars in the style of Johann Georg Stauffer in Vienna. Due to the restrictive guilds in Markneukirchen, Martin left his country in 1833 and settled first in New York City, then moved to Nazareth, Pa. In the United States, he encountered the Spanish-style guitar of the type that was made in the southern Spanish region of Andalusia. In a remarkable period of about 20 years, Martin went from building guitars in the Viennese tradition to encountering and copying Spanish-style guitars, to developing an original design that borrowed from both traditions and ultimately set a course for all American guitar-making that followed.
In addition to his legacy as a craftsman, C.F. Martin also founded a guitar company in Nazareth that continues to be family-owned today. The company has been one of the most influential firms in American music for 180 years.
The exhibition will be featured on the Museum’s website at www.metmuseum.org.
LONDON (AFP) – A campaigner for fathers’ rights to see their children was found guilty on Wednesday of defacing a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II while it was hanging in Westminster Abbey.
Father-of-two Tim Haries, 42, scrawled “help” in purple paint on the large oil painting by Australian artist Ralph Heimans on June 13.
Haries, an electrician and activist with the Fathers4Justice campaign group, had denied causing criminal damage of more than £5,000 ($8,200, 6,000 euros), saying his act was a protest to highlight the “social justice issue of our time.”
But the judge at London’s Southwark Crown Court told the jury that civil disobedience was not a valid defense, and Haries was found guilty.
He was released on bail until his sentencing on Feb. 5.
He later released a statement through Fathers4Justice, defending his “peaceful protest on behalf of my children and the millions of children separated from their fathers” by British family courts.
The campaign group said at the time that it did not endorse Haries’s protest, but later that month it launched a campaign encouraging fathers to write the word “help” in “significant places where they are visible to the world.”
Two weeks after Haries’s attack on the queen’s portrait, another Fathers4Justice protester was arrested at Britain’s National Gallery after gluing a photograph of his son to John Constable’s masterpiece “The Hay Wain.”
Founded in 2001, Fathers4Justice has a reputation for headline-grabbing stunts by fathers locked in bitter custody battles.
Its activists have scaled buildings such as Buckingham Palace dressed as superheroes, and in 2004 they sparked a major security alert at the British parliament when they pelted then-prime minister Tony Blair with flour as he was speaking.
Heimans’s painting was commissioned for the queen’s diamond jubilee in 2012 and valued at around £160,000. It cost £7,300 to repair after the vandalism.
China Trade oil on canvas portrait of influential Chinese statesman Aison Gioro Keying, circa 1840. Estimate: $15,000-$25,000. Pook & Pook Inc. image.
DOWNINGTOWN, Pa. – Pook & Pook Inc. is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. The first auction of 2014 will be Jan. 17-18. On Friday night, the sale features goods from the China Trades shipper Capt. Hall Jackson Tibbits (American 1797-1872). LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
Saturday’s sale showcases items from various collections, including Kristina “Barbara” Johnson, the David and Marilyn Levinson Art Education Initiative, Esther L. Hamme, Lucille Keemer, the estate of William Kulp, and various educational institutions.
Friday’s events begin with a reception from 4 to 6 p.m. A lecture on China Trade material will be given by William Sargeant, the former curator of Asian Arts at the Peabody Essex Museum, at 5 p.m. Sargeant remains a consultant for this department at the museum. The lecture will tie into the auction of the material from Capt. Hall Jackson Tibbits, which follows at 6 p.m.
Maritime historian W.Z. Gardner characterized Capt. Tibbits as a true “son of the sea.” He went to sea young, with his father who captained a three-masted square rigger running the China Trade route from New York to Canton. At age 24, Tibbits was one of the youngest shipmasters in the China Trade. He owned and commanded several clipper ships, trading tea and silk on a trade route between America, China and South America. This was a lucrative profession in the era from 1830-1860, but not for the faint-hearted. His favorite ship, the Southerner, was built in 1834 in the shipyards of New York.
In 1852, the captain retired at age 55 to a 127-acre farm on Sands Point, Long Island. One of his first projects there being a 90-foot porch fronting the Atlantic Ocean. He brought with him an extensive collection of paintings, furniture and curios from his adventures in China. After his death in 1872, the home remained in the family until 1959 when it was sold. All of his possessions were moved to a descendant’s home and barn in Wading River, N.Y., where it remained until consigned to Pook & Pook Inc. for auction.
