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Archive for the ‘Art History’ Category

What Will Happen to Warhol?

Friday, December 2nd, 2011

Andy Warhol

The Andy Warhol Foundation has developed a rather convoluted reputation in their quest to catalog and certify the vast collection of over 100,000 (across all media) works that Warhol created. The Foundation Board has made several controversial decisions regarding the authentication of specific prints and screen prints that have landed them with millions of dollars’ worth of legal bills and a negative reputation as the monopolizing entity of the Warhol market. However a collector may feel about their role in the art market, they play an important one. In an interesting turn of events this past month, the Andy Warhol Foundation announced that it will dissolve its authentication board at the beginning of 2012.

Wahol- Blackglama

What does this mean for the collector? Will panic spread through the art market as Warhol’s go unregulated? That does not seem to be the case as the Art Newspaper brilliantly discusses in The problem with authenticating Warhol. In the article they note the facts” that none of the top five Warhol works sold at auction have been stamped by the board…”. With only 16 out of 49 works for sale this past month having been authenticated by the board, there is no reason for collectors to fear.

All of the top record-breakers are, however, detailed in the artist’s catalogue raisonné that the Warhol Foundation has compiled. There are three completed volumes of the catalogue that document Warhol’s paintings, prints, screen prints, and sculpture until 1974. The foundation’s mission is to make a complete catalogue of all of Warhol’s works and will continue to review works submitted for inclusion in future editions, but in its own time (unlike the authentication board, which took requests).

The Foundation stepping away from the market to focus on scholarship will undoubtedly led to good things. A more complete catalog of Warhol’s work will aid the art market in regards to authenticity as the new scholarship will include his drawings and photographs, which currently do not exist in a cohesive form. When looking at the Warhol works the Authentication Board has been exposed to, there is no cause for concern as only 6,000 of Warhol’s more than 100,000 works have gone through the authentication process. Thus the only advice to offer a collector is to practice due diligence in regards to researching the provenance of a piece and feel 100% comfortable and confident in their purchase.

Tags: buying fine art, Sheryl McMahan, warhol
Posted in Art History, Art investments, Current Events In Art, Uncategorized |

Conservation in the 21st Century

Monday, November 21st, 2011

Trolling the web for the latest art news, I stumbled upon a fascinating article on Wired. According to Mike Olson, an unlikely partnership with an even stranger toolbox has emerged to restore the frescoes at the Church of Santos Juanes in the Spanish city of Valencia, otherwise known as the birthplace of paella. Between the two of them, the Centre for Advanced Food Microbiology and the Polytechnic University at the Institute of Heritage Restoration identified the ideal restoration tool: a salt- and glue-eating bacteria. Let those who believe food and art to be separate take note.

Frescoes inside the Church of Santos Juanes in Valencia, Spain

Pseudomonas stutzeri was developed by a team of biologists, their efforts driven in part by Pilar Bosch, who learned her tricks from the group that cleaned the Campo Santo di Pisa in Italy. Growing the bacteria in a culture containing the elements that need to be removed from the frescoes, the scientists develop a strain that eats away, literally, at the gluey remnants of past botched restoration attempts and at the salt blooms left by pigeon nests.

The bacteria are spread on an area of the frescoes and covered with a gel; when heated by a lamp, this gel generates humid conditions under which the Pseudomonas thrive, and get to work. Just 90 minutes later, the targeted area of the fresco is washed clean with water and dried, killing the bacteria and leaving behind a shiny clean section to admire.

In this way, about one third of the frescoes decorating the walls of the baroque and gothic Church, whose original structure dates back to the 13^th century, have been restored to date.

What strikes me, and what might occur to fresco aficionados, is how this restoration-by-bacteria creates a neat symmetry, revealing what was created through similar means. The artist paints one pre-determined portion of fresco per day. Before work begins, wet plaster is laid down. The fragment must be completed before the plaster begins to dry. Any mistakes must be manually removed, and sometimes the entire section – called a giornata in Italian due to its daily time limit – has to be taken out.

Bosch and her team of people and Pseudomonas might think of their own work as broken down into miniaturegiornata, 90-minute cycles of apply and unveil. As for this joint venture of bacteria, biologists and baroque art, I knew the world needed to know.

