Art Of The Day Weekly
#122 - from 26 February 2009 to 4 March 2009
IN THE AIR
The YSL sale: mission accomplished
The saying according to which exceptional works of art always sell, in particular in a time of crisis, has never been so well confirmed. The sale of the collection built by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, which lasted three days from 23 to 25 February, proves it in a striking manner. The organizers – in this case Christie’s, owned by François Pinault - were like cats on a hot tin roof. The works of art had been estimated last year, before the crash, and Pierre Bergé had received some generous guaranties. It would have been very difficult to bear the financial consequences if the sale had been a failure. The global estimates, pushed during the more optimistic period up to 600 million euros, and had been wisely divided by more than two. There was no sense in being worried: that was obvious from the first day with sales proceeds at 206 million euros, including a Matisse, The cuckoo birds, blue and pink rug, at 35.6 million euros, a record for the artist (and twice the double of the estimate). The rest was in line with this global revenue of 374 million euros, a record that has shattered all other sales: it is the most important sale in Paris and in the world of a private collection. Can art be seen as a refuge-value? It seems to be the conclusion of this marathon.
EXHIBITIONS
The genesis of expressionism
NEW YORK – On 7 June 1905, four students in architecture gave birth, in Dresden, to a new artistic group. Kirchner, Schmidt-Rottluff, Heckel and Bleyl set the foundations for the Bridge (Die Brücke) and nothing would ever be the same in German art. We are indeed referring to the birth of expressionism. With some one hundred works of art, the Neue Galerie retraces the fundamental influence of the group, which was soon joined by Otto Müller and Max Pechstein, moved to Berlin in 1911 and then dissolved shortly before World War I. Expressionism was marked by violent colors, a taste for urban scenes and social themes, and a strong attraction for African art, all which brought it close to other avant-garde movements of the time. With this exhibition, the founder of the museum, Ronald Lauder, confirms his passion for that movement, the works of which he has collected for nearly half a century.
...and of the pre-Raphaelites
STOCKHOLM – In a video by Nick Cave, Where Wild Roses Grow, singer Kylie Minogue floats like a drowned corpse in flower-filled water. The reference, a remake of Millais’ Ophélie, seems rather obvious to us. Fifty years ago no one would have mentioned the English painter, as the pre-Raphaelite movement he had participated in had been forgotten. Twenty-five years after the large exhibition in London that pulled Rossetti, Hunt and Burne-Jones out of oblivion, the National Museum of Sweden gives its own version of the facts. The somewhat 200 works retrace the genesis of the secret brotherhood, founded in Bloomsbury in the Autumn of 1848 with the ambition of bringing back to life the «pure» painting from before the Renaissance. Historic, mythological and biblical scenes, women condemned to consume with love or die, medieval decors: we are all familiar with the tastes of pre-Raphaelite artists. The contribution by women, usually neglected, is put forward in this exhibit, from Joanna Mary Boyce to Mary Brett.
Suzanne Valadon and son
PARIS – In artists’ families, we know the example of brothers (the Duchamp-Villon, the Chirico-Savinio), spouses (the Delaunay), or father and daughter (Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi). The mother-son pair is more rare and it is what the Pinacothèque de Paris has focused on through the case of Suzanne Valadon and Maurice Utrillo. Their small age difference (Suzanne Valadon was eighteen when she had her son) explains how they were able to work simultaneously, producing in particular the portraits of one another. Some fifty works by each one of them, including Utrillos from his «white period» (1900-1915), underline nevertheless their contrasting interests: portraits and nudes for the mother, the topographic renderings of Paris for Utrillo.
AUCTIONS
The Empire calls
Cartridge pouches, sabretaches, shakos, head-dresses and knives … as well as miniatures and large paintings. To aficionados, the mixture of genres in this auction dedicated to the First Empire, in which the collection of a well-known expert will be scattered, is not an inconvenience. The standing portraits of officers of the armed cavalry as well as dragons or light infantrymen will be negotiated between 2 000 and 5 000 €. The miniatures representing generals and marshals – Jourdan, Augereau, Lefèvre – will easily be bought for a few hundred euros (unless they are on ivory). The accessories cost more – shoulder straps, sword-knots or pompons for the shakos – undoubtedly because they were actually used in combat. The highest bids will concern the weapons and the uniforms. A Mameluke dagger from the Imperial guard is expected to go for more than 10 000 euros and a Russian fur hat from the 2nd regiment of the Household cavalry could go past the 30 000 € ceiling. This sale will undoubtedly confirm the good health of specialized sales held in a context of crisis.
ARTIST OF THE WEEK
ANALIA SABAN Overlay Series: Early Black and White Photograph (Erotic Postcard); Color Acetate Red, Yellow and Blue; Brushstrokes; and Linen Canvas on Stretcher Bars. , 2008 Red, yellow and blue film gels and acrylic on linen canvas. 126,5 x 182 cm
Annalia Saban
PARIS - The relations between painting and photography have always gone from hostility to open collaboration, and back again. At the end of the XIXth century, the Pictorialists tried to give their photographs a misty touch reminiscent of Impressionism. More recently the hyperrealists did the contrary, to give their paintings photographic precision. These reverting fashions undoubtedly inspired Analia Saban. The Los Angeles based artist uses very old snapshots in black and white, and has time traverse them by coloring them. To do so she overlays colored tracing paper, thus allowing her to recreate the specter while giving her works a vibration that recalls that of serigraphy.
BOOKS
Deciphering photography
What does an image tell us? In the past, paintings were forests of symbols, in particular the religious compositions that we are no longer capable of deciphering. When looking at a photograph we immediately understand it, and so we think spontaneously, things should be different. That is not so sure. In any case, by shedding light on all conventions on poses, angles, on the use of blurred photographs and close-ups, whose meaning has varied through time, this work seems to reach that conclusion. The author analyses photographs that make up a history of the discipline, present, from the beginning of 1839 up to our days, some one hundred authors, most of them true legends, from Ansel Adams to Bill Brandt and Cartier-Bresson.
IN BRIEF
ATHENS – The Acropolis museum, that should have opened before the Olympic games in 2004, and that can be partially visited since the summer of 2008, will definitely open on 20 June 2009.
ISTANBUL – Sotheby’s has opened an office in Turkey and will celebrate the event with the first sale of Turkish contemporary art in London on 4 March 2009.
LAS VEGAS – This is a true symbol of the current crisis: the Las Vegas Art Museum that opened in 1974 and is dedicated to temporary exhibits of contemporary art, is closing for an indefinite period as various sponsors have pulled out.
LYON – Following the withdrawal of Catherine David, Hou Hanru and Thierry Raspail, the director of the Museum of Contemporary art of Lyon will be the curators for the Xth Biennale of Lyon 2009, to be held from 16 September to 3 January 2010.
NEW YORK – Scope, the contemporary art fair, will run from 4 to 8 March 2009 at the Lincoln Center with a program particularly rich in video (Russia, Near-East).
NEW YORK – According to the New York Times, the Metropolitan Museum has decided to close 15 of its satellite shops of consumer products throughout the United States.
PARIS – The Académie des Beaux-Arts will be presenting as of 25 February contemporary tapestry works done by artists who have spent various months in the Academy’s European residences.
VENISE - The 53th Biennale of visual arts, to open on 7 June, will give two Gold Lions for their career to artists Yoko Ono and John Baldessari