Bonhams’ first sale of fine photographs simulcast to its New York City salesroom brought nearly $600,000 on October 28, with several lots inspiring competitive bidding and robust landscapes capturing collector interest.
One of the most interesting of the annual events conducted at Park Avenue’s Seventh Regiment Armory is the Sanford Smith-conceived show Modernism.
One of the Morgan’s core strengths is its collection of historically and artistically significant bookbindings. “Protecting the Word: Bookbindings of the Morgan,” on view December 5–March 29, will present a selection of key works from the collection.
At its semiannual poster auction, November 10, Poster Auctions International, Inc hit a sale rate of 44 percent for a total of $1,300,000 as more than 500 lots of rare, vintage posters crossed the block.
The Speed Art Museum has announced the promised gift of more than 100 masterpieces of Kentucky art from collectors Robert and Norma Noe.
A rare bowfront violano music player, made around 1910 by the Mills Novelty Company of Chicago soared to $137,500 at a multi-estate sale October 10–12 by Showtime Auction Services.
The exhibition “American Watercolors: 1860–1930 From the Lewis C. Allen Collection” at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts showcases the evolution of watercolor painting in America.
The much-maligned William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951) was one of the most ambitious and flamboyant art collectors of all time, assembling a high quality trove of visual and decorative objects and exhibiting them in a series of extraordinary houses, notably the celebrated Hearst Castle in San Simeon, Calif. As a result of the negative caricature of the newspaper tycoon’s life in Orson Welles’s film, An iconic Mid-Century Modern home was tragically destroyed when a multialarm fire ripped through the 1950s structure over the night of November 27. The owner-occupants, Clay Rotolo and Karen Marquis, antiques dealers specializing in furnishings and accessories from the 1950s through the 1980s, were asleep in the home when the fire broke out and were able to escape. Both occupants received serious burns and required hospitalization. Dealers were energized for the opening of the Boston International Fine Art Show (BIFAS), knowing full well that anything could happen.
Pastel has long been embraced as an exceptionally versatile and effective drawing technique. “The Art of the Pastel” at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute features 11 works by Edgar Degas, Jean-Francois Millet, Camille Pissarro, Mary Cassatt and others, on view through February 16.
Dorothea Rabkin, who, with her husband, Leo, was a distinguished collector and generous donor to the American Folk Art Museum, New York City, died November 25, due to complications of Parkinson’s disease. She served on the museum’s collections committee for many years. This past October, eBay sellers and buyers awoke to a new world order with the online auction platform’s announcement that it was moving to electronic-only payments. Morgan Willis, auctioneer, 80, died peacefully with his family by his side on December 7 in the York (Maine) Hospital. A well-rendered oil on canvas painting of a Florida landscape with figures, painted by the renowned German-born American artist Hermann Herzog (1832–1932), sold for $80,500 at Nadeau’s Auction Gallery’s multi-estate sale October 11.
A parcel gilt-bronze figure of Buddha Shakyamuni in lotus position brought $676,309 at the 36th Special Auction of Asian Art at Nagel Auktionen, November 10–11, going to a buyer from Hong Kong.
The Rubin Museum of Art will present an array of fine hand stitched embroidery from India and Pakistan in “Color & Light: Embroidery from India and Pakistan,” opening Friday, December 12, and on view through May 11.
The aircraft-carrier-cum-military museum Intrepid was back at its berth on Manhattan’s West Side and so was Stella Show Mgmt Co.’s Pier Antiques Show November 15 and 16 to present the popular fall edition of the megamarket.
The Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library has reported the theft of a large antique porcelain plate from its historic reading room. Most of the antiques shows, such as the Wethersfield Antiques Show, seem to be holding their own in attendance, as it did in its most recent edition.
On November 14 at Sotheby’s, a packed salesroom witnessed spirited bidding from clients both in the room and participating over the phone at the auction of African and Oceanic art from the collection of Frieda and Milton Rosenthal.
On October 12, Columbus Day weekend, Outer Cape Auctions hosted its annual art auction. A Henry Hensche landscape dated 1986 and measuring 16 by 20 inches sold for $23,500, well above its $8/10,000 presale estimate.
The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) swung the doors open to its newly designed and constructed domicile at Columbus Circle in New York City in late September, revealing a state-of-the-art facility that effectively tripled the size of the museum and allowed its permanent collection to be displayed for the first time. The permanent installations of more than 2,000 pieces include a site-specific stained-glass commission by Judith Schaechter, an abstract ceramic wall relief by Ruth Duckworth and a ceramic mural by Robert Arneson, titled “Alice House Wall,” on display for the first time in 20 years.
For the 41st year, the Chappaqua Antiques Show opened its doors on the first weekend of November — this year, November 1 and 2.
The long-running West Palm Beach Antiques & Collectibles Show has been sold. The new owners are veteran show promoters Kay and Bill Puchstein and Jim and Yvonne Tucker. They will change the name of the show to the West Palm Antiques Festival. The ownership will change effective with the next show, January 2-4.
To a standing-room-only crowd, Abell Auction Co. recently conducted its fall fine art and antiques sale of more than 600 lots gathered from estates across Southern California. With more than 50 percent of the lots hammering above their estimates, the energy in the gallery was strong.
Co-proprietor of Nancy and Alan Gilbert Antiques in Mountainville, Tewksbury Township, N.J., for more than 30 years, Alan D. Gilbert, 79, died November 29 at Somerset Medical Center. The first American Art Fair was launched with 11 exhibitors November 30, at the National Academy. As a first impression, the exhibition could be likened to a “Winter Antiques Show” of American art, only on a smaller scale.