Tags: Ariel Rosen, art movements, conservation
Posted in Art History, Conservation and Restoration, Current Events In Art, Everything else, Uncategorized |

The Creation of Calder Mobiles

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

Some could say Alexander Calder was born to design. His father, Alexander Stirling Calder, was a well-known sculptor who created many public installations, and Calder’s grandfather, sculptor Alexander Milne Calder is best-known for the colossal statue of William Penn on top of Philadelphia’s City Hall tower. Therefore, being surrounded by such creativity from a young age, it was no wonder that Alexander Calder would be most famous for designing a new art medium through three-dimensional creations.

Throughout his childhood, Calder was always constructing toys. He was fascinated with using objects to create multiple dimensions, and upon receiving his degree in mechanical engineering in 1919, Calder decided to apply his passion and formal training to a career as a professional artist. He attended art classes in New York, and in 1926 moved to Paris, where he received acclaim for putting on small-scale circus performances known as Cirque Calder. These spontaneous performances were fashioned from wire, string, rubber, cloth, and other objects that Calder found and assembled.

Through the creation of the Cirque Calder, Calder’s interest in both wire sculpture and kinetic art began. He maintained a sharp eye with respect to the engineering balance of the sculptures and utilized these to develop the kinetic sculptures. Calder’s further experiments to develop purely abstract sculpture came from his visit to Mondrian’s gallery where Calder was inspired to make art multidimensional. This lead to his first truly kinetic sculptures, manipulated by means of cranks and pulleys. By suspending the works in mid-air, Calder discovered that he could add life to the otherwise static sculpture.

Example of Calder Mobile

By the end of 1931, Calder moved on to more delicate sculptures, which derived their motion from the air currents in the room. From this, Calder’s “mobiles” were born. At the same time, Calder was also experimenting with self-supporting, static, abstract sculptures, dubbed “stabiles” to differentiate them from mobiles.

Calder is noted as saying, “Out of different masses, tight, heavy, middling—indicated by variations of size or color—directional line—vectors which represent speeds, velocities, accelerations, forces, etc. . . .—these directions making between them meaningful angles, and senses, together defining one big conclusion or many.” From this, we can only glimpse at the magical vision he had of the world that surrounded him. The mobiles and stabiles he created to encapsulate that vision continues to inspire us to see the intertwining relationship of all the elements in the universe.

Tags: artists, calder, Sheryl McMahan
Posted in Art History |

Watermarks and Rembrandts

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

When Masterworks Fine Art acquires an artwork, we undertake a program of research and identification. Old Masters prints, such as those by Rembrandt, require special attention because documentation can be limited, works often exist in multiple states, and posthumous prints made from plates still in existence are on the market.

When researching a Rembrandt impression, we consider the image and sheet size, the type of paper on which the work is printed, and the watermark (if there is one). We consult Nowell-Eusticke, the authoritative catalogue raisonné for the artist, compare our results against the volumes by Hind and White & Boon, and turn to the recently-published Watermarks in Rembrandt’s Prints by Ash & Fletcher. These books describe, in one way or another, differences large and small between each printing of a single plate.

Rembrandt experimented with the effects of printing on different kinds of paper, and is known to have used vellum, calfskin parchment, creamy handmade European papers, coarse “oatmeal” papers made from the dregs of the papermaking vat, and the thicker, softer “Japan” paper (Ash & Fletcher, 11). Not all of these papers were made with watermarks or wire marks, as they are also known, but those that were can provide insight into the time frame in which a print was pulled.

As methodical studies of watermarks found in the graphic work of specific artists appear, the identification of these marks becomes increasingly valuable. It is a rare day when we uncover a full watermark on a newly acquired print. Finding even the tip of a crown or a partial cluster of grapes enables us to match that fragment to a documented watermark. If we can nail down what paper the work is on, we can at least be certain that the impression was not pulled before a certain date.

How does this relate to Rembrandt?

Say we determine that a certain watermark was produced in the early 18^th century. A Rembrandt etching on that particular paper couldn’t possibly be a lifetime impression, given the artist’s death in 1669. Ash and Fletcher note: “Our research often revealed the use of the same paper in the same print or in prints produced within a few years of each other” (15). That being said, they continue, “Rembrandt may have purchased certain papers in quantity, saved them, and used them intermittently over the years” (Ibid). This passage underscores the difficulty Rembrandt scholars face in assigning prints an exact date. Though helpful, a paper’s dates of creation do not necessarily dictate the time frame for the printing of a specific state. A plate may have been etched one year and printed the next. It may also have been reprinted a decade later.

