Favorite Art in New York City

Wonderful article today in the New York Times about three art critics favorite works of art in town, link here. Made me think about which are the works of art that I constantly return to, always make sure out-of-towners see, and make me blissfully happy to live in this great city. My list follows, divided into individual works and rooms/collections.


Specific Works:



Georges de La Tour (French, 1593–1652), The Penitent Magdalen
Oil on canvas, 52 1/2 x 40 1/4 in. (133.4 x 102.2 cm). Metropolitan Museum of Art.
See my post on this work here to get the background on this beautiful work. The first paragraph of the post explains perfectly why I love this painting so much and mentions the New York aspect as well... Quoted from post, "As you may have guessed, I'm on a bit of a New York kick and am going to be posting about some of my favorite works that I was able to see while there. The Penitent Magdalen by Georges de La Tour was one of them, a painting I make sure to always visit when I am in the city. Its emotional resonance for me comes in the contemplative pose of the sitter and the deep shadows that seem to recall any night one has spent sitting alone, awake, lost in your own thoughts. A lifelong insomniac, there is much in this picture that speaks to me and I hope it will have some emotional pull for you as well."



Bronzino (Italian, 1503–1572), Portrait of a Young Man, c. 1530
Oil on wood, 37 5/8 x 29 1/2 in. (95.6 x 74.9 cm). Metropolitan Museum of Art
What is there not to love in this arrogant young man? The beautiful technique, the smooth finish to the fabulous textures of his clothes, the whisper thin pages of his book and his condescending gaze. Aristocratic portraiture at its best, nonchalant and elegant down to his perfectly articulated fingertips...



Auguste Rodin (French 1840–1917), The Burghers of Calais, 1884–95, this bronze cast 1985
Bronze, 82 1/2 in. (209.6 cm.); W. 94 in. (238.8 cm.); D. 95 in. (241.3 cm.) Metropolitan Museum of Art.
What is there to say that I did not say in my post on them? I stand by this work as something that will always evoke a visceral response within me and its power has not waned with my almost constant exposure to its beauty and monumentality.



George Minne, Kneeling Youths, ca. 1898
Marble, 83 cm x 40 cm x 25.5 cm
Neue Galerie
These two (only one shown above) sit beneath the frame of one of the most famous paintings in New York, Adele Bloch-Bauer I, the shining gold portrait restituted to the heirs of the sitter after being stolen during the looting of Jewish art collections in World War II. These two small sculptures were similarly stolen and when given back to the Bloch-Bauer family years after the painting of Adele had been sold to the Galerie, the heirs gifted the sculptures to the Galerie to be shown beside the painting as they were in the Bloch-Bauer home before the war. The poignancy of the family's story and the vulnerable quality of the two small youths come together to make a powerful experience of memory and perseverance.



To Be With Art Is All We Ask...
Gilbert & George (British), Gilbert Proesch (British, born Italy 1943) and George Passmore (British, born 1942.)
1970. Triptych: Charcoal and wash on partially charred folding sheets of paper in cardboard box, Triptych (.a-c) installed: 110 3/8 x 320 3/4" (280.3 x 814.6 cm).
Museum of Modern Art
This is a newly discovered work for me and I absolutely fell head over heels in love with this poetic homage to art in three parts. I can not begin to explain the work and ask only that you go to see it. You must. Second floor of the MoMA in the contemporary exhibition space you enter to the left of the large, scandalous!, mural.
--> the MoMA does not have an image of this work on their website so I stole these from random pages on the web, sorry! And no, that is not me in the top image!




Rooms/Places/Collections:




Cubist Room at the MoMA
This is the type of art I grew up with and the MoMA's small permanent collection is world class and absolutely stunning! Its a favorite place of mine to go when I feel homesick or just need to be challenged by the art I look in an esoteric and theoretical way instead of emotionally or academically.
Image: Georges Braque, Man with a Guitar, 1911-1912. Oil on canvas, 45 3/4 x 31 7/8" (116.2 x 80.9 cm). MoMA.




Egon Schiele at the Neue Galerie
I know I mention his name so much that you may wonder if I work for his PR firm, but his canvases give me an emotional jolt that I often need in the sometimes lonely isolation life in New York can resemble. His paintings strike at the core of human conditions of love, lust, and loneliness and his ability to show the beauty and grotesque aspects of human beings always renders me speechless. Plus, the Neue's presentation of the works with the objects of art, furniture, sculpture and other painters of the same period give such a phenomenal sense of the period and always transports me to another time and place.

