Major works of art to be offered at Clars auction Feb. 16

Highlighting the 20th century American paintings category is Theodoros Stamos’ (American/Greek, 1922-1997) ‘Petroglyph’ an oil on Masonite being offered for $30,000-$50,000. Clars Auction Gallery image.

Highlighting the 20th century American paintings category is Theodoros Stamos’ (American/Greek, 1922-1997) ‘Petroglyph’ an oil on Masonite being offered for $30,000-$50,000. Clars Auction Gallery image.

Highlighting the 20th century American paintings category is Theodoros Stamos’ (American/Greek, 1922-1997) ‘Petroglyph’ an oil on Masonite being offered for $30,000-$50,000. Clars Auction Gallery image.

OAKLAND, Calif. – On Sunday, Feb. 16, Clars will host one of the most significant sales in their history. Across the board, all categories will offering exceptional works in fine art, decoratives, furnishings, Asian antiques and art and estate and fine jewelry. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.

Turning first to Fine Art, Clars will offer a monumental work by one of Australia’s most collected, as well as renowned, 20th century contemporary Aboriginal artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (1932-2002). His paintings are held in numerous collections, galleries and museums, including the National Gallery of Australia, the Kelton Foundation and the Royal Collection. Estimated at $200,000-$300,000, Possum Dreaming (1994) is a richly colorful, yet powerful, acrylic “dot painting” on canvas that was inspired by the ancient Aboriginal mythology known as the dreaming, or dreamtime. Dreaming emphasizes a visual interpretation through color, patterns and space of a particular animal’s trails (a possum’s) in relation to the earth and the sun to denote specific times of the day. Combined with strong figurative elements over a highly descriptive background of carefully placed “dots,” the result is both visually spectacular, as well as mesmerizing. The two, handmade painting sticks used by Clifford Possum to create these “dots” will be included in this lot. Furthermore, accompanying the painting is a DVD with documented video footage of the artist displaying, describing, as well as, signing and dating the actual painting Possum Dreaming.

Highlighting the 20th century, American paintings category is Theodoros Stamos’ (American/Greek, 1922-1997), Petroglyph (1947), an oil on Masonite being offered for $30,000-$50,000. Petroglyph is a quintessential example of the artist’s paintings from his time as one of the Irascible Eighteen.

Coming from Joan Brown (1938-1990), a Bay Area Figurative Movement artist, the painting titled Model in Upstairs Studio H2 (1975), is being offered with an estimate of $10,000 to $15,000.

A haunting painting of the famous Blue Dog by the recently deceased New Orleans artist George Rodrigue (1944-2013) will be offered with an estimate of $25,000-$35,000. This rare painting was created in 1991 at the turn of Rodrigue’s career from Louisiana landscapes and commissioned works to only his signature Blue Dog.

European paintings and sculpture, some that have lasted several centuries, will add to the impressive mix of fine art offerings at Clars. Topping off the list is a rare, 17th century painting by Dutch painter, Jan Albertsz Rootius (1615-1674) titled, Portrait of a Young Boy (1666), which is offered at $20,000-$40,000. One of the most impressive, bronzes to be offered at Clars is one after Pierre Lepautre (French, 1660-1744) titled Aeneas Carrying His Father Anchises, with an estimate of $15,000-$20,000. Standing at 41 inches in height, this dramatic sculpture depicts the moment that Aeneas carried his father, the elderly Anchises, and his son Ascancius from Troy after the city had been taken by the Greeks. In the 19th century paintings category, a spectacular example, with impeccable provenance, by German artist Adolf Schreyer (1828-1899) titled The Imperial Courier will be offered at $10,000-$20,000.

Turning to modern Europe, works by Miro, Chagall and Matisse are expected to gather global appeal. L’exile vert (1969) by Joan Miro (Spanish, 1893-1983), is a massive color etching and aquatint with carboundum, estimate: $15,000-$20,000. The Blue Village (Second version) (1974) by Marc Chagall (French/Russian, 1887-1985), is a lithograph in colors on japan paper. This rare edition of one of Chagall’s most important lithographs should easily attain its $20,000-$25,000 estimate. Rounding out the fine art prints section is Le Loup, Plate VI, (1947) by Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954), from his famous Jazz Suite which will be offered at $8,000-$12,000.

Important works by California artists will be leading off the sale. From Society of Six artist William Henry Clapp (1879-1954) his work titled Estuary Home (1937) is estimated at $20,000 to 30,000. Little Home, a lovely oil on board by Maynard Dixon (1875-1946) from 1937 (the same year Dixon married Edith Hamlin in Utah), will be offered at $20,000-$40,000. Two monumental California mountain landscapes will be highlighted, one of which is Sierras with Blue Sky by Edgar Alwin Payne (1883-1947) with an estimate $15,000- $25,000. An equally impressive painting of a snowcapped mountain by Jack Wilkinson Smith (1873-1949) titled Sierra Mountains will also be offered at $10,000-$15,000.

Postwar sculpture will be yet another fine art category of focus at Clars. Two geometric wood sculptures will be offered by the important Brazilian sculptor, Amilcar de Castro (1920-2002). They are estimated to achieve $10,000-$15,000 each. From the Collection of David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg of Chicago, an iconic sculpture titled Sphère-Trame (1962) by French painter and sculptor,François Morellet (b. 1926) will be offered at $8,000 to $12,000.

