Beverly Pepper with a recent work of Cor-ten steel titled ‘Curvae.’ Image courtesy Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., — Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park is the exclusive venue for the landmark exhibition “Beverly Pepper: Palingenesis 1962-2012,” which opened to the public May 25. This retrospective traces Pepper’s work in metal throughout her prolific five-decade career. The exhibition will be on display until Aug. 26.
Born in Brooklyn in 1922, Pepper studied at Pratt Institute and the Arts Student League in New York. She painted from 1949-1960, then turned to sculpture. In 1962, Pepper emerged on the arts scene when she, along with legendary figures Alexander Calder and David Smith, was invited to create outdoor sculptures for the famed exhibition “Festival of Two Worlds” in Spoleto, Italy. She was the only woman invited. She is among America’s greatest living sculptors.
The exhibition features more than 20 works in a variety of metals including steel, aluminum, iron, stainless steel and Cor-ten steel. It is Pepper’s largest museum presentation in recent years, with loans from Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Walker Art Center, Albright Knox Art Gallery, Marlborough Gallery and private collections.
“Although Pepper has been innovative and proficient in a variety of media, her endeavors in metal have been a constant source of inspiration and art historical merit” said Joseph Becherer, vice president and chief curator of horticulture and sculpture.
The exhibition traces the progression of Pepper’s work, from early influences in Abstract Expressionism to the clean lines and highly polished surfaces of a minimalist aesthetic. Her experimental work in the early 1980s blended the opposing ideas of the ancient age of iron with modern and contemporary sculpture, which was innovative and new. Pepper’s more current work, abstract and totemic forms, have been created in both steel and industrially rich Cor-ten steel. One such monumental form, Galileo’s Wedge became part of Meijer Gardens’ permanent collection in 2009. A new, bold emergence of twisted rectilinear and upright forms proves that the 89-year-old sculptor remains a powerful and prolific artist.
Meijer Gardens has published a fully illustrated catalog to accompany the exhibition. Excerpts from more than 32 hours of interviews and images from Pepper’s archives in Todi, Italy, and New York describe the development of Pepper’s remarkable career.
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
Beverly Pepper with a recent work of Cor-ten steel titled ‘Curvae.’ Image courtesy Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.Beverly Pepper in her studio. Image courtesy Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.Beverly Pepper, ‘Homage to Piet.’ Image courtesy Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.Beverly Pepper, ‘Untitled Steel 1.’ Image courtesy Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.
A Fenton Art Glass advertising piece. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Harrison Auctions Inc.
WILLIAMSTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – A New York company is working with the owners of Fenton Art Glass on a deal that could restart production.
Gene Bem, chief executive of U.S. Glass, says he hopes to offer Fenton specialty glass to retailers including Macy’s and Neiman Marcus.
Bem says he believes the brand can be refreshed, and he could restart the factory as soon as August. The goal is to be in full production next year.
“We see the Williamstown plant as a special place because you have labor and expertise in the glass making process you don’t find other places,” Bem said.
Family-owned Fenton was built in Williamstown in 1906 and has struggled in recent years with rising costs, slowing sales and growing debt.
Last summer, it laid off most workers and now produces only decorative beads.
President George Fenton tells The Parkersburg News and Sentinel (http://bit.ly/KPyHTk) that no final agreement has been reached yet, but he hopes it works out.
On Thursday, the president of Fenton Gift Shop—a separate business entity—bought all the factory’s molds, tools and other assets at a private auction. Randy Fenton paid $200,000 for the deal, including legal rights to logos, names, colors, styles and glass formulas.
Randy Fenton said he’s negotiating with Bem about becoming a shareholder in U.S. Glass.
“We’re optimistic something really nice can come out of those discussions,” he said.
Fenton Art Glass owes more than $600,000 in back taxes on its 300,000-square-foot factory. George Fenton said that the company must still address its debt.
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-05-25-12 1901GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
A Fenton Art Glass advertising piece. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Harrison Auctions Inc.
National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana. Image by Christopher Lancaster. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
HAVANA (AP) – Ruben Alpizar never met the American collector who fell in love with his painting of a plummeting Icarus against a starry background, hanging on the wall of a Spanish colonial-era fortress across the bay from Havana. Nor did he get a name or a hometown, or even learn whether the buyer was a man or a woman.
It all happened quickly, starting with a phone call from a broker. “How much for the painting? Look, I think somebody wants it. I’ll call you right back.” Soon after, the phone rang again: “Sold.”
“We need more people coming from Gringoland,” Alpizar said with a smile, not a hint of derision in his voice as he employed a term that can be either affectionate or pejorative depending on the context. “They pay the price you ask.”
The streets of the Cuban capital are, in fact, awash with American art pilgrims during the monthlong Havana Biennial, a showcase connecting local contemporary artists with well-heeled foreign collectors—key clients in a country whose citizens have little real purchasing power.