That's all for now, I'm sure this list will grow as I remember more and more works I can't live in this great city without!

The Only iPhone App Necessary for Art Lovers

Dear All,

What a season Fall is for art lovers in New York City! I can not believe everything that I have been doing and everything that is still to be done. With tons of exhibitions all over the city and so much to see there is very little time for much else (like blogging!). However, I am slowly putting together some new things for the upcoming weeks and wanted to let you in on one of my best secrets about art in New York.

The Exhibitionist NY, an iPhone app that was recently created by the former New Yorker art critic, Kevin Conley, is a fantastic way to know what's going on where, with who and when.

On what the app can do for you, from a review on Vogue's website by Caroline Palmer, "the up-to-the-minute application allows you to track exhibitions based on your location or interests, create maps with routes, E-mail friends, and read reviews — all vetted and written by Conley (and his wife, a former drama critic at the Wall Street Journal) with the help of the city’s museums and galleries."

I'm off to the opening at the Sarah Meltzer Projects tonight! Maybe I will see you there...

Photo: Marko MacPherson from same article

Christie's Sets New Records for Matisse and Gris

Henri Matisse, Nu de Dos, 4 État (Back IV), (conceived in 1930, cast in 1978). Private Collection.

More Records Set at Christie's

Lots of bidding and big prices tonight, some of the highlights...

Matisse's “Nu de Dos, 4 État (Back IV)”, (conceived in 1930, cast in 1978), sold last night to famous dealer Larry Gagosian for $48.8 million after intense bidding between four parties. Though he related that he had bid for a client, the actual buyer remains anonymous. This is a record for Matisse at auction and was far above the pre-sale estimate.

Another new record for an artist at auction was set for Juan Gris last night when his “Violin and Guitar,” a masterpiece Cubist still - life. Though originally thought to bring $18 million to $25 million, went for $28.6 million, to another anonymous buyer, this time by telephone.

Schiele's “Man and Woman,” the 1917 work I had drooled over in the catalogue, went much higher than originally thought and ultimately sold for $7.3 million to Robert Mnuchin (L& M Arts) after heavy bidding over the drawing.

For more on the auction, see Souren Melikian's article from 'The New York Times'

Sotheby's Sets New Record for Artist Modigliani at Auction

As everyone will read tomorrow in the papers...

Tonight at the Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale at Sotheby's, Amedeo Modigliani's La Belle Romaine from 1917 set a new record for the artist at auction selling for $68.9 million dollars.

A bevy of bidders after the $5 million mark made the work soar past the $40 million estimate and into a new record. The final price was over four times the $16.8 million paid for the painting over a decade ago at another Sotheby's sale.

Updates will continue as the sales progress!! Great start to an exciting week...

Auction Watch: Impressionist and Modern Week, New York (Nov. 2nd - Nov. 4th)

So it is that time again! New York Fall = warm coasts, boots, and... ART AUCTIONS! Impressionist and Modern Auction Week is almost upon us and I thought it would be a bit fun to go through and pick out some of my favorites and share them with you. I also wanted to share the online catalogues with you so that you could find your own favorites and follow them as they either reach new records for artists or fall miserably below the low estimate (the horror!). I would love to hear what works are catching your eye! Let me know in comments or emails what works you will be watching/drooling over! I am going to be picking a few from each evening sale and a few from each day sale that I would love to take home if I had an extra $100 million or so lying around. I will also be following up this post with a auction watch for the Prints Sales because, well... that's what I actually collect.

A little background for those new to the game:

The Evening Sale, each auction house has one Evening and one Day sale, is the big-time players. This is where the huge numbers you hear about in the New York Times come from. When Francis Bacon's Triptych sold for millions? Evening sale. When Picasso smashed the highest price paid for a work at auction? Evening sale. I think you get my point. This sale is a social event. Beginning at night, people dress to the nines and watch art less than 1% of the world can afford go for prices that would feed a small country for a good amount of time. It is a SPECTACLE.

The Day Sale, always the day after the Evening sale, is for works that are also usually high quality but lack the rareness factor or star power that goes into the works shown at the ES. These works are just as beautiful, often by the same artists selling the night before but may be from a less desirable time period or a drawing instead of a painting. Often these works are just as good as those in the Evening Sale but can stand out more against works in this sale or go thematically with something already in this sale.


