Fine Art Connoisseur Sep/Oct 2015

...you would hardly believe how difficult it is to place a figure alone on a canvas, and to concentrate all the interest on this single and unique figure and still keep it living and real.— Edouard Manet, writing to Antonin Proust, 1880…

Whether it’s your intention or not, you are making a financial investment every time you buy a work of art for your collection. Even if you have acquired art for enjoyment only, it’s likely that what you own will grow in value over time. As you continue collecting, it’s wise to consider the longer term. Over the years, I’ve witnessed too many mistakes resulting in unrecoverable losses, tax assessments on heirs that could have been avoided, and massive collections with no remaining “street value.” One collector I know invested $1 million in paintings by a “hot” artist who is now forgotten, which is a shame because my acquaintance could really use that money. (Laurence C. Zale and I have co-authored a report, The 7 Most Serious Financial Mistakes Made by…

Consider how hard art museum professionals work to conceive and organize their temporary exhibitions and installations of art and design, and also how much money their institutions spend to mount and tour them. Now ask yourself: how are the best of these projects honored, after the lights have dimmed and the loaned artworks have headed home? Oddly, in a world teeming with award ceremonies for seemingly every possible artistic activity, there is no program that recognizes such exhibitions. Fortunately, the Miami-based communications professional Judy Holm noted this oversight and set about creating the Global Fine Art Awards (GFAA). In Miami this coming November 30 — just before that city’s buzzy art fairs are unveiled — the 2015 GFAA winners will be announced and toasted during a red-carpet gala. In 2014,…

She was lithe, naked, and posed provocatively with a parasol resting on her shoulder. The model for Whistler’s pastel drawing was likely Carmen Rossi, whom he adorned with a red headdress that falls conspicuously just above the aureole of her breast. “When Whistler first exhibited this drawing in London in 1884, it received a lot of criticism for its brazen nudity, from both professional critics and members of the public,” says Zachary Wirsum of Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, which is auctioning Parasol, Red Note at its September 25 sale of American and European fine art. The American-born Whistler, who had long worked in London as a portraitist and thus was accustomed to modifying his compositions, later reworked this drawing, draping Rossi in a diaphanous gown. “But that addition of the sheer…

The fashion designer Anna Sui appears to have rewritten the tragic tale of the Lady of Shalott. Her version of the lovely young woman from King Arthur’s time — doomed to an unrequited love so powerful it led to death — was seen walking a New York runway last year, looking full of life. There she was, her flowing red hair secured with a jeweled headband, wearing a gown composed of a patchwork of motifs, similar to the tapestry the Lady wove. In this medieval story revived by the 19th-century poet Alfred Tennyson and then by the English painter John William Waterhouse, the woman drifts in a rowboat toward the city of Camelot she will never reach, pining for handsome Sir Lancelot. “I designed a daring Pre-Raphaelite collection of clothes…

KYLE SIMS (b. 1980) paints highly realistic scenes of North America’s wildlife, including bear, bighorn sheep, bison, deer, elk, moose, mountain goat, pronghorn, and river otter, as well as diverse members of the canine and feline families. He was born and raised near Cheyenne, where his parents encouraged his artistic instincts early on. By 13, Sims began to focus on animal painting, inspired particularly by the widely published Belgian animalier Carl Brenders (b. 1937). Within three years, the boy started to attend workshops taught by talents like Paco Young, Terry Isaac, and Daniel Smith, who encouraged him to admire such historical forerunners as Wilhelm Kuhnert, Carl Rungius, Bob Kuhn, and Joaquín Sorolla, plus living role models like Richard Schmid and Clyde Aspevig. Because they dry quickly, Sims started out…