Visit to the Rose

We (and the rest of the greater Boston area) rushed out to Waltham today to visit the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis. I'd heard that they typically get about 30 visitors today and there were definitely over 100 people there while we were there this afternoon. We enjoyed our walkthrough, but were dissappointed in how few of the museum's own works were on display. We saw one classic example by Lichtenstein, Ruscha, Rauchenburg, Oldenburg, Warhol and Picasso, but did not see any works by de Kooning, Johns nor Magritte. With most of the space dedicated to shows which featured borrowed works, I felt we saw only a fraction of the over 8,000 pieces that they apparently own. Let's hope they mount a greatest hits show before they shutter the museum.

(The latest scuttlebutt is that Brandeis may or may not sell any/some/all of the art, but closing the museum gives them more flexiblity because they will no longer have to follow the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) guidelines for deaccessioning art.)

J.

Selling Art for Operating Expenses?

Just read that the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University plans to sell off the ENTIRE holdings of the museum to raise money for the University (their endowment has been badly beaten of late). Many museums' charters don't let them sell art for operating expenses for the museum itself (much less for a parent organization like a university). Where not specified, it is generally frowned upon. It raises the question of the intent of the donors, for one thing. Brandeis is currently sorting through the wills and other legal agreements to see how it can proceed. I would expect that if most donors wanted their money to go to operating budget, they would have made a general donation. (for more info, see article in today's New York Times).

Time for a trip to Rose before it's gone!

Track Lighting (for museums and the rest of us)

I get a lot of questions about lighting both artwork and interiors in general, so I want to share some very useful info. I sent this article to J & E a while back when I was helping them redesign their space and in turn maximize their lighting story for their art. I referred to it recently for another project I am working on because I find it very handy - especially the section in determining the proper location for the tracks. For instance, to avoid glare and shadows, lights should be angled between 30 and 45 degrees.

I think the example they give in the picture sets the viewing level a bit low (5'), but you can easily recalculate the "adjacent" distance from wall to track by remembering your trig ratios for right triangles (math geeks unite!):







where a = ceiling height
and A = angle in degrees

The article goes on to discuss the steps museums take to avoid prolonged exposure of art and artifacts to ultraviolet radiation, the need for UV filters, and profound (positive) effect dimmers have on contributing to the long-term preservation of art and objects.

Part One
Part Two

Archiving a collection

Following up on R’s nice blog about the value of cataloguing a collection, I want to reiterate, from a practical perspective, the value of doing this; it really brings into a nice, neat place, the archive of what a collection looks like that you have probably spent a good deal of time, energy and resources on. I’m not a big database creator, but recently I have taken on the project of creating the archive of our art collection for our own personal information, and more importantly, for insurance purposes for the select “top 20” (now we know that a dealer can really benefit from a glimpse into a personal archive to determine the interests of the collector). But as I mentioned, for now, the project is just practical in nature, as it has been on our “to-do” list for quite some time and it was time to just get it done. Let me tell you, it’s a HUGE job, but so worth it!It’s daunting, so take it in stages.

First, we created a notebook with the receipts which we had over the years just mashed into a file and thrown into the fireproof safe. After sorting them and uncrinkling them, flattening them out in the transparent dividers and creating a semblance of order, I started to file them. Doing this, I embarked on a pretty fun walk down memory lane as I remembered the where, when and with whom we acquired the pieces and if we had an “unveiling” party or not after their hanging.
Next, with the handy Excel program, I listed the artwork we have in each of the homes with the artist name, pertinent information, purchase price, present value and where it was acquired. The big surprise is that we have 70 pieces of artwork – no wonder the walls look like they do and we’re starting to hang ‘salon-style’ all around!

With the contact information now at my fingertips, I started to email the galleries where the artworks were acquired (yes, you along with us will likely have some pieces that have no gallery representation, and will be filed without all the information) and mentioned the need for insurance valuations. Fortunately, the gallery owners are VERY responsive and prompt in their replies, sending formalized documents by mail and email. It’s terrific! And in the end, the great thing is that with the art work in the collection collection, there are bound to be a few fun surprises. We buy because we are moved by a piece, but let me tell you how moved you will be when a piece here or there appreciates significantly in value since the acquisition. Makes you feel good! So, go forth and start to gather your data… it’s a good project to remind you of what you own, and if you go to the end goal of determining what to insure as a result of it, the icing on the cake is peace of mind!