Christie's, Evening Sale (Nov. 3rd)
"http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/searchresults.aspx?intSaleID=22589#action=refine&intSaleID=22589&sid=ff871b1c-cb0d-4d9d-be8b-cd5f361cfa62">Online Catalogue



Lot 22 Egon Schiele (1890-1918)
Mann und Frau (Umarmung)
signed and dated 'Egon Schiele 1917' (lower center)
gouache and black crayon on paper
19¼ x 11 3/8 in. (48.9 x 28.9 cm.)
Executed in 1917
$4,000,000 - $6,000,000


Lot 23 Juan Gris (1887-1927)
Violon et guitare
signed, inscribed and dated 'Juan Gris, Céret. 9-13' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
39½ x 25¾ in. (100.3 x 65.4 cm.)
Painted in Céret, September 1913
$18,000,000 - $25,000,000



Lot 80 Kees Van Dongen (1877-1968)
Portrait de Mme Jasmy
signed 'van Dongen' (lower center)
oil on canvas
51 x 38 in. (129.5 x 96.5 cm.)
Painted in 1916



Christie's Day Sale (Nov. 4th)
"http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/searchresults.aspx?intSaleID=22590#action=refine&intSaleID=22590&sid=e5e61f51-61e7-423a-9ecc-5577eb55a767">Online Catalogue


Lot 125 Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Femme assise
signed and dated 'Henri Matisse 10/42' (lower left); signed and dated again and indistinctly dedicated 'H Matisse 11 May 1945 En hommage à Madame M' (lower right)
pen and India ink on paper
20¾ x 16 in. (52.7 x 40.6 cm.)
Drawn in October 1942
$400,000 - $600,000


Lot 140 Egon Schiele (1890-1918)
Mädchen mit rotem Haar
signed with initials 'ES' (lower right)
colored pencils and pencil on buff paper
11¾ x 12½ in. (29.9 x 31.8 cm.)
Drawn in 1909
$60,000 - $80,000


Sotheby's, Evening Sale (Nov. 2nd)
To see pictures of these objects head over to Sotheby's online catalogue...
"http://www.sothebys.com/app/ecatalogue/fhtml/index.jsp?event_id=29933#/r=index-fhtml.jsp?event_id=29933|r.main=event.jsp?event_id=29933/">Here


I'm going with the masses on this one...


Lot 7 Amedeo Modigliani
Nu Assis Sur Un Divan (La Belle Romaine)
Signed Modigliani
Oil on canvas
39 3/8 x 25 5/8 in.
Painted in 1917
Estimate thought to be somewhere around $40 million

Lot 14 Amedeo Modigliani
Jeanne Hebuterne (Au Chapeau)
Signed Modigliani (lower right)
Oil on panel
26 3/8 x 20 1/4 in.
Painted in 1917
$9,000,000 - 12,000,000

Lot 22 Chaim Soutine
La Dinde Pendue
Signed Soutine (lower right)
Oil on canvas
36 x 28 1/2 in.
Painted circa 1925
$1,5000,000 - 2,000,000

Lot 61 Oskar Kokoschka
Orpheus und Eurydike (Orpheus and Eurydice)
Signed OK (upper left)
Oil on canvas
27 3/4 x 20 in.
Painted in 1917
$600,000 - 800,000



Sotheby's Day Sale, Session 1 (Nov. 3rd)
"http://www.sothebys.com/app/ecatalogue/fhtml/index.jsp?event_id=29934#/r=index-fhtml.jsp?event_id=29934|r.main=event.jsp?event_id=29934/">Online Catalogue

Lot 147 Pablo Picasso
Le Peintre Carlos Casagemas
Signed Picasso (upper left)
watercolor and ink on paper
7 3/4 x 5 7/8 in.
Executed circa 1900
$70,000 - 90,000


Sotheby's Day Sale, Session 2 (Nov. 3rd)

Lot 321 Kurt Seligman
L'impasse Pivote
Signed K. Seligman and dated 1938 (lower right)
Pen and ink on paper
25 1/2 x 19 in.
Executed in 1938
$10,000 - 15,000

Lot 352 Egon Schiele
Die Vision Des Heiligen Hubertus (The Vision of Saint Hubert)
Signed Egon Schiele and dated 1916 (lower right)
Oil on panel
11 5/8 x 18 1/8 in.
Painted 1916
$200,000 - 300,000

Exhibition Alerts

Jan Gossart (Netherlandish, ca. 1478–1532). Portrait of a Man (Jan Jacobsz. Snoeck?), ca. 1530. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Ciao tutti!

