“Long winter for Old Masters” headlined the Financial Times’ Collecting section this past weekend, referring to the bad performances of London Old Master auctions the previous week. Although Georgina Adam is right in making this statement, what isn’t mentioned is the serious lack of good quality paintings on offer, the ridiculously high estimates given by auction house experts, and a headline lot failing to sell because of authenticity concerns.
Everyone in the Old Master market is talking about the astonishing price achieved for a Netherlandish School painting that was sold at Lempertz on 17th of May. This multi-figured large composition on canvas is thought to be a work by the great master Rembrandt himself,
Earlier this week Kara Walker's impressive large installation was unveiled to a star-studded crowd in New York at Creative Time's annual benefit. This 75-foot-high white sphinx sculpture is made of sugar and sits in the decommissioned Domino Sugar Factor in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Look at this rare piece of history that was auctioned off at Doyle New York on 9th of April and sold for a world record $605,000! The large Babylonian cylinder is not only an important example of cuneiform, but it is also from the reign Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Babylon from 604 – 562 BC, who was one of the most famous ancient rulers. It
This portrait of a man by Jean-Baptiste Greuze fetched 620,000 Euro at auction this week - what an incredible price for a work by this French romantic painter of the 18th century. The auction house Rieunier & Associes in Paris put an estimate of 120,000 - 150,000 Euro.
While in Maastricht for TEFAF, we took a day trip to the historical Belgian town of Leuven and blown away by the architecture we saw there. The university library, which was destroyed in August 1914 and restored in Flemish Renaissance style by the Americans as a gift to the city, the town hall and the St.Peter's Church are all amazingly impressive.
There has been a frenzy of cultural activities in London this past few weeks with Fashion Week, BAFTA and Brit Awards making the city a buzzing hot spot for creative industries. But my eyes stay focused on art and after being away for several weeks, I am ready to catch up with the exhibitions in London.
Launched last week on 8th of February, the team behind the new web sensation of art world, SellYouLater.com is already getting threats "from individuals who believe our quantitative forecasting is an unfair market force," as they admit in a recent interview.
The Polish artist Pawel Althamer’s celebrated work at last year’s Venice Biennale made its US debut at the New Museum this past week. Althamer’s cast of Venetian citizens; bankers, shopkeepers, immigrant workers, whom he met on the city’s streets, were turned into haunting zombie-like figures and 90 of them all!
We are used to seeing Jean-Michel Basquiat's name associated with auction records and top prices, but an exhibition that just opened in New York offers a great opportunity to see the artist in a more private intimate setting.
The Suzanne Geiss Company put on display a selection of rare black&white nude photographs taken of the artist by his then girlfriend Paige Powell in the 80s. Together with Pink Martini musician Thomas Lauderdale, Powell have began sorting through her extensive photography archive that chronicled her life in the midst of the 1980s art scene in New York as an inner member of Andy Warhol's Factory crowd. The result is this first exhibition focusing on Basquiat, and the 2-year relationship with Powell, where we see the artist in a series of nude portraits taken by Powell in her apartment. In these natural poses, Basquiat looks pretty relaxed, drawing, smoking, and watching cartoons. It is wonderful to witness Basquiat on a more personal level, who died when he was only 27 from a drug overdose in 1988. The exhibition is on view until 22nd of February 2014.
