September 15, 2014 - Auction Central News

Jewelry, luxury goods from Princeton’s Silver Shop in Oct. 11-12 auction

Lepine gold and platinum ladies pocket watch with rose-cut diamond and rubies. From The Silver Store, Princeton, New Jersey. Material Culture image

PHILA., Pa. – Since 1937, The Silver Shop in Princeton, New Jersey, has catered to a selective clientele that included not only blue-blooded Princetonians but also celebrities, politicians and design luminaries from around the world. America’s oldest retail silver specialist in continuous operation, The Silver Shop was the sort of quietly elite establishment where, in its earlier days, one might bump into Sir Laurence Olivier, Albert Einstein or members of the Guggenheim family browsing the upscale wares. Later, it became a favored gift emporium for numerous New Jersey governors, and tastemakers like Frank Gehry, Martha Stewart and Michael Graves. The Silver Shop also welcomed among its high-profile guests Bruce Springsteen, who would purchase gifts for his mother; and Brooke Shields, who actually lived above the shop while a student at Princeton.

After 77 years and four devoted owners, The Silver Shop has now closed its hallowed doors in tree-lined Palmer Square, and its entire contents, including its custom-made mirrored showcases, are being sent to auction. Material Culture of Philadelphia has been chosen to handle the dispersal of goods and fixtures, which it will do over two weekends: Sept. 27-28 and October 11-12. Each of the auctions will be held at Material Culture’s spacious Philadelphia gallery, following a two-day preview period. There will also be a special preview and reception at Princeton’s Academy of the Sacred Heart, Sept. 22.

During the Art Deco era, when The Silver Shop was founded, nearly every upscale city in America had one store that was regarded as the most exclusive place to go for fine silver, exquisite jewelry and objets de vertu, explained Material Culture’s founder and owner George Jevremovic. “But over time, with the retail flight to suburban shopping malls, those sorts of establishments closed, one by one. The Silver Shop would have closed in 2000, had it not been for its fourth owner, Salvatore Pitts, who stepped in at the last minute to rescue it,” Jevremovic said. “Now the shop will become part of Princeton’s remarkable history, because Mr. Pitts has decided to retire and spend his time traveling.”

As one might imagine, a luxe array of antique silver will serve as the centerpiece of both the October and November auctions. Among the highlights are a sterling silver magnum chiller created by the Howard Silver Company of New York specifically to ring in the 20th century, as well as dozens of superb Tiffany designs, including a boxed sterling silver cocktail shaker with eight goblets. Other prized silver pieces include 10 Japanese tumblers of .950 silver, a set of eight J.E. Caldwell Art Deco cordials, a 19th-century sterling silver wedding basket, his and her toast racks made by the Birmingham Silver Company, egg servers, large tazzae compotes on gilded four-column pedestals, and designs by Sheibler and Cartier. Devotional objects of antique silver include Russian-style repousse silver icons rendered by Henryk Winograd, and a dated 1896 Russian silver cross by Anatoly Andropovic.

The inventory also features hand-wrought modernist and 20th-century silver, many by the foremost artists and designers for the last century. A “Circa 70” silver and ebony 4-piece tea and coffee service with a tray, by American artist Donald Colflesh (b. 1932-), dates to around 1958. Master metalsmith John Axel Prip (American, 1922-2009) is represented by an onion-form 3-piece tea set crafted for Reed and Barton. Georg Jensen designs include a pyramid-shape Art Deco teapot with the old “GJ” mark, by Danish draftsman Harald Nielsen (1892-1977); pieces from the collection of Jensen master silversmith Hans Christensen (1924-1983), and an ebony coffee and tea service by Italian silversmith Alphonse LaPaglia (1907-1953). Other notable lots include a 3-piece tea set by American designer Lurelle Guild (1898-1985), a full Buccellati flatware service in the Borgia pattern, and a pair of stunning Cartier hand-wrought vases with gold-washed interior. Other silver makers whose works will be auctioned include Allan Adler (1916-2002), Alfredo Sciarrotta (1907-1985), Karl Leinonen and Chicago silversmiths J. Myer Lebolt, Julius O. Randahl and the Kalo Shop.

Additional highlights include a life-size silver skull, a solid Italian silver wild boar mounted on a marble plinth, a Franz Hagenauer (Austrian, 1906-1986) bronze, paint and wood sculpture of a weightlifter, an Italian Fascist-period silver bowl, and an exceptional pair of 3-arm candelabra made of silver and ebony by Gorham.

Salvatore Pitts bought The Silver Shop after its previous owner, Arthur Colletti, passed away. Colletti also owned the renowned Pompey Collection of French porcelain and the Sable Collection of American porcelain. The majority of Colletti’s porcelain holdings were sold at Christie’s in May 2002 for world-record prices, but the portion he had retained for himself conveyed with the sale of the shop to Pitts and will be included in Material Culture’s auction inventory.

