Lowry Art Trickery?

Wigan Today reports that an art lover from Cheshire accused of tricking a dealer into buying a fake LS Lowry has told a court he thought the painting was genuine. Maurice Taylor - who calls himself Lord Taylor Windsor after buying the title on the internet for £1,000 - sold the Mill Street scene to businessman David Smith during a meeting in a Ritz hotel room in 2007. Mr Smith, managing director of Neptune Fine Arts, paid over £230,000 before discovering the work was bogus. Taylor, 60, who lives in a mansion near Congleton, had bought the snowy scene featuring matchstick-style figures three years earlier through friend and Lowry expert Ivan Aird. Mr Aird acted as an agent for the previous owner Martin Heaps who, the crown say, sold the picture for £7,500 with an invoice describing it as "After Lowry" because it was created by artist Arthur Delaney. Prosecuting at Chester Crown Court, Sion Ap Mihangel, said Taylor knew the picture was fake, invented history to boost its provenance, and doctored the invoice so it appeared he was sold a genuine work. Taylor admitted telling his buyer and auctioneers Bonhams he bought the painting several decades earlier from industrialist Eddie Rosenfeld. He said he did not know why he lied but claimed Mr Aird asked him not to say he bought the painting through him. He said Mr Aird told him the painting was genuine and said: "When he sold me that picture there was never a question in his mind. I didn't question him, he told me it was original." A team of experts from Bonhams later assessed the work and were taken in by it. They provided a £600,000 insurance valuation and laid on the red carpet treatment, hoping Taylor would sell it through them. Mr Mihangel said Taylor acquired the Bonhams valuation to strengthen his selling position and to ensure a private sale. Taylor denies denies six counts of fraud and one of forging an invoice. The trial continues. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 3 March 2009 | 1:23 pm

Caged Art Recognised

The New York Times reports that 1974 Tehching Hsieh, a young Taiwanese performance artist working as a seaman, walked down the gangplank of an oil tanker docked in the Delaware River and slipped into the United States. His destination: Manhattan, center of the art world. Once there, though, Mr. Hsieh found himself ensnared in the benumbing life of an illegal immigrant. With the downtown art scene vibrating around him, he eked out a living at Chinese restaurants and construction jobs, feeling alien, alienated and creatively barren until it came to him: He could turn his isolation into art. Inside an unfinished loft, he could build himself a beautiful cage, shave his head, stencil his name onto a uniform and lock himself away for a year. Thirty years later Mr. Hsieh’s “Cage Piece” is on display at the Museum of Modern Art as the inaugural installation in a series on performance art. But formal recognition of Mr. Hsieh (pronounced shay), who is now a 58-year-old American citizen with spiky salt-and-pepper hair, has been a long time coming. For decades he was almost an urban legend, his harrowing performances — the year he punched a time clock hourly, the year he lived on the streets, the year he spent tethered by a rope to a female artist — kept alive by talk. This winter, owing to renewed interest in performance art, new passion for contemporary Chinese art and the coinciding interests of several curators, Mr. Hsieh’s moment of recognition has arrived from many directions at once. The one-man show at MoMA runs through May 18. The Guggenheim is featuring his time-clock piece in “The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989” through April 19. M.I.T. Press is about to release “Out of Now,” a large-format book devoted to his “lifeworks.” And United States Artists, an advocacy organization, has awarded Mr. Hsieh $50,000, his first grant. He is gratified by the exhibitions. But he judges the book, which is 384 pages and weighs almost six pounds, to be the definitive ode to his artistic career. “Because of this book I can die tomorrow,” said Mr.Hsieh. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 1 March 2009 | 4:44 am