Highlights of the captain’s collection include a rare China Trade view of the harbor, Valparaiso, Chile, ca. 1835, (estimate: $20,000-$30,000) and an outstanding China Trade portrait of a Chinese merchant, ca. 1835 (estimate: $15,000-25,000). Found in the barn at Wading River was an important early New York, William & Mary gateleg table, ca. 1730. A China Trade silver mug bears the touch of Khecheong and the monogram of Robert Ellison Tibbits, son of Capt. Tibbits.
Other significant items from the Tibbits collection include paintings attributed to Youqua, sea chests belonging to Tibbits, ivories, porcelains, nautical instruments, silver, portraits of the captain as well as photographic records and book archives.
One of the highlights of the Saturday session are a tremendous variety of hooked rugs, decoys, paintings, and other folk art objects from the collection of Kristina “Barbara” Johnson. In the early 1980s, Johnson assembled one of the largest groups of hooked rugs in the country. Subject matters range from geometric and abstract patterns to animals, maritime scenes, and everything in between. Many of the rugs were exhibited at the Squibb Gallery in Princeton in 1988/89 and pictured in the publication that went along with the exhibit American Classics, Hooked Rugs from the Barbara Johnson Collection. Many of the rugs were subsequently included in other exhibits and publications over the years.
Many duck and fish decoys, carvings, quilts, and other objects are also included.
Also coming across the block on Saturday are Pook & Pook Inc.’s usual array of fine art, interesting American and Continental furniture, folk art and a myriad of accessories. Paintings include works by Ben Austrian, Walter Baum, William Mason Brown, Jacob Eichholtz, Edouard Cortes, John Folinsbee and Haisu Liu.
The fine furniture category is highlighted by 11 tall case clocks, several inlaid and painted blanket chests, Philadelphia and New York easy chairs, Windsor chairs, chests of drawers, and cupboards.
Also offered on Saturday are some interesting lots of metalware and firearms including Paktong candlesticks, New York andirons, a Peter Derr lamp, a weathervane, pistols and revolvers.
Many other unusual and intriguing items are interspersed throughout the sale. Miniature portraits, fine silhouettes, still lifes, pottery, four Harry Bertoia sculptures, American and Georgian silver, a large group of samplers, and more will be offered.
For details call 610-269-4040 or email info@Pookandpook.com.
China Trade oil on canvas portrait of influential Chinese statesman Aison Gioro Keying, circa 1840. Estimate: $15,000-$25,000. Pook & Pook Inc. image.
China Trade oil on canvas of Capt. Tibbit’s ship ‘Southerner,’ probably depicted off Whampoa anchorage. Estimate: $2,000-$4, 000. Pook & Pook Inc. image.
Hooked rug of a girl riding a big dog, circa 1870, flanked by floral panels. Estimate: $1,200-$1,500. Pook & Pook Inc. image.
New England painted pine blanket chest, inscribed ‘L. Bloy 1830,’ retaining its original vibrant yellow and ochre surface. Estimate: $4,000-$6,000. Pook & Pook Inc. image.
Pair of monumental China Trade oil on canvas panoramic landscapes, circa 1840, attributed to Youqua (Chinese, active mid-19th century), the first depicting the Hongs at Canton with a bustling harbor scene. The second work shows the opposing shore of the Pearl River and the island of Honam, 35 inches by 80 inches. Estimate: $150,000-$250,000. Pook & Pook Inc. image.
‘Polar Bear – Male,’ after J.W. Audubon, color lithograph finished by hand and printed by J.T. Bowen, Philadelphia, 1846. Plate XCL from ‘The Vivaparous Quadrupeds of North America, N.Y., 1845-54. Estimate $1,500-$2,000. Waverly Rare Books image.FALLS CHURCH, Va. – Waverly Auctions’ Jan. 16 Catalog Sale features antique maps, books, atlases and documents from some of the country’s finest private collections. Bidding will commence at 6 p.m., at Quinn’s & Waverly Rare Books’ gallery in Falls Church, Va. (suburban Washington, D.C.), and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.com.
