Miniaturist, gifted draftsman, able painter and keen observer of human behavior in Eighteenth Century Paris, Gabriel de Saint-Aubin was one of the most prolific, insightful and talented artists of his day, yet he remains little known today. His unmatched ability to capture and convey events and moments in time made him an embodiment of contemporary Parisian life — essentially a history painter of his time. In this context, “Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (1724-1780),” the first major retrospective of the artist in more than 80 years, organized for The Frick Collection in New York City, where it will be on view through January 27, is an introduction to a singular figure about whom more should be known. The show comprises some 50 drawings and a few paintings from Saint-Aubin’s large and varied oeuvre.
Joe Lionetti, 79, a well-known American antiques dealer in New York and Connecticut, died October 31, at St Francis Hospital, after a lingering illness. On October 13 and 14, the Dutchess County Fairgrounds showcased the biggest bumper crop of antiques, fine art and collectibles for miles around as it hosted the harvest edition of the Rhinebeck Antiques Fair.
A handsome Fall Hartford Antiques Show opened to an appreciative crowd October 21, making another stalwart showing as an “incomparable source of period American antiques."
Lucille A. Kamm LeClair of Wethersfield, who along with her husband William co-founded The Clearing House Auction Galleries of Wethersfield in 1947; died on October 5 at Hartford Hospital.
The largest and certainly one of the most eclectic of Stella Show Mgmt Co.’s events at the 26th Street Armory, The Modern Show opened October 12, for a three-day run, offering a colorful and lively display.
The gallery was full of buyers, the phones and Internet humming at Rago Arts and Auction Center for its first Craftsman Auction of the new season. The September 29–30 sale totaled $3.6 million, the second highest in Rago’s history. A rare car weathervane started quite a commotion as it crossed the auction block at Skinner’s American Furniture and Decorative Arts Auction this past Sunday, November 4. Eight hundred lots into Northeast Auctions’ Americana sale on October 26–28, a collection of bird carvings flew across the block at remarkable prices. Alvan and Claude Bisnoff bid farewell to to their longtime collection of theorems, important paintings and watercolors, several weathervanes, Windsor chairs and other furniture, folk art carvings and a large cigar store Indian as they watched the 150-plus lots attain $2.75 million at Northeast Auctions. Focusing extensively on Lafayette’s 1824–25 tour, the New-York Historical Society’s exhibition “French Founding Father: Lafayette’s Return to Washington’s America” will expand on a show organized by the Mount Vernon Estate and gather more than 100 of the objects that commemorated Lafayette’s visit as well as his relationship to Washington.
“Woman: The Art of Gaston Lachaise” will be on view November 17–February 17 at the Nasher Sculpture Center. This is the first major museum retrospective of the artist’s work to be shown in Texas.
The Fenimore Art Museum has received many notable gifts in recent months, including a substantial Native American collection from the Barbar Conable family, a contemporary Native American work from Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw and an historic musical instrument and landscape painting from Patricia B. Selch in memory of Eric Selch.
Painted furniture, textiles, folk art, delft, stoneware, Grenfell rugs, paintings and nautical items were among the appetizing fare served up at Cyr Auction Company during the Americana and fine arts auction October 10.
One of the great landscape painters of all time, and arguably Great Britain’s finest artist, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) depicted a wide range of subjects in his prolific career, ranging from seascapes, topographical views and mythology to historical events, modern life and images from his imagination. His paintings and watercolors, which elevated the standing of landscape art to unprecedented levels, are among the most familiar and most admired works in art history. In the course of his career, he created more than 20,000 oil paintings, watercolors and drawings. While helping to define the romantic movement, his renderings of the subtle effects of light and atmosphere on the shape and color of things summed up notions of the sublime. His achievements are celebrated in the exhibition, “J.M.W. Turner,” comprising nearly 150 paintings and watercolors, on view at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., through January 6.