Information obtained through a watermark about a paper’s country of origin, dates of manufacture, and import history can narrow the time frame for an impression and authenticate the work. However, sometimes our search for a wire mark leaves us empty-handed, and we turn to determining the state of the print.

Tags: Ariel Rosen, art invest, confidence, old master prints, rembrandt etchings, rembrandt prints
Posted in Art History, Art investments, Everything else, Uncategorized |

Rembrandt: What a State

Thursday, August 11th, 2011

More than 15 studies of Rembrandt’s prints have been done since Parisian art dealer Edmé-François Gersaint compiled the first portfolio of the artist’s work in 1751, a number that underscores the challenge that his oeuvre continues to pose (White & Boon, v). These books provide essential information about each print; cross-referenced catalogue raisonné numbers identify each image, and a brief, meticulous discussion of the impressions and states in existence follows.

We look to Nowell-Usticke’s authoritative Rembrandt’s Etchings: States and Values before cross-checking the entries in catalogues by White & Boon and Hind, amongst others. Nowell-Usticke makes the following remark in his introduction:

“A great multiplicity of states seems to have always been associated with
Rembrandt’s etched work. I feel this idea is incorrect. Rembrandt was
basically a one state etcher. […] after completing his etching he would
carefully inspect it; only when he was satisfied would he remove the
varnish and pull about five trial proofs to check general appearance […]
If these proved satisfactory […] he would pull about twenty more proofs
before putting the plate aside” (14).

These early prints, created within Rembrandt’s lifetime, are known as lifetime impressions, and are the most valuable works on the market. The word also applies to those impressions that the artist may have pulled if an initial printing sold well. Nowell-Usticke estimates 25 more prints followed the “early” examples, and these he terms “intermediate”. The last prints are “late”. This simple nomenclature opens the door to a complex web of plates destroyed and existing, reprints, retouches and more.

An etching can exist in one state, or in nine and our job is to determine where the work in our possession fits in with the print’s history.

Catalogue entries ask the reader to scrutinize the shading on the edge of a cloak or look for additional horizontal shading on a window sill. States of a print can vary minutely, meaning correct identification requires careful examination. Without our extensive library, which contains rare books and is a source of pride here at the gallery, we would not be able to complete such comprehensive research.

In the case of our Jakob Thomasz Haringh (The Young Haring), however, there was little room for doubt. The catalogue informs us that state III impressions of this print show a large picture added to the wall at left; state IV impressions are printed from a plate that has been, “cut down to head & shoulders only; the picture has been removed, leaving some traces” (Nowell-Usticke, B 275). The trimming of the plate narrows our options considerably, enabling us to name the correct state.

When we acquired Curly Headed Man With a Wry Mouth, our research was similarly short-lived. The plate, which has been destroyed, only existed in two states. Since impressions from the later printing show “The badly worn face & neck gone over with the roulette,” we had no trouble categorizing a first state print (Nowell-Usticke, B 305).

Navigating the catalogue raisonnès can be confusing at first, and we don’t always find what we’re seeking, but the research opens technical windows onto a great artist’s work and methods. And it’s surprisingly satisfying to find, yes, “The cross no longer touches the border at L. Fine diagonal L-R shading added below scroll (Making 3 directions)” – must be a State II Christ Crucified Between Two Thieves, Oval Plate (Nowell-Usticke, B 79).

Tags: Ariel Rosen, confidence, old master prints, rembrandt etchings, rembrandt prints
Posted in Art History, Art investments, Everything else, Uncategorized |

Child’s Play

Monday, July 25th, 2011

An artist’s friendship with another artist is often a sacred bond of admiration, influence, and inspiration. Despite the distances and visual mediums that may that separate them, each relationship leaves a lasting impact on the involved artists. One particular individual’s relationships with other artists has frequently been the topic of many exhibitions and books, and that is Alexander Calder. Alexander “Sandy” Calder is the most acclaimed and influential sculptor of our time, and developed meaningful relationships with his fellow artists Fernand Léger and Joan Miró.

