February 8, 2010
Previously published on ForYourArt
Panelist Rachel Lachowicz' "Red David," 1991, Plaster and lipstick.
By Emily Waldorf
On January 29th, five female art professionals participated in a panel discussion, “Playing Fair: Women in the Contemporary Art Market,” at the inaugural Art Los Angeles Contemporary fair at the Pacific Design Center. Art dealer Kimberly Light of Kim Light/Lightbox moderated the panel and opened up the dialogue with a slide of Lynda Benglis’ famous 1974 Artforum ad in which she appears nude brandishing a large dildo. The Benglis ad was a witty nod to the precarious balance between masculinity and femininity that women in the art world must strike and an effective way to jump-start a potentially delicate discussion.
The impressive lineup of panelists included the Director of Sotheby’s Institute of Contemporary Art, Kathy Battista, art writer and independent curator Emma Gray, artist Rachel Lachowicz, and the former Director of the Jumex Collection, Abaseh Mirvali. The panel expressed disappointment over the gross disparity in value between female Keep reading →
Filed under Los Angeles, art market, collecting, contemporary art, dealers, education
Tags: Art Los Angeles Contemporary, contemporary art market, feminism, Judy Chicago, Kim Light/Lightbox, Lynda Benglis, panel, post-feminism, Sotheby's Institute of Contemporary Art, The Dinner Party, WACK!, women
February 5, 2010
Scripps College's annual ceramics show in 2004, with Paul Soldner's "Floor Pot" in foreground. Credit: Krista Coquia / Scripps College. Image via the Los Angeles Times.
by Kelly Boyd
At this year’s dinner celebrating the 66th Scripps College Ceramic Annual it was announced that Scripps alumna Joan Lincoln, class of ’49 and her husband David had pledged to give $4 million to benefit students studying ceramics at Scripps and the affiliated Claremont Graduate University.
The gift includes a $3.5 million promise to Scripps for the construction of a state of the art, 3,000 square foot ceramic facility and an endowment for ceramic art programs and exhibitions. Claremont Graduate University will be receiving $500,000 for the establishment of an endowment for graduate student scholarships. According to Scripps College president Lori Bettison-Varga, the gift gives the two institutions the opportunity to “recapture their place as preeminent educators of ceramic artists.” Keep reading →
February 2, 2010
For the bibliophile and print lover: Sophie Calle's "The Address Book," 2009. A portfolio of prints at Gemini G.E.L.
by Emily Waldorf
On January 22nd, I attended a panel called “The Fine Art of Collecting Fine Prints” at the Los Angeles Art Show. The panel was moderated by curator Michele Deziel and included Collectors/Curators/Writers, Reba and Dave Williams and Kevin Murphy, PhD, Associate Curator of American Art at the Huntington Art Collections.
Here is a summary of the wonderfully knowledgeable and engaging panel’s advice on how to collect fine prints:
- Prints can be very confusing for the uninitiated, start by developing relationships with dealers you trust who can educate you and look at as many prints as possible. It is hard to understand the differences between different types of prints just by reading about them, you have to see them.
- Watch the documentary film All About Prints, produced by Reba and Dave Williams. It covers the art of printmaking from the perspective of influential curators, collectors, dealers, printmakers, and artists. Since fine prints are relatively less expensive than original art, collecting them allows you to go deeper and acquire more artists. Keep reading →
February 1, 2010
Pierre Bonnard's "Portrait of Leila Claude Anet," 1930, oil on canvas. Norton Simon Art Foundation
by Kelly Boyd
Norton Simon: Gaze: Portraiture after Ingres, through 4/5/10.
Reaching its greatest height in France under the rule of Napoleon III, portraiture had up until the late 1860s been characterized by Ingres’ fidelity to the face and emphasis on the patron’s prestigious social and moral standing. In “Gaze: Portraiture after Ingres”, the Norton Simon explores the avant-garde’s appropriation of the conventional genre and their subsequent subversion of it. Including works by Van Gogh, Picasso, Modigliani and Warhol, Gaze reveals the desire of artists from the mid 19th century to the modern day to engage in portraiture and capture their contemporary worlds without the expectations imposed by paying customers. The exhibition of nearly 150 paintings, sculpture and photographs from the museum’s collection demonstrates the triumph of technique over subject, and how this development served to enhance rather than detract from the genre itself.