The selection of antique porcelain is led by a tall 19th-century Belleek tankard, a set of 12 painted Belleek cider mugs, a large group of Princeton transferware plates, and an original set of 19th-century Lenox Exhibition Plates from the original Lenox showroom. Other phases of Lenox porcelain are reflected by works from Willets, Willets Belleek, and Ceramic Art Company of Trenton, with many rare and one-off pieces by artists such as Nosek and Morley.

A trove of jewelry includes hundreds of pieces of hand-made antique, vintage and modern jewelry spectacular works by Alphonse Mucha, Gustav Munz, and Georg Jensen. Many of the Jensen designs are adorned with hard stones and were created in the Danish master’s lifetime.

The contents and showcases from The Silver Shop of Princeton, N.J. will be auctioned over the weekends of Sept. 27-28 and Oct. 11-12, 2014 at the Material Culture gallery, 4700 Wissahickon Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19144. Each auction session will commence at 11 a.m. Eastern Time. Preview on the Thursday and Friday immediately prior to auction weekend, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. All forms of bidding will be available, including absentee or live via the Internet through www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

A special auction preview and reception will be held in Princeton at the Academy of the Sacred Heart on Monday, Sept. 22, from 5-8 p.m., with refreshments served. All auction items will be on view and available for inspection before moving to Material Culture’s gallery.

For additional information on any item in the auction, to arrange for a phone line or to leave an absentee bid, call 215-438-4700 or email auctions@materialculture.com. Visit Material Culture’s website at www.materialculture.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

Lepine gold and platinum ladies pocket watch with rose-cut diamond and rubies. From The Silver Shop, Princeton, New Jersey. Material Culture image

12-pint sterling silver magnum chiller created by the Howard Silver Company of New York expressly to ring in the 20th century. Material Culture image

Handmade studio pendant with Janus-style motif comprising two faces, crafted in high-karat gold by Gustav Munz. Material Culture image

Tiffany & Co. sterling silver cocktail service consisting of cocktail shaker with strainer and jigger cap, marked 2 Pints, 22422 L; and eight matching goblets marked 18885 L. Set comes with original fitted box. Material Culture image

A ‘Circa 70’ silver and ebony four-piece tea and coffee service with tray, by American artist Donald Colflesh (b. 1932-), dates to circa 1958. Material Culture image

Franz Hagenauer sculpture of a weightlifter. Size: 13in x 7.75in x 1.5in; bronze, paint, wood. Material Culture image

Henryk Winograd pure silver Russian icon, marked HW999. Size: 8.5in x 7in. Material Culture image

Set of 12 Lenox Orchid plates by J. Nosek. Material Culture image

Buccellati flatware service for 6 in the Borgia pattern. Material Culture image

Archival postcards of The Shops on Palmer Square in Princeton, N.J., including The Silver Shop (second from right, with green shutters), which was the first establishment on the square, opening in 1937. Image provided by Material Culture

Museum to return loaned material to Maurice Sendak estate

Poster signed by Maurice Sendak. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com archive and PBA Galleries.

PHILA., Pa. (AP) – A small Philadelphia museum that houses more than 10,000 pieces by illustrator Maurice Sendak will be returning most of the collection to the author’s estate.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports trustees for Sendak’s foundation are reclaiming the artwork based on instructions in his will. He died in 2012.

Sendak is best known for his classic book Where the Wild Things Are. He had a decades-long relationship with the Rosenbach museum and library in Philadelphia.

But Sendak wanted his home in Ridgefield, Conn., to be operated as a museum. Rosenbach officials say his artwork, manuscripts and other ephemera will be sent back starting next month.

The Rosenbach will retain about 600 Sendak pieces. The author also left the institution rare editions of books by Herman Melville and Henry James.

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Information from: The Philadelphia Inquirer, http://www.inquirer.com

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Ceramics Collector: Christopher Haun, patriot potter

The pottery prize of the Case auction was this rare ring bottle by Christopher Alexander Haun (1821-1861), which sold for $30,680. The important example of East Tennessee pottery is headed for MESDA in Winston-Salem, N.C., where it will go on display in October 2015. Image courtesy Case Antiques.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – In America’s early history, skilled artisans supplied consumers’ demand for utilitarian and luxury goods to fill their homes. While making the objects we cherish as antiques today, these craftsmen – potters, cabinetmakers, silversmiths and glassblowers – were also the backbone of our young democracy. They stepped out of their workshops to vote, enlist as soldiers, and run for local office. The best known example of the active artisan/citizen is probably Revolutionary patriot Paul Revere.