A large collection of studio glass is highlighted by a three-piece Dante Marioni group estimated at $10,000- $15,000. Tiffany Studios is also represented with a decanter suite ($2,500-$3,500), a candlestick lamp ($1,500-$2,500) and a three-light lily lamp ($3,000-$5,000). Furthering antique lighting will be examples from Wilkinson, Pairpoint and Pittsburg with the highlight being a Williamson (Chicago) leaded glass floor lamp rising on a partial gilt and patinated bronze base estimated at $12,000-$15,000.

Exceptional furniture highlights include a Warren Platner (American, 1916-2006) for Knoll dining suite estimated at $5,000-$7,000. Fine Louis XV-style gilt bronze mounted furniture from a prominent Piedmont, Calif., estate will include marquetry decorated commodes, and a bureau rognon surmounted with a bronze figural sculpture of putti ($5,000-$7,000).

Important ethnographic offerings from a prominent San Francisco estate include an Oron tribe, Nigeria, 19th century, possibly earlier, standing figure, which is estimated at $20,000-$30,000.

There will be 50 plus lots of American, Continental and Southeast Asian silver. There are five hot beverage services including two coin silver suites, one executed in the Neo-Renaissance manner by John William Tucker, San Francisco, circa 1850-1886, weighing over 8 pounds. Another 19th century hollowware suite weighing over 6 pounds of sterling silver is a five-piece coffee and tea service by Tiffany & Co.. Also by Tiffany & Co. is a Victorian-style sterling silver teakettle on stand and a 20-inch-tall trumpet-form vase, circa 1907-1947. A partial sterling flatware service by Tiffany & Co., the multi-motif Olympian pattern is rare and includes 32 pieces weighing at about 4 pounds.

The Asian category will be highlighted by a significant and large collection of Chinese huanghuali furniture from a Reno, Nev., estate with estimates ranging from $1,000-$20,000. The selection includes round corner cabinets, altar tables, armchairs, and various other pieces. In addition to these furniture offerings will be Chinese screens including a Chinese six panel inlaid lacquer screen with various scholar’s items and bouquets of flowers in jade, stone, wood and cloisonné inlay, estimated at $10,000-$20,000. A Qing dynasty cloisonné lacquer four panel screen carved with figural narrative scenes of the life of a boy is estimated at $10,000 -$20,000. Jade items include Ming dynasty jade cups and Qing dynasty belt hooks and toggles. In ceramics, there will be examples of Han dynasty pottery such as a horse and green glaze vessels, Longquan celadon ware, and a variety of enameled porcelain from the Qing dynasty and Republic period.

In the Japanese section, a highlight is a large bronze figure of the Shinto goddess Uzume (Okame) from the Edo period, estimated at $10,000-$20,000 as is a Japanese Haniwa terra-cotta figure of a horse, sixth or seventh century, estimated at $15,000-$25,000.

From Southeast Asia, three Khmer stone carvings from the ninth to the 12th century, consisting of a sandstone head of Vishnu, a sculpture of Shiva and a torso of Um will be offered.

Diamonds and Rolex headline a rich jewelry category. A ring that features a fancy 4.02-carat near colorless yellow diamond and is set in 18K white and yellow gold carries an estimate of $25,000-$40,000. In 14K white gold is a Riviera necklace dripping in diamonds weighting approximately 29.35 carats. This piece is expected to achieve $30,000-$50,000. A Rolex “Prince” duo dial doctor’s 9K yellow gold 1930s wristwatch that is estimated at $4,000-$6,000.

A 2001 Ferrari 360 Modena Spider is expected to zoom away for $90,000 to $100,000.

The auction will begin promptly at 9:30 a.m. Pacific.

Click to view a 1994 video of of artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri discussing and signing his painting, Possum Dreaming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnen_uj8VR4&feature=youtu.be

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

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Highlighting the 20th century American paintings category is Theodoros Stamos’ (American/Greek, 1922-1997) ‘Petroglyph’ an oil on Masonite being offered for $30,000-$50,000. Clars Auction Gallery image.

Highlighting the 20th century American paintings category is Theodoros Stamos’ (American/Greek, 1922-1997) ‘Petroglyph’ an oil on Masonite being offered for $30,000-$50,000. Clars Auction Gallery image.

‘Possum Dreaming,’ estimated at $200,000-$300,000, is a richly colorful, yet powerful, acrylic dot painting by Aboriginal artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (1932-2002). Clars Auction Gallery image.

‘Possum Dreaming,’ estimated at $200,000-$300,000, is a richly colorful, yet powerful, acrylic dot painting by Aboriginal artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (1932-2002). Clars Auction Gallery image.

This painting of the famous Blue Dog by the late New Orleans artist George Rodrigue will be offered with an estimate of $25,000-$35,000. Clars Auction Gallery image.

This painting of the famous Blue Dog by the late New Orleans artist George Rodrigue will be offered with an estimate of $25,000-$35,000. Clars Auction Gallery image.

This rare 17th century painting by Dutch painter Jan Albertsz Rootius (1615-1674) titled ‘Portrait of a Young Boy,’ (1666), comes to the sale with an estimate of $20,000-$40,000. Clars Auction Gallery image.

