Warning: This article contains mild spoilers for the first two seasons of Bridgerton.
NEW YORK – Today, May 16, Part One of the third season of the Netflix series Bridgerton appears, with episodes from Part Two scheduled to go live on Thursday, June 13.
[av_heading heading=’René Boivin’s unique sparkle shines through in his jewelry’ tag=’h1′ style=” subheading_active=” show_icon=” icon=’ue800′ font=’entypo-fontello’ size=” av-desktop-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” subheading_size=” av-desktop-font-size=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” icon_size=” av-desktop-font-size-1=” av-medium-font-size-1=” av-small-font-size-1=” av-mini-font-size-1=” color=” custom_font=” subheading_color=” seperator_color=” icon_color=” margin=’,,35px,’ av-desktop-margin=” av-desktop-margin_sync=’true’ av-medium-margin=” av-medium-margin_sync=’true’ av-small-margin=’,,20px,’ av-mini-margin=” av-mini-margin_sync=’true’ headline_padding=” headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-desktop-headline_padding=” av-desktop-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-medium-headline_padding=” av-medium-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-small-headline_padding=” av-small-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-mini-headline_padding=” av-mini-headline_padding_sync=’true’ padding=’10’ av-desktop-padding=” av-medium-padding=” av-small-padding=” av-mini-padding=” icon_padding=’10’ av-desktop-icon_padding=” av-medium-icon_padding=” av-small-icon_padding=” av-mini-icon_padding=” link=” link_target=” title_attr=” id=” custom_class=” template_class=” av_uid=’av-lnudf6i6′ sc_version=’1.0′ admin_preview_bg=”][/av_heading]
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NEW YORK — French goldsmith and engraver René Boivin (1864-1917) built an impressive company that was one of the leading European jewelry houses in the 20th century. Known for his striking designs that went against the naturalistic look that prevailed during the Art Nouveau era, Boivin was celebrated for his unusual choice of materials and his wildly imaginative pieces. The Maison Boivin (House of Boivin) continued in business for decades after his death under his wife Jeanne Boivin’s leadership, and she held true to his legacy, creating many inventive compositions that blended semi-precious stones or pearls with materials such as enamel, rock crystal and hardstones.
[av_heading heading=’Jean Prouvé furniture has proven itself on the market’ tag=’h1′ style=” subheading_active=” show_icon=” icon=’ue800′ font=’entypo-fontello’ size=” av-desktop-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” subheading_size=” av-desktop-font-size=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” icon_size=” av-desktop-font-size-1=” av-medium-font-size-1=” av-small-font-size-1=” av-mini-font-size-1=” color=” custom_font=” subheading_color=” seperator_color=” icon_color=” margin=’,,35px,’ av-desktop-margin=” av-desktop-margin_sync=’true’ av-medium-margin=” av-medium-margin_sync=’true’ av-small-margin=’,,20px,’ av-mini-margin=” av-mini-margin_sync=’true’ headline_padding=” headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-desktop-headline_padding=” av-desktop-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-medium-headline_padding=” av-medium-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-small-headline_padding=” av-small-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-mini-headline_padding=” av-mini-headline_padding_sync=’true’ padding=’10’ av-desktop-padding=” av-medium-padding=” av-small-padding=” av-mini-padding=” icon_padding=’10’ av-desktop-icon_padding=” av-medium-icon_padding=” av-small-icon_padding=” av-mini-icon_padding=” link=” link_target=” title_attr=” id=” custom_class=” template_class=” av_uid=’av-lnonee0h’ sc_version=’1.0′ admin_preview_bg=”][/av_heading]
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NEW YORK — Jean Prouvé (1901-1984) grew up steeped in the ideals of the Nancy School in France during the height of the Art Nouveau period. The designers and artists who worked there circa 1890-1914 shared the belief of creating art that could be accessed by all. With his background in metalworking and architecture — he taught himself both skills — Prouvé is renowned for having an industrial approach to design and manufacturing technology that let him create furniture that was both artful and affordable.