In July, a superb earthenware ring bottle marked “Haun” sold for $30,680 (est. $16,000-$18,000) at a Case Antiques estate auction in Knoxville, Tenn. As fresh as the day it was made, the form was glazed in a bright snake green produced by copper oxide and covered in complex impressed patterns. Purchased with a purpose in mind, the unusual form is headed for the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem, N.C., where it will go on display in the William C. and Susan S. Mariner Southern Ceramics Gallery scheduled to open in October 2015.

The maker’s mark is that of Christopher Alexander Haun (1821-1861), another artisan with an interesting history of leaving his workshop to fight for what he believed in. Case is well-known for its finds in the field of regional painting, furniture and decorative arts. The ring bottle turned up at a local appraisal fair and was consigned by a family who had carefully preserved it because they knew it had a connection to the Civil War. Catalog entries at the firm frequently go beyond aesthetic description to make important contributions to our understanding of the historical background of the objects.

Christopher Haun belonged to a related group of potters in Greene County, which also included other established makers such as William Hinshaw and J.A. Low as well his younger brother Lewis Haun. Like many people in eastern Tennessee, Haun was strongly Union in his sympathies when the Civil War began. Several potters were among the raiding party who burned a Confederate railroad bridge at Lick Creek, an act for which five men including Haun were executed in 1861.

He wrote a letter to his wife from a Knoxville jail telling her to contact his potter friends about finishing off his current wares and then to sell the equipment in his workshop. John Case credits East Tennessee pottery expert Carole Wahler for her detailed research on the craftsman which has led to a better understanding of his work; an entry on the Haun Pottery appears on her website www.cwahlerantiques.com.

Case stresses the importance of Haun and his work: “We’re talking about this extraordinary potter, who I think is one of the finest potters of the 19th century. In a few short years, a number of pieces have surfaced that would be considered masterpieces of the ceramic art.” He stresses that only recently have these facts about Haun’s life and career emerged to provide a background for his beautifully crafted pots. In May 2010, the auction house sold a rare pitcher decorated in lead glaze with manganese or iron oxide loop designs for $9,988 (est. $3,500-$4,500). In the fall that year, they offered a well-shaped redware jar covered in cream slip and decorated with a bold green loop pattern that brought $36,800. Both were marked “C.A. Haun.”

The circular form of the ring bottle allowed it to be tied to a saddle or hooked over an arm for carrying. After the auction, Case noted that this was the only known example of the form from the Haun pottery works: “And I’m afraid it will be for the future – it’s unbelievably rare. This green bottle is so elegant in form and perfectly crafted. It was difficult to make these ring bottles; two halves of clay had to be joined at a seam so the section is perfectly circular. On top of that, he ran a band around the outer circumference and then added the stamps – surely he was showing off. I don’t know of a finer example in the South or in the North. And it’s redware on top of which he put down these amazing glazes of lead and copper oxide; you can’t really do that with stoneware. It looks like it was made two weeks ago.” Collectors attending next February’s Williamsburg Antiques Forum can look forward to a lecture on Haun and his pottery by John Case.

Skillful execution and excellent condition naturally led to the purchase of the Haun rarity as an important exhibit for the new gallery planned for MESDA. Robert Leath, chief curator and vice president, collections & research, at Old Salem Museums & Gardens wrote: “With the addition of the ring bottle to the Mariner Collection, we are delighted that both he and his pottery will be represented in the Mariner Gallery when it opens next year in October 2015.”

A recent MESDA announcement about the gallery noted that the installation “will be the first permanent museum gallery of its kind devoted solely to early southern pottery, combining masterpieces from both the museum’s public and the Mariners’ private collections. … Together, these objects will tell a more complete story of the southern ceramics traditions and how it evolved from the early 18th century to the mid-19th century than has ever been told before, detailing the lives of individual potters from Duche to Aust to Chandler, and all the major centers of southern ceramics production from Baltimore to Edgefield to western Tennessee.”

Currently, Case presents two large estate auctions a year at their headquarters in the historic Cherokee Mills building in Knoxville. The next major auction will be held in Jan. 24. For more information visit www.caseantiques.com.

To follow the activities of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts and the Old Salem Museums and Gardens, visit www.mesda.org. On Oct. 23-25, the eighth biennial MESDA Conference with presentations on Southern material culture and decorative arts will be held at the Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort.

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

The potting skill of Christopher Haun can be clearly seen in the graceful shape of this 13-inch high jar with attached loop handles. The jar, covered with cream slip decorated with an abstract design in green, sold for $36,800 four years ago. Courtesy Case Antiques

The stamped mark of C.A. Haun appears on the jar’s shoulder underneath a splash of copper oxide glaze. Image courtesy Case Antiques.