This rare 17th century painting by Dutch painter Jan Albertsz Rootius (1615-1674) titled ‘Portrait of a Young Boy,’ (1666), comes to the sale with an estimate of $20,000-$40,000. Clars Auction Gallery image.

The large collection of studio glass is highlighted by this three-piece Dante Marioni group, which is estimated at $10,000-$15,000. Clars Auction Gallery image.

The large collection of studio glass is highlighted by this three-piece Dante Marioni group, which is estimated at $10,000-$15,000. Clars Auction Gallery image.

This Chinese six-panel inlaid lacquer screen with various scholar’s items and bouquets of flowers in jade, stone, wood and cloisonné inlay, is estimated at $10,000-$20,000. Clars Auction Gallery image.

This Chinese six-panel inlaid lacquer screen with various scholar’s items and bouquets of flowers in jade, stone, wood and cloisonné inlay, is estimated at $10,000-$20,000. Clars Auction Gallery image.

This 14K white gold Riviera necklace is dripping in diamonds weighing approximately 29.35 carats. This piece is expected to achieve $30,000-$50,000. Clars Auction Gallery image.

This 14K white gold Riviera necklace is dripping in diamonds weighing approximately 29.35 carats. This piece is expected to achieve $30,000-$50,000. Clars Auction Gallery image.

Morphy’s continues Matthews tradition with Feb. 28 Petroliana auction

Spirit Gas globe with distinctive beehive logo, 13.5in lenses, rated 9.5. Estimate $10,000-$15,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Spirit Gas globe with distinctive beehive logo, 13.5in lenses, rated 9.5. Estimate $10,000-$15,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Spirit Gas globe with distinctive beehive logo, 13.5in lenses, rated 9.5. Estimate $10,000-$15,000. Morphy Auctions image.

PEOTONE, Ill. – Collectors won’t need to honk the horn for service at Morphy’s Feb. 28 Petroliana auction – all they’ll need to do is raise their bidding paddles on any of 600 choice lots of antique and vintage gas, oil and automotive-related items. The specialty auction will be held at the Will County Fairgrounds in Peotone, Illinois, two days prior to the popular Chicagoland Petroliana & Advertising Show, which is held at the same venue. It will be the first sale to reflect Morphy’s acquisition of Matthews Auction Company, whose employees are now part of the Morphy Auctions team. As is the case with all of Morphy’s major auctions, Internet live bidding will be provided by LiveAuctioneers.

“Dan Matthews, who founded Matthews Auctions, built a terrific following for petroliana in the Midwest, and his Peotone auction has been credited with playing an important role in the strong attendance at the Chicagoland Petroliana show. We hope to continue building on that success, starting with our February 28th sale under Dan’s supervision,” said Morphy Auctions CEO Dan Morphy.

Encompassing everything from oilcans to porcelain and metal gas and automotive signs and even full-size gas pumps and globes from the filling stations of yesteryear, the auction will also feature a special highlight: Part I of the John Jarvis collection of gas-pump-shape salt and peppers. Produced from the late 1940s through 1960s as premiums for customers, each of the functional dispensers has the name of a gas station on its back. Auction estimates on the diminutive figural sets range from $100-$120, to $1,000 or more for rare examples issued by Humble and Hancock stations.

The sale will open with 16 lots of quart-size oil cans, the best of which is a Golden Flash can estimated at $2,000-$3,000; then move into signs, gas pump globes and a second helping of signs. “My past sales have been heavily sign oriented, since that’s what most collectors want,” said Matthews. “For every globe collector, I’d say there are probably 25 to 50 sign collectors.”

Among the auction’s top signs are a rare, double-sided porcelain sign for Harbor Petroleum Products. It is the first double-sided variation Matthews has ever handled, as well as the nicest one he has ever seen. It carries an estimate of $40,000-$60,000. A Wyeth Tires curved, single-sided porcelain sign with the image of a boy dressed as an early driver inside a stack of tires is expected to make $20,000-$30,000; while an appealing Bruinoil Gasoline (northwest Pa.) tin flange sign graphically emblazoned with a bear emerging from a lake is estimated at $15,000-$25,000. Matthews remarked that any Brunoil signs he had seen in the past were restored, but the one to be auctioned on February 28th is original and the finest example he has ever encountered.

The advertising lineup continues with an Oilzum Motor Oil double-sided tin sign with familiar “Oilzum Man” logo, $5,000-$8,000; and a Mother Penn Motor Oil neon sign with the company’s “motherly” figure at its top, $12,000-$15,000. Approximately 10 tractor signs are entered in the sale, representing such companies as Case, Cletrac and John Deere (neon).

Several automotive signs will be offered, including a particularly nice Hudson Parts & Service sign, with Hudson logo, $4,000-$5,000; an early spoked-wheel Studebaker sign, $1,500-$2,000; and a superb double-sided Cadillac LaSalle Authorized Service sign with lighted hood, $10,000-$15,000. “Back before neon caught on, they would install a hood above a sign and put a light inside it,” Matthews explained. “This is the first one of its type that I’ve sold.”

Gas pump highlights include a Wayne Model 491 “Roman column” 10-gallon visible gas pump, $15,000-$25,000; and a Wayne Model 452 curb pump with twin 5-gallon attachments, $8,000-$12,000.