Calder was influenced by Léger, and Léger admired Calder’s work. Their paths crossed multiple times as Léger was often in the audience of Calder’s circus performances and Calder invited him to write the preface to his catalogue for the exhibition at Galerie Percier in 1931. The two artists had a close relationship and were often seen walking around New York or Paris together searching for visual inspiration. In their art, although they tended to resolve their depictions of the modern world in different manners, we can see the ideological thread between their work and similar integration of figuration and abstraction.

Calder and Miró lived in Paris at the same time and became close friends. Their artistic parallels have been well documented and exhibited. Both artists have an impish quality, a sense of play, and a love of adventure in their works. In describing the similarities in his work with that of Miró, Calder is quoted as saying, “Well, the archeologists will tell you there’s a little bit of Miró in Calder and little bit of Calder in Miró.” That could certainly be said of many artists relationships.

Tags: artists, calder, léger, miró, Sheryl McMahan
Posted in Art History, Everything else, Uncategorized |

The Context of Magritte

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

As one of the most popular artists of the 20^th century, Rene Magritte has been influential to many artists that range from John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Vija Celmins, Marcel Broodthaers, Jan Verdoodt, Martin Kippenberger and Storm Thorgerson. Some of these artists’ works integrate direct references to Magritte’s works, while others offer contemporary viewpoints on his abstract fixations. This is all due to his artistic brilliance with the use of context that is labeled under the title of surrealism.

Surrealism uses visual imagery from the subconscious mind to create art without the intention of logical comprehensibility. Many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. During Magritte’s life however he had a rather turbulent relationship with the movement. While in Paris in the 1920’s, Magritte became acquainted with much of the Surrealist theory and their romanticized notions of scandal, crime and disguise. However, Magritte was disgusted by the superficial methods of the Parisian and Belgian Surrealists and strove to remove himself from the association, but the movement continued to impact his work.

Magritte would remove an object from its usual context so that its purpose could change. With paintings like La Durée Poignardée, 1939, Magritte wanted viewers to put aside utility and common sense while interpreting the objects found in the work. In his artwork, Magritte toyed with everyday objects, human habits and emotions, placing them in foreign contexts and questioning their familiar meanings. He suggested new interpretations of old things in his deceivingly simple paintings, making the commonplace profound and the rational irrational. He painted his canvasses in the same manner as he lived his life, in strange modesty and under constant analysis.

Magritte’s intended goal for his work was to challenge observers’ preconditioned perceptions of reality and force viewers to become hypersensitive to their surroundings. As one of the more popular artists we sell, Magritte is timeless in his juxtapositions that reflect everyday life and beliefs, a great addition to any collection.

Tags: art movements, artists, history, magritte, Sheryl McMahan, surrealism
Posted in Art History, Everything else, Uncategorized |

American Artists

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

In honor of July 4^th, Masterworks Fine Art would like to present American artists that we feature in our gallery as they exemplify the ingenuity, integrity, and drive of America’s founding fathers who fought for independence and freedom. Alexander Calder, Jasper Johns, Sam Francis, Andy Warhol, and Deborah Butterfield are all American artists who have played pivotal and influential roles in their chosen art forms.

Alexander Calder was born in Pennsylvania and encouraged to create at a young age. Despite his talents, Calder did not originally set out to become an artist, but became an engineer. He did sketches for local papers and magazines which brought about a renewed passion. This was further fueled in his creation of both wire sculpture and kinetic art. As the inventor of the mobile and stabile sculpture, Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry and jewelry. As he stated of his inspiration; “The underlying sense of form in my work has been the system of the Universe, or part thereof. For that is a rather large model to work from.”

Jasper Johns hails from Georgia and is at the forefront of American art. His richly worked paintings of maps, flags, and targets led the artistic community away from Abstract Expressionism toward a new emphasis on the concrete. Johns laid the groundwork for both Pop Art and Minimalism. Today, as his prints and paintings set record prices at auction, the meanings of his paintings, his imagery, and his changing style continue to be subjects of controversy. Constantly challenging the technical possibilities of printmaking, painting and sculpture, Johns laid the groundwork for a wide range of experimental artists; “When something is new to us, we treat it as an experience. We feel that our senses are awake and clear. We are alive”.