Although missing its handle, the redware pitcher clearly bears the stamp of C.A. Haun by the compass star on the upper rim; the lot brought $9,988 at Case in 2010. Image courtesy Case Antiques.

John Case shows off the perfect condition and circular form of the Haun ring bottle. An elaborate impressed pattern enlivens the vessel’s green-glazed surface. Image courtesy Case Antiques.

This decorated lead-glazed earthenware dish attributed to Gottfried Aust of Salem, N.C., circa 1775-1785, will be another exhibit in the new Mariner Gallery at MESDA. Image courtesy Old Salem Museums and Gardens.

Destined for display in the Mariner Gallery, this simple crock bears the signature “Mary Adams” and was made 1810-1830 in Hagerstown, Md. This is the earliest signature of a female potter on a Southern piece. Adams was the daughter of potter Jonas Knode and widow of potter Henry Adams. Image courtesy Old Salem Museums and Gardens.

‘Hidden Treasures of Rome’ university project begins in Missouri

A University of Missouri researcher studies an Ancient Roman artifact. Photo by Nic Benner

COLUMBIA, Mo. — For more than a century, hundreds of thousands of historical artifacts dating back to before the founding of Rome have been stored in crates in the Capitoline Museums of Rome, where they have remained mostly untouched. Now, the City of Rome; the Capitoline Museums, the first public museum in the world; and Enel Green Power North America, a leading renewable energy company; have started a project, known as “The Hidden Treasure of Rome,” which will bring those artifacts into the laboratories of U.S. universities to be studied, restored, categorized and catalogued. The University of Missouri is the first university selected for this project.

“This agreement represents a significant advance in understanding our cultural heritage and our shared human past,” MU Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin said. “It recognizes the unique expertise and resources at the University of Missouri. We are both proud and humbled to be selected by the Capitoline Museums and the City of Rome to inaugurate this major international initiative, bringing together the oldest American public university west of the Mississippi with the oldest public museum in the world. We recognize the enormous responsibilities and also the incredible opportunities for discoveries that result from this partnership.”

“We are excited to officially launch in the United States this new and innovative cultural project made possible thanks to the support of our partner, Enel Green Power,” said Claudio Parisi Presicce, superintendent of Cultural Heritage of the City of Rome and director of the Capitoline Museums of Rome. “We also are glad to be able to inaugurate the project at the prestigious University of Missouri. Allowing U.S. students and researchers the unique opportunity to study the objects directly on campus and apply very advanced research methodologies will give the larger scientific community the ability to contribute to the enhancement of the knowledge of these precious archeological materials and our history.”

As a result of the Italian unification in 1870, large parts of Rome were cleared for new government buildings. During that time, massive quantities of archaeological material were stored in the Antiquarium, a unit of the Capitoline Museums of Rome; however, the majority of these materials were never studied.

Talks about the project began in 2013 when officials from the Capitoline Museums and the City of Rome, with the support of Enel Green Power North America, loaned a red, marble statue to the Nelson Atkins Museum in Kansas City, Mo. At that time, the Italian curators began discussing the materials in the Antiquarium, and MU was recommended as an ideal partner for the project. According to Alex Barker, director of the MU Museum of Art and Archaeology, MU was selected as the first partner to develop this new program that eventually will make the unstudied antiquities of the Antiquarium – some 100,000 antiquities in all – available for study and scholarly analysis by selected U.S. universities over the coming years.

Under the agreement, both MU scholars and students will have access to the antiquities. Graduate students in MU’s Department of Art History and Archaeology will be working directly with the collections and can use these objects for thesis and dissertation projects. The first set of loans — 249 black-gloss ceramics dating to the period of the Roman Republic (fifth to first centuries B.C.) —recently were received by the MU Museum of Art and Archaeology.

“This project plays to our strengths,” Barker said. “We have a classical archaeology doctoral program in the Department of Art History and Archaeology with excellent faculty, an American Alliance of Museums-accredited museum with recognized expertise in archaeology and the antique world, and one of the nation’s best archaeometric laboratories at the MU Research Reactor, capable of performing detailed analysis on a wide range of materials.”

The project, which will continue through Dec. 31, 2017, is being funded by Enel Green Power North America, a leading renewable energy company with more than 90 projects in the United States and Canada. The company is a subsidiary of Enel Green Power, headquartered in Rome and a world leader in the energy sector. Following this pilot project, the program will be expanded to other universities and museums in the U.S.

“We are excited to launch an innovative project that will leverage the Italian and U.S. expertise to promote the preservation of a priceless legacy from the ancient Rome,” said Francesco Venturini, CEO of Enel Green Power. “Both sides of the ocean have a wealth of knowledge and resources to offer based on their different histories and experiences. The mutual sharing of such expertise will open a wide range of opportunities to further research, education and innovation. This project is in line with the company’s objective to make tangible contributions to the social and economic development of the communities in which it operates with the final goal of Creating Shared Value.”

