Innholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2025 i Art & Antiques

Few figures in the history of France continue to maintain influence as multi-dimensional and profound as that associated with Napoleon Bonaparte, the selfproclaimed 19 th-century emperor who set out to rule the better part of continental Europe and ended up banished for the last six years of his life to Saint Helena, a volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean. A native of Corsica, Bonaparte was born in 1769 and came to mainland France as a child. In his teens, he entered military service and over time became one of the most illustrious war heroes of all time. After crowning himself, literally, at Paris’s Notre-Dame Cathedral in 1804, he became Emperor of France and held that title over a period of more than a decade. When Empress Joséphine, his first…

“MARISOL: A Retrospective,” a major touring show of one of the most influential artists of the 1960s, is set for a final stop at the Dallas Museum of Art from February 23 to July 6, 2025. Called a “must-see-exhibition” by The New York Times the exhibition was organized by the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, to which the artist bequeathed her estate in 2016. Curators offer a comprehensive survey of over 250 artworks and documents from her almost sixdecade career. Born María Sol Escobar in 1930 to wealthy Venezuelan parents, she adopted the name Marisol as a teenager. Her formal art education included stints at the Otis Art Institute, the École des Beaux-Arts, the Art Students League, and private study with Hans Hofmann. Initially drawn to abstract expressionism, by the end…

ON VIEW THROUGH June 15, 2025, “Psychedelic Rock Posters and Fashion of the 1960s“ at the Portland Art Museum presents over 200 rock concert posters alongside vintage garments for a truly groovy experience. At San Francisco venues like the Filmore Auditorium and the Avalon Ballroom, music promoters sought out young designers to represent the spirit of the era. Drawing from diverse historical reference points such as French Art Nouveau and Surrealism, poster artists employed distorted letterforms, acidic color combinations, and uncanny imagery to mimic the altered perception of the psychedelic experience. Victor Moscoso’s “Pink Panther” advertises June 1967 performances by Daily Flash and the Miller Blues Band at the Avalon. The typography twists and teases above a pair of feline eyes. The artist’s intensely saturated palette likely drew upon his…

INDUSTRIAL SCREEN printing saw widespread application and innovation in the 1930s, especially in textile manufacture. By the 1950s, designers utilized the format to produce radical, experimental fabrics distinguished by handcrafted aesthetics, intense coloration, and precision motifs. “Bolts of Color: Printed Textiles After WWII,” a new exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum, runs through April 20, 2025. Drawing from a recent collection acquisition, the show highlights work by well-known artists and progressive new designers, highlighting visual connections to contemporary art. Some of the most remarkable fabrics on display come from designers who centered their careers in the med iu m. A lt he a McNish drew upon her African Caribbean heritage and training under Pop icon Eduardo Paolozzi for her bold, tropical designs such as Painted Desert. Austrian husband and…

IN NOVEMBER, only one week before an ordinary banana (in the process of turning from yellow to brown) affixed to a blank wall with duct tape sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $6.2 million, the altogether extraordinary Aga Khan Emerald set a world record for the most expensive emerald ever sold at auction—selling at Christie’s in Geneva for $8.86 million. Because it is never wise to force a comparison between apples and oranges (or, in this case, bananas and emeralds), significant details of the two sales will, of course, be left to coexist in the annals of 21st-century art history—each sale situated in its own universe of subjective responses to objects at auction at this point on the continuum. Nevertheless, the emerald, said to be “one of the rarest…

WHEN TENNESSEE WILLIAMS died at age 71 in his suite at Manhattan’s Hotel Elysée on February 25, 1983, he was eulogized around the world and praised by prominent critics as one of the greatest playwrights of the 20 thcentury. Among the myriad accolades that represent a reasonable unit of measure for his international success are the two Pulitzer Prizes awarded for achievements in drama: A Streetcar Named Desire (1948) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955). Moreover, there is general agreement that his importance as a playwright born in the United States is eclipsed only by that of Eugene O’Neill, whose Long Day’s Journey Into Night won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957—one of a record-setting four Pulitzers received by O’Neill. much a means of escape as an outlet for…

