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London Fairs & Market Report – October 2008

The entrance to the Frieze Art Fair in Regent's Park, London on October 17. Image Auction Central News.

“I don’t care about the so-called credit crunch; it’s all hype anyway,” said Tot Taylor, a director of London contemporary art dealers Riflemaker, at this year’s Zoo art fair at London’s Royal Academy of Arts. “It will have no effect on us at all.”

Mr. Taylor’s comment may have been fuelled by a rush of optimism after selling several pieces from his stand on the first day of the fair, which shows work by young and emerging contemporary artists. But he may have been talking too soon. Over at the Frieze Art Fair in Regent’s Park – the main event in what is now the capital’s busiest art week – the buzz and energy of previous years was notably lacking on the opening day. “The Americans seem to have stayed away,” was the mantra echoing around the marquee.

Gallery Report: October 2008

Late Navajo serape, $123,375, Cowan’s

A late classic Navajo serape (circa 1865), with lac and cochineal dyes, sold for $123,375 at a Fall American Indian Art Auction held Sept. 13 by Cowan’s Auctions in Cincinnati. Also, a Delaware beaded bandolier bag (circa 1850), with a box inscribed Fort Gibson, Okla., hammered for $41,125; an early 20th century unsigned jar by Maria Martinez, with geometric hooks and frets interspersed with abstract florals, coasted to $18,000; and a photograph by Edward Curtis titled Oasis in the Badlands brought $8,812. Prices include a 17.5 percent buyer’s premium.

London Eye: October 2008

Sarah Maple, Haram, 2008, oil on canvas, 80 x 112cm, Image courtesy SaLon Gallery, London

With all eyes on the marquee in Regents Park where the sixth annual Frieze contemporary art fair opens on Oct. 16 in an atmosphere of nervous apprehension [full report to appear soon on Auction Central News], it was easy to miss one or two other newsworthy items developing elsewhere in the capital.

Over at the recently opened SaLon Gallery in West London, work by young British contemporary artist Sarah Maple has been incurring the wrath of The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), according to UK broadsheet the Daily Telegraph.

The oil painting in question, titled Haram, shows the artist, herself a young British Muslim, wearing traditional Islamic dress and cradling a pig. According to the Daily Telegraph report, Mokhtar Badri, a spokesman for MAB, objected to the work on the grounds that Muslims are “taught to keep their distance from pigs because they are unclean”. The Telegraph item said that MAB “plans to visit the SaLon Gallery to demand that it remove Maple’s painting” when the exhibition opens on Oct. 16. Understandably, SaLon Gallery increased its security provision ahead of the opening.

Gallery Report: September 2008

Laminated Belter bed, $33,350, Grand View

A laminated rosewood bed, made around 1850 by John Henry Belter and with the original finish, sold for $33,350 at an estate sale held June 21 by Grand View Antiques & Auction in Roanoke, Ala. Also, an American Renaissance Revival walnut bookcase, circa 1870, with raised burl panels and architectural carved detail, earned $14,375; a pair of Victorian gilt-carved, over the mantel mirrors, circa 1860, coasted to $13,800; and a French bronze annular clock, signed L. Auricoste of Paris, went for $9,775. Prices include a 15 percent buyer’s premium.

London Eye: September 2008

Damien Hirst, The Kingdom, 2008, £9.6 million, Sotheby’s, London, Sept. 16, 2008. Courtesy Sotheby’s. Today’s rate is: £1 = $1.79.

On Sept. 16, controversial British artist Damien Hirst drove a chainsaw through established conventions governing the art trade by selling £70.5 million ($127 million, inclusive of buyer’s premium) worth of new art at Sotheby’s in London. Sidestepping his dealer agents – White Cube in London and Gagosian Gallery in New York – Hirst consigned directly to Sotheby’s, which also broke the rules by agreeing to auction literally new artworks.

Gallery Report: August 2008

Oriel china cabinet, $24,150, Cowan’s

A late 19th-century Oriel Cabinet Company oak china cabinet, adorned with full-bodied Norman soldiers and a carved crest featuring cherub figures and grotesques, sold for $24,150 at a Summer Fine & Decorative Art Auction held June 21 by Cowan’s Auctions in Cincinnati, Oh. Also, five lots of stoneware pig flasks made in Anna, Ill., went for a combined $53,47; the top lot of the group was a railroad pig marked “Cincinnati the Pork City” that soared to $14,950. Also, a watercolor painting by Italian artist Marie Martinetti changed hands for $12,075.

Gallery Report: July 2008

1825 Tanner Atlas, $42,500, Cowan’s

An 1825 copy of the Tanner New American Atlas, containing maps of several states of the North American Union, prepared and drawn on a uniform scale (Henry S. Tanner, Philadelphia), sold for $42,500 at a Spring Western and Historic Americana Auction held June 5 by Cowan’s Auctions in Cincinnati. Also, a reverse glass panorama painting of the Chicago Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, 100” x 27.5”, mounted in the original frame, achieved $35,650; and a ghost dance shirt, dated 1891, worn by the Sioux Indians in the Dakotas and Montana, made $16,100.

Furniture Specific: Sex and the Seating

Latin is a dead language, dead as it can be. First it killed the Romans, and now it’s killing me.” I heard that refrain numerous times in the two years of high school that I took instruction in that archaic form of communication. One of the things that always bugged me about Latin was the requirement that nouns have a gender associated with them. For example a table was tabula, a masculine form. Other nouns were feminine, and yet others were neutral. Why? It didn’t really matter to me, but it must have mattered to the Romans, because the plural and possessive forms of nouns were determined by their gender.

Parlor set Roux

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This parlor set made by Alexander Roux is typical of the elaborate seven-piece sets from the height of the Victorian period of the middle part of 19th century. Each piece of seating is clearly identifiable by size and shape. Photo courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive.

Today it matters even less to most of us what the supposed gender, if any, of a piece of furniture, happens to be. A chair is a chair, and a table is a table. That sexist stuff doesn’t work anymore – except in certain cases like a “gentleman’s chest” or a “lady’s writing desk.” But those are easy to figure out, and most of those items are from a time past.
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