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Isa Genzken retrospective opens at Dallas Museum of Art

Isa Genzken, MLR, 1992, lacquer on canvas, Lonti Ebers, New York, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Buchholz, Cologne/Berlin, © Isa Genzken; Isa Genzken, Hospital (Ground Zero), 2008, metal tray dolly, plastic flowers in spray-painted vase, ribbon, metal, mirror foil, synthetic polymer paint on fabric, shot glasses, fiberboard, and casters, Collection Charles Asprey, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Buchholz, Cologne/Berlin, © Isa Genzken

DALLAS – The Dallas Museum of Art presents Isa Genzken: Retrospective, the first major U.S. exhibition to encompass the artist’s oeuvre, and the final venue for an exhibition the New Yorker hailed as “dazzling” and the New York Times described as “grand.” The exhibition was organized by the Dallas Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. “Few artists have displayed as much moxie and versatility . . . nor sustained as vast and exciting a career,” wrote the Chicago Tribune about the first comprehensive retrospective of this artist’s epically diverse body of work in an American museum, and the largest to date.

Isa Genzken: Retrospective, on view now through January 4, 2015, spans 40 years of Genzken’s inventive, audacious, and deeply influential career. The exhibition brings together approximately 100 objects in an astonishing variety of techniques, including assemblage, sculpture, painting, photography, collage, drawing, artist’s books, film, and large-scale installations. A majority of the works in the exhibition are on view in the U.S. for the first time, including the large-scale installation Schauspieler (Actors), while others have rarely been publicly exhibited anywhere.

Working across a diverse array of mediums, Genzken has been inspired by two grand themes: modernity and urban architecture. Her career has also unfolded in chapters, beginning in the late 1970s, and continuing without cease until today, when a new generation has been inspired by the artist’s radical inventiveness. Ranging from large-scale sculptures that limn constructivist and minimalist aesthetics, to rougher, more overtly architectural concrete works that conjure ruins, to paintings, photographs, and found-object installations that have redefined sculpture for a new era, Genzken’s body of work represents both a rare artistic freedom and a disciplined, almost obsessive sensitivity toward the relationship of individuals to their sculptural surroundings.

“We are pleased to be one of the three institutions to organize the largest survey, and the first in America, of undoubtedly one of the most influential sculptors of the past 40 years, Isa Genzken,” said Maxwell L. Anderson, the DMA’s Eugene McDermott Director. “Genzken’s career has included numerous high-profile international exhibitions, including the German Pavilion of the Venice Biennale in 2007. With the presentation of Isa Genzken: Retrospective in Dallas, the DMA provides a special opportunity for visitors to become better acquainted with the great breadth of her achievements.”

“Isa Genzken: Retrospective encompasses Genzken’s work in all mediums, produced over the past 40 years, presenting the definitive picture of this artist’s astonishing achievements throughout her trans-generational career,” said Jeffrey Grove, co-organizing curator of the exhibition.

Highlights from the exhibition:

Rot-schwarz-gelbes Ellipsoid ‘S.L. Popova’ (Red-Black-Yellow Ellipsoid ‘S.L. Popova’), 1981, this 17-foot-long work from Genzken’s early period, one of her Ellipsoid works, reflects her growing fascination with the precision of both natural and man-made engineering.

Door (Tür), 1988, is part of Genzken’s series of free-standing concrete sculptures on high steel pedestals. These works, with their cubic forms and industrial materials, connect to a minimalist aesthetic, while their handmade quality and resemblance to bombed-out ruins boldly fly in the face of minimalism’s formalist rigor. Beautiful in their extreme austerity, they are also grim embodiments of the disillusion with modernist utopian visions that characterized post-modernity of the late 1980s.

MLR, 1992, is a canvas from Genzken’s 1992 series of paintings called MLR, an abbreviation for the phrase “more light research.” Using spray paint, lacquer, and stencils made from a variety of perforated materials, Genzken created an effect reminiscent of photograms—photographic images produced without a camera by placing objects on photosensitive paper and exposing the paper to light.

Oil XI, 2007, the centerpiece of a 16-part installation first exhibited in the German pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale, evokes the zeitgeist of a world in a state of terror. The installation, with its accumulation of rolling suitcases, calls to mind a transit station that has suddenly been abandoned, perhaps due to an unseen threat. Three astronauts, identified as NASA employees by the insignia on their uniforms, float overhead, as if exploring the ruins of a devastated culture.

Schauspieler (Actors), 2013, is on view for the first time during this tour. This multipart installation, completed in 2013, features elaborately altered mannequins dressed in an assortment of clothes, collaged elements, and repurposed sculptural materials. Some of the clothes are Genzken’s own, while others were found or purchased. By calling this ensemble Schauspieler (Actors), Genzken suggests that by moving among the forms we, too, are actors in a theater or on a film set.