Yves Saint Laurent Art Auction

The Financial Times reports that at 9am this Saturday morning the doors of the Grand Palais in Paris will open on an exhibition of the art collection formed by the couturier Yves Saint Laurent and his business and civil partner Pierre Bergé. The three-day, 733-lot art auction, organised by Christie’s in association with Pierre Bergé & Associés, is expected to realise €200m-€300m (half the proceeds are to benefit scientific research in the fight against Aids). This is a sale that has it all: glamour, celebrity and, above all, objects of impeccable provenance, quality and rarity. Yves Saint Laurent also used his art collections as inspiration for his designs), eventually turning to modern painting, acquiring the “Demoiselles d’Avignon”, for instance, directly from Picasso’s studio and commissioning sumptuous art deco furniture. The first of many purchases made through the Parisian dealer Alain Tarica was Brancusi’s rough-hewn, totemic oak sculpture of the Parisian hostess Léonie Ricou, acquired from Léger’s widow for around $500,000 (€15m-€20m). The whole of Mondrian is summed up in three superlative works and their glorious Matisse, “Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose” of 1911 (€12m-€18m), which has never been lined or varnished, dates from that rare phase in the artist’s oeuvre when he moves on from fauvism to orientalism, the Spanish fabric depicted featuring in many subsequent works. What is clear is that there was never any sense of hierarchy in their art collecting; every object, major or relatively minor, was there to add its own particular magic, and resonance, to the grander scheme. They were not in pursuit of trophies per se; rather, gathering pieces of a visual, intellectual and emotional jigsaw evoking that heroic age of early-20th-century French culture and creativity. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 21 February 2009 | 2:45 pm

Gormleys - "20 Years in Irish Art" Celebration

Over the last 20 years Oliver Gormley’s passion for art and success driven attributes have helped develop Gormleys into the respected business it is today. This gallery continues to work towards building sustainable relationships with both artists and collectors, selecting artists in whose future and creativity they believe in - both established and emerging. Many of their artists are now receiving critical acclaim and appear in important collections. Twenty years experience in the art business, have left Gormleys Fine Art in a strong position to offer solid advice to their collector clients. The gallery walls in Belfast and Dublin during the "20 years" Celebration exhibitions will show artists such as John Behan, Paddy Campbell, Ian Pollock, Eileen Meagher, Peter Monaghan, Arthur Maderson, Liam O’Neill, James Brohan, Charles Harper, J.B. Vallely, Lorcan Vallely, Michael Smyth, Barry Kerr, Jonathan Aiken, Paul Donaghy, Ken Hamilton, Rita Duffy, Rowland Davidson and Jane Swanston. "20 Years Celebration" Exhibition - Belfast + Dublin Gormleys Fine Art - Belfast - 19th Feb - 19th Mar 2009 Belfast Gallery 251 Lisburn Road, Belfast Tel:+44 (0)28 9066 3313 belfast@gormleys.ie Dublin Gallery 24 South Frederick St Dublin 2 Tel: +353 (0) 1 6729031 dublin@gormleys.ie Irish Art

Posted on: 13 February 2009 | 2:22 pm

"Nazi" Picasso's Stay In NY

Time/CNN reports that it may have been possible for Picasso's boy to lead that horse without a rein, but it appears that the Museum of Modern Art didn't have the famous painting on as tight a leash as you might have thought. For more than a year that 1906 picture, one of the high points of MoMA's art collection, has been the focus of a Holocaust restitution fight that also involved another Picasso, Le Moulin de la Galette, this one hanging at the Guggenheim. Yesterday both museums settled out of court with three plaintiffs seeking return of the paintings, which they claim had been relinquished under duress by their Jewish owner in the 1930s. As with most settlements the details of this one are sealed, so we may never know whether or how much money changed hands. And by itself the mere fact that the two art museums chose to settle doesn't mean they didn't have faith in their own arguments. (Or, for that matter, that the plaintiffs didn't have faith in their's.) But jury trials are a crapshoot and for the museums at least, the paintings were too important to lose. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 10 February 2009 | 3:42 am