Maps comprise a particularly strong category within the 311-lot auction and are led by Lot 209, a 1632 Gerard Mercator Atlas that is complete with engraved title and 179 maps. The atlas is a cylindrical map projection attributable to Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator. In its day, it became the standard map projection for nautical purposes because of its ability to represent lines of constant course as straight segments, thus conserving the angles with the meridians. The Gerard Mercator Atlas in Waverly’s sale is expected to make $7,000-$10,000.
Lot 226, a Jansson 1649 map of the North Pole, 16 by 20¾ inches, has a highly decorative double-page engraved projection from the Arctic pole, with a profusion of circular directional lines radiating from eight compass roses. The publisher’s cartouche is illustrated with polar bears and archers, and the title cartouche is aloft on a cloud from which winds emanate. Estimate: $700-$1,000. Other important maps include two depicting Virginia. Lot 237, est. 2,000-$3,000, dates from 1627 and is the German version of John Smith’s 1612 Map of Virginia; while Lot 238, est. $900-$1,400, is a double-paged version of the Smith map and was created by Henricus Hondius in 1630.
Illustrated works by Audubon are unsurpassed in their beauty and perennial favorites with collectors. Lot 138, Volume III of “The Quadrupeds of North America, J.J. Audubon and J. Bachman, 1854, contains 55 vignette plates lithographed and hand-colored by J.T. Bowen and Nagel & Winegartner. The illustrations show land mammals in their natural habitats. A first octavo edition, the lot is estimated at $1,200-$1,800.
Lot 139 is a color lithograph after J.W. Audubon of a male polar bear, finished by hand and printed by J.T. Bowen, Philadelphia, in 1846. The plate is from “The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America.” Attractively framed, it measures 18 3/8 by 24 inches (sight) and is estimated at $1,500-$2,000.
Titled “Floral Belles,” Lot 147 is a scarce, limited edition from the Victorian era by Mrs. C.M. Badger. Each of the 16 multicolored plates depicts a type of flower that inspired the accompanying lines of poetry. Printed in 1867 by Charles Scribner & Company, the edition is offered with a $1,500-$2,500 estimate.
Several lots consist of significant works by Charles Dickens. Lot 8, the 32-volume “Writings of Charles Dickens,” includes a check in the amount of “Thirty One Pounds, Six Shillings and Four Pence” made out to “Mess. Dawson, Newman, & Co.” and signed by Charles Dickens on February 2nd, 1866. The set dates to the late 19th or early 20th century and has critical and bibliographical introductions and notes by Edwin Percy Whipple and others. Each book is half red morocco with marbled board and end papers. The lot carries an estimate of $1,500-$2,500.
Of special interest to collectors of children’s books, a 1938 first edition (with dust jacket) of Tasha Tudor’s “Pumpkin Moonshine” represents the beloved New England illustrator/author’s literary debut. Published by Oxford University Press, the desirable title is entered in the sale as Lot 166 with a $1,500-$2,000 estimate.
Letters personally composed or signed by historical figures are always fascinating for the insight they provide into the authors’ private lives. Lot 304, a group lot containing 14 items including both a hand-written note and typed letter signed by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The note to Elizabeth Smith Brownstein, which is written in blue ink on periwinkle blue stock with a matching envelope custom-printed with a Fifth Avenue, New York address, reads: “Dear Elizabeth – I’m not sure if it can have a connection with your series – but the Toni Morrison interview is worth reading. It sets thoughts thinking. Maybe she could narrate the slave cabins episode. We have seen so much of Maya Angelou – and I would love to see Toni Morrison speaking like Shelby Steele. Of course if you’ve just won the Nobel Prize you may be pretty busy! Best always, Jackie.” The typed letter on Doubleday letterhead is dated February 2, 1994 and reads in part: “Dear Ms. Brownstein, Thank you so much for your letter concerning ‘If This House Could Talk’…I feel passionate concern for houses and their history. I see great potential for a book adapted from a television series…” It is personally signed “Sincerely / Jacqueline Onassis.” The lot is estimated at $1,500-$2,500.