About Isa Genzken:

Isa Genzken was born in 1948 in Bad Oldesloe, a town outside Hamburg, Germany. In the mid-1970s, as a student at Düsseldorf’s renowned Kunstakademie, she created large-scale stereometric wooden floor sculptures, which gained her early international acclaim. Beginning in the 1980s, she made sculptures in plaster and concrete, ranging in size from maquettes to monumental. In the late 1980s, she expanded her practice to include painting, and by the mid-1990s she was experimenting with architectural forms such as windows made of epoxy resin. From the late 1990s on, Genzken created increasingly complex assemblage installations that engage with the geopolitical issues of our time.

Genzken began exhibiting her work in 1976, when she was the youngest woman to have a solo presentation at the influential Konrad Fischer Galerie in Düsseldorf. She has exhibited internationally since 1980, and has participated in Documenta (1982, 1992, 2002), the Venice Biennale (1982, 1993, 2003, 2007), Skulptur Projekte Münster (1987, 1997, 2007), the Istanbul Biennial (2001), and the Carnegie International (2004). In 2007 she represented Germany at the 52nd Venice Biennale. Recent surveys of her work have taken place at Museion, Bolzano, Italy (2010); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2009); and Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (2009).

Exhibition Catalog:

Published in conjunction with the first comprehensive retrospective of her diverse body of work in the U.S., Isa Genzken: Retrospective is the most complete monograph on the artist available in English. The catalogue presents Genzken’s career in essays by Sabine Breitwieser, Laura Hoptman, Michael Darling, Jeffrey Grove, and Lisa Lee that explore the unfolding of her practice from 1973 until today, and provides an expansive illustrated chronological overview of her most important bodies of work and key exhibitions. Hardcover, $75.00; 9.5 x 12″; 334 pages; 237 color illustrations. Distributed to the trade by ARTBOOK|D.A.P. in the United States and Canada, and by Thames & Hudson outside the United States and Canada.

Isa Genzken: Retrospective is organized by the Dallas Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. The exhibition is included in the DMA’s free general admission. The presentation is made possible by TWO X TWO for AIDS and Art, an annual fundraising event that jointly benefits amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research and the Dallas Museum of Art; the Contemporary Art Initiative; and the Gay and Lesbian Fund for Dallas. Air transportation provided by American Airlines. Exhibition-related programming will be scheduled throughout the run of the exhibition. For dates, prices, and details, visit DMA.org.

About the Dallas Museum of Art:

Established in 1903, the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is among the 10 largest art museums in the country and is distinguished by its commitment to research, innovation, and public engagement. At the heart of the Museum and its programs is its global collection, which encompasses more than 22,000 works and spans 5,000 years of history, representing a full range of world cultures. Located in the nation’s largest arts district, the Museum welcomes some 600,000 visitors annually and acts as a catalyst for community creativity, engaging people of all ages and backgrounds with a diverse spectrum of programming, from exhibitions and lectures to concerts, literary events, and dramatic and dance presentations. In January 2013, the DMA returned to a free general admission policy and launched DMA Friends, the first free museum membership program in the country, which currently has over 70,000 members. For more information, visit DMA.org.

The Dallas Museum of Art is supported, in part, by the generosity of DMA Partners and donors, the citizens of Dallas through the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.

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Joan Miro exhibit opens at Duke University art museum

Joan Miró, ‘Femmes VI’ (Women VI), 1969, oil on canvas, 28 3/4 x 36 1/4 inches (73 x 92 cm). Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain. © 2014 Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, New York / ADAGP, Paris, France.

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) – An exhibition of more than 50 works by artist Joan Miro is opening at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.

The museum is the only East Coast site for the exhibit of works by the Barcelona-born artist. The exhibit titled “Miro: The Experience of Seeing” covers the final 20 years of the artist’s career.

The exhibit includes 27 sculptures, 18 paintings and six drawings, some of them more than 6 feet tall. The exhibit continues at the Nasher Museum through February.

Tickets are $12 for adults, $6 for children ages 7 to 17 and free for children 6 and under. Admission is free for Duke students and Nasher Museum members. Discounted tickets are available for faculty, staff and alumni and for non-Duke students.

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Online: http://nasher.duke.edu/miro/

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Vincent van Gogh painting on loan to Currier Museum

Van Gogh's 'Bridges across the Seine at Asnieres.' Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) – A Vincent van Gogh painting depicting a colorful scene in France is now on display at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester.

Van Gogh painted Bridges across the Seine at Asnieres in 1887. Painted outside in a northwest Paris suburb, it features the artist’s characteristic long brushstrokes, especially visible in the water and the pillars of the bridge.

