Images from Dürer to Wegman on exhibit at the Davison Art Center through March 7 present a history of dogs in art spanning five centuries. A traveling retrospective champions Simkins impressive accomplishments and influence at Georgia's Morris Museum of Art through April 20. The museum will explore the Modernist concepts engaged by black artists in the United States and the Caribbean through March 30. "I look it as a bell curve, with some of the dealers having a best ever show, while others registering only a few sales," said Barry Cohen following his show in The Big Apple. No longer a novelty, the event is a vibrant forum for blue chip artists and new discoveries. This infant successor to what used to be the Fall Antiques Show is well on its way to maturity: Opening night attendance was up, collectors traveled to the show from all over the country and exhibitors were pleased with sales. The phone lines were jammed with bidders from Philadelphia and New York competing for six pieces of furniture made by George Nakashima - a linen cabinet realized $11,750. The highboy was remarkably well preserved, with only minor repairs. An earlier finish could be seen through a Twentieth Century varnish. The early classic Navajo chief's wearing blanket in dramatic black, blue and white stripes nearly tripled presale estimates. It has been a decade since Chipstone Foundation in Milwaukee published its premier issue of 'American Furniture.' Since then, readers have been treated to a wide variety of articles intended to enlighten, entertain and even provoke. Chapman's soft palette reflected the times before electric lights and the introduction of less academic representations. Although she was considered one of the finest exhibitors living in Paris during the change of centuries, she remained an ardent student from an early age in Chicago through her later years in California. To coincide with the forthcoming exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art entitled"Matisse Picasso," the gallery will exhibit a large number of the most important illustrated books created by these two artists. American rail posters, paralleling developments in the graphic arts at large, combined the national taste for realistic illustration with dramatic color effects and unexpected imagery. Philip Zea, vice president for museums and collections at the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA) in Boston, will succeed Donald R. Friary. The firm took the unprecedented action of publicly bringing a lawsuit against pop singer Michael Jackson on January 31, and has since decided to discontinue its online auction site. "There isn't a better time to be in this business. Most antiques customers are 55 to 70 years old - that part of the population is about to explode. It is going to be great for another 20 years." The auction generated a great deal of interest, grossing $3.2 million. The top lot was a solid gold Mickey Mouse standing two feet tall and weighing in at 1,500 ounces. Also offered were groups of lighting, metal, art glass and framed art before full-house crowds. The event generated just over $1 million with more than 90 percent of the lots sold an affirmation of the health of this market, according to the gallery. Rose Anna and John Kolar furnished their home with the arts and crafts of early Pennsylvania. Their sources included some of the field's best-known dealers of Pennsylvania German folk art. The National Gallery of Art is currently celebrating the 60th anniversary of its 1943 acquisition of the "Index of American Design" with 80 of the finest watercolor renderings of American folk, popular and decorative art in the survey, along with a selection of nearly 40 of the original objects they represent. A dual exhibit at the Lyme Art Association presents contemporary and early artists with Cape Ann colony connections. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and the Chipstone Foundation of Milwaukee have partnered to publish the finest examples of furniture from three regions - the Chesapeake, the Low Country and the Back Country - online. Marcia and her husband, Bill, operated Geranium Antiques, carrying an extensive stock of British and American ceramics of interest to Americana collectors. New legislation in Illinois is being hailed as a way to regulate the oftentimes shadowy world of businesses that provide Internet auction services. Will it work? "There is a significant amount of crossover between buyers interested in Continental wares and buyers interested in Asian items. We have many international clients, and a larger sale gives them more motivation to get onto a plane and come over." In stark contrast to the majority of the other auctions conducted throughout Americana Week, the event went 100 percent sold with a world record price established. Three hundred and sixty-five lots grossed an impressive $2,833,568. A new journal from the Chipstone Foundation uncovers ceramics and the stories they tell. Of the group of gifted early Twentieth Century American modernists who changed the course of our art, Hartley stands out increasingly as the most original, powerful and enduring. Such recognition has been slow in coming. In this George Stern Fine Art exhibition, Terry Delapp explores, with his neo-tonalist style, the landscape of California and the serenity of still lifes. At the Richard York Gallery, Peter Lyons treats the subjects of his paintings -- deserted railroad yards, industrial tanks and empty city streets -- with an awed and respectful eye. The exhibition, a combined showing of classic paintings from the 1970s as well as Ralph Goings' more recent work, will focus on the artist's watercolor still lifes. Recently purchased at an auction held by Christie's, the correspondence is one of only two known surviving written communications from Mrs Washington to her husband, and the only one that bears her signature. Despite a six-inch snowfall the day before, 48 dealers from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware, and New York took part in this one-day event at the Quaker-founded George School. In keeping with tradition, the seventh Palm Beach International Art & Antique Fair featured dealers from all over the world offering an enticing and costly trove of wares that organizers estimated were worth over one billion dollars. The top lots were works by Chagall and Picasso, but several strong results for contemporary prints included $13,145 for Tom Wesselman's "Nude with Still Life," a record price at auction for a felt banner by Wesselman. "This was the nicest example of the form that we have ever sold," commented Stephen Fletcher, further stating that many William and Mary highboys are often perceived as blocky or squat. The successful bidder, as reported by Pook & Pook, was a representative of Drexel University in Philadelphia, Penn. The artist was the father of Anthony Drexel, who founded the institution in 1891. As folks across the Northeast struggled to fit normal routines into a holiday weekend that brought one of the worst winter storms in a decade, auctioneers, too, were eyeing the skies and wondering if their Presidents' Day sales would have to be postponed, canceled or courageously conducted despite the snow. Chronicling a particularly vibrant and fertile period in Mexican history, a time when the arts flourished with the first breath of freedom after the revolution of 1910, this exhibition is currently on view at the Mingei International Museum of Folk Art. |