Sales Calm Jittery Art Market

The Financial Times reports that predictions of an art market meltdown were confounded in London this week as six sales of impressionist, modern and contemporary art at Christie’s and Sotheby’s turned in solid results. The art auction houses managed to restore confidence to a jittery market with successful sales by radically shrinking the size of the catalogue and lowering estimates compared with last year. Some distress selling is, however, beginning to filter through. Among the week’s highlights were a classic impressionist painting by Monet that fetched £11.2m ($16.5m), a Degas sculpture that sold for £13.3m and a carved stack of cartoon-like animals by Jeff Koons that made £2.8m. The day sales, which offer more moderately priced works, also proved successful. “We feel a lot better than we did a week ago,” said James Roundell, a London art dealer. “At best, people thought the sales would be patchy. These results send a positive message to the market.” Sotheby’s two sales of impressionist and modern art this week totalled £43.9m, compared with the £144.4m it garnered in February last year. Christie’s three sales made £82.5m; last year they fetched £136.5m. Sotheby’s pared-down auction of contemporary art this week made £17.9m, with just two of the 27 lots remaining unsold. Last year the same sale made a record-breaking £95m. While distress selling is starting to appear in the market, few works could be positively identified as having come from collectors hit by the global financial crisis. At Sotheby’s, Jerome Fisher, the art collector and owner of Nine West shoes who reportedly lost large sums through investments with Bernard Madoff, is believed to have been the consignor of a large Degas pastel showing two dancers, estimated at £3.5m-£4.5m. The painting attracted no bids and went unsold at £2.9m. At Christie’s, five works came from a buyer who had failed to pay after winning them in February last year. They returned to the saleroom this week, incurring a big loss for the vendor. The most expensive, Alexej von Jawlensky’s expressionist portrait of a sulky girl, “Mädchen mit roter Schliefe” (1911), was the cover lot for Christie’s catalogue last year when it sold to a “private European” for £2.9m. This time it sold for £1.9m. More moderate losses hit Kandinsky’s colourful watercolour of psychologist Poul Bjerre in a Swedish landscape, which sold for £433,250 – the buyer had paid £670,100 for it last year. A Sisley riverscape bought last year for £446,100 sold for £385,250 this week. While estimates and prices have dropped sharply in the art market, a few vendors still turned a profit. The Degas “Petite danseuse de quatorze ans” (cast in 1922) consigned by Sir John Madejski, Reading football club’s owner, made £13.3m at Sotheby’s – he bought it in February 2004 for just over £5m. The sculpture went to a Japanese buyer benefiting from the strong yen, which has gained 35 per cent against the pound over the past year. The Koons sculpture,“Stacked” (1988), which made £2.8m at Sotheby’s on Thursday, had been bought in 1997 for $250,000 by Richard Cooper, a Chicago collector. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 9 February 2009 | 8:50 am

Police Seek Art Dealer

An Australian art dealer has disappeared, leaving clients wondering where their money and art works are. Police are trying to determine if Ron Coles was involved in art forgery, the Melbourne Sun-Herald reported. The newspaper cited sources in the art world who said that dubious paintings ostensibly by well-known Australian painters may be flooding the market. "It's been common knowledge for a while -- we knew this was going to blow," one source told the newspaper. "Nobody wanted to undermine confidence in the art industry. Like it or not, the truth is now going to emerge." The source said one painter, d'Arcy Doyle, "was not a prolific painter and yet in recent times, there has been a never-ending stream of fresh works." Coles, who operated a gallery in Sydney, offered art as an investment, with many of his clients putting money from their retirement accounts into portfolios of artworks. Police say they have received 150 complaints from people who say Coles owes them money, including some who say they saw art they thought they owned on the Internet attributed to other owners. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 1 February 2009 | 2:10 am

US University Flogs Its Art

A US university is being forced by the sagging economy to close its celebrated museum of modern art and sell off its 8,000-piece art collection, which includes works by Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol. Brandeis University's board of trustees voted unanimously to close its Art Museum as part of a campus-wide effort to preserve the university's educational mission in the face of the historic economic recession and financial crisis. The art museum will close in "late summer 2009" and the art collection will be sold through a top auction house. Proceeds from the sale will be reinvested in the Massachusetts-based university "to combat the far-reaching effects of the economic crisis and fortify the university's position for the future." Michael Rush, director of the museum, valued the art collection at around $350 million dollars. The announced closure of the museum, which was inaugurated in 1961, came as "a total surprise and shock" to Rush and other art museum staff, the director of the museum told AFP. "We weren't asked to attend the meeting" last week, where the decision was made, Rush said. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 27 January 2009 | 11:33 pm

