News

11.02.2019

During a series of auctions of old masters and art of the XIX century, Sotheby’s in New York set seven price records for artists

 Angelika Kaufman. “Portrait of Three Children, Presumably Lady Spencer.” Sold for $ 915 thousand. Photo: Sotheby’s

The main theme of the auction of classic art at Sotheby’s in New York, which together brought the auction house $ 99.8 million, was a selection of works by artists. A small exhibition titled “The Triumph of a Woman” was deployed as part of a pre-auction exhibition in the halls of Sotheby’s New York headquarters. Collectors were presented with paintings, drawings and sculptures of artists of the XVI-XIX centuries, in particular, Elizabeth Vigee Lebrun, Fede Galicia, Elizabeth Gardner Bouguereau, Artemisia Gentileschi, Angelika Kaufman and others.

 Virginie Demon-Breton. “The wife of a fisherman who has just bathed her children.” 1881. Sold for $ 543 thousand. Photo: Sotheby’s

In recent years, there has been a constant interest of researchers in the topic of artists, who gradually emerge from the shadow thanks to the achievements of feminism and the general popularity of gender studies in all fields of knowledge. Academic interest is almost always sooner or later reflected in the art market – obviously, this is what Sotheby’s relied on, and did not lose. During the evening and day auctions of old masters, as well as the auction of nineteenth-century art, held from January 30 to February 1, seven price records were set for women.

 Fede Galicia. “Glass vase with peaches, jasmine flowers, quince and grasshopper.” Sold for $ 2.4 million. Photo: Sotheby’s

The most expensive was the “Portrait of Mohammed Dervish Khan”, written in 1788 by the French woman Elizabeth Vigee Lebrun. The work of the famous secular portrait painter and favorite artist Queen Marie-Antoinette was sold for $ 7.2 million. The price of a rare still life with fruit by an Italian artist of the beginning of the XVII century Feda Galicia turned out to be impressive too. Lively auction for a children’s portrait (supposedly depicting three offspring of the aristocratic Spencer family) brushes by German artist Angelika Kaufman stopped shortly before the $ 1 million marks, the final price was $ 915 thousand. Other records were set for works of nineteenth-century artists American women Elizabeth Gardner-Bouguereau ($ 591,000) and representatives of French realism Virginie Demon-Breton ($ 543,000), as well as Italian painter of the 18th century Julia Lama ($ 495,000) and Swiss genres of the early 19th century Amil-Ursula Gilbo ($ 16, 3 thousand).

 Elizabeth Vige-Lebrun. “Portrait of Mohammed Dervish Khan.” 1788. Sold for $ 7.18 million. Photo: Sotheby’s

The marketing campaign for the Sotheby’s trading series not only drew attention to the phenomenon of female art, but also brought back to the attention of collectors and dealers a few forgotten names, such as Gilbo or Gardner Bouguereau. Other names from this collection, by contrast, were well known before. Thus, the still lifes of Fede Galicia were successfully sold at auctions before and easily went for millions of dollars. Here you can recall another artist from the Pleiad of old masters – Artemisia Gentileschi, incredibly in demand in the market, the famous “Judith” from the Neapolitan Museum of Capodimonte. Sotheby’s this time put up for auction in New York her canvas “Saint Sebastian and Saint Irina”, which went for $ 615 thousand, modest for Gentileschi, while the current price record for the artist is € 2.4 million.

As for women in modern art, their works, fortunately, go for millions even during the lifetime of the authors.

07.02.2019

The curator of Albertina suggested that Durer wrote Hands of a Praying Man to attract customers. It was always believed that the famous drawing was a preliminary sketch to the figure of the apostle in the altar Heller.