Sam Francis is a prolific Californian artist. Considered one of the premier colorists of the twentieth century, his exciting, movement-driven, multi-faceted splatter/brush paintings are classified as Abstract Expressionism, but he is also closely associated with Color Field painting. Color Field painting is type of abstract art that consists of broad areas of low-contrast color on a very shallow picture plane. Francis held a deep love for color and had a brilliant awareness of the contrasts in colors and lights which is displayed in his work; “Color is born of the interpenetration of light and dark.”

The leading figure in the visual art movement known as Pop Art and one of the most sought after and successful American artists of all time is Andy Warhol. There is no denying this Pennsylvanian’s brilliance at removing everyday objects or celebrities from their context and isolating them to challenge the traditional art culture and views on commercialism. Warhol’s life is well known and his art still breaks auction records, and we are fortunate to offer his works; “Once you ‘got’ Pop, you could never see a sign again the same way again. And once you thought Pop, you could never see America the same way again.”

Last, but certainly not least, is the American sculpturist Deborah Butterfield. Born in California, she chose to create self-portraits using images of horses. Butterfield crafts the horses out of scrap metal, cast bronze, wood, wire, and organic materials such as mud. She photographs the frame of the figure before she puts the material on which enables her to piece the work together from all angles giving the horses their realistic movement of body through which we are then able to interpret the emotion and context . Interestingly, she only works in the winter, so her works usually take 3 to 5 years to complete.

Tags: art movements, artists, calder, Sheryl McMahan, warhol
Posted in Art History, Everything else, Uncategorized |

Picasso’s Influences

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

Many modern artists and collectors are introduced to Picasso through multiple mediums. In school one takes an art class here, a history class there and discovers his art and life. Through film, advertisements, and print media his art is used as a canvas for expression. His work is intricately woven into our lives through so many different avenues and mediums that we don’t quite realize the influence he has.

Picasso’s most important influence however can be seen in the modern artists that aspire to emulate his work, challenge his techniques, and reinterpret his works with their own flair. With Picasso’s staggering output of more than 20,000 paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, and photographs there is plenty to choose from.

Picasso invented cubism with Georges Braque, invented the collage technique, and painted the 20th century’s most imposing masterpiece “Guernica”, so it is indeed hard to think of any modern artist who didn’t at some point in their career take cues from Picasso.

These artists range from Max Weber to Man Ray to Willem de Kooning to Jackson Pollock to Arshile Gorky to Lee Krasner to David Smith to Andy Warhol to Claes Oldenburg to Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein.

Many more artists are inspired by Picasso’s art and will continue to be. As they strive to capture Picasso’s versatility and movement through art and life, they embrace Picasso’s creative lawlessness and redefine art in their own right. So when looking at a de Kooning in a gallery or museum, take an extra second to ponder about the influence of Picasso.

Tags: art movements, history, picasso, Sheryl McMahan
Posted in Art History, Everything else, Uncategorized |

Sonia Delaunay: On the Rise

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

Sonia Delaunay was born in Ukraine in 1885 and was adopted by her affluent Jewish lawyer uncle Henri Terk in 1890. She had a privileged upbringing and traveled Europe widely to various museums and galleries. At the age of 18 she was sent to an art school in Germany and in 1905 decided to move to Paris.

Once in Paris, Sonia enrolled in the Académie de la Palette in Montparnasse. However she was not happy there and tended to spend more time in the galleries around Paris. Her own work during this time was influenced by artists such as Van Gogh, Matisse, Henri Rousseau and Gauguin. In 1908 she married German homosexual art gallery owner Wilhelm Uhde. It was during her time at Uhde’s gallery that she met and had an affair with Robert Delaunay.

Sonia and Wilheim Uhde divorced in 1910, and Sonia went on to marry Robert Delaunay and have a son named Charles. Sonia is quoted as saying about Robert, “In Robert Delaunay I found a poet. A poet who wrote not with words but with colors.”

The Delaunays are often credited with the creation of Orphic Cubism or Orphism. This is a form of Cubism that focused on pure abstraction and bright colors influenced by Fauvism and the dye chemist Eugène Chevreul.

Sonia, who made paintings, prints, books, textile and fashion designs, carpets, furniture, mosaics, and the odd movie set, is more often remembered as the wife of Robert Delaunay, but she is an established artist in her right, whose works today are gaining the respect of the art market.