[av_heading heading=’Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collectibles are no joke’ tag=’h1′ style=” subheading_active=” show_icon=” icon=’ue800′ font=’entypo-fontello’ size=” av-desktop-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” subheading_size=” av-desktop-font-size=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” icon_size=” av-desktop-font-size-1=” av-medium-font-size-1=” av-small-font-size-1=” av-mini-font-size-1=” color=” custom_font=” subheading_color=” seperator_color=” icon_color=” margin=’,,35px,’ av-desktop-margin=” av-desktop-margin_sync=’true’ av-medium-margin=” av-medium-margin_sync=’true’ av-small-margin=’,,20px,’ av-mini-margin=” av-mini-margin_sync=’true’ headline_padding=” headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-desktop-headline_padding=” av-desktop-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-medium-headline_padding=” av-medium-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-small-headline_padding=” av-small-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-mini-headline_padding=” av-mini-headline_padding_sync=’true’ padding=’10’ av-desktop-padding=” av-medium-padding=” av-small-padding=” av-mini-padding=” icon_padding=’10’ av-desktop-icon_padding=” av-medium-icon_padding=” av-small-icon_padding=” av-mini-icon_padding=” link=” link_target=” title_attr=” id=” custom_class=” template_class=” av_uid=’av-lnlrwwte’ sc_version=’1.0′ admin_preview_bg=”][/av_heading]
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NEW YORK — The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) franchise is something of an accidental success. Artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird collaborated on a comic book that parodied some of their favorite comic series, and inadvertently gave rise to a multibillion-dollar franchise about four baby turtles that were transformed into human-like mutant superheroes and learned to be ninjas from a sewer rat that named them after the Renaissance artists Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael.
NEW YORK — The electric and dramatic colors in the paintings of Wolf Kahn (1927-2020) transformed average-looking fields and forests into otherworldly spectacles, surprising the viewers “without being offensive,” according to the artist himself.
Born in Germany and emigrating to the United States as a youth, Kahn mainly worked in pastels and oils and is now celebrated for his distinctive and compelling landscapes. Having studied under Hans Hofmann and later worked as his studio assistant, he came to painting from the standpoint of monochromatism and abstraction, explained Pauline Archambault, an American art specialist at Hindman in Chicago. “During the 1960s, after the advent of Abstract Expressionism, Kahn recalibrated his palette to vibrant colors and his canvases to colorful landscapes, recognizable as such, but veering into the abstract. His aesthetic is best defined as an interplay between figuration and color fields, whereby the pictorial veers into abstraction in subtle but unmistakable ways.”
Khan’s signature subject matter — landscapes — was focused on New England, especially the features of Vermont, where he lived and painted for decades. “His trademark subject, that of the landscape – typically a row of trees, the edge of a forest, sometimes featuring a cabin or house – stands in this liminal space between realistic and blurry representation,” Archambault said. “The contours are soft, the elements of the landscape blend into each other, and from that emanates an emphasis on texture and pure color, through vibrant polychromatic arrangements.”
She noted that “both in the lineage of and in reaction to the ethos of pure abstraction that defined the mid-20th century, Kahn subsequently reinvented the traditional subject of the landscape, opening it to new ways of painting and seeing, but also recasting it as the locus where creative and aesthetic innovations are possible.”
Works such as Against Near Hills, Evening, in which forests are rainbow-fuschia instead of green and the grass is a dreamlike shade of seafoam-aqua, are among those that greatly appeal to collectors. This 1991 oil on canvas tripled its high estimate in November 2021 when it attained $150,000 plus the buyer’s premium at Swann Auction Galleries.
Archambault said collectors gravitate towards the dramatic qualities of Kahn’s work, which can be hard to pin down, but involve his peculiar use of color. “The color is never exactly realistic, especially where Kahn put[s] it in his painting. For example, a painting may unmistakably depict the edge of a forest, but the sky is of an intense purple hue, suggesting an impending change in the weather, or perhaps an unlikely time of day, or something else entirely,” she said. “There is a level of unease, whereby the work draws attention to its own artificiality while also releasing an evocative feel. The colors look jarring initially, sometimes imperceptibly so, but they imbue the landscape with calm and serenity. It is this dichotomy, this formal tour de force, that draws viewers in and makes Kahn’s works so fascinating.”
Kahn shows his mastery of color — knowing exactly how far to go but no further — in paintings such as A Grove Against a Hillside, a 1994 oil painting that attained $95,000 plus the buyer’s premium in July 2021 at Mark Lawson Antiques, Inc.