LACMA: Renoir in the 20thCentury, 2/14/ 10 – 5/ 9/10
Fans familiar with Renoir’s Impressionist work may be surprised by LACMA’s upcoming exhibition, “Renoir in the 20th Century.” The exhibition chronicles the last three decades of Renoir’s career, his break with Impressionism and adoption of a more decorative and classical style. Keep reading →
Filed under Los Angeles, contemporary art, education, modern art, museums
Tags: folly, Getty, Getty Villa, Ingres, LACMA, MOCA Pacific Design Center, Norton Simon, Renoir
January 28, 2010
Filed under New York, antiques, art law, art market, auctions, collecting
Tags: Acropolis, Berlin Museum, Christie's, Haiti, iPad, MET, Sotheby's, tapestry, torn Picasso
January 25, 2010
Adam Ekberg's, "A Disco Ball in the Woods," 2006. Video.
by Caroline Newman
Light and water is necessary for our survival as a species. Photography uses light and water as part of the photographic process. “Elements of Photography,” at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, employs these essential elements in photographic and video works of art. These two elements are experimented with in both the photographic process and in the subjects of the works displayed. All of the works present new and innovative conversations between natural processes and artistic processes, and their unification.
Adam Ekberg’s “Disco Ball in the Woods” is a thought-provoking way to open the show. It is intriguing to enter a dark room and watch a large projected video of a disco ball spinning in the middle of a forest. After the first few moments of recognition, it becomes quite relaxing and hypnotic to watch so many small spots of light repeatedly move in the same pattern. The use of a familiar object in an unfamiliar setting creates a profoundly different result for the viewer. Hiroshi Sugimoto’s peaceful “Time Exposed” is a black and white photograph of the ocean with light and fog blending the horizon line. The ripples in the water are the only detail in the photograph causing this minimalist image to become extremely abstracted. Here we are able to see both water in it’s natural form, the ocean, and water in a vapor, the sky. Keep reading →
January 21, 2010
Filed under art conservation, art fairs, art law, art market, celebs, collecting, contemporary art
Tags: David LaChapelle, film, Fontana, Govan, Jeffrey Deitch, Klein, LACMA, Mapplethorpe, MOCA, Norton Simon, Patti Smith, Photo LA, Scorsese, Shepard Fairey, V&A
January 19, 2010
Analia Saban, Shed, 2009 Acrylic on and off canvas 10.5 x 10 in. Value: $1,200. Courtesy of Thomas Solomon Gallery and the artist.
Art for Haiti, a silent auction organized by eleven Los Angeles art galleries will be held this evening at the Mandrake from 7pm-9pm. All funds raised are 100% tax-deductible and will go directly to the Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti. Opening bids will be starting as low as $100 and bidding in the sale is a wonderful way to support an urgent cause and snap up a well-vetted work of contemporary art.
Local galleries involved include:
Zach Feuer Gallery, Kim Light/LightBox, Honor Fraser Gallery, Patrick Painter Inc, Ooga Booga, Kinkead Contemporary, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, Robert Berman Gallery, Marc Richards Gallery, Kopeikin Gallery, Cherry and Martin Gallery, and Thomas Solomon Gallery
The emerging and mid-career artists represented in the silent auction include:
Justin Lieberman, Sayre Gomez, Brian Bress, Chris Churchill, Maha Saab, Michael Gregg Michaud, Yuval Pudik, Joe Yaeger, Keep reading →
Filed under Los Angeles, art charity, auctions, collecting, contemporary art, galleries
Tags: Art for Haiti, art galleries, Haiti, Los Angeles, Mandrake, Red Cross
January 15, 2010
MOCA's new director, Jeffrey Deitch. Image via The Los Angeles Times.
MOCA has named New York City art dealer Jeffrey Deitch as it’s new director. It is a controversial and exciting choice because it blurs the line between the academic museum world and commercially driven art market. Currently, no other major U.S. museum is overseen by a former gallery owner and Mr. Deitch certainly doesn’t fit the typical profile of a museum director from a curatorial or nonprofit background. Having a successful businessman at the helm of a museum that faced a severe financial crisis in 2008 isn’t such a bad idea.
Mr. Deitch studied Art History at Wesleyan and holds an MBA from Harvard. He co-founded Citibank’s pioneering art advisory service in 1979 and went on to become one of the most successful private dealers in the world. In addition to running Deitch Projects, he has advised collectors such as David Geffen, Dakis Joannou, and Eli Broad.
Here is what the LA art world is saying about the choice, according to a Los Angeles Times article, ”MOCA May Go in a New Direction:”
“My immediate response was that there’s no way, it doesn’t make any sense” that a leading dealer like Deitch would give up his business to lead a nonprofit museum, “But the more I think about it, it would be really interesting. He would be able to deal with the politics involved in a job like that. I’d welcome him with open arms.”
- Jeff Poe of LA Gallery Blum & Poe
“Out-of-the-box choices can often be inspired. They can create new kinds of energy…But when they don’t work, they can be disastrous.”
- Collector Dean Valentine
Keep reading →
