Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2023 i Art & Antiques

Known for its elegant forms and lustrous surfaces, Chinese lacquerware has evolved over thousands of years, and the finest examples have become highly coveted, collectible pieces. Intricately and delicately carved, this bottle-shaped Chinese vase is an exquisite example of cinnabar lacquer that was prevalent in the Ming and Qing eras. Dated 1700–1800, it is believed to have been created around the middle of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Although lacquer, which is the resin of a family of trees found throughout southern China, was used in many Asian cultures, the art of carving lacquer was unique to China. Like all lacquer objects, carved pieces have a substructure that is usually made of wood, and this vase is no exception. It is the lacquer that is worked, not the underlying material. Lacquer…

THE WORLD-FAMOUS Frick Collection, a collection of art amassed by the 19th century industrialist and art collector, Henry Clay Frick, is best known for being one of the finest collections of European art in the country. Recently, the collection has been enlarged by several major gifts of decorative objects from other important collectors. Now, the public will have its first opportunity to view these additions with The Gregory Gift, an exhibition of 28 new acquisitions. These pieces, all luxury objects, include clocks, ewers, sculpture, Limoges enamels, and two fine pastels by Rosalba Carriera. The objects were given to the Frick by the estate of collector Alexis Gregory. “Alexis Gregory had one of the finest collections of Renaissance and Rococo decorative arts in this country,” says Ian Wardropper, Anna-Maria and Stephen…

IN COBIE RUSSELL’S new exhibition, Here Comes the Sun, the artist explores the expansiveness of the universe through a series of paintings exploding with color, light, and energy. On view March 1-April 30 at the Jean de Merry Gallery in Dallas, Texas, Russell’s works are abstract, large-scale paintings and drawings characterized by geometric shapes and saturated colors. Russell has long been inspired by nature and natural beauty, such as the way light reflects off of water, mountain peaks, and the coast. Now, she is taking her gaze further outward, toward the cosmos. “I love the sense of endless space,” Russell says in the press release. “I remember as a kid learning about infinity, and I was so relieved. That’s been a subject I’ve been drawn to ever since—the sky as…

Designer Phillip Lloyd Powell (1919–2008) created some of the most important pieces of the Mid-Century studio furniture movement. Self-taught, the Pennsylvania native began crafting furniture for family and friends during his adolescent years. He was meticulous, and his pieces were painstakingly hand-carved from various woods. Although Powell’s work is regularly categorized as Mid-Century Modern, his designs were often unusual for the time and did not always depict the cool, clean lines associated with that style. His sometimes sinuous and textural furniture was frequently reminiscent of organic forms. “I’m an artist working with furniture that has sculptural qualities. There’s more emotion involved than anything else—I need that,” Powell was quoted as saying. Powell often worked with more than wood, incorporating other material in his work, like metal, stone and found objects.…

THE INTERNATIONALLY celebrated photography art fair, The Photography Show, opens for its 42nd year in New York on March 31, running through April 2. Presented by the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, or AIPAD, The Photography Show brings together some of the world’s most prestigious photographic art gallerists, who will present works ranging from rare 19th century prints to contemporary photo-based art, as well as video and new media. This highly anticipated exhibition will take place at Centre415 on Fifth Avenue, between 37th and 38th streets. One of the highlights of 2023’s exhibition will be an extremely rare, 1954 print of a photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson titled Rue Mouffetard, Paris, 1954. The image, one of the photographer’s bestknown, is of a smiling young boy carrying two bottles of…

ON MARCH 9, June Kelly Gallery in New York will open Entanglement, an exhibition of paintings by Sandra Lerner. The series focuses on the scientific concept of entanglement: the interaction of two particles at the cellular or subatomic level, or on a larger scale, of two entities as a cosmic event. Lerner says in her artist statement, “Once they have interacted with each other, their behavior is intertwined forever, even though they might be separated by millions of miles. It’s a form of communication that is central to the creative process. My paintings strive to heighten our awareness of our oneness with the universe.” The works are highly textured and rich in color; Lerner often includes many different shades of a primary hue in each image. In “Entanglement I,” (2022)…