Art of Andrew Wyeth

The Museum of Modern Art announced it will loan the iconic Andrew Wyeth painting, Christina's World, to the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, where a memorial for Wyeth will be held on January 31. Wyeth, described as "one of the most popular and also most lambasted artists in the history of American art" in a NY Times obituary (the Brandywine website says he's "often referred to as America’s most famous artist"), died last week at age 91 in his Chadds Ford home. Here's the MoMA's description of Christina's World: The woman crawling through the tawny grass was the artist's neighbor in Maine, who, crippled by polio, "was limited physically but by no means spiritually." Wyeth further explained, "The challenge to me was to do justice to her extraordinary conquest of a life which most people would consider hopeless." He recorded the arid landscape, rural house, and shacks with great detail, painting minute blades of grass, individual strands of hair, and nuances of light and shadow. In this style of painting, known as magic realism, everyday scenes are imbued with poetic mystery. The Times also has an interesting article about the debate over Wyeth's work and status as an American painter. The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts museum director David Brigham told the Philadelphia Inquirer, "Andrew Wyeth captured a sense of the American dream and, when we look closely at his art, our longings and anxieties, too. He was one of the great chroniclers of everyday life in rural America, and one of the great interpreters of the American experience in the mid to late 20th century." (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 26 January 2009 | 10:51 pm

Joe Boyle's Art at Waterfront Hall, Belfast

There is a small number of artists that savvy Irish Art collectors should carefully track in 2009 - and Joe Boyle (a previous Conor Prize Winner at the Royal Ulster Academy) - is one of them. This Belfast Waterfront exhibition fuses three themes. The first is Boyle's response to a trip to China investigating 17th century dry brush calligraphy combined with Chinese contemporary aspiration for a western iconography. The second is the notion that the fragment can intentionally signify the whole - as part of an ancient object may be considered a work of art - despite that not being the original artistic intention. In this exploration Boyle chooses the Eye as the part that signifies the whole in a meaningful manner - presenting an opportunity to explore different ways of seeing aspects of change in Irish Society. The final theme is a response to Landscape which employs notions of metaphor, edge and parameter to explore emotions which we experience and are challenged by what is often a familiar and sometimes threatening environment. Joe Boyle - Solo Gallery 2 Waterfront Hall 2 Lanyon Place, Belfast Tel: 028 9033 4400 Opens Tuesday 3rd February (7pm- 9pm) until 27th February 2009 Irish Art

Posted on: 25 January 2009 | 4:10 pm

Art of 2 Year Old

The Belfast Telegraph reports that critics of abstract paintings like to denigrate such works by claiming they could easily have been created by a child. Now a Melbourne art gallery owner has discovered there is truth in that old chestnut after he agreed to exhibit paintings by an artist who turned out to be a two-year-old girl. Mark Jamieson, director of the Brunswick Street Gallery, was shown the paintings by Nikka Kalashnikova, a Russian-born photographer whom he represents. The artist's name was Aelita Andre, Kalashnikova said, omitting the fact that Aelita was her daughter, and a toddler. Mr Jamieson liked her work, and decided to feature it in a group exhibition opening next week. It was only after he began publicising the show that he learnt Aelita's identity. "I was shocked, and, to be honest, a little embarrassed," he told the Melbourne Age yesterday. He hesitated about whether to go ahead with the show, but resolved: "We'll give it a go." Mr Jamieson said it was difficult to judge abstract art. "There are different approaches," he said. "There is a formal approach and then there is a free-form approach that comes off a more intuitive base. And if you're thinking about the latter, perhaps a two-year-old can do it as well as a 30-year-old." Aelita has been painting since before she could walk, according to her mother. Kalashnikova initially thought nothing of it, but last August, when Aelita was 19 months old, she became convinced there was real potential in her work. She gave her a canvas primed with red paint, and her daughter produced a painting that is among those about to go on show. Asked why she did not disclose the artist's identity, Kalashnikova said she and her husband, the artist Michael Andre, wanted the work judged on its own merits. Aelita's paintings will be priced from $300 (£140) to $2,000. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 9 January 2009 | 4:55 am