Another significant entry is Lot 293, a Napoleon Bonaparte letter written in secretarial hand is addressed “Ou Ministre de la Republique francaise et helvetie” with the French Republican calendar date “floreil an 8” that corresponds to either May 10 or 11, 1799. The framed letter is hand-signed “Bonaparte” and estimated at $1,000-$1,500.
Waverly Rare Books’ January 16, 2014 auction will begin at 6 p.m. Eastern time. The preview begins on January 11 and continues through and including auction day (see website for hours). The gallery is closed on Sundays.
For information on any lot in the sale, call 703-532-5632 or e-mail monika.schiavo@quinnsauction.com. Visit Waverly Rare Books online at www.quinnsauction.com.
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
‘Polar Bear – Male,’ after J.W. Audubon, color lithograph finished by hand and printed by J.T. Bowen, Philadelphia, 1846. Plate XCL from ‘The Vivaparous Quadrupeds of North America, N.Y., 1845-54. Estimate $1,500-$2,000. Waverly Rare Books image.Charles Dickens 32-volume set with author-signed check. Estimate $1,500-$2,500. Waverly Rare Books image.Bound into Volume 1 of the 32-volume “Writings of Charles Dickens,” a check in the amount of “Thirty One Pounds, Six Shillings and Four Pence” made out to “Mess. Dawson, Newman, & Co.” and signed by Charles Dickens on February 2nd, 1866. Lot estimate: $1,500-$2,500. Waverly Rare Books image.1632 Gerard Mercator Atlas (sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura…Amsterdami) printed by Sumptibus Johannis Cloppenburgii. Estimate $7,000-$10,000. Waverly Rare Books image.1630 Henricus Hondius ‘Nova Viginiae Tabula,’ Amsterdam. Double-page engraved map, derivative of John Smith’s important 1612 Map of Virginia but drawn from Henricus’ by-then-deceased brother Jodocus’ 1618 version. Estimate $900-$1,400. Waverly Rare Books image.Signature of Napoleon Bonaparte as seen on May 1799 letter addressed to the Minister of France and Switzerland. Estimate $1,000-$1,500. Waverly Rare Books image.Group lot of 14 items including both a typed letter and hand-written note (as shown) signed by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. In the note to Elizabeth Smith Brownstein, Onassis references an interview with African-American author Toni Morrison. Lot estimate: $1,500-$2,500. Waverly Rare Books image.
A first English edition, second issue, of Saint-Exupery’s ‘The Little Prince.’ Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Dreweatts & Bloomsbury. NEW YORK (AP) – Antoine de Saint-Exupery crafted The Little Prince in New York City, mentioning Rockefeller Center and Long Island in one draft of the beloved children’s tale – references he ultimately deleted.
That page is contained in the French author’s original handwritten manuscript, which is the subject of a major exhibition at the Morgan Library and Museum celebrating the book’s 1943 publication.
“The Little Prince: A New York Story,” which opens Jan. 24, features 35 of his original watercolors and 25 pages from his heavily revised 140-page text, written in Saint-Exupery’s tiny script.
Some visitors may be surprised to learn that The Little Prince, which has been translated into more than 250 languages and dialects, was written and first published in New York.
“It’s well documented that he wrote the book here, but it’s not well known to the general public,” said Christine Nelson, curator of literary and historical manuscripts at the Morgan.
“Because the manuscript brings you back to the moment of creation, we wanted to set the exhibition in the place and time of creation,” she said. “It focuses on the emergence of this work in New York during the war. He was writing it just within miles of where this exhibition is being shown.”
Saint-Exupery, a French aviator and best-selling author, didn’t live to see his book published in France after the war. He died while piloting a reconnaissance flight in 1944, weeks before the liberation of Paris.
The Little Prince tells the adventures of a boy who hails from a tiny asteroid no larger than a house. On his way to Earth, he visits other planets and meets a king, a conceited man, a drunkard, a lamplighter and a geographer. On Earth, he encounters a fox who teaches him: “What is essential is invisible to the eye.” The phrase is the book’s central theme and one Saint-Exupery revised 15 times, including the version “What matters cannot be seen.”