Susan Brown, who co-curated “Color Moves: Art and Fashion by Sonia Delaunay,” on view through June 5 at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, in New York, notes that a critical reappraisal is in the offing. “It’s my impression that she’s going to fare better in the long haul. Particularly in the past 10 years or so, there’s been a lot of focus on her work.”This can be seen in the six auction records for Sonia that were set this past year, with prices outpacing estimates.

“The demand is escalating along with prices, and the number of collectors who seek her works is also rising,” says Thaddée Poliakoff, owner of Le Coin des Arts gallery, in Paris. Sonia’s high stands at €4.1 million ($3.9 million) from a 2002 auction of the 1915-16 canvas “Marché au Minho.”

Another opportunity for collectors are Sonia’s works on paper. Prices are relatively low for her prints and gouaches, which can be purchased from our Delaunay collection. It is “Pochoirs” that command the highest prices, due to rarity. According to Tudor Davies, head of prints for Christie’s Americas, “her etchings tend to be valued more highly than her lithographs, no doubt because they provide a better sense of surface.” He advises collectors to “look at the strength of the composition and the use of color and contrast. Simply put, you want the image to be as strong visually as possible when it is on the wall.”

Information was obtained from Artist Dossier: Sonia Delaunay – ARTINFO.com

Tags: art invest, artists, delaunay, history, Sheryl McMahan
Posted in Art History, Art investments, Current Events In Art |

Warhol, Warhol, Warhol

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

The talk of the art market these past weeks have all surrounded Andy Warhol, proving once again that you can never go wrong when investing in Warhol. Warhol’s works are still consistently selling at high prices, with over of 52 Warhol’s having gone and/or going up for auction for a total estimated value of $148 million.

“Sixteen Jackies” was sold for $20,242,500, while “Shadow-Red” (1978) sold for $4,842,500. Warhol’s “Statue of Liberty” (1986) sold for $3,442,500 this past week and was last sold in 2008 for $2,210,500. That is a 2.8% increase in value over 3 years for an average of .93% increase in value a year. With a steady increase such as that there looks to be no stopping the raising values of Warhol.

Tags: artists, history, picasso, Sheryl McMahan, warhol
Posted in Art History, Art investments, Current Events In Art, Everything else |

Joan Miró: A Creative Life

Monday, May 9th, 2011

To most art lovers, a painting by Joan Miró is immediately recognizable. It displays botanical, geometric or abstract lines or shapes floating against celestial blue, sandy yellow or earth brown backgrounds. It also probably exudes a mystical yet reassuring dreamy quality. However interestingly enough, his personality was nothing like his work.

Miró was a highly disciplined hard working man. He spoke little and looked like the perfect bourgeois. He was orderly, reliable and punctilious. He was astonishingly versatile, willing to try almost anything. Nothing of him had any touch of a free spirited bohemian that he seemed to exhibit in his works.

In 1927, when Miró was 34 he was already a successful artist but he had a restless temperament and lived in provoking times. Surrealism, he discovered, had limitations. He was ready for a radical change in art, but he realized that he would have to create it himself. With his famous words, “I want to assassinate painting,” Miró did just that. He took the elements out of art and stuck to the essentials. Whether he used a limited color palate or sparse geometric designs or different material he deified the essence of painting being on a canvas.

”I personally don’t know where we are heading,” Miró told a Spanish journalist in 1931. ”The only thing that’s clear to me is that I intend to destroy, destroy everything that exists in painting. I have utter contempt for painting. The only thing that interests me is the spirit itself, and I only use the customary artists’ tools — brushes, canvas and paint — in order to get the best effects. I’m only interested in anonymous art, the kind that springs from the collective unconscious.”

By the end of his long life, Miró had executed paintings and sculptures that prefigured Abstract Expressionism, Pop art, Color Field painting, process art, appropriation, and even conceptualism. Ultimately he succeeded in his goal of “assassinating painting”, and left us with a canvas of brilliant colors combined with simplified forms that allow us to embrace our inner child.

Tags: art invest, artists, history, miró, Sheryl McMahan
Posted in Art History, Art investments, Everything else, Uncategorized |

Matisse and Picasso: A Respectful Rivalry

Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

Competition. Rivalry. Respect. Admiration. Bandit. All of these words were once used by both Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse in recognition of one and other. In Matisse and Picasso: The Story of their Rivalry and Friendship by Jack Flam, their tumultuous relationship is examined and brilliantly told.