Nazi Art Loot

The Telegraph reports that museums should be allowed to keep art looted by the Nazis according to Sir Norman Rosenthal, the former exhibitions secretary of the Royal Academy. Despite being the child of Jewish refugees, Sir Norman said he thought "history is history" and descendants "distanced by two or more generations" from the works' original owners did not have an "inalienable right" to reclaim their forbearers' property. Writing in The Art Newspaper, Sir Norman said an agreement reached in Washington, DC, in 1998 - that committed 44 countries to try to return looted art to the owners or their descendants - should be revisited. He wrote: "This process has been ongoing for 10 years and the items in question have often been claimed by people distanced by two or more generations from their original owners. "I believe history is history and that you can't turn the clock back or make things good again through art. Ever since the beginning of recorded history, because of its value, art has been looted and as a result, arbitrarily distributed and disseminated throughout the world." He went on: "Of course, what happened in the Nazi period was unspeakable in its awfulness. I lost many relatives whom I never knew personally, and who died in concentration camps in the most horrible of circumstances. But I believe grandchildren or distant relations of people who had works of art or property taken by the Nazis do not now have an inalienable right to ownership, at the beginning of the century." In April 2000 a Spoliation Advisory Panel was set up by the government to advise on the process of reuniting art looted by the Nazis with its rightful owners or their descendents. It periodically rules on what should happen to particular contested items. Often, a museum is allowed to keep an item but told it must pay the owner or descendents a fee that matches its value on the open market. A spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport described the current situation to try to return looted art as "a simple, right and fair way of righting historic wrongs". It had "no plans" to change, a spokesman added. Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate, urged caution. He said: "It would be premature to impose a moratorium now but at some point in the future this may be appropriate." Anne Webber, co-chair of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, accused Sir Norman of being "out of touch". (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 9 January 2009 | 2:47 am

Picasso: Challenging The Past

One for the Diary... Art by the 20th-century great are shown alongside works by the Old Masters (Manet, ­Rembrandt, Cezanne...) who Picasso referenced, challenged and drew inspiration from.National Gallery (25 Feb-7 Jun 2009) Irish Art

Posted on: 7 January 2009 | 12:17 am

Matisse Art Stolen

BBC news reports that more than 30 art works, including prints by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, have been stolen from a Berlin art gallery. The art works - worth an estimated 180,000 euros ($250,000/£173,000) - were stolen over the New Year holiday. Picasso's 1947 Profil au Fond Noir and Nude in a Rocking Chair (1913) by Matisse are among the pieces missing. The works, including sculptures and etchings, were taken from the Fasanengalerie, a private art gallery near western Berlin's shopping district. Le Boupeut, a colour print by Georges Braque, is also missing. The gallery's owner discovered the theft around lunchtime on Thursday. Given the volume of art stolen, police suspect the involvement of two or more people. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 5 January 2009 | 2:25 am

Lowry Art For sale

The BBC reports that two oil paintings by LS Lowry have gone on sale at an antiques fair for nearly £500,000. The two paintings are among 12 by the Salford artist worth a total of £1m, at the Westonbirt School Antiques and Fine Art Fair near Tetbury, Gloucestershire. One of the works, a busy street scene, is signed and dated 1953 and is being sold for £325,000. The second, a view of an industrial landscape in Salford, has a price tag of £150,000. About 50 dealers from across the UK are expected to take part in the fair, which will last until Sunday. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 2 January 2009 | 5:16 pm