At Sotheby’s November 7 evening sale of Impressionist and Modern art, the top lot was Paul Gauguin’s “Te Poipoi (The Morning),” one of the greatest Tahitian scenes by the artist remaining in private hands, which sold for $39,241,000. Historical Hall overlooking the village green, was once again the center of activity for the Bedford Historical Society over the October 20–21 weekend, the dates of the annual antiques show. As shuttle buses pulled up in front of The Gramercy Park Antiques Show, dropping off some customers and picking up others, dealers inside the 26th Street Amory facility barely batted an eye as they dealt with the ever-changing and steady stream of customers
High-end antiques shows are almost as much about how as what. From its founding in 1987, the meticulous room-setting and gallery-style vignettes of the International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show (IFAADS) have offered novel inspiration for living with the rare, important and beautiful.
Jeri Ann Schwartz, a noted antiques dealer in vertu, died at home November 8. Rebranding, rethinking, reworking and reinventing the antiques shows that have formed the nucleus of the Wendy Management antiques shows, Meg Wendy has announced the company’s newest venture, the first Pavillon of Arts and Design NY, that is scheduled at the Park Avenue Armory for February 8–11. The Philadelphia Antiques Show took a big step forward when management confirmed Saturday that Marcy Burns, a well-liked and respected New York specialist in American Indian art, had been invited to rejoin the show, planned for April 11–15. After 22 years of research and writing, Rona Schneider has announced the publication of Stephen Parrish / The Etchings: A Catalogue Raisonné. The publication date is November 2007.
A local antiques institution said goodbye Saturday, November 10, when the Woodbury Antiques & Flea Market shut down after 40 years of continuous operation here. Show promoter Barry Cohen of b4rTIME has thrown his hat back into the Americana Week ring with the announcement that he will return in January with a revived Antiques Manhattan show. Cohen has not produced the show since 2003. Three days, 1,818 lots, a one-owner sale, and $6.29 million later, Ronald Bourgeault and Northeast Auctions completed another marathon of sales at the Radisson Hotel on October 26–28.
Antiques At Pompey Hollow’s debut auction in this area made an auspicious start on September 21 at the Norwalk Inn. The sale featured a select grouping of several hundred items from fine New England estates and a Virginia home.
On September 29, Tradewinds Antiques celebrated 15 years of presenting all-cane auctions with its 31st all-cane live auction at the Salem Waterfront Hotel.
Rock Island Auction Company’s second premiere auction of 2007 on September 8–10, realized nearly $8.2 million, making the diverse sale featuring six prominent collections its second highest grossing auction in the history of the company.
Area residents were invited to an art showing of sorts on November 8 at the Waterbury Police Department where approximately 180 paintings and other antiques were displayed so that those who believed their missing artwork might be among recently recovered items could come in to identify them. After more than six and a half years of renovation and expansion work, the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) reopens November 23, on the heels of a grand opening gala celebration that was called the “hottest party of the year.” The nearly $160 million project included major infrastructure upgrades to the historic Beaux-Arts building, renovations to the South and North Wings and construction of a 31,282-square-foot addition designed by Michael Graves. The resulting 35,000 square feet of new exhibition space — a 30 percent increase that brings the museum’s total to 150,000 square feet — facilitates display of more than 5,000 works from the DIA’s fine permanent collection, plus additional areas to showcase special exhibitions. The DIA is thus now able to exhibit more of its holdings as well as offering new programming to provide insights into the arts. With its world-class collection housed in grand new and expanded facilities, the future looks bright for the museum.
Arlene Rich, owner of Red Barn Antiques for many years, died November 13. She will be remembered for her generous contributions to the Fitzwilliam Historical Society, the Fitzwilliam Newsletter, and the antiques community throughout the state. On November 11, Marilyn H. Nager died after a long illness. Marilyn was the wife of Boston antiques dealer Simon Nager for 61 years. She was the granddaughter of Abram Rubin of Boston, a pioneer antiques dealer, who began his business in the early Twentieth Century. Visitors may now enjoy one of The Frick Collection’s signature galleries, the Fragonard Room, which has undergone its first major relighting and refurbishment in 60 years.