The secondary market for the artist hit a high around 2020, shortly after Kahn’s death from congestive heart failure at the age of 92; some collectors who had hung onto his paintings for years decided the time was right to sell. Many Kahn pieces became available then, as is typical when a major artist passes. The market for his work eventually settled back down, but it remains strong. “While his passing may certainly have factored in, with renewed attention to his legacy, it is also important to underline that his work corresponds to the taste that currently predominates among buyers, who are drawn precisely to what Kahn’s paintings have to offer: colorful, soft, modern,” Archambault said. “The market still appears strong in 2023, with top prices achieved for landscapes featuring trees, including six-figure prices for the most sizable examples.”
Among those strong prices are two paintings that Hindman sold in 2022 that are emblematic of Kahn’s aesthetic, having “vibrant color, nearing but not quite reaching abstraction, modernist softness, and a self-reflexive quality of the work bringing attention to its own texture and visual construction,” according to Archambault. One of these works was Against a Dark Blue Sky II, a 1998 oil on canvas that easily outperformed its high estimate when it sold for $90,000 plus the buyer’s premium in May 2022 at Hindman. In the same auction, Hindman offered an untitled Kahn painting from 1993 practically sizzled with bright colors, with yellow-orange trees topping a fuschia undergrowth in the forest. That painting took $50,000 plus the buyer’s premium.
Kahn arguably comes closest to approaching abstraction in an ethereal yet electric painting with a similar composition to that of Against a Dark Blue Sky II. In this work, titled Overall Green, his luminescent lime greens and cool pinks enliven a familiar forest scene, keeping the viewer engaged and also perhaps a little off-balance. The painting made $75,000 plus the buyer’s premium in November 2020 at Freeman’s. “Trees and mountains, skies and fields are nearly always recognizable, but are often reduced to bands of color that play off one another in a way that approaches abstraction.” according to the catalog description.
Many of Kahn’s paintings reflect no evidence of human beings or their existence, but a fine landscape from 1976, Looking Down to the Woodshed, has a rustic shed in the foreground. It sold for $75,000 plus the buyer’s premium in December 2022 at Palm Beach Modern Auctions.
Kahn’s work deftly straddles the line between abstract and representational art. His New England landscapes are clearly distinguishable, and his carefully organized arrangements of bands of color and light compel the viewer to dig deep into each atmospheric scene and all its nuances.
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NEW YORK — Long after an artist’s passing, it sometimes takes a new book or a museum or gallery retrospective to reawaken collectors’ appetites and stir the marketplace. With Texas folk artist Rev. Johnnie Swearingen (1908-1993), all has been fairly quiet for decades, but the market has nonetheless been on the rise.
[av_heading heading=’Christopher Dresser: British designer par excellence’ tag=’h1′ style=” subheading_active=” show_icon=” icon=’ue800′ font=’entypo-fontello’ size=” av-desktop-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” subheading_size=” av-desktop-font-size=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” icon_size=” av-desktop-font-size-1=” av-medium-font-size-1=” av-small-font-size-1=” av-mini-font-size-1=” color=” custom_font=” subheading_color=” seperator_color=” icon_color=” margin=’,,35px,’ av-desktop-margin=” av-desktop-margin_sync=’true’ av-medium-margin=” av-medium-margin_sync=’true’ av-small-margin=’,,20px,’ av-mini-margin=” av-mini-margin_sync=’true’ headline_padding=” headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-desktop-headline_padding=” av-desktop-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-medium-headline_padding=” av-medium-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-small-headline_padding=” av-small-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-mini-headline_padding=” av-mini-headline_padding_sync=’true’ padding=’10’ av-desktop-padding=” av-medium-padding=” av-small-padding=” av-mini-padding=” icon_padding=’10’ av-desktop-icon_padding=” av-medium-icon_padding=” av-small-icon_padding=” av-mini-icon_padding=” link=” link_target=” title_attr=” id=” custom_class=” template_class=” av_uid=’av-ln3itsex’ sc_version=’1.0′ admin_preview_bg=”][/av_heading]
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NEW YORK — Christopher Dresser (1834-1904) was called the “father of industrial design” and created many useful objects for the home. His works took inspiration from botanical sources as well as the artistic culture of Japan. While he was a key figure of the British Aesthetic Movement, embracing the spirit of making “art for art’s sake,” he was also commercially savvy enough to avail himself of the newest mass production techniques. He ensured his goods were well-designed but accessible to all, not just the wealthy.