Saint-Exupery came to New York after France fell to Germany in 1940. He spent two years living near Central Park and Manhattan’s East Side and renting a summer home on Long Island’s North Shore. Frequently, he wrote at the Park Avenue home of his close friend Silvia (Hamilton) Reinhardt. He entrusted his handwritten manuscript to her before he rejoined his squadron in North Africa.
The Morgan acquired the manuscript from her in 1968, the museum said. Saint-Exupery’s French publisher, Gallimard, has just published a facsimile of the working manuscript.
“This is very much a preliminary draft, a work in progress and yet to anyone who knows the book well it will be entirely recognizable,” Nelson said.
Among the exhibition’s highlights is an unpublished drawing that Saint-Exupery had wadded up and tossed showing the prince wearing his signature yellow scarf floating over Earth. Some of the illustrations are paired with images from the first edition.
The pages on view include episodes from the prince’s time on Earth that were deleted entirely from the final version: a meeting with a storekeeper who gives him a lesson on marketing and an encounter with an investor who has a machine that meets every need with just the push of a button.
“He was a very diligent author. He worked, labored, revised, read out loud to people … he was very interested in people’s response to the story,” Nelson said.
There’s also a three-page draft of an alternate ending in which the narrator muses about what happened to the little prince after he left Earth.
“It’s much more agonized and melancholy and reads as a war-time text,” Nelson said. “The final version is more open-ended, more mysterious, leaving it up to the reader to conclude how to feel at the end of the prince’s journey.”
The exhibition also features a silver identity bracelet that Saint-Exupery was wearing when he was killed. It is on loan from Saint-Exupery’s Paris estate.
The bracelet, never before exhibited in the U.S., “was recovered in 1998 after it was snagged in a fisherman’s net and bears the author’s name and the New York address of his American publisher” Reynal & Hitchcock, said Olivier d’Agay, the estate’s director.
The exhibition helps “reinforce the bonds of friendship between the French and the Americans through one of the most beloved books of all time,” he added.
The exhibition runs through April 27.
Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The main branch of the Museum of Contemporary Art on Grand Avenue in Los Angeles. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Museum of Contemporary Art, which struggled for years for financial survival, has quadrupled its endowment to more than $100 million in the past nine months through a fundraising campaign that museum officials say won support from dozens of deep-pocketed Los Angeles arts patrons.
MOCA, which planned to announce the accomplishment Tuesday, said it ensures the long-term survival and independence of one of the country’s pre-eminent public repositories for contemporary art.
“What’s special about MOCA is it is the only museum in LA that’s dedicated solely to collecting and exhibiting contemporary art, and I think our board realized the deep value in having an institution like that,” Maria Seferian, MOCA’s interim director, told The Associated Press on Monday.
The museum, whose collection includes numerous works by such celebrated artists as Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Mark Rothko and Robert Rauschenberg, has struggled for years for financial survival. It was in danger of going under almost six years ago when billionaire financier Eli Broad bailed it out with $30 million.
Last year, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art offered MOCA $100 million if it would merge its two downtown campuses with LACMA’s much larger facilities west of downtown.
MOCA, wanting to remain independent, quickly rejected the idea and instead announced plans in the spring to increase its endowment to $100 million within a year. It reached its goal in a little more than nine months.
“This is an incredible amount of money to be raised in such a short time and it really was broad-based,” Seferian said Monday. “It was not one donor who sweeped in and decided to save the museum. About 30 donors all came together and decided the museum should continue.”
Among the more than two dozen donors that MOCA listed on a statement to be released Tuesday were Broad and his wife, Edythe, and former MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch.
Broad is building his own museum across the street from MOCA’s main campus. Scheduled to open in November, it will house the billionaire’s personal collection of 2,000 works, including pieces by Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Ed Ruscha and others. He told the AP last year he believes his museum, which will offer free admission, will inspire visitors to walk across the street and visit MOCA as well.
Deitch, who resigned last year to return to his New York art gallery, was sometimes a lightning rod for criticism during his three years as MOCA’s director. A gallery owner, art dealer and former art critic with deep ties to artists, he had never run a museum.
