On May 10 the Bruce Museum will open an exhibition of rarely seen Old Masters’ works and other paintings titled “Reclaimed: Paintings from the Collection of Jacques Goudstikker,” which features approximately 40 of the most representative of the collection that have at last been returned to Goudstikker’s heirs.
Remarkable works of colorful Italian tin-glazed earthenware will be on display in a special exhibition at the House Museum at Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts. “A Journey in Maiolica: Italian Renaissance to American Contemporary” opens on Sunday, May 18, and continues during regular museum hours through December 19.
“Why So Serious?” a new exhibition explores expression in early photographs. Memorial Hall Museum opens the season with an intriguing exhibition that focuses on the question, “Why do people in early photographs wear such solemn expressions?”
The Fenimore Art Museum is presenting an exhibition on the furniture of celebrated turn of the Twentieth Century designer and manufacturer and leading spokesman for the American Arts and Crafts Movement, Gustav Stickley, through August 10.
The Guilford Antiques Show is a classic. It was founded nearly 40 years ago to raise funds for Hyland House, a circa 1700 house museum that is itself a compelling artifact of the Colonial Revival. The Guilford Antiques Show was updated this year by Barn Star Productions, whose effort won the full support of the local community.
Guernsey’s offered the Pugliese Pop culture collection at auction on March 15 and 16 at the Palms Casino Resort.
James D. Julia Auctioneers has established a new benchmark for the highest grossing firearms auction in history — $12.7 million attained with 1,270 lots.
Newark International Antiques and Collectors Fair, April 3 and 4, had the biggest first-day audience on record for the show’s producer, dmg. Alan Yourston, senior fairs manager for the company, was thrilled with “the best gate we know about,” and added, “We were as full as April ever is — more than 4,000 stalls filled with antiques for the fair.”
The New York Botanical Garden will host the largest outdoor exhibition of Henry Moore’s sculpture ever presented in a single venue in the United States. The collection of approximately 20 major pieces will open at the New York Botanical Garden on May 24.
Antiques dealer Catherine “Kay” Scott Kinsella Hogan died peacefully Friday, April 11, with her family by her side. Richard W. Withington Sr, New Hampshire’s most extroverted auctioneer, died April 29 in Concord, a little more than a year after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He lived every minute of his 90 years. The April 12 auction conducted by Trinity International Auctions was invigorated by a record number of phone, Internet and absentee bidders from across the globe.
Victorian Casino Antiques’ March 9 and 10 auction set records for live attendance and gross sales. According to Pat McGuire, partner in Victorian Casino Antiques, the live audience was the largest in the auction house’s history. Nor were bidders shy, as prices set records on many items in their specific categories.
Desirable folk art drew a strong crowd to the April 19 Willis Henry folk art and Americana sale, which proved to be a boon for American folk art collectors and dealers alike.
Ardingly International Antiques and Collectors Fair, April 15 and 16, was the best April show to date in terms of number of dealers and attendance, according to dmg world media senior fairs manager Alan Yourston.
“The Shape of Things,” currently on view at the Asia Society, does more to bring the great civilizations of the East into context than its title implies, anchoring the concept that form followed function during the Neolithic age. In presenting more than 90 items from the Mr and Mrs John D. Rockefeller 3rd collection of Asian art, the exhibition surveys the progression of Oriental design from the Neolithic and bronze eras through to the Twentieth Century. The exhibition underscores the clarity of the Rockefellers’ vision to systematically build a collection that would help foster solid understanding of the East. Aided by Sherman Lee, then director of the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Rockefellers began acquiring in 1956. They bought not only the best money could buy, but they did it judiciously, creating a comprehensive body of art and artifacts that critics over the years have hailed as “gemlike.”
Continuing to grow and diversify its mix of dealers and luxury brands, Westchester Enterprises conducted its Spring International Art & Antiques Show over five days, from April 25 to 29, at the Park Avenue Armory.
The 16th annual Antique Garden Furniture Show and Sale April 24 offered an attractive and tempting display of garden antiques.
The presentation of the 30th anniversary edition of the Armonk Antiques Show at Bryam Hills High School was like one of the many carefully wrapped packages that were leaving booths in buyers’ hands during the April 26–27 show. An exhibition of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century wooden boxes will be on view at the Brandywine River Museum in “Beyond Content: Decorative Wooden Boxes.”
A fine day in early Vermont gave great prizes to the bidders at Duane Merrill’s auction April 19 featuring fine early American furniture and household accessories with emphasis on the Vermont heritage of many pieces. On view May 17–September 14, the Mint Museum of Art will originate a major traveling exhibition of more than 100 rare and unique works by British-born artist and writer Clare Leighton.