Notes on Collecting

I often joke that art dealers are collectors that cannot afford the collection, or frustrated artists that lack real talent. Art dealers, we are taught to believe, are gifted in their ability to influence tastes and trends, and to guide collectors to that special work that "just fits" within their collection. As many a curator has said before...it is often the collector that guides market, which in turn influences the dealer to seek out that special thing. Every now and then, through my position as a dealer (if you hadn't already guessed), I am struck by the degree to which collectors drive the market. I have just acquired the exclusive rights, as agent, to a remarkable art collection, assembled over a 50 year span, of paintings, prints and drawings...that in so many ways reflect all that is wonderful about the true joy of collecting - something that I think all readers and posters to this blog share. The most remarkable aspect of the collection, works aside, is the extent to which the couple catalogued their own collection. Each work has its own notecard (pre-excel days), that lists all of the relevant catalogue information, including source, acquistion date, price and subsequent offerings of the same or similar work on the market. This information has given me a tremendous insight into the market of their interests, which in turn has given me countless ideas of how to market their work. Indeed, there are already three gallery shows planned around the "r" collection. I hope that this re-presentation of the collection, seen through the dealer's eye, will enhance the stature of the collection, make their children proud, and share with other collectors the great joys that this couple so cherished. To learn more about another great collector, please click here. r

Conceptual Artist Books by Women

As wall space and the economy become even more difficult, I have retreated to artist books, which is what I started with as a collector. This week I bought a first edition copy of Yoko Ono's Grapefruit (the US version published in 1970) from a bookdealer in VT through Amazon. The book is a series of instructions, which in concept, would create works of art. For me, the concept is so much more interesting than the product anyway.
Three of the most interesting artist books I own are by women artists. Although putting the term "women" before the word "artists" is sometimes considered bad nowadays, I use the term deliberately because these books play with gender and its stereotypes.

Take Care of Yourself by Sophie Callie (shown here). This book is a compilation of Calle's piece(s) for the French Pavillion at the 2007 Venice Biennale. Her boyfriend broke up with her over e-mail and she had 107 different women interpret the e-mail for her. The 107 women ranged from police officers to psychiatrists and all had their own perspectives. This book is a limited edition of 4,000 copies in English.

Jens F. by Collier Schorr. In this strange, but beautiful book, Schorr attempts to replicate some of scenes of Andrew Wyeth's Helga using an adolescent German boy- who seems to be going through puberty over the years in which the photos were shot. This book is a signed limted-edition of 1,000.

The Nam by Fiona Banner. Banner is a British artist known for her text-based works, drawings of punctuation marks, and more recently figher planes. In this unpaginated book, she describes in detail what happens during every Viet Nam movie of the 1980's as if it were happening as one seemless scene. The hardcover version of this book is a signed limited edition of 250.

Sol Lewitt at MASS MoCA

The Sol Lewitt wall drawing retrospective is a massive installation of 1005 wall drawings which span a large exhibition of spaces on 3 floors of MASS MoCA. One of the interesting aspects of owning a Sol Lewitt wall drawing is that you actually buy the plans for the drawing and then you have someone, perhaps someone form Sol Lewitt's studio, or an art student actually put the art on your wall. This gives you the opportunity to move it to a new location (provided you paint over the exisiting image). The instructions are part of what you buy and the installation at MASS MoCA had some nice works where you could see how Lewitt specified the different shapes in the piece, the different combinations that are used in the piece and then a grid for how the combinations of shapes are used.

Facebook

Today we are trying to integrate this blog with Facebook, hoping that new posts can go out as e-mails through the system. Once we have 10 official followers through Facebook, it should be searchable on that page. If you would like a personal invitation to join the blog group on Facebook, please send us an e-mail.

Take Your Place in History

Another one of my favorite artists, On Kawara, currently has a show at David Zwirner Gallery in NYC. Kawara is famous for making paintings of the date and sending daily postcards to friends stating, "I am still alive." The show at Zwirner focuses on his 20-volume book series, One Million Years, in which he lists, year by year, one million years before 1969 (when the project was started) and one million years after 1969. I bought an hour-long recording of an excerpt of the book being read about 10 years ago (and S hates it so much that I am not allowed to play it at home). As part of the show, Zwirner is producing a CD recording of all of the books being read and you can sign up to be a reader. There are two recording booths in the gallery to immortalize your recitation of years for years to come. Information to do this is available on the gallery's website: www.davidzwirner.com.

Eastern Standard in Western Mass

Went to MASS MoCA this weekend for the first time (glad I finally made it there). If you have not been there yourself, it is definitely worth seeing if you can arrange a weekend in the Berkshires and get over to MoCA for 2-3 hours. Very cool gallery space (located in a complex of renovated 19th century factory buildings). Saw a number of interesting Burtynsky pieces in the exhibit "Eastern Standard: Western Artists in China." However, I think I still prefer more of the images from the Quarries series and Breaking Ground series.