Top Art Falters in Credit Crunch

Bloomberg reports that Damien Hirst’s record “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever” sale and collapse of Lehman Brothers in September marked the turning of the art market in 2008. The financial-market rout curtailed spending by U.S. and European art collectors. Falling commodity and equity prices suppressed demand from art buyers from the emerging economies of Russia and the Middle East. In 2007, Sotheby’s and Christie’s International’s regular mixed-owner sales of contemporary art in New York and London totaled a record $2.4 billion with fees. This year, because of a slowing of demand in the final quarter, the equivalent auctions totaled less than $2 billion, a decline of 17 percent, according to figures compiled by Bloomberg News. Sotheby’s and Christie’s lost at least $50 million and $40 million each from failed art guarantees in their final-quarter sales. Auction houses are cutting staff, abandoning guarantees of a price to sellers, and reducing estimates on individual art works. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 31 December 2008 | 2:16 am

Demanding Old Masters Art Market

ARTPRICE reports that compared with the rising stars of the contemporary art market from China, India and the Middle-East whose markets have been stimulated by speculative temptation, the market for works by Old Masters is much less volatile and therefore much less risky. However, it is not completely sheltered. The Old Masters segment was badly hit during the last crisis: after the peak that was reached in 1990, its price index lost half its value in 1993, before stabilising towards the middle of the decade. Masterpieces are rare and buyers are choosy. Hence when increasingly rare museum-quality pieces come up for sale in the Old Masters segment, the bidding tends to go exceptionally high. 
Over the last decade, the segment has generated a number of highly publicised hammer prices. The absolute winner over the period is Peter Paul RUBENS with his Le Massacre des innocents which in July 2002 became the world's most expensive Old Master when it sold for £45 million (M$ 69,7) at Sotheby’s, pushing up the artist's annual sales revenue by 1,790%! When exceptional pieces finally come up for auction, their prices easily take off. For example, the market for Jean Antoine WATTEAU - whose key works are few and far between - was shaken by the arrival at auction of La surprise, a masterpiece that experts had believed lost for 160 years. Between 1996 and 2008 only 13 of his works were auctioned and, until that sale, none of the works presented had the requisite qualities to engender a 7-figure bid. In July 2008, his Surprise - estimated at between £3 and £5 million - fetched a bid of £11 million (M$ 21,7), illustrating the enthusiasm that such rare works generate and the strength of demand in the sector. Even in periods of crisis, major works by Old Masters are hotly disputed: on 2 December 2008 a new record was also generated for Portrait of a lady as Flora by Giovanni Battista TIEPOLO (1696-1770). The piece tripled its estimate with a winning bid of £2.5 million (M$ 3,7). However, collectors of Old Masters do not allow themselves to get carried away by the prestige of a signature even when faced with a diminishing number of works (rarefaction). The artistic excellence of a work and its physical condition are imperatives which not even Pieter II BRUEGHEL can escape, his lesser quality works selling for as little as half the price that one of his comparable works (in terms of theme and size) might fetch. For example, a version of The wedding Feast, of which he created several oil versions – modifying some colours and enhancing the composition at each stage – can cost anywhere between £130,000 to £280,000. The last version offered at Christie’s on 2 December sold beneath its low estimate (£250,000) at £220,000 ($333 630). However, the figure can be regarded as relatively good given the freeze observed on other autumn sales. In fact, that sale on 2 December at Christie’s posted a relatively low bought-in rate of 23%. The next day, the Old Masters sale at Sotheby’s was less successful with 39% of the works offered being bought-in. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 16 December 2008 | 8:37 am

Art Therapy for Schizophrenia

BBC News reports that Government advisers are expected to recommend art therapy on the NHS for people with schizophrenia. The National Institute of Clinical and Health Excellence (NICE) will promote use of programmes offering music, art and dance therapy for the first time. Activities include playing musical instruments and creating collages. An expert panel found the therapy works particularly well in patients with "negative" symptoms such as withdrawal and poor motivation. Schemes use trained therapists, with degrees in art, music or dance, and encourage people with schizophrenia to be creative as well as participating in group activities. A consultation on the new recommendations will be open until November, with final guidance due next year. Dr Mike Crawford, an expert in mental health services at Imperial College London who has carried out studies on arts therapy, said the therapies help people communicate. Alison Cobb from the mental health charity Mind said: "While medication for schizophrenia can help tackle symptoms such as psychosis, medication alone fails to address some of the other problems people may experience, such as problems communicating and socialising with others. "Art therapy is a non-threatening and accessible therapy that can help people express their feelings without the need to talk them over." (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 14 December 2008 | 3:58 pm