An attractive Spirit Gas globe with the firm’s distinctive beehive logo leads the 125-lot selection of gas pump globes and is valued at $10,000-$15,000. Another desirable animal-theme logo is seen on the Buffalo Gasoline globe in the sale. Although a single-lens type, the globe’s appealing, uniquely American depiction of a buffalo running in a field should boost its value to $4,000-$5,000.

A new discovery sure to entice collectors is a “Use Grasses Red Hat Gasoline” globe with a star-spangled red hat logo. “This is a very rare item from an early independent company,” Matthews said. “Unfortunately, Standard Oil sued Red Hat over the logo, which they had to change to an Art Deco thunderbird, but the litigation put them out of business.” The Red Hat globe could fetch $6,000-$8,000 at auction.

Although not petroliana related, several vintage cardboard displays, a Victor Records porcelain sign and a jukebox trade sign are included in the auction, as well.

“There won’t be any pain at the pump during this sale,” said Dan Morphy. “Dan Matthews has brought his tradition of offering only the rarest and most desirable petroliana to his new home at Morphy’s. We’re very excited about hosting the February 28th auction and meeting many of the customers who’ve bid in Morphy’s advertising sales over the years but whom we had never had the pleasure of meeting personally. It’s going to be a lot of fun for everyone.”

The Friday, Feb. 28 auction will commence at 10 a.m. Central Time/11 a.m. Eastern Time. For information on any item in the sale, call Dan Matthews tollfree at 877-968-8880 or email matthews@morphyauctions.com. Visit Morphy’s online at www.morphyauctions.com.

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

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

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Spirit Gas globe with distinctive beehive logo, 13.5in lenses, rated 9.5. Estimate $10,000-$15,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Spirit Gas globe with distinctive beehive logo, 13.5in lenses, rated 9.5. Estimate $10,000-$15,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Golden Flash Motor Oil quart can with images of airplanes, cars and boats. Estimate $2,000-$3,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Golden Flash Motor Oil quart can with images of airplanes, cars and boats. Estimate $2,000-$3,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Gas pump globe advertising Grasses Red Hat Gasoline. Estimate $6,000-$8,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Gas pump globe advertising Grasses Red Hat Gasoline. Estimate $6,000-$8,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Harbor Petroleum Products double-sided porcelain sign in superior condition, 39 x 35in. Estimate $40,000-$60,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Harbor Petroleum Products double-sided porcelain sign in superior condition, 39 x 35in. Estimate $40,000-$60,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Brunoil Gasoline tin flange sign with bear image, 14 x 18in. Estimate $15,000-$25,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Brunoil Gasoline tin flange sign with bear image, 14 x 18in. Estimate $15,000-$25,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Cadillac-LaSalle Authorized Service metal sign with hood to accommodate a light, 19 x 24in. Estimate $10,000-$15,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Cadillac-LaSalle Authorized Service metal sign with hood to accommodate a light, 19 x 24in. Estimate $10,000-$15,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Wyeth Tires curved metal sign with image of boy in early driver’s coat, hat and goggles, 22 x 16in. Estimate $20,000-$30,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Wyeth Tires curved metal sign with image of boy in early driver’s coat, hat and goggles, 22 x 16in. Estimate $20,000-$30,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Wayne Model #491 10-gallon ‘Roman column’ visible gas pump with glass cylinder, restored. Estimate $15,000-$25,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Wayne Model #491 10-gallon ‘Roman column’ visible gas pump with glass cylinder, restored. Estimate $15,000-$25,000. Morphy Auctions image.

From the John Jarvis collection of gas station premium salt and pepper shakers, a pair advertising Humble Motor Fuel and ‘Golden,’ 2.75in tall. Estimate $1,500-$2,000. Morphy Auctions image.

From the John Jarvis collection of gas station premium salt and pepper shakers, a pair advertising Humble Motor Fuel and ‘Golden,’ 2.75in tall. Estimate $1,500-$2,000. Morphy Auctions image.

Univ. of Texas’ Harry Ransom Center acquires 21 J.D. Salinger letters

J.D. Salinger (American, 1919-2010) as photographed by Lotte Jacobi on Oct. 11, 1950. Copyright is held by the Lotte Jacobi Collection, The University of New Hampshire. Fair use of commonly used, low-resolution image of the subject, who is not known to have posed for any other publicly distributed pictures after the date of this photograph.
J.D. Salinger (American, 1919-2010) as photographed by Lotte Jacobi on Oct. 11, 1950. Copyright is held by the Lotte Jacobi Collection, The University of New Hampshire. Fair use of commonly used, low-resolution image of the subject, who is not known to have posed for any other publicly distributed pictures after the date of this photograph.
J.D. Salinger (American, 1919-2010) as photographed by Lotte Jacobi on Oct. 11, 1950. Copyright is held by the Lotte Jacobi Collection, The University of New Hampshire. Fair use of commonly used, low-resolution image of the subject, who is not known to have posed for any other publicly distributed pictures after the date of this photograph.

AUSTIN, Texas—The Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, has acquired 21 previously unrecorded and unpublished letters by author J.D. Salinger. The letters are accessible as part of the Ransom Center’s existing Salinger collection, which includes published and unpublished manuscripts, galleys, page proofs and correspondence.