Even Though You Aren't Into Posters

The magazine, Art on Paper, edited by the duo from Triple Candie in NYC, has commissioned a series of limited edition posters. Before you start associating to your Shawn Cassidy (or Farrah Fawcett) poster from childhood or those "fine art" posters that are reproductions of Impressionist paintings, STOP and think "small limited edition" and "established contemporary artists." The first in the series is by Polly Apfelbaum and is shown here. (When I think about Apfelbaum, I think of our friend E who not only owns one of her cheery multi-colored flower prints, but is the human equivalent of that work. We love you, E!) Although the posters can be ordered in one of 3 sizes for $200, $400, or $1,000, the total edition size is 50. If you can get past the idea of poster, these are amazing prices. Her prints go for ten times as much. The posters can be ordered by phone at (212) 675-1968.

Look at Me

Recently I have become interested in portraiture, especially photographic portraits. Two things have been contributing to this interest: having my portrait taken by Martin Parr last month and seeing the Karsh 100 show at the MFA, Boston. While a portrait presents information about the sitter, it also conveys information about the artist: technical skills, perspectives, and the editing of reality. There are two upcoming courses on portraiture in Boston. One is a one-week intensive course at the SMFA in March called, Identity: The Contemporary Portrait, taught by Sean Johnson. The other is a 4-week seminar at the Photographic Resource Center, Contemporary Trends in Photographic Portraiture, taught by Roswell Angier (2/17-3/10/09). If you can't do either, Roswell Angier has a book about taking photographic portraits, Train Your Gaze, available on Amazon.
I especially like portraits in which the artist inserts him/herself. Christine Rogers, a SMFA alum who is now on faculty there, did a series in which she had her photo taken with other families having their portraits taken at a commercial studio. Futoshi Miyagi did a series of photos of himself with gay men who were strangers, in their apartments (shown here). These photographers play with the ideas of insertable intimacy and the deconstruction of relationship images.

Bridge on the Verge

Yet another sign of the soft economy. I have received several emails in the past few weeks from Bridge Art Fair, extending their deadline for exhibiting in at their New York fair in March. The most recent mailing was promoting a new, lower cost option in their "Verge" section. These "booths" are 100 sq feet and cost $5,000 -- half the size and price of a regular booth. It was an interesting fair last year. Hopefully it will manage to fill the space by March.

Lalla Essaydi at MFA

Lalla Essaydi, a SMFA alum, will be giving a visiting artist lecture on Thursday, 1/22/09, at 12:30 PM in the Riley Seminar Room at the MFA. She also currently has work on view in the new Herb Ritts Gallery at the MFA. She is known for her staged photographs of Moroccan women covered with calligraphy. While they may seem to be simple images at first, they are actually quite radical. Supposedly in Islam, women are not allowed to write using this calligraphy. A few years ago we bought one of her photographs of 3 women writing on each other, a very defiant act. I especially liked the performance aspect. In Boston, she is represented by Howard Yeserski Gallery.

Road Trip: LaMontagne Gallery

There are even more reasons to check out the LaMontagne Gallery in South Boston. The one that I am most excited about is a new sound piece by Benjamin Chaffee that was created specifically for your ride to the gallery on the MBTA bus, from Copley Square to Fort Point Channel. You can download it and listen to it on your own personal audio equipment. It can be downloaded at www.musicforcircumstances.com, but it's not up yet. I am expecting it to be up by the opening of Andrew Witkin's new show at the gallery on Saturday, 1/10/09, from 6-8 PM.

According to the press release, Andrew Witkin's project is a companion presentation to the one he currently has on view at Boston's Institute for Contemporary Art as part of the ICA's Foster Prize Exhibition. For this exhibition, he will be showing a group of 144 t-shirts, each with a different text (by various people) on them, each hung on a hanger, ready to be read. There will also be a group of pieces surrounding the shirts, ranging from a stereo playing an ever-increasing number of versions of the American traditional song, "Stagolee", to an arrangement of mirrors, to a check-list as study guide as notebook, among other found, altered, designed and organized objects.

The gallery is also having a series of talks on Wednesdays in January and February.

Manuel de Santaren (Wednesday, Jan 28, 7pm) will present a talk on his current interests, as pertaining to engaging a hypothetical space.

Daniel Scholnick (Wednesday, Feb 4 7pm) bought a ramshackle building in Philadelphia four years ago and has, by hand, been renovating it with the goal of helping his local community, becoming a resident, creating a quality art creation space, all in a sustainable and affordable manner. Scholnick will talk about having a project that's simultaneously a performance, the building of one's home and an act of entrepreneurialism (a performed act of artistic applied political economy).

Andrew Witkin (Wednesday, Feb 10, 7pm) will give a walk through of "Others Among Others" and will discuss related projects, among other topics.