CELEBRATING THE rich visual culture of the interwar period in the United States, “Jazz Age Illustration” at the Delaware Art Museum documents an era of cultural vibrancy. On view through January 26, 2025, the exhibition pulls from the institution’s notable illustration collection and features more than 120 original paintings and drawings. In an era before photography dominated popular media, such work demonstrates the tastes, cultural attitudes, and aspirations of the American public. In a field dominated by men, Helen Dryden established herself as one of the most inventive fashion illustrators of the era. Over a thirteen-year career at Vogue, Dryden’s feminine forms and whimsical treatments—like those seen in a 1922 masquerade-themed cover illustration—helped usher in a taste for European fashion and Art Deco ornament. After studying under Golden Age illustrator…

SINCE ANTIQUITY, to sculpt the Divine meant that the sacred figure would be imbued with a corporeal form and provided a believable presence; when rendered in color, the Divine was even more real. “Hand in Hand. Sculpture and Colour in the Spanish Golden Age,” an exhibition at Museo del Prado with support from Fundación AXA, provides an in-depth look at 17 th-century polychrome devotionals and religious statuary. On view through March 2, 2025, the show includes almost 100 sculptures by revered master craftsmen alongside paintings and prints that emulate such work. At the start of the 16 thcentury, the Protestant Reformation splintered religious practice. The subsequent Catholic Counter-Reformation placed emphasis on maintaining the faithful through expressive art and encouraged devotion by emphasizing the perceived humanity of religious figures. In essence…

A NEW exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) examines the collecting practice and legacy of one of the institution’s founders. “Lillie P. Bliss and the Birth of the Modern” continues its run through March 29, 2025, and celebrates the 90 thanniversary of Bliss’s major institutional bequest. The new exhibition showcases this work alongside archival materials that serve to reconstruct her life in art. The daughter of a Boston textile merchant, Bliss dedicated her life to Modernism. An enthusiastic collector, she helped charter MoMA alongside Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Mary Quinn Sullivan, and others. When the museum opened its doors in 1929, it sponsored exciting new temporary exhibitions but did not have a permanent collection. At her death from cancer in 1931, Bliss left the institution approximately 120 works of…

ART HISTORIAN and preservationist Virginia Couse Leavitt passed away November 26, 2024, at her home in Taos, New Mexico. As the co-founder of the Couse-Sharp Historic Site (CSHS) and the principal scholar on the work of her grandfather, Eanger Irving Couse, founding member of the Taos Society of Artists, her legacy will not soon be forgotten. Leavitt lived in the Couse home as a child and returned during summers for most of her life. She spent over three decades researching and writing the definitive guide to her grandfather’s work, published in 2019 by the University of Oklahoma Press. That work also provided the foundations for the Lunder Research Center, the only repository dedicated to the Taos art colony. Her commitment to the area’s position as a cultural mecca, past and…

FAMED CABINETMAKER to Louis XIV, André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732) was celebrated for his innovative marquetry and designs that smacked of the era’s opulence. “Keeping Time: Clocks by Boulle,” a new display at London’s Wallace Collection, centers on five exceptional timepieces by the artist that combine ofthe-moment style and the latest in horology. Running through March 2, 2025, the exhibition opens ahead of an international conference on Boulle to be hosted by the institution. Each design stands as both a testament to creative collaboration, with mechanisms from leading clockmakers of the era, and an indicator of the worldliness of its commissioner. A wardrobe made c. 1715 features a movement by renowned Parisian clockmaker Pierre Gaudron encircled by cherubim. The exquisite oak and ebony case and intricate diapered marquetry imitate the look of…

AS A PART of their 10 thanniversary programming, Paris’s Fondation Louis Vuitton stages “Pop Forever, Tom Wesselmann & …”; the exhibition runs through February 24, 2025. The show provides both an expansive history of Pop and a close examination of the career of Wesselmann (1931-2004). Conscripted into service during the Korean War, Wesselmann used GI Bill funding to pursue a career as a cartoonist, studying first at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and later the Cooper Union. He began his career working as an illustrator for men’s magazines, and his commercial art origins certainly contributed to his technical virtuosity and his later subject matter selection. At the opening of his first exhibition in 1959 at the Judson Gallery, which he helped cofound, Jim Dine insisted that he “[might] be one…

ART PALM BEACH transforms the Palm Beach County Convention Center January 22-26, 2025. Now in its third year, this cutting-edge fair will feature 80 international galleries and, in the words of show director and producer Kassandra Voyagis, will provide “a global hub for creative vision.” This year the fair’s museums and nonprofits platform, DIVERSEartPB, explores the theme “Art Has the Power to Change the World.” As a part of this offering, Bratislava’s Danubiana Museum of Art will present Viktor Freso’s 30-foot Bear Sculpture, a symbol for power and resilience that also sets the tone for this ambitious fair. Among international exhibitors, Sundaram Tagore Gallery will present work from Kenny Nguyen. His stunning paintings are made from torn strips of silk, dipped in acrylic and affixed to raw canvas. Loosely pinned…

MASTER DRAWINGS New York, the premier U.S. drawings exposition, returns February 1-8, 2025, for its 19 thedition. Twenty-eight global galleries will showcase exceptional and rare works at sites throughout the Upper East Side of Manhattan. In partnership with the New York-based nonprofit The Drawing Foundation, the fair also offers a robust lineup of tours, lectures, and other special programming. Among this year’s new exhibitors, Paris’s Galerie Ratton-Ladrière will present a range of important works including a pen and brown ink Head of a Bearded Man by Italian Mannerist Giuseppe Cesari. Best known for his large fresco cycles, Cesari also taught later Baroque icon Caravaggio. This small figure study demonstrates the older teacher’s shared flair for the dramatic. With locations in Chicago, Paris, and New York, Les Enluminures will exhibit a…

A NEW EXHIBITION at the Peabody Essex Museum explores the human desire to connect with the departed, with a special focus on late 19 th- and early 20 th-century Spiritualism. On view through February 2, 2025, “Conjuring the Spirit World: Art, Magic, and Mediums” is sure to delight both skeptics and true believers. Curators document the way in which art and objects, including a Spirit Bell (c. 1870) produced by famed Paris magic dealer Émile Voisin, served as proof of a medium or magician’s ability to connect with realms beyond our own. Works on exhibit also emphasize magic as a source of agency for marginalized communities, including women like Ava Muntell (“The Woman with a Million Eyes”), captured in a stunning hand-painted photo collage by an unknown artist.…

THE LA ART Show returns to the Los Angeles Convention Center February 19-23, 2025, for its milestone 30 thanniversary. Since its founding, the fair has featured diverse work from modern and contemporary talent. This latest offering is no exception, with participation from over 100 global galleries, museums, and non-profits. In tandem with the fair, art lovers can also visit the event’s educational, non-commercial platform DIVERSEartLA, staged this year as a special retrospective of the organization’s curatorial efforts over the last three decades. In the booth from Arcadia Contemporary, fans of the historical are sure to delight at Elen Bezhen’s figure paintings. In The Weeds she provides a unique, contemporary spin on late-Medieval and early-Renaissance aesthetics. Among the offerings from Rebecca Hossack Gallery, Mersuka Dopazo’s coll age works serve as travelogue,…

GEORGE Billis is not only one of the most visible gallerists, but he’s also one of the most engaging and charismatic. If he is present in any one of his three galleries in New York City, Los Angeles, or Fairfield, Connecticut, he greets you at the door, welcomes you. The regularly scheduled openings for his stable of 25 artists (some of whose works are pictured here) are always well attended and spirited. He has long embraced artists who depict cityscapes, interiors, still lifes, and figures. Art & Antiques met with him in his New York gallery to talk about the business of art today. When did you decide to become a gallerist? As long as I could remember, I loved art, going to museums, traveling abroad to see famous works…

Shortly after Esther Bell began working as a curator at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, she was invited to Aso O. Tavitian’s residence for lunch. “When I entered his home, I was blown away by the museum quality of his collection; it far exceeded my expectations,” says Bell, now the museum’s deputy director and chief curator. Over the years, Bell had the honor of getting to know Tavitian—long a friend of the Clark and a member of the Board of Trustees from 2006 to 2012—and his approach to collecting. Little did she know how vital a role the Clark would play in the preservation of his legacy. In October, the Clark announced it had received one of the largest gifts in its history from the foundation of the…

The summer before I started training to be a tour guide at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I spent two solid weeks there, traipsing up and down staircases, riding every elevator, tracking down hundreds of artworks scattered throughout the quarter-mile-long building. It was called a treasure hunt, and it was supposed to be fun, but some days, it felt so overwhelming, I’d ask my husband to come along to help me ferret out objects no bigger than my thumb, or ones tucked away in galleries so rarely visited that dust discreetly collected in the corners. The idea was to get us tour guides-in-training thinking about the ten objects we’d soon select for our highlight tours, but I was plagued by self-doubt. How was I, a journalist and English major, who…