International interest pushed the price for a circa 1800 Korean jar to nearly $4.2 million at Bonhams & Butterfields on December 9, setting a new auction world record. Cornelius C. Vermeule III, who over four decades as curator of classical antiquities at the Museum of Fine Arts built a reputation for astute acquisitions, prodigious scholarship and engaging eccentricity, died November 27 from complications of a stroke. On view at the Hammer Museum through February 8, “Gouge: The Modern Woodcut 1870 to Now” examines the woodcut in terms of its diverse forms and uses in the modern era.
Tailgate Antiques Show “is now wagging the dog, with fresh antiques at a big professional show site and all the facilities needed to have an antiques show for about 150 dealers, and thousands of visitors,” according to Steve Jenkins, show manager and founder of the family business. After more than 20 years at Fiddlers Inn, near Opryland USA, the show was moved for the most recent gathering, October 31– November 2.
The exhibition “Andy Warhol: Cowboys & Indians” will be on display at the Mint Museum of Art December 20–May 9, while “Breaking New Ground: The Mint Museum Expansion” is on view at the Mint Museum of Craft + Design through February 1.
The Tennessee State Fairgrounds, just south of Nashville’s downtown, was the new site for the long-running, twice-yearly Music Valley Antiques Show, October 30–November 2.
At Theriault’s November auction of fine automata highlighting the private collection of Jerry and Bunny Steinbaum of Beverly Hills, Calif., there were 23 singing birds, bears beating drums, acrobats performing feats of remarkable agility, clowns juggling balls on a stick, and even Pierrot sitting on a slice of the moon.
Just over 100 dealers assembled for one day only — December 7 — at the annual Wilton Holiday Antiques Show conducted by Marilyn Gould inside the Wilton High School field house.
Rose Hill’s Mid-Century Modern sale had everything designers or home decorators would need to complete a classic mid-century home, with a few postmodern touches thrown in.
The Brooklyn Museum is the final venue of an international tour of the first retrospective in more than 25 years of work by the internationally acclaimed artists Gilbert & George, on view through January 22.
The International Asian Art Fair will not assume its usual place during March' s Asia Week but organizers hope to bring back the show in 2010. Antiques and folk art dealer Robert Lindsay Thayer, 59, died at his home here December 8. “Alexander Calder: The Paris Years,” on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art to February 15, is the first comprehensive, critical look at the formative seven-year period between 1926 and 1933 for Alexander Calder.
Cord Shows Ltd conducted its first Antiques Affair in Stamford, Conn., December 6–7 with more than 30 exhibiting antiques dealers.
The time-honored antiques show that has come to herald the holiday season — Antiquarius, as the weeklong celebration in and around Greenwich, Conn., is known — marked its 51st year December 5–7.
On October 25 and 26, John Sollo and David Rago hosted an auction of more than 1,060 lots of Twentieth Century Modern that was one of the most in-depth auctions of its kind to date.
Philippe de Montebello has been called the “conscience of the profession,” the “most admired museum director of his generation,” and he is further credited with running the “best-managed museum in the world.” Stepping down at the end of the month as the director of America’s greatest art museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, de Montebello has certainly earned his accolades. After 30 years and 700 comprehensive exhibitions, he is the longest serving leader at any major museum in the world. He is being feted as he retires with an exhibition, “The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisition,” on view through February 1. It consists of 300 works selected by curators in 17 of the museum’s departments from the 84,000 objects collected during de Montebello’s tenure. The occasion offers an opportunity to juxtapose centuries and cultures and differing media not normally possible within the museum’s collections galleries.
Dedham Pottery was a standout at Grogan’s December 7 auction — compelling pieces brought compelling prices before a standing-room-only crowd.
By the end of the Civil War, most Americans considered either Ulysses S. Grant or Robert E. Lee to be a hero. Since then, much has been written about their respective roles in the war, but surprisingly little about them together and in the totality of their careers, especially in regards to the postwar period of their lives. “Grant and Lee in War and Peace,” a thought-provoking exhibition currently on view at the New-York Historical Society through March 29, immerses visitors in the experiences of Grant, Lee and their fellow citizens in the Mexican and Civil Wars, and in the rebuilding of the nation into a unified capitalist behemoth in the Gilded Age. In visual terms, the exhibition offers a wealth of rare and interesting objects and documents drawn from the society’s holdings and from public and private collections around the country.
Guyette & Schmidt, Inc conducted its annual fall decoy auction on November 12 and 13 at the Talbot County Community Center. The sale grossed $1.9 million, with 34 lots selling for more than $10,000 and two topping $100,000.
At Kaminski's November 29–30 auction, competition between two Italian bidders drove two large Eighteenth Century Italian paintings to $324,300.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Fowler Museum at UCLA, with major support from the Broad Art Foundation, have jointly purchased “Fading Scroll,” a significant work by El Anatsui, one of Africa’s most heralded contemporary artists.
The 50th anniversary of a groundbreaking publication will be celebrated in the nation’s capital with the exhibition “Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans,” premiering January 18 in the National Gallery of Art.
A rare T206 Honus Wagner baseball card — often called the Holy Grail of sports collectibles — soared to $791,000 at Philip Weiss Auctions November 21–23.
The Pound Ridge Historical Society Antiques Show is a popular one on the antiques show circuit. With right around 60 dealers and little turnover, the show is a comfortable size and the mood here is relaxed, making shopping a pleasant experience. Offerings range from traditional to Modern, and there is a diverse variety to be found.
The Delaware Art Museum presents “The Invented Worlds of Alida Fish,” featuring 31 photographs and on view through February 8.
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