Alpizar, for one, would not say how much his painting sold for, but offered that his work normally goes for between $3,000 and $15,000, a windfall in a country where most people earn the equivalent of $20 a month.
The Americans are arriving in larger numbers because of the Obama administration’s relaxation of U.S. embargo travel rules. They say they see a chance to explore the unknown and look for the ultimate conversation piece to hang on the living room wall.
“I think there is a mystique and the association with the ‘time-capsule island’ and all that’s inaccessible,” said Rachel Weingeist, an adviser to Shelley and Donald Rubin on their Cuban art collection. The couple’s New York-based Rubin Foundation promotes the arts and humanitarian causes.
“Frankly we haven’t had much access until recently,” Weingeist said.
The Americans say they’re impressed by the island’s sophisticated fine arts scene compared to those in other countries in the Caribbean and elsewhere. Auctions by Christie’s and Sotheby’s have firmly cemented Cuban art in the U.S. consciousness, such as this week’s sale of a painting by the late surrealist Wilfredo Lam for $4.56 million.
“There’s so much heart. It’s very intense. It’s about a sense of place,” said Jennifer Jacobs of Portland, Ore., who led a private group of 15 collectors from Seattle to the Biennial. “It really spoke to me personally.”
Terry Hall, an art collector and accountant from Gurnee, Ill., just south of the Wisconsin border, said she was surprised by the variety she saw.
Cuban art embraces diverse themes and styles, and even ventures into the political. One piece on display at the Biennial, shaped like a mailbox, has a slot with large, sharp bloody fangs and an invitation for “Complaints and Suggestions.”
“I came down here expecting art that was more colorful, more Caribbean in flavor and what I found is more international, more cutting-edge, more ambitious art,” said Hall. “I’ve really been very excited about it. I think it rivals anything I’ve seen anywhere else as far as the execution, the expertise and the ambitious ideas.”
More than 1,300 American artists, curators, collectors and fans have been accredited for the Biennial, organizers say, an unusually large delegation from what some say is the most important market for Cuban art. Unlike with other island goods, it’s perfectly legal for Americans to buy Cuban art, which is covered under an exemption to the 50-year-old U.S. embargo allowing the purchase of “informational materials.”
“They’re coming by the busload,” said Alpizar, who just two weeks into the Biennial had sold a half-dozen works including the piece featuring Icarus, titled Home. Another painting that was snapped up by an American collector, My Ark, was a whimsical cross between a stern of a boat and a religious tableau, with famous historical figures peeking out from the windows: Ernest Hemingway, Karl Marx, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Pope John Paul II.
While Cuban emigrant artists living in Miami sometimes struggle to be noticed, artists who remain on the island enjoy the cachet of providing a kind of forbidden fruit for U.S. collectors. People on both sides of the exchange say the mutual affinity exists not despite but because of the five decades of geographical proximity and political animosity.
Many collectors are Cuban-Americans, perhaps eager to acquire a link to their lost homeland. Others are patrons from big cities such as New York, San Francisco and Seattle that are more open to detente.
“There’s a very easy connection between us. The American public … has a very special sensitivity to Cuban art,” said Carlos Rene Aguilera, who exhibited a dozen paintings inspired by black holes, string theory and other scientific mysteries, hauled all the way from the eastern city of Santiago. “Maybe it’s because of curiosity about each other’s history. Maybe it’s because we are neighbors and there is a messy relationship between our countries, so this creates interest.”
So great is that interest that Americans are often willing to shell out the asking price with little background research, and with a little luck, even junior artists can command eye-popping prices. Tales abound about fourth-year university students selling pieces for $15,000, equal to the prices commanded by Alpizar, an established artist whose work has been shown in dozens of individual and collective exhibitions over a 23-year career.
“It’s what the market will bear, and why not shoot for the moon?” Weingeist said. “All it takes is somebody feeling giddy who’s got the money for something they like.”
The transactions are usually handshake agreements to wire money to bank accounts holding international currencies that many artists prefer to keep in Spain, the Netherlands or Canada, rather than the local bank accounts for Cuban pesos used only on the island. The seller then ships carefully wrapped paintings to overseas addresses.
Galleries are cut out of their traditional middleman role, giving collectors the sense that they’re getting a better deal. The arrangement also brings buyers in direct contact with the artists as they go knocking on the doors of home studios.
Artists say the Biennial is a crucial time to build their names and establish those contacts.
“I’ve collected a ton of business cards,” said artist Tamara Campo, whose ode to the world financial crisis is installed in a bunker of La Cabana fortress. It features a wave of some 650 banknotes fashioned from fragrant cedar cascading from the ceiling into a jumbled pile on the floor.
“A lot of people want to talk to me,” Campo said. “I have to check my email, because it’s been days.”