A graffiti art exhibition he staged in 2011 featuring the works of Banksy, Shepard Fairey and others attracted record attendance and praise from critics. But some other exhibitions, including one curated by actor James Franco of works inspired by the James Dean film Rebel Without a Cause, were scorned as focusing on Hollywood glitz rather than serious art.
After Deitch ousted the museum’s popular curator Paul Schimmel in 2012, Ruscha and fellow artists John Baldessari, Catherine Opie and Barbara Kruger resigned from MOCA’s board.
Seferian said Monday the four are again actively involved with the museum, helping it search for a permanent director. She and the board’s co-chairman, David Johnson, said an announcement should be made soon.
Meanwhile, the museum has exhibitions scheduled for this year featuring Jacob Hashimoto, Mike Kelley and Magdalena Fernandez, among others.
Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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The main branch of the Museum of Contemporary Art on Grand Avenue in Los Angeles. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Chuck Close photograph of pop artist Robert Rauschenberg, 1998. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Wittlin & Serfer Auctioneers. CAPTIVA ISLAND, Fla. (AP) – Before he died in 2008, pop artist Robert Rauschenberg asked three of his closest friends to oversee his $600 million estate.
In a lawsuit that has dragged on for years with Rauschenberg’s family and charitable foundation, those friends are asking for $60 million in fees as compensation for administering the trust. The case will likely go to trial this year; a hearing will be held in Lee County court on March 31.
At issue is whether the $60 million in fees requested by the trustees is the “reasonable fee” allowed by Florida law.
“Bob Rauschenberg believed the trustees he chose were trustworthy friends who understood that the Rauschenberg Foundation was to be Bob’s crowning achievement and legacy,” said Robert Goldman, the attorney for the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. “The trustees’ demand for $60 million that would otherwise belong to the foundation is a monstrous affront to Bob’s testamentary intent and is not a reasonable trustees’ fee under Florida law.”
Rauschenberg spent the last days of his life at his 35-acre waterfront compound on Captiva, an exclusive and tropical Gulf Coast island.
He died on May 12, 2008, of heart and lung failure, at the age of 82.
The artist, who also had a home in New York City, was famous for his use of odd and everyday articles in his paintings, and his unusual style earned him fame as a pioneer in pop art, along with Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist and Andy Warhol. In the 1950s, Rauschenberg created his “White Paintings,” modular panels which appear at first to be a blank white canvas. He is also known for his “Combines,” which are free-standing, mixed media works.
In the 1960s, he began incorporating photographs into his art – memorably, pictures of John F. Kennedy. He won a 1984 Grammy Award for best album package for the Talking Heads album Speaking in Tongues.
After his death, some of Rauschenberg’s works soared in value. In 2010, one of his “Combine” works – which had been owned by the late author Michael Crichton – sold for $11 million at a Christie’s auction in New York.
Rauschenberg was also an avid philanthropist, and while alive he gave money to children’s charities and environmental causes. In his will, he stated that all of his assets should go into a trust – which was overseen by his friends, the three trustees – and that the primary beneficiary of the trust was the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, which would manage the art and continue to support charities and emerging artists.
“Based upon the increased value of the Rauschenberg art, the Trustees estimate the current value of the Trust assets to exceed $2 billion,” wrote the attorney for the three trustees in a court document dated March 14, 2012.
The trustees are Darryl Pottorf, Rauschenberg’s assistant and companion; Bill Goldston, who was partners with Rauschenberg in an art printing company; and Bennet Grutman, the artist’s accountant.
Attorneys for the trustees couldn’t be reached for comment. But court documents show that the trustees believe they are deserving of the fees because “they have provided extraordinary services that have greatly enhanced the value of the Trust assets,” including reintroducing Rauschenberg’s artwork to the market in a “prudent manner and under a comprehensive plan, resulting in an increase in value and public appreciation.”
The trustees also said they had to deal with copyright issues and analyze complex federal and state tax laws.
Two experts hired by the three men said that trust administration fees based on hourly wages weren’t reasonable.
“While I have yet to form an opinion about the reasonable fees for administration of the trust,” wrote James Myers, a Palm Beach attorney who provided his expert opinion in a court document for the case, “I can state unequivocally that a trustee’s fee based on an hourly rate is not reasonable and is not fair to the trustees and would not be customary under these circumstances.”