 Albrecht Dürer. “Hands praying.” Around 1508. Photo: Courtesy of the Albertina, Vienna / Google Art Project

The famous “Praying Hands” by Albrecht Dürer is not at all a sketch for the central part of the altar of Heller, as it was considered to be for several centuries, but an independent work, a kind of advertisement of the master. This revolutionary hypothesis put forward by Christoph Metzger, the main curator of the Vienna Albertina, will be the subject of a major retrospective of the artist, which will open in the museum at the end of the year (Albrecht Dürer, September 20, 2019 – January 6, 2020).

Metzger argues that the drawing, made with a brush in a gray tone and whitewash on blue primed paper, depicts the hands of the artist himself. If this is true, then a number of interesting questions arise related to the structure and distinctive features of the hands and fingers of the greatest painter of the Northern Renaissance.

“Hands of the Praying One” is one of the most famous drawings in the world, belonging to Dürer’s most reproducible works. According to Metzger, the competition in popularity he can make only the “Vitruvian Man” Leonardo da Vinci. For more than five centuries, reproductions of the Hands of the Praying One, like icons, hang in the homes of millions of people; translated into sculpture, they are sold in church shops.

Since the XIX century, it was believed that this work was a study for the portrait of the apostle in the lower right corner of the central panel of the altar of Heller, completed in 1509. The name of the altar was named after his customer, the Frankfurt merchant. The original died in a fire in 1729, but thanks to the excellent copy made by Jobst Harrich, which is stored in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, one can imagine how it looked.

Art historians have never doubted that the Hands of the Praying One is not an independent work, but a preparatory sketch for the altar. This opinion was not disputed at two major exhibitions by Durer in 2013: at the Shtedelev Art Institute and at the National Art Gallery in Washington, with Heinz Wiedauer, a colleague of Metzger, who also supervised Albertina wrote the preface to the exhibition catalog.

Metzger also believes that art critics are wrong. Why would Durer make an excellent design, only to then reduce it to the size of a tiny oil-painted altar? “The work is incredibly accurate, realistic, it’s too well done to be just a draft,” he says. “Dürer wrote this masterpiece to show the talent granted by God to his visitors to his workshop.”

According to Metzger, the Hands of the Praying One and several other related drawings were created “to advertise the genius of Dürer”. They were selected to convince potential customers of the highest level of skill, which distinguished the works of the artist. An indirect confirmation of the hypothesis can be well-known facts from the life of Dürer, who sought to emphasize his highly professional status. His signature is a recognizable monogram, similar to a trademark, it can be seen in many paintings and drawings. What was important in the fight against counterfeiters who forged his work.

The curator insists that (and in this he is not alone, many researchers have suggested this) that we have the hands of Dürer himself. “Graceful fingers and hands resemble those depicted in the 1500 artist’s self-portrait in Munich. The little finger of the distant, partly hidden from the viewer’s hand, seems to be slightly crooked, struck by arthritis – a characteristic detail that appears in the artist’s self-portraits, for example, it can be seen in the picture from 1493, which is stored in the New York Metropolitan Museum. ”

Dürer probably posed for himself, just slightly waving his hands, although it is possible (but less likely) that he wrote them in mirror image. If this is so, then it is impossible to say unequivocally on which hand the little finger was crooked – most likely, on the right. Since the sore finger is clearly distinguishable in the figure, made in 1493, when the artist was not more than 22 years old, it can be assumed that he probably suffered from this ailment from an early age.

In the absence of facts, we can only speculate, but if such a feature really distinguished one of the master’s fingers, this only adds to the honor of the greatest Northern Europe draftsman: he managed to work, despite the defect of his little finger. At first, Durer’s father wanted his son to follow in his footsteps, to become a jeweler, but this craft, as is known, requires developed fine motor skills, which the young man apparently did not have. But he could draw with a crooked finger.

Because of its fragility, the original Praying Hands rarely appears in public. The last time the work was published five years ago at an exhibition in Washington, and soon visitors to the forthcoming major exhibition of Dürer in Albertine will finally be able to see it.

30.01.2019

The picture painted by the British street artist Benxi on the door of the Bataclan concert hall in Paris was stolen, the BBC wrote.