An exhibition of work by Norman Rockwell is on view at The Park Avenue Bank here through June 27. “Norman Rockwell in Black & White: Drawings for Classic Saturday Evening Post Covers” features rarely seen preparatory drawings created by Rockwell.
Sotheby’s released its first quarter results showing revenues of $129.3 million, an $18.1 million decrease over the prior first quarter. It also said that it was again changing its buyer’s premium percentages and thresholds
Rescued a decade ago from a Boulder, Colo., dumpster, a Takanori Oguiss painting sold at Sotheby’s on May 8 for $103,000, thrilling the consignor who had contacted WorthPoint.com to find out the painting's value.
Rarity in form and design propelled several canes over the five figure mark at Tradewinds Antiques' cane sale April 26.
A 100-year-old white bronze angel that guarded the graves of Mary and Minnie Bentley in the Maplewood Cemetery has been reported missing. A reward is offered for information leading to its recovery.
Long recognized as one of the nation’s finest college art museums, located in a landmark building, the renovated and expanded Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick, Maine, reopened last October to much acclaim. Impressed visitors have called the revamped facility “elegant and beautiful” and a model for restoring an historic museum building. The ambitious, $20.8 million project begun in 2003 is part of a $250 million Bowdoin campaign aimed at upgrading the entire campus. With holdings ranging from the ancient world to the Twenty-First Century, and housed in a building designed by Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead and White, the augmented museum will be an even more valuable resource for the college, community and art world in general. The renovation and underground expansion increases the museum’s total space 63 percent — from 19,980 to 32,500 square feet —and expands the number of galleries from nine to 14.The new complex, says Katy Kline, the museum’s director, “celebrates our role as a leader in college art museums and our mission to broaden knowledge and inspire all our visitors.”
An exhibit of rare historic flags from the collection of Dr Jeffrey Kenneth Kohn will be the highlight of Flag Festival 2008, set for June 8–15 at Philadelphia’s Betsy Ross House.
The bidding was frenetic at Bloomsbury Auctions’ 25th anniversary sale on May 15 for Albert Einstein’s handwritten letter to his friend, in which he discusses his thoughts about God and religion, that achieved $97,500. Christie’s postwar and contemporary art evening sale on May 13 totaled $348,263,600, marking the second highest total ever in auction history for the category. Eight new world auction records were established for artists.
On Sunday, May 18, a rare carved and polychromed burled spruce Tlingit warrior’s helmet established a record price paid for any Native American item ever sold at auction, hammering down for an impressive $2,185,000 at Fairfield Auction.
The vibrant abstract oil on canvas, “Concierto de Guitarra,” by Cuban artist Mario Carreno stunned bidders when it realized $253,000 at Kaminski Auctions’ April 26–27 sale.
The Katonah Museum of Art presents “Here’s the Thing: The Single Object Still Life,” an exhibition that celebrates single objects, on view through June 29.
Nadeau’s annual spring auction of antiques and fine art took place before a large crowd April 12, attracting a good crowd along with strong absentee and telephone bidding.
(AP) — Artist Robert Rauschenberg, whose use of odd and everyday articles earned him regard as a pioneer in Pop art but whose talents spanned the worlds of painting, sculpture and dance, has died, his gallery representative said. He was 82. Promoters expanded Renninger’s Antiques and Collectors Extravaganza edition on April 24–26 by several more rows to accommodate additional dealers. This Kutztown show was very well received, and visitors were “buying with great gusto” according to a New Jersey exhibitor.
“Yellow Mountain: China’s Ever-Changing Landscape,” on view May 31–August 24 at the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, presents ten leaves from the important album of artist Xuezhuang, who fled to the mountain for political sanctuary after the fall of the Ming dynasty.
Time & Again, an auction gallery, recently reported the theft of two pieces of merchandise, an abstract painting and a pen and ink drawing, which were both apparently taken from the auctioneer’s premises. “Joseph Wright of Derby in Liverpool" is the first major exhibition to examine Wright’s creative development in Liverpool at the start of the city’s cultural renaissance and growing status as a major world port. The Yale Center for British Art is the only US venue for the exhibition, which opens on May 22 and continues through August 31.
Arguably the foremost visual artist of the Harlem Renaissance, Aaron Douglas (1899–1979) employed a style that has been called geometrical symbolism in murals, paintings and illustrations. Combining angular Cubist motifs and a distinctive Art Deco dynamism with traditional African and African American imagery, he evolved a bold new visual vocabulary that reflected both current realities and hopes for a better future. Presenting forceful ideas in a memorable artistic form, Douglas vividly captured the spirit of his time and established a new black aesthetic and utopian vision. Opening doors for African American artists and involving them in a dialogue with Modernism, his radical work had a lasting impact on the history of art. Nevertheless, Douglas’s role and art have often been overlooked in the years since his death. Today, there is increasing recognition of the quality of his output, the significance of his achievements within the artistic movements of his time and the importance of his teaching legacy. The revival of national appreciation for this special artist’s oeuvre has culminated in the first nationally touring retrospective of his work, “Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist,” on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., through August 3. The exhibition brings together more than 80 paintings, prints, drawings and illustrations. Portraits of Douglas, printing plates, sketchbooks, ephemera and works by contemporaries put the artist’s career in context.
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens has acquired 11 examples of rare Nineteenth Century, Texas-made furniture — a gift from Houston collector Williams James Hill.
At Christie’s annual important Old Master paintings sale April 15, exceptional prices were realized for a selection of highly sought-after pictures by leading masters. In the top ten alone, five new world auction records were set.
The Live Free or Die antique tool auction on April 18–19 was a successful two-day sale of tools and other working antiques from earlier times.
Proving the decoy auction market is solid,Guyette & Schmidt's 23rd annual spring decoy auction April 24-25 at the Pheasant Run Resort grossed $3,568,559.
As art market observers waited anxiously this season to see if the big spring sales went boom or bust, one truth held firm: when in doubt, buy blue chip. Presented annually by London promoters Brian and Anna Haughton, the International Fine Art Fair is as reassuringly traditional as art shows come.
Lyman Allyn Art Museum’s new exhibition, “Peter Harron: Moroccan Landscapes,” will open Saturday, May 31 and remain on view through August 17.
In most households across America, the dinner party is typically an event of food and fellowship. For special occasions demanding a good impression, the “good china” is required. At the White House, special occasions call for state china, whether to impress or honor. Since the early days, the selection of White House china has required much attention. It is that china that is the subject of the exhibition, “Setting the President's Table: American Presidential China from the Robert L. McNeil Jr Collection,” on view at Mount Vernon through January 21, 2009. The exhibition surveys the history of American taste from the perspective of White House tableware and entertainment. Only those pieces actually used in the official presidential residence are on view. It is a multifaceted exploration of several aspects of American history and the stories are rich. The china itself documents setting the national taste and its evolution over two centuries, collecting patterns, preservation and the celebration of the American heritage.
American painter Russell Cheney (1881–1945) is the subject of an exhibit opening June 1 at the Portsmouth Athenaeum.
A 27-ounce solid gold jewel-encrusted chalice inscribed in his honor by the grieving widow of a South American diplomat was sold on May 17 by The Potomack Company Auctions for $82,250, a record price for a gold chalice.
Highlighting Sotheby’s sale of American paintings, drawings and sculpture on May 22 was a masterpiece of American Nineteenth Century painting, “The Peaceable Kingdom with the Leopard of Serenity,” by Edward Hicks, which sold to applause for $9,673,000. “The Thannhauser Collection” at the Guggenheim Museum, opening May 28, offers visitors a new installation of this world-renowned collection.
Despite soaring gas prices, Brimfield is an irresistible magnet for the antiques and collectibles trade. Gasoline was dear, the weather unpredictable, yet many of the week’s show promoters reported one of their busiest weeks in a long time. Rufino Tamayo’s “Trovador (The Troubadour),” which achieved $7,209,000 at Christie’s May 28 Latin American art sale, more than doubled the previous world auction record for the artist and eclipsed the previous record for the category, held by Frida Kahlo’s “Roots,” which sold for $5,616,000 in May 2006. Enjoying a climate-controlled atmosphere, Nan Gurley and 50 high-end Americana exhibitors, most of them from New England, set up on May 15 to showcase a wide range of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century furniture, folk art, textiles, toys, hooked rugs, paintings, architectural and decorative antiques.
On May 23, the Bristol Police Department responded to a report of larceny at the Blithewold Mansion, of a 1908 Art Nouveau bronze fountain from the north side garden of the mansion. Bold and beautiful, the New York International Tribal & Textile Arts Show has no rivals in Manhattan, one reason that it each year mesmerizes visitors with its freshness.
In the 51st consecutive edition of her Antique Textiles Vintage Fashions Show and Sale at the Sturbridge Host Hotel Conference Center May 12, Linda Zukas again sold out the show.
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