Dresser designed pieces in a range of materials, including silver, ceramics, glass and textiles, and also made furniture. His influence on the tastes of North America and Europe is still visible today.
Among his most collectible forms are his small metalware objects, including his utilitarian toast racks, which were influenced by Japanese minimalism. Dresser attended the Centennial International Exhibition in 1876 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which was the first World’s Fair in the United States, and then visited Japan during 1876-77. While there, he traded British goods for a number of artisan-made objects. He was also commissioned by Tiffany & Co. to procure several thousand Japanese art objects to send back to their New York offices.
While at first seeming stark and perhaps even austere, his toast racks are abstract and akin to modern art. A silver-plated six-division toast rack he created for James Dixon & Sons made $5,829 plus the buyer’s premium in March 2020 at Kinghams Auctioneers. The circa-1881 rack, model 67, has a triple-arched form, each section having seven bars, and a rectangular handle. The V&A Museum in London, which has more than 400 of Dresser’s objects (including toast racks) in its collection, noted on its website that “Dresser’s most innovative designs were for objects to be made in metal.”
Dresser produced approximately 80 designs for James Dixon & Sons, which was founded in Sheffield, England in 1806 and was one of the most prominent makers in the Industrial Revolution. Not all his designs are believed to have been commercially produced, however. “This was possibly due to comparative expense of manufacture, but also because of the radical nature of the designs,” according to Lyon & Turnbull.
One fine design for Dixon was a spherical teapot, which was pictured in a cost book kept in the firm’s Sheffield archives with this description “1 gill teapot 2278/ Designed by Dr. Dresser.” The electroplated silver teapot, having a lozenge mark for 1880 and an ebony handle, made £10,000, or about $12,145 plus the buyer’s premium in November 2020 at Lyon & Turnbull.
Some of his best and most innovative designs followed his trip to Japan, as seen in an Aesthetic Movement chamber candlestick that earned £4,400, or about $5,344 plus the buyer’s premium in October 2021 at Lyon & Turnbull. This circa-1880 example was designed for the renowned London silversmiths Hukin & Heath. It was made of London electroplated silver and had an ebonized handle, a removable nozzle and a vesta cover.
Aspiring to create artful interiors that were elegantly simple, Dresser’s furniture designs departed from the overly ornate Victorian styles previously in vogue. His furniture had a modern look while still clearly showing influences from ancient Egypt and Greece as well as Asian styles. A gray-painted cast iron tall back chair, probably made circa 1869-70 for the British concern the Coalbrookdale Company, far surpassed its $1,000-$1,500 estimate to bring $11,000 plus the buyer’s premium at Stair in September 2020.
Dresser is also well known for his ceramics, which, like most of his other designs, have proven to be solid investments and have held their value on the market. A notable piece of Dresser stoneware is his chocolate-colored Flat Fish vase, of which an 1872 example brought $10,000 plus the buyer’s premium at Freeman’s in February 2023. According to the National Portrait Gallery, this vase design was originally created for the Linthorpe Pottery in Middlesbrough, England and helped put the town on the map as a key ceramics center. The example pictured was made at Wedgwood, however. “This vase was inspired by the shape of a fish. Its tail forms the base and its mouth forms the opening at the top with an ‘eye’ underneath,” according to the museum’s website.
Dresser also dabbled in glass relatively late in his career, and pieces in this medium are also sought after. Outperforming its £600-£800 ($735-$980) estimate was an early Clutha vase for James Couper & Sons in Glasgow, Scotland, where Dresser served as the firm’s designer from the 1880s to 1896. The circa-1890 vase brought £4,000, or $4,858 plus the buyer’s premium in April 2023 at Lyon & Turnbull. Named for the Roman patron goddess of the river Clyde (alternately spelled Clota or Clutha), this vase design also pays homage to the Clyde river flowing through Scotland.
According to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has a similar example in its collection, this design evinces “Dresser’s taste for the techniques and properties of the medium in a different, very particular way: its elongated form and clean, uninterrupted outline is attainable thanks to the lack of any necessary joins in the blown, drawn glass; the graceful patterning in opaque green glass accentuates this quality.”