The theft took place on the night of Friday, January 25th. According to the investigation, the criminals became a “group of people in hoods with angle grinder” who escaped the truck.

The work depicts a young woman with a sad expression in her face. It is written as a memory of victims of a terrorist attack in the city. Then, in November 2015, 90 people were killed when armed militants attacked the hall during a rock concert.

Source: https://ukraineartnews.com/news/news/benksi-namaljuvav-kartinu-na-dverjah-u-parizhi-jiji-virizali-i-vikrali

28.01.2019

The BRAFA fair opened in Brussels for the 64th time. She manages to stay the same European and be relevant.

The BRAFA Art Fair presents this year 133 galleries from 16 countries. The fair is held for the 64th time. Being so old is a heavy burden. It is difficult to imagine how many crises, political changes, closures of antique galleries and the death of collector dynasties she experienced. Now it is a large and high-quality fair of mostly old art and antiques. BRAFA President Harold T’Kint de Rodenbeck calls the concept of the event a “verified combination of tradition and innovation” – and it still seems that BRAFA entered the five heavyweights of the old art market as if by accident, effortlessly. Here, no one is fighting for the participation of large jewelry brands, which, as they say, for example, in Paris, should attract additional buyers to the art fair, in particular from Asia.
Comparisons with Paris can not be avoided: La Biennale Paris (Paris Biennale, the former Biennale of Antiquaries), which now takes place annually in September, is the main competitor of the Belgian BRAFA. But the Brussels Fair found its own way, turning all possible disadvantages into advantages. It remained internal, European (as British blood galleries and buyers are waiting for as fresh blood) – now it promises a feeling of comfort and reasonable prices. Items of African art, the center of commerce of which has been located in Brussels for at least a century, are presented here as jewels and with reverence – but without the drama that surrounds them in France, the president of which has already promised to return all African art to its homeland. There is no noticeable pursuit of artistic fashion (when works from high-profile exhibitions are sent straight for sale). In Belgium now are the years of the old Flemish masters, the center of attention (like the last four centuries) are the artists of the Bruegel family, and at the fair, the works of masters from this dynasty cost more than a million euros. But not because the terms open exhibitions in honor of the great Flemish, but because these artists are considered a national treasure. As the work of the surrealists (“Balcony” by Paul Delvaux in the gallery Stern Pissarro is estimated at no less than € 3 million). Or comics – and not only Erzhe, the “father” of Tintin, but also the artists of the next generation. For example, Philip Gelyuk, whose character the Cat is no stranger to art. In the Huberty & Breyne gallery, a parked object of Banksy with a cut picture is sold: a picture with the Cat and the words “Is art becoming too commercial?” After pressing the button slides down, splits into ribbons, and then returns unscathed. The work is sold for € 60 thousand (together with remote control and a technical guarantee), there is a less expensive version – 40 copies of € 2.9 thousand each.
Among the most expensive items at the fair is Frida Kahlo’s plaster corset with a sickle, a hammer and an unborn baby (€ 2 million, Gallery Sofie Van de Velde); its owner, an American Belgian, is still going to show off, choosing a worthy successor.