The gift of a painter is to slow time and make it remain forever in an instant, yet infinitely relevant. Oswaldo Vigas (1923–2014) was a masterful painter of modernist abstraction gifted with astonishing vigor. Vigas’s artistic valor and dedication earned him a place alongside the most significant modernist painters, and his paintings will most certainly endure for generations to come. Born in Venezuela, Vigas’s, success ultimately propelled him to live a consequential portion of his life in Paris. There he would gain entry into a select group of Europe’s most preeminent painters and become associated with such notables as Fernand Léger, Max Ernst, Wilfredo Lam, and Pablo Picasso. Over the years, pictures by Vigas would be exhibited extensively internationally and acquired for permanent collections of various museums. He represented Venezuela in…

Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring is easily one of the most iconic, most reproduced, most beloved paintings of all time. The artwork vacillates between great intimacy, curiosity, and even mystery. (Perhaps these qualities are what earned it the nickname the “Mona Lisa of the North”?) The girl in the painting, who looks at us so familiarly, defies recognition. She glances knowingly over her left shoulder, comfortable enough to be addressed by us, yet we have no idea who she is. We cannot even deduce her hair color. In a certain way, Girl with a Pearl Earring has become an appropriate symbol for Vermeer himself. The 17th-century painter left behind a relatively small oeuvre, with only 37 works presently attributed to him. He left no letters or diaries; any potential…

Asian Immersion ASIA WEEK New York, now in its 14th year, will welcome Asian art collectors, connoisseurs, and enthusiasts alike with an array of exhibitions and auctions from March 16-24. Visitors to this week-long event will be immersed in some of the finest extant examples of Asian art. In addition to the ongoing exhibitions, several participating museums and cultural organizations will offer lectures, performances, and educational events as well, while auction houses including Christie’s, Bonham’s, Doyle’s, and others will hold auctions throughout the week. Highlighting both the ancient and the modern-day beauty created by artists from across this global region, Asia Week New York offers a wide range of works that will appeal to both traditional and more avant-garde tastes. As chairman of Asia Week New York, Dessa Goddard, says,…

THIS MONTH, The Rubin Museum of Art—a museum dedicated to the exploration of Himalayan art of both past and present—will open Death is Not the End, an exhibition of works that explore the afterlife through both Tibetan Buddhist and Christian lenses. The exhibition includes 58 works from around the globe covering 12 centuries. “In pairing artworks from Christianity—the most familiar cultural framework in the United States—with those from Buddhism, a less known visual culture in the West, we highlight a universal common ground and encourage visitors’ inquiry as they engage with these diverse objects,” says Elena Pakhoutova, senior curator of Himalayan art at the Rubin. Works on view include “A Woman Divided Into Two Representing Life and Death” (ca. 18th century), which depicts a woman divided in half vertically: on…

The project of Cubism instigated by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque was a ménage à trois with a third, ghostly partner: Paul Cézanne. Cézanne’s presence in the relationship, as well as his own obsession with landscape, meant that genre of painting defined the movement’s early direction as pursued by Braque and Picasso—and that Cubism emerged overwhelmingly from depictions of the natural world (and had very little to do with trompe l’oeil—it bears noting). “Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds,” at The Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina (February 11–May 21, 2023), is part of a year-long commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the artist’s death, “Picasso Celebration 1973-2023,” which includes some 50 exhibitions and events in Europe and North America. The exhibition in Charlotte traces Picasso’s own personal relationship with painting…

AFTER A SPIRITED auction-floor bidding war, an Agnolo Bronzino painting with a storied past sold for double the amount auctioneers estimated it would bring in, setting a new record for the sale of work by the Italian Renaissance artist. Portrait of a Young Man with a Quill and a Sheet of Paper sold to a bidder in the room for $10.7 million, following a frenzied five-minute bidding session at Sotheby’s Masters Week, January 18–30, 2023, in New York. Sotheby’s had estimated the painting would sell for between $3 million and $5 million. The painting is in remarkable condition and with unbroken provenance from the 17th century to the present. Believed to have been completed by Bronzino about 1527, the painting “is one of the earliest instances of Bronzino’s dual exploration…