Belfast Gallery Cuts Cost of Art

SqSpace Gallery (in the VSB building on Shaftesbury Square, Belfast) have majored on emerging artists - sprinkled with well established artists for their Christmas show. Artists like 2008 RUA Conor Prizewinner Audrey Smyth and those with collector demand like Jonathan Aitken, Michael Flaherty, Verner Finlay, RUA member Robert Bottom and Paul Donaghy, the latter with a recent sell-out show at Gormleys. SqSpace have sourced the best possible prices for their Christmas show and only two out of 39 works (18 artists) are over the £1000 mark with prices starting at £245. Their philosophy is to "do business" with the very best deals possible. "With money already very tight, we believe the art market needs to respond and this Christmas show will bring those giving special gifts and Irish art collectors the benefits of art at the lowest prices we can. The artists get paid the same - we are trimming our selling fees". Expect this philosophy to continue in 2009.

Posted on: 12 December 2008 | 3:42 am

Art Shows Resilience

Sotheby's sold Old Masters' paintings worth £13.3 million on Wednesday, close to the top end of expectations and bucking the recent art market trend of disappointing results. The top lot on the night was Frans van Mieris the Elder's "A Young Woman in a Red Jacket Feeding a Parrot," which fetched £3.6 million including a buyer's premium compared with pre-sale art estimates of £500-700,000 without the premium. Not far behind was a portrait on marble of 16th century Florentine banker Bindo Altoviti by Girolamo da Carpi, which went under the hammer for £3.1 million well above expectations of £200-300,000. "This evening's art sale showed enormous strength for quality paintings with attractive estimates that are fresh to the market," said Alex Bell, international head of Sotheby's old masters' department. "The results prove that the market for old master paintings, which enjoys a stable collecting base, is both robust and resilient." (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 4 December 2008 | 12:52 am

Art Basle May Shine

There was a time when demand for contemporary art was so high that art gallery owners were literally scouting art schools to pluck the work of promising artists. Like home prices, the money paid for contemporary and modern art soared to lofty heights. To some, collecting art seemed like a great investment. Now on the eve of the seventh edition of Art Basel Miami Beach with the economy in disarray and many of the Wall Street high rollers and collectors out of jobs, art prices have thudded down to more terrestrial levels. At the same time, Art Basel Miami Beach has grown astronomically with more than 20 satellite fairs and dozens more impromptu art events around town. More than 220 galleries from around the world will be showing the works of more than 2,000 artists. With just four days to squeeze it all in, some wonder if Art Basel has become too large. Tighter wallets, bigger art festival. Seems like we're set up for an imbalance. However, for four days in December, South Florida will become the most important art center on the planet with a flurry of parties, art videos, talks by leading art personalities, open houses, private-collection visits and lots of art communing. Even if sales and prices are disappointing this year and visitors don't spend quite so lavishly on entertainment and lodging, Art Basel remains a stellar event. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 1 December 2008 | 3:20 am

