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.