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Follow Peter Orsi on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi.
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-05-26-12 1856GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana. Image by Christopher Lancaster. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
Three of the Kincaid mounds in Massac Co. Ill. Image by Herb Roe. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.
ST. LOUIS (AP) – Ancient American Indian burial mounds in southern Illinois have been damaged and possibly looted, prompting the state’s historical agency to call for the public’s help in identifying the culprits.
Last month, someone dug several holes in a portion of Kincaid Mounds State Historic Site, a town and religious center of the Mississippian culture of 1,000 years ago in what is now rural Massac and Pope counties, the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency said Friday.
The culprits were probably searching for “grave goods” that Native Americans buried with their dead, although it’s unclear if any artifacts or human remains were taken, the agency said. More damage was done to the site recently when an all-terrain vehicle or truck was driven on one of the mounds, where “No Trespassing” signs are posted and ATVs are prohibited, the agency said.
“The criminal disturbance of these human burials in Kincaid Mounds is unconscionable,” said Amy Martin, the agency’s director. “We hope to apprehend those who are responsible, which will serve as a deterrent to others who may be considering the desecration of our state’s heritage.”
The site, about 170 miles southeast of St. Louis, has been targeted before. In 2008, three holes several feet wide and deep appeared in the side of one of the nine mounds, with two of the holes in spots looters had struck the previous year.
The disturbance of archaeological sites or skeletal remains on state-owned property can be a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, a $10,000 fine, reparations and forfeiture of any vehicles or equipment used in the misdeed. Unsettling of burial sites on public land also may be a felony carrying a three-year prison term and $25,000 fine.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Kincaid Mounds is significant as one of two major political centers of the Mississippian period in the lower Ohio River Valley and was one of the first areas in southern Illinois where intensive, large-scale agriculture was developed.
“These mounds are a unique, irreplaceable part of our heritage, and to destroy them for the sake of amusement or profit is a despicable act,” Martin said.
Such cases have produced federal charges. In 2010, Leslie Jones pleaded guilty to excavation, removal or damage of archaeological resources without a permit after investigators found more than 13,000 artifacts from southern Illinois’ Cypress Creek National Wildlife Refuge at his home in Creal Springs, Ill. The collection included pottery, clay figures, stone weapons, tools and more than 200 pieces of human skeletal remains dating from roughly 6000 B.C. to A.D. 400.
Jones was sentenced to a month in jail, five years of probation, 500 hours of community service and ordered to pay more than $150,000 in restitution. He had faced up to two years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
Jones admitted he had sold some of the artifacts he unearthed at the refuge from 2004 through February 2007, having done extensive research that enabled him to identify pieces of artifacts and their time periods.
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-05-25-12 1748GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Three of the Kincaid mounds in Massac Co. Ill. Image by Herb Roe. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.
The Soldiers National Monument at the center of Gettysburg National Cemetery. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) – Officials say they plan to try to auction off a large electric battlefield map at Gettysburg that for decades helped visitors understand the crucial Civil War battle, but they may be forced to destroy it.
The National Park Service pulled the plug on the 1960s-era device at Gettysburg National Military Park in 2008 after opening a new museum and visitor center. The map, which had been used for 70 years, has been in storage ever since.
Park officials last month asked the federal government to let it auction the map to the highest bidder, The Philadelphia Inquirer said. But they must first get a waiver from the General Services Administration because the map contains asbestos—and without such a waiver, officials say, the map will be destroyed.
Some fans who thought the map was already history were surprised to hear that it might be resurrected.
“I thought it was dead and buried,” said John Dekeles, of Post Falls, Idaho, who filmed one of the last map shows.
He and others launched efforts to save the device, drawing up plans to move it to a nearby site and petitioning the Smithsonian, West Point and the Naval Academy to adopt it. Despite their efforts, the map sits in four pieces in an airtight shipping container at an undisclosed location.
The map was created by Joseph Rosensteel, who grew up on the battlefield and whose family founded the park’s original museum. His grandfather collected artifacts as a teenager days after the battle while helping to bury bodies, and the thousands of items were the basis for the museum opened in the family farmhouse in 1921.
His grandson spent five years researching troop movements over the 6,000 acres and laying out his map with topographic features such as roads, waterways and orchards before the first electric map show opened in 1938. The current map was constructed in 1963 out of plaster and concrete and the shows were performed in an auditorium built to house it for the battle’s 100th anniversary commemoration.
Park officials were divided over whether there should be a new place for the map in the new museum a mile away.
“We finally came to the conclusion that it was outdated as an interpretive device,” park spokeswoman Katie Lawhon said.
Fans, however, say the new Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center doesn’t provide visitors with the same comprehensive overview that the old-fashioned map did, despite its galleries, interactive exhibits, the restored Cyclorama painting and a triple-screen movie narrated by actor Morgan Freeman.