Picasso was the first modern celebrity artist, unapologetic for his crass behavior, while Matisse lived in contrast, a reserved man shielding his life from the public view. They mocked each other in their respective works, yet revered each other for their talents. Matisse ”left me his odalisques,” Picasso famously declared after Matisse died, and then, in ”Women of Algiers,” Picasso returned these odalisques to their original source, Delacroix. He was expressing what Françoise Gilot, the painter and Picasso’s lover, called a kinship based on the common ”understanding of the same artists and the same principles.”

Both of the artists had a restless, self-confident, combative intelligence. As can be seen in the cross comparison of their careers and from the respect and admiration adorned from their art, they were strong contemporaries whose fame seemed to rise and fall in contrast to one and other. By the end, Picasso was strapping canvases onto the roof of his car and driving them over to show an elderly Matisse. ”Everything considered, there is only Matisse,” Picasso said. ”Only one person has the right to criticize me,” Matisse responded.

Picasso once said that in order to grasp 20th-century art, you ought to see ”side by side everything Matisse and I were doing.” This rivalry and friendship seemed to bring out the best in both artists. Thus, us lovers of the art world, are fortunate that they co-existed because without the personality or presence of one or the other, who knows what sort of influences would have driven them, and what masterpieces we would have lost out on.

Tags: art invest, history, matisse, picasso, Sheryl McMahan
Posted in Art History, Everything else, Uncategorized |

Braque and Picasso: The Creation of Cubism

Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

Braque was an introvert, and Picasso was an extrovert so by all accounts these two personalities should not have mixed. Both of them had different painting styles and work ethics, yet from 1908 to 1914 they were basically inseparable, forming a unique and everlasting partnership that created Cubism.

Braque’s role is often underplayed as Picasso is the more commercially acclaimed artist, but Braque was capable of remarkable flexibility and invention. It was certainly a give and take between Braque and Picasso, and of their velocity of discovery and invention. However Braque’s and Picasso’s attraction to notions of selflessness and anonymity probably owes more to the reticence and tact of Braque, than to the overly self-confident of Picasso.

Even after Picasso and Braque went their own ways, when Braque enlisted to join the war efforts, they occasionally made snide remarks about each other but remained loyal to what they had shared during these years. They never expressed what transpired between them. As Braque recalled, ”Picasso and I said things to one another that will never be said again … that no one will be able to understand.” This dedication and respect is one seldomly seen in the art world, and their silence on what transpired signifies that they felt their time together was sacred. And without such time spent together, who knows if Cubism would exist or even be considered an art form today.

Tags: art movements, artists, braque, history, picasso, Sheryl McMahan
Posted in Art History, Everything else, Uncategorized |

The Women That Inspire

Monday, April 18th, 2011

Artists have been moved for centuries by the beauty, grace, and body of the female. Their model, lover, or wife acted not only as their muse, but also as their collaborator. From influencing the subject matter to assisting in the creation process and production, women were at the center of the famous artists lives.

Take Claude Monet and his first wife Camille Monet. Camille was his model before she became his wife and inspired some of his most famous works, Woman with a Parasol and Woman in the Green Dress. Pablo Picasso’s use of his lover’s in his art is unquestionable, therefore, it isn’t surprising to find them in his brilliant masterpieces, such as Dora Maar in Guernica. In more recent memory, the way Christo and Claes Oldenburg have latterly given their project-manager wives equal billing.

Such passion and respect have created wonderful masterpieces that tell stories of love, betrayal, sadness, hope, and desire. Without the influence of such women, who knows what would have inspired these artists to create.

Tags: art invest, art movements, artists, history, Sheryl McMahan
Posted in Art History, Everything else |

Did you know Picasso was questioned for stealing the Mona Lisa?

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

When the Mona Lisa disappeared from the Louvre in 1911, a friend of Picasso’s, Guillaume Apollinaire, was arrested first and ratted out Picasso for possessing stolen antiquities. Picasso was subsequently arrested and released because he had not stolen the Mona Lisa. However he was not completely innocent of a crime as he did possess a pair of Bronze Age Iberian statues stolen from the Louvre that was never detected.*

*obtained from Picasso and Theft of the Mona Lisa

Tags: artists, history, picasso, Sheryl McMahan
Posted in Art History, Everything else, Uncategorized |

World’s Foremost Intaglio Printer Dies at 77

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Aldo Crommelynck, one of the world’s foremost intaglio printers, died in Paris on December 22, 2008, after a brief illness. He is survived by his adopted daughter, Corrine Buchet Crommelynck and his stepson, Jean Marie Buchet. His wife, Pep, passed away several years ago. A private funeral service was held in Paris.