Most of the newly acquired letters are written by Salinger to Ruth Smith Maier, a classmate and friend he met at Ursinus College. Salinger attended Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pa., in the fall of 1938, but he quit midterm and returned to New York City. He and Maier maintained a 40-year correspondence in which Salinger commented on a wide range of topics including his literary ambitions, his writing and his family life. A number of letters offer insight into his evolving attitude toward public exposure and cast light on his decision to withhold new work from public view.

In the earliest letter, the 22-year-old Salinger expresses confidence in his literary gifts: “Oh, but I’m good,” he writes Maier. “It will take time to convince the public, but [it] shall be done.” In later letters Salinger reminisces about his brief time at Ursinus College (“one of the last peaceful or simple or oddly comforting times of my life”) and comments on his second marriage and early fatherhood. Five letters from 1977 and 1978 are written to Ruth Maier’s son, Christopher. In one he offers an explanation for his decision to withhold his writing from the public, explaining “publication tends, for me, at least, to put all work still in progress in dire jeopardy…I distrust the finality of publication.”

The acquisition also includes copies of Ruth Smith Maier’s letters to Salinger and a draft of the first letter Christopher Maier sent the author.

Stephen Enniss, director of the Harry Ransom Center, notes the correspondence will be of particular interest to those who wish to understand Salinger’s withdrawal from public life. He adds, “It also humanizes the author, showing him confronting a range of life-changing events from marriage to fatherhood and his own aging.”

The Ransom Center’s Salinger collection was established in 1968 and has been augmented with subsequent additions over many years. The Ransom Center is one of a handful of institutions that hold original Salinger manuscripts, including Princeton University, Harvard University, the New York Public Library, the Library of Congress and the Morgan Library.

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

J.D. Salinger (American, 1919-2010) as photographed by Lotte Jacobi on Oct. 11, 1950. Copyright is held by the Lotte Jacobi Collection, The University of New Hampshire. Fair use of commonly used, low-resolution image of the subject, who is not known to have posed for any other publicly distributed pictures after the date of this photograph.
J.D. Salinger (American, 1919-2010) as photographed by Lotte Jacobi on Oct. 11, 1950. Copyright is held by the Lotte Jacobi Collection, The University of New Hampshire. Fair use of commonly used, low-resolution image of the subject, who is not known to have posed for any other publicly distributed pictures after the date of this photograph.

News & Views: February 2014

2013 a noteworthy year for Norman Rockwell

This past year was a busy one for Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), the iconic artist whose heartwarming depictions of everyday American life graced the cover of The Saturday Evening Post more than 300 times. First came the news that Rockwell’s 1951 painting Saying Grace had sold at Sotheby’s for a staggering $46 million. It was the most ever paid for a work by the artist. Two other Rockwells also did well in the auction: The Gossips, done in 1948 ($8.45 million) and Walking to Church, from 1953 ($3.245 million).

But another piece of news wasn’t so celebratory. In November, a biography of Rockwell, written by Deborah Solomon and titled American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell, was released. In the book, Solomon suggested that Rockwell was lonely, moody, depressed and a closeted homosexual. In a retaliatory statement, the Rockwell Family Agency said it had found at least 96 factual errors in the book. But the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass., the artist’s hometown, officially endorsed the book.

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NYC museum exhibit traces graffiti art’s move to mainstream

Howard the Duck by Lee Quiñones, 1988, oil on canvas, 58x88 inches. A vivid oil painting of the artist’s massive handball court mural, created 10 years earlier and since destroyed, at Corlears Junior High School on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York.
Howard the Duck by Lee Quiñones, 1988, oil on canvas, 58x88 inches. A vivid oil painting of the artist’s massive handball court mural, created 10 years earlier and since destroyed, at Corlears Junior High School on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York.
Howard the Duck by Lee Quiñones, 1988, oil on canvas, 58×88 inches. A vivid oil painting of the artist’s massive handball court mural, created 10 years earlier and since destroyed, at Corlears Junior High School on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York.

NEW YORK (AP) – Spray-painted at night on a Lower East Side handball court, the Howard the Duck mural showed the comic book character peeking from behind a trash can with the words: “Graffiti is a art, And if art is a crime, Let God forgive all.”

That 1978 work helped propel the illicit graffiti art movement out of the subway and into the mainstream. So it’s only fitting that a canvas recreation of that mural (the original was painted over around 1988) is a part of a major exhibition on graffiti art that opened Tuesday at the Museum of the City of New York.

“It was the shot heard around the world,” said its creator Lee Quinones, also known by his tag LEE. “This was a movement that needed a visual manifesto. I wanted to bring that conversation that was so elusive in the subways above ground, to a context almost similar to a museum.”

Only 18 at the time, Quinones became known among his generation for covering a 10-car subway train. He and an artist named Fab 5 Freddy were among the first to earn gallery recognition with a 1979 exhibition in Rome.

What makes the New York “City as Canvas” exhibition unique is that it focuses only on works from the city that were collected over the years by East Village artist Martin Wong, who befriended and mentored many of the graffiti artists, including Quinones, and promoted their once-renegade art form. Wong’s collection of more than 300 such works was donated to the Museum of the City of New York before his death in 1999.