One expert hired by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation said the trustees’ fee request is “unconscionable.”
Laird Lile, a Naples, Fla.-based probate and trust attorney who is also on the Board of Governors for the Florida Bar, said in a May 16, 2013, court document that his analysis showed that the three trustees have paid themselves $5.7 million in fees from the trust – a sum Lile called “grossly disproportionate” to the services required of the trustees.
There was no fee agreement between the trustees and the foundation. And the trustees did not keep records of their time served, Lile said, adding that there was little in the way of annual accounting to the foundation.
“The net result of this improper administration is to allow the unbridled expenditure of trust funds with no checks or balances among the three trustees,” Lile said.
Rauschenberg’s son, Christopher Rauschenberg – who is a Seattle-based photographer – said in a statement that his father wanted to help artists and others after he died. The younger Rauschenberg, who is chairman of the board of trustees for the foundation, said that the organization has given grants to cultural institutions, supported artists impacted by Superstorm Sandy and donated more than 100 works of art to museums across the United States. In the fall of 2013, the foundation supported a citywide dialogue on climate change in New York.
“Our goal in this matter is to ensure that my dad’s legacy is protected and that the foundation he created can succeed and make an impact,” Christopher Rauschenberg wrote in the statement. “We do not think his philanthropic intentions should be eroded through the payment of tens of millions of dollars to the people he entrusted to implement his wishes. We are confident that the Florida court will make a ruling that is fair and consistent with my dad’s intent to promote his foundation and better the world.”
Downtown Ephraim, Utah. Image by Ken Lund. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. EPHRAIM, Utah (AP) – A small town in Sanpete County has agreed to pay $60,000 to settle a federal lawsuit over its eviction of an edgy art center from a city-owned building.
The Central Utah Art Center will receive the money from the city of Ephraim under the settlement announced Friday.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports the art center sued after Ephraim cut $30,000 in funding and evicted it from an old grain mill in Pioneer Square in June 2012.
The city argued the art center failed to perform community outreach by rolling out art programs.
But the art center maintained the real issue was censorship and it was evicted for displaying art that was deemed offensive to rural Utah.
Paul Conrad’s ‘Chain Reaction’ sculpture in Santa Monica, Calif. Image by CbI62. It is believed that reproduction for criticism, comment, teaching and scholarship constitutes fair use and does not infringe copyright. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) – A sculpture warning of the horrors of nuclear war is getting its own bid for survival.
Santa Monica City Manager Rod Gould told the Los Angeles Times that he will recommend the city cover potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in restoration costs for Chain Reaction.
The 26-foot-tall sculpture has stood outside the Civic Center of this Los Angeles beach suburb since 1991.
The 5 1/2-ton sculpture features tangled chains in the form of a mushroom cloud. It bears the inscription: “This is a statement of peace. May it never become an epitaph.”
The sculpture, made of copper, steel and fiberglass, was designed by Paul Conrad, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist who died in 2010. He was paid $250,000 by Joan Kroc, the late San Diego philanthropist and widow of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc.
However, the sculpture was slowly eaten away by 21 years of salty ocean air and by people climbing over it. City officials and staff estimated it could cost $200,000 to $400,000 to stabilize and restore the sculpture.
In 2012, the City Council approved removing the sculpture but gave supporters several months to raise funds to save it. The city’s Landmark Commission also voted to designate it as a local landmark.
Local peace activist Jerry Rubin, Conrad’s son, David, and others began a grass-roots campaign to raise funds.
About $40,000 was raised, the city manager said in an email Friday to the Times. “Staff will recommend that council accept the funds and provide general funds to undertake the required structural investigation and restoration work to ensure public safety.”
A City Council vote is scheduled for Feb. 25.
“There has been a tremendous amount of public outpouring of support,” said Councilwoman Gleam Davis. “It makes sense for the council to honor the … hard work that has gone into raising money. This is a landmark, and we need to take care of it.”
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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Paul Conrad’s ‘Chain Reaction’ sculpture in Santa Monica, Calif. Image by CbI62. It is believed that reproduction for criticism, comment, teaching and scholarship constitutes fair use and does not infringe copyright. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.