Interestingly, the BRAFA galleries of different specializations are intermingled with each other, and not divided into blocks of “old masters”, “modernism”, “furniture and design” and so on, as for example at the Netherlands TEFAF. At the same time, most of the galleries and on their stand show a mixture of old and modern art (although there are, of course, exceptions). A lot of objects and sculptures: Diego Giacometti’s table with frogs costs € 490 thousand (Mathivet gallery), Damien Hirst’s small canvas, which only two colored circles climbed on, € 165 thousand (von Vertes gallery), ancient Egyptian scarabs and antique vessels from Phoenix – from € 10 thousand to € 25 thousand. Obviously popular is the direction of armchair rarities, allowing you to combine everything with everything and collect not large and not particularly expensive, but unique items.
An important component of the Belgian art market has always been African art. For example, the figures of the voodoo altar (Benin, the first half of the twentieth century, gallery Serge Schoffel) look really very scary, as are the masks designed for rituals. But offered and household items. Thus, a whole collection of wooden combs for hair, decorated with fine carvings, exhibited at Didier Claes (Didier Claes gallery), they are estimated at € 5-30 thousand. Red buying points appeared near some of them in the first minutes of the opening day for collectors.
The main decoration of this exhibition, which traditionally flows into dinner right among the fair stands, was a duet of British artists Gilbert and George, special guests of BRAFA. The alleys between the stands are decorated with huge works of artists from the fresh series “The Bearded Pictures”, while Gilbert and George themselves, famous for their performances, defiled around the fair, dressed in true English costumes. In the Bernier / Eliades gallery, the work of the famous couple can be bought – large photo collages of 2013 cost € 137,000.
The fair is open to the public from January 26 to February 3.

23.01.2019

At the Sotheby’s auction in London, the picture of Georgian artist Niko Pirosmani, one of the brightest representatives of the naive art of Eastern Europe, set a price record by withdrawing from the trades to the new owner for 2.2 million euros ($ 2.84 million), exceeding the estimate in three times.

The painting is called “Georgian in the cure”, (Lechak – a detail of a Georgian female headgear: triangular white veil), was acquired in 1928 by an Austrian writer Stefan Zweig. The work decorated his house in Salzburg until emigration to Brazil in 1934. In 1981, the work was presented to the Reed Library in New York, where it was decorated with the Zwinger Hall until it was sent to the auction.

The previous record on the Pirosmani picture was set at the MacDougall’s auction in June 2010 – “Arsenal Mountain at Night” was sold for £ 1,775,369.

Source: https://ukraineartnews.com/news/auction/kartina-gruzinskogo-hudozhnika-niko-pirosmani-vstanovila-tsinovij-rekord-na-auktsioni-v-londoni

22.01.2019

sverige-ed.com

No one would ever think of calling Gustav Klimt a famous landscape painter, but he left about fifty landscapes – this is a huge part of his heritage. And these are special landscapes: almost always square, with a very low or very high horizon line, resembling mosaics.

 Golden Apple Tree 1903

In 2017, the landscape of Klimt “The flowering garden” was sold at Sotheby`s for $ 59 million. It is believed that this picture was painted under the impression of Klimt visiting the Van Gogh exhibition. The Blooming Garden was created in 1907, and in 1908, the artist presented his work at the famous historical exhibition Kunstschau in Vienna – along with his Kiss. His landscape became a sensation, revealing a new facet of the master. Two years later, the work was bought by the National Gallery of Prague, where it was located until 1968.

 Apple tree. 1912

We invite you to see some of the landscapes of Klimt, as well as an informative video about them from the Archive project.

 A park. 1910

 Orchard with roses

 Alley in the park of Kammer Palace. 1912

 Peasant garden with sunflowers. 1906

 View of the garden from the top of the hill. 1916

 Beech grove 1902

 Garden with a crucifix at the cottage. 1911

 Sunflower. 1907

 Garden with roosters. 1917

Source: https://ukraineartnews.com/news/inframe/beskonechnye-pejzazhi-gustava-klimta

17.01.2019

Opponents call for giving the Netherlands museums the right of first purchase, but the country’s prime minister says this is a private affair of the royal family

 Peter Paul Rubens. A sketch of a naked young man with his arms raised. Photo: Sotheby’s

The sketch of Rubens with the image of a young man with his hands up is planned to be sold at Sotheby’s auction along with 12 more pictures of old masters, as well as porcelain, dishes and silver from the collection of the Dutch king Willem II (1792-1849). It is expected that on January 30 at the auction in New York, the draft will go under the hammer for $ 2.5–3.5 million.