The painting is on loan to the museum through December.

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Unseen Picasso letter, with doodles, on display in France

Photographic portrait of Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973), taken 1908-1909, anonymous photographer, Musée Picasso, Paris. Fair use of copyrighted material in the context of Pablo Picasso via Wikipedia.

QUIMPER, France (AFP) – A previously unseen letter written by Pablo Picasso, complete with sketches, has gone on display in western France.

The letter, to his friend the French poet Max Jacob, comes from a private collection and is displayed at the fine arts museum in the western city of Quimper.

Beginning “my dear Max” and signed “your brother Picasso,” the letter shows the close bond between the Spanish artist and Jacob, who was “his best friend at the time and the person who really discovered him,” according to museum director Ambroise Guillaume.

It was written in 1903 when Picasso was in Barcelona and offers details of his life there and also his wish to come back to Paris.

“If I can work here, I’ll stay here, but if I see I can’t do anything here, I’ll bugger off back to Paris,” wrote the artist in broken French.

The letter is extremely rare given that only 10 or so letters from Picasso to Jacob have ever been found, the museum noted.

The sketches show a women appearing to comfort a seated man, an outstretched hand, what appears to be a child kneeling next to a man while animals look on, and a couple deep in conversation.

They are typical of the artist’s “blue period” which dominated his output around this time.

The letter is displayed at the Quimper museum of fine art until September 21, to mark the 70th anniversary of Jacob’s death.

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Mid-century modern pieces stand out in Capo auction Sept. 20

Pair of Russian silver candelabra, 19th century, imperial warrant, marked 84, Moscow. Estimate: $20,000-$25,000. Capo Auction image.

NEW YORK – An outstanding selection of mid-century modern furniture will be taking the spotlight at Capo Auction Fine Art and Antiques’ first fall auction on Saturday, Sept. 20, at 11a.m. Eastern. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.

Featured along with the mid-century modern pieces, Capo Auction is also offering a stunning Art Deco Patek Philippe platinum pendant watch. This piece has a trapezoid-shape case with 62 round diamonds and three ruby accents. The dial and movement are signed. The dial has diamond chapters and the watch is on a 14K white gold and diamond chain. Its estimated value is $25,000-$30,000.

Already getting much attention is a rare Steinway Model C rosewood parlor grand piano, serial number 2485, made in 1859. This piano is 7 feet 1 inches in length and is the very first parlor grand model manufactured by Steinway in the U.S. Estimated value is $10,000-$15,000. Also noteworthy is a pair of 19th century Russian silver candelabra, imperial warrant, marked 84, Moscow, and marks of Aggey Grigoryevich Svechin. Each has a standing figure supporting four scrolled arms, stands 22 inches and totals 7,320 grams. The estimate is $20,000-$25,000.

Their many mid-century modern offerings include a pair of purple Arne Jacobsen Egg Chairs, Fritz Hansen label, estimated value $2,000-$3,000; a pair of dark red Arne Jacobsen Egg Chairs, Fritz Hansen label, estimate: $2,000-$3,000; a pair of blue Arne Jacobsen Swan Chairs, Fritz Hansen label, estimate: $1,000-$1,500; and a pair of green Arne Jacobsen Swan Chairs, Fritz Hansen label, estimate: $1,000-1,500. All of these chairs were designed in 1958 for the lobby and reception areas in the Royal Hotel in Copenhagen. Another standout in the auction is a rare Edward Wormley table with Tiffany tiles. The rectangular two-tier table is inset with Tiffany Studios glass tiles. It is 23.5 inches high, 29 inches wide and 23 inches deep, and has an estimated value of $2,000-$3,000.

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

Art Deco Patek Philippe pendant watch, platinum, trapezoid-shape case with diamonds and rubies. Estimate: $ 25,000-$30,000. Capo Auction image.

Steinway Model C parlor grand piano, serial number 2485, rosewood, 1859. Estimate: $10,000-$15,000. Capo Auction image.

Pair of purple Arne Jacobsen Egg Chairs, designed in 1958 for the lobby and reception areas in the Royal Hotel, in Copenhagen. Fritz Hansen label. Estimate: $2,000-$3,000. Capo Auction image.

Pair of blue Arne Jacobsen Swan Chairs, designed in 1958 for the lobby and reception areas in the Royal Hotel, in Copenhagen. Fritz Hansen label. Estimate: $1,000-$1,500. Capo Auction image.

Edward Wormley table with Tiffany tiles, rectangular two-tier table inset with Tiffany Studios glass tiles. Estimate: $2,000-$3,000. Capo Auction image.