Another daring Dresser design is a circa-1885 egg-shaped flask in brass and copper for Benham & Froud that realized £3,400, or $4,129 plus the buyer’s premium in April 2023 at Lyon & Turnbull. It retained its original stopper and chain, a fact which helped the piece sell above its £2,000-£3,000 ($2,450-$3,600) estimate.
Despite normal market fluctuations, the market for Christopher Dresser has been continually strong, owing to the enduring value of his daring designs. Contemporary collectors may find it harder to acquire museum-quality pieces as they seldom change hands and many are in institutional collections. Still, in keeping with his mission to make art accessible to all, works by Dresser appear at auction every so often; glass and ceramic smalls are most common.
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[av_heading heading=’Charles Loloma transformed Native American jewelry’ tag=’h1′ style=” subheading_active=” show_icon=” icon=’ue800′ font=’entypo-fontello’ size=” av-desktop-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” subheading_size=” av-desktop-font-size=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” icon_size=” av-desktop-font-size-1=” av-medium-font-size-1=” av-small-font-size-1=” av-mini-font-size-1=” color=” custom_font=” subheading_color=” seperator_color=” icon_color=” margin=’,,35px,’ av-desktop-margin=” av-desktop-margin_sync=’true’ av-medium-margin=” av-medium-margin_sync=’true’ av-small-margin=’,,20px,’ av-mini-margin=” av-mini-margin_sync=’true’ headline_padding=” headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-desktop-headline_padding=” av-desktop-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-medium-headline_padding=” av-medium-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-small-headline_padding=” av-small-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-mini-headline_padding=” av-mini-headline_padding_sync=’true’ padding=’10’ av-desktop-padding=” av-medium-padding=” av-small-padding=” av-mini-padding=” icon_padding=’10’ av-desktop-icon_padding=” av-medium-icon_padding=” av-small-icon_padding=” av-mini-icon_padding=” link=” link_target=” title_attr=” id=” custom_class=” template_class=” av_uid=’av-ln0nb1dg’ sc_version=’1.0′ admin_preview_bg=”][/av_heading]
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NEW YORK — More than three decades after his death, Charles Loloma’s transcendent jewelry continues to influence jewelry design and attract new fans. Actor Lily Gladstone wore a Loloma ring set with coral, lapis, sugilite and turquoise on the October 2023 cover of British Vogue that highlights Native American designers.
[av_heading heading=’Wendell Castle’s studio furniture stacks up fans and dollars’ tag=’h1′ style=” subheading_active=” show_icon=” icon=’ue800′ font=’entypo-fontello’ size=” av-desktop-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” subheading_size=” av-desktop-font-size=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” icon_size=” av-desktop-font-size-1=” av-medium-font-size-1=” av-small-font-size-1=” av-mini-font-size-1=” color=” custom_font=” subheading_color=” seperator_color=” icon_color=” margin=’,,35px,’ av-desktop-margin=” av-desktop-margin_sync=’true’ av-medium-margin=” av-medium-margin_sync=’true’ av-small-margin=’,,20px,’ av-mini-margin=” av-mini-margin_sync=’true’ headline_padding=” headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-desktop-headline_padding=” av-desktop-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-medium-headline_padding=” av-medium-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-small-headline_padding=” av-small-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-mini-headline_padding=” av-mini-headline_padding_sync=’true’ padding=’10’ av-desktop-padding=” av-medium-padding=” av-small-padding=” av-mini-padding=” icon_padding=’10’ av-desktop-icon_padding=” av-medium-icon_padding=” av-small-icon_padding=” av-mini-icon_padding=” link=” link_target=” title_attr=” id=” custom_class=” template_class=” av_uid=’av-lmunj8v1′ sc_version=’1.0′ admin_preview_bg=”][/av_heading]
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NEW YORK — Dubbed the “father of the American studio furniture movement,” Wendell Castle (1932-2018) created innovative furniture designs that are highly coveted today. He also didn’t restrict himself to wood as a medium. His legacy lies in his craftsmanship, use of unusual materials and always challenging himself to produce work that pushed the boundaries of what furniture could be.
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NEW YORK — Alice Baber (1928-1982) is said to have had a hunger for color. She was one of the most important woman Abstract Expressionist artists working at a time when the field was dominated by men such as Rothko, de Kooning and Pollock. Her biomorphic color-stained canvases, featuring hazy spheres of pure hues, are renowned for their lyrical qualities.