Born in 1931 in Monaco, Crommelynck worked with three generations of artists. Initially as an employee of Roger Lacouriere in Paris beginning in 1947, he spent the years from 1948 – 1955 learning printmaking techniques and assisting numerous artists including Braque, Picasso, Matisse, and Miro. During this period, he formed an especially close working relationship with Picasso. In 1963, which Picasso decided he need a printer close by his house, Notre-Dame-de-Vie in Mougins. Picasso would create etchings on copper plates supplied by Crommelynck in the morning and Crommelynck would return with proofs in the afternoon. When the proofing was complete, the plates went to Crommelynck’s studio in Paris to be editions. Crommelynck’s studio in Paris to be editions. Crommelynck’s printed for Picasso for over twenty years and collaborating on most of his intaglio projects including the series “60”, and “156”, and culminating in 1968 with Picasso’s Suite 347.

In addition to Picasso, Crommelynck printed for Braque, Matisse, Miro, Roualt, Masson, Leger, and Giacometti during their later years. After Picasso’s death in 1973 and continuing into the early eighties, he printed in Paris for numerous contemporary artists including Jim Dine, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Harold Hodgkin, Jasper Johns, and David Salle.

Also and his brother Pierro, had a falling out in 1984 which ended their business relationship and resulted in Pierro’s attempt to take public credit for all of Aldo’s collaborative successes. In 1986, Crommelynck formed a joint venture with Pace Editions Inc. and establish a printing studio with Pace in New York’s Soho in addition to his Paris studio where he collaborated as a printed publisher with Chuck Close, Jim Dine, George Condo, Red Grooms, Alex Katz, Claes Oldenburg, Ed Ruscha, Joel Shapiro, Donald Sulton and Terry Winters.

In 1989, the Whitney Museum organized a tribute to Crommelynck, Aldo Crommelynck Master Prints with American Artists. He received the Grand Prix Nationale Des Metiers D’Art in 1989. Jim Dine and Aldo collaborated on over 100 prints from 1976 to 1997, many of which were included in an exhibition, Aldo et Moi, at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris in 2007.

In 2000, Aldo retired to Paris.

For further information – contact Richard Solomon (212) 219-8000, ext.22.

Posted in Art History |

A Philosophy on Originality in Prints

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

Answers to questions about original and/or unique prints are fairly subjective. There are various levels of originality within the field of printmaking, rendering a print’s classification to be complex; an equally complex explanation is necessary in order for our buyers to discern their tastes and objectives when collecting prints.

I will focus this discussion on the works by Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973) as I consider him to be one of the most prolific and innovative printmakers of our time.

As mentioned earlier, there are many levels of originality in prints – the works created by Picasso are no exception. Picasso created many different forms of prints in varying mediums. Etchings, aquatints, linocuts, lithographs and ceramics were editioned under his direction and were made to his specifications. His physical involvement varied from work to work, but his creative input was never compromised. I consider any print authorized by Picasso (evidenced by his hand signature or his creation of the plates) to be an original work.

A few prints from the series titled the Barcelona Suite are featured at Masterworks Fine Art, Inc. (Harlequin and Mother & Child) published by the Museo Picasso in 1966. All works from this edition are offset lithographs, hand signed and authorized by Picasso as evidence of his approval for each print that was produced.

Another printer that Picasso worked with was Guy Spitzer who also helped produce offset lithographs featuring unique, hand-applied stencil coloring. I consider the prints by Spitzer to be quite nice – each have notations on the reverse of the sheet, stating their unique piece number and edition size; this is viewed as one of the earliest examples of official documentation for each Picasso print, similar to a certificate of authenticity.

Prints made in collaboration with printmaker Aldo Crommelynck are perhaps the most beautiful works ever created by Picasso (their inherent textural qualities and the depth of color is enhanced when viewed in person). In my opinion, the series by Crommelynck is better than the prints created from plates which Picasso made himself.

I think the major differences should be considered with the artist’s involvement with the printing process, and the level of originality of the process employed.

Tags: picasso maternity, picasso prints
Posted in Art History |

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