About 150 are in the exhibition, which runs through Aug. 24. In addition to the Howard the Duck oil canvas, which Quinones made for Wong, other highlights include a compilation of ink-drawn tags collected by Wicked Gary, founder of the first graffiti writing club, the Ex-Vandals, and a member of a collective of writers called the United Graffiti Artists who were the first to exhibit their work in a gallery setting.

Graffiti exploded in New York in the 1970s because of the subway – an expansive canvas for the young renegade artists. The seminal 1983 documentary Style Wars and other media attention contributed to its spread beyond New York.

But only a handful of the largely teenage graffiti artists were “doing what we would call masterpieces, blanketing whole sides of trains,” said the exhibit’s curator, Sean Corcoran. They included DAZE (Chris Ellis), CRASH (John Matos), FUTURA 2000 (Leonard Hilton McGurr) and LEE – all successful artists today – who succeeded in connecting the subculture to a broader audience by virtue of their artistic talent.

Wong “had the foresight to scoop all this stuff up when no one else in New York was thinking about it seriously,” said Sacha Jenkins, a writer and filmmaker who has written extensively on the graffiti movement.

As evidence of graffiti’s growing credibility as an art form, Corcoran pointed to the public interest in the elusive British street artist Banksy and the outcry over the recent white-wash of a New York City’s mecca to aerosol art known as 5Pointz.

“Graffiti-influenced art is on the verge of a new breakthrough,” Quinones said. “We’re on the crest of the wave. There’s a number of artists, and not necessarily those who painted on subways” who are embracing the style and being signed by blue-chip galleries.

Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-02-03-14 1630GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Howard the Duck by Lee Quiñones, 1988, oil on canvas, 58x88 inches. A vivid oil painting of the artist’s massive handball court mural, created 10 years earlier and since destroyed, at Corlears Junior High School on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York.
Howard the Duck by Lee Quiñones, 1988, oil on canvas, 58×88 inches. A vivid oil painting of the artist’s massive handball court mural, created 10 years earlier and since destroyed, at Corlears Junior High School on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York.

Mary Todd Lincoln handkerchiefs given to Tenn. museum

A portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln taken in 1861 by Mathew Brady. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

A portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln taken in 1861 by Mathew Brady. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
A portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln taken in 1861 by Mathew Brady. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
HARROGATE, Tenn. (AP) – Two handkerchiefs once owned by Mary Todd Lincoln have been given to a museum at Lincoln Memorial University.

The handkerchiefs will be on exhibit at the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum in Harrogate in the fall.

The silk and cotton handkerchiefs are monogrammed with the initials “ML,” The News Sentinel reports.

Mary Lincoln would have used the items before her husband was assassinated, because they are not bordered in black, said museum curator Steven M. Wilson. He said the items date between 1858 and 1864.

“Every artifact is in essence a clue about the character of Mary Todd Lincoln or Abraham Lincoln,” said Wilson. “And even small things like this bring us closer to a personal individual rather than an icon lost in history.”

The museum, which is in northeast Tennessee near the Kentucky border, doesn’t own other clothing that belonged to Mary Todd Lincoln, Wilson said.

Lincoln Memorial alumnus Randy Bumgardner donated the articles to the museum, after buying them in a 2010 auction. Bumgardner is general manager of the Blair House, the president’s Washington, D.C., guesthouse.

The handkerchiefs will go on display with a coffee and hot chocolate china set used by the Lincolns. The exhibit will also include handkerchief owned by Abraham Lincoln.

___

Information from: Knoxville News Sentinel, http://www.knoxnews.com

Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-02-01-14 2219GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

A portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln taken in 1861 by Mathew Brady. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
A portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln taken in 1861 by Mathew Brady. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Met to unveil rare French ceramics from Ellison Collection

Metropolitan Museum of Art poster publicizing the exhibition 'Making Pottery Art: The Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection of French Ceramics (ca. 1880-1910), which will run from Feb. 4-Aug. 18, 2014. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Metropolitan Museum of Art poster publicizing the exhibition 'Making Pottery Art: The Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection of French Ceramics (ca. 1880-1910), which will run from Feb. 4-Aug. 18, 2014. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Metropolitan Museum of Art poster publicizing the exhibition ‘Making Pottery Art: The Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection of French Ceramics (ca. 1880-1910), which will run from Feb. 4-Aug. 18, 2014. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
NEW YORK – Making Pottery Art: The Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection of French Ceramics (ca. 1880-1910) celebrates the recent acquisition of Robert Ellison’s European art pottery collection by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The majority of the 40 works on display are examples of French pottery and porcelain, and they are shown with comparative examples drawn from the Museum’s holdings of Asian art, European sculpture and decorative arts, Greek and Roman art, and European paintings to illustrate sources of inspiration.

French ceramics from Ellison’s collection of European art pottery collection include vases made by potters in the years around 1900 that pushed the boundaries of the medium and were technically experimental and aesthetically ambitious. Works by master ceramicists Ernest Chaplet, Auguste Delaherche, Pierre-Adrien Dalpayrat, and Jean Carriès are highlights of the installation. The installation also includes the monumental Vase des Binelles by Hector Guimard (who is most well-known for his Art Nouveau Métro stations throughout Paris) and an extremely rare ceramic vessel by Paul Gauguin, the first by the artist to enter the Metropolitan Museum’s collection.