“It concisely interprets and orients people; it’s always been good at that,” said Curt Musselman, president of the Historic Gettysburg-Adams County group, who now makes maps for the park service and credits with the map in part for his decision to become a cartographer. “And for all the millions, the museum does not have such a concise or effective orientation.”
Park officials, however, want the map auctioned off quickly so they can concentrate on preparing for events for the battle’s 150th anniversary next year, Lawhon said.
“We want to move forward and focus on 2013,” she said.
Dekeles, who saw the map on trips to the battlefield when he and his family made annual trips to a train show in nearby York, bought the domain name www.savetheelectricmap.com when he found the map was to be retired and filmed the show with night vision equipment.
“I was shocked,” Dekeles said. “I couldn’t believe it would be gone. I learned so much from it.”
He said he’d like to see the map restored as it was in a new location modeled on the old one.
“Like a phoenix rising from the ashes and presented in a way that shows the respect it deserves,” he said. “The ideal thing would be to put it back as close as it was to protect the dignity and history, like you are walking into 1963.”
___
Information from: The Philadelphia Inquirer, http://www.philly.com
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-05-27-12 1625GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
The Soldiers National Monument at the center of Gettysburg National Cemetery. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
1825 Empire couch, mahogany with transparent surface film, probably not original.
I get calls, letters and emails each month requesting information about a piece or a set of furniture. Most of the time I am more than happy to share any information I may have to enhance the inquirer’s relationship with a family treasure or new discovery. But there are times when I just don’t feel like the inquirer has met me halfway. Especially when the question starts out something like, “I have this old piece of furniture. It’s sorta tall but not real wide in the middle. It has a real dark color and you can hardly see all the stuff in it. My mother said it has been in our family forever. Can you tell me how old it is, who made it and what it is worth?”
That’s not quite enough to go on. It’s like telling the mechanic the car just doesn’t feel right or informing the doctor that it hurts real bad but you can’t tell where it hurts. There is a need for specific information in all these cases. I don’t know much about cars and have never had a real good rapport with doctors, but I do know there is a method by which a piece of furniture can be described. If most of the blanks are filled in, the rest of the information can be ferreted out somehow.
It is a step-by-step process that proceeds logically from one area to the next. In trying to describe a piece of furniture the first and most important step is to identify what the piece is—in other words the FORM.
FORM
Form identification starts with the really simple stuff like chair, table, couch, cabinet, bookcase, dresser, chest, etc. But it gets more difficult from there. There are very specific types and classes of forms that lead to clearer identification. For example just take a look at “table.” How many different types of tables can you name? Take 15 seconds and name as many types of tables as you can. Done? If you didn’t name at least 10 you are not paying attention. How about dining, work, tray, tea, coffee, cocktail, lamp, end, console, foyer? And each type that you named has specific attributes that make it that type of table. Just naming the type of table already is a great step to further identification by ruling out all the other thousands of types of tables. And each type table you thought of has even more specific variations that narrow the identification process even further.
For example, try thinking about just dining tables. Types and variations that come quickly to mind are pedestal, extension, draw, tilt-top, refectory, drop leaf, gateleg and combinations thereof. Each one generates a mental picture of a specific table that generally is not to be confused with another, if you have the right word with the right picture. But that is just a matter of training.
If you get the form right the next level of description is to be found in the STYLE.
STYLE
Style, in essence, is how the form was executed. A Chippendale table is certainly different from a Renaissance Revival table. The two styles have unmistakably different approaches to providing a level, stable surface upon which to eat. The Chippendale table will be more delicate and bring elements of Rococo to mind while the Renaissance Revival table will be more architectural and dense. There is no intermixing of the two, no gray area or fuzzy line of demarcation. That is not true of all styles but in most cases a clear enough distinction between styles can be found to create the proper mental image, with a little practice. Almost any antiques book will have a rough guide to styles.
Now that the FORM and the STYLE have been locked in what is the next step in the descriptive process? The AGE.
AGE
Most styles can be associated with a certain period of time. The name of the style is normally the first clue to the period since most early styles were named after a monarch of the time or a reasonably recent one at any rate. Obvious names include Queen Anne, Georgian, Jacobean, Elizabethan and William and Mary. If you know some royal history you know the period. Other style names are not quite so obvious but can be associated with a specific period such as Chippendale, Victorian, Federal, Empire and Arts and Crafts. But if you know the style do you then know the age? Of course not. Queen Anne is a good example. The new style began to take hold in England as early as 1715 but did not really reach the American colonies until 1725. The same is true with Chippendale. Thomas Chippendale was a force in English furniture in the 1740s and 1750s, but his style did not take hold in the Colonies until nearly 1760. And when it did it was not the up-to-date Chippendale of England. It was a more conservative approach that still used the ball and claw foot on the cabriole leg, something that was so out date in 1754 when Chippendale published his famous book that he did not even illustrate the foot.