President George W. Bush announced on November 14 that Roy R. Neuberger, 104, one of America’s foremost art patrons and philanthropists and founder of the Neuberger Museum of Art, has won the 2007 National Medal of Arts. The president presented the award on Thursday, November 15, in an East Room ceremony..
The Maja Oeri and Hans Bodenmann Gallery, fourth floor of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), will be devoted to 13 paintings and drawings by Ellsworth Kelly (b 1923) in an exhibition, “Focus: Ellsworth Kelly.” Three of the paintings will be on view for the first time and are recent acquisitions.
The Yale University Art Gallery has announced its acquisition, through partial gift/ partial purchase, of two of the six extant panels from a major altarpiece by the Meister der Heiligen Sippe (Master of the Holy Kinship), the last great painter of the Cologne School, active in northern Germany between 1475 and 1510.
The Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College presents “Great Criticism: Paintings from Modern China,” an exhibition from the AMAM’s permanent collection that reflects the ongoing struggle between modernism and traditionalism prevalent in Chinese art during the second half of the Twentieth Century. “Great Criticism” is on view in the museum’s Ambulatory Gallery until December 23.
The Civil War view “Sunday Prayers” by Sanford Robinson Gifford sold for an impressive $831,000 at Skinner’s American and European painting sale November 16. A broadside of the Declaration of Independence printed in Boston between July 12 and 16, 1776, sold for $693,500 at Skinner’s November 18 books and manuscripts sale. “The sale did far better than we anticipated,” said auctioneer Ed Nadeau in regard to the annual Americana auction that Nadeau’s regularly schedules to coincide with the Fall Hartford Antiques Show. Consisting of more than 500 lots, the Important Annual Fall Antiques and Fine Art Auction conducted on October 20 came in well above estimates.
Bright and colorful, The International Vintage Poster Fair opened for a three-day run at Metropolitan Pavilion October 19, with a preview party kicking off the show in gala style. Unlike most preview parties, the main attraction of the evening was not the libations. Instead it was the wide variety of posters that were being enjoyed by a large and close-knit group of collectors.
The 16th annual USArtists glowed with the patina of success — a rich, glossy devotion to excellence. When the show opened October 18, the Women’s Board of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts revealed that it had once again assembled some of the foremost galleries in the country, as well as well-known private art dealers. “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming,” might well have been a chant heard around the world from an anxious crowd of art enthusiasts during the days leading up to October 20. Rather than Oscar hype, the excitement was for a stellar performance of another sort: a prime selection of Russian and Russian American works of art coming to the auction block at Gene Shapiro’s inaugural sale.
Like the Santa Fe Trail and Silk Road of yore, a well-beaten path was formed over the weekend of October 26, this one leading up to the entrance of “Treasures … From The Silk Road To The Santa Fe Trail.” Local buyers were out in force, seeking the treasures that traveled those very same roads centuries ago. It is not attendance figures that predict an antiques show’s success, but what buyers do once inside the show that makes or breaks the event. Although the gate was off a little on Saturday at the two-day Greenwich Fall Antiques Show, October 13–14, a number of dealers had good shows nonetheless. The Ross Vintage Poster Gallery hosted a grand opening celebrating its spacious new gallery located in the heart of Manhattan on November 15.