So as many of you know I recently got a job in the Old Masters world in New York city! It has been a really exciting time while I settle into my new work and explore the gallery but it has, alas, not left much blogging time. However, this is soon to change as my life is settling into a rhythm and I think that the blog is something I will be able to keep up. I do not think it will continue to be daily, I take each post very seriously and I would not be able to keep the caliber of post on the same level if I tried to post again every day. I have thus decided that I will be posting one serious, scholarly, artwork post once a week and adding articles, exhibition alerts, quotes and anecdotes as often as relevant ones appear. I hope you will stay with me in this new transition! I have recently received some of the nicest and most encouraging emails from readers who miss the posts so I want to thank you again for your support. Now, enough about me and onto some art!

If you are in New York (like me!) two shows that you must see:

Man, Myth, and Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart's Renaissance
@ the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Running from October 6, 2010–January 17, 2011
Go to the Special Exhibition Galleries on the 2nd floor

If you go, make sure you make it all the way through the exhibit to the last two rooms. They have placed his fantastic St. Luke in the second to last room, and Gossart's absolutely incredible portraits are in the last room. They really saved the BEST for LAST. So it is worth your time to go all the way through! Beautiful things.


The Spanish Manner: Drawings from Ribera to Goya
@ the Frick Collection
Running from October 5, 2010, through January 9, 2011
Downstairs

I liked the first room that had the Ribera and Murillo drawings more than the Goya room but it totally depends on where your interests lie. Look for the drawing of the bat in the room to the right when you descend the stairs, it looks like a flying mouse!


Next on my list is...

You guessed it! The Neue Galerie just opened a new show, Franz Xavier Messerschmidt 1736-1783: From Neoclassicism TO Expressionism,
running from September 16, 2010- January 10, 2011. Can't wait!

CBC News - Art & Design - Picasso print sets auction record

Fantastic news for Picasso lovers and collectors.


CBC News - Art & Design - Picasso print sets auction record

I know it is already September, but...

Hi Everyone! Again, I know it is September but I finally found an apartment and it has been quite an ordeal (continuous and ongoing!) to get an apartment (however tiny) furnished and livable with new things coming from Ikea and old things coming from Wisconsin. Anyway, I will be posting beginning the day after Labor Day (consider this my summer vacation), because if my labor over this weekend can't pull the apartment together then I'm giving up and living in my closet! Contemporary and more Modern works will be the first works to be covered, I'm going back to patronage and what it became after the Medicis. Sargent? Picasso? Gainsborough? Warhol? I will leave you with those questions.

P.S. with the help of a great friend, and a handy keepsake from the our illustrious past, I went to four museums in one day. FOUR. I believe this is a record and a deed worthy of recognition :)

Hope everyone is enjoying the last days of summer. It is so hot though that it is hard to enjoy much more than a cool glass of water and the A/C... A sad truth, indeed.

The Other ArtDaily: Larry Gagosian to Present Masterpieces from His Private Collection

Larry Gagosian to Present Masterpieces from His Private Collection


Now here is something I would love to see. I've also always wanted to go to Abu Dhabi...

Who wants to go? Group travel fares?

Just saying...


To read the article from artdaily.org click the link above or copy and paste the link below:
http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=40209&int_modo=1

Image: Cy Twombly, The Rose (IV) 2001 © Cy Twombly.

The Art Newspaper: Luhring Augustine Looks Back at 25 Years

Lawrence Luhring, left, and Roland Augustine at Art Basel

Hi All!

Great article from the Art Newspaper with Luhring Augustine Gallery founders Lawrence Luhring and Roland Augustine on the 25th anniversary of the founding of their gallery!

Interviewed by Charlotte Burns, they discuss the beginning of their partnership, the state of the art market today, differences between people buying on the primary and secondary markets, artist/gallerist interactions and interactions and how it can work or disintegrate. A wonderful interview, very informative and interesting to read!

Enjoy!

To read the article, click the title of the post or copy and paste the below link:
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/%E2%80%9CYou+don%E2%80%99t+want+to+just+give+carte+blanche.+We+want+dialogue+with+our+artists%E2%80%9D/21255