A member of the Liberal Party of Democrats 66 (D66), Salim Belhay, called on Prime Minister Mark Rutte to appeal to the royal family to delay the auction, explaining that the work should first be offered to the Dutch museums. However, as Belhai told The Art Newspaper, Rutte replied that “this is a private affair of the royal family.”

Now the party D66 is going to appeal to the royal family directly. “Before exhibiting works for foreign auction, they could find out if the Dutch museums are not interested in buying them. Then the Dutch public could continue to enjoy these drawings. If the works leave the country, we will never see them again, ”says Belkhay.

The Dutch museums themselves, intending to copy the works of old masters from their collections, are obliged to make sure that other institutions of the country are not interested in the works, but this rule does not apply to private collectors, including the royal family.

Director of the Boymans Museum – van Beuningen Sharel Xx also called on the royal family to withdraw works from the auction and to give museums like him a chance to buy them out. The Rotterdam Museum, which is currently working on its expansion, has the largest collection of works by Peter Paul Rubens in the Netherlands.

“They did not consult anyone before making this decision. This behavior is not worthy of royal personalities, – said Ex Netherlands AD. “If the owner puts the work up for auction, then he is only interested in selling at the highest price possible … If we could get this drawing, it would be the most important work of Rubens in our collection.” Later, a representative of the Museum Boymans – van Beuningen said that the royal family did not respond to Aks’s request to withdraw works from the auction.

The Sotheby’s catalog states that King Willem II purchased a sketch of a young man from Sir Thomas Lawrence in the 1830s, “to put him on a par with masterpieces of Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Rembrandt.” Since then, the drawing remained in the royal collection. He is one of the few extant sketches made by Rubens for the depiction of the main characters of the altar painting “Exaltation of the Cross”, written for the St. Walburg church in Antwerp at the end of 1608, shortly after the artist returned from Italy. Now the canvas is in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Antwerp.

14.01.2019

ArtsLook has traditionally summed up the open tenders of Ukrainian contemporary art that took place both in Ukraine and abroad for the fifth consecutive year.

This year, our ranking has hit fifty percent of the work that was implemented at international auctions such as Phillips and Sotheby’s, while the other half found its new owners at the Golden Section Golden Auction. Compared to 2017, this year has shown low results. The leader of our rating was the sculpture “Awakening Bark” by a young Kyiv artist Yegor Ziguri, which was sold at the beginning of December at the Phillips auction in London for $ 15,612. Last year, his other work, “The Awaken Column”, also opened our rating, which can testify to the demand for Ukrainian contemporary sculpture among collectors.

According to the co-owner of the auction house “Golden Section” Mikhail Vasylenko, in Ukraine there is an increased demand for contemporary art – the cost of their works continues to grow by 12-15% per annum. No less interesting for collectors in 2018 were pictures of representatives of the underground direction – this segment has been showing steady growth for several years after the political and economic crisis in our country. At the same time, he emphasizes that the sale of art is much less influenced by the political situation in Ukraine. This testifies to the strengthening of the positions of the Ukrainian art market and the reliability of investments in art.

If open sales tend to have modest results, presumably because of the reluctance of collectors to publicly announce their replenishment, then the private sales format this year has far better results. According to ArtsLooker, the cost of successful deals on the work of certain artists was up to $ 100 thousand.

Consequently, the top 10 most expensive works of art of domestic authors, which were sold at auctions during 2018, are offered to your attention. Charity open trades were not included in the rating.