UK’s Nat’l Portrait Gallery unveils portrait of Dame Vivienne Westwood

Dame Vivienne Westwood by Juergen Teller, 2014 ©National Portrait Gallery, London

LONDON – As London Fashion Week draws to a close, the National Portrait Gallery unveiled today its latest commissioned portrait – a photograph of Dame Vivienne Westwood in her garden by artist and photographer Juergen Teller.

Commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery and made possible by the J.P. Morgan Fund for New Commissions, the portrait has gone on public display for the first time today to celebrate ten years of the company’s support towards new commissions for the Gallery’s Collection.

In the large, 4 foot high, almost full-length photograph, Dame Vivienne is captured standing in the back garden of her London home. An informal and intimate portrayal of the celebrated fashion designer, Dame Vivienne is shown wearing a loose-fitting peach cardigan and her white hair is cropped short, both of which match the colours of two large roses in the bushes behind her. She is standing in a relaxed manner on her garden path, with clasped hands and pursed lips, looking directly at the viewer.

Juergen Teller has previously worked with Dame Vivienne on a number of her fashion campaigns and was invited to take on this commission by both the Gallery and Dame Vivienne due to this existing friendship and Teller’s familiarity with her work and style. On sitting for Teller, Dame Vivienne has said: ‘Photography isn’t like painting, where you can decide how you want someone to look, but Juergen manages it. It must be something to do with where he places you in the picture, and the space he leaves around you.’

Dame Vivienne Westwood is one of Britain’s leading fashion designers and businesswomen. She is also a campaigner on human rights abuses and climate change. In the 1970s, with partner Malcolm McLaren, she co-founded the boutique Let it Rock, later renamed SEX, on London’s King’s Road. It sold Westwood’s designs, which defined the British Punk movement. Westwood and McLaren’s first catwalk show was staged in 1981. Diverse sources have inspired Westwood’s subsequent solo collections including world cultures, 18-century French painting, corsets and crinolines. Twice named Designer of the Year, Westwood is renowned for original cutting and tailoring techniques. A retrospective exhibition of her work was held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2004, and she was created Dame in 2006.

Juergen Teller studied at the Bayerische Staatslehranstalt für Photographie in Munich, before moving to London in 1986. Considered one of the most important photographers of his generation, Teller has successfully navigated both the art world and commercial photography since beginning his career in the late 1980s, blurring the boundaries between his commissioned and personal work in his numerous publications and exhibitions. In 2003, Teller was awarded the Citibank Prize for Photography, and, in 2007 was asked to represent the Ukraine as one of five artists in the 52nd Venice Biennale. He has published over thirty artist’s books and exhibited internationally, including solo shows at the Photographer’s Gallery, London (1998), Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2004), Foundation Cartier, Paris (2006), Daelim Contemporary Art Museum, Seoul (2011), the Institute of Contemporary Art, London (2013) and Deste Foundation, Athens (2014) amongst others.

Sandy Nairne, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, said: “This intimate photograph of Dame Vivienne is a thoughtful and distinctive portrayal of one of Britain’s most influential designers and campaigners, created by Juergen Teller, a long-term creative collaborator. I am hugely grateful to J.P. Morgan for their generous support over the past ten years towards such an important programme of commissions.:

Juergen Teller’s portrait of Dame Vivienne Westwood was commissioned by the Gallery’s Trustees and made possible by J.P. Morgan through the Fund for New Commissions. Other National Portrait Gallery commissions supported by J.P. Morgan include Baroness Helena Kennedy by Chris Levine, 2013; Dame Maggie Smith by James Lloyd, 2012; Shami Chakrabarti by Gillian Wearing, 2011; Sir James Dyson by Julian Opie, 2011; Dame Anne Owers by Diarmuid Kelley, 2010; Sir Willard W White by Ishbel Myserscough, 2009; Dame Zaha Hadid by Michael Craig-Martin, 2008; Sir Paul Nurse by Jason Brooks, 2008; Sustained Endeavour (Sir Steve Redgrave) by Dryden Goodwin, 2006; Sir David Hare by Dame Paula Rego, 2005; Dame Judi Dench by Alessandro Raho, 2004; David Beckham by Sam Taylor-Johnson (Sam Taylor-Wood), 2004.

This photograph is the first portrait of Dame Vivienne commissioned by the Gallery’s Trustees for the Collection. It joins a number of acquired photographs of Dame Vivienne in the Collection by photographers including Jane Bown, Mario Testino, David Secombe, Angus McBean, Fergus Greer and Bryan Adams.

A postcard of the portrait will be available exclusively from National Portrait Gallery Shops from November (RRP 70p).

Dame Vivienne Westwood by Juergen Teller is in Room 38a in the Ground Floor Lerner Contemporary Galleries at the National Portrait Gallery, London, from Monday 15 September 2014, admission free.

Visit Britain’s National Portrait Gallery online at www.npg.org.uk.

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