A central figure in the group of early avant-garde artists who brought Modernism to America, Charles Demuth (1883–1935) is best known as a master watercolorist and pioneer Precisionist painter. He brought to his craft a sophistication, sensibility, wit and daring that were rare for his time. In his meticulous images of factories, smokestacks, grain elevators and water towers of his hometown of Lancaster, Penn., and vernacular structures in rural Pennsylvania he managed to convey the beauty and strength of American industrial might and of utilitarian buildings. Demuth’s traits and his achievements are showcased in two current exhibitions. “Out of the Chateau: Works from the Demuth Museum,” the first touring exhibition of the permanent collection of the museum housed in Demuth’s Lancaster home/studio, will be at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts academy through December 9. “Chimneys and Towers: Charles Demuth’s Late Paintings of Lancaster,” is on view at the Norton Museum of Art through January 20.
An expert in early American antiques and head of Patty Gagarin Antiques for more than two decades, Frances “Patty” Moore Gagarin died on November 18 at the age of 90. She was a resident of Greenfield Hills and Southport, Conn. Painted country furniture, Pennsylvania fabrics and ceramics, and seasonal objects for both fall and the fast approaching Christmas holidays were in abundance November 2-3 at The Greater York Antiques Show and Sale now including the York County Classic Antiques Show. New management, some new dealers and some newer material spiced up Boston’s venerable Ellis Antiques Show this year, adding to its long-established distinguished air. The mix was electric and generated interest in all spheres.
There was room for everyone and everything at the cavernous Shriners Auditorium that fills each fall with antiques dealers and antiques of every stripe for the two-day Greater Boston Antiques Festival October 20-21.
Jenkins Show Management was near capacity for its October 23–27 Tailgate Antiques Show at Fiddlers Inn here.
Music Valley Antiques Market attracted a large audience that spent well at the most recent meeting, October 25–27. Kay Puchstein, co-manager of the show, reported that more than 140 dealers exhibited to traffic that was about equal in size to last fall’s gate.
Antiques dealer Dale Pregent was elected mayor of Keene, N.H. (population 25,000), on November 6. Pregent will officially take office on January 1, for a term of two years, giving up the city council seat he has held for the past six years. Yeshiva University Museum will present the first exhibition of Nineteenth Century photographs of Israel by James Graham and Mendel Diness. On view December 4–April 6, “Picturing Jerusalem” includes 70 rare vintage prints of the Holy Land by Diness and his teacher Graham along with a selection of original artifacts used by the photographers.
“Inuit Images: Art from the Canadian Arctic” is on view at the Pauley Center at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts through January 13.
“Edward S. Curtis: Prints of Native Americans,” a new exhibition on view at the Cape Cod Museum Of Art (CCMA) December 1 through January 13, presents 16 of Curtis’s fine prints from the private collection of a Cape Cod resident.
What makes maps so hypnotic? Is it their endless detail that magically draws a viewer in? Their connection to a moment in history? Whatever the connection, discover unexpected new dimensions of these objects in “Maps: Finding Our Place in the World” at The Field Museum through January 28.
James D. Julia Auctioneers conducted an $11.2 million firearms auction October 8–10, the highest grossing firearms auction ever. The sale offered 1,349 lots, with an average sale value per lot of $8,328, also an industry record.
“It’s the best one that I have ever seen,” commented an enthusiastic Gene Shannon while motioning toward a landscape painting, one of hundreds of paintings on view in the preview area prior to his recent fine arts auction. Similar superlatives rolled off his tongue with regularity as the auction house principal reflected on painting after painting, all handsomely displayed throughout the preview area.
It took 53 years for Stephen and Marilyn Steckbeck to build their collection, but only a day to dismantle it. On October 27, Morphy Auction’s sold the unreserved, 492-lot collection of antique mechanical banks for $7.7 million.
A Mail Pouch brand six-sheet tobacco sign, a turn-of-the-century full-color lithograph, sold for $19,800 at the sale of the Jim Main collection, conducted September 28–30 by Showtime Auction Services at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds. Stephen Gass, partner at Trinity International Auctions & Appraisals, conducted a fall auction on Saturday, October 6, in a room filled to capacity with a wide assortment of art. While bidders in the gallery were few, with more than eight phones and the Internet, Gass reported a “very, very good sale.”
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