1. Egor Zigura, ” Kora is awakening”, 2016, edition 5/15. London, auction house “Phillips”. Sold December 5, 2018 for $ 15,612

2. Egor Zigura, “The Colossus That Holds the World”, 2016, edition 11/15. London, auction house “Phillips”. Sold April 21, 2018 for $ 9,750

3. Iryna Akimova, “Park alley in the shade”, 2018. London, auction house “Phillips”. Sold December 5, 2018 for $ 8,780

4. Anatoly Kryvolap, “Landscape”, 1990. Kyiv, auction house “Golden Section”. Sold on November 28, 2018 for $ 6,050

5. Ilya Chichkan, “Woman’s Portrait”, 1995. Kyiv, auction house “Golden Section”. Sold on November 28, 2018 for $ 5,225

6. Yuri Pliss, “Nude with a Cat”, 1994. Kyiv, auction house “Golden Section”. Sold on May 31, 2018 for $ 4,950

7. Alexander Roytburd, “Meeting”, lect. 1980s Kyiv, auction house “Golden Section”. Sold on November 28, 2018 for $ 4,950

8. Arsen Savadov, “Untitled in the series Love Story”, 2000, edition 1/7. London, auction house “Sotheby’s”. Sold on November 27, 2018 for $ 4,783

9. Arsen Savadov, “Untitled in the Red Series”, 1998, 1/5 edition. London, auction house “Sotheby’s”. Sold on November 27, 2018 for $ 4,783

10. Mykhailo Deyak, “Night Kyiv”, 2011. Kyiv, auction house “Golden Section”. Sold on November 28, 2018 for $ 4,440

11.01.2019

Banksy’s picture “Love in a trash can”, which was destroyed by a shredder embedded in the frame immediately after the sale, will be shown in Germany for the first time after the performance.

The exhibition will be held at the Frieder Burda Museum of Contemporary Art in Baden-Baden from February 5 to March 3.

In October 2018, Banksy’s painting “The Girl with a Balloon” self-destructed after the work of art was sold for $ 1.4 million at Sotheby’s auction. Later, Banksy posted a video on Instagram in which he said that he had mounted a shredder in the picture frame a few years ago in case it was ever put up for auction. The owner of the picture, preserving anonymity, gave the canvas a new name – “Love in the trash can”. The MyArtBroker service, which deals with the valuation and sale of works of art, suggested that after the action the price of the painting increased by 50%.

Founded in 2004 by the publisher and collector Frieder Burda, the museum specializes in modernism and contemporary art. The statement of the institution says that there were many people all over the world who wanted to present this work first, but the concept of the German museum was the best.

09.01.2019

The National Museum “Kyiv Art Gallery” will open on 15 January a retrospective exhibition “My Land – My Beauty”, recognizable landscapes of the national artist of Ukraine, Ivan Marchuk.

The exhibition will feature more than five dozen paintings of the author’s technique “plontanizm”, which the artist began to create since 1972. For fans, the wizard offers to view both well-known textbooks and absolutely new ones, just created. Recall the series “Landscape” is one of the 13 creative cycles known to the world of the artist.

“I enjoy improvisation, but I finish the painting to the micron. As a musician: he wrote a melody, and later it should be arranged, polished. And finally, everyone comes and exclaim: oh, what picture is already ready. No, I say, here you need to draw more than two thousand pieces. Man does not see this. But I see why. I am looking for perfection, and if I can not achieve it, I am discomforted. This is a hellish job. I write at an enormous speed: dozens of smears per second. I work in extraordinary ecstasy. Only in such a state, I manage to bring the work to the fact that it was my brand name, if not without a signature: it is a picture of Marchuk, and more draw, “- tells about his work Ivan Marchuk.

Ivan Marchuk – Ukrainian painter, People’s Artist of Ukraine, Laureate of the National Prize of Ukraine to them. Shevchenko, who in 2007 fell into the rank of 100 geniuses of modern times, which was concluded by the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph. In addition, Ivan Marchuk is a member of the scientific council of the International Academy of Contemporary Art in Rome, which took him to the “Golden Guild”, which is the first case of recognition of the Ukrainian artist by an institution of this level.

You can visit the exhibition until January 31, 2019. National Museum “Kyiv Art Gallery”, Kyiv, street. Tereshchenkivska, 9

Source: https://ukraineartnews.com/news/expo/u-kijevi-vidkrivajetsja-retrospektiva-pejzazhiv-vidatnogo-hudozhnika-ivana-marchuka