Art Prices Rollercoster

The Scotsman reports that Gerhard Richter – the man dubbed Europe’s greatest living painter – has attacked the staggering prices that the international art market has notched up in the past decade. Even the price tags on his own paintings, which tipped £7 million earlier this year, he says are “too high”. The painter of giant, vibrant tableaux expresses scorn for the auction antics of celebrity artists such as Damien Hirst. “This has to do with these mad prices we have now, because we are losing our culture, when you see the auction catalogues full of bulls*** and hype,” he says. Aside from the very greatest Old Masters, Raphael or Leonardo, “paintings shouldn’t cost more than a million”. Asked if he thinks auction prices are now falling, he says, “I hope so.” A few days ago the Art Newspaper published figures on the astonishing growth in value of contemporary art sold at auction over the past few decades. From 1984 to the end of September 2008, average prices for the top quarter of art sales rose from $20,000 to $660,000 – up by 3,100 per cent. In the top 10 per cent, the average price grew from $43,000 to $2 million, a gain of nearly 4,400 per cent. After rising steadily from 2000, growth went wild in 2006. Richter, along with the art world’s critics and Cassandras, however, may finally be about to see their gloomy predictions realised. Over the past few months, as the credit crunch has made its impact felt, art dealers and auctioneers have clung to the hope that the art market may be one of the few sectors able ride out the recession. For a while, the see-sawing results seemed to bear them out. Each poor sale in New York or London that brought warnings of a downturn would be followed by one that saw stellar works break multimillion pound records. Serious jitters took hold at the end of last week, however, when auction houses struggled to find buyers for works from Manet and Renoir to Rothko. In New York, two private art collections expected to fetch more than $100 million (£63 million), brought in less than half that. The sale, at Christie’s auctioneers in Manhattan saw 17 out of 58 works failing to sell and others bringing much lower prices than predicted. Toulouse-Lautrec’s Portrait de Henri Nocq, estimated at $6-8 million, sold for $4.5 million. As the week progressed, one Picasso painting went for more than $20 million but two others remained unsold. “Obviously in the future we will have to lower estimates,” said Christie’s honorary chairman and auctioneer Christopher Burge, though he insisted “there is still a great deal of money left for the art market”. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 9 November 2008 | 11:45 pm

Irish Art Thieves Took Taxi

Bungling Irish art thieves led Gardai to their door last weekend when they brought their loot home in a taxicab. Two men were apprehended at a residence in Kilmore following the theft of three paintings. It is believed that the thieves were easily located after they hired a taxi to ferry them, and two of the paintings home following the robbery. According to Gardai a plate glass window in Greenacres was smashed and paintings removed from the display. Gardai this week said that while investigations into the matter are 'not yet complete', they are 'not looking for anyone else in connection with the matter'. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 9 November 2008 | 11:43 pm

Christies Art Sale Falters

Bloomberg reports that French billionaire Francois Pinault attended his company Christie's International's New York art auction of impressionist and modern art last night, and watched from a sky box as almost half the lots failed to sell. Buyers passed on 44 percent of the 82 pieces offered. Sales tallied $146.7 million, against the low estimate of $240.7 million. It's the week's third evening auction that missed estimates and a sign the global financial crisis continues to undermine demand for the most-expensive art. Works by Henri Matisse, Claude Monet and Alexander Archipenko found little or no interest. Collectors felt no urgency to vie for anything less than stellar, especially at prices that seemed suddenly steep, dealers said. A disappointing sale the previous night at Christie's set the stage for last night's low expectations. On Nov. 5, art works of Park Avenue widow Rita Hillman and real estate heiress Alice Lawrence fetched $47 million, less than half the low estimate of $103 million. On Nov. 3, Sotheby's impressionist sale tallied $223.8 million, a third below the $338 million low estimate. The evening's biggest prize was Gris's green 1915 cubist still-life, "Livre, pipe et verres," estimated to sell for more than $12.5 million. New York private art dealer Franck Giraud bought it for $20.8 million. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 7 November 2008 | 3:52 am

Barnsley, Art & The Beatles

As the Star reports, contemporary art galleries don't open in Barnsley every day. And when the Hive Art Gallery was launched at Elsecar Heritage Centre earlier this year there were a few people questioning whether it would work. Now an exhibition featuring the art of Sir Peter Blake, who created the famous Sgt Pepper's Hearts Club Band Beatles album sleeve, is proof that it does. Other work featured at the exhibition includes art created by Iain Nicholls who has created a visual exploration of the route of the River Dearne from its source at Birds Edge in the Pennines to Darfield. Gallery curator Patrick Murphy says the exhibition is going well. He said: "People commented that we were mad opening a contemporary art gallery in Barnsley, and that people wouldn't be interested. "We have found the opposite to be true. "There is clearly an eager audience for contemporary visual art." (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art

Posted on: 6 November 2008 | 3:07 am