And then there is the problem of reproductions and revivals. Most of the major styles have had a revival at one time or another and some of them are quite good. The longest continuously running revival is the Colonial Revival which began in the late 19th century and by some accounts is still on a roll.
You have to do better than simple style to determine an age for a piece of furniture. You have to look at construction techniques of the period. And construction materials can make a difference too. A Chippendale chair that reveals a plywood splat is certainly not an 18th century chair. Neither is one that is assembled using round dowels, nor one that is made of gum (wood) with a dark mahogany dye stain in it. Determining the age is probably the most complicated of all the descriptive categories and requires the most study.
WOOD
The next detail you need to know about the piece is the WOOD from which it is made. Identifying wood is perhaps the area that many collectors are weakest in. But it really can be fairly simple.
Wood is most easily identified by its texture. Coarse grain woods have deep crevices in the grain that are evident to the touch and are all hardwoods. Common coarse grain woods used in furniture are oak, ash, hickory, pecan, chestnut and elm. Medium grain woods have a finer texture but still have prominent open spaces. The most commonly used are walnut, mahogany and butternut or white walnut. The last type wood is the smooth or closed grain wood. This includes cherry, maple, birch, polar, gum, pine and beech. The wood is smooth and has no obvious open spaces in the grain.
If you can identify the relative coarseness of the grain you can boil your choice of woods down to the small handful of candidates commonly used in furniture production from that class.
FINISH
The final area of descriptive detail is the FINISH. Is it painted or does it have a transparent finish? If it is painted does it look original to the piece? If it is transparent does it appear to be a penetrating finish such as oil that leaves no apparent surface film or is it a surface finish that provides the piece with a protective skin? If it has a surface film that usually means the finish is shellac, lacquer, varnish or urethane. A few simple tests with solvents will help determine which it is among the possible candidates. With a cotton swab apply a small amount of denatured alcohol in an inconspicuous spot. After 30 seconds test the spot with your finger. If the finish is sticky it is shellac. If it is still firm try the same test with lacquer thinner. If it’s sticky after 30 seconds the finish is lacquer. If not it is an oil based varnish or urethane or perhaps a water based urethane. In any event other than when the finish is shellac, you can be pretty sure that the finish is one from the 20th century or later, either original or overcoated.
Don’t you wish you could get that much detail in an auction catalog?
___
Send comments, questions and pictures to Fred Taylor at P.O. Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423 or email them to him at info@furnituredetective.com.
Visit Fred’s website at www.furnituredetective.com. His book How To Be a Furniture Detective is available for $18.95 plus $3 shipping. Send check or money order for $21.95 to Fred Taylor, P.O. Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423.
Fred and Gail Taylor’s DVD, Identification of Older & Antique Furniture ($17 + $3 S&H) is also available at the same address. For more information call 800-387-6377 (9 a.m.-4 p.m. EDT, M-F only), fax 352-563-2916, or info@furnituredetective.com. All items are also available directly from his website.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
1825 Empire couch, mahogany with transparent surface film, probably not original.
The top lot at Cowan’s auction was this painting by Elizabeth Nourse, ‘Mere et Bebe,’ which sold for $31,750. Image courtesy Cowan’s Auctions. CINCINNATI – Cowan’s Auctions Fine and Decorative Art Auction realized $465,000 in the May 19 sale. Over 1,100 people from over 16 different countries bid on the telephone, online and in Cowan’s salesroom.
The highest selling lot in the sale was a painting by Elizabeth Nourse (American, 1859-1938) titled Mere et Bebe, which sold for $31,750.
Other regional works did particularly well in the auction as well. A work by Cincinnati artist Frank Duveneck titled Mary Mallon, sold for $8,812.
“I was very pleased with the outcome,“ notes Graydon Sikes, director, paintings and prints. “The Elizabeth Nourse hammered down to a Cincinnati collector, which is evidence that our regional artists are still of considerable interest.”
A collection of George Nakashima furniture also performed well in the sale. A Nakashima armchair realized $4,500. A Nakashima settee sold for $4,406. A set of George Nakashima Mira Chairs hammered down at $3,240.
Pablo Picasso ceramics were also among the top-selling lots offered in the auction. A Pablo Picasso earthenware vase sold for $18,000. A Pablo Picasso Mudoura earthenware jug realized $5,285, and a Pablo Picasso plate realized $3,290.
An Andrew Clemens sand bottle, dated 1888, surpassed its estimate of $3,000-$5,000 and hammered down at $8,225.
A number of Chinese lots also exceeded their estimates. A Chinese export mother-of-pearl inlaid bench and chair, estimated at $3,000-$5,000, sold for $7,800. A set of Chinese porcelain lamps realized $5,100. A Chinese altar table sold for $3,600.
Additional noteworthy lots were a 3-gallon Edgefield, S.C., jar attributed to slave potter Dave Drake, which realized $9,400. A painting by George Phippen, titled No Life for the Easily Bruised, made $6,600. A Rookwood wall mural from the Mills Restaurant, a fixture in downtown Cincinnati for many years, realized $2,350. A Massachusetts slant-front secretary-bookcase attributed to cabinetmaker John Smith (1768-1834) sold for $3,055.
For more information about upcoming sales at Cowan’s Aucton, visit www.cowans.com or call 513-871-1670.
Fu Baoishi’s ‘Three Musicians’ is a departure from the nationalistic style that made him popular in the 20th century. It is Lot 33, expected to bring $100,000-$150,000. Image courtesy Gianguan Auctions.NEW YORK – As Gianguan Auctions prepares for its June 10 sale, Kwong Lum, president of the company, advises collectors on how to manage the changing dynamic in the Chinese art market. “This period of adjustment,” he says, “should be viewed as an opportune time to buy.”
Lum said that, according to the Chinese Association of Auctioneers, sales statistics show a drop of more than 18% in total revenues for 2011 (as compared to 2010), as well as a 20% (this is an estimate, as no official figures are ever published) non pick-up rate.
“Auction houses in Europe and the USA are alarmed by the non pick-ups especially of the high-priced items,” Lum said, but he also noted that an adjustment is “not necessarily a bad thing for the antique market, as the short history and rapid ascent of the Chinese antiques auctions may, in fact, have created a bubble. An adjustment period will correct a lot of wrongs.”
Lum’s advice is reflected in the realistic estimates and reliable cataloging of the fine Chinese paintings, ceramics, bronzes and works of art in the upcoming 315-lot sale, which will feature Internet live bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com.
Gianguan opens its morning session with more than 70 traditional and contemporary paintings by renowned Chinese artists whose works are in the $4,000-$25,000 range. World art leaders included in the sale offer promise for high-level collectors.
Among these is Zhang Daqian’s Lotus. Collectors will remember that Zhang Daqian’s works outsold Picasso’s in 2011. Lotus is an ink on paper image, rendered in a matured splashed-ink technique vaguely reminiscent of the Abstract Expressionist movement. Its three stamps and seal are from Daqian’s own collection. It is Lot 12. The catalog estimate is $200,000-$300,000.
Fu Baishi, whose recent retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art introduced him to audiences worldwide, is represented by an ink and paper scroll titled Three Musicians. A departure from the nationalistic style favored by Mao, this painting of musicians in a landscape integrates poetic atmosphere with traditional ink technique. It is Lot 33, expected to bring $100,000-$150,000.
Lot 62, a Bodhisattva painting with calligraphy by Master Hongyi, should be well received at $8,000-$12,000. Of black and red inks on paper, the work of art is a fitting way to celebrate the 130th anniversary of the artist, who became a monk at the age of 39.
The catalog cover features Lin Liang’s Hawk and Magpies, a Ming Dynasty ink and color on paper. The highly detailed painting portrays birds on a tree branch. Inscribed by Liang Qingbiao, signed Lin Liang, the large scroll carries four collectors seals. It is Lot 53 and expected to bring around $300,000.
Gianguan Auctions’ afternoon session is comprised of decorative arts, many of them scholar objects. Some are functional and others are inspirational. Most are small enough to decorate a desk or complement a study.
For the contemporary office, there is a finely carved zitan telephone with LED screen and push buttons. The casing is remarkable openwork carving of gnarled branches adorned with birds, flowers, bamboo and plum blossoms. The unusual phone is expected to bring upwards of $15,000.
Among the traditional items, the highlight is an Imperial Qian Long zitan brushpot raised on three tab feet. It is signed by the emperor. The inlays of wood, mother-of-pearl, coral, malachite and ivory depict birds among prunus blossoms and rockery. A spring poem and two imperial seals complete the design. Estimate is $10,000-$15,000.
Two other brush pots of note are Lots 263 and 311, each with thick walls and high relief carvings. Both are in the $3,000-$4,000 range.
The most unusual of the brush pots is carved from a zitan tree root, its naturalistic form unadorned. It is lot 327, estimated at $2,000 upward.
Of the Chinese ceramics, the marquee item is a rare Qing Dynasty Famille Rose red garlic head vase similar to one in the permanent collection of the newly renovated Beijing Capital Museum. It is Lot 271 and is finely painted with flowering prunus branches and bamboo, the design features two birds. The leaves are drawn in shades of green to blue, all reversed on an even rich red ground. The vase stands 8 1/2 inches tall and bears the Yongzheng Four Character mark and is of the period. The estimate is available on request.
Collectors in the market for accessible small items will find a collection of seals—Tianhuang, Shoushan, Jixue and Furonog—clustered at Lots 162–170.
With the popularity of carved jades strong, collectors will discover numerous offerings of jades rendered in naturalistic forms and as groupings. Their estimates range from $4,000-$20,000.
For complete details these items as well as the cinnabar and ivory carvings, decorative ceramics and pottery, see the online catalog at http://gianguanauctions.com.
Gianguan Auctions’ June 10 sale begins at 11 a.m. EDT. It will be conducted live at the gallery, 285 Madison Ave. in Manhattan and online at LiveAuctioneers.com. For condition reports, call 212-867-7288.
Hong Yi (Li Shutong) (1880-1942), Bodhisattva hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, 26 x 26 1/4 inches. Estimate: $8,000-$12,000. Image courtesy Gianguan Auctions.
Finely carved zitan telephone with base of openwork carving. Estimate: upward of $15,000. Image courtesy Gianguan Auctions.
A rare Qing Dynasty Famille Rose red garlic head vase similar to one in the permanent collection of the Beijing Capital Museum. Image courtesy Gianguan Auctions.
Fu Baoishi’s ‘Three Musicians’ is a departure from the nationalistic style that made him popular in the 20th century. It is Lot 33, expected to bring $100,000-$150,000. Image courtesy Gianguan Auctions.
William Herbert ‘Buck’ Dunton (American 1878-1936), ‘The Trail Boss (Settlers & Seeds, Civilization’s Forerunner).’ Estimate: $200,000-$300,000. Image courtesy Michaan’s Auctions. ALAMEDA, Calif. – Michaan’s Auctions’ June Fine Arts Sale features superior works of art from many notable American and European masters of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Property was acquired primarily from estates, private collections and institutions throughout the West Coast.
LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding for the Saturday, June 9 auction, which will begin at 10 a.m. PDT.
The selection of lots includes oil paintings, prints, sculptures and works on paper, highlighted by several outstanding pieces in a variety of categories.
American artists comprise over half of the featured lots in the sale. An important and desirable work of art is found in a rare piece by William Herbert “Buck” Dunton. The oil painting titled The Trail Boss (Settlers & Seeds, Civilization’s Forerunners) is estimated at $200,000-$300,000. The Trail Boss was commissioned by the D.M. Ferry Seed Co. in 1910, who hired Dunton to create an iconic image that encapsulated the totality of what it meant to migrate to the West. The painting depicts the trail boss, or wagon train foreman, traveling on horseback through a plains with covered wagons in tow. Dunton’s unique style of painting in bold, patterned brushstrokes of rich color is as distinctive as his themes of the Old West. In demand by high-end collectors as well as those seeking Western genre pieces, Dunton’s works are widely and critically acclaimed with numerous public institutions and museums holding his best work.
Also available is Hermann Herzog’s Farallon Islands, Pacific Coast. The tranquil oil is lovely in its understated subtlety, utilizing muted tones in a realist style. Seabirds in flight dot the ocean scene of crashing waves. The painting measures 22 by 29 inches and has a $20,000-$30,000 estimate.
In striking contrast is Gilbert Gaul’s Unexpected Encounter. The dramatic winter scene depicts a High Sierra cowboy upon horseback unknowingly coming across three wolves ($20,000-$30,000). Gaul received many prestigious recognitions over the span of his career. In 1882 he was the youngest person to be elected a full academician at the National Academy. He was also awarded medals by the American Art Association, the Paris Exposition, the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and the Buffalo Exposition.
Frederick Ferdinand Schafer’s popularity has skyrocketed in recent years and collector interest continues to grow for the quintessential California nature artist. His pieces are known to bring $125,000 at auction and high hopes are held for landscape painting Morning on Feather River, California ($6,000-$9,000). Schafer had studios in San Francisco and homes in Alameda and Oakland, where he died in 1927.
Simplistic in its beauty is William John Whittemore’s John Dickerson Farm, 1901 ($4,000-$6,000). The rural scene of barns among a country landscape is played out in shades of rust tones, conveying a crisp, autumn feel to the piece. Whittemore’s painting career spanned an impressive 65 years. He also studied under renowned teacher J.J. Benjamin Constant and Jules Joseph Le Febrve at the Academie Julian.
Another wonderfully understated oil is George Frederick Bensell’s The Watering Hole ($3,000-$5,000). The landscape scene is painted in shades of sepia and centers naturally formed rocks scattered among a declining forest. A misty mountain surrounded by billowing clouds complete the background of the painting. Bensell was well-known for commissioning portraits, landscapes, historical and “poetical genre” subjects for his wealthy clientele. He is also recognized as a cofounder of the Philadelphia Sketch Club, one of America’s oldest existing artists’ groups.
Notable offerings from international artists compose many fine sale lots as well. From Spanish painter Emilio Grau Sala is the lively Paddock en Normandie. The late 1950s, early 1960s modernism racehorse scene is in absolutely pristine condition. Bought from a gallery, it then remained in a private family estate for two generations. The vibrant oil depicts horse race revelers consorting with a jockey as additional jockeys upon horses and patrons mill about the scene. The vivacious brush strokes and vibrant colors bring a palpable energy to the painting, a piece sure to draw strong collector interest ($18,000-$26,000).
Wolf von dem Bussche began his career as a painter, but despite the positive response to his work he was never completely fulfilled by the medium. As a result, he made the transition to photography. His sensibilities as a painter remained evident in his photographs as he continued to address thematic issues that interested him in his former career. The German artist is perhaps best known for his images of the World Trade Center Towers in New York City. Michaan’s is pleased to have a portfolio of 12 silver gelatin prints depicting the World Trade Center and Washington Square. The collection provides a reflective tribute to some of von dem Bussche’s most compelling work ($10,000-$15,000).
French artist Jehan Georges Vibert’s paintings held a prominent following during his career. John Jacob Astor IV and William Vanderbilt included his pieces in their collections, and heiress May Louise Maytag amassed a large amount of his paintings on behalf of the then Bishop of Miami, Coleman Carroll. The Maytag accumulation was eventually donated to St. John Vianney College in Miami. The Cardinal, depicts a Roman Catholic cleric on a garden stroll. The lot includes an informative article of Vibert written by Bill Rau from the Fine Art Connoisseur, April 2011 ($15,000-$25,000).
Another highlight from a Parisian artist lies in Henri Joseph Harpignies’ Washing the Laundry ($6,000-$9,000). The realist painting portrays two handmaidens washing laundry in a bucolic lake setting. Harpignies experienced some of his greatest successes at the Salon as a regular exhibitor and award winner. He also completed the decorative panel the Vallée d’Egérie for the Paris Opéra, shown at the Salon of 1870.
A founder of the Artists’ Association of New Orleans, Bror Anders Wikstrom was a Swedish artist who was at the forefront of the New Orleans art scene in the late 19th century. His offering, Florida Marsh, depicts grand cypress trees growing in a shaded swamp ($4,000-$6,000). His delicate use of light and easy brush strokes make the piece come to life in quite an inspiring way.
Previews begin on June 1st and continue until the day of sale at Michaan’s Auctions , 2751 Todd St., Alameda, CA 94501.
For more information please visit www.michaans.com or call the front desk at 510-740-0220.
The Grappler, a holdout often used on-stage by the actor and comedian Harry Anderson, best know for his lead role on TV’s ‘Night Court.’ Estimate: $4,000-$6,000. Image courtesy Potter & Potter Auctions. CHICAGO – The secrets of a Cicero mob-run casino are going up for auction. On June 23, Potter & Potter Auctions will conduct its second annual auction of gambling memorabilia.
LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
A highlight of the sale will be a recently discovered set of duplicate books from El Patio, an illegal mob-run casino in Cicero Ill. Louis Campagna, one of Al Capone’s closest bodyguards, owned a piece of the action at El Patio.
The books—uncovered in the rafters of the club by a worker who helped demolish the building in the 1960s—lays out exactly what illegal gambling went on there in the heyday of the mob in the Chicago burbs, and how the house almost always won. They recall the era of Prohibition and illegal gambling dens of the 1930s, depicted in movies like The Godfather. One of the books even “names names,” cataloging the identities of all the employees at the club. The books have never, until now, seen the light of day.
The auction will also feature relics of another dark side of gambling: cheating devices.
These devices make winning games of chance a sure thing. Among them will be two holdout tables—pieces of furniture that secretly add or remove cards from the hands of the gambler, and another table which allows the operator to literally see through the backs of playing cards in his opponent’s hands.
These will be complemented by many rare and early books on how to cheat at various table games. Among them are the true first edition of How Gamblers Win, of which only five examples are known; a possibly unique book on cheating at Baccarat, Le Guide du Jouer; and a first edition of S.W. Erdnase’s The Expert at the Card Table.
Rounding out the sale will be an assortment of decorative items, ephemera, punch boards, roulette wheels, faro dealing boxes, layouts, case keepers, corner rounders and trimmer, trade stimulators, associated gambling and gaming items, and rare books on poker, dice and trade catalogs.
An illustrated catalog will be available in late May from Potter & Potter.
For more information, contact Gabe Fajuri, Potter & Potter Auctions Inc., 3759 N. Ravenswood Ave., Suite 121, Chicago, IL 60613; phone 773-472-1442; email gabe@potterauctions.com or visit the website www.potterauctions.com.
The Grappler, a holdout often used on-stage by the actor and comedian Harry Anderson, best know for his lead role on TV’s ‘Night Court.’ Estimate: $4,000-$6,000. Image courtesy Potter & Potter Auctions.