Determined that pottery vessels should be regarded as true works of art, avant–garde ceramicists in France in the last decades of the 19th century transformed their craft into an intellectual and emotional endeavor. The pioneers of this revival were Jean Carriès, Ernest Chaplet, Théodore Deck, and Auguste Delaherche. These revolutionary artist-potters embraced artisanal traditions while pursuing lost techniques through exhaustive experimentation. Reacting to what they viewed as excessive and improper use of ornament, they celebrated the simplicity and sincerity of their medium, following the tenets of the Art Nouveau style taking place in Europe. Based on the principles of the British Arts and Crafts movement, Art Nouveau artists sought to reform the decorative arts by emphasizing uniqueness and a return to craftsmanship. Artist-potters found inspiration in Asian ceramics, particularly Japanese stoneware (a hard, dense type of pottery), as well as in the forms, glazes, and techniques of Chinese porcelain and pottery. They also looked to European traditions such as the rustic salt-glazed stoneware of the 16th and 17th centuries and Gothic sculpture and architecture. In the process they created works of ceramic art that were entirely modern and new.

The Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection of European Art Pottery:

Robert A. Ellison Jr. has been collecting pottery since the 1960s. His collection of American art pottery came to the Metropolitan Museum as a promised gift in 2009 and is currently on view in the American Wing. For his collection of outstanding European ceramics, Mr. Ellison has sought the highest-quality examples—typically on a monumental scale—by the greatest artist-potters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries to tell the narrative of the art pottery movement in Europe, especially France. In June 2013 the Metropolitan Museum acquired 76 examples of European art pottery from the Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection, 54 of which were generously donated. These Continental and British ceramics, dating from 1867 to the 1930s, were acquired jointly by the departments of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts and Modern and Contemporary Art. The arrival of these works from The Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection of European Art Pottery represents another ceramics milestone in the Metropolitan Museum’s history.

Exhibition Credits:

The installation is organized by Elizabeth Sullivan, Research Associate, with the support of Jeffrey Munger, Curator, both of the Metropolitan Museum’s European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Department.

For additional information, visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art online at www.metmuseum.org.

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ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Metropolitan Museum of Art poster publicizing the exhibition 'Making Pottery Art: The Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection of French Ceramics (ca. 1880-1910), which will run from Feb. 4-Aug. 18, 2014. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Metropolitan Museum of Art poster publicizing the exhibition ‘Making Pottery Art: The Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection of French Ceramics (ca. 1880-1910), which will run from Feb. 4-Aug. 18, 2014. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
'Vessel with Women and Goats,' French (Paris), ca. 1886-87, stoneware, 7 7/8 × 4 5/8 × 4 3/8 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection, Purchase, Acquisitions Fund; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; and 2011 Benefit Fund, 2013.
‘Vessel with Women and Goats,’ French (Paris), ca. 1886-87, stoneware, 7 7/8 × 4 5/8 × 4 3/8 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection, Purchase, Acquisitions Fund; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; and 2011 Benefit Fund, 2013.
Pierre-Adriene Dalpayrat (French, 1844–1910), 'Vase with Face,' maker: Alphone Voisin-Delacroix (Swiss, 1857–1893), French (Bourg), 1892-93, stoneware, 25 1/2 × 16 7/8 × 16 in., 36 lb. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection, Purchase, Acquisitions Fund; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; and 2011 Benefit Fund, 2013.
Pierre-Adriene Dalpayrat (French, 1844–1910), ‘Vase with Face,’ maker: Alphone Voisin-Delacroix (Swiss, 1857–1893), French (Bourg), 1892-93, stoneware, 25 1/2 × 16 7/8 × 16 in., 36 lb. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection, Purchase, Acquisitions Fund; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; and 2011 Benefit Fund, 2013.

Milwaukee museum features folk art in America exhibit

American 'The Newsboy,' 1888, carved, assembled and painted wood with folded tin 42 x 20 x 11 in., Milwaukee Art Museum, The Michael and Julie Hall Collection of American Folk Art M1989.125 Photo credit John Nienhuis.

American 'The Newsboy,' 1888, carved, assembled and painted wood with folded tin 42 x 20 x 11 in., Milwaukee Art Museum, The Michael and Julie Hall Collection of American Folk Art M1989.125 Photo credit John Nienhuis.
American ‘The Newsboy,’ 1888, carved, assembled and painted wood with folded tin 42 x 20 x 11 in., Milwaukee Art Museum, The Michael and Julie Hall Collection of American Folk Art M1989.125 Photo credit John Nienhuis.
MILWAUKEE (AP) – The Milwaukee Art Museum is showcasing nearly 600 pieces of folk art in a new exhibition.

The exhibit is called “Uncommon Folk: Traditions in American Art.” It features paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography, textiles, furniture, and decorative arts from its own collection.

Among the artists represented are Grandma Moses, Edgar Tolson, Felipe Archuleta, Howard Finster, Sister Gertrude Morgan and Morris Hirshfield.

The exhibition will also highlight several Wisconsin artists including Prophet Blackmon, Josephus Farmer, Michael Lenk and Albert Zahn.

Exhibition curator Margaret Andera says some works were created within the cultural traditions of a particular geographic area and others are rooted in the function of an object, such as duck decoys.

It runs through May 4.

Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-02-02-14 1944GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

American 'The Newsboy,' 1888, carved, assembled and painted wood with folded tin 42 x 20 x 11 in., Milwaukee Art Museum, The Michael and Julie Hall Collection of American Folk Art M1989.125 Photo credit John Nienhuis.
American ‘The Newsboy,’ 1888, carved, assembled and painted wood with folded tin 42 x 20 x 11 in., Milwaukee Art Museum, The Michael and Julie Hall Collection of American Folk Art M1989.125 Photo credit John Nienhuis.

Alberto Giacometti exhibit explores power of human body

Alberto Giacometti, 'L'Homme qui marche I,' 1960, INV0314, bronze, epreuve de la Fondation Maeght, fonte de 1963, Susse Fondeur, 183 x 26 x 95.5 cm. Collection Fondation Aime et Marguerite Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence (France). Photos Claude Germain - Archives Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence (France) AGD 1448. Copyright Alberto Giacometti Estate / by SIAE in Italy.
Alberto Giacometti, 'L'Homme qui marche I,' 1960, INV0314, bronze, epreuve de la Fondation Maeght, fonte de 1963, Susse Fondeur, 183 x 26 x 95.5 cm. Collection Fondation Aime et Marguerite Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence (France). Photos Claude Germain - Archives Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence (France) AGD 1448. Copyright Alberto Giacometti Estate / by SIAE in Italy.
Alberto Giacometti, ‘L’Homme qui marche I,’ 1960, INV0314, bronze, epreuve de la Fondation Maeght, fonte de 1963, Susse Fondeur, 183 x 26 x 95.5 cm. Collection Fondation Aime et Marguerite Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence (France). Photos Claude Germain – Archives Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence (France) AGD 1448. Copyright Alberto Giacometti Estate / by SIAE in Italy.

ROME (AFP) – The striking, skeletal forms of Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti are juxtaposed with corpulent neo-classical and baroque Italian masterpieces in a new exhibition in Rome exploring the evocative power of the human body.

Forty Giacometti gems, including his famous spindly Walking Man in bronze, have been scattered around the permanent collection at the Villa Borghese Gallery in the Italian capital, dotted in among classics such as Bernini’s David or Canova’s Pauline Borghese.

The contrast is dramatic: the Swiss sculptor’s works are emblems of fragility, the bones left after the artist has dug flesh and soul away, while the Italian creations draw wonder for their exquisite depiction of flesh – muscles rippling, fingers appearing to leave marks on soft skin.

His 1929 Reclining Woman Who Dreams and 1950 Man Falling steal away the gazes of viewers from weighty masterpieces such as Bernini’s harrowing 1625 Apollo and Daphne.

“This is not a competition between the statues, but the chance to look how they differ and what they have in common, notably the representation of the human being, the body,” Anna Coliva, the museum’s director, told AFP.

The exhibition’s curator, Christian Klemm, a world expert on the Swiss sculptor, said that Giacometti was “one of the rare modern sculptors to have a very thought-out relationship with the past,” in particular with the ancient Egyptians and their “very stylized, frontal, almost-symmetrical form.”

It was during a grand tour in Italy in 1920 and 1921, from Venice and Rome to Naples and Pompei, that Giacometti had his first encounter with neoclassical and baroque art – to which he added a trip to the Egyptian museum in Florence as well.

But, according to Coliva, he quickly understood “the painful impossibility” for modern art to represent humans in a monumental fashion.

Giacometti (1901-1966) created his first Man Walking piece in 1946, as a monument in Paris to the victims of the Nazis.

The series of differing Man Walking statues which would follow recall “Egyptians coming out of a tomb,” according to Klemm, who said they evoke a sense of great strength despite their feeble forms.

But Giacometti did not slim his figures down just to represent war horrors. He was influenced by existentialism while working in Paris between the two World Wars, and it helped him capture the suffering condition of modern man.

Compared with the opulence and grandeur of the Renaissance, baroque and neoclassical works that surround them, Giacometti’s creations blaze with an inner energy.

“Some of Giacometti’s works on show here are over three meters tall, and yet they seem almost transparent compared to the classical statues that surround them,” Coliva said.

“Giacometti, Sculpture” runs at the Villa Borghese Gallery in Rome from Feb. 5 to May 25.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Alberto Giacometti, 'L'Homme qui marche I,' 1960, INV0314, bronze, epreuve de la Fondation Maeght, fonte de 1963, Susse Fondeur, 183 x 26 x 95.5 cm. Collection Fondation Aime et Marguerite Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence (France). Photos Claude Germain - Archives Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence (France) AGD 1448. Copyright Alberto Giacometti Estate / by SIAE in Italy.
Alberto Giacometti, ‘L’Homme qui marche I,’ 1960, INV0314, bronze, epreuve de la Fondation Maeght, fonte de 1963, Susse Fondeur, 183 x 26 x 95.5 cm. Collection Fondation Aime et Marguerite Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence (France). Photos Claude Germain – Archives Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence (France) AGD 1448. Copyright Alberto Giacometti